AI does ICS!

[Destroyer]

Originally posted by marvinkosh
Well, more cities does mean more commerce, which in turn means more beakers and faster research. If they're not defending those cities well enough against attack then those cities can be put to use for your empire, or if they're too far away to be of use, you can burn them to the ground so your rival's advance is checked.

The thing to remember is that the more cities you have, the more things you can produce at the one time. This allows some of your cities a chance to grow while the others work on producing workers or settlers.

More cities and units can also drag your commerce down as you start to pay huge amounts for city maintenance, after a certain amount of cities. And Distance also plays a factor. Playing on larger maps gives you room to expand, but makes figting wars very difficult.

Once you have the ability to build a market place, its easy to start expanding without too much worry about maintenance.

SAying that, its costing me 100 maintenance for each city i am now capturing (plus inflation).

[UnOrthOdOx]

But more cities early also allows you to make more folks into scientists, and ignore the fact that you can only run 10% science, since the beakers the scientists put out typically more than makes up for the lack of 'economy', especially early.

You can switch it back to a more 'standard' economy after you get some markets and courts built.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Destroyer

Once you have the ability to build a market place, its easy to start expanding without too much worry about maintenance.

you can fund expansion waaaay before you get currency. use caste system to run merchants/scientists, build courthouses, whip population thats working non-commerce generating land, plunder the enemy, etc. i will typically expand like crazy through conquest and settlers until my science rate is at arounud 40%. if theres a great opprotunity for more land ill go even further. after you just turtle up for a few years and rebuild your economy. its quite easy through whipping, caste system, and trading tech with the other civs.

[Krill]

I hope you are a spiritual civ if you are whipping while in CS...

[jbp26]

i meant either as an option, not at the same time. usually its whip to get the courthouses/markets up, then CS for the merchants/scientists.

[Destroyer]

Originally posted by jbp26


you can fund expansion waaaay before you get currency. use caste system to run merchants/scientists, build courthouses, whip population thats working non-commerce generating land, plunder the enemy, etc. i will typically expand like crazy through conquest and settlers until my science rate is at arounud 40%. if theres a great opprotunity for more land ill go even further. after you just turtle up for a few years and rebuild your economy. its quite easy through whipping, caste system, and trading tech with the other civs.

Experience has told me otherwise.

Many times I have ground my science out to 0%, mainly due to having to keep a large military too because of Barbarians. I try to keep Science no lower than 30%, as you tend to have a big step in maintenance.

With caste system can you chose merchants without a market place? I cant remember the tech for that, but I may try it next time.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Destroyer


Experience has told me otherwise.

Many times I have ground my science out to 0%, mainly due to having to keep a large military too because of Barbarians. I try to keep Science no lower than 30%, as you tend to have a big step in maintenance.

With caste system can you chose merchants without a market place? I cant remember the tech for that, but I may try it next time.

with caste system you can run as many scientists, artists, and merchants as you want.

30% is a solid limit. in addition to specialists, try being meticulous about specifically what tiles your citizens are working, manually placing them on the most commerce intensive. also try and make sure you get the great library- this is the one wonder i really push for every time, those two free scientists always help me out so much, not to mention the fact that the AI never seems to research Aesthetics, so you can sell it to everyone for a handsome profit.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Destroyer
I cant remember the tech for that, but I may try it next time.

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