peterval
Chieftain
Got this terrible urge last week. Then a feeling of pleasurable anticipation, would it be a quickie or should I try to make it last longer? Then I did it. What did you say? No I was talking about a game of Civ1. Now why don't Civs2 & 3 make me feel like that? Ah dear.
Mind you, for me there are a couple of serious flaws in Civ1.First is the crappy ambassador who tells me little I want to know. Second the crap ending. Conquering the world is just a tedious shoot-em-up that belies the game title, and, given the historic rulers, the historic nations, and the time scale, a trip to Alpha Centauri is a bit X-file for me. Building a telescope on the moon or colonising Mars would sit better with the time scale.
I overcame the first by writing a couple of Qbasic programs that tell me the number and type of units held by a computer civ, and the number of cities and what buildings they contain. I steel myself not to use them until I have established embassies.
As for the second, fortunately the game is flexible enough to play around with the ending, so I use my own rules. My favourite at the moment is to regard the game as over when the UN is built. At that point the full complement of computer civs, 6, must be alive and kicking. I must have embassies with all of them, and all my cities must have three trade routes. I must have at least one trade route with every civ.
Establishing a trade route with an aggressive civ is not always the easiest thing to do. I find the best way is to protect the caravans with carrier based aircraft circling overhead.
The tricky bit is that, if I am careless enough to lose a civ, I have to bring one back by splitting someone. This can always be done with a bit of care but usually it is necessary to reduce the number of my units before actually entering the appropriate capital city. A bit of save and reload is excusable.
This seems more Civilized. No?
Mind you, for me there are a couple of serious flaws in Civ1.First is the crappy ambassador who tells me little I want to know. Second the crap ending. Conquering the world is just a tedious shoot-em-up that belies the game title, and, given the historic rulers, the historic nations, and the time scale, a trip to Alpha Centauri is a bit X-file for me. Building a telescope on the moon or colonising Mars would sit better with the time scale.
I overcame the first by writing a couple of Qbasic programs that tell me the number and type of units held by a computer civ, and the number of cities and what buildings they contain. I steel myself not to use them until I have established embassies.
As for the second, fortunately the game is flexible enough to play around with the ending, so I use my own rules. My favourite at the moment is to regard the game as over when the UN is built. At that point the full complement of computer civs, 6, must be alive and kicking. I must have embassies with all of them, and all my cities must have three trade routes. I must have at least one trade route with every civ.
Establishing a trade route with an aggressive civ is not always the easiest thing to do. I find the best way is to protect the caravans with carrier based aircraft circling overhead.
The tricky bit is that, if I am careless enough to lose a civ, I have to bring one back by splitting someone. This can always be done with a bit of care but usually it is necessary to reduce the number of my units before actually entering the appropriate capital city. A bit of save and reload is excusable.
This seems more Civilized. No?
