It's Impossible to Enjoy a Game w/o Happy Wonders

[finbar]

There's nothing wrong with Elvis keeping a city happy for a while. Remember you're going to be getting at least some trade out of the place while you're going about building a unit for martial law, or a temple, or whatever it takes according to the government you're under.

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Founder, ACS Pedantry Institute
Founder, ACS Gourmet Recipe Exchange
Horse and Hydey Wrangler
Mono Rules!
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[Father Beast]

A while back they had that Head Start Scenario over in Civ2 Strat. the only wonders available were UN and Apolyton - pardon me, Apollo.
guys still managed to beat that.

I have yet to survive a deity game until the end, so maybe you have a point.

the unhappiness is what keeps me from playing at high levels, but that's one of the things that define it.

Deity, For those who like theri civ REALLY mean".

[East Street Trader]

I agree that in deity you must have a strategy which addresses unhappiness. The contentment wonders are a natural place to look but I also agree that they are far from the last, or even the best.

As has been said before, the true happiness (as opposed to mere contentment) creators are the marketplace/bank/stock exchange and superhighways working in conjunction with luxury setting/elvis and the steps taken to increase arrow production.

Try using the caravans you squander on building the Wonders on establishing good trade routes and you'll avoid lengthy stagnation.

I agree that there always does seem to be a period when things go slowly. IME this usually signifies that you should be considering a change of gov.t. But of course you need to have prepared the ground. If you've got the trade routes in and managed to develop your land to max arrow production try changing to representative gov.t, disband all those martial law units, turn taxes up for a while (so you can rush plenty of marketplaces et al).

Don't be distracted too much by WLT-Ds. They are far from essential.

In a game with a good start look to be doing this around 100AD.

Carry on building caravans and you'll soon be rolling in cash and ready for some military adventures. Sure, take the Wonders the A1 has been kind enough to build for you if you like. But you still needn't bother if you don't want to.

Along the way you run into the necessity to address defence, trade and exploration issues. Again, Wonders offer help but are not essential.

[Gatekeeper]

Everyone:

To be fair, this was the first bad game I've had at the emperor level in some time. Maybe I was simply due for one — and, boy, did I get it. First time ever without any happiness wonders and behind from the get-go. Ouch.

CYBERAmazon

[Archangel MasterBob]

Yes, you just have to build alot of temples, Catedrals, and Cols.

[War4ever]

The other trick here would be to go fundy for a few turns and crank taxes and luxuries to increase your wealth. The ai is notorious for slowing its tech rate to match yours....thus you could rush whatever improvements you need

Perhaps SOL is needed for a Communist govt? The double martial law would help you immensely and allow you to field a large army.

I assume being a perfectionist that you would already have temples banks markets libraries etc.... is the problem your gold? Did you not have the money to support your cathedrals which would normally be paid for by Mikes chapel?

Perhaps you didn't have enough trade routes..... it takes longer without the happy wonders to go representative but not that much longer.

Did you handicap yourself by allowing the Aztecs and sioux to live..... i assumed they would be gone. in such a small space ..... you can takeout both countries with ease and not really miss a beat expanding your civ both upwards in NA and southerly towards the Aztecs

perhaps the Great library should have been built instead of marcos in this case. SP mode (mge) its not really necessary to build marcos... you already know the land forms... you know whom the major powers are.... and everyone hates you anyways.

Marcos is only good for finding trading partners on random maps.... embassies are only really needed in about two or three civs max. The other ones are always wiped out early anyways.

[Gatekeeper]

quote: Originally posted by War4ever on 04-21-2001 12:23 AM I assume being a perfectionist that you would already have temples banks markets libraries etc.... is the problem your gold? Did you not have the money to support your cathedrals which would normally be paid for by Mikes chapel?

I wasn't even that far in the game ... solidly in monarchy and my cities were freaking out at size 8. Gold probably was the biggest problem eventually, what with coliseums costing 4 gold per turn and then having to add in temple and cathedral cost. Don't know if my finances would've lasted long enough until the arrival of stock markets and superhighways. I couldn't get any tribute from any civs, either.

quote: Perhaps you didn't have enough trade routes..... it takes longer without the happy wonders to go representative but not that much longer.

I build some trade routes, but don't focus on them exclusively. Self-initiated routes never mount to more than 12 to 16 on average.

quote: Did you handicap yourself by allowing the Aztecs and sioux to live..... i assumed they would be gone. in such a small space ..... you can takeout both countries with ease and not really miss a beat expanding your civ both upwards in NA and southerly towards the Aztecs

I was the Aztecs . The Sioux were my only neighbors in the Americas. I'm not much of a warmonger early on, so civs typically have a chance to take root when I'm playing. I've also moved the Sioux starting location further northwest than in the original Earth (Large) map. Unless a civ is really close by, I generally leave them alone because I like the challenge. But if they do bother me early, I go after them. In this case, the Sioux were actually ignoring me for the most part, so I ignored them.

CYBERAmazon

[Archangel MasterBob]

I always build them to make my life easier, but its possible to win without them.

[War4ever]

CYBERAmazon, when i origionally posted i thought you were the Americans.... when i reread it i changed my answer.....

I figure any civ on my land is toast...... this prevents a thorn in your rose garden