Strategy Notes From Vel - The Early Game....

[Jason]

RE: One dimensional attack force: You kind of conceeded this already, but if you only have 1 move foot units (no horses) you can still do alright.

Basically, take a stack of riflemen/infantry with an even bigger stack of cannon/artillery, and grind whatever you have to attack into dust first. It's too tough for the AI to eliminate, and on the attack the artillery do 2/3rds or 3/4ths the fighting cheaply.

Obviously it isn't exactly able to finish off a lot of cavalry, but I find the time I worry about cavalry is when I'm on the defensive, and in that event, I have the road/RR network to let me get shots in on the (comparatively idiotic) AI.

Once multiplayer is released, cavalry will be much more crushing. But in the hands of the AI, it's quite beatable even with no horses at all.

[Skanky Burns]

About rush whipping temples:
Anyone notice that rushing a temple with no prior production costs 2 pop, but even with only 1 shield in the production box, the cost goes down to 1. Illyrien's post reminded me of this.

Question about artillery:
Can artillery ever completely destroy a city?? Ive found myself not completely bombarding Inf guarding 1 pop cities, as i didnt want to destroy the city.

[Jason]

The thought never occurred to me. I've always bombed all defenders to one HP, and never had problems, even when the pop hit 1. I suppose it could be possible.

[ChrisShaffer]

Vel, how can you have too much to do in the industrial era? Once you've built factories and power plants, there aren't any other buildings available until the modern era. It seems like the industrial era is *made* for conflict. In fact, I don't see how builders have much to do at all during the industrial era. I've played a few perfectionist/builder games, and the industrial era sees me running Wealth in all my cities for extended periods. What are you doing different?

[ChrisShaffer]

The numbers of shields for population using the whip are:

40 shields for first population point;
20 shields for second and subsequent population points.

[Dis]

I've just been a lurker in this thread.

any tips to boost science rate before Democracy? I was playing the french last game and actually did pretty good going republic. But my science rates in monarchy and despotsim sucks.

Any tips for boosting ancient age and early middle age research?

[Thoth]

Originally posted by ChrisShaffer
Vel, how can you have too much to do in the industrial era? Once you've built factories and power plants, there aren't any other buildings available until the modern era. It seems like the industrial era is *made* for conflict. In fact, I don't see how builders have much to do at all during the industrial era. I've played a few perfectionist/builder games, and the industrial era sees me running Wealth in all my cities for extended periods. What are you doing different?

I usually wind up churning out battleships/destroyers, artillery and riflemen/infantry. They come in handy sooner or later.

[HenryMad]

Wonderful, Vel is back !
It's quite three years that I have been playing SMAC/X and have to admit that I've learnt to play only thanks to VEL. I've got just Yesterday CIV3 from Amazon and am looking forward to something like that masterpiece that's VEL's guide

These are my humble appreciation and thanks to a superior brain .
Thanks again Vel !

[ChrisShaffer]

Originally posted by Thoth
I usually wind up churning out battleships/destroyers, artillery and riflemen/infantry. They come in handy sooner or later.

Um, Thoth, doesn't that kind of miss the point of my original post? I was asking how you deal with the industrial age if you don't plan to go to war. After your first handful of defenders, your "churning out" of units becomes counter-productive for a peaceful builder game.

[HatchetMan]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Question about artillery:
Can artillery ever completely destroy a city?? Ive found myself not completely bombarding Inf guarding 1 pop cities, as i didnt want to destroy the city.

You can't destroy ANYthing with just bombarding it.
edit: except for city improvements of course!
Cities can only be reduced to 1pop, (and of course units can be
reduced to 1hp which I'm sure everyone knows by now).
So don't you let them bombers/artillery be lying around unused

Can anyone say "the coast is clear"?
I guess it would have been unbalancing if one civ got
the battleship early,huh, with the devastating, crushing
18 attack strenght

[Grim Legacy]

Odd. I do find artillery very useful. It's a shame those catapults have only range 1, but they are very effective.
Sure, they might miss a few rounds, but I never use them alone: 4 is the minimum. 4 rounds of attack vs a town with spearmen / pikemen usually results in 2-3 damages done: 2 hitpoints off defenders (typical relative loss of strength: 25% to 33% each) and maybe a laborer or barracks destroyed. Nice!

Without picking off those hitpoints, my swordsmen would not be able to defeat the defenders so easily. I've noticed that every time I allow my normal combat units to take heavy damage in uphill battles, the AI always manages to swoop in a few archers to finish them off. A good way to get rid of those Elite forces. The bombardment prevents this scenario from occuring too often.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by ChrisShaffer


Um, Thoth, doesn't that kind of miss the point of my original post? I was asking how you deal with the industrial age if you don't plan to go to war. After your first handful of defenders, your "churning out" of units becomes counter-productive for a peaceful builder game.

"If you would have peace, then be prepared for war"

It is much easier to play a peacefull game if you've got a large military. The AI is much less likely to pick a fight with you if you are a strong power.

That being said, I have yet to play a game of Civ (I, II, or III) that didn't involve a late game war. Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so eager to sign those mutual protection pacts.

[Jguy]

City Placement

Hey everyone, this thread has been a huge help, especially vel (you're on another plane, man),

I've got a question about city placement. After placing cities at strategic points or making groups of cities to block the enemy civs, how do you guys go about backfilling? Sometimes I'll try to choose the 'best' spots, but that'll leave out nastly little holes that sometimes have good plots of land in them that go unused. Or I might try to minimize unused land, but then I'll get mountains and deserts that are pains in the arse. I usually try to minimize overlap, but once again, it usually sticks some cities with nasty borders. I'm just wondering how everyone else does it. RIn the current game I'm trying putting the cities exactly 4 squares away from each other, so theres no overlap (ie, 4 to the ne, nw, se, sw), but sometimes a lake or mountain gets in the way and screws it up. And cities just get stuck with some bad spots anyway.

Sorry if I rambled, and thanks a lot guys!

(edit: p.s.) I forgot to mention combined arms. Its definitely a different way to wage war. Instead of having 1 or 2 cities pump out a stream of some unit type, I have to organize a nationwide effort, making sure they'res backups and everythings mixed properly. Oy, now I have to think about HOW I'm going to wage war. (Bravo Sid)

[blc]

I had an idea last night but haven't had the time to try it yet (job/house/wife/living in Germany so no Thanksgiving...sigh)and thought I'd present it. .

We'll call it Culture Capture

I started my last game with my capital directly on the tip of a north/south penisula. The next civ was aproximately 20-25 squares directly north. My idea is to build 3-4 cities 12-15 squares north of my present position. Leaving a lot of room for the AI to come in and backfill. Push the culture on 3 of the cities and move my palace to the 4th most centrally located city.

My reasoning behind this is that the culture effects of the capital drop off with distance. If the AI has 2 or 3 cities with my capital between them and his, I should manage a cultural takeover of the cities. I need to move my Palace anyway and this might give me some free cities.

I would like to try to keep my Forbidden Palace in reserve if I find an unsettled island. Then I use lumberjacking and build a viable colony.

Hope the strategy was understandable. Anyone have any comments or has anyone tried doing this?

[Gamer at heart]

hey everyone! this is my first post on the forum but i've been following this tread for a few weeks now. this is great!! Vel, you rule! many other people have brought interesting comments as well.

i want to talk about workers. i think it's a better idea to have them move in stacks and do one improvement at a time. for example, 2 workers building together a mine and then a road will complete both tasks at the same time as one building building a mine while another is building a road. however in the first case you will be able to use the mine a couple of turns earlier than in the later case. that can make a noticable difference in a really tight situation. i go the same way when clearing jungles or forest, cause then you can see your work actually having an effect much sooner!

keep on adding ideas and strategies, this is the most interesting and usefull tread i've found here!!


GaH