Tweet
Silverdragon's guide to conservative expansionism
Here is...
Silverdragon's guide to conservative expansionism!!
[applause]
There are 4 different--Stop clapping you damn fools!
[/applause]
As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, There are 4 different types of play used by most civers. All are good ways, but usually you will find one that you particularly like. On the extreme perfectionist end, there is OCC, or one city challenge, playing with only one city. Sometimes this style will be modified so the SSC has helper cities that build caravans for its wonders and support its settlers. Then on the other extreme is ICS, or infinite city strategy, where the player builds as many cities as possible. Then there is perfectionism, with 8-12 cities. But my style is conservative expansionism. With this strategy, your empire will end up around 20-25 cities.
I. General Strategy
Have your first settler build a city pretty near to your beginning starting place. Have your 2nd settler go on a hut popping mission. If you get mercanaries, go for more huts. Otherwise, start your first city on a warrior and have it go exploring. Have the second warrior defend. Then start on settlers. Have the NON settler build a second city. I know a lot of people do not like building cities with their NON settlers, so if you really don't want to, fine. Have it build roads on grassland (shield) squares, or if you are lucky enough to get plains w/ a special, irrigate it and build roads on it. As you get settlers, have them build one improvement in their home city's radius, and build a new city with them. Each new city should build a defender and about half of them should build an exploration unit after that. Once they are done with those tasks, set them on settlers. Once you have 3 or so cities, start the one with the greatest potential trade output on the colossus and another, most likely your capital on the hanging gardens. Once at six cities, start another city on the great wall and another on the oracle. After a city builds a wonder, set it on improvements. At this point, have cities build a temple before starting on a wonder. At ten cities, have each settler build two improvements before building a city. At 14, have each settler build 4 improvements or so, and at 20, stop building settlers in almost every city. Just have expansion go slowly, and really improve your cities' terrain.
II. Wonders
As you get the techs for them, make sure you get these wonders:
III. Research
Goals:
Bronze
Monarchy
Pottery
Masonry
Literacy
Currency
Republic
Philosophy
Invention
Trade
Feudalism
Theology
Monotheism
Gunpowder
Banking
University
Astronomy
Theory of Gravity
Then surge through the tech tree.
IV. Governments
Monarchy upon getting the tech
Republic upon getting J.S. Bach's
Democracy upon getting the tech
Communism as soon as available
I haven't played this strategy for a while, so i'm open to any changes you want. (I probably made some errors somewhere.)
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited September 08, 2000).]</font>
[This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited September 11, 2000).]
Silverdragon's guide to conservative expansionism!!
[applause]
There are 4 different--Stop clapping you damn fools!
[/applause]
As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, There are 4 different types of play used by most civers. All are good ways, but usually you will find one that you particularly like. On the extreme perfectionist end, there is OCC, or one city challenge, playing with only one city. Sometimes this style will be modified so the SSC has helper cities that build caravans for its wonders and support its settlers. Then on the other extreme is ICS, or infinite city strategy, where the player builds as many cities as possible. Then there is perfectionism, with 8-12 cities. But my style is conservative expansionism. With this strategy, your empire will end up around 20-25 cities.
I. General Strategy
Have your first settler build a city pretty near to your beginning starting place. Have your 2nd settler go on a hut popping mission. If you get mercanaries, go for more huts. Otherwise, start your first city on a warrior and have it go exploring. Have the second warrior defend. Then start on settlers. Have the NON settler build a second city. I know a lot of people do not like building cities with their NON settlers, so if you really don't want to, fine. Have it build roads on grassland (shield) squares, or if you are lucky enough to get plains w/ a special, irrigate it and build roads on it. As you get settlers, have them build one improvement in their home city's radius, and build a new city with them. Each new city should build a defender and about half of them should build an exploration unit after that. Once they are done with those tasks, set them on settlers. Once you have 3 or so cities, start the one with the greatest potential trade output on the colossus and another, most likely your capital on the hanging gardens. Once at six cities, start another city on the great wall and another on the oracle. After a city builds a wonder, set it on improvements. At this point, have cities build a temple before starting on a wonder. At ten cities, have each settler build two improvements before building a city. At 14, have each settler build 4 improvements or so, and at 20, stop building settlers in almost every city. Just have expansion go slowly, and really improve your cities' terrain.
II. Wonders
As you get the techs for them, make sure you get these wonders:
- colossus
- oracle
- hanging gardens
- great library
- great wall
- sun tzu's war academy
- michaelangelo's chapel
- copernicus' observatory (in same city as colossus)
- j.s. bach's cathedral
- isaac newton's college (same city as copernicus)
- leonardo's workshop
- magellans
III. Research
Goals:
Bronze
Monarchy
Pottery
Masonry
Literacy
Currency
Republic
Philosophy
Invention
Trade
Feudalism
Theology
Monotheism
Gunpowder
Banking
University
Astronomy
Theory of Gravity
Then surge through the tech tree.
IV. Governments
Monarchy upon getting the tech
Republic upon getting J.S. Bach's
Democracy upon getting the tech
Communism as soon as available
I haven't played this strategy for a while, so i'm open to any changes you want. (I probably made some errors somewhere.)
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited September 08, 2000).]</font>
[This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited September 11, 2000).]
Then the ai won't build any more wonders except the lighthouse, and Magellans. About the Oracle, I love it, for this strategy, and this strategy only. Because, in this strategy, you end up with a lot of big cities, that usually have temples. 
The ais in my game love the lighthouse and pyramids. Period. They also love Magellans, and I have to work really hard to get it.
Comment