Stupid Mistakes

[Duke of Marlbrough]

I just realized something stupid I've been doing for years.

Late in the game, when I have wanted to Rush Buy, say, a Freight from scratch (no shields in the production box). I have selected the smallest unit available (Spy at 30 shields), rush built that unit (at 210 gold), then stepped up to a Rifleman (40 shields), rush built that for 25 more gold, then rush built the freight for 25 more gold. Total cost is 260 gold.

It makes sense. Select the smallest unit available and IPRB your way up. It works great early in the game when you still have Warriors and/or Pikemen. So that's the routine I was use to. But, later in the game, it's stupid.

Instead I should have been Rush Buying a Barracks (40 shields at 160 gold). This next part was probably the reason I never even considered this option before. Switch the Barracks to a Spy, losing 50% of your production in the process (down to 20 shields). (Oh no, we can't lose production, that's evil ) Buy the Spy for 25 gold, then continue down the same path as above, Rifleman, then Freight. Total cost is 235 gold.

It's not necessarily a huge amount of gold on it's own, especially when you may be generating 35,000 gold per turn plus whatever you generate from freight deliveries. But, saving 25 gold per city per freight can add up when you have over 200 cities. If only 50 of those cities are rushing Freight that's 1,250 gold saved per turn.

 

[la fayette]

What is lovely with civ2 is the possibility for experienced players to go on improving their gameplay after hundreds of games.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I relised that a little while ago myself. Try to delay chivalry for as long as you can (trade for leadership) and use horsemen for the rush, it will be a little cheeper.

 

[ElephantU]

The biggest transition point in my early game is when I give up Warriors for RushBuying. I've often delayed Feudalism or Gunpowder to keep them alive a bit longer, particularly in OCC when I am competing for Wonders. I encourage AI civs to follow the Feud-Chiv-Ldr-Tac path while delaying getting any of it until I need it for Tools. Gifting techs and bribery obviates the need for a military.

 

[AGRICOLA]

I would suggest that anyone who plays scenarios check out various ways to IRB units or improvements when starting to play. Often, unit and improvement costs as well as the % loss when switching between units and improvements are different from standard CIV II so the usual sequence may not be the cheapest.

One more tip. Very rarely, when I have ABSOLUTELY needed to RB a major improvement (e.g. beating another civ to a wonder) but the city already had both barracks and temple, the cheapest way was to sell one of them and then IRB the major improvement using a temple or barracks as the first step.

[edit: missed a couple of details]

 

[jadelicia]

Is Fundimentalism the only gov. that you don't experience a % loss between changing between units, improvements, and wonders?