Simple Yet Vital Strategy

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Okay, feel free to laugh at me if this is common knowledge/and/or in the War Academy somewhere, but if not, keep this in mind:

Build 1 Food Caravan Per city, station these in fortresses near your wonder building cities, and KEEP them there UNTIL a rival is about to complete an important wonder. This can save you from having to waste cash, and is great if you are a couple hundred short. Move the caravns into the city, choose 'Help Build Wonder' and you will almost always beat the enemy to it.

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C Of H: Director Of Anti-Zulu Propaganda @ the Anti Zulu Cult. Join today! No spammers need apply.

 

[vladmir_illych_lenin]

But the enemy could just switch to another wonder and complete that the next turn.

The best way is to conquer their city later on.

This is a bit off topic (spare me, C of H!), but have you ever had a "lost wonder"? I saw it in Roger Hoffmans HOF game, I think. It might be lost when a city containing a wonder is destroyed.

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Yes, but that's just your decision as to which wonder is more important to you. I usually build them all anyway, and if you have enough caravans/cash you can beat them to everything!

Destroyed wonders? Yeah. I think I've wiped out the Apollo program once when my smart @$$ neighbour the Romans decided to go for the moon without my permission. I sent about 10 nukes in their direction, let them build some more units, then blasted those away with my howitzers, poisoned their water, you know, asserted my authority? WIth excessive force? Yeah.

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[Smash]

I'd keep them inside the city though.

I trapped 20 such fortressed caravans once.1 square from the city and all they could do was watch as every camel was terminated over the next three turns(we banned lag disbanding).It was a great way to regain veteran status after a Leo's upgrade.

Whatever you do,DON'T leave them on a coast.Ironclads love that.

 

[stormerne]

I agree with Smash. Send them to the Wonder building city and when they arrive select "Keep Moving". But don't keep them moving: keep them inside - nice and safe. To activate and use them, simply move them onto a road and back again.

Something else you can do with Wonders is to deliberately start building something another civ is just about to build. When the other civ has finished the build you can keep on building the useless wonder (you get lots of annoying messages to remind you it's already been built). Then when the right tech arrives for the wonder you really want, change to that and bingo! - instant wonder.

And lost wonders? Yeah. Got one in GOTM#2. Can't remember if it was my being careless or someone else's fault. It's the Oracle, so it's not much use to me, but it's still 20 points gone

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[This message has been edited by stormerne (edited March 21, 2001).]

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

YEah, Oracle is pretty useless. I keep my caravans outside the city so that hopefully they can reach one of several cities in one turn, depending on who needs them.

And you can turn off that annoying message in the prefs, can't your? I haven't bothered, but it should be possible.

 

[growthudemocracy]

i love to store caravans in one of my wonder cities, however i don't use food for two reasons 1) im afraid it will take food from it's home 2)if i build another type (spice,coal,cloth) and a city all of a sudden demands it close by bang TRADE ROUTE!!

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"democracy is the worse form of government, except for all the others" winston chruchill

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

I usually keep my caravans fortressed outside too (mind you I've never played multiplayer and the AI's too dumb to destroy them). THe reason is that making a unit 'sleep' in a city is such a hassle when you want to 'clear orders' again and you have to click on 30 units in that little city window. It's so much easier when they're stacked outside.

My question is: is there a way to 'wake up' all your sleeping units in a city at once?(other than with a transport or by having an enemy nearby obviously)

As for lost wonders: My current deity game, I lost 2: Adam Smith's (ouch!) and G. Library. It seemed like the AI was trying to regain those particular cities--there were others nearby that it didn't really go for.

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

If you lose Apollo's, does that mean that no one can get into space?

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Beats me...but when I destroy Apollo's, it measn that no one is ALLOWED to go into space. Especially no Zulus.

 

[smilo]

Sorry if this sounds a bit sarcastic but ... if you have to destroy another civ's appolo wonder ... you have a lousy strategy

.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally posted by growthudemocracy:
i love to store caravans in one of my wonder cities, however i don't use food for two reasons 1) im afraid it will take food from it's home 2)if i build another type (spice,coal,cloth) and a city all of a sudden demands it close by bang TRADE ROUTE!!

I won't argue with point number 2, but reason number 1 is not an issue. Food caravans do not decrease your food supply unless you use one to establish a trade route. By building food caravans you do not tie up your cities' supplied resources for true trade caravans which you can then send wherever you want, instead of just near the Wonder cities.

I think of food caravans as just little mini-wonders waiting to grow up. Other than the Ancient wonders, I try to plan my caravans to have enough sitting around the wonder cities to rush wonders I feel are most critical by the time I get the techs. Either put the camels in a Wonder city or put them in a fortress between a couple Wonder cities so you can direct them to whichever city needs them the most.


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DEATH awaits you all...with nasty, big, pointy teeth.

 

[Archbob]

I just build them as fast as I can.