ICS Theorycrafting!

[Tempestangel]

Welcome fellow theorycrafters, if you clicked on this link then you are either here to contribute ideas of ICS strategy for Civ: BE, or have no idea what ICS is.

What is ICS?
ICS stands for Infinite City Sprawl, it is an older strategy, but was very popular in Civ V (Vanilla/G&K). The primary strategy behind ICS is to build as wide an empire as one possibly can, typically having a city built every 3 tiles from another city.

It was culled down in the expansion for Civ V Brave New World through massive percentage based defects (such as more science needed for technologies). I however believe that with the new virtues in BE, that it will be possible to restore it to its former glory!

Why do ICS?
ICS seems to outsiders to be a foolhardy strategy, and a large waste of time. It goes hand in hand with the Tall VS Wide argument. I will explain why it is so popular with a small handful of points:

1. Less happiness stress; When building an ICS Empire, having negative happiness isn't the end of the world.
2. High, widespread production; as the cities grow, you have a large amount of production powerhouses, allowing you to build an army within a small number of turns.
3. Choking the land: With such a large empire, the land is much easier to maintain, you won't need to worry about a war being the end of you, or losing territory to that pesky ARC player.
4. High Gold production: Having so many cities, and so many resources/building results in HUGE gold production.

THEORY TIME

So, after looking over the new detailed information we have available, I have an idea for my own ICS build, please feel free to apply your own ideas, share them, etc.

-Sponsor: KP, SF, or PAC (I'm just interested in trying these civ's out)
-Colonists: Artists (culture+happiness? Works good for going wide me thinks.)
-Retrograde thruster (I want to grab that perfect spot for the first city)
-Laboratory (I want to be able to expand from the start, will save science later)

Virtues:
1-Knowledge: For expansionist virtues like 50% less science lost from cities)
2-Industry: First tree that I will fill to the brim, it will allow the empire to sustain itself even when unhappy.
3-Return to Knowledge: Fill out some extra end-tree virtues
4-Might: I like to asset late-game dominance

I will likely pick Harmony, so that I have less problems with expanding into this alien territory.

 

[bhavv]

Surely prosperity would be best for ICS.

 

[Tempestangel]

Surely prosperity would be best for ICS.

Prosperity is helpful in some aspects, the quicker improvement/outpost construction bonuses, and the health-based bonuses are nice to be honest. But the main problem about it is it promotes quick growth of population, which goes against this strategy, if your cities grow too fast you don't have the time to counter-balance happiness

 

[Manannan]

No prosperity? Bonus health per city, getting tile improvements and border expansion faster, bonus pop in new cities, and outposts turning into cities faster all seem like no brainers to aim for. But then this is a theorycrafting thread, neither of us have any clue what's going to be viable in the actual game anyway, so brainstorm on.

I will likely pick Harmony, so that I have less problems with expanding into this alien territory.

Nevermind that in theory all affinities should be equal at expending into alien territories, you're assuming you have xenomass if the area you're REXing into, and that isn't guaranteed. The dirt dictates the affinity and all that jazz.

 

[Aeson]

I would call this REX. ICS was outlawed via game mechanics. 3 tile spacing is more OCP than it is ICS.

 

[ggmoyang]

I don't think one can manage health w/o prosperity since 1) there are no health resources 2) unhealthiness per city is 4 (up from 3 of ciV)
Eudaimonia and 10 prosperity synergy is way to go.

 

[Sprenk]

I don't think one can manage health w/o prosperity since 1) there are no health resources 2) unhealthiness per city is 4 (up from 3 of ciV)
Eudaimonia and 10 prosperity synergy is way to go.

Exactly. Eudaimonia is -25% negative health, the 10 prosperity synergy is +1 health for city--both perfect for ICS. Also the +7 health Mind Over Matter virtue you get along the way doesn't hurt, either. And there are Prosperity virtues for an early free worker, free colonist, faster outposts into cities, faster border pops, etc. Prosperity reeks of Wide.

 

[bhavv]

And cities start with +2 population.

I'd want most of Prosperity, the Rome thing in Industry, and -50% science and culture penalties in Knowledge if going wide.

 

[OldEarthRelic]

a) By three tiles, you mean CxxxC?

b) Maddjinn has said Industry>Prosperity for Polystralia (which he thinks is the strongest civ)

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well the major problems are
1. per city unhealthy
2. per city penalties to tech and pop
3. costs a lot to build/maintain buildings

The major benefits are
Any building/virtue, etc. with a flat bonus
The small number of pop you have can often work the most efficient tiles

So to solve #1 Health
Artists sound good

Prosperity
Prosperity 10 synergy: (1 health/city)
Eudomonia: -25% unhealthy
(also Mind over Matter and Joy from Variety as 'flat' empire bonuses)

Industry
+0.5 Health per trade unit: (a Trade Depot building allows 2 trade routes per city)* Polystralia gets boost here

Also..research Genetics (much early per city health there)

some Quests offer /city health (Clinic)

To solve #2 per city Virtue/Tech Penalties
Artists help here

Knowledge
Memewebs and Networked Datalinks..reduce that

For #3 Building production/maintenance cost
Industry
+10% for buildings
+25% for buildings in capital

Some quests offer lower building maintenance (Relic)

**Also tile maintenance is an issue, So I would probably at least get level 3 Supremacy**
...................

Maximizing benefits

Per city benefits
most are from buildings but trade routes are per city
Industry
Internal trade routes +25% yield


More efficient tile usage
Industry
+1 energy from resource tiles
+2 production from manufacturies

Prosperity
+1 production from resource tiles

Knowledge
+2 science from Academies

Might
+1 production, +1 energy from strategics


Over all I'd ignore the Might, Focus on Tier1+2 Industry(energy , building, and trade route bonuses), Tier 2 Knowledge (reduce city virtue/tech cost) and Tier 2+3 Prosperity (health)

Finally if you want to REX and not just ICS, I would suggest Life Scanners and not Retro Thrusters... that way you know where you can immediately expand to.

 

[The Dark Knight]

a) By three tiles, you mean CxxxC?

b) Maddjinn has said Industry>Prosperity for Polystralia (which he thinks is the strongest civ)

a) I think he meens xxxCxxxxxxCxxx. With CxxxC the city's working radius conflicts with each other.

b) Prosperity gives growth, industry gives money and production. For ICS industry is better (because of the growth of prosperity).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

a) I think he meens xxxCxxxxxxCxxx. With CxxxC the city's working radius conflicts with each other.

b) Prosperity gives growth, industry gives money and production. For ICS industry is better (because of the growth of prosperity).

for ICS it is CxxxC
you don't care about conflict because the point of ICS is not to work tiles, the point of ICS is to work cities (with all the per city benefits..mostly from buildings.)

 

[MadDjinn]

a) By three tiles, you mean CxxxC?

b) Maddjinn has said Industry>Prosperity for Polystralia (which he thinks is the strongest civ)

a) yes. the space in between two cities is 3 hexes CxxxC as mentioned.

b) true, but if you're high rexing, from a theory standpoint, then the 3 Virtues + one depth kicker that give health in Prosperity is the way to go.

 

[bhavv]

For mind over matter, I simply hate the number 7. Id prefer of it was +8 or +10 because odd numbers other than 5s are evil.

 

[Seek]

According to one poll seven is the most favorite number in the world.

 

[Ryoga]

Prosperity is helpful in some aspects, the quicker improvement/outpost construction bonuses, and the health-based bonuses are nice to be honest. But the main problem about it is it promotes quick growth of population, which goes against this strategy, if your cities grow too fast you don't have the time to counter-balance happiness

Isn't there an option to halt the growth of a city like in Civ V?

 

[happybjorn]

They could have changed the balance for city connections in BE (they appear to still exist). That could make Industry an even better choice for REX.

How the aliens respond should be quite important to early expansion. Whether they notice it and how aggressively they respond could favor some picks in Might.

 

[swordoflight86]

Is ICS still viable? I had difficulty maintaining positive happiness with six cities on chieftain difficulty.

 

[bhavv]

According to one poll seven is the most favorite number in the world.

Lies. Make it +10 plox.

 

[Seek]

Isn't there an option to halt the growth of a city like in Civ V?

There has been no evidence of such, but to my knowledge we haven't seen the "citizen management" tab open yet (if there is one).