A question about ICS

[SandMonkey]

Okay, i have recently been playing Civ2 using the ICS strategy, and a few questions were aroused. Now i have been doing great so far (two games on King level).In the first i conquered the world with dragoons (Small world, 3 civs). Since i did pretty well with that i decided to bump it up a bit, so for my current game it's a medium world, 4 civs. But this is quite as easy as the last game, since i am on a large island by myself. I have filled up my entire island (about 50 cities worth of space) and am currently colonizing another island (10 cities so far). I know the whole deal with keep building the settlers, and i have around 95 or so. I also know not to build any improvements in my "worker" cities. I have kept true to that, and the dividends have been great, I'm making around 120 gold a turn (I think income is about 135 and cost is 17) and currently have 5 times as much gold as my nearest opponent.

So now my question: Would it be wise to wait and build Mike's Chapel AND Adam Smith's Co. to help my trade out? The way i figure it, MC will help keep the people happy, and AS will pay for everything costing 1 gold, so i could build a temple and a library and let all my cities grow to size 8. I haven't irrigated any squares excepot for the ones in my capitol, but i built roads over everything, so irrigating wouldn't take too long with the hoards of settlers i have. I was just wondering if building these two wonders could work to my advantage.

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SandMonkey

"Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say that you're an astronaught on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, 'Think again, bat man'"

[VetLegion]

What is ICS strategy?

[Sieve Too]

ICS - infinite city sleaze (strategy).

SM: Do you have Leo and SOL? If not, get them ASAP. Don't waste time building Libraries or other improvements except perhaps a Temple. With SOL go Fundy and never worry about unhappiness again. Use all your cities to build Knights or Dragoons or ships, when needed.

I always add MC in ICS games but you can skip it. If you have it, bribery is much easier. Adam Smith isn't worth the trouble.

[jpk]

ICS = Infinite City Sleaze.

Basically you build lots and lots of cities all of them very close together.

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If you can not think of a good reason to build something other than a caravan, build a caravan!

[SandMonkey]

Sieve -

I have Leo's, i made a conscious effort to get that, i know it's very important to this game. Unfortunetely, i missed SoL, the Americans got that. My theory behind the libraries was that my science would accelerate quickly, and with AS i wouldn't have to pay a thing, thus keeping the cash flow highly on my side.

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SandMonkey

"Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say that you're an astronaught on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, 'Think again, bat man'"

[This message has been edited by SandMonkey (edited December 16, 1999).]

[Smash]

yes
yes

you should be at the point now where you are building nothing but caravans and should have your pick of any and all wonders you want.

[Genghis Al]

I did the ICS and I hit the max # of cities. I didn't know whhat to do. Built improvments. go all out army. I was lost

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A russian never forgets

[Smash]

256?I never go that far.Yikes!40 to 50 is plenty enough to manage for me.Just keep building and delivering caravans.Once you get Spaceflight start Apollo in enough cities to build a spaceship plus one.Thats minimum 15 structurals,6 components and 3 modules.So 25 cities start Apollo.Dont rush this one.Wait for super conductor then build Apollo and switch 15 "Apollo cities" to structurals,6 to components and 3 to modules.You should have enough gold by now to finish your spaceship in 1 turn.Try to time it with the discovery of Fusion Power.There is no sheild loss when switching from wonders to spaceship parts.Seems like a bug to me but works like a charm.
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[This message has been edited by Smash (edited December 17, 1999).]

[kcbob]

Is there a variation of ICS? I mean a pseudo-official variation with a name, e.g., "ICS, the Munich gambit"? I more or less play ICS. Lots of cities. But they are not necessarily close together. I send out settlers, find good locations, i.e. multiple special squares, and build there. Then I build more settlers to connect my cities with roads. When I find an AI opponent, his empire almost always looks like what I suppose "classic ICS" would look like.

I guess I'm figuring that the more land I control, the less the AI will have to control. Make sense?

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Frodo lives!

[Smash]

Thats sounds like plain old fashioned expansion.
ICS ers will:
build a city,build a defender,build a settler,build 1 road,build a city.Repeat.You cover the map in a checkerboard of cities.You have to modify as terrain dictates..The ai overlaps it outside squares.Not quite ICS but the same idea

[kcbob]

People actually play like that??? Cities one square apart? Do they win? Is there an advantage? And how many cities do you stop at?

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Frodo lives!

And better dead than "Red"... or green... or blue... or.......

[Puaxant Tuvip]

I guess they do win. Through conquest and space.

I'd like to try. I always build 20 to 30 cities. But build many improvements. But I guess the point is to build no improvements except maybe a temple right? And what about barracks (I'm big on veteran units). But it seems you trade city micromanagent to settler/engineer micromanagement.

[Smash]

Yes people play like this.Where do they stop?Not sure can't go higher than 256 though.

yes they win.Arii uses a modified ICS and landed in 1075 -small map,deity.7 civs,raging hoardes.You do make at least one "normal" city and this becomes the "super science city"All the others are more or less support cities.

While its not what the game designers had in mind,it is highly effective and I don't consider a cheat or bug.Just population density.Try it sometime,you'll be surprised at how many cities you'll have and how fast you have them.

Early on, cities don't produce high amounts of beakers so more cities = more beakers.Once you get started its like a snowball.Just keeps getting better and better.Use the Gardens to pacify size 1 redheads and, as usual, Mich's.

There is one slight risk early on in MP at least.An ICS civ can be wiped out very quickly as the cities are all close and connected but the window is small.This becomes an advantage to the defender once suitable defense technology is discovered.No worries when it comes to the ai.
Missing the Gardens can be a pain also.

[Genghis Al]

Do you ever improve terrian? Should I not overlap my science city? I mean give science city the max space all others 1 apart?

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Ah man! Ghandi! New game.

-Genghis Al

[Smash]

Seems like a good plan to let your science city get as big as possible.This doesn't necessarily mean that no overlapping should occur but eventually it should be working every square that produces trade in its radius and enough food of course.

You don't have to be religious about 1 square spacing.You build as terrain best allows.This may mean clusters or pairs bypassing poor terrain or not.You decide.You may go with 5 close cities then 1 larger city,then 5 close 1 large etc.

Since cities are close and have less squares available I like to improve as much terrain as I can.At some point you may decide "enough cities allready"then you have a small army of settlers to irrigate,road,mine etc