Three most important strategy elements at start:

[Krzysztof]

Three most important strategy elements at start:
I vote:
1) Exploration [by Warior units]
2) "Slaves politics" [Slaver units]
3) "Grow" Settlers and Garnaries.

[TheBirdMan]

Granaries?

I have checked number of turns to next citizen both before and after building a granary. Normally it just reduced by one (the turn taken).

Until now I have not considered the effect of granary as important. Using the PW are - imho - more usefull. Pls tell me if I have overlooked an effect?!

------------------
Woodstock was here!

[KhanMan]

I'm new to CtP, but unless they've changed the purpose from the other civ games (I, II, FW, MGE, ToT), granaries don't effect the current time-til-increase, but half all the times after the next increase.

I may be getting the conversion mixed up, though...

-KhanMan

[TheBirdMan]

You might have a point - I'll check this, try it and m'be controlling it by looking back in some old turns.

Thx.

------------------
Woodstock was here!

[phoenixcager]

quote: Originally posted by Krzysztof on 09-12-2000 11:43 AM Three most important strategy elements at start: I vote: 1) Exploration [by Warior units] 2) "Slaves politics" [Slaver units] 3) "Grow" Settlers and Garnaries.

I've never used a slaver unit myself, but I'd say avoiding the effects of the opponents slavers is pretty important.

I'd definitely agree with the other 2.

PW can make a difference too.

[Sowasabauch]

I think it's also important to start building Labyrinth/Stonehenge quite early.
After having built ~3 citys I let the last ones produce settlers and with my best city I build a granary and then start with the wonder; and you all know the nice benefits of Stonehenge/Labyrinth ...
Maybe that's not most important, but often very usefull.

[JPF_civplayer]

to phoenixcager:

Slaving rules. Especially when playing with lots of barbarians. (When they say raving hordes, I want to see a wave of red across the board, not this tepid dribble of barbarian units!) You can get your cities to grow FAST with slaving. Watch how many 'chains' each city has and keep the proper # of military units in cities with slaves or else you'll lose some cities to revolts.

[phoenixcager]

Well JPF, I might get around to trying them to see if they are as good as you say they are.

[Gregurabi]

Slavery is game-breakingly powerful. If you're playing against an opponent who matches your skill (the AI doesn't qualify), and you're not using Slavers but your opponent is, you will lose.

Not only do you get free population points, but the slaves don't consume gold (wages) and they only eat half rations. And they don't contribute to your city's unhappiness! You'll leap forward in production, growth and gold (which means science) over your non-slaving opponents.

The only downside to slavery is the need to keep military units in your city to prevent slave revolts. Other than that, it's a gimme.

[jimn]

My experience is that at diety level, in order to catch up with the ai science advantage it is necessary to work in a mode that favors gold over growth, since prior to advances allowing any science improvements the science rate is strictly determined by gold. Because better gold often means slower growth and to make up for the ai advantage of two settlers to start, it is also pretty much essential to make use of slavers. So far I have not been able to succeed on diety level without basically enslaving units everytime I get the chance. So its gold, slavers and then getting to the better attacking units (like horse archers, knights etc.) so as to take advantage of the generally poor tactical skills of the ai.

[BigHead]

I'm impressed...Dietmar has mightily influence the view of slavers in ctp. I also have struggled with the deity level even though I was an inveterate slaver.

I'd say gold, the accumulation of, is of prime importance...it solves many problems straight up: need to churn a few units in a hurry, buy 'em, ai gonna beat you to the Edison Lab, buy it, need a quick happiness fix in city with without hiring Fred Astaire, buy a coliseum. You get the picture.

Slaves are the most expediant method of getting the gold...if it's a moral issue, I suggest you buy the Emancipation Act as soon as you can, you'll feel so much better when those black pajama'd suckers are manumitted.

Hard hitting units: marine, war walker, infector (yes!), pikeman, mounted archer...this is the best way to rebuff the ai; by attacking a belligerant's units in the open with minimal loss to oneself you can prevent or delay massed attackes on cities (though they will eventually be attempted)

the wonders seem to be a dime a dozen though the labyrinth does provide early trade and so a cheap gold source...anything that gives up the gold is GOOD.

[Gregurabi]

If you want to conquer the world, beeline for Robotics and build a swarm of War Walkers. And maybe some boats to get them to the enemy... (at least until you can get undersea tunnels everywhere).

Before War Walkers, just use whatever units you've got. You won't be able to take too many cities until you get some bombardment units (either Cannons or Ships of the Line). A good stack of Musketeers+Cannons can often take a city that's been softened by bombardments by Ships of the Line and the Cannons.

Before Cannons, you should focus more on enslaving the enemy than on conquest. Defense is much more powerful than offense in the early game, and a walled city is going to to cost you way more than it's worth.

If you keep the AI on the defensive the whole game (or at least the post-Gunpowder game) then you won't have to defend your cities, except against the occasional unconventional attack. Keep attacking the AI, and you will render it completely helpless -- it won't be able to counterattack, or even defend itself.

[Solver]

But how you all fight the unhappiness and population loss when the Freedom Proclamation Wonder is built? This might cause real problems when built. I use Slavers often, but sometimes I decide to skip them.

------------------
Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[Gregurabi]

Yes, the end of slavery will be a problem. (In the English version this wonder is called the Emancipation Act.)

There are two aspects to worry about:

1) Any city with slaves gets a one-time unhappiness penalty of about 5, which lasts a few turns. Then it goes away. You don't suffer this penalty if you build the Emancipation Act -- only if someone else does.

2) When the slaves become normal citizens, all of a sudden they contribute to city unhappiness, which they never did before. Your city now has a larger population, so you get more unhappiness points for overcrowding; and if your wages/rations/workday sliders are set to give a net negative happiness, you'll get much more of this unhappiness.

If you've saved up enough gold, you can wait out #1 by raising the wages. This means you may lose money (or just not make as much of it), and your science output will suffer.

For #2, you may need to build more happiness city improvements, especially the ones that counteract overcrowding. (You probably already have Aqueducts, so this means Hospitals.) Build some Coliseums and Cathedrals in the worst cases.

Something else to watch out for -- now that your slaves are free, they eat twice as much. You may need to divert more production to public works, and build more farms and fisheries (and upgrade existing ones). In some cases, you may even have to terraform land so that you can put farms on it.

Ideally, when the technology for the Emancipation Act is available to the AIs, you should start planning for the end of slavery. This means you need to start long-term terraforming ASAP, and build some happiness improvements (Coliseums and so on) even though you don't need them right now.

[Solver]

I agree, it's hard. Normally I always increase wages or ration when there's an end of slavery. I remember that this effect only last a few turns, so you'll be able to set everything back after that time passes. Generally, it will be all right after a couple of turns.
But money is a problem. Slaves require no wages, citizens do. Slaves require 1/2 of the rations, while the new citizens you got require 1.0 of rations each. What do you do if you have had cities with 30 Slaves? Well, I have had some terrible experince with Slaves, and now I don't capture so many of them. Though I really like it, they boost my citites amazingly.
And these Abolitionists also might make you mad, if used properly by an enemy.

------------------
Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com