my typical strat

[Enforcer Talen]

hey peeps. I've played civ2, tho not civ 3, and have beaten emperor, tho am currently still working on diety.

my basic strat is this, although I do keep having trouble with riots during the democracy phase.

I build the capital first turn, and have him build a phalanx. if I have a second settler, I build roads to somewhere nearby, and build a city. that city builds a phalanx, then they both build settlers.

these settlers continue the pattern, building four roads and then a city, a phalanx and settler. the expansion continues as long as land is available, even if an individual city place is lousy. quanity over quality. the cities usually build a second phalanx, then I switch to domestic advisor. if they have the food, they build another settler or two.

I research monarchy as soon as possible, and switch. if I dont have bronze working, I grab that too.

my capital works on wonders exclusively, pyramids, and later leo's workshop and statue of liberty. the second city builds collusses, copernicus's university, shakespear's theater and issac newtons college.

after I have monarchy, I go for invention, and build leo very quickly, with caravans. then I go for gunpowder, and switch all my domestic advisors to musketeers. in ten turns or so, I rush the nearby weakest empire, and wipe him out. I continue this until I lose momentum; facing city walls and pikemen for example. on my last emperor game, I wiped out 3 civs before I met a challenge.

if I face empires I cant beat easily, I reinforce my frontier and disband most the army, letting the wars continue. the computer just batters against my walls for a hundred turns. in the meantime, I research astronomy, medicine, theory of gravity, and democracy, building the wonders as they come.

once I get the statue, I switch to democracy and max out sciences as much as possible, learning espionage and mobile warfare. I'm told its possible to switch to communism here, and get a population boom after putting railroads and irrigation everywhere, but I havent managed it yet. too many rioting starving cities for settler armies.

after I get mobile warfare, I switch to fundy and have every city build tanks, with my top cities producing spies. tax rate at 80 percent money, 20 percent luxuries, parades all over. then I rush the civs I missed earlier in the game, spies breaking walls and buying cities. the armor follows up, and the imperial march plays.

how does this compare to your strats?

 

[funxus]

I usually don't kill off many enemies early and I don't use commie or fundy anymore. I also try to get Hanging Gardens instead of pyramids, if I can't get both. Trade is important too. Other than that, your strategy seems very good.

I'm told its possible to switch to communism here, and get a population boom after putting railroads and irrigation everywhere, but I havent managed it yet. too many rioting starving cities for settler armies.

Are you sure you're not talking about celebrating in democracy. If more than half of the faces in the city are happy and the size is more than 3, your city will celebrate and grow one pop per turn

 

[Enforcer Talen]

tis possible, but I would think (havent managed it as yet, lol) that all those little blue communists would turn quite happy with like a 50% luxury rate, which would put the population sky high, partiuclarly if sewer systems and railroads were put everywhere during democracy. I trade infrequently, generally based around my wonder cities. the computer does it more, and I get trade from that.

and -smiles- the computer does such a good job ofbuilding the gardens, I wouldnt want to interfere. just borrow it for a while

I used not to kill enemies early, waited till 1900 and mobile warfare, but on the higher levels it;s simply not possible - and 30 musketeers vs 20 scattered phalanxes is *such* fun.

 

[ElephantU]

A celebrating city under Communism gets extra Trade, only under Republic or Democracy does a city grow from celebration, as long as it still has at least one surplus food.

 

[Enforcer Talen]

really. something to consider - but my democratic cities riot far more then parade.

 

[ElephantU]

Democracies need happiness improvements (or wonders) and tax/lux improvements, along with trade routes and military unit rehoming, to keep from rioting.

 

[Ace]

Originally posted by Enforcer Talen
really. something to consider - but my democratic cities riot far more then parade.

That just means that your going to democracy before you have the base in place! If you have marketplaces in all your cities and put Luxuries at 30% you should be all right. that is assuming you have mike's chapel and JSB. You may have to bump Lux to 40% until you get comfortable, than you can back it off.

BTW, If you want to explode you population the "easy" way, which to Fundy and crank up the luxuries so your cities celebrate. The next level of gov is Republic, so every city in fundy that is celebrating adds a population point each turn, as long as the food holds out and you have an Aquduct and sewer system. You get the benefit of growing your cities quickly and can build new cities without the shield support required of units in Republic/democracy.

 

[Enforcer Talen]

I have my luxuries at 50, lol, and either bankrupt or cant research, which is why I'm in demo at all.

and I do fundy max luxuries for the last 100 turns or so - but I need tech before that.