My Apollo tips (1.0.2.666)

[sugerdady87]

Honestly, you can get sub-250 wins on Apollo using any strategy, as long as it involves academy spam of some sorts. I personally found no use for terrascapes. Growing population so much just isn't that big a deal I've found. But I may be wrong.

 

[maltz]

Honestly, you can get sub-250 wins on Apollo using any strategy, as long as it involves academy spam of some sorts. I personally found no use for terrascapes. Growing population so much just isn't that big a deal I've found. But I may be wrong.

I think the mundane Academy spam in CivBE relates to how the game is designed - all major victories are related to affinity thus technology. There is no real "cultural victory". I think the biggest advantage of Terrascape is to earn pop, production, and virtues all at the same time, when there is enough energy to sustain them.

 

[sugerdady87]

I think the mundane Academy spam in CivBE relates to how the game is designed - all major victories are related to affinity thus technology. There is no real "cultural victory". I think the biggest advantage of Terrascape is to earn pop, production, and virtues all at the same time, when there is enough energy to sustain them.

Do you have a youtube channel? I could have sworn I watched a playthrough of someone with your name.

 

[maltz]

Do you have a youtube channel? I could have sworn I watched a playthrough of someone with your name.

I never published any Civ playthrough on youtube. Though I did make videos for some other games.

 

[sugerdady87]

I never published any Civ playthrough on youtube. Though I did make videos for some other games.

Why do you take so long to research cognition? Why not beeline it?

 

[ProphetMaster]

The first-tier building (+5 per turn) is awesome. Others I don't find necessary. You get enough incomes from spamming solar power satellites, renting strategic resources (each unit is equivalent to 1.67 energy per turn), and supremacy lv 3 (no road upkeep), Master Control wonder (no worker upkeep).

Okay, I tried it. It works! The solar power really works much better than I expected. Won Apollo on turn 265. It could have been faster if I had not made a strategic blunder in a mid-game war.

 

[sugerdady87]

Okay, I tried it. It works! The solar power really works much better than I expected. Won Apollo on turn 265. It could have been faster if I had not made a strategic blunder in a mid-game war.

Spamming solar satellites is standard gameplay though. I tried his approach and found no advantage of delaying cognition. I didn't gain a lot of advantages using external trade routes early. For me, pioneers + internal trade routes + early academies for science was better.

I did enjoy opening Prosperity over Industry though, and did actually enjoyed spamming Terrascapes on hills and deserts.

Perhaps a let's play video is necessary Maltz?

 

[maltz]

Why do you take so long to research cognition? Why not beeline it?

I suppose tuning for science and rushing for cognition can work on a more "peaceful" map, such as archipelago. Sometimes the game spawns another sponsor on your tiny island.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Spamming solar satellites is standard gameplay though. I tried his approach and found no advantage of delaying cognition. I didn't gain a lot of advantages using external trade routes early. For me, pioneers + internal trade routes + early academies for science was better.

I did enjoy opening Prosperity over Industry though, and did actually enjoyed spamming Terrascapes on hills and deserts.

Perhaps a let's play video is necessary Maltz?

As far as whether to prioritize Cognition or Bionics once you have the basic tier-1 techs set up, I have played it both ways several times and don't see any huge difference. I think his approach is slightly better, but I have only played it one time (poorly) and still won my game.

I want to try for a Contact victory next time. Never done that yet. Solar power should fit in nicely for targeting that victory option.

 

[maltz]

Spamming solar satellites is standard gameplay though. I tried his approach and found no advantage of delaying cognition. I didn't gain a lot of advantages using external trade routes early. For me, pioneers + internal trade routes + early academies for science was better.

Military vs. science is tricky to balance. I am a bit of a hawk in these 4E games and always like to beat down any potential threats.
External trade is great for new cities (capital not so much) and to make friends to sell resources. I think you need about 3 friends to afford all you can sell to them. In this sense the higher difficulty actually makes winning easier and faster.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Military vs. science is tricky to balance. I am a bit of a hawk in these 4E games and always like to beat down any potential threats.
External trade is great for new cities (capital not so much) and to make friends to sell resources. I think you need about 3 friends to afford all you can sell to them. In this sense the higher difficulty actually makes winning easier and faster.

I pretty much let my starting map position dictate whether to go for peaceful expansion or early war. In the game I just started this morning, war is my only option. I am stuck on the end of a peninsula with mediocre land and the French dame crowding me. She is also crowding Australia on her backside, so I see her caught in a crossfire! The good news is that I have 23 Firaxite within easy reach of my capital. I am going to stick with your strategy for the next few games to give it a good test. So far, I am liking it.

 

[maltz]

That's why African Union is considered to be by far the best Sponsor.

I am now trying a game as Samatar. If combined with the +3 culture and free Pioneering tech bonus, he can get the free colonist really fast. Useful if there is a good site nearby to get things rolling. Samatar can complete the prosperity tree a lot faster than other sponsors, so he can afford to settle even more aggressively early game, maybe 8-10 cities before calling it quit, not slowed down this much due to health.

 

[Plumfairy]

I've been have a lot of success (and fun) with this strategy recently. I don't know if it's as optimal as the "Industry + tons of Academies" strat, but it's definitely viable & fun.

However, I often start games with random settings, and I discovered an important fact about this strat: You absolutely *need* to have +culture in your starting options. Either from playing the African union or the +culture/city option. Otherwise your empire stagnates with tons of cities, tons of unhealth, moderate production, low science, and often a war or two that you have to deal with.

In my current game as the Russians (with +2 prod/city), I'm enjoying a bug (I think) where all my cities have an inherent +1 food, so I'm just barely hanging on. And I've won 2 wars so far, so I've grabbed some choice city spots that the AI has been kind enough to settle for me.

Now if I could just get my health above -20....

 

[maltz]

I discovered an important fact about this strat: You absolutely *need* to have +culture in your starting options.

I suppose you can build relics (+3 culture/city) a little earlier if possible. But indeed so far I found the +3 culture/city starting bonus to be the best. But maybe you indeed expanded faster than your +health buildings can keep up.