haha my friend showed me how to beat AI

[mimi]

My friend who doesn't play civ at all was watching me yesterday. Said that I was too "nice". She said, "why don't you just take those guys there over to that blue guys city and crush it"

I said I'd lose. But to keep her happy, I did just that. And took the city! when option came up to take it over or burn it (it was buddhist holy city) she grabbed the mouse and burnt it!!!! I'd never have done that.

So she took over the game and eliminated the arabians for me. Then she attacked the French (next neighbors)... I suspect they'll be destroyed too. She likes the burn baby burn option...

very destructive but it seems now the AI isn't pestering me (us?) for tribute. hahaaha

Does the hotseat game give people dif nations to play? (though I don't want to be her enemy)

[Robert]

Now proceed from settler to the warlord leven

[Enigma_Nova]

The settler level wins itself if you do as suggested and automated everything.
He must have already been playing on Warlord.
Hey, get your Tutor access to these Apolyton boards so we can mutually enjoy your [s]n00bishness[/s] education.

[mimi]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Now proceed from settler to the warlord leven

Sigh... I play on Noble...

[John-SJ]

Playing hotseat you will get different nations to build, yes. And if you don't want to be enemies you can set it up so you are on the same team. In fact, you could play a game where each pair of civs was teamed so you could play with 8 civs, or 4 teams of 2, for example.

[yin26]

Good work, Mimi (and friend). Indeed, the AI does get scared when you do things like that. Use it to your advantage!

[Clonereject1138]

Lol, I wish the females in my district were as violent as your friend.

[xxFlukexx]

Yup, just as the saying goes, "Nice girls finish last"

Oh and whenever you raze an enemy city, you have to zoom around the map mumbling about how all of the other AIs are next and call them hobos.

[rjwoer]

Hmmm. I'll have to try being more aggressive. I'm sure I'm too nice. I just won another lame "Time Win." God I hate those! And I almost had my first cultural victory. (Almost counts in horseshoes and hand grenades but not, apparently, in Civ!)

[Drachasor]

I never burn cities. I always find it better to make my empire bigger and more powerful. There is no problem with this strategy from markets onward, as you will always be able to produce enough money to support your cities (unless you do something horribly wrong). From that point on, more cities just means more science and production -- money is a bit of a trickier issue given increasing maintainance costs, but I've never had a problem keeping my science at 80% or higher (often higher).

-Drachasor

[MasterDave]

My wife is an unholy terror when we play online, far more militaristic and aggressive than I am (usually).

You need to burn down many cities if you want to win a conquest victory which, so far has yielded me the most points (on Prince), not to mention the coolest movie. If take the cities instead, you will more than likely win a domination victory before you get the conquest. Besides, its fun to take over AI empires and leave a burned-out moonscape in your wake, meaning every improvement around the burned cities are pillaged for cash before the locust army moves on.

[Clonereject1138]

It would be cool if you could poison their lakes, rivers and wells. Or launch corpses rather than sotnes, spreading disease. Or, send in lepers to rise from the sewers in promise of living out their diseased lives in luxury, and of course, citizenship through enlistment, along with spiritual salvation through cleansing heretics. A whitch hunt would be SOOOO cool, as would an Inquisition!

[Enigma_Nova]

Nobody expects the Inquisition.

[Cordelayne]

LOL. This thread is hilarious. Two comments.

First, I'm reminded of my wife. She always loses because she is just plain "too nice." We've played each other in multiplayer strategy games such as Merchant Prince, and I always just charge over and conquer. I haven't been able to inspire her the way your friend seems to be inspiring you, mimi.

Second, MasterDave says you need to burn many cities to win a conquest victory. That is false. One certainly CAN win a conquest victory that way, but it's brutish and ugly. I prefer to win a conquest victory by assimilating vast hordes of foreigners into my superior society. (MasterDave's technique is faster, because you don't need to hold troops back to suppress resistance and form a garrison for defense. But my technique leads to a much higher score, and to an easier time conquering subsequent victims.)

[Tommar]

Re: haha my friend showed me how to beat AI

very destructive but it seems now the AI isn't pestering me (us?) for tribute. hahaaha

I think that might have more to do with your military ranking than it does with what you do with the firepower.

I'm a builder, and hence, tend to play passively, as long as they leave me alone. I have noticed that if I keep a standing army, the NPC's don't mess with me, regardless of how ineffectively the units are placed. I try to keep a good supply of cheap units on hand, and keep my military ranking above 3. If I get carried away on building, neglect my military, and someone demands tribute, I refuse, check my ranking, and it's always less than 4. I'll then start building military units and shift gold out of research temporarily to upgrade some of those low level units, and start deploying units to strategic positions. It generally forestalls a declaration of war, but if it doesn't, a builder is very hard to take out, since we, like build things, like defensive structures or can build them very, very fast, and generally have high tech levels, and the majority of the Wonders.

So check your military ranking before concluding that being aggressive is best with respect to avoiding being picked on. It might just be the fact that you have a big stick is deterrent enough, and that it doesn't matter at all if you use it.