stratozyck
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2006
- Messages
- 24
Read a recent thread about ICS strategies with Arabia and Maya. Never had heard of the ICS strategy until then. Thought I would give it a try as Ethiopia since their UB is +2 culture and +2 faith, which should give a quick religion.
Difficulty: Immortal
Map: Pangea, Standard
Got lucky and had a capital next to a lone mountain, so I hoped I could get the key mountain wonders later. Build order was one scout (only because I realized quickly I was at the end of a corridor thus two scouts not needed), steele, and then settlers.
I noticed with scouts I had two CS's on either side of me, with one in between me and Egypt. I was able to move the first settler on top of a silver hill just on the other side of the CS, and right next to Egypt. I knew it was only a matter of time until I was attacked, so I made walls and ranged units a priority (the steele coming from policies).
By this time I had enough gold to buy a worker, and had another settler coming soon. I did not have that much land to work with as I was really shoehorned in, but managed 4 cities in between the two city states, with the 5th just south of one (which was the first one I built).
My scouting of the area was disheartening. I was at the end of a long narrow corridor. Two Egypt and Carthage were in one little wide area, which on the other end of that was a corridor filled with three CS's. I began to think, maybe a domination victory was not in the cards. Decided that after taking out the two Civs, I would stop the ICS strategy and develop the cities for a science victory.
Pantheon came quickly, I picked Messenger of the Gods for +2 Science for each connected city. My reasoning was to get to crossbows ASAP. Founded Christianity and picked production bonuses, the ability to build mosques (because it had +3 Faith, which I wanted to use for GS later on).
As predicted Egypt attacked, and by this time the other minor cities were producing ranged units, so I made quick work of his attacking units, and they mostly committed suicide on my walled city. I made short work of his capital. I thought, wow this is a great strategy. I razed his other two cities, eventually planning to replace them with my own.
Next order of business was Carthage immediately west of Egypt. Those annoying elephants were... annoying but by this time I had more ranged units than I could fit in the area. Before I assaulted the capital, I upgraded about half my army to crossbows.
Now I was hemmed in. North of me were CS's. Beyond them was Japan, and the largest part of the map that contained the bulk of the civs. With the Messenger of the Gods, my science was keeping up. Christianity spread thanks to the enhancements, and I had picked +1 gold per 4 followers so Gold was not an issue.
Japan broke the stalemate and invaded two of the CS's. After he took the one that was next to me, he DoW on me and I wiped out his army. I had so many crossbowmen that I took up every tile. I decided to annex the CS, this being Immortal I knew if I liberated it, itd end up as an ally of someone else.
At this point, thanks to the Mosques that cost 200-300 faith, I had a few excess happiness points, had built cities in the gaps, and was producing 150 faith per turn. The small packed in cities I had initially built were now larger, and I had built or purchased libraries and universities. Also had Machu Picchu.
Before I could assault Japan, their neighbor had liberated the other CS, and there was no easy way to do it. Japan asked for peace so I agreed. I was now aiming for tech. With the help of all the GS I was able to get with the faith, I was solidly in tech lead. Was able to buy public schools in the tiny cities, and each one of those is at least +3 science.
Built Hubble as well. Most of the rest of the game consisted of me keeping the three CS's around me allied to me. Just as I was finishing the spaceship, everyone DoW'd me. It wasn't an issue as by now my military was upgraded to the latest, and I had bombers everywhere. I yawned and continued building the spaceship.
I went into it wanting to do a pure ICS, but because of the geography of the narrow corridor that was my western border, my numbers would have little advantage. Thanks to the massive faith I had, it was a fairly ho hum Immortal victory.
Difficulty: Immortal
Map: Pangea, Standard
Got lucky and had a capital next to a lone mountain, so I hoped I could get the key mountain wonders later. Build order was one scout (only because I realized quickly I was at the end of a corridor thus two scouts not needed), steele, and then settlers.
I noticed with scouts I had two CS's on either side of me, with one in between me and Egypt. I was able to move the first settler on top of a silver hill just on the other side of the CS, and right next to Egypt. I knew it was only a matter of time until I was attacked, so I made walls and ranged units a priority (the steele coming from policies).
By this time I had enough gold to buy a worker, and had another settler coming soon. I did not have that much land to work with as I was really shoehorned in, but managed 4 cities in between the two city states, with the 5th just south of one (which was the first one I built).
My scouting of the area was disheartening. I was at the end of a long narrow corridor. Two Egypt and Carthage were in one little wide area, which on the other end of that was a corridor filled with three CS's. I began to think, maybe a domination victory was not in the cards. Decided that after taking out the two Civs, I would stop the ICS strategy and develop the cities for a science victory.
Pantheon came quickly, I picked Messenger of the Gods for +2 Science for each connected city. My reasoning was to get to crossbows ASAP. Founded Christianity and picked production bonuses, the ability to build mosques (because it had +3 Faith, which I wanted to use for GS later on).
As predicted Egypt attacked, and by this time the other minor cities were producing ranged units, so I made quick work of his attacking units, and they mostly committed suicide on my walled city. I made short work of his capital. I thought, wow this is a great strategy. I razed his other two cities, eventually planning to replace them with my own.
Next order of business was Carthage immediately west of Egypt. Those annoying elephants were... annoying but by this time I had more ranged units than I could fit in the area. Before I assaulted the capital, I upgraded about half my army to crossbows.
Now I was hemmed in. North of me were CS's. Beyond them was Japan, and the largest part of the map that contained the bulk of the civs. With the Messenger of the Gods, my science was keeping up. Christianity spread thanks to the enhancements, and I had picked +1 gold per 4 followers so Gold was not an issue.
Japan broke the stalemate and invaded two of the CS's. After he took the one that was next to me, he DoW on me and I wiped out his army. I had so many crossbowmen that I took up every tile. I decided to annex the CS, this being Immortal I knew if I liberated it, itd end up as an ally of someone else.
At this point, thanks to the Mosques that cost 200-300 faith, I had a few excess happiness points, had built cities in the gaps, and was producing 150 faith per turn. The small packed in cities I had initially built were now larger, and I had built or purchased libraries and universities. Also had Machu Picchu.
Before I could assault Japan, their neighbor had liberated the other CS, and there was no easy way to do it. Japan asked for peace so I agreed. I was now aiming for tech. With the help of all the GS I was able to get with the faith, I was solidly in tech lead. Was able to buy public schools in the tiny cities, and each one of those is at least +3 science.
Built Hubble as well. Most of the rest of the game consisted of me keeping the three CS's around me allied to me. Just as I was finishing the spaceship, everyone DoW'd me. It wasn't an issue as by now my military was upgraded to the latest, and I had bombers everywhere. I yawned and continued building the spaceship.
I went into it wanting to do a pure ICS, but because of the geography of the narrow corridor that was my western border, my numbers would have little advantage. Thanks to the massive faith I had, it was a fairly ho hum Immortal victory.
