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ICS Midlife Crisis
I confess I'm a perfectionist at heart, but sometimes my brain hurts and I just want to go beat up my neighbors. Then ICS is just the thing, and on a small map it produces a juggernaut that the AI simply can't cope with, even at Deity level. I had the principles down pretty well, and now DaveV's document clarifies things nicely.
But now I'm trying it on a large map (Deity, Raging Hordes, 7 Civs, No Restarts). The first few millenia went fine, but I find I'm floundering in the middle game. Here's the situation:
I'm on a small, dryish continent (or very large island), now saturated with ICS cities. Correction: as I approached 24 cities on that continent, the remaining wilderness (devoid of useful specials) seemed like a waste of settlers. To the north is a large island where I found an advanced tribe and a river long enough for 5 or 6 ICS-style cities (the longest river "at home" was only 4 or 5 squares long).
To the West lie the Zulus, my first contact, and remarkably peaceful (since we didn't share a land border). Eventually I found the Russians to the Southeast, and the Aztecs in the far Southwest. I know that the Persians and Vikings lie east and farther east, across oceans that ate several frustrated trireme captains. [The whole world appears to consist of islands and small continents.] The Sioux were destroyed by the Persians.
The tactical situation is that I have HG, LEO & Gunpowder, and started my campaign against the Zulus. They are the easiest to reach AND the proud builders of the Lighthouse--called for by the ghosts of my lost captains--and MPE (for intel on the "missing" nations). So now I have those two wonders. After Gunpowder, I had no choices on the road to Democracy, so I'm researching Feudalism with an eye toward upgrading my abundant horsemen to knights.
Here are the problems:
1. Every time I found (or take) a city, three or four existing cities go into civil disorder. Many cities are empty, because a garrison causes them to riot. So every time one of these cities completes a military unit, the city riots. There's a fine line between keeping the city productive and keeping the city un-reproductive (riot when they grow to size 3).
2. I have a lot of under-employed settlers. The riot factor makes me reluctant to just build more cities on the home continent. So I'm mining to get more shields, and building forts to house the military units that aren't welcome in the cities. Since I already have too many settlers, it's doubly hard to keep the cities from growing.
3. My "insular" homeland makes it hard to bring my military to bear. I need lots and lots of triremes, first for exploration and then for sealift capacity.
4. Most discussions of ICS assume that there will be plenty of money, but I never have much. Too many rush-buys (or at least smoothing out odd numbers of shields) and too many bribes, first of barbs and now of Zulus.
4. Research is frustratingly slow (I'm used to OCC and SSC rates; here I just have a couple of Size-5 micromanagement centers to keep science ticking over).
5. I made a tactical error, getting Gunpowder before bribing MPE away from the Zulus. Now no one wants to trade with me unless I start by giving them Gunpowder, and I'm reluctant to give up that tech edge.
6. I keep finding Advanced Tribes in remote parts of the globe. They are of almost no benefit (typically one beaker and one coin, with the rest lost to corruption). These are ripe for the plucking by enemies jealous of saltpeter. It's a pity I can't build a trireme and *then* disband via Settler. Should I disband just to remove the targets?
So, I guess I'm looking for advice on the ICS middle game. What's the best way to handle things once there are more than 24 cities? I realize that the watery world intensifies the problem. How do you make the transfer from "Pure ICS" to something else? I could start disbanding some of the interstitial cities to let the better sites grow, but is 24 (or 36) cities too few for this?
-- Hermann
I confess I'm a perfectionist at heart, but sometimes my brain hurts and I just want to go beat up my neighbors. Then ICS is just the thing, and on a small map it produces a juggernaut that the AI simply can't cope with, even at Deity level. I had the principles down pretty well, and now DaveV's document clarifies things nicely.
But now I'm trying it on a large map (Deity, Raging Hordes, 7 Civs, No Restarts). The first few millenia went fine, but I find I'm floundering in the middle game. Here's the situation:
I'm on a small, dryish continent (or very large island), now saturated with ICS cities. Correction: as I approached 24 cities on that continent, the remaining wilderness (devoid of useful specials) seemed like a waste of settlers. To the north is a large island where I found an advanced tribe and a river long enough for 5 or 6 ICS-style cities (the longest river "at home" was only 4 or 5 squares long).
To the West lie the Zulus, my first contact, and remarkably peaceful (since we didn't share a land border). Eventually I found the Russians to the Southeast, and the Aztecs in the far Southwest. I know that the Persians and Vikings lie east and farther east, across oceans that ate several frustrated trireme captains. [The whole world appears to consist of islands and small continents.] The Sioux were destroyed by the Persians.
The tactical situation is that I have HG, LEO & Gunpowder, and started my campaign against the Zulus. They are the easiest to reach AND the proud builders of the Lighthouse--called for by the ghosts of my lost captains--and MPE (for intel on the "missing" nations). So now I have those two wonders. After Gunpowder, I had no choices on the road to Democracy, so I'm researching Feudalism with an eye toward upgrading my abundant horsemen to knights.
Here are the problems:
1. Every time I found (or take) a city, three or four existing cities go into civil disorder. Many cities are empty, because a garrison causes them to riot. So every time one of these cities completes a military unit, the city riots. There's a fine line between keeping the city productive and keeping the city un-reproductive (riot when they grow to size 3).
2. I have a lot of under-employed settlers. The riot factor makes me reluctant to just build more cities on the home continent. So I'm mining to get more shields, and building forts to house the military units that aren't welcome in the cities. Since I already have too many settlers, it's doubly hard to keep the cities from growing.
3. My "insular" homeland makes it hard to bring my military to bear. I need lots and lots of triremes, first for exploration and then for sealift capacity.
4. Most discussions of ICS assume that there will be plenty of money, but I never have much. Too many rush-buys (or at least smoothing out odd numbers of shields) and too many bribes, first of barbs and now of Zulus.
4. Research is frustratingly slow (I'm used to OCC and SSC rates; here I just have a couple of Size-5 micromanagement centers to keep science ticking over).
5. I made a tactical error, getting Gunpowder before bribing MPE away from the Zulus. Now no one wants to trade with me unless I start by giving them Gunpowder, and I'm reluctant to give up that tech edge.
6. I keep finding Advanced Tribes in remote parts of the globe. They are of almost no benefit (typically one beaker and one coin, with the rest lost to corruption). These are ripe for the plucking by enemies jealous of saltpeter. It's a pity I can't build a trireme and *then* disband via Settler. Should I disband just to remove the targets?
So, I guess I'm looking for advice on the ICS middle game. What's the best way to handle things once there are more than 24 cities? I realize that the watery world intensifies the problem. How do you make the transfer from "Pure ICS" to something else? I could start disbanding some of the interstitial cities to let the better sites grow, but is 24 (or 36) cities too few for this?
-- Hermann
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