Tried something new

[Genshed]

It'd been a while since I've played regularly,
and the first few games had gone less than
satisfactorily.
So, I decided to try a new approach - instead of
going for huge, or high-tech, or even super-science,
my goal would be. . . happiness.

Yup. I used 'customize' to found Narnia,
capital Cair Paravel, leader Aslan. I was thinking
of making it King Frank, but that could get . . . odd.
Anyway, first tech goal was Monotheism, second
was Theology - hey, let's be consistent. Every possible
happiness advance, from Temple on up, became first
priority.

Short story - never got in a war, ended up with zero
unhappy citizens and zero pollution, got to AC in 2008,
and got my second highest score ever.

I'm going to try it again at Warlord level, and see if
I can duplicate my success.

 

[BC Horizon]

Happiness advances? I'd never thought of that.

My basic research path goes straight to offensive technologies for the first turns, then I worry about the happiness. Then it goes straight to intellectual advances. After that, it's a free-for-all. I seem to do pretty well with it. But I don't play on Deity or the other higher levels too often...

 

[Genshed]

Forgot to mention - this was the first
game I've played where I got every since
tech in the techtree. Even the military
ones I wasn't going to use. By the time
the NSS Aslan got to AC, I was up to Future
Tech 32 or so.

One detail - I built Eiffel as soon as I got
Steam Engine, and UN as soon as I got Communism.
That combo helped keep the more aggressive
civs off my neck during the endgame. All four
survivors were Worshipful by the end.

 

[BC Horizon]

That UN is invaluable, ain't it? My congratulations to you, though. The most future tech I'd ever gotten to by the time my ships have landed on Centauri was 26-- good job!

 

[The Person]

A new strategy, at last. Just guess if I'm fed up with Power Democrazy and SSC. It shows us that Civ really is a game for all kinds of leaders.

BTW, welcome to CFC!

 

[Old n Slow]

Happiness does have value -- my first goal is better government and happiness comes soon after -- especially with Republic & we love growth.

Welcome as well Genshed.

 

[Mise]

That's an interesting tactic, but it must make for one boring game! I find that if I don't go to war, ever, I go insane and start spying on people and destroying stuff and buying cities and building barracks and selling them and... and... and....

 

[Colincivmaster]

I found that when i used to play, i could never use democracy because all the people were too unhappy. I found that building a LOT of settlers and keeping your city size small helps untill you can build happiness improvements. To take full advantage of democracy try building J.S Bach's Cathedral and Michealangelo's Chapel and the cure for cancer, this helps keep the people content. DONT switch to fundamentalism until you have all techs. If anyone wants to discuss this, email me or post sum more

 

[Genshed]

Mise -
I don't find it boring. The challenge of
building the cities the way I want them
to be, roads/railroads, trade routes, WoWs,
developing resources, achieving desired
tech advances - that's the heart of the
game for me.
The times I've tried a 'get your war on' game,
I found it frustrating and less than enjoyable.
"Chacun a son gout" as they say.

Colin, you're quite right about the improvements.
I wouldn't even try to run a Democracy without
Joe and Mike. I usually have to build a colosseum
in certain troublesome cities, as well.

 

[Mise]

oh, don't get me wrong, i love building the perfect (capital) city, and there are parts of the game that i haven't explored yet, like trade routes, and communism, but the heart of the game for me has always been to calculate the mean number of fanatics required to take out a city defended by 3 fortified veteran riflemen behind a city wall... on a river... I guess that's just me then... =]

Colin -- Fundamentalism works well, even without all the techs, just so long as you have enough cities to pump out a unit every turn (on average).

btw, what's "Chacun a son gout" mean?

 

[Genshed]

Mise -
it's French for 'to each his own taste'.
Similar to the Latin 'de gustibus non est
disputandem' - there is no disputing matters
of taste.

Personally, what I'd like to see in the game is
an option where you could bribe two other
civs who are at war to make peace. Why?
'Cause I like the 'years of peace' bonus when
the score is added up.

And yes, I'm aware I'm w a a a a y off at the
pointy end of the bell curve on this one. . . .

 

[Colincivmaster]

That sounds like a good idea

 

[Mise]

yeah, I never understood that "years of peace" bonus -- the manual said there'd be a dove or something in the box on the right of the screen IIRC, but I never ever ever see it, even if it's just me and two other civs at peace. And surely, there should be like +50 points or so just cos at the start of the game we're all at peace!

 

[Genshed]

If they gave bonuses for the years your own
civ was at peace. . . . sheesh, I'd clean UP.
Imagine the bonus for 6K years of peace.

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by Genshed
If they gave bonuses for the years your own
civ was at peace. . . . sheesh, I'd clean UP.
Imagine the bonus for 6K years of peace.

IIRC 100 is the max...

 

[Old n Slow]

...And the bonus only starts counting after 1700 or 1750 or so.

 

[BrettRox]

My first post.

I tried this approach yesterday with the Babylonians and it was quite a rewarding experience. I kind of mixed it with an SSC of sorts, but nothing hardcore and the SSC definitely took second fiddle. I landed on AC in 1988 and completed the tech tree up to Future Tech 1... (I lowered science to zero at this point).

I had a total of seven cities... two above 20, one at 19 and the other three somewhere between 11 and 18.

I built the following wonders....

Colossus
Hanging Gardens
Oracle
Great Library
Isaac Newton's College
Leonardo's Workshop
Mike's Chapel
JSB's Cathedral
Darwin's Voyage
Eiffel Tower
United Nations
Cure for Cancer

I missed out on Women's Suffrage, and I of course built Apollo. I never went to war, and I only had one spec of pollution (which was being cleaned up when I landed and would have been gone the next turn!)

Nonetheless it was a fun experience, and best of all it showed me a side of the game I often ignored. Thanks Genshed for showing me the light!

 

[ElephantU]

One tip - gang two Engineers together working on pollution - they can do it the same turn if they arrive with unused movement points.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

...And the bonus only starts counting after 1700 or 1750 or so.

...and the peace bonus only applies to continuous turns of peace by all civs to end the game, so invariably some civ will sneak attack his 5000 year ally in the turn before my spaceship lands killing the bonus.