Help with Super Growth Strategy

[He-Who-Hunts]

Hey,

I wonder if anyone can help me out on the SGS strategy (which currently exist in the Civ 2 war academy).

I have tried it a number of times (on emperor) and can never seem to get it to work properly. First off I can never get near the amount of cities/settlers (16) by 1 AD, so any tips on that would be great.

Further more I have a question about the Caravans... Do I supply only one Caravan per city to my capital or do I use up all 3? Do I have to wait until republic before I start sending them to the cap?

Also I am unsure about number 4: "Set your inner cities to build caravans." is it only my inner cities or is this because my outer cities should be building something else. I know it probably means my outer cities will be playing catch up but im not sure what they are building as the guide is not specific.

Please help, I can never make it to even remotely close to the 300AD marker outlined in the guide!

 

[Prof. Garfield]

People seldom refer to the War Academy these days for strategy. I found the article you mention but notice that absolutely nothing is mentioned on what level the game is being played or whether it is single player or multiplayer.

For single player deity, having fully improved land around 16 cities by AD 1 is something I've never even attempted. I'm not sure it is possible, and, if I were that good, I wouldn't be spending my settler time that early in the game irrigating--I would be building more cities. These sorts of statistics might be more believable for 2x2x multiplayer, though I don't have any experience in that area, but do believe that better strategies have since been found. The fact that this strategy doesn't mention foreign trade further suggests that it doesn't deal with single player.

A typical benchmark for me at deity is to get Mike's Chapel by AD 1 (on a large map). I'll have roughly 16 cities by that time, and most will be connected by roads, but I'll have few settlers. Those settlers get built shortly after Mike's is done and I switch to republic.

The strategy called Infinite City Sprawl (ICS) is the most powerful. You build cities as close together as possible and just keep building settlers, cities and caravans.

You might find these threads helpful:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=87937
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=400687

 

[Ali Ardavan]

The best way to learn is by observing how others play in similar circumstances and reading their logs. That is what we do in GOTM forum. Come one over and join us.

 

[Peaster]

I wonder if anyone can help me out on the SGS strategy (which currently exist in the Civ 2 war academy).

Prof G is correct; a few articles in the War Academy might be OK, but many of them were written by weak players, and they probably should be removed or ignored. There is a forum at the Apolyton site ("The Great Library") which contains much better guides.

I have tried it a number of times (on emperor) and can never seem to get it to work properly. First off I can never get near the amount of cities/settlers (16) by 1 AD, so any tips on that would be great.

Again the Prof is correct, that ICS is the way to go. Your cities should [almost] only build settlers, and you should get 16 cities by 1ad with practice.

Further more I have a question about the Caravans... Do I supply only one Caravan per city to my capital or do I use up all 3? Do I have to wait until republic before I start sending them to the cap?

Personally, I almost never send vans to my own cities, and I think someone is giving you bad advice. If you do it anyway, there is no great reason to wait for republic. That would give you slightly bigger bonuses [republic gives you more arrows per city and may allow your cities to grow faster], but it's usually better to deliver asap.

Also I am unsure about number 4: "Set your inner cities to build caravans." is it only my inner cities or is this because my outer cities should be building something else. I know it probably means my outer cities will be playing catch up but im not sure what they are building as the guide is not specific.

This advice actually makes some sense, but I wouldn't follow it slavishly. Your inner (older and bigger) cities will get you better bonuses. Your outer cities should be making settlers (ICS strategy!), which will not have to travel as far to find fresh city sites.

Please help, I can never make it to even remotely close to the 300AD marker outlined in the guide!

Ignore that guide! Better options are the Great Lib, the ICS guide by DaveV, the "Tips and Tricks for new players" thread here at CfC, and Prof G's threads above. Ali is also correct that our gotms (and succession games) are good places to learn.

 

[elmenhorster]

"Set your inner cities to build caravans."
it sounds like build caravans from cities that are close to your capital, because if you build and trade from your cities that are far away from capital the extra arrows you get will be wasted due to corruption.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Corruption is not that high on a list of reasons to build caravans in inner cities as opposed to the fringes. More important are these facts (most of which have already been mentioned in some form here):

For a substantial part of the game (at least until you get a massive shipchain operating or a decent railroad network) it is hard to get any settlers you build in your core to the frontier where they can actually build more cities. It is better to build settlers near where they are going to be used, since they take up a lot of resources to support.

Core cities are usually somewhat larger than your frontier cities. If you are building caravans for trade purposes, building them in core cities will get you bigger bonuses.

It is usually easier to amass caravans for wonder building in the core because you are more likely to have roads connecting those cities, and they will probably be producing more shields per unit area than the frontier.

These facts being presented, there is something important that should be considered: Cities at size 3 can celebrate via WLTPD. There is therefore a reason not to build settlers in cities at size 1-3 after a certain point in the game, because it will hamper the growth of new cities to size 3. I'll typically build a caravan (or freight) in such a city until it grows.

 

[stoferb]

Instead of focusing so much on absolutely getting 16 cities before 1 AD. You can do what I used to do. Here's my tactic:

Every city makes early on between 2 and 4 settlers (depending on number of nearby good city sites). You make the last settler for connecting with roads and start improving your land especially around your wonder producing cities. The number of cities will increase exponentially for every generation and you will with minor luck (lack of barbarians or nearby foes) on a big map easily reach 16 cities before years turn into AD if you bother to count which I don't. You don't waste caravans on domestic trade which is extremely poor compared to foreign trade, the few "big" cities you have will send caravans to other civs, preferrably the most developed foreign city and on another continent, the other caravans are for rushing out wonders.

You absolutely should get pyramids for growth and hanging gardens to delay the need to build temples and raise luxuries, Marco Polo's embassy to find out what cities you will target as your trade partners and then ofcourse any wonder you can get your hands on and you'll notice that by this strategy you'll get your hands on quite a few. The only useless wonder I can think of right now is the great wall. There will be plenty of time to build walls before everybody gets angry with you.

Deciding which cities to trade with is important. Don't bother too much with supply and demand. A big and developed city not in demand returns more than a small undeveloped in demand. You only target at most one city for each civ, that way you are eventually getting good trade in all of your cities while your opponents stay relatively poor and backwards having only one good trading city. When you know where your opponents are it's time to start trading, boats are usually the fastest and safest way and you'll want them on another continent or island anyway not to mention that coastal cities make excellent targets. The first trade routes are going to be with a relatively nearby civ, and are going to take quite a few turns to establish, but eventually you'll have established a chain of boats to half across the world so that your caravans and later freights can reach their destination within one or two turns.