Tips & Tricks for New Players

[ElephantU]

14) AD1500 is not always the limit for respawning (and I have described a method that allows you to conquer the world, even when restarts are on).

I'll reword that. I stuck it in last-minute but could have been clearer.

24) Shipchains don't work one way. They work to and fro (but a double shipchain allows double capacity).

The ships move to and fro, but the units carried move only one way. The problem with doing two way movement over a single chain is that you will have a point where both ships are full and you need to empty one ship to transfer incoming units. Or perhaps you were referring to two-turn movements, eastbound one turn and westbound the next turn?

32) Your table is not a "rule of thumb". It is the max number of cities where you never have a red face as first citizen (with a tiny mistake: the limit of 10 under Communism doesn't exist). Details are to be found at Apolyton GL ("happiness quirk"). Most of the study performed by SlowThinker.

I was quoting from there, but I noted the dissenting commentary there and elsewhere that the numbers were not rock solid so I listed it as "rule of thumb" rather than definite formulae. I'll take a look at the Communism issue.

...the frustrating "non-vet" effect which is fully true when your mighty vet ironclads turn to weak non-vet destroyers.

Even better example than mine - mind if I switch?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

None of the defenders were on hills. And, you'll notice that one of each was used on the forest/jungle terrain. 3 open squares each, one defensive terrain each, so they were even comparisons.

My mistake...

 

[la fayette]

Or perhaps you were referring to two-turn movements, eastbound one turn and westbound the next turn?

Yes, I was: if E is the eastern end of the chain and W the western one, the best you can do with a single chain is transferring 8 units from E to W on turn 1, then 8 units from W to E on turn 2.

Even better example than mine - mind if I switch?

Of course not.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Great stuff. I've got a few nits to pick, but don't let that detract from how good this information is!!!

18 - Oedo years
"Later a further trick was found: if you discover or receive a new government during the processing part of the beginning of your turn during an Oedo round and you accept the immediate revolution, you will not suffer any Anarchy problems whatsoever."

I thought this is only true if you hit the tech in the last city on the list. If not, the cities processed between discovering the tech and the end of the list when you establish your new government will experience anarchy.

26 - RushBuying
"Partial Rush-Buying (PRB) is letting the city contribute the first shields (or disbanding a unit for half its shields) and then buying the rest"

Actually, according to Starlifter's definition, that is not what he meant by PRB, and it's not how I use it. Starlifter used that term to refer to rush buying part of the item, then letting the city's sheild production complete the build in one or more turns. His example: You have a city producing 10+ sheilds, and need a sewer. Instead of RBing the Sewer for 120s, you can RB A colosseum for 100s and let the city finish the remaining sheilds over 2 turns without the waste.

34 - Hanging Gardens quirk
This is really the "double-unhappy" quirk because that is the key. Two goblets (or the HG) will make an unhappy citizen content, but they will make a Very Unhappy (black hat) citizen happy. Often, if you have a martial law unit in a city with black hats, the martial law upgrades the Double-unhappy citizen to just normal Unhappy (red hat) and then either the Luxuries or the HG will only make that citizen content. Moving the military unit out of the city leaves the citizen Very unhappy and allows the luxuries or HG to make him happy.

46. Keeping the war going (Emissary's ploy)
"Make sure there are no AI units adjacent to the first city you take."

If you employ this technique you must also ensure no partisans appear next to the city by blocking all land squares with your units. However, DoM has discovered a nice alternative to this: If you capture a city with a Partisan, he will not initiate talks with the enemy even if they are adjacent to the city square. (Of course this means you can not take advantage of the magic healing powers of capturing a city, so there is a tradeoff)

 

[sethos]

I use Fundy if I play bloodlust - the income helps you to bribe AI cities (those cities will get a temple first, then a market place). I had games where I made more than 4000 gold a turn without taxes and caravan deliveries. Science is made by some scientists, caravans - and libraries and universities. When I get superhighways,
one tech per turn is possible!
When I build spies, I let them poison the water supply - most of them become vets!
To fight superior AI vet units, I use the sabotage option (I take two spies) so that they can be killed easily by my weaker units.
And I don't forget to switch to demo from time to time just to celebrate and grow the population.

 

[The Person]

Maybe you should write a bigger strat for Fundy, sethos, since we already have a few big strats for Demo. It would be great to see if it could rival the "publicly accepted" expert strats.

 

[ElephantU]

Thanks to the many suggestions and corrections, both here and via PM. I have added #s 59-65 to cover the glaring omissions (how could I have failed to say something about terrain?), and reworded several previous sections for greater clarity. Corrections and clarifications are still in process, and I hope to add links to relevant threads in the near future.

 

[Peaster]

@PP: Thanks for posting this. I have learned quite a few new tricks. One suggestion - It is not clear (to me) which tips apply to EL and which to conquest/score/etc.

For example, I play mainly for early conquest, in the DaveV/ICS style, and don't see the point to a SSC or trade routes. I tried a trade route in my last game, with an AI city on another continent, and got a measly 50g + 1arrow for it. Is that typical? Also, if you are trying to conquer in 400ad-1000ad, do you have time for a SSC?

BTW - is anyone interested in helping with a guide to early conquest strategy?

 

[geofelt]

A very nice list of things to know for the newer player. I would like to offer two additional sections:
1) Demanding tribute. If you are more powerful than a rival civ on the same continent, then you can demand tribute from them. Most of the time you will get useful amounts of gold if they have some. Don't try if the rival is hostile. Sometimes, you will be ignored, and on occasion they will declare war.
2) Barbarian defense: At higher levels like deity, the barbarian attack power is increased to 150%, making it hard to have a good enough defense without city walls. Instead, use horsemen to attack first. A horseman will normally stop a barb archer even on a forest or hill square.

 

[Ace]

A barb archer defends with a 1, so by all means attack it first. Especially if your defender is a phanlax or warrior. Those two are dead meat if an archer attackes them, but they stand a 50-50 chance to win on the attack. The only time I "defend" is if another unit is completing in the city and will be ready next turn. Thus, even if the warrior dies on defense, it uses up the archer's movement point. ( of course, its hopeless if there is more than one barb...)

 

[Old n Slow]

Great Work! And just to show you I read the entire list through, I recall that Leo's only upgrades horsemen to Knights. The Chariots & Elephants go up the Crusader chain & only arrive at the same stage as Dragoons.

 

[Old n Slow]

Two other thoughts --

1) I thought that it was Invention AND Navigation that caused the first decrease with trade bonus

2) After running a test, units attacking from the sea do not cause a decrease of city population -- this included planes and marines. If the marines and/or planes attack from a land space, the city decreases a pop point as each unit dies.

 

[jonel1111]

Excellent. I knew most of it. BUT the things I don't know about this game continue to amaze me. I learn new tricks almost every time I play. I love it. This listing for the beginner or expert is one of the reason CFC continues to be IMHO the best Civ site. I thank all of you, experts and beginners. Keep on teaching me!!! I need the help.

 

[Bachus]

I would like to make a little observation about 16 City Process.... I believe first the production is done and only then the city grows.

Now something more advanced, that usually is said when in a One City Challenge. It is well known the trick to start a mine and only then found the city... so that the mine is then built. But did you know you could also do it later? When you have engineers and the city is on grassland, you have to start first transforming terrain and then with other engineer start changing to forest. You have to make sure the enginner(s) transforming finish(es) sooner and the enginner changing to forest has no alternative but to mine... I used this trick in my recent game where I decided not to build any city and it came very useful when I wanted to improve an already built city.

 

[ElephantU]

Still looking for a few more good tips for my year-end revisions. Plus opinions: would links be helpful, or is it too much already? I'd have to lower the amount of text per post to fit additional lines for links.

 

[Colonel Fox]

A great thread. Thanks to you I now know a lot more about the Civ 2 jargon. Although I have had the game since it first came out (wow thats a long time ago now that I think about it) there is still so much more to it that I am still learning about. I had no idea about the complexities of trade and what a 'station city' was.

My favourite tip has to be the 'Barb farm'. A simply yet brilliant idea if only for fun! Once again thanks for clearing up so much about this great game.

 

[Peaster]

ElephantU - It is excellent, as is. I hope you will submit it to the GL and to CFC. I am a bit lazy about pursuing links, unless I think they have been chosen very selectively, so I would not want a large number of them.

As I mentioned above, a little more advice about how the tricks fit into an overall goal (eg conquest, landing, high score, just-for-fun, etc) would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[Robin Hood]

Thanks heaps for this ElechantU, I just recently started playing Civ2 again, after a break of about 3 or 4 years. I had forgotten half of the tricks you have listed, and many of them were quite new to me.

Your info is well set out and easy to understand, good job!

~Robin

P.S Members of your forum do not seem to finish your post with their names, which I find kind of strange . I am a moderator of another large forum, runescape community, and virtually everyone signs their posts... Its a habit that I certainly have, and I hope you people don't mind?

 

[ElephantU]

Welcome back to the Real Civ, RH! There is a lot of variation in how people sign posts here. Some have extravagant footers, some put their name, some a quote or a bunch of links. Join us in the Game Of The Month forum for GOTM48, the January 2005 game - it is Warlord level, with Restarts Off to help the early conquest seekers.

 

[Robin Hood]

Wow, thanks a lot for a invitiation, although I'm probably not up to it at the moment. I start my final year of HS in a few weeks, and am getting quite stressed out . If I have time I will be sure to check it out, as it sounds like a lot of fun.

Thank you for the kind welcome to your forums, and I hope I can get to know "it all" a lot better. I do have an idea for a sort of mini game, kind of like the "slayer of sheep" mini-game created by the Warcraft 3 people, which involves using map editor to create mazes (allied mech infantry, or something suitably wall-like would make the maze walls) which player must find their way through with a settler. Do you have a forum to discuss and work on these sort of ideas?

Anyways, off to bed after the discovery of spaceflight ~ Robin.