Good place to find beginnner help?

[New-ster]

I've played civ and civ II since they came out, but only every once in awhile since I never owned either game. Finally I purchased civ II and I'm looking for info on a little lower level than what's being discussed here. My main problem is that I always end up as the 2nd strongest civ and lose out to somebody getting to AC. I think it has to do with my startup strategy. Any help would be appreciated.

[Smash]

well you came to the right place.

Are you building the super science city.With at least Copernicus' Observatory and Sir Isaac's College?

Trade is probably the most powerful tool in the game.Are you setting up trade routes?

When push comes to shove,Espionage is another powerful tool.Steal techs if you have to.

There is a goldmine of info in the back pages and archives.

Ask many questions and ye shall recieve many answers.

[New-ster]

Trade has been something that I always attempt to do well, but end up putting it on the backburner when seemingly more pressing things come up. (being attacked, falling behind technologically, etc...) What exactly do the trade arrows mean? Do they give you extra coins per city? Also, if you could explain some of the acronyms you guys use here (OCC SMAC etc) it would be helpful.

[Steve Clark]

Dare I say it? On trade - when in doubt of what to build: build caravans and even if you don't have doubts, still build caravans. Caravans are useful to gain more trade arrows (hence, more beakers), to build wonders, to disband in helping to rush-build anything and to help cities grow.

I was a beginner not so long ago and one of the best places to learn about the various strategies (particularly geared toward non-experts) is apolyton.net/civ2 under Strategy. Of course, the good folks here are very helpful and loves to answer questions when they are supposed to be working

[Sten Sture]

New-ster - one of the most helpful things to me when I first found this site was to look through old threads. Most of the oldest ones are in the Archive accessable through the main forum page. I read every post from the prior year. I even remember some of it! A lot of the acronyms used around here stand for various Wonders of the World, dare I say WoWs. OCC is a game varient that came out of these threads where players tried to win the game on deity with just one city - hence the One City Challenge. SMAC is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri an related game that is on my hard drive, but as of yet unplayed. There is a link at the top of the forum pages for a faq (frequently asked questions) about the forums that will tell you about how to type in bold, what the labels mean, and how to do smilies.

Check it out and you will gradually get better! But most of all: have fun!

Trade arrows... arrows on terrain can be converted by workers in your city to one of three things: coins, beakers, or luxuries. Your cities trade arrows are increased by working squares in your city radius that provide these arrows and by having commodity trade routes established with other civs. Lets say you have 10 trade arrows in an early city, if you have your allocation set to 40% taxes, 60% science, 0% luxury then you will get 4 coins, 6 beakers, and 0 chalaces each turn. The coins go into your treasury, the beakers toward your science and the chalaces would be used to offset unhappiness. The coins, beakers and chalaces can be increased with city improvements like libraries and marketplaces, etc. I'm sure that you will get more out of other folks and ask some additional Qs so I'll stop there for now...



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I wonder if jpk drives a Dodge Caravan...

[Genghis Al]

The thing that most improved my game aside from trade is playing a ICS game. Infinite City Sleaze. You build your 1st city in a nice trade spot. Make it the SSC (super science city) Collosus, CO (copernica's observotory... jeez that is hard to type) and INC (newtons college). Build other cities very very close together, like 2-3 squars and all they ever build is caravans.. this caravans make trade routes and make you mad money and science, and they can grow your SSC. It is easy to win on a lower level like this.



Hope i helped

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Ah man! Ghandi! New game.

-Genghis Al

[finbar]

New-ster, very interesting comment you slipped into your second post. You finish up putting trade onto the backburner.

One of the first challenges I faced was learning to juggle priorities without losing sight of the Big Picture. Lots of things - like trade - finished up on the backburner as I tended to react to situations that arose and scampered in all sorts of directions. My strategy would consequently collapse, and without a Big Picture strategy, it's always going to be a struggle.

The BP strategy is something that can be amended if need be, but remember that everything you have under your control - trade, relations with other civs, defence units, attack units, whatever - is always one cog in a large machine called the BP strategy.

Mmmmm. I don't think I can get anymore florid than that. Might just leave it at that.




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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

[New-ster]

Thanks guys...A lot of good info here, especially on the trade arrows...I know it's basic, but I never took the time to learn some of the basics...I just played. I'm now reading through the manual to make sure I didn't miss anything else important. I have won the game before on chieften and warlord, but the victories are very costly to the planet (pollution and such) so my score is always low. I started to play the Atlantis Sim, but then my islands sunk and I lost some of my best cities...Guess I should seen that one coming. At any rate, I will be back here often when I have further questions. It seems like I've found a wealth of knowledge. Thanks again.

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Oops...I guess that city was 17 squares away.

[inca911]

New-ster,
I have a discussion thread called "Distilled Civ Tips and Notes" in which I am attempting to combine much of the knowledge available on this board. Knowledge that can turn the intermediate player into the advanced player. You might want to take a read through that thread.

As far as trade is concerned:
Trade arrows get converted into gold, luxuries, and science based on your tax rate. If you build roads on plains and grassland you get more trade. Rivers give trade. Certain forms of government enhance trade (e.g. Republic gives you another trade arrow in every trade producing square). Without trade you science progress is too slow and you lose. Build caravans and send them to your own cities or to rival cities and that extablishes trade routes--a certain number of arrows is added every turn to a city from trade routes. The trade base you possess is then further enhanced through city improvements to generate more trade, more gold, more science. There is a LOT of great information regarding trade available in many threads. Good luck and happy reading!

[geofelt]

To become the dominant civ, you must expand and claim as much territory as possible before you are stopped by other civs. Expand towards them aggressively. On first meeting, give them anything they ask to get peace.
Research to monarchy ASAP. Despotism has reduced production, food and trade.
Plan on fighting defensive battles unless you have military superiority. This is hard to do before howitzers. Capture cities using diplomats or spies instead.
Use food caravans from several cities to build the wonders you want. I like to try to build most of them.
As the difficulty level increases, the happiness wonders become more valuable. When you win at one level, go to the next; don't get bad habits from easy levels.