Little Trade Empire

[sethos]

This game was as test. I wanted to reach AC with a little empire
(deity, raging horses, map:125x80, 7 civs, no restarting, other parameters medium).
My Indians were on an small island, so I could build only 7 cities. My 8th city was on an island far away. Later in the game that city got an airport and super highways. A constant stream of goods was sent to that city to improve money and beakers.
On the continent next to my island were the French which became first allies and later enemies.
During the centuries I built tons of caravans, for building WoW and trade. I shipped them to the biggest French cities. That gave me a big amount of gold and beakers.
I managed to build some WoW: Colossus, MPE, Mike's, Bach's, Shakespeare's, SETI, but not Leo's, SoL, the ancient and other medieval wonders.
I didn'need them. I rush built nearly all city improvements.
One tip: Build SDI as soon as the tech is available. Rush build it when you've got the money.

My opinion:
CARAVANS are the KEY!
They are the most important unit. Do you agree?

 

[duke o' york]

Caravans are the best units, and Trade has to come after Monarchy in the techs that you go for.
You could have fared better in science if you had had the SSC. If you don't understand this concept then just ask and someone will tell you, but it plays a very important part in the games of most people here. For example, in the Civ 2 Democracy game, our SSC is TheHolyDuckPond and we are relying on it to provide all our advances as quickly as possible.
I have mixed feelings about Marco Polo's though. If I am planning to stay on an island then I will build it and gift techs to my key civ (again, ask about this if you want, or look on Civ 2 S&T forum) but often it will not help you too much as you will be able to meet other civs soon enough. In Civ 2 there is no way to exchange contact with other civs that you can in Civ 3 so you have to go and meet them yourself, even if you know where they are. You are probably better off using the caravans (or shields) for MP'sE to build Cop's in your Colossus city and following with Newton's to push up science (this is SSC), but if you want to play an isolationist game then it is probably worth building.

 

[RenegadeXH]

Well, it seems you obviously did farly well with your strategy of building caravans, but ive never found that the case in my own games. Caravans seem too much of a trouble, with too little of a pay off. It just seems like a waste to be building a caravan when instead you could be building a wonder or an improvment, but i guess if you have a small civ, then you can quickly build the necesary improvments and work on caravans. Is that what you do?

 

[sethos]

I stockpile the caravans for later wonders, so I'm able to build one or two WoW in ONE turn if needed ...
Trade gives me money and science. I can rush build libraries and marketplaces, so I will get a boost in technology. That means: Better and stronger fighting units.
My tactic is (deity, raging h.,map 125x80, other parameters medium, no restarting of civs):
Most of my cities build caravans (after building at least two military units and a temple). About every 4th or 5th builds a diplo (cheaper than city walls).
When I can build the SoL, I switch to Fundi fotr a while to make some money. With that money I build coliseums, aqueducts and so on to prepare democracy.
I don't need research, the AI will do that for me. I rush build diplos and spies ...
In the beginning some cities with two or three specials build triremes with two diplos for discovering the world.
In my games I usually manage to build about 60-70% of all WoW.
I normally conquer the rest - most of them by bribing.