my first piece of advice (this is a really dumb thing, i should have known better)

[connorkimbro]

ok, here's my first piece of advice.

FORTIFY YOUR CITIES FIRST before doing much else with them. I was 5 turns away from building the pyramids, and along comes these damn hittite barbarians and TOTALLY destroyed all the work i had done on the pyramids. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

[CygnusZ]

Here's a little trick for the big land rush of the beginning.

Found City
Build Warrior -- Fortify
Build Settler

It'll take 5 turns normally to build the warrior. If you start on the settler you'll build him before the pop of the city hits two. But if you build the warrior first, get him to defend and then build the settler you've both defend your land (although just barely) and given some legroom for expansion.

[jones]

I'm getting my butt kicked on Monarch. TOO MUCH smac and no civ2 lately = all civ2 techniques forgotton =(

But I do love the desperate struggles that result

[Dugrik]

My advice: if you've only got one source for a strategic resource, park a defensive unit on it and build a fortification around it.

My second piece of advice: The Lighthouse is much more important as it allows overseas trade earlier. (Unless you're on Pangaea.)

[Sarxis]

Yes- use those forts!!

The AI knows how to hurt you without taking your cities= pillaging.

And always be prepared for sneak attacks, because the AI will be all sweet and kindly one turn, and the next thing you know all of your trade with the AI stops and 100 knights show up at your door!

[Mahdimael]

Yeah, my begin-game build strategy is

warrior
settler
(scout/warrior/temple/library)
(settler)

[albiedamned]

Originally posted by Mahdimael
Yeah, my begin-game build strategy is

warrior
settler
(scout/warrior/temple/library)
(settler)

That third line should be scout/warrior/temple. Given how far Literature is up the tech tree, there is no way you can build a library as your 3rd build! Unless you get really lucky with barbarians giving you techs.

[Mahdimael]

Yeah, I've gotten it 1/5 games from a goodie hut. Both libraries and temples create culture, so by creating one of those first, you can gain an advantage in that area.

[albiedamned]

If your civ is Religous, Temples cost half of what Libraries cost. If your civ is Scientific, Libraries cost half of what Temples cost. So once you have the tech for both, then when you found a new city you should build whichever one is cheaper first. You don't really need either one right away for their main use (making people happy or increasing science), but you want their culture points as quickly as possible to get the first 2 border expansions.

The AI seems to expand very quickly, but they can't found cities in your territory. So getting those border expansions seems to be very important. Also, the first border expansion is huge since you can't work the full 21 square radius until you get it.

[HalfLotus]

I try to build temle in second city ASAP. it gets no culture before then. I didn't do it fast enough against the Germans. I lost a city to culture defection!