What is ICS?

[Dravin]

I see this acronym used all over the place, would somebody mind explaining what it means? So much I've gathered it's a strategy from Civ II, but beyond that I'm clueless.

[yin26]

If you do an 'ICS' search on this forum, a bunch of things will pop up. But basically it's this: In Civ2, when you sent out a settler, you didn't 'lose' any population but you gained an 'extra' square worked where the city founds. Thus, you could (and many people did) simply create cities LIKE CRAZY at the earliest possible moment (when the city hit pop 2, send out a settler) not worrying if they were spaced apart from each other well, etc.

So how was this fixed in Civ3? Well, settlers now cost you 2 pop, elinimating the 'free' tile worked. However, the fundamental concept of 'expand until you puke' has not only been retained in Civ3 but by many measures made somewhat worse as the AI spews settlers at you and NOT spreading like a cancer leaves you more likely not to have key resources.

Fixed? Technically. Fun? Still broke, IMO.

[HalfLotus]

Let's see if I can reply first....

ICS=infinite city sleaze/strategy/sprawl

You build settlers only and end up with enormous lead in tech and production beacuse of your huge empire. Lame if you ask me.

[HalfLotus]

Damn.

[yin26]

LOL! Actually, it was a 'tie'

[Dravin]

Oh... Okay, thanks for the explination.

[Fidel]

yin omitted one thing
everyone used ICS to beat civ2 AI and everyone asked for it to be fixed.
now that AI is employing aggressive expansion strategy, people are moaning and complaining.
hehe