A+ombomb
Actuary
Over the last few months I have been developing a new type of strategy for maximizing global build up efficiency. The idea is that by neglecting defenses alltogether, the overall increase in expansion, money, and technology would allow for a player to quickly rush buy on a build for need basis rather than a preventative style (you already have defenses in place when the threat arrives). Though the preventative style is the norm, since it is human nature to go with the "safe" way, there are many techniques for making a defenseless style perfectly safe. Here are the critical points which allow this strategy to work:
Diplomats - Diplomats are pivotal unit for a defenseless game. These sly guys provide you with a means for instantly retaking any cities which are taken over by random barbarian landings and by fiesty rival civs and also allow you to bribe any other units nearby which could pose a threat. Diplomats are also by far your best early-mid to mid game hut popper, as you can bribe barbarians if you are unfortunate enough to find a barbarian hut.
City placement - Though I am sure that there are many styles for city placement which are perfectly legitimate for a defenseless game, I have found that packing cities very tightly is the easiest and most efficient way to play. If you plan on having a super city, it is imperative that this city be well surrounded by many neighboring cities so that this city can not be the target of an unexpected take over. Here are some guildlines for city building:
1. Keep your super city, if you have one, in a well surrounded position. I recommend having some kind of a super city no matter what, but it is in your best interest to try and snag colossus for this city, as that wonder will dramatically improve your end result, despite the fact that it is only a single city wonder.
2. Pack your cities together according to the terrain. For grassland, you can easily place cities approximately every other square. It is extremely useful to build cities on unshielded grassland, as it allows you to improve your land's production to produce more than it normally would. On a global scale, if you have many cities on unshielded squares it can produce upwards of 100 resources a turn for FREE! In the event that you have more plains squares or worse, you will want to spread your cities out a bit more, so that each city has an adequate number of productive squares to its own. In general, I like to have approximately enough food to produce size 8 cities (without supermarkets), allowing the max population without an improvement, so I plan my spacing accordingly. I always space my fledgling cities outside of the radius of a super city so that it can produce the maximum food / trade / shields, taking better advantage of the single city wonders I will have in it.
The largest benefit of tight city spacing is it allows you to easily save threatened cities by rush building in nearby cities, and retake what is taken over in the very next turn. As side benefits, tightly packing cities allows for your civilzation to take advantage of the resources you have at your disposal much faster, it enhances the overall effectiveness of global wonders such as the pyramids, mike's, the hanging gardens, etc., and, probably most importantly, it provides more commodities for trade (I will expound upon the benefits of commodity masses later). On the downside, abundant city building will produce more corruption and thus also increase unhappiness - but this drawback is easily counteracted by the global wonders I mentioned.
3. As you enter the later stages of your game, build new cities with the intention of maximizing the total number of squares you can gather. The most important factor to consider here is the coastline and the positions of mountains. By building along the coastline, especially on peninsula's which jut far out into the ocean, you maximize the total number of squares your civilization can exploit, and thus raising both your score/population and your production/trade.
Caravans - These are the cashcows of any smooth running civilization. They really make the defenseless game work, because the shields not used for defenses can be put into caravans which instantly produce the techs and money, driving the economy and allowing for the instant rush builds. Building caravans is extremely synergetic with city massing, too, since for each city you have a new set of 3 commodities at your disposal. Tightly packed cities also tend to have similar commodities, I assume by a seed just like the resource seed. Early in the game its a good idea to check out which cities have beads, silk, and hides and try to build more cities near that region first so you can produce even more of these commodities, as they seem to be the most demanded.
Gifting - Especially on smaller maps and on higher levels of play its always a good idea to gift civs to keep them happy. If you can keep all your neighbors happy then you will only need to worry about barbarians taking over your undefended cities. Maps are a nice side benefit of gifting, too, giving you more insight for expansion past just black-clicking. Try to stay away from gifting any important higher level military techs. Keep in mind that as you grow closer to a space landing, even the happiest of neighbors will be frisky. I consider this to be a good thing more than a bad thing, because it allows war to be declared even in a democracy, whenever you wish. Just rush build a few armors/cavalry and start bashing some heads!
Settlers - Build LOTS of them!! The saved resources from the lack of military can allow a huge mass of settlers/engineers. I often have at least 2 settlers per city in the mid game, and no less than 1.5 per city late game. Obviously plan for the last turn, where you will ideally want no settlers left to allow max population.
Governments - A defenseless game loves the republic and the democracy! Try to transition into these governments as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that when you do change governments, the exact dates when a new government can be chosen are predictable based on level and map, so I try to position myself to gain an advance like the republic at the very end of the turn which a governmental choice can be made, so the option to revolt is given at the end of the turn and the new government can be formed immediately without *any* downtime. The best way to do this is to have a scientist in your capital (this is the last city to be checked before the end of the turn, barring you have taken over a city build earlier than your capital) and a full set of beakers on the advance prior to the end of the turn so the single scientist puts your over the edge. Who needs the statue of liberty anyway?
City Improvements - Aside from your capital, try to stay away from building city improvements until very late in the game. The idea here is though improvements may be useful, you want to produce what is MOST useful towards the end result. Caravans and settlers should be virtually all you build during the early game. A nice side benefit of keeping a minimum of improvements is that when a city is taken, nothing is lost in the process, and under a republic/democracy the city will quickly regain any population drop. Later in the game, if you get to a point where you can nearly produce 1 tech a turn, you may want to build several libraries in your higher trade cities to bump you up to the 1 tech a turn level (two techs with the inclusion of caravans putting you to the brink of a tech each turn). If your civ is not big enough to reach this threashhold, do not worry about producing libraries. Much later, add in harbors and supermarkets to boost food for population score, and sometimes marketplaces/banks to ensure you can continue a celebration until the city has reached its max. In my experience, though, 3 trade routes to a well endowed super city and 30% luxuries is enough to celebrate without the need for a marketplace.
I hope these tips are useful, and I will probably be adding more to this threat in the future as my understanding of the strategy grows.
Diplomats - Diplomats are pivotal unit for a defenseless game. These sly guys provide you with a means for instantly retaking any cities which are taken over by random barbarian landings and by fiesty rival civs and also allow you to bribe any other units nearby which could pose a threat. Diplomats are also by far your best early-mid to mid game hut popper, as you can bribe barbarians if you are unfortunate enough to find a barbarian hut.
City placement - Though I am sure that there are many styles for city placement which are perfectly legitimate for a defenseless game, I have found that packing cities very tightly is the easiest and most efficient way to play. If you plan on having a super city, it is imperative that this city be well surrounded by many neighboring cities so that this city can not be the target of an unexpected take over. Here are some guildlines for city building:
1. Keep your super city, if you have one, in a well surrounded position. I recommend having some kind of a super city no matter what, but it is in your best interest to try and snag colossus for this city, as that wonder will dramatically improve your end result, despite the fact that it is only a single city wonder.
2. Pack your cities together according to the terrain. For grassland, you can easily place cities approximately every other square. It is extremely useful to build cities on unshielded grassland, as it allows you to improve your land's production to produce more than it normally would. On a global scale, if you have many cities on unshielded squares it can produce upwards of 100 resources a turn for FREE! In the event that you have more plains squares or worse, you will want to spread your cities out a bit more, so that each city has an adequate number of productive squares to its own. In general, I like to have approximately enough food to produce size 8 cities (without supermarkets), allowing the max population without an improvement, so I plan my spacing accordingly. I always space my fledgling cities outside of the radius of a super city so that it can produce the maximum food / trade / shields, taking better advantage of the single city wonders I will have in it.
The largest benefit of tight city spacing is it allows you to easily save threatened cities by rush building in nearby cities, and retake what is taken over in the very next turn. As side benefits, tightly packing cities allows for your civilzation to take advantage of the resources you have at your disposal much faster, it enhances the overall effectiveness of global wonders such as the pyramids, mike's, the hanging gardens, etc., and, probably most importantly, it provides more commodities for trade (I will expound upon the benefits of commodity masses later). On the downside, abundant city building will produce more corruption and thus also increase unhappiness - but this drawback is easily counteracted by the global wonders I mentioned.
3. As you enter the later stages of your game, build new cities with the intention of maximizing the total number of squares you can gather. The most important factor to consider here is the coastline and the positions of mountains. By building along the coastline, especially on peninsula's which jut far out into the ocean, you maximize the total number of squares your civilization can exploit, and thus raising both your score/population and your production/trade.
Caravans - These are the cashcows of any smooth running civilization. They really make the defenseless game work, because the shields not used for defenses can be put into caravans which instantly produce the techs and money, driving the economy and allowing for the instant rush builds. Building caravans is extremely synergetic with city massing, too, since for each city you have a new set of 3 commodities at your disposal. Tightly packed cities also tend to have similar commodities, I assume by a seed just like the resource seed. Early in the game its a good idea to check out which cities have beads, silk, and hides and try to build more cities near that region first so you can produce even more of these commodities, as they seem to be the most demanded.
Gifting - Especially on smaller maps and on higher levels of play its always a good idea to gift civs to keep them happy. If you can keep all your neighbors happy then you will only need to worry about barbarians taking over your undefended cities. Maps are a nice side benefit of gifting, too, giving you more insight for expansion past just black-clicking. Try to stay away from gifting any important higher level military techs. Keep in mind that as you grow closer to a space landing, even the happiest of neighbors will be frisky. I consider this to be a good thing more than a bad thing, because it allows war to be declared even in a democracy, whenever you wish. Just rush build a few armors/cavalry and start bashing some heads!
Settlers - Build LOTS of them!! The saved resources from the lack of military can allow a huge mass of settlers/engineers. I often have at least 2 settlers per city in the mid game, and no less than 1.5 per city late game. Obviously plan for the last turn, where you will ideally want no settlers left to allow max population.
Governments - A defenseless game loves the republic and the democracy! Try to transition into these governments as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that when you do change governments, the exact dates when a new government can be chosen are predictable based on level and map, so I try to position myself to gain an advance like the republic at the very end of the turn which a governmental choice can be made, so the option to revolt is given at the end of the turn and the new government can be formed immediately without *any* downtime. The best way to do this is to have a scientist in your capital (this is the last city to be checked before the end of the turn, barring you have taken over a city build earlier than your capital) and a full set of beakers on the advance prior to the end of the turn so the single scientist puts your over the edge. Who needs the statue of liberty anyway?
City Improvements - Aside from your capital, try to stay away from building city improvements until very late in the game. The idea here is though improvements may be useful, you want to produce what is MOST useful towards the end result. Caravans and settlers should be virtually all you build during the early game. A nice side benefit of keeping a minimum of improvements is that when a city is taken, nothing is lost in the process, and under a republic/democracy the city will quickly regain any population drop. Later in the game, if you get to a point where you can nearly produce 1 tech a turn, you may want to build several libraries in your higher trade cities to bump you up to the 1 tech a turn level (two techs with the inclusion of caravans putting you to the brink of a tech each turn). If your civ is not big enough to reach this threashhold, do not worry about producing libraries. Much later, add in harbors and supermarkets to boost food for population score, and sometimes marketplaces/banks to ensure you can continue a celebration until the city has reached its max. In my experience, though, 3 trade routes to a well endowed super city and 30% luxuries is enough to celebrate without the need for a marketplace.
I hope these tips are useful, and I will probably be adding more to this threat in the future as my understanding of the strategy grows.
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