originally posted by Torakami_Bltzen
I've been under the general impression from what I read here that it's most important at higher difficulties to pack your cities in fairly tight.
Yes, this is generally true. However, you *can* play an enjoying game on a higher level with not-so-tight build.
After making the other post above, I continued my current 'RCP nostalgia' game as Ottos on a large pangaea map (7 rival civs). I initially used RCP with rings at 4/7/10/14 (IIRC) capital distance. Almost all (non-tundra etc) cities *could* grow to 12 or larger (depending on putting mines/irrigation on the tiles, plus eventually railroads which are about to be built since I just got steampower).
In fact, I'm amazingly horribly weak
but managed to wreck the Vikings and (well, almost at this point) the mighty Persians - thanks to RCP and a good income to bribe the other civs. Let them do the hard work.
Anyways, I was running out of room and scrapped the plans about any further RCP ring. Instead, I'm going to put my capital into a totally remote place. To show you the benefits of that measure, I attached a save file (PTW 1.27, ~340kb):
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/gl.SAV
here's what you do with it:
-access F1, sort by production and find the city which actually pre-builds a Palace (should be Eredrine IIRC); switch prod to something else
-go to main map view and scroll to the 'east': A GL is ready near Tarsus (IIRC that city's name; it's at the western border of Persia). Rush Palace in Tarsus and, for protection, move the few Sipahis in.
-note the gpt income/research rate in the info box (or possibly put tax slider to 100%); also, take a look at some outlaying cities, i.e. how many turns they have left to complete their build project
-end turn
-during interturn, the Babs would negotiate some MA-like deal - they currently get about 100gpt (if you refuse that deal, keep that sum on mind)
-after Palace completion in Tarsus, again take a look at the income/research rate and at those outlaying cities. Subtract the ~100gpt in case you did refuse the Bab's deal, but the gain is still powerfull!
Actually, I'll save the GL for Persepolis (i.e. rush Palace there). Persepolis is even further apart plus it has Pyramids, Sistine and Smith's IIRC. Tarsus will be gifted to some ally like France who could rest her units there... not that they get Persepolis before me. Captured catapults in Tarsus would be 'warped' home in the process.
One thing is important though: if the Palace moves, you should possibly make sure to have an instant trade network connection to that new capital - in order to avoid deal braking (and corruption should be even lower then).
The advantage doesn't end after you install C3C. It would end ONLY if you actually play C3C. After you install C3C, you may continue to play with PTW or vanilla Civ3 for as long as you like.
