Originally posted by Goatman:
Btw, Whats an ISC?
It's ICS and it means "Infinite City Sprawl". It means expanding and expanding the number of cities rather than the size of each one. Expanding the size comes later. At first what you are doing is grabbing land before your opponents do.
I don't see how you can build too many cities! Try it this way...
* Set the Science rate to maximum and keep it that way, at least until you meet another Civ.
* Build cities first on rivers, next to lakes and on coasts for maximum trade, but don't pass up a good city site.
* Don't overlap cities too much and don't leave gaps.
* Build roads around the city before you irrigate (adds trade), but don't build a settler to build those roads until you've built at least one or two which will go off and form new cities first!
* In each new city, first build a defender, possibly two (depending on your food/pop growth rate). In some cities make one unit a 2 square movement one. Tell it to explore.
* Then build a settler to go off and build a new city wherever your roving unit is.
* Then build another settler.
* Then maybe a temple.
* Then maybe a settler to road the area and interconnect with other cities.
* Then start thinking about trade, caravans, market places and libraries.
* And your early cities should be building wonders. E.g. Colossus is good for trade on the coast, and at King level Pyramids are good for ICS!
* Aim for Monarchy as soon as possible.
Most people will tell you the same for ICS with minor variations according to personal playing styles and preferences, difficulty level and geography.
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