Going for 500 AD landings on standard maps

[solo]

Monk,

Frozen pipes have kept from checking in here for a few days, but I see that you have have joined the sub 1000 AD club on your first attempt. I looked over your saves, and even without an earlier connection to Rome and an earlier switch to Democracy, you must have been doing something very right to land in 715. Nice job! After launch, I agree that it is kind of relaxing to tee off on the AI after building some armor.

You may want to give it another go with the start I used for the 241 AD game, as I think it will provide the best chances of breaking the 500 AD barrier, a very tough nut to crack. That start and its SSC site are perfectly suited for early landing attempts, and if you have a number good breaks, as I did while playing my game, I think you'll manage very well.

After another mediocre game with a launch in 800 AD, I have come up with another very good start in a new game, which I am playing now. I am keeping a detailed log this time, and have a good chance in this one to launch before 500 AD if things continue to go well. I am trying a few new ideas, and am trying to make do in this one without establishing a road-rail SSC connection. Instead, I am concentrating more on early trade, even sending some helper caravans off for trades. This game I am trying a mix of 5 helpers and 4 colonies. In the last game, I tried only 4 helpers, but was unable to add scientific wonders to the SSC quickly enough.

One of the toughest transitions, as noted in your comments, is the period between Navigation-Invention and Corporation, because of the low payoffs for any caravans that are delivered. What I have been trying lately, is delaying the research of the Navigation and Invention to get in a few more trades before either cut payments. This gives a number of 1 turn advances during this period whenever a trade can be made. Then, after learning Invention, I get Democracy as quickly as possible, and research to railroad ASAP in order to build Darwin's. This wonder helps speed the way to Corporation, allowing freights and the excellent payoffs they provide.

Another strategy, which you used, is to build Leonardo's, and keep building caravans, since when Corporation comes, they will be converted into freights. If the SSC site and others require a lot of work, the upgrade of settlers to engineers is quite a boon, too, not to mention the upgrades to the fleet and any units that are aquired. It takes a bit longer with this idea to get to Corporation, but once there the advantages of Leonardo's start to really pay off. I will have to try and compare by doing this in a future game.

When to grow the helpers is a tricky issue, as you need a lot of luxuries, but don't want to slow research during the celebration. In my current game, I am delaying this until after I have Automobile, thinking that enough freights will be in place for trades to assist in getting 1 turn advances during the celebration. This way Electronics can be researched in time to extend the effectiveness of colosseums, which are easier to rush when freights are giving good payoffs. This also gives more time to fully develop the SSC, allowing some economy in the use of settlers and engineers. More details will be added when I finish this game.

[Bloody Monk]

Solo,

I hope you did not suffer any water damage if your pipes broke. That is such a drag. And thanks for the acknowledgement; but truly, if your assertion that your 475 landing was "somewhat tainted" by having played the map before, then my attempt is somewhat questionable due to the same factors + all your assistance. I think of it more as a trainning exercise. If I deserve any credit it is that due to a Colonel for successfully executing the General's Plan.

And yes indeed, I look forward to making another attempt. On my own, I will be satisfied if I break 1000. First I am going to make for myself a more concise formulation of your Strategy so that, hopefully, I won't take too many of the wrong forks in the path. This thread has become so rich with ideas!! The whole community appreciates your generosity, I am sure.

Monk

[solo]

Monk,

The pipes are actually the landlord's problem, but having water is really appreciated more, when you must go awhile without it. At least the toilet works, but this is not the best source of water for other needs!

Beware, once bitten by the early landing bug, it's hard to stop tinkering with the system, game after game, while experimenting with different ideas. One important thing I've learned is that each game must adapt to the situation and SSC site given by the start. An idea I think is hot and that works well in one game, just may not apply to the situation presented in the next.

It's fun, and I'll have to get back and finish my current game.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by solo
Monk,
having water is really appreciated more, when you must go awhile without it.

I have spent 5 years in Dakar, and there was such a water shortage once that several hundred people were queuing in order to get water from the swimming pool situated behind my house.
Unforgetable.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by solo

After another mediocre game with a launch in 800 AD,

...please, no...
(I think my earliest is well past 1200 AD and I was happy when it happened )

[solo]

La Fayette,

This is a little off topic, but I also spent some time in Senegal, but lived in Bakel where the local water was pumped straight out of the mighty Senegal river. During the rainy season it is was colored brown. There was never a problem with freezing pipes in Bakel, either. I was more concerned that they might melt due to the extreme heat. Hot weather never used to bother me until I lived there for awhile!

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by solo
La Fayette,
There was never a problem with freezing pipes in Bakel,

(anyway I have started playing the map that allowed BM to beat 800AD; it seems to be going better this time; perhaps I beat 1000 AD once in my life )

[solo]

La Fayette,

I wish you better luck in this game. So far, this start has teated anyone well who has played a game with it.

I finished my current game, with a landing date of 421 AD. I kept a fairly detailed record of this one, and thought I might share this information in the next few posts that describe the different phases of that game. A save relevant to each post will be added. For now, I will describe the start.


This start came with 6 free techs: Alphabet, Bronze Working, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws, Masonry, and Monarchy. When trying for early landings, I will skip starts having less than 6 free techs, and when there are only 6, I really prefer that one of them be Monarchy, which allows the benefits of Monarchy from the get go, while also eliminating the cost of carrying this tech. Monarchy is also a good tech to use for trades with AI who possess Warrior Code, since this combination allows them to research Feudalism. None of the AI actually did this during my game, but it’s always a good idea to give the AI the opportunity to research techs that will be needed later on.

The settlers started on one of the large continents, and there was an ample supply of huts in their region. Three AI were on the home continent, and two more were on another large one. The final AI was on a separate, smaller continent. The SSC site used for the game took a while to find, but provided a gold mountain and three fish as trade specials. It had coastal access, and had 11 ocean tiles, making it very low maintenance site. Just about all the improvement that was needed to get it to size 21 was a temple, a harbor and Shakespeare’s Theater.

Had there been a suitable city site to build a “station” on the route leading to London, I would have founded a city for this purpose to obtain the road-rail trade route bonuses. However, my SSC was the fifth city founded, and I only wanted one more helper. Just to the north of my SSC was another great site that could share the SSC gold and one of its fish in the early going. This site also had a pheasant and a coal special of its own, making it hard to pass up. Since I wanted to found at least 2 colonies while still in early Republic, this limited me to only five SSC helpers.

Although there was still the possibility of building a road all the way to London, this would take some time to accomplish and would require a lot of settlers. In my 241 AD game, I had used a “station” early on, but the road bonus routes established with it were replaced fairly quickly by subsequent SSC trades elsewhere. I got some benefit from these roaded routes early on, but managed very well without them during the rest of the game by concentrating more on colony development and trade. I had also done without the road-rail bonus in my large map 295 AD game, so had come to the conclusion that while having these connections was still very desirable, it was possible to do well without using them at all. The key was to concentrate on colony development and trade to make up the extra trade arrows and beakers needed to supplement those supplied by the SSC.

The fact that successful games are possible without establishing a road-rail connection is good news, in that this makes suitable starts for early landing games much easier to find. A strategy depending on having these route bonuses is limited to starts having an AI city close enough to the SSC site. Also, when almost all the burden of research is placed upon the SSC, suitable SSC sites are limited to those having 4 good trade specials. The SSC site used for this game had three fish, which can not really be considered as trade specials, since they do not provide any more arrows than an ordinary ocean tile. At its peak, my SSC in this game was only putting out 858 beakers, which is well below the 1000 or more averaged by better SSC sites. The fact that the enough additional beakers can be supplied by the helpers and colonies permits much more flexibility in SSC site selection, again making more starts suitable for early landing attempts.

Below is a save of the start. The first part of the game will be described in the next post.

[solo]

4000 to 2800 BC, establishing the SSC and its helper cities

My criteria for helper cities have changed a bit, since adopting the newest strategy of postponing helper growth beyond size three. Previously, I looked for locations having enough grassland to sustain extra citizens, but have found that helpers founded along a coast and having access to enough ocean tiles will grow very well, as long as a harbor can be built first. This is easily affordable by the time the helper celebration begins, and ocean tiles provide the most bang for the buck in terms of trade arrows earned for the amount of gold invested. My priorities now when looking for suitable helper locations are:

1) Ocean access, allowing a harbor to be built.

2) A food special, allowing rapid early growth, by having 3 or more extra food.

3) A special providing extra shields, or access to a few forested tiles, so that the helper can produce 5 shields or better at size 3.

4) Proximity to the SSC site.

5) Access to a good trade special, to increase trade arrows later on.

After growing to size 7 later, I look to maximize each helper’s trade arrows, so that they can take on a greater share the research burden and profit more from freights they deliver to the AI. At this stage, extra food is no longer needed, and only 1 shield of production is required to start off each new freight being rushed. By this time, almost all helper citizens are working ocean tiles, which provide 3 arrows each.

One thing I do before making any moves is to black click around the map enough to get an idea of the size and extent of the continent that my settlers start on, and to also get an idea of the location, number and sizes of other continents and islands on the map being used. I don’t get carried away with this, because all I need to know is which direction is best to explore first. A good start depends on tipping many huts as quickly as possible, and having a general idea of the layout facilitates this.

Within a few tiles of their starting position, my settlers found two huts, yielding a chariot and an archer. Having started with Monarchy as a free tech, the switch was made to Monarchy in 3850, the first Oedo year. By the time the chariot and archer found two more huts, my settlers were positioned to found Washington and New York, the first two cities, so they did this. Washington was on the coast along a river and had a buffalo special to work, and New York was on the coast, having a fish and a buffalo. There was a better site for New York a few tiles away, but I wanted that 47% chance of getting a tribe or nomad from one of the next two huts, which were ready to be tipped now. One of these huts did result in an advanced tribe, Boston, while the other hut provided 50 gold. With some gold, I could begin right away with a temple in Washington, while a warrior was started in New York.

Boston was one of those tribes that had just missed the sweet spot in the middle of a group of specials, catching only one of three whales that were available. Its central tile was plains (36,58), and the one where the whales could be shared was a grassland, so the decision was made to disband Boston, by building a settler there before it reached size two. Once built, the settler could move over one tile and make the most out of those whales, while leaving behind the option of another very suitable helper site centered on grassland at (36,54) that could share one of these whales.

The first group of techs presented for research were Currency, Horseback Riding, Mysticism, Pottery, and Warrior Code. Mysticism was chosen since size three and temples are the earliest priorities. It is also on the path to Philosophy, which leads to Medicine, the tech I want the most early in the game. By 3650, Mysticism had been learned and the research choices became Currency, Horseback Riding, Map Making, Mathematics, and Writing, so I chose Mathematics, since it was the tech least likely to have been acquired by any of the AI. The next two huts yielded another advanced tribe, Philadelphia, and 100 gold. Philadelphia had a wheat special, ocean access, and some forests for extra shields. My excellent luck with the first six huts made this one of my luckiest starts, and a “keeper”. So far, all this start lacked was a suitable SSC site, and I was afraid that like many other of the best beginnings, this one might have to be abandoned, too, if a usable SSC site did not appear fairly soon.

Besides finding a good SSC site, the main requirement of a great start is being able to obtain a free city or two from some of the earliest huts. If I can get two free cities out of the first group of huts, this provides enough of a jump to have a good chance for an early landing date. If early huts do not provide any nomads or tribes, this will add at least 30 turns or more onto the length of the game, because the original cities must delay their own growth and development by building settlers for founding other cities, which themselves are delayed by the time taken to produce these settlers. The number of free cities (if any) from early huts is my main criteria for deciding whether to continue or abandon any early landing attempt. In my opinion, this is how luck with early huts can make or break a game.

In 3450, Mathematics was learned, and Map Making was chosen next (other choices were Astronomy, Currency, Pottery, Warrior Code and Writing) so that some triremes could be built to continue explorations beyond the home continent. Soon after this, a plains hut produced a barbarian horseman, which my chariot was able to kill. The first AI contacted were the English, who offered to trade Warrior Code, which was too bad, as I was hoping that they might have a useful tech such as Map Making or Currency. Generally, an AI’s first offer will be a desirable tech, if they happen to have one you lack, so when the English offered Warrior Code, I could be pretty sure they had nothing else I needed, so I made peace and ended negotiations.

By 3350, New York produced a warrior and started a temple, and Washington finished its temple and started on a settler. During the next few turns one hut produced a nomad and another gave 25 gold. More important, was the fact that a suitable SSC site had been located a few turns earlier, having a gold and 3 fish as specials. By 3200, Map Making was learned, Washington switched from building a settler to building a trireme, and Currency was chosen to study next.

The English were contacted, and given Map Making and Bronze Working, which made them Worshipful, allowing maps to be exchanged, too. They agreed to an alliance. Since the English had Warrior Code, my gift of Bronze Working made it possible for them to pick Iron Working for research. I was hoping that they would also ask for Monarchy, which I wanted to give them to make Feudalism researchable, too, but Monarchy was not among the techs they asked for. If I had continued to gift techs until they had asked for Monarchy, I would have increased their research costs too much. They would not have been able to learn anything new in time for me to trade for it. In early landing games, things move so quickly, I’ve found it best to be very selective and to limit my early tech trades with the AI, to keep them learning new techs fairly quickly. If they are not asking for what I want to give them, it’s best to wait and try again another time.

By 3100, New York had finished its temple and began building another trireme. Philadelphia built a settler, Boston was disbanded by building its settler and a hut produced Currency. This allowed research to be switched to Trade, the following turn. A few turns later, the nomad that came from a hut had made the trip to the SSC site and founded Chicago. In 2950, the New York’s warrior was very surprised to tip another nomad from a plains tile (37,41). I would have expected a tribe instead of a nomad since this city site had access to some grassland tiles, but the nomad hopped on Washington’s trireme to be ferried to the last helper site just north of Chicago, that had some very good specials.

In 2900, Trade was discovered and Astronomy was chosen next from a list including Pottery, Warrior Code and Writing. At this time Philadelphia produced a warrior. One hut produced a horseman and another resulted in barbarians. In 2800, San Francisco was founded by the nomad. The fact that all five helper cities and the SSC had come as a result of huts made this one of the best starts I have had to date. If any fault could be found with it, it would be with the SSC, which only had one good trade special, and which had got off to a relatively late start. The save attached below shows the situation at this stage of the game.

[solo]

2800 to 2300 BC, Finding the AI during late Monarchy

This stage of the game involved all out exploration in an attempt to find the more huts and the AI quickly. For this reason, the first priority for the first two cities after they had temples in place was to build triremes. Since gold is fairly scarce during this part of the game, the decisions about how to use it can be critical. I have priorities for what will be rushed, or partially rushed, at this stage of a game, and since rapid exploration is job #1, triremes are first on the list of things to invest gold in. I always like to get two of them out there and rowing around very quickly.

Next on the list of items I’ll help rush are temples, with priority going to the one in the SSC, which is rushed the turn after it is started, if possible. Everything built in the SSC is rushed as much as possible, since the more things it can build, the better. For other cities, I will build temples at the usual rate until the city is about to increase to the next size, and then rush the rest of the temple. Since gold is in short supply, any warriors on garrison duty in a city not needed elsewhere are disbanded to help complete the temple’s purchase.

After San Francisco was founded, a hut produced barbs. On the following turn, 2700, contact was made with the Japanese, who had nothing to offer in trade, so a gift of Map Making and Mathematics were made in order to exchange maps. Following this New York finished its trireme, which was sent to the east, since the one built in Washington had gone north. Two huts produced Construction and 50 gold. In 2600, Chicago’s temple was rushed, and its warrior was sent to help garrison San Francisco, which had produced a warrior of its own, before starting its temple. Chicago started working on its first caravan.

Washington produced its first caravan by 2500, by which time two more huts had produced a nomad and 50 gold. Philadelphia had produced its temple and Astronomy had been discovered. Research choices were now Horseback Riding and Writing, so I chose Writing, which I usually defer learning because I’ve been able to trade for it in almost all early landing games. It’s possible this gamble I always take with Writing would give Samson fits, as I am sure that if he were playing with this start, he would have learned Writing at the first opportunity, in a rush towards early Republic. With this start, I’m fairly sure he would have been in Republic by about 3000 BC, but by dallying a bit in Monarchy, I’ve been able to research other techs neither of us could have made trades for, and martial law has also made it easier for my cities to max out food production in order to reach size 3 quickly, when additional shields allow temples to be built more quickly. Of course my strategy could backfire if none of the AI end up having Writing, and since I was learning Writing now, I was starting to get a little nervous.

At this time, the trireme headed north made contact with the Indians, who offered Warrior Code, so no trades were made. Instead, I gifted them all of my tech, which reduced my research costs from 112 to 96. Maps were traded, and since an earlier hut had provided a nomad, the chariot was left behind here to tip more huts and to remain on barbarian leader duty next to the Indian cities. The trireme, with a nomad aboard, headed towards the northern part of the largest continent to the east, in search of other AI.

In 2450, contact was made with the Romans by the other trireme, and finally an AI had been met that had some useful techs, including Writing. When I traded for Writing, I noted that they also had Horseback Riding, Pottery and Seafaring, techs I could trade for later when they were needed. I gifted enough tech, including Astronomy, to exchange maps. Astronomy gave them the chance to research Navigation, although they did not end up doing this in time for me to trade for it. On this turn Atlanta, the city that had replaced Boston, had produced a beads caravan. On the next turn I was able to continue research with Literacy, carrying over many beakers that had gone into the pursuit of Writing.

In 2350, contact with the French was made, by the northern trireme. They happened to have Literacy, which was very convenient, but which also made a lot of sense. As one of the “civilized” civs they are likely to have started the game with Writing. By this time, it was quite likely that they had also learned Literacy, too. Their proximity to the Romans provided an explanation as to why the Romans had been able to provide Writing. A trade between the two might have been made before they had begun their mutual war. Anyways, this was great news, since beakers accumulated towards Literacy could be applied towards Republic, which I was able to pick for research next.

This was fortunate, and if you are beginning to wonder if I had a horseshoe inserted somewhere in my anatomy, the hut that produced Republic on the following turn may help confirm that assumption, since the next year, 2250, was an Oedo year! It is true that I would have learned Republic myself in time for the following Oedo year of 2050, but when the series of events leading to this is considered, things might have played out quite differently. I might have made contact with the Romans the turn after learning Writing, myself, losing all those accumulated beakers, and it is possible the French may not have researched Literacy earlier in the game. Had these things happened instead, the delay in reaching Republic might have added 20 or more turns onto the length of this game. Of course I would like to think that my policy of rushing triremes and aggressive exploration made the difference in how things actually worked out.

In any event, Republic was acquired earlier than expected, and the AI were contacted, so that I could share this tech with all of them, in the hope they would switch and help do more research. After these gifts, maps were exchanged all around, and the English allies also came up with a 50 gold gift. A revolution was begun to end the turn, which is the point in the game where the save was made that is attached below.

[solo]

2300 to 1600 BC, Early Republic and the first two colonies

The fact that Republic came earlier than expected was reflected in the fact that I was not quite ready for it in 2250 BC, when I made the switch. In my hurry to build caravans for Shakespeare’s Theater, I had forgotten to make a temple in Atlanta. I also had a problem with New York and Philadelphia, as both cities were supporting two units that were out exploring. A temple had to be rushed in Atlanta. A warrior, about 4 turns from returning to Philadelphia, had to be disbanded immediately in the field. New York had to use entertainers until its warrior being used with its trireme was able to tip a hut near the Romans producing a NON horseman. After this that warrior was also disbanded. Other than these problems, the transition from Monarchy to Republic came in time to help speed up the research of techs.

Republic also provided the opportunity to add two more cities, and I wanted them to be colonies. I hoped to add two more colonies later when the switch was made to Democracy for a total of four. This was the first game on a medium map where I was trying the combination of 5 helpers and 4 colonies. Fewer helpers provided a head start in the growth and development of the first two colonies. After exchanging maps with the AI when gifting them Republic, I already knew for sure where I wanted my first colony to be located. I chose a location in between the French and the Romans, to provide a center of operations for future trade with these two overseas AI.

The site where the first colony, Buffalo, was to be founded was chosen as much for logistics than for its surrounding terrain and specials. Its central tile occupied an isthmus separating the main ocean from an internal one having great access to inland Roman cities that were away from the main ocean. Later on in the game, Buffalo provided a great connection to transports headed towards either French or Roman cities. Buffalo’s surrounding terrain could be populated with additional colonies working some of the good specials in that area. Finally, occupation of one isthmus connecting the Romans and the French would help put an end to their war, since they could no longer send troops across this narrow strip of land to fight one another. I hoped they would make peace, switch to Republic and do some useful research, instead.

On the home front, preparations were under way to get the SSC celebration going as soon as possible. Chicago was working on caravans to be delivered to the Romans and its helpers were busy building the ones needed for Shakespeare’s Theater. An attempt was being made to time the production of these according to their ability to reach the SSC, so that 6 would be present and ready outside of Chicago in the shortest amount of time. The subject being researched was Philosophy, which would allow the acquisition of Medicine right afterwards as a freebie, in enough time to build ST.

In 2150 BC, Buffalo was founded using the nomad delivered by the northern trireme. This trireme started to head home, where Chicago had just finished a gems caravan to be used for trade. By 2050, Washington and New York had each produced a caravan. Huts tipped during this period were mostly producing NON units. Another hut yielded barbarians and a few huts gave 50 gold, but even with this help, gold was becoming hard to come by and not much could be done to speed up caravan production.

In most games, I have been able to get at least 2 barb leaders by this time, but so far two of their attacks against the Indians had produced nothing, even though I had a chariot standing by to pick off rebounding leaders. The first barb leader was killed by Delhi defenders, and the second barb attack against Bombay had captured that city. So far, my own cities had not been attacked, maybe because I had chosen to defend my capital with an archer instead of leaving it as wide open as in previous games. However, I could hardly complain, especially after getting 6 free cities to start the game and with my luck getting to Republic by 2300.

In 2000, the English announced they had learned Iron Working, which meant the idea of gifting them Bronze Working had worked. I traded Construction for Iron Working exchanged maps again. I was about to learn Banking, but would need Iron Working soon, as well as Horseback Riding, in order to research The Wheel and Engineering towards my next tech tree goal, which was Sanitation. I contacted the Japanese, who had learned Horseback Riding, and was able to trade Iron Working for it.

In 1950, Philadelphia finished a caravan, and in 1850 Atlanta had one done, too. Meanwhile San Francisco had built a settler to continue the work on SSC roads. One benefit of using my “harbor” strategy and by having a SSC site that needed few improvements, was that helpers could spend more time on caravans that might have been lost making settlers instead. Having low maintenance cities offers considerable advantages in early landing games.

By 1800, Buffalo had finished its temple and began working on a caravan. Chicago also finished a dye caravan, which would join the gems produced earlier on the first trading trip with the Romans. I knew for sure that their cities would be demanding dye, and had put Samson’s formulas to use in determining that a dyes delivery made to Veii, when I expected that caravan to be delivered, would trigger a new demand in Veii for gems.

While exploring unknown lands beyond the Romans, I tipped a hut on a small island that produced a nomad. I had hoped instead to get my next nomad from a hut in the areas being explored by NON units around Buffalo, so that my second colony could be founded there right away. However, this remote island did have a an excellent city site having a wine and 3 whales, so I decided to set up the second colony there, and St. Louis was founded in 1600. Meanwhile another NON unit was exploring the third largest continent in the hope of locating the last AI, and the trireme near St. Louis headed north around the other end of the Roman continent, looking for more huts.

By 1600, I was ready to build Shakespeare’s Theater and had completed an aqueduct in Chicago. While still only size 3, the wisdom of building an aqueduct so early might be questioned, so I will answer by saying that gold was in short supply, and had I more of it, I might have been able to build a marketplace first, but early SSC growth takes precedence, and I would have felt foolish if I had had to interrupt the celebration at size 8 just because I could not afford to build an aqueduct in time. I wanted a continuous celebration up to size 21, if possible, which put absolute priority on an aqueduct, harbor and sewer system.

The trireme returning from my first colony came in time to ferry Washington’s and New York’s caravans across the bay to Chicago. Afterwards, the two Chicago caravans embarked and began their journey to Veii to help finance SSC growth and to help learn techs needed for a sewer when the time came to build one. Below is the 1600 save, made when Chicago started celebrating.

[solo]

1600 to 375 BC, SSC growth and development

If Shakespeare’s Theater is built by 1500, and the SSC is able to celebrate straight up to size 21 afterwards, then a game has a very good chance of a landing before 500 AD. It takes a little planning to make this happen smoothly, since Sanitation must be discovered by size 12 and enough gold has to be obtained to build a sewer system quickly.

The first two caravans produced by Chicago were sent off towards Veii for this reason. The best time to get some trade going is as soon as it is possible. Had these caravans been used for Shakespeare’s instead, the SSC might have started growing sooner, but this growth would have been interrupted at size 12, and further expansion would have probably been delayed past what was actually achieved by using early trade in this game.

Shakespeare’s Theater was completed using helper caravans in 1550, as Chicago started its growth. During this period Atlanta produced a settler, to keep it from going to size 4, and because more roads were needed. Having a low maintenance SSC and helpers meant that settlers only had to be added when helpers were approaching size 4. By 1350, when The Wheel was discovered, Washington, Philadelphia and New York had produced caravans, and 3 huts were tipped yielding barbs, 50 gold and 25 gold.

Engineering was chosen for research next and right afterwards Chicago’s dye caravan was delivered to Veii for 208 gold. Since the cost of Engineering was 270 beakers, still below the 300 science cap level, this delivery was made in time to contribute 77%, rather than just 2/3 of the beakers needed to learn this tech, saving a turn of research. Had I been even earlier with this first trade, I might have been able to supply 100% of the beakers needed for an earlier tech being researched, had its cost been 200 beakers or less. As predicted by Samson’s formulas, this delivery triggered the demand for gems in Veii, and a gems caravan was standing by for a delivery after Engineering was learned.

Enough gold came from this trade, and enough more was anticipated from the next, that a marketplace could be rushed in Chicago in 1300. Enough would be left to add a harbor and sewer system later. On this turn, San Francisco produced a caravan and a hut was tipped for an unwanted tribe. The settler built here to disband this city was used near Buffalo later to prepare for another colony.

In 1250, Engineering was discovered, taking only 2 turns of research, and Sanitation was chosen for the next tech to research. Then Chicago’s gems caravan was delivered for another 208 gold. A trade was made with the Romans to obtain Seafaring in time to build a harbor in Chicago in 1200. Sanitation also took only two turns to learn. A sewer system was rushed in 1100, just when it was needed, to allow the celebration to continue up to size 21. These two early SSC caravan deliveries had provided the boost in beakers and income that allowed this to happen.

Contact was finally made with the final AI, the Egyptians, located by a horseman exploring the third continent. St. Louis, the second colony, finished its temple, while Buffalo, the first colony, completed a copper caravan in time for it to be transported to Chicago by the trireme that had delivered dye and gems to Veii. Two helper cities produced caravans earmarked for trade with the Romans, Atlanta building a gems and Washington producing a wine.

In 1000, the Colossus was completed in Chicago. I usually follow Shakespeare’s Theater with Copernicus, but decided that by maximizing trade arrows first, I could reduce the amount of luxuries being used to keep Chicago celebrating, allowing a corresponding increase in the science setting. I estimated that the net beaker gain would be about the same, since the helper gems and wine caravans not being used to build Copernicus now, would hasten the acquisition of two techs when delivered later, plus bring in some extra gold. I felt preceding Copernicus with the Colossus, and making two profitable trades a bit later, would make better use of the 6 helper caravans that were available at this time.

I might add another note about early caravan deliveries, which is that as long as they are made to an AI on another continent, the closest city there demanding the goods will probably bring in as many beakers and as much gold as can be obtained anywhere farther away. Since most payoffs at this time are capped by lower tech costs, it makes sense to deliver to closer cities to obtain the beakers and gold sooner, when these benefits are needed most. Later, when tech costs get a lot higher, it may be a better idea to send those caravans a few extra miles for the extra beakers and gold that the additional distance can provide.

By 950, one hut gave 50 gold and another provided the Bridge Building tech. Philadelphia produced a caravan. Of more concern, was that a group of barbarian legions had appeared near my first colony, Buffalo. At first they headed towards Veii, but when one of the barb legions was killed by the Romans, the other and its leader turned and headed towards Buffalo instead. Buffalo was building a harbor, and was poorly defended by a chariot that had finished exploring in the north. I usually defend against approaching barb legions by using a diplomat to bribe one to kill the other stacked with the barb leader, but bribery was not possible here. What I needed was either a catapult or city walls, but all I had was a partially built harbor and about 50 gold in the till.

I did have a horseman to the south that could attack this legion, but victory was hardly a certain thing, and I really didn’t want to lose Buffalo, in spite of what I said in an earlier post about how helpers and colonies were expendable. I liked the idea of having Buffalo become the hub of my trading overseas trading empire later on. What I ended up doing was turn off science for a turn and max out taxes to make enough gold to rush city walls in Buffalo. The plan was to wound (maybe kill) the legion with my horseman, and let this weakened barb go against my walled-in chariot. This almost went according to plan, except that the barb legion bumped into and killed an inquiring Roman horseman, reducing itself to a red sliver. Two turns later, Buffalo was attacked, the legion expired, squirting out a leader I was able to kill with my horseman.

In the meantime, San Francisco and New York built caravans, and Chicago produced a copper caravan. A nomad came from a northern polar hut, which was transported to Buffalo, to join in making preparations for the last two colonies, to be added after the switch to Democracy. In 850, Atlanta produced a caravan and Chicago had reached size 21, so the celebration was stopped. This is when the other colony, St. Louis, came under attack by barbs, but this time they were handled easily by a diplomat. Being a remote island, St. Louis was attacked by barbs two more times during the game, and ended up collecting two bribed legions. By 800, University had been learned and Washington built another caravan.

In 775, a hut gave 25 gold and some techs were traded to the Japanese and English to keep them happy. The English came up with a 100 gold gift. Throughout the rest of the game, AI were monitored on a regular basis and gifted techs to be kept peaceful, and as new techs were acquired, they were all gifted to my key civ, the Indians. Every AI contact was concluded by exchanging maps. In 750, Buffalo produced a settler, Chicago built a bank and the wine caravan from Washington was delivered to Rome for 352 gold, completing the research of Theory of Gravity. The following turn the gems that came from Philadelphia was delivered to Antium for 368 gold and St. Louis built a harbor.

These two deliveries provided more gold to speed the development of Chicago, and provided beakers to speed the research of techs at a time when Chicago still lacked any scientific improvements or wonders. In 700, Buffalo completed a harbor, a library was rushed in Chicago, Philadelphia built a caravan and Economics was discovered. In 675, San Francisco and New York produced caravans and a stock exchange was rushed in Chicago. A weak attack by a barb horseman against New York produced a barb leader and another 150 gold. Washington was nearing size 4, so built a settler to finish the road from itself to New York.

In 625, Copernicus was built and Atlanta produced a caravan. Chemistry was learned in 600, and a university was rushed in Chicago the next turn, allowing advances every 2 turns. By 450, Navigation, Invention and Democracy were learned, three more caravans were produced by helpers and St. Louis built a settler to mine its wine and build some roads. In 425, the switch was made to Democracy as the third trade route was established for Chicago when its copper caravan was delivered to Rome for 448 gold. Democracy came when expected, so there had been ample time to home the two triremes to Chicago, to avoid unhappiness.

In 400, St. Louis finished a silk caravan, Gunpowder was discovered, and the third colony, Detroit was founded at a great site north of Buffalo having a pheasant and a gold special. The economic and scientific improvements were completed in Chicago by 375, when Isaac Newton’s College was completed. On this turn, Physics was discovered and New York produced a caravan. The 4th and final colony, New Orleans, was founded, south of Buffalo, and it had wheat and oil specials to work with. More important, was that New Orleans provided a port through which trade would travel to and from Buffalo, permitting quicker freight deliveries to the French and Romans later on after Corporation was discovered. The save attached below, shows the situation in 375 BC.

[solo]

375 BC to 20 AD, Renaissance to Automobile

The Renaissance may be considered the Age of Enlightenment, but in Civ II, the only good thing about it is leaving it behind quickly to enter the Industrial Age. Although Democracy is a benefit, trade almost comes to a standstill, since the discovery of either Navigation or Invention cuts caravan delivery beakers and payments in half, making it hardly worthwhile making trades until freights are available later with Corporation.

Furthermore, research costs increase significantly after the 20th tech is acquired, making it more difficult to move through the tech tree quickly. This is the main reason I will discard starts having less than 6 free techs for early landing attempts. Techs coming with a start are the only “free” ones, since they never involve carrying costs. With 6 free techs, your tech total must reach 26, before the “20th tech” research costs go into effect. Starting techs are the best way to delay these higher costs long enough to get the SSC fully developed. Once this is done, the higher tech costs can no longer create unnecessary delays, and a quick passage can be made through the Renaissance.

Free starting techs also play a significant role later in the game, since 6 or more free techs will lower research costs enough to allow 1 advance per turn through city science. With fewer starting techs, an advance per turn usually remains tantalizingly out of reach, something we were acutely aware of in most OCC games where we usually started research from scratch. Even the best OCC cities were found to be lacking 50 or more of the beakers needed to achieve 1 advance per turn. Since early landing games depend on sustaining an advance or two per turn in the Industrial Age, a good list of starting techs make this a much easier thing to accomplish.

Finally, when there are enough free techs, the completion of Sir Isaac’s in the SSC will often produce enough science to obtain an advance per turn a few times right afterwards, because of lower tech costs. By keeping the key civ up date, this happened in my game, with Physics being learned in 375, when Sir Isaac Newton’s College was completed. Explosives was learned a turn later in 350, and Steam Engine came the following turn in 325. After that, tech costs had climbed a bit out of reach, but having three instances of an advance per turn so early in the game helped speed the way to Industrialization and Corporation.

In 300, Chicago produced a gold caravan, and Atlanta and Washington made caravans. The following turn Railroad was discovered and caravans were produced by San Francisco and Philadelphia. Industrialization came in 250 and in 225, New Orleans built its temple and Chicago produced its one and only food caravan made during the game. (A future post will be dedicated to illustrating techniques used to keep the SSC supply commodities unblocked.)

Railroad had permitted Darwin’s Voyage, and Corporation was desired as soon as possible in order to prevent building more caravans. Freights have better movement and double delivery payments, though it might be more accurate to say that freights just restore payments to what they were before being halved by the discovery of Navigation or Invention. The huge payments made possible by freights are due more to the fact that increased tech costs increase the payment caps.

Anyways, by building Darwin’s Voyage, at least 4 turns were cut off the length of the game, making it possible to have a landing before 500 AD. With Darwin’s came the discoveries of Magnetism and Corporation, with Corporation coming just in time to convert all caravans being produced into freights. That wonder becomes available just at the time when it is most useful in these kinds of games, and is well worth the investment of 8 feeble caravans by hastening the way towards profitable freights. That quick push to Corporation makes a huge difference, since freight production and all out trade can begin quite a few turns earlier.

By the time Railroad was discovered another tech milestone was passed, because the acquisition of 32 techs meant that wildcard commodities would change for me and for any other civ that received an equivalent number of techs through gifts. So a time out was taken to figure out which commodities my SSC would be producing for the rest of the game and to calculate the new demand wildcards for each of the AI cities. Calculations revealed that Chicago would be supplying gold and beads, and would being having oil as a secondary wildcard. Once its jungle tile was converted to grassland, dye would replace beads on this supply list. Calculations for AI cities revealed that only Paris and Orleans, both French cities, would have gold as demand wildcards. Land tiles predominated for both of these cities, also, creating a strong demand for beads.

This made the French a perfect candidate as a trading partner for my SSC, so they were gifted all of my tech to enable the gold demand wildcards desired for these two cities. Once Automobile was discovered, I planned to share tech with the other overseas AI, the Romans and the Egyptians, hoping this would create a demand for Chicago’s oil. These calculations enabled the SSC to find demanders for all the commodities that it produced for the remainder of the game, and were especially useful in unmasking the latent desire for gold in French cities. Normally, the demand for gold is very low or non-existent.

After figuring all this out, the game resumed with New Orleans building a temple and Buffalo finishing its colosseum in 175, when Atomic Theory was learned. Both of the first two colonies, Buffalo and St. Louis, had got a jump on building their harbors and colosseums because they were not limited like the helpers, who had to keep pumping out caravans for SSC wonders. In 150, Detroit built a temple, Buffalo rushed a copper freight to send to the SSC, San Francisco produced a silk freight, Chicago made a beads, and New York was the first helper to finish its harbor. In 125, Refining was discovered and Philadelphia produced a gems, and the silk caravan built in St. Louis was delivered to Nottingham for 204 gold, allowing the quick acquisition of Metallurgy in 100.

During 100, San Francisco built a harbor, Chicago built a gold freight and received a copper delivery from Buffalo for a payment of 248 gold, allowing the discovery of Combustion in 75, when Buffalo built a silver and Chicago built a gold. In 50, a beads freight from Chicago was delivered to Veii for 512 gold and the good times started rolling. Electricity was learned in 25, the turn when New Orleans made a spice, Chicago an oil, and when St. Louis produce a colosseum and Atlanta its harbor. Three deliveries were made on this turn, with San Francisco’s silk going to Rome for 330 gold, Buffalo’s silver going to Chicago for 310 gold and a silver coming from New York went to Orleans for 80 gold, triggering the appearance of Orleans’ gold wildcard.

Steel was discovered the next turn, 1 AD, when Detroit built a silk, Chicago made another beads, and when San Francisco finished its colosseum. Automobile was learned in 20 AD, making superhighways available, and in time to put a landing date prior to 500 AD within reach. On the turns leading up to this, commodity deliveries had been timed and used in conjunction with Chicago’s science to obtain several 1 turn advances, another factor in making a pre-500 AD landing a possibility. Attached below is a save made at this time:

[La Fayette]

solo
Reading you is almost like reading Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie: fine detective story indeed .

(I finally landed in 1168AD, aaaargh! ...still, it is my personal best... I shall have another try later on, hopefully with a better early game).

(La Fayette, not yet a member of the 'sub 1000AD' club)

[solo]

La Fayette,

Just trim off 8 more turns...

I do not think you share my impatience with an early game that does not go almost perfectly. I am much quicker to chuck a game and try another, since many are tried, but few are chosen.

20 to 120 AD, Helper and colony growth

The best time to start the second celebration to bring helpers and colonies up to size 7 and the SSC beyond size 21 is not an easy decision. It’s best that all helpers and colonies be at least size 3 before this begins, and some settlers may have to be added to the two colonies that started with Democracy to get them to size 3 in time. Each city needs a harbor to maximize trade arrows. Harbors allow a setting of 60% or less to keep each city celebrating. In previous games when harbors had not been used in every city, luxuries had to be set at 70%, 80%, or even higher to keep all cities smiling.

Since the celebration will only last 5 turns, each city will have to rush a colosseum by the time growth is complete. Another consideration is that the science setting will be limited by the high luxury setting, so it will be necessary to have enough well-paying freights lined up to sustain 1 turn advances for the duration of the celebration. Beakers from trades will supplement city science and gold will be needed from freight deliveries to pay for colosseums. As soon as all these conditions can be met, the celebration should begin.

It’s best if this can happen before the discovery of Automobile, because this will allow more chances for 2 advances per turn once superhighways become available. In this game, I could not get enough good freights in place in time to do this, so had to start the celebration in 20 AD, the turn Automobile was discovered. Following is a log of all events during the turns of the celebration:

20 New Orleans – harbor, Buffalo – engineers, Automobile, Philadelphia – harbor, dye(d) to Paris, 544g, gems(d) to Rome, 252g

40 Detroit – superhighways, St. Louis – oil, Chicago – superhighways, Washington – harbor, Mass Production, gold(d) to Paris, 700g

60 New Orleans – superhighways, Buffalo – library, Chicago – courthouse, Atlanta – beads, Electronics, English – trade for Warrior Code, spice(d) to Chicago, 700g

Superhighways will be added to every city, and these builds will be timed to precede trades made by the city where the improvement is built. They increase delivery payments by 50%, and if the SSC is involved in the trade, its superhighways will add another 50%. That spice delivered by New Orleans to Chicago would have only brought in about half as much gold, if neither city had had superhighways. The improvement is expensive, costing about 400 gold to rush, but since all superhighways are sold off later for spaceship parts, the net cost is only 200 gold. Only one trade to the SSC is needed to recoup the cost. Additional trades result in pure profit.

When the SSC is not the capital, like Chicago in this game, a courthouse is needed to make that first citizen happy enough to get the celebration going.

80 Detroit – harbor, San Francisco – coal, Chicago – gold, Philadelphia – superhighways, Conscription, beads(d) to Paris, 752g, silk(d) to Chicago, 752g

Detroit could wait a bit for a harbor since it had a gold special. With superhighways, colony trades to the SSC are just as profitable as trading with overseas AI.

100 New Orleans – colosseum, St. Louis – superhighways, Buffalo – superhighways, Chicago – beads, Nuclear Fission, New York – colosseum, Washington – oil, oil(d) to Chicago, 768g

120 Detroit – oil, San Francisco – superhighways, Atlanta – oil, Philadelphia – colosseum, Feudalism, gold(d) to Orleans, 784g, All tech to Indians, beads(d) to Buffalo, 616g

At this time all helpers and colonies were at size 7 or better, so luxuries were reset to zero. Two cities that hit size 8 were used to make engineers. Other preparations necessary for hyper trade have been the addition of transports, which was done a bit earlier in the game, after Industrialization was discovered. Another priority will be to complete a railroad from New Orleans to Buffalo, so that freights coming into the southern city by transport can be delivered to the AI on the same turn.

It might be noted that every build now in Chicago is being rushed from scratch. When diplomats are the least expensive unit that can be built (this is after warriors and horsemen can no longer be used), rushing diplomats first for 210 gold and spending 50 more to finish the freight is not the cheapest way to build it, since doing it this way costs 260 gold. I rush a barracks for 160 gold and convert this to a diplomat, which gets me the first 20 shields. Then I spend 75 gold to finish the freight for a cost of 235 gold. (Many players probably already know this and do it, but I have not seen a post describing it.)

Since this post only covered a few game turns, I thought it might be a good time to give a few examples of how to unblock supplies in the SSC. The main key to success in this part of a game is the ability to build and trade SSC commodities every turn. The attached zip file contains 4 saves made during this part of the game. The saves provide a few good examples, and might make it easier for those who are interested, to follow and verify how trades can be used to manipulate SSC supplies advantageously.

First, I’ll review a few basics for those who might not be aware of them. When a city (source) delivers a caravan or freight to another city (destination) already having three trade routes, one of the old routes in the destination city’s display will be replaced by the source city’s route if the source city’s base trade exceeds that of one of the three cities appearing among the routes. The first trade route city is checked first, and so on down the list, to see if a swap can be made. If the base trade of the source city is not high enough, none of the three existing routes will be changed. (The base trade of any city is determined by subtracting the number of trade arrows generated by its trade routes from its total number of trade arrows.)

Now for some specific examples: If you load resupply and take a look inside Chicago, you will see:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: (oil), spice, silk
Paris beads: +18t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

All supplies are currently blocked. The beads delivered to Paris earlier in the turn have replaced the first trade route. This delivery enabled the re-supply of beads, but a triggering event is needed to make this happen. If you deliver the Atlanta beads freight to Chicago, the display will change as follows:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), beads
Demands: oil, spice, silk
Atlanta oil: +9t or Atlanta gold: +9t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome copper: +19t

Since the Paris beads route was replaced after Atlanta’s delivery, beads was unblocked and can be built in Chicago the following turn. I think most players are aware of this basic unblocking technique. Whether gold or oil are assigned to the Atlanta route is determined by random, and if you reload resupply and repeat this delivery a few times, you will see this is true. Also note that this delivery unblocked the demand for oil in Chicago and this often happens when an undemanded commodity is delivered. The only negative aspect of this particular trade is that it only brought in 68 gold.

Now save the game. If the silk freight, north of Chicago, is delivered next, no changes will occur in the display, and note that even though silk was in demand, the delivery did not block Chicago’s demand for silk. The reason for this is that the base trade in Detroit was only 6 trade arrows when the delivery was made, which was too small to allow Detroit to replace any of the existing routes. The important thing to notice and remember about this trade is that Detroit’s delivery did not block Chicago’s demand for silk.

Now reload the save just made and go into Detroit. You’ll see that you can increase Detroit’s base trade from only 6 arrows up to 27 arrows by moving workers onto tiles having the best trade. After doing this, deliver the silk freight to Chicago. The result is:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: oil, spice, (silk)
Detroit beads: +10t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome copper: +19t

Now Detroit’s base trade was higher than Atlanta, allowing Detroit’s route to replace Atlanta’s. Although this trade brought in a little more gold, it blocked the demand for silk and also re-blocked the supply for beads. This is a good example of what not to do, and of how the replacement of routes can act as a blocking mechanism.

Now reload the temporary save a few more times, but before delivering the silk to Chicago, sell off the superhighways in Detroit just to see how much less gold the trade will bring. Finally, do this again, but sell off the superhighways in Detroit and Chicago before delivering silk, and you’ll see another substantial drop in revenue. Now you know why I like having superhighways everywhere.

Now, reload the original save, named resupply. I’ll insert the original display of Chicago again, so you don’t have to scroll up:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: (oil), spice, silk
Paris beads: +18t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

Before making any trades, go into Detroit and set its workers so that they generate enough trade to replace the Paris route. (More than 10 arrows will do, since this is the likely amount of base trade in Paris. Paris probably has 2 arrows each, for the 5 workers on roads, and no more for the two working its mines, making a total of 10.)

Now save the game, and afterwards, skip over Atlanta’s freight and deliver the silk freight from Detroit to Chicago first. There are three possible results of this trade:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), beads
Demands: oil, spice, (silk)
Detroit oil: +10t or Detroit gold: +10t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

Or

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: oil, spice, (silk)
Detroit beads: +10t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

Whether gold, oil or beads are assigned to Detroit when its new route was created is determined by chance, and if you reload and re-deliver this silk freight enough times, you will eventually get all three results above. Notice that there is a 66% chance of unblocking beads by making this trade, and also note that it always blocks Chicago’s demand for silk. If you had another silk caravan coming into Chicago, you could unblock the demand in Chicago for silk now by delivering Atlanta’s freight. Go ahead and try this now, if you want to see. Furthermore, if beads had been assigned to Detroit after making its silk delivery, the subsequent delivery of Atlanta’s freight would have also unblocked Chicago’s supply of beads. This can be seen by loading the save named blocked and delivering Atlanta’s freight. The displays before and after this trade will be:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: oil, spice, (silk)
Detroit beads: +10t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

Supplies: (gold), (oil), beads
Demands: oil, spice, silk
Atlanta oil: +9t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome Copper: +19t

The delivery of undemanded beads from Atlanta unblocked the supply for beads and unblocked the demand for silk in Chicago.

In my actual game, I wanted the big payoff for delivering demanded silk and also wanted to unblock the supply of beads in Chicago, so I traded the Detroit freight first, since the odds were in my favor this trade would unblock the supply of beads. It did, but had I been unlucky, I had the Atlanta freight standing by just in case, to deliver afterwards, just to make sure beads became available for Chicago’s next build. Had I another silk caravan coming into Chicago the following turn, I could have created demand for it by delivering Atlanta’s freight, too.

For the next example, load the save named tricky, and inspect Chicago. Its display should be:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: uranium, spice, (coal)
St. Louis oil: +11t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome copper: 19t

Now deliver the oil freight from Detroit. You will see that only one change occurred in the display. The Veii trade route was replaced by a new Detroit one:

Detroit gold: + 11t or Detroit beads: +11t

has taken the place of Veii gems: +18t

Also note that since gems does not appear on the supply list it can not become unblocked or become available for the next build in Chicago. The reason Detroit replaced the Veii route was because Detroit had more base trade than Veii, but could not surpass the base trade of St. Louis. However, if we could get Detroit to replace St. Louis instead, this would unblock Chicago’s supply of oil, which is what we would rather do.

Since Detroit’s base trade is as high as we can make it, we can work it the other way instead, by reducing the base trade in St. Louis temporarily, by making its wine worker into an entertainer. Doing this will reduce the base trade in St. Louis to 24 (50 – 26) from its original value of 33 (62 – 29). Since Detroit’s base trade is 33 (44 – 11), and it now exceeds that of St. Louis, the same delivery will result in:

Supplies: (gold), oil, (beads)
Demands: uranium, spice, (coal)
Detroit beads: +11t or Detroit gold: +11t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome copper: +19t

Since the oil delivered by Detroit was not in demand in Chicago, oil could not be assigned to Detroit’s route. This meant Chicago’s supply of oil was sure to become unblocked by this trade, as long as Detroit replaced St. Louis’s route. No harm was done to St. Louis, since its worker could be put back onto the wine after the delivery was made. Of course, one shouldn’t forget to do this. The only downside of this trade was that there was no demand bonus for making this oil delivery, but superhighways still ensured a decent payoff. The main purpose of the trade was accomplished, by providing Chicago with a fresh supply of oil.

Now if you load the final save, named goose, an example will be given of how to get an AI city to become like that proverbial goose that lays golden eggs. In an earlier post, Orleans had been identified as a city having gold as a wildcard, and this was revealed and verified earlier in the game after a silver delivery to that city.

In this save, the first gold freight from Chicago has arrived next Orleans, so go ahead and deliver it. Afterwards, you can see that Orleans still demands gold, and that it also desires beads now, another commodity Chicago supplies. Although Orleans is puny, and has minimal trade itself, its location, distance and demand choices are enough to give the SSC maximum payoffs whenever deliveries are made. Icing on the cake is the fact that Orleans is easy to access, so that these profitable deliveries can be made quickly, too.

By now you may have noticed that other gold freight from Philadelphia parked next to Paris. If you go ahead and deliver this to Orleans, our golden goose, you will have cooked your own by blocking the Orleans’ demand for gold. Hmmm. How come one trade blocks gold demand and the other made to the same city didn’t? It’s not a matter of trading order, for if you reload goose and deliver the gold from Philadelphia first, you will block the demand immediately, and this time you will be even worse off, since the gold standing by from Chicago is no longer wanted anywhere.

The answer is found by looking at Chicago. Reload goose again and deliver Chicago's gold to Orleans, and then look inside Chicago. Orleans did not appear as a new trade route, and the reason for this is because its base trade is so puny that it hasn’t a chance of replacing any of the other cities making up the 3 routes. After a trade, the destination city must appear among the source city’s trade routes in order to block its demand for the commodity being delivered. Now if you deliver Philadelphia’s gold, you will notice that Orleans appears as a new route for that city, causing the demand in Orleans for gold to become blocked.

This can all be verified by conducting the following experiment. Reload goose again, and check Chicago’s display:

Supplies: (gold), (oil), (beads)
Demands: uranium, spice, (coal)
St. Louis beads: +11t
Veii gems: +18t
Rome copper: +19t

Since St. Louis appears on the first trade route, go into that city and make all of its workers into entertainers, to make its base trade as low as possible. Now deliver the gold from Chicago to Orleans and you’ll see that the demand for gold in Orleans has been blocked. Checking back with Chicago’s display, you’ll see that a new route with Orleans has been created, replacing the St. Louis one.

Now it should be obvious, that as long as you do not mess up demand in Orleans by making deliveries from other cities, it will keep demanding as much gold and beads that Chicago is able to deliver. Orleans’ base trade is so small, it will never be able to replace other cities making up Chicago’s trade routes. So if I knew this, why is the Philadelphia gold sitting next to Paris? For the moment, it ensures that the adjacent coal freight can reach Paris on the next turn, and not be blocked by a coy AI move of its phalanx onto the same RR tile. After I am sure my last gold freight from Chicago has been delivered to Orleans, I can finally cash in the Philadelphia gold, too, near the end of the game.

In the example where St. Louis’s base trade was minimized, astute observers may wonder why the gold delivery from Chicago did not unblock beads on its supply list. After all, Orleans supplanted the St. Louis trade route. The reason is that there is still a Chicago beads freight on the map that has not been delivered yet.

If you reload goose, deliver Chicago’s gold to Orleans and then space Philadelphia’s freight to end its turn, you’ll see that a beads from Chicago is waiting to be delivered to Buffalo. Making this delivery will free up a new supply of gold in Chicago. A new route for Buffalo appears in Chicago, taking place of the one previously held by Veii. Gold will also be re-supplied in Chicago, if you lower St. Louis’s base trade enough to have Buffalo replace its route instead. The reason gold was re-supplied is because when Chicago delivered gold to Orleans, a new trade route tied to gold was not created to replace one of Chicago’s 3 routes. It’s Orleans’ lack of base trade that makes such favorable manipulations possible.

I think this is enough for now, but there are other techniques, such as the use of my “wonder bread” trick, which is described in Samson’s thread on new trade strategies. There is almost always some way to unblock commodity supply and demand, once trade route dynamics are understood.