how our first adventure went

[Alexander's Horse]

well you can, but you might miss something important. You need to watch enemy moves.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
How did the end of the game come about?
Carolus

I had LH and thought I would master the seas, but I had not enough triremes to patrol everywhere efficiently.
SlowThinker managed to land a strong army close to Philadelphia and that was the end of it.

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by SlowThinker
Don't forget that quality of a 20min player is probably very different in comparison with quality of you 1min players

I awaited a stronger and more outraged resistance...

Originally posted by Ming
Micro managing takes so little time... it can be done quickly and usually between turns, even in a duel. With some experience you will realize that as well... There is NO need to sacrafice ANYTHING while still playing quickly.

At least Ming disagrees...
Seriously, there must be a difference between 2min and 20min. It is different if you have two ways of development and choose one of them after 5min analysis or you choose one by intuition (and so haphazardly in many cases) in 2 seconds.
Also production of 30 cities cannot be co-ordinated effectively within 3min.

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
well you can, but you might miss something important. You need to watch enemy moves.

This is a problem if you allow things like 'sell improvements when opponent moves'. This makes Civ2 a real-time game. In our game we forbid all micromanagement inspired by opponent's moves.
I put a very small window "watch enemy moves" between world map and status window and micromanaged contentedly in LF's turns.

[rah]

On Micro managing. Yes if you have all day, you can be perfect. If you take no time, you don't do any. The true skill of the better players, is doing 90% of it in a very quick time. There is a balance. Find the balance point.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by SlowThinker

I awaited a stronger and more outraged resistance...

We are fortunately too mature to be baited.

[rah]

And there is such a thing as OVER THINKING.
Paralysis by analysis.

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by DrSpike
We are fortunately too mature to be baited.

[Cobra]

Re: attack vs. defense

Originally posted by SlowThinker

If this is true (success in Civ2 is contracted to the ability to find the opponent fast) then Civ2 isn't a good game, the balance between attack and defense is set badly.
But although I think Elephants are little bit too strong or too early accesible, I have a feeling that it is possible to win by defending (if the map don't consist from Grass and Plains only).
And attack is hard if civs are distant or in another continent IMHO.

The one who is found first mostly changes his strategy. He thinks, he is too weak to defend effectively and builts more defensive units as needed. He thinks,"where would I attack" and prepares himself for such attacks, even if there was just a trireme with a poor old horse on it, unable to kill a phalanx.
Growing and exploring gets rather slow, cause next place to build a city has to be saved with a phalanx and an extra unit to explore the ground around.
It´s not an unballanced game, it´s the fear to loose which makes the difference.
That´s my experience from douzens of MP-games.

Of course, there will come attacks and then the defender is too week

[rah]

Yes, there is nothing better then projecting offensive abilities when they don't really exist. Showing an archer or chariot near your opponent early can totally mess with their brain. Every extra phalanx they build will eat into their ability to expand as fast as you.

If you follow it up with a massive attack in as little as 1 out of every 10 games, you can keep them paranoid for months.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by rah
you can keep them paranoid for months.

Shall I go on playing MP then ?

[Ming]

Yes... MP beats SP every time. The computer is stupid and now it's just a matter of When you win, not if.

Not the case in MP.

After a lot of practice, you will learn that most of the decisions are easy to make quickly and right. Yeah, you might forget to move a "single" worker... but in most cases, I maximize my cities food/trade/production depending on need without wasting much time.

[deity]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
er no - you can't micro between turns in a duel.

couldn't agree more Horsie.. but I will try

[rah]

Yep, in a duel, during the first 20 turns, I'll do things like buy ups during my turn since the turns are going to fast and a mistake that early is bigger than later. But after that I'll do it during the other players turn and even though I'll sometimes get burned in the middle of a buyup or switching a worker, no biggie. It's worth it to keep the game moving.

RAH

[Makeo]

many times i've ended up with a settler rather than the caravan i wanted.

[DrSpike]

Or dips if you are even slower.

I think in duels it can work if the players cooperate. Microing on the others' turn is so beneficial to keeping turn time down...........everything must be done to encourage it.