Why does "Super Growth Strategy" work?

[J.S. Bach]

I'm a total newbie, trying "Super Growth Strategy" and I'm looking for some clarification/explanation...

1. What does "make cities SPACED OUT" mean? Does that just mean so that they don't overlap squares at all, or does that mean farther away? (to maximize trade?)

2. This I understand, monarchy has lots of advantages, and irrigation allows growth.

3. Why republic? What's the great advantage of this govt? Suddenly all your units cost a lot, settlers eat all you spare food, and unhappiness is a real issue. I can understand the advantages of democracy: it increases trade in every square, but I'm missing why republic is better than monarchy.

4. Gotcha, caravans are necessary for trade.

5. Is there any reason to wait for Republic before sending caravans around? Does that change the trade routes? I start circulating them as soon as I've got them (still in monarchy). Also, why send them all to the capitol? One city can only have 3 trade routes, so if I send additional caravans into the capitol doesn't that waste half of the potential trade arrows from each caravan?

6. Gotcha, libraries/temples/marketplaces are useful. 20% luxuries keeps cities from going into disorder.

7. How do you get cities to grow so much? Above size 20 seems pretty large...

8. Democracy I understand -- increases trade everywhere.

Many thanks if anyone can clarify these issues!

--J.S. Bach

 

[stormerne]

We've discussed this strategy before. And what we concluded was that provided you don't go too much by the time figures, it does work - provided other civs leave you in peace for long enough to do it!

Your questions...
1. Spaced out: I presume it doesn't mean like an aging hippy

I don't like to leave gaps where other civs can sneak in. It works for me with just no overlap. You're right about maximising trade which takes into account the distance for caravans.

3. You get Republic before Democracy. It has much the same advantages regarding trade as does democracy as it increases trade in squares which have trade.

5. It may affect the one time bonus, but I wouldn't wait either. The important thing is to send them where there's a demand for the goods. If the capital and another city have demand, the strategy says choose the capital. This assumes perhaps that your capital is where you've been building at least some of the wonders.

7. You can theoretically grow to size 42 later in the game when you can double irrigate. To get a good size early in the game you need to grow fast. Under Republic or Democracy the technique is the same: set luxuries as high as possible for a while to get the "We love the President" days. Under Republic and Democracy these cause a city growth of one population point per turn! You need to have food available, no unhappy people and at least half happy (on a city by city basis).

Hope this helps.

------------------
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" - Anais Nin

 

[markusf]

I never noticed these threads here... My games that i quoted where all 7 player large 1x 1x diety raging horde games.

In a game i am in right now, 7 players 1x 1x diety. I have 7 wonders and am about to complete 2 more at 1ad. I have maggellans, pyramids, gardens, gl, marco, sun tu, and lighthouse. Theo and invention wonders also will soon belong to me. I am helping the romans in this game (gave them 7 techs and a few cities) 100 ad now. http://216.232.3.182/dietydip.sav

Here is another one where i do a full blown sgs strat. This is a game where me and arii tested out how fast we could get to space... There where no huts, no ai and no tech trading. All the specials on the map only speed up the space launch by 100 years or so. And building more then 20 cities actually slows you down.
http://216.232.3.182/sgs.sav

 

[markusf]

Originally posted by J.S. Bach:
I'm a total newbie, trying "Super Growth Strategy" and I'm looking for some clarification/explanation...

1. What does "make cities SPACED OUT" mean? Does that just mean so that they don't overlap squares at all, or does that mean farther away? (to maximize trade?)

yes, and to increase the amount of land you control, by building further apart. This helps a LOT in trade when your cities get big. ie, you can have a bunch of cities with +10 trade routes or ones with +40

2. This I understand, monarchy has lots of advantages, and irrigation allows growth.

my strat assumes that you will build no wonders.(wonders just slow you down way to much even the ssc) Going to rep on diety to soon means you have to waste 30% luxeries, which under monarchy can be used to collect gold. Also the whole point of rep is to celebrate up your cities. how can you celebrate if you have no cities over size 3 that aren't rebelling?

3. Why republic? What's the great advantage of this govt? Suddenly all your units cost a lot, settlers eat all you spare food, and unhappiness is a real issue. I can understand the advantages of democracy: it increases trade in every square, but I'm missing why republic is better than monarchy.

[/qoute]

hmmm you don't play much? Once you have trade routes in palce you can GROW fast. one city can produce over 100 science, which is more then a monarchy player can do with 15 cities. Dem and rep produce the same amount of trade.

4. Gotcha, caravans are necessary for trade.

5. Is there any reason to wait for Republic before sending caravans around? Does that change the trade routes?

double the trade routes, double the science bonus

I start circulating them as soon as I've got them (still in monarchy). Also, why send them all to the capitol?

it has the most trade, and you can celebrate it up, once it grows every other trade route in your empire GROWS.

One city can only have 3 trade routes, so if I send additional caravans into the capitol doesn't that waste half of the potential trade arrows from each caravan?

stop building them once you have 3 routes.... whats the point?

6. Gotcha, libraries/temples/marketplaces are useful. 20% luxuries keeps cities from going into disorder.

10% is even better

7. How do you get cities to grow so much? Above size 20 seems pretty large...

8. Democracy I understand -- increases trade everywhere.

Many thanks if anyone can clarify these issues!

--J.S. Bach

[This message has been edited by markusf (edited April 01, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by markusf (edited April 01, 2001).]

 

[weimar_republic]

my strat is similar to a 'super growth strat' let me explain

build nothing {except temples and such} except for settlers. eventually you will have a mondo-size kingdom full of 1 cities. then... stop making settlers but make sure each city is ALWAYS supporitng 1 settler/engerner. then make them improve and such, and pretty soon you have a mondo-size empire with cities of 10 and 15!!

other then that, I suck, so if this is easy for you to do... it probably is

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

That's a good strategy weimar. It's far more important to control as much of the land area as soon as possible than to have huge cities. I only do the super-growth thing AFTER I've got a good 30 or so cities. It's good to grow them a bit at a time too--during lulls in war, or for a couple of turns after you get a nice tech lead by building Darwin's or something.

Of course, it doesn't always work out so well, depending on level and starting location. But ideally, it's the best thing to do.