(Sorry this is kind of long)
Well, this is my first post here, so howdy. I really like this place so far; lots of valuable information. Here is my first game experience and how I came from behind to win the space race. I thought I'd share my experience in case any of y'all in the future found yourselves where I was.
I was Washington of the Americans, and was leading the game in points, culture, and gold, but kind of lagging behind Cyrus technologically. So when he started producing SS Casings and what not, I figured I just hadn't discovered the appropriate technology. Then I realized that I couldn't build space parts because I had no oil! I knew that if I didn't get in the space race, I was going to lose, because there were still many turns left and I wasn't popular enough to go for the diplo-win.
When that dawned on me, I figured I was done for. No one would trade me any oil and I didn't really have the military to invade someone and conquer some oil. But I noticed some oil off the coast of my neighbor, just a couple of squares away from my territory. I had just produced a great artist in Washington and was going to make him a super-specialist when I had an idea.
If I could build a city on the outskirts of my territory, as close to the oil as possible, I could possibly take the oil by culture-bombing. I quickly built a settler, made the city, and culture-bombed. I was disappointed to see I had fallen one square short... meanwhile, my neighbors built an offshore platform on the oil that was still, unfortunately, their's.
2 turns later, however, the square had flipped! In business now, I hurriedly produced the Apollo Program and focused all my teching on space-related technologies. Once that completed, I started producing all the space parts in my most productive cities as I could, while I had my most productive city of all building the Space Elevator.
By the time I entered the space race, Cyrus had all 5 casings completed, 3 thrusters, and 2 of the other ones completed. He lacked only 3 parts, but he also had not finished researching 2 of the technologies to make 2 of the parts, while he had just started the other one.
Here are some of my techniques I used to win:
-Spies are invaluable here. I had built Scotland Yard quite a while earlier, and I constantly kept the max of 4 spies in Cyrus' territory. Whenever I'd see him close to completing one of the parts, I'd sabotage it with the spies. I had a pretty good success rate, but if one failed I'd replace it with another and try again. Those failed attempts hurt our diplomatic relationship (it's -1 on your relationship), so that could eventually take a toll I guess, but Cyrus was Friendly to me to begin with so I had some elbow room.
-Once you finish all the space-related technologies, none of the other ones really matter. Crank taxes up to 100% so you can rake in that wealth. With all of your cities that aren't building space parts or a spy generating wealth, you should have enough gold to fund all the sabotaging you're going to be doing.
-Laboratories are extremely helpful too. While I was waiting to get the technologies I needed (and the oil), I built labs in most of my cities. The decrease in build time can be just enough to tip the scales in your favor if it's a close race.
-The Space Elevator is extremely helpful for build times as well.
-A couple of times I got another great artist. I'd culture bomb my oil city immediately... I don't know what the odds of this happening were, but the last thing I wanted was to lose my oil supply at the last second.
I ended up completing my Stasis Cell (or whatever it's called) 1 turn before he would have. Felt pretty good, winning a nail-biter like that.
Hope someone found this helpful, but sorry it's so long.
Well, this is my first post here, so howdy. I really like this place so far; lots of valuable information. Here is my first game experience and how I came from behind to win the space race. I thought I'd share my experience in case any of y'all in the future found yourselves where I was.
I was Washington of the Americans, and was leading the game in points, culture, and gold, but kind of lagging behind Cyrus technologically. So when he started producing SS Casings and what not, I figured I just hadn't discovered the appropriate technology. Then I realized that I couldn't build space parts because I had no oil! I knew that if I didn't get in the space race, I was going to lose, because there were still many turns left and I wasn't popular enough to go for the diplo-win.
When that dawned on me, I figured I was done for. No one would trade me any oil and I didn't really have the military to invade someone and conquer some oil. But I noticed some oil off the coast of my neighbor, just a couple of squares away from my territory. I had just produced a great artist in Washington and was going to make him a super-specialist when I had an idea.
If I could build a city on the outskirts of my territory, as close to the oil as possible, I could possibly take the oil by culture-bombing. I quickly built a settler, made the city, and culture-bombed. I was disappointed to see I had fallen one square short... meanwhile, my neighbors built an offshore platform on the oil that was still, unfortunately, their's.
2 turns later, however, the square had flipped! In business now, I hurriedly produced the Apollo Program and focused all my teching on space-related technologies. Once that completed, I started producing all the space parts in my most productive cities as I could, while I had my most productive city of all building the Space Elevator.
By the time I entered the space race, Cyrus had all 5 casings completed, 3 thrusters, and 2 of the other ones completed. He lacked only 3 parts, but he also had not finished researching 2 of the technologies to make 2 of the parts, while he had just started the other one.
Here are some of my techniques I used to win:
-Spies are invaluable here. I had built Scotland Yard quite a while earlier, and I constantly kept the max of 4 spies in Cyrus' territory. Whenever I'd see him close to completing one of the parts, I'd sabotage it with the spies. I had a pretty good success rate, but if one failed I'd replace it with another and try again. Those failed attempts hurt our diplomatic relationship (it's -1 on your relationship), so that could eventually take a toll I guess, but Cyrus was Friendly to me to begin with so I had some elbow room.
-Once you finish all the space-related technologies, none of the other ones really matter. Crank taxes up to 100% so you can rake in that wealth. With all of your cities that aren't building space parts or a spy generating wealth, you should have enough gold to fund all the sabotaging you're going to be doing.
-Laboratories are extremely helpful too. While I was waiting to get the technologies I needed (and the oil), I built labs in most of my cities. The decrease in build time can be just enough to tip the scales in your favor if it's a close race.
-The Space Elevator is extremely helpful for build times as well.
-A couple of times I got another great artist. I'd culture bomb my oil city immediately... I don't know what the odds of this happening were, but the last thing I wanted was to lose my oil supply at the last second.
I ended up completing my Stasis Cell (or whatever it's called) 1 turn before he would have. Felt pretty good, winning a nail-biter like that.
Hope someone found this helpful, but sorry it's so long.
