"Risky" Opening Strategy - Settlers before Defense

[AyameTan]

I've been using a new (at least for me) strategy when I start new games in Civ 2. Instead of going for a phalanx-Colossus in my capital, I'll start by building two settlers before building defensive units. If I start with two settlers, I'll do this with the second city I found.

So, basically, I'll have 5 cities before going for defense/Wonders. I'm playing on King difficulty, and this allows me (with lucky huts) to win the game and put a spaceship on AC before 1870 AD.

Has anyone else tried this strategy? What are your thoughts?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

You shouldn't waste resources on defences unless there is a known threat. If you're playing at a level that needs martial law in the early game, use warriors, not something more expensive. If the level is low enough that you don't need martial law to keep order, you should be going for early republic. This means you'll have writing and diplomats early (a bit later if you're going monarch->trade first). Don't try to defend your territory. If something gets captured, send a diplomat to bribe it back. This will be much cheaper than defending all the cities you build.

You might find this thread interesting. We were playing "classic" Civ II, not Multiplayer Gold Edition, so the AI isn't super hostile in that version. Note that "hostile" doesn't mean "competent." The AI isn't very good at coordinating an attack in either version, but the MGE AI isn't likely to trade techs with you on turns after you establish relations with them, and the known threats have to be taken a bit more seriously.

 

[Blake00]

Yeah I generally have all my cities building settlers for as long as I can get away with it to get that fast early game expansion. Usually only stopping to build martial law warriors and of course I usually take my capital out of the settler production line once I've got a few other cities doing it so I can start building wonders.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

I do the same thing. If I run into Barbs or an unappeasable AI civ, I didn't invest much time in that game before I have to give up on it.

 

[Taurean]

You can win the game many different ways. Making only settlers in the beginning can win as well, but it depends on settings. I play on deity with roving bands barbarian settings. If i go settlers+warriors only in the beginning, and if i get unlucky with barbarian rolls, i.e. if they turn up with 2-3 chariots within the first 15-20 turns, i lose. Even with settlers in a forest square, you will lose it most of the time. On deity, and i also think on king difficulty, barbarians get +50% and i think +25% combat modifiers respectively. Only thing that can save you is hill (+100% defense) or especially mountain (+200% defense) squares. There, even a fortified veteran warrior can win against a legion, i've had that happen several times, it's crazy.

But making settlers+warriors only is a great way to get many cities going early, thus boosting technology advancements, and getting trade+monarchy quickly, so one can start producing caravans and getting the important wonders.

I personally build maybe 1-2 road squares and 1 irrigation before making a new town with a new settler. I don't want to keep it around for too long, it's not necessary that early, since most likely you play a strategy that keeps your cities low in population anyway. If you're going to play an early city boom strategy, it requires careful planning and it is much more difficult, in my experience.