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**SandMonkey** · July 17, 2000, 21:19

Well, i started a game up, and I noticed a few things.
[*] Trade is hard to come by. The terrain is mostly Scrubland, which I relate to Plains. That leaves only one trade with raods. The grasses give decent food, but you're in the same boat for trade. Looking for key specials (Monolith [Wasteland] gives 5 trade, so that's a must!) and both of the Scrublands specials (Ruins and Regiment Ivy) both give one extra trade, so that can help out.
[*] Due to the lack of trade, I ran into cash-flow problems early on. I tried to race for AS to ease the pain, but the German's edged me out. Now I am faced with a shortage of gold, so I have to keep my taxes high, thus taking away from the much needed science.
[*] As i said before, the Great library was a great help, but it also slowed my tech advancement. I think it might be a fair trade, though, since I am only sacrificing a few turns in all, and I am gaining techs I would have had to research anyways.
[*] Trade routes are a waste of resources. I am gaining only 1-2 trade extra from a route, and usually between only 10-20 gold/sci beakers bonus per route! I did use caravans to help rush-build wonders, but that was the extent of their worth.

Anyone else care to take up a game and see if there is a loop hole to play through?

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site
[This message has been edited by SandMonkey (edited July 17, 2000).]

**The Mad Monk** · July 17, 2000, 22:05

I have played successfully as the aliens, since their situation and my play style go very well together. My advice (for king/huge world):

First, build settlers, and one or two flyers
(just to scout out the land). There is no need to build a large standing army, just one large enough for martial law and the occasional goody hut gone bad. Since your neighbors won't be attacking anytime soon, there is no point to a military build up now. Set taxes to 50/50 science/taxes from the start; the minor decrease in science is more than made up by the large numbers of settlers you'll put out in short order.

Go straight to monarchy, of course, and stay there until you have thirty or more cities, using the one-food-support settlers to build roads everywhere and generally improve the land. Build caravans for wonders only. As you near the thirty mark, start building marketplaces in all of your cities, in preparation for the move to republic.

Once you are ready (for me this just after Mike's and JSB have been built--eases the transition), change to republic and shift taxes to 40/40/20 sci/tax/lux. By this time, your empire should be sufficiently spread out and built up that those caravans will provide good bonuses and trade--so start cranking them out! As marketplace-fired WLTxDs die down, start building banks; when banks die down, build stock exchanges. This should give you a sizable percentage of cities with double-digit pops, and more than enough science generated per turn.

It's what works for me.

**SandMonkey** · July 17, 2000, 22:53

Those are great tips Mad Monk. While i was playing this out, I found a couple other things.
[*] Eternal Fog with a mine gives you 1 food, 2 shield, 2 trade. This is a good compromise, especially in a high-grasses area, where food won't be a problem.
[*] Anomoly (5T) and Seabees(3T) are good trade specials, and the Seabees are rather plentiful (in coastal areas, obviously).

I started using the "Poor man's Corporation" aka building barracks and selling them right away to keep up my money while letting my cash flow run in the red so that i could keep the Sci rates high. I recently switched into Republic, so there shouldn't be too many more problems like that.

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**Hasdrubal** · July 17, 2000, 23:03

This is cool!
I've been thinking about playing as the aliens. But the lack of interaction with other Civs that you have for most of the game has kept me from it. Glad to hear that it poses a challenge of it's own. I'll try it for my next game.
Keep us informed about your progress.

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Hasdrubal's Home.
Ceterum censeo Romam esse delendam.

**SandMonkey** · July 17, 2000, 23:59

Okay, some stats before I go to bed
[*]3 turns ago, a window popped up declaring my Brr'til the most advanced in the world. Now this is clearly a case of the "Player goes slow, AI goes slower" form of research we have all seen in Civ2 games.
[*] Two turns after recieveing that notice, I finished Darwins Voyage, which should put me a bit further into the lead. I am currently researching Medecine, but this has been long passed over; I've already researched The Corporation. The only reason i researched it this time was because it was the only one they would let me choose!
[*] I have 17 cities. Since moving over to republic, I've been sticking with a temple-library-marketplace scheme. If the city has good sci, then I'll pop a university down. Advances are currently coming at 6 turns/advance.

I now see that a SSC (which i built) is a good way to go. Using that coupled with GL and Darwin's, and you have a decent way to keep up in science. I should have switched over to Republic much sooner. but I'll hone my skills for the rest of this game. It's currently 1816, and I don't see a 2020 landing date by the end of this game.

I can't wait to hear how you game is going to come out, Hasdrubal

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**Xin Yu** · July 18, 2000, 16:33

How about play OCC as alien in TOT .

**Hasdrubal** · July 18, 2000, 17:31

We'll call it the One Civilization Challenge...

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Hasdrubal's Home.
Ceterum censeo Romam esse delendam.

**SandMonkey** · July 19, 2000, 16:38

I think I found a problem with playing as the aliens. I can't research Bioplasmas or anything beyond that. Since the alien can't research fusion power this makes getting Bioplasmas and anything beyond that impossible. VERY ANNOYING! I had to fiddle with the rules to change this. Are you suposed to steal Fusion Power? Grrr!

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**SandMonkey** · July 19, 2000, 17:21

Well, I won. Barely, I might add. Sadly I was only playing it on Prince, but the ending was more than difficult. The AI came at me with every unit they had. I hadn't bothered to upgrade my units in my cities, so I suffered horribly losses. I managed to hold on and grab Transcendence in the year 2032 AD. I assume there is no time limit for extended game? A couple more notes:
[*] Don't forget to get those Chon-ee's out of your cities with better defensive units. Also, in the time between your ship launch and landing, build walls in your cities.SAM's would be a good idea too, as the AI in my game built tons of Stealth Bombers and Drakons. They were perticularly devistating.
[*] Build as many cities as possible. Use up every good square inch of land there is. It will all come in to be useful.
[*] Make sure you can build a fast spaceship in a short amount of time. This is where all those cities will come in handy.

I am going to try this again... later. It's a real test on your nerves at the end game. I really got used to not having to deal with the AI... man I hate them!

But I have to ask again about Fusion Power. Is it possible to steal this? I think I see why it's notaccessible to the Aliens (slower spaceship), but is it purposefully not supposed to let them get transcendence?

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**SandMonkey** · July 20, 2000, 23:58

Aside from that blip, I have decided to take up this challenge again.

If anyone would care to join me, I saved a game at 4000 BC. I have it here for download:
http://testoftimedownlaods.homestead...s/pi_b4000.zip

Once I finish it up I'll post a log (Advances/cities/wonders).

Oh, one more thing. Since I had such a pain in the butt before, I am trying this on Prince level again, so that's what the game is saved as. It might be a bit easy for some of you... but hey, tough luck

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**SandMonkey** · July 21, 2000, 23:15

Cam -

How did you like the starting island? This was the best terrain I have ever seen on an alien world. I didn't even check it before saving - I just started the game and saved right away. I'm currently at 800 AD, so I still have some time ahead of me. Surprisingly, I am still keeping an accurate log. I got into republic in 630 ad, which is about 1200 years earlier than my other game

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

**Cam** · July 22, 2000, 00:14

Sand Monkey,

It's a great landmass!

I've just finished my second attempt - this time sticking by my 'three cities rule' (four reloads were needed due to Advanced Tribes). I got to The Republic in 170AD.

This was a much better structured game than the first (details above), however having one less city certainly does slow things down.

Spaceship launch in 1865 for a 1879 landing, but the other tribes weren't even close. It took me some time to realise I had to go down and give one of them about twenty technologies so that they could research Fusion Power. I then established an embassy, waited for about ten turns for them (the Babylonians as it happens) to research it, and then I stole it in 1927. My spy got caught and an 'International Incident' happened (spending quite some time out of Democracy). Transcendance in 1950. I still think there's quite a lot of opportunity to better this.

On this occasion I only got four tech's from the Great Library and five from huts.

I did break one of my rules, in that one ocean square was unexposed, and I built a ship to pop out and uncover it. Otherwise, no offshore continent exploring, sea travel (other than to pick up bonus Colonists and Marines), or war (other than Babylon declaring war on me as I got caught stealing Fusion Power).

**Cam** · July 22, 2000, 00:31

Out of curiosity, I tried Sand Monkey's file with a challenge twist. Initially it was going to be confined to three cities, but I ended up finding an Advanced Tribe (Wentuckit) in 190AD and kept it, plus no sea travel (although I did end up building a transporter to pick up my colonists and marines after landing), no spies (later this needed to be changed re. Fusion Power!), and no war.

I ended up with the space landing in 1866, and got Transcendance in 1925, but there were some slip ups along the way - I forgot to road my rivers after Bridge Building, and there was unnecessary use of Entertainers at times. I ended up producing far too many caravans / freight for my needs. I went for the Eiffel Tower on a whim, which was a waste, as it went obsolete before it could be of use (if this Wonder is ever of any use! ). Furthermore, it took me until about Future Tech' 15 before I realised that I needed to steal Fusion Power.

Anyway, the files are available in a zipped package for 1AD, 1000AD, 1500AD, 1700AD, 1854AD, and 1923AD in case anyone's interested: www.users.bigpond.com/c.hills/SandMnkyToT.zip

I was essentially able to use the OCC style approach quite well, despite not having 1,000+ science flasks in the science city. I did find trade paid off over time, with routes yielding 3x15 arrows per city.

The easier level allowed me to not get too concerned with happiness problems, with most cities kept happy with 20% luxuries + Market Place / Bank / Stock Exchange + Colosseum.

Goodie huts gave me six technologies, while The Great Library gave fourteen.

**SandMonkey** · July 22, 2000, 01:25

Jeez you play fast!!

I'm still only at 1620. I'm researching Electronics, so I am light-years ahead of my other game. I got into Democracy in 1230 AD, so now I am getting discoveries every 4 turns. I don't think I am that far ahead of the AI, but I am sure I have a decent lead. I'll post my whole log when I am finished. Hah I slacked off on my log. I was going to put each city as I founded it, but I stopped after like the 5th city (I have 16 cities!)

I did a little bit of math, and the way I figure it, I am about 80-90 turns in front of my first game. I'd say that's some improvement

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

Announcement

Playing as the Aliens in Extended game

Playing as the Aliens in Extended game

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