Building camels in highly productive cities

[La Fayette]

Building camels is VERY important in civ2 (no need to tell you why, I suppose).

1) In low producing cities (production less than 10 shields/turn), it is generally agreed that incremental rushbuilding is the most performing method.
I shall explain once more how it works, because it is a nice introduction to what I shall try to explain later on.

Example: city producing 5 shields/turn

1-1) If I don't 'buy' any shield, i get my camel in 10 turns with a cost of 0 gold.

1-2) If I start building a warrior, I have 5 shields in the box after one turn. I buy the 5 shields remaining in the first row (for a cost of 11 gold) and I switch immediately to a phalanx and buy 5 more shields next turn to complete the second row. I switch to diplomat and buy 5 shields next turn to complete the third row; switch to catapult, buy 5 shields and finally build my camel in 6 turns with a cost of 44 gold (the last 2 turns are spent building the last row of 10 shields, without buying any shield).

1-3) I can also buy the last row (cost 25 gold, saves 1 turn), or any intermediate row (cost 25 - 11 = 14 gold, saves 1 turn).

1-4) Summary (city producing 5 shields/turn)
Making use of incremental rushbuilding, I can build a camel in:
2 turns with a cost of 111 gold
3 turns with a cost of 86 gold
4 turns with a cost of 72 gold
5 turns with a cost of 58 gold
6 turns with a cost of 44 gold
7 turns with a cost of 33 gold
8 turns with a cost of 22 gold
9 turns with a cost of 11 gold

1-5) You can make use of incremental rushbuilding in any city producing 1 to 9 shields/turn. The method is always the same: buy the remaining shields in a row (or buy the row if you are richer and/or in a hurry).

1-6) Other tricks can be used (example: city producing 7 shields/turn, gives you a camel in 8 turns 'wasting' 6 shields; but if you buy 2 shields at the end of turn 4, you finish in 7 turns for a cost of 4 gold).

2) City producing 10 shields/turn
I guess anyone knows this one . Either you build (camel in 5 turns) or you buy 1, 2 or 3 rows (camel in 2 turns with a cost of 75 gold if you buy 3 rows).

3) City producing more than 10 shields/turn (this is what this post is really about, because I have never seen anything written about that).

I shall generally describe 2 solutions, a cheaper one and a faster one (w = waste, s = shield).

3-1) 11 shields
Either: build in 5 turns (wasting 5 shields)
Or: build in 4 turns (buying 7 shields after 3 turns, wasting 1 shield)

3-2) 12 shields
Either: build in 5 turns (w = 10 s)
Or: build in 4 turns (buy 4s after 3t, w = 2s)

3-3) 13 shields
Either: build in 4 turns (w = 2s)
Or: build in 3 turns (buy 7s, then buy 7s, then w = 3s)

3-4) 14 shields
Either: build in 4 turns (w = 6s)
Or: build in 3 turns (buy 6s, then buy 6s, then w = 4s)

3-5) 15 shields
Either: build in 4 turns (w = 10s)
Or: build in 3 turns (buy 5s, then nothing, then w = 0s)

3-6) 16 shields
Either: build in 4 turns (w = 14s )
Or: build in 3 turns (buy 4s, then nothing, then w = 2s)

3-7) 17 shields
Either: build in 3 turns (w = 1s)
Or:

3-8) 18 shields
Either: build in 3 turns (w = 4s)
Or:

3-9) 19 shields
Either: build in 3 turns (w = 7s)
Or:

3-10) 20 shields
Either: build in 3 turns (w = 10s )
Or: build in 2 turns (buy 10s, then w = 0s)

3-11) 21 to 24
Same as 20 (buy the diplo after 1 turn)

3-12) 25 and over (theoretically up to 49)
Build in 2 turns (w = growing with the number of shields produced in excess of 25)

4) Conclusion
A close look at this will show you that some levels of production are highly desirable compared with others. Keep in mind that it is very often quite easy to modify your current level of production by a few shields up or down. I grant you this must be called micromanaging, but the benefits can be HUGE.

[Bloody Monk]

Excellent summary...deserves a bump

Also deserves a long study until these points are easily recalled. This would be helpful for anyone just beginning to master rushbuying.

I would just add one idea. Build in one turn by starting with a disbanded unit. Use those shields as a base and buy the rest, line by line. This is especially useful when your SSC has a commodity available to build.

I wish, La Fayette, that someone had used this much detail in describing rushbuying years ago when I was first trying to learn how.

[ramses II.]

Good work, La Fayette.
Perhaps someone (you?) could sum up all fine tuning and micromanaging measures in one thread.
I find micromanagement (and incremental buying is a part of it) one of the most interesting aspects of civ2.
It's the sum of all this little actions that makes human intelligrence superior to the AI. Or, in other words: It's fun to beat the computer ...

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk

I would just add one idea. Build in one turn by starting with a disbanded unit. Use those shields as a base and buy the rest, line by line.

Yes, indeed.
BTW I did not mention buying the first row from zero.
The cost is higher: 50 gold for the first row, then 25 for each of the 4 remaining rows. This means 150 gold for a camel in 1 turn. Costly, yes, but still much cheaper than simply rushbuying the caravan.

[La Fayette]

I don't give the cost of rushbuying the camel.
This is on purpose: it takes about 2 seconds to test that in the game YOU are playing now, and I am fairly sure that you will remember it much better after having found out by yourself .

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by ramses II.
Good work, La Fayette.
Perhaps someone (you?) could sum up all fine tuning and micromanaging measures in one thread.

1) Thank you very much.
2) Yes, perhaps. But I have in mind the amount of time my friends SlowThinker and Marquis de Sodaq spent on mastering 'diplomats and spies' and the 'combat system'. I think I prefer to go on researching about this and that when I feel like it.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Good summary, La Fayette!

I've always loved production of 16 or 17 in a city - the former for producing improvements and later units (or structurals), the latter for breeding camels. In the mid game, production of 12 or 15 shields per turn is always a hassle. Better to move a worker onto any extra trade arrow that can be worked. Or in the latter case, designate the city as a diplomat training center.