Need help on: build orders, etc.

[teefn]

Hello, I recently picked up Civ 2 and I gotta say I love these types of games but have trouble picking up what to do and need to learn a few things from you guys. What I need to know is what I should and should'nt be building in my cities. I know of the SSC and thats about it. Whats a good build order for early conquest or longer games? Should i be dividing cities into research or military productions? Tell me everything I need to know about building the right way I thing I have expanding down pretty solid. One more thing, could someone explain what "units supported" means in laymans terms and what are its effects. Thanks

 

[Peaster]

Welcome teefn,

I am also fairly new here, but I will try to answer some of your questions until the veterans come along. If you haven't already, take a look at the Great Library (GL) at the Apolyton site (Civ2/Forums/Strategy I think) for lots of good reading. Some of it is pretty advanced though. ElephantU has posted a comprehensive "Tips and Tricks for New Players" in this forum. There is a big thread started by Scloopy that might help you, too.

It makes sense to devote one city to science because when you combine the Colossus, a library, Copernicus, etc they work better together. I don't think you need to specialize your other cities too much. You can use some for caravans, and use others (with barracks) for military units. After you master the basics, you could read the ELG in the GL, which describes some special-purpose cities I think.

Each of your cities is allowed to "support" a certain number of units for free. We are talking about units produced in that city (or "homed" to that city later on, using the city screen). Any more units past that number that will reduce the city's production by one shield per turn. Their picture on the city screen will have a little blue shield at their feet to let you know they are causing problems. The support number depends on your type of government, and maybe on the city size.

I am glad to hear you are interested in early conquest. Me too. I think you should play around with the game a while and get used to all the elements before you take early conquest too seriously. But as a quick summary -

a) Grow yourself plenty of cities, maybe 10 to 30. Monarchy is OK.
b) Try to build elephants/crusaders ASAP and conquer with groups of those.
c) You can omit all city improvements [temples etc] to make a) and b) go faster.

 

[teefn]

Awesome, that helps and I`ll take a look at GL. Thanks!

 

[ElephantU]

Peaster has neglected to mention the importance of government type to the issue of unit support. In Despotism each city is allowed one unit "free support"(no shields lost for support) for each citizen it has (size 2 city = 2 free supported). In Monarchy and Commy each city supports three units for free, no matter what the city size. In Fundy each city supports 10 units free, and Fanatics have no support whatsoever. Extra units require one shield of production to keep them in play, no matter what kind of unit they are (Warriors require same support as Battleships!). If a city loses shields below the support requirement, units are disbanded to free up negative shields. Also, Dips/Spies and Caravans/Freights have no support requirement ever - and lots of uses to any strategy. Keep an eye on your units supported, and try to balance it out over time by "rehoming" units in cities with better shield production.

The other issue of unit support is that Settlers and Engineers require food as well as shields for support. Under Despo and Monarchy it is only 1 food each, but the other governments require 2 foods and that can cripple small cities with little surplus food. When you are planning to shift to higher government types, particularly from Monarchy to Republic, take a look at the change in food requirements as well.