The Science Choke

[Cornflake]

Hello thar, all you Civ Fanatics.
I have (or I hope that I have) discovered a new strategy.
I call it the Science Choke. It can also be the Money Choke or Luxury Choke or even the Resource Choke.
This has to be done in really early times. Preferrably with a civ that has an ancient UU. I used the Persians and their Immortals.
Also because they can get iron works developing because they already have bronze working available from the start.

Now you have to have a Civ blooming right next to you.
What you do, is get those UUs started as soon as possible.
Like 5 will do. Unless the civ has more than 3 cities. If so then you will need more to get the whole area under control.
Now, you take 1 or two cities that are connected to some resources or luxuries but leave them 2 so they have a little infrastructure left.

Now they have deleted their pants twice and it's only been like 10 turns or so. You start a diplomacy with themand deman tech, gold or resources. If you chose tech and/or gold just wait until they get some more tech and attack them some more and steal them too. If you went for resources or luxuries wait 20 turns and attack again.

I'm not sure but you basically could keep this up the whole game. Making sure that they don't get more that 3-4 cities.
And all the while you can arrange those small attacks not wasting a penny on science but you still can keep up with the rest.

It has worked for me so far and it is the end of Ancient times.
I wonder how it will work in the middle ages.

 

[DasScoot]

But unless you're playing on a small map, it seems rather unlikely that a civ that small would be able to keep up in tech with the other civs.

 

[Yumbo]

Would only work until you ran into one of your technically superior mapmates later in the game. At which point you, who has been relying on this one small Civ for tech, get squashed.

That said, I have long been a proponent of attacking (strategically, of course) the first Civ you come across. Keep them from getting dangerous, while strengthening yourself. And make sure to cripple them as much as possible. Take as many of their workers as possible; early in the game, losing a worker or two can be substantial, PLUS you'll have maintenance-free workers for the rest of the game (which amounts to an astonshing amount of free labor for you over the course of a game).

 

[Cornflake]

Hmmmm......just a tought, but what would happen if you would surround the Civ's boarders with soldiers. They can't expand, because workers nor settlers can attack and the AI doesn't attack "for the heck of it"...I'll try that and see how it reacts.

 

[jorge_roberto]

Originally posted by Cornflake
Hmmmm......just a tought, but what would happen if you would surround the Civ's boarders with soldiers. They can't expand, because workers nor settlers can attack and the AI doesn't attack "for the heck of it"...I'll try that and see how it reacts.

Sometimes I use three units to stop a settler. I've never surrounded a entire civ board. I think it would request a lot of units.

 

[Chieftess]

Originally posted by Cornflake
Hmmmm......just a tought, but what would happen if you would surround the Civ's boarders with soldiers. They can't expand, because workers nor settlers can attack and the AI doesn't attack "for the heck of it"...I'll try that and see how it reacts.

That strategy is as old as Civ itself. If Apolyton kept the old Ulimate Civ2 Site forums archived, I'd even show you a quote and a picture. You'll have to either remain at war, or have a permenant ROP deal with them. It's also used in games where players are going for a conquest victory, and don't want to trigger domination, and don't want to have to retake that civ's extra cities again.

Originally posted by jorge_roberto


Sometimes I use three units to stop a settler. I've never surrounded a entire civ board. I think it would request a lot of units.

Search for one of Bamspeedy's posts (or websites). You'll see a wall of units across a huge area.