Early Conquest Guide

[Peaster]

Thanks! I took a look at the diplomat thread. Not only were the conclusions interesting, but SlowThinker placed a nice table there. I still don't know what is causing those large spaces above mine.

Even though walls may come last, diplomats seem like a good idea. Here's a quick analysis. Suppose the walled city is size 4. The player does not know what is inside. But assume two defenders and a temple (and walls). I see three main attack options;

a) Do not use diplomats. Attack with 5 vet elllies (for example) and expect to lose 2 or 3 of them. Our loss of units is 80 or 120 shields.

b) Use 4 diplomats (1 investigates and 3 sabotage). Then attack the unwalled city with 2 vet ellies and expect both to live. Our loss of units is 120 shields.

c) Same as b) without the investigation. Loss is 90s.

Despite the slightly greater expected loss, trying b) seems better than a). The first dip reveals everything - If there is no temple, or many defenders, option b) is cheaper. If there are lots of improvements, we can still switch to plan a). The first dip does not have to wait for the others. I think plan b) makes even more sense for larger cities (with more defenders). There is less risk in plan b).

The drawback is - I (we?) usually have more ellies in play than dips. If I had 8 vet ellies nearby and no dips, I'd go with plan a) to save time.

Option c) costs one dip less than b). I am not sure how to analyze it yet, so maybe it needs testing. IIRC, two dips played in one turn are very very likely to take down walls in a 200AD city, which means c) is not really very risky. So, I tend to favor c).

[Peaster]

Chapter One

1) Introduction to Early Conquest (EC)

This is dedicated to everyone who has posted a question or advice in the Apolyton/CFC forums. I am especially grateful to DaveV, LaFayette, solo and zenon.

a) Welcome to EC

It is fun to conquer the world, no matter how you do it. Conquering for speed adds even more excitement to the game. A good plan brings satisfaction. A bad one is a lesson learned.

And there is still a lot to learn about EC strategy. Surprisingly little has been written about it. The forums provide some useful ideas, but no comprehensive guide. The best players often use very different strategies, and it is difficult to say which is best.

I am going to assume you have some experience conquering at Deity, even if it's in the year 2000AD. I will lay out a system for conquering around 500AD, Of course, your results will depend on your skill, the map and some luck.


b) Playing Levels and Styles

Most good conquest players start an EC game by building a lot of small cities, preparing for huge shield productivity by 1AD. They aim to conquer with a wave of fast mounted units before the enemy builds a lot of walls, discovers gunpowder, etc. They build MPE to get maps, tech and tribute. They build HG instead of temples and build ST instead of barracks (see Ch8 for abbreviations). While learning, try to play this way too. Some alternatives are discussed in the later chapters.

Since Deity seems to be the most popular level, I deal with it first and give it the most attention. Of course, the system also works at other levels, with certain modifications discussed in the final chapters.

c) The Scope of This Guide

To present the main ideas clearly, Chs 1-5 assume a normal map, restarts OFF, seven civs, single-player, Deity. Practice with these settings first. We will discuss how other settings affect your strategy in chapters 6-8.

The guide is based on ideas from the forums and games by the masters. These games have some features in common - monarchy, no (or very few) city improvements, and advances up to monotheism. If you are addicted to howitzers... sorry, they are not mentioned here. The guide does not currently include much about scoring, huts, or any Wonders besides HG/MPE/ST/Li/Mike's. It assumes you prefer a good reputation, but are willing to be atrocious, if you have to. It assumes you don't black-click or use helper programs. It assumes you will focus on expansion in the opening. I use Civ2 MGE, so this guide assumes a hostile AI, but this should not affect the main ideas much.

A few players have conquered very early (eg 1200BC) by popping a lot of huts before settling their first city. This risky approach has not gained much popularity, and is mostly ignored in this guide.

d) A Typical EC Game

You use some version of ICS to open the game. You get monarchy and trade and HG ASAP. With great care, you grow about 15 cities by 400BC. You don't have many strong units. But you have MPE, and enough maps to decide when and how you will attack. You may still have some production and transportation problems to solve. You probably still need ST and/or LH. So, the attacks might not really start until 1AD or later. But then you hit hard with groups of veteran elephants or crusaders, from boats, roads, rivers or whatever. You take capitols, and then lesser cities. You planned well, and the enemy civs all fall, perhaps in 600AD.

On a tough map, or with bad luck, it might take longer, but probably not past 1000AD. If you are new to Deity or EC, don't feel bad about an 1800AD finish. I went from 1800AD to 800AD mainly by learning ICS and the basics of Chs. 1-5. Learning the various civ2 `tricks' helps, to a lesser extent.

e) What's Par for the Course

When learning to play the `typical EC game' of part d), you may want to follow the schedule below. You can use it to set goals in the early game and to see where your style needs adjustment. I created this by averaging out data from several games with the same settings as in part c).

The top line suggests that by 2200BC, which is the 36th turn, you should have about 5 cities. This assumes average luck (in finding whales, hut results, etc). Since most cities will be size 1, average production will be low, about 2.8 shields per turn. You'll have about 6 advances, hopefully including monarchy. You should have about 9 units - mostly warriors, with 1-2 settlers and a few units from huts. The other lines are similar, and show that you want one wonder (W) soon after 1000BC, an income (i) of 12g and 25 science beakers (b) per turn by 400BC, etc.

Pay attention to the last statistic in your games. Expect about 125 units on the board at the finish (depending on the map, your losses, and your endgame strategy). For me, practice has gradually reduced this number from about 175 units to under 125. Not only is it a measure of your planning skill, but it gives you a production target, which we will use in Ch.4.

If you fall behind (more than about 10 percent) on a statistic, try to catch up on that. Getting ahead in one stat does not usually compensate for falling behind in another. You can build fewer cities, though, as long as your total production is OK. Note that half of the 50 cities at the end will be captures.

Remember - this chart is for Deity (2 settlers) on a normal map. There is another chart for Emperor level (1 Settler) in a later chapter.

2200BC = 36t: 5.2c, pr2.8, 6a, 9u

1000BC = 60t: 11c, pr 3.7, 24u, 11a, 0.8W

400BC = 84t: 17c, pr4.3, 45u, 18a, 2.5W [i12, b25]

1AD = 100t: 24c, pr4.4, 20a, 71u, 3.5W

END (600AD?) = 130t: 50c, pr4.5, 25a, 3.5Ws, 125u (20lost)


f) What to Learn, and How

The main skills you need are quick expansion in the opening and planning campaigns. Secondary skills include exploration, climbing the tech tree, battle tactics and adjusting to unusual maps. If you cannot expand quickly enough in the opening to match the chart in part e), try reading DaveV's Guide to ICS in the GL. Many top players do not call themselves ICSers, but still use principles described in this guide. If planning is your problem, practice with Chs 3-5 of this guide on normal maps until you can finish by 1000AD. Later, you can try other ideas/systems, such as those described in Ch 8e.

Keep notes on your games. It is easy to get lost in the details, so take breaks to look at the big picture and make plans. Make notes about your goals for the next ten turns, about your predictions for how the game will go, and about what you wish you had done 10 turns ago. Also, you can probably find saved games, or at least game logs, by the masters in tournament spoiler threads.

[debeest]

Originally posted by La Fayette
Anyway, to make it short, if there are n improvements inside the city, you are on the safe side if you attack with (n + 1) diplomats = 100% chance that the walls will tumble down.

On at least one occasion, and probably a few, I have had the misfortune to destroy the "improvement under construction" more than once in a turn, in the same city. Thus I think it's possible to fail to get the walls, even if you use as many dips as there are improvements, counting the improvement under construction.

It was probably with spies rather than dips, but still....

[solo]

Peaster,

If a game allows huts, I think I would pop at least a few before settling my first city. You can't get barbs and are most likely to get good NON units, which hasten explorations and reduce support costs a bit. Then I'll settle when I think huts are likely to be closer to an AI than to my intended city sites. I may even delay founding my cities longer if the opening location is average or worse.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by debeest

I have had the misfortune to destroy the "improvement under construction" more than once in a turn, in the same city.

I don't remember having ever had that misfortune.
Has anyone else had it ?

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by La Fayette


I don't remember having ever had that misfortune.
Has anyone else had it ?

It has happened to me from time to time, however it is possible that it happened when I had already sabotaged all available improvements. (I'm not very good at recognising walls on the city icon.)

RJM at Sleeper's

[Peaster]

@solo - I was going to mention large-scale early hut-popping only briefly, in Ch 8. I haven't seen it work out very often, and got almost no response about it in a recent CFC forum post. DaveV's Sept result was impressive, but I could not duplicate it and did even worse on randomly generated maps (eg islands).

I tried your smaller-scale approach on a map I played 2 months ago (and had forgotten). I probably had better luck than in the old game, except that I was on an island, so exploration was limited. The results were OK, but I was behind at growth and wonders until at least 500BC. Inconclusive, I guess.

@dips - I cannot add much. I echo rjm's comments. Can anyone suggest a "best strategy" against walls?

[solo]

Peaster,

I concur. I think hut popping first works best on small maps, where most civs are likely to share the same large continent, as shown in DaveV's recent game. I think when the situation is right, it is one of the best ways to go.

[Grigor]

Hut poppig is indeed an iffy strategy the way you descripe play. However, an interesting strategy for hut popping is to head for seafaring and do it with explorers, who can usually get out of the way of Barbs. Without fear of barbs the results are all useful - the unwanted science always seems to get sorted out by about 750BC or whenever Marco Polo gets built.

[Peaster]

Grigor - do you know how often this works? I only saw one GOTM game using it. IIRC it was by mangor420, and he posted a 450BC finish in the spoiler. His game didn't appear on the results screen for some reason.

[Grigor]

No, I don't know. I also remember that game being mentioned. The map had very bad terrain, mostly plains, but lots of huts. I would guess that one would need a lot of free techs toward seafaring.

I am currently replaying GOTM 46 trying to find an optimum strategy (so far everything is worse than yours (. I am not having success. I have not yet tried the tech path CoL, Monarchy, MM, Seaf. ( I keep thinking that early HB and Poly must be faster) My next try will be the fast Seafaring. I will let you know.

[Grigor]

OK, I am trying the seafaring/explorer strategy. There are some things to work out, but it seems to take 300-500 years off my conquest time. I drop the first two cities ASAP with no roads and set workers to maximize science. I take Map Making as the off tech to Monarchy and then Pottery and Seafaring. I get an average of 5 huts before getting a 9-barb hut which kills the explorer - and more if I can start early - which average to 1 unit, 50g, an advanced tribe/nomad, and a tech for each explorer, plus meeting most of the AI and uncovering the map fast. Pretty good return on investment, and it is especially good on the poles.

Some issues with this strategy include:
How many explorers to build - I think 2 on a medium map.
When to build them - before the fourth city or after the second -
How to combine with trireme construction
Under what conditions is it possible - certainly with 2 free techs toward Monarchy or Seafaring and a pretty big continent.

The trials are fun because you get to move something three moves per turn in the early game.

[DaveV]

The other nice thing about explorers is that they can get to the front line in a hurry. When you need one more unit to capture that empty city, an explorer works as well as any other, and it is more likely to be able to reach the target.

[Peaster]

Thanks for all the comments, and to Grigor for play testing the explorer strategy. I hope you don't mind if I include these in the guide. I am planning to put a lot of them in Ch 8.

Here is Ch.2 (Ch.1 and 3 are posted above, and I will try to go in order from now on). Please alert me to anything that is wrong or missing. Keep in mind that Chs 1-5 aim to present a single reliable system that works well on normal maps.
.

2) Notes on the Opening

In the opening stage, about 4000BC to 1000BC, you prepare to attack. This requires strong shield production, good tech, and good information such as AI maps. Focus on making a lot of small cities in good locations - about 10 of them by 1000BC. Aim for monarchy asap, before your making your 5th city.

a) Cities, Shields and Growth

Plant cities near/on specials, looking mostly for shields and arrows (a 2 to 1 ratio on average is about right). Each city needs 1 good food square for getting to size 2, but food is not too important otherwise. A city on grass, near shielded grass and two forest squares is quite good, even without a special. Rivers squares are even better. Space your cities about 2-3 squares apart as long as the terrain is good. At least a few should be on the coast. Watch for chances to make a canal city (on two coasts). Very short roads (1-2 squares each) are OK, but save longer ones for later, maybe 500BC.

See DaveV's ICS Guide, or LaFayette's `Three Arrow Strategy', for more ideas. There are also opening tricks you can read up on in the GL/Forums, such as the size 1 city strategy, and the international dateline rule. If a hut is visible at the start, pop it before settling. Let's assume until Ch8 that you do not pop many more huts with your settlers, so you make two cities pretty quickly.

Around 2200BC, you'll have about 4-5 cities, mostly size 1, making 3 s/t, or less. A good size 2 city will make 5 s/t, usually towards a settler. This keeps it size 1-2 for a long time. In the early game, micro-manage. Make sure every size 2 is producing as many shields as possible. Make an exception if you can get at least 1.5 arrows per lost shield from a trade special. Later on, when this gets tedious, I just check the city status screen occasionally for lazy size 2's (where the AI has chosen food over shields).

Make no city improvements and no terrain improvements, which are a waste of precious time.


b) Making and Using Units

Use size 1 cities mostly to build warriors, which can serve as militia and explorers. You may want a few horsemen for exploring the land and tipping huts, and defense against barb's. Most masters prefer 2 warriors over 1 horseman for this, but the horseman requires less support and provides better defense, so it seems OK too. The phalanx or archer unit is usually less effective than a horseman.

You can leave your first size 1's empty for a few turns, sending a warrior out to explore a little terrain, returning as the city reaches size 2. Any spare units can make longer trips, finding huts, good city sites, AI's and map info. But this guide assumes most of your contacts and map info will come a bit later through MPE and boats.

Use your spare gold to rush-build units, especially settlers. By 1000BC, you want about 10 cities and 20-30 units (mostly warriors, a few settlers, and a few units from huts).

On a normal map, defense will probably not be a big issue. But it helps to connect cities with short roads and keep horsemen or chariots (from huts) in a few central cities. Likewise, it is not likely you will be able to attack effectively until polytheism. But if you have some good units from huts, and a nearby target - why not?

c) Tech and Wonders

Read about the 2/3's tech rule, if you haven't already. The important early techs for EC are monarchy, trade, pottery, map-making and polytheism. Assuming no starting tech, DaveV suggests early advances in this order: hr/cb/al/cl/mona. You can gamble by delaying hr, if you aren't worried about defense. Monarchy helps so much with happiness and production that everyone agrees on getting it early. With normal play, you'll probably get it by the time you need it (before making your fifth city, which would otherwise cause rioting). In choosing city sites and worker tiles, I consider 3 arrows = 2 shields, though some people prefer an arrow to a shield. Anyway, try to get monarchy right before an oedo year (2650BC, 2450BC, 2250BC, etc, see the GL) by playing with trade arrows. Then set your science to 70, taxes to 30, and stick with monarchy for the rest of the game. You will raise taxes later, when you have all the tech you need - probably that means monotheism.

Follow monarchy with bw/cu/tr/pot/poly/map, writ/wc/feud, roughly in that order. Solo suggests delaying basic techs like bw/cu/pot in hopes of getting them from nearby AI's, perhaps through vigorous exploration. But try to get trade before 1000BC, for MPE and caravans, which build wonders efficiently. When you decide to build a wonder, plan/rush your caravan production so that they all arrive at your chosen city together. For example, you will need HG when you have about 10 cities. Ideally, your 4 caravans come together for HG very soon after you discover pottery. 1000BC is a good target date for this, but 800BC is OK. You probably won't be able to make a 2nd wonder before 1000BC without hurting your growth rate.

But DaveV writes "If you're on a large continent shared by a bunch of AIs, it's much better to build MPE before HG (then you can probably extort enough cash to build HG right away)." You will also need enough units to impress the AI. He adds "If you're on an island by yourself, the naval techs become a lot more important. If there's no land in trireme range, then the Lighthouse is extremely important." But for now, we assume a normal map and stick to the plan of HG/MPE, and later on, ST.

The `HG period' (8 to 11 cities) can be a bad time for riots, so prepare a few extra warriors, and expect to turn on a few Elvis's. Don't forget to turn them off again after HG! Send a warrior out with each settler to prepare for cities unhappy at birth. Check the Attitude screen often, to catch some of the riots before they happen.

The choice of wonder-city is not important (no SSC). Any of your central cities producing the caravans works well.

After the techs listed above, the main target will be monotheism, though it is unlikely you will get that far in the opening stages. And if you prefer, you can play without crusaders.

d) Values

I find it enjoyable to reason things out - Why is it wrong to build mines and temples? Should my settler spend 5 turns finding a better square? If you enjoy that too, I offer a few notes you can play around with (but you can safely skip this section if you like). In the early years of a typical EC game, I estimate -

1 Shield = 1.2 Beakers = 2 gold = 1.4 arrow = 0.4 turns (by 1 settler).

Also, I believe there is a natural `interest rate' of about 5 per cent. This means one shield per turn (forever) is worth about 20 shields right now. This principle also applies to arrows or gold. You can work out the mining issue from this, or see why the KRC wonder is not advised for EC.

In evaluating a city site, the main question seems to be -how long until a city on that square will produce a settler? (assuming you are getting enough arrows) This is more of an issue on strange maps.

Note - I am not a slave to these numbers; I often rush-build units at 2.5 gold per shield. Also - beakers lose their value after a certain point (eg monotheism / feudalism). Shields in homeland cities become less useful near the end, and gold becomes more useful by comparison. But spend gold pretty freely when you have it, because you do not get interest on it.


e) Preparing to Attack

Usually, 1000BC is too soon to attack. You want to attack mainly with groups of at least 3 strong fast units, which you probably don't have yet. Settlers are better investments than attacking units, so far. Your nearest neighbors, no matter how annoying they are, are not too important anyway (see Ch 4 about this). But even in 1000BC, try to plan out your tech and wonders so you can send out a few triremes, diplomats and/or elephants by 600BC. This is one of the main things you can do to put the `E' in `EC'. If restarts are on, try to attack even earlier.

[Peaster]

(Ch 3 was posted earlier, so ....)


Ch 4) Planning a Fast Finish

So, you demolished the Mongols in 800BC? Wow! And the Japanese in 500BC? The English, Aztecs and Germans by 200AD? But the Romans had a walled city on a little island in the far corner of the map - and you couldn't get them until 1300AD? Well, the only date that counts is the last one, 1300AD. You probably are not planning well if your last 2-3 conquest dates are more than a few turns apart.

This short chapter is about planning for the earliest possible finish. Having an overall plan helps with patience, success in attacks and overall satisfaction.

a) The "Farthest One First" Rule

In the story above, you should have noticed the Roman problem as soon as you got MPE, and sent loaded triremes there ASAP. In most games, the most distant civilization determines your EC date. Get there ! Forget about gold and wonders and city growth if you have to. Start early. Get map making, build some triremes and ele's, and send them off. Make notes about when and where the units will be produced and meet the boat, etc. This simple advice should take years off your score, but there are some cases where you will have to adjust -

* Build the LH if it will save you at least two turns getting to the enemy(s).

* On large land mass maps, you might not be able to get to the Romans by boat. But you still delay all other goals to get to them ASAP. For example, if the Aztecs are in the way, carve a path through them. Bypass any Aztec cities that don't keep you from the Romans. Your back-up units can deal with those later. Build roads as you go.

* Or, suppose the Spanish are almost as far away as the Romans. Probably, you must plan the Roman flotilla first, and a few turns later do the same for the Spanish.

* In general, you need to be aware of which task is most urgent. In Operations Research, this is your critical task. In the previous note, the Spanish may be the critical task, even though the Romans are farthest away. This means you rush-build the Spain flotilla, send back-ups (if possible), and reserve a few pesos for bribing Spanish cities. Sometimes the critical task is production, which we discuss next.


b) Production and Your Late Swarm

If you take the advice in part a) to the extreme, and sacrifice everything to send out a few flotillas by 1000BC [I usually aim for about 500BC], you may have problems making enough cities and units to handle the other 5 civs.

How can you know? Well, on normal maps I usually have about 110 units on my Defense Minister screen at the end of the game. This number is my production target. We'll discuss the number more later, so let's assume for now that 110 is also your target. You need to estimate when you will get there. How? Well, if your cities each make about 4-5 s/t,

N cities will produce about N units every 10 turns .

So, you get a target date for your 110 units. If it is later than your target date for killing the Romans, then production is critical. In Chapter 3 language, your Type B conquest(s) are likely to take longer than your type A(s). You should focus on growth/shields more than attacks until the type A's become critical. Make settlers, cities, HG, review ICS ideology, etc, and delay units/roads/ST/LH.

Now, about the target number (110). When I started learning EC, I was finishing with 175 units, but it has gradually come down with practice. So, pay attention to your final stats after each game, and adjust your target number accordingly.

You may need to adjust it for other reasons, too. You will notice that most of your final units never see battle (unless you are very effective in using your late swarm). So, you may choose to build/sell barracks in your homeland cities to fund your attacks. Obviously, this plan will reduce your final unit stats.

Recently, on some unusual maps (small, poor terrain, and/or 5 civs), my final unit stats have been much less; about 50. Island maps also seem to reduce the number at least 10 per cent. If you build more wonders or cities, this will reduce your target number just a little. In summary, unusual maps make your target pretty fuzzy, but it is still better to include it on your plans than not.

c) Timing and Combining Campaigns.

So, to put this all together, list your 3-4 campaigns (soon after MPE), and decide which type they are (A,B or C - see Ch3). Estimate a victory date for each one. Add a few turns if the campaign includes 2 or 3 civs, or if the cities are spread out (diameter over 10sqs). If you can recycle units from an early conquest into later one, you may speed up your victory date, but this is hard to plan much in advance.

Focus on the conquest with the latest victory date and let that influence all your decisions about production and troop movements. Find ways to reduce that date, maybe by rush-building, diverting or recycling units. Ideally, you now have realistic plans to finish all your conquests at about the same time, with a target date of maybe 800ad. With practice, you may be surprised how close you come to your target date. Hopefully, you will even find your target dates decreasing from game to game, towards maybe 300AD or even less.

If you have included type C's (flex-civs) into your plan, you probably do not have to make a careful schedule for them. Just don't let them become critical. Switch effort from those to the type B's at the right moment, so that every campaign ends by your target date.

Strict ICS may produce excess settlers by 1AD. Plan early for how to use these (for outposts, roads, etc) or just stop making them. With less than 30 turns left, an attack unit is usually worth more than a Settler.