Infinity City Sprawl (ICS) Multiplayer Guide [Complete]

I'm no pro, but as someone who loves playing Indonesia I'd like to say that they aren't just the passive; the Candi is great too. More important, even.

I wouldn't say it's as good as the Stele or Pyramid, considering how much later it comes, but when it has 4 faith with just your religion in the city, Indonesia going ICS produces just about the most faith of any empire in the game. You'll need a good pantheon if you want Pagodas or Mosques, but you don't even need them when their faith generation (once they get Candi) will rival even Pacal with Mosques; (assuming Organized Religion) a straight 9 to 9, except that Gajah doesn't need to spend any faith buying Mosques.

Other players will probably be dissuaded from converting your cities as well, considering that it would only give you even more faith. Settling near a enemy holy city only furthers your progress. :cool: Also, for obvious reasons, if you're playing on a more watery map like Small Continents, I'd wager that Indonesia deserves to be in top tier there.
 
Just wanted to thank you for this guide.

I have been using it in single player and its quiet a different style than tradition games.
I have won several games now on emperor and immortal.

My last win was domination vs a runaway austria. When i had around 500 points and discovered her she had already 2000 points:crazyeye:
Until now i didn't like domination games, i dreaded the slow advancement with 2 moves units through hills and forests. But with this strategy i reach xcoms and stealth bombers and nukes and just win.
 
Just wanted to make a point about Sweden; while they get no direct bonuses to ICS, by taking To The Glory Of God and utilizing the massive faith generation you get from this strategy, they can mass buy great people to use as CS gifts for an easy DV.
 
Ive played Carthage coastal ICS based on this guide, and it is so amazing. Choose messenger of the gods pantheon and get a free 2 sci per sci early game(after researching the wheel). It is the equivalent of the Maya ICS sci rate, which is great early game. Also as said before, the second you get meritocracy? instant +1 happiness per city. Exploration? Instant +1 happiness and more with lighthouses.

Also, I've found polynesia is actually a great ICS civ. Embark early and find a good around 9 tile island (or place with a lot of coastal inlets) and spam moai. You will have a city producing a ridiculous amount of culture per turn. In my one game as polynesia, I only had one of these moai islands. In the early game, I was getting new policies in less than 10 turns. And on most coastal tiles? You guessed it, moai. The +1 culture for adjacent moai is OP. Ideally, I image settling at least 2 moai cities would make this strategy amazing. Also, after putting hotels in all your cities, you should get ridiculous tourism, so no more worrying about ideology pressure. Im guessing going this only for a cultural victory in multiplayer would get you dogpiled, so just use it to help you get to the key coastal ICS policies quicker(but whatever, you might be able to get 200+ tourism early and be influencial before they can protest).

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First...thanks for the guide, I know this thread is super old but I had a few comments...

For your Delayed Sprawl coastal ICS....

Your tech build is weird....beelining to machinery doesn't get me workshops...beelining to education doesn't get me sailing or optics (necessary for trade routes). Beelining to industrialization leaves out at least 1-2 trade route techs...

At turn 150 I'm pushing about 175 hammers with 6 trade routes (5 production and 1 gold from colossus trade boat).

I'm dominating the AI but ...Its no where close to the 300 hammers at 120 and 1000 at 200 you've outlined...

What am I doing wrong?

I've been following the build orders, restricting city size and keeping happiness to a minimum..What city size should I be aiming for

Playing poland on small continents plus my start was 3 silk, 1 wine, 3 cows, 4 hill and 3 grassland.
 
Hi !

Huge thanks for this awesome guide ! Really good job !
I tried a first game with Egypt but quickly face a big problem: lack of gold (I'm currently turn 200 sthg like that).

As I developed around 15 cities, all getting shrines, monuments, collosseums and libraries, it took a massive amount of money to finance all of that.

I had to gold focus all my cities, build trade routes, ended up producing markets in every city and I had many Great Merchants I did not really wanted.

Right now as a result, I'm far behind in science, it will be difficult to keep up, because of lots of turns with a malus due to lack of gold, and also due to the delay in production of science buildings.

Have you ever experienced that ?

Thanks :) !!
 
Hi !

Huge thanks for this awesome guide ! Really good job !
I tried a first game with Egypt but quickly face a big problem: lack of gold (I'm currently turn 200 sthg like that).

As I developed around 15 cities, all getting shrines, monuments, collosseums and libraries, it took a massive amount of money to finance all of that.

I had to gold focus all my cities, build trade routes, ended up producing markets in every city and I had many Great Merchants I did not really wanted.

Right now as a result, I'm far behind in science, it will be difficult to keep up, because of lots of turns with a malus due to lack of gold, and also due to the delay in production of science buildings.

Have you ever experienced that ?

Thanks :) !!

Gold can be a problem, but it shouldn't cause you such huge difficulties. I presume you are playing the piety variant - what does your religion look like? Gold from your follower belief (initiation rites or church property) is very important in this game style. Building trading posts that can be worked while your cities are locked for growth helps a bit. Did you sell off resources (you didn't mention that)?

Also a screen shot is always useful with this sort of question.
 
Thanks for your input Psparky.

Exactly I play the Piety variant.
I have initiation rites to get the +100 gold for every new believing city, but even with that it was hard. I did not do any trading posts though, I should try in another game.
I'm selling luxury resources as well yes, and also had not such a huge army, decent enough to not be attacked but not so big.

I'll try again in a new game just to try doing things right

I'm not able to do a screenshot right now (at work) but will do tonight.
 
Thanks for your input Psparky.

Exactly I play the Piety variant.
I have initiation rites to get the +100 gold for every new believing city, but even with that it was hard. I did not do any trading posts though, I should try in another game.
I'm selling luxury resources as well yes, and also had not such a huge army, decent enough to not be attacked but not so big.

I'll try again in a new game just to try doing things right

I'm not able to do a screenshot right now (at work) but will do tonight.

Sounds like you are doing most of the right things, and building a few trading posts is only likely to be a marginal gain. Hopefully one of the better players will chip in....
 
Maybe yes... I'll try again to see how I can do it differently.

Thanks for your help anyway psparky, I really appreciate :)!
 
Hi all,

I chose church Property and had an income way more interesting than Initiation Rites.
It could fix my problem.
 
Did this ever happen? I still use the old Piety Empire guide often.

The way I read it, the piety section of this guide is the update. Was probably added after the post you referenced.
 
The way I read it, the piety section of this guide is the update. Was probably added after the post you referenced.

Ahh that makes sense then. Thanks!


Something missing though, is the enhanced beliefs. Not sure if it's just too situational for him to put it in?

Also, compared to the old guide, there are now no words on caravans/trade routes. Should they be ignored?

The build order priority has me wondering too, if you're going with Jesuit than shouldn't you focus less on science buildings as you'll be buying them with faith anyway? The old guide had focus on food>happiness>production>gold>science for the capital. This seems to be much different now but doesn't really state why. I can understand a lower focus on food but why is production and gold below science now?
 
Ahh that makes sense then. Thanks!


Something missing though, is the enhanced beliefs. Not sure if it's just too situational for him to put it in?

Also, compared to the old guide, there are now no words on caravans/trade routes. Should they be ignored?

The build order priority has me wondering too, if you're going with Jesuit than shouldn't you focus less on science buildings as you'll be buying them with faith anyway? The old guide had focus on food>happiness>production>gold>science for the capital. This seems to be much different now but doesn't really state why. I can understand a lower focus on food but why is production and gold below science now?

Well, I don't think the original author responds these days and none of the elite players seem to get involved either. I just have a subscription so I can find the thread and I have had fun with the strategy suggested. I'm just an average player so take my inputs in that context.

If by enhanced beliefs you mean the reformation, he does describe four of them.

I played one game with Jesuit Ed and had enough faith to buy all the later science buildings - I guess you still need to focus on librarys in the early game in that scenario. And all science buildings if not choosing JEd.

Certainly gold can be a problem with this strategy and I did build an early trade route or two in some games to combat this. Once income from religion kicks in things look a lot better.

I guess I better go and read the old guide...
 
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