STRATEGY

Preface: I defy anyone to come up with a better strategy to play Civ2 AND properly entertain yourself. All those who meet my challenge, send them to ilatimour@hotmail.com -- although I doubt they'll work.

This technique is a fairly difficult but entertaining way to play -- it requires a certain diplomatic instinct. This doesn't mean the scientific Civ must always give in to demands for tribute; quite the contrary. But at the beginning, and until you become a power to be noticed, you have to give in to your neighbors' unreasoning demands. Much like the unpopular nerd (who goes on to invent the atomizing ray of destruction) who at first had to do the jock's homework to avoid being beat up. If well played, that's exactly how the game will end up going for you.



Step 1: Cities

Where your capital is is, appropriately enough, of capitol importance. If you start anywhere near an ocean or sea, go to it. It will become an important source of trade arrows later. If at all possible, do the normal stuff like founding on or near to a river, and of course, that fertile grassland is very important too.

Many Civvers say it is important to build a military right away. I disagree. If you put important time and resources into military right away, you won't have the ability to switch to the tech-friendly governments (Republic, Democracy) without a lot of hassle. I like to live dangerously: I don't make any troops until there is a country for them to defend. Settlers, settlers, setters! Build a settler, and go for the closest most fertile land you can find to build cities. Repeat. This is especially important on the King level (I can't speak for higher levels, not having played them yet), where high population leads to unhappy citizens. Keep 'em small and happy.

On a related topic, always always ALWAYS fool aroun with what your citizens are gahering resource-wise. If there are nearby forests, it makes your city productive AND curbs growth until you can build things to placate the people (to prevent them from becoming unhappy). As well, I consider it both an art and a science to get a city to build a settler in a minimum amount of time (without disbanding the city, of course). It isn't complicated, so you can probably figure it out on your own by switching between grassland and forest. Use this to speed up how quickly your settlers are made, so your city can get on with its life.

One last tip: I find that things work out the best if you can delay building things as long as possible, City-Improvement wise. Build your temple only when your city needs to grow without becoming unhappy. Only build your marketplace when your city is earning two gold already (so the marketpalce supports itself financially). Build libraries as the spirit hits you and finances permit. Build nothing else if you can help it, except perhaps an acqueduct in your capital and colloseums in your large cities, but only when needed. Do this until you get Adam Smith's Trading Company. After that, go wild (in a rational way ;)!



Step 2. Explore

This part is important to the building of your cities. If and when a goody-hut gives you a horseman or chariot, always explore with it. Don't go along the coastlines immediately: first, clear away all of the black around your cities, and look for new potential city-sites. This allows you to plan ahead where your cities will go: a MUST do. (Don't plan out all of your cities, just remember whenever you find a nice spot for a city, and do some short-term planning to put a settler there.) When you get the right techs, make diplomats -- a good number of them -- exaclty for this purpose. They have zero upkeep, move quickly, and if/when your exploring brings you into contact with another Civ, it gives you the option of having an embassy (although I usually skip it in favor of more exploring).



Step 3. Meeting That Other Civ, And Avoiding Being Crushed

Sometimes, you will have the misfortune of meeting another Civ quickly. Usually, you can tell if its the kind that will try to kill you, for no reason at all, no matter how nice you are. Other times, you will be fortunate enough to have a friendly neighbor. On rare occaisions, you will have a friendly superpowerful neighbor!

No matter who or what your neighbor, always sue for peace, no matter what they demand. You can afford to be more cavalier only if the Civ is a fair distance away, or at least separated from you by an ocean. If possible, flatter them enough to ally with you. If they decide to crush you later, its just one more layer of beureaucracy between you and death, and it gives you plenty of warning.

If your neighbor is being barbaric, build your cities away from him (well duh), and defend the cities closest to him very well, with city walls, and good defenders (more than you would otherwise use). DO NOT wage active war with him, just let him attack and die on your walls, until you are so far ahead of him that you need binoculars to see how primitive he is.

If your neighbor is friendly, be sure to talk to him on occaision. If he starts being uncooperative, treat him as an enemy. If he's still friendly, and you are not yet allied, try to ally with him. Also, if he is still friendly, that means he won't mind too much if you settle all of the land between you and him -- say, immediately. And if hes still friendly, don't be afraid to give him a free tech now and then, especially when he's complaining about how his wars are going.



Step 4. The right techs

I do not prescribe an exact order to techs, but I do emphasize that there are techs that, as a Tech Civ, you cannot do without, and should bee-line towards. First and foremost is Literacy. Before you even get it, some city should be building some wonder in preparation for building the Great Library. As soon as you get literacy, switch that city to the G.Library. Again, if in King or higher, also take measures to keep that city from growing beyond size 4 in the meantime: it just gets messy.

Very soon after Literacy, you will be given the option to go for the Republic. Do it, and don't look back until you get Democracy. Do not, repeat do not go for Monarchy: it just wastes time.

In those turns when it won't let you go for Literacy, go for Philosophy. The time you spend getting this not-so-useful advance is recompensed with a free advance. Plus, it gets you moving towards Monotheism and Theology, must haves for any Republic or Democracy.

Being a SciCiv takes money, so next go for Bronze Working (for the Colossus: build it) and Currency. Other wonders you should give serious consideration to are the Pyramids, Hanging Gradens, and especially the Great Wall (but not if your Civ is alone on an island: it's mostly a waste then).

Somewhere after or in the middle of this process, you should prepare to:



Step 5. Defend Thyself

At some point, you wil have a respectable number of cities (five, six, or seven, or maybe even more). You are getting tired of settlers. Have a few of your non-Wonder building cities make a few more settlers though, this time to build roads between cities. After a basic network has been built, you can go one of a few different ways, depending on your exact situation:

1. Have them irrigate and mine. (I hate plains, so I mine them too, to get forest, unless the plains have a resource.

2. Have them build roads within your city radii. Always do this eventually, as this ups trade.

3. Keep expanding your empire -- er, republic. If you know where you are going, a good tactic would be to build road on the way to building your new city.

At this point, the strategy for what to do changes a bit. I myself use a fixed routine for new cities, which I reccomend. This strategy does not change until you are able to build factories and also have gobs and gobs of money.


1. Having build the city, make it build one of two things: a defense unit (Phalanx, Pikeman, Musketteer, Rifleman, Alpine Troops, or Mech. Infantry, dependaing on what year it is) if you are near to another Civ; otherwise, a Settler, who should go off and build another city. This keeps the republic growing like a fungus, which is important: when growth stops, dying begins.

2. After that, have it build whichever unit you didn't build last time.

Your new cities can send defensive units back to your capital and older cities, leaving your large cities to build important wonders. At first, never build more than one defender per city (two for the capital), just to keep the upkeep low. If you have been acting wisely diplomatically, you shouldn't have much to worry about anyhow. If some cities do fall, you should build diplomats, and simply buy them back. Oddly enough, it is the most economical way to do things. Having one diplomat per city is also a stong tactic, but is not always feasable.



Step 6. More Techs

At this point, you have finished the Great Library. There are a three tech paths you should follow, being the most important for a SciCiv.

1) Brainy techs: Mathematics (Allows Copernicus' Observatory, with +50% to science in one city: build it, preferably in a city with lots of trade), Economics (allows Adam Smith's Trading Co, which gives free upkeep to 1 Cost City Improvements: build it), Theory Of Gravity (allows Isaac Newton's Academy, which gives a +100% boost to Science production: build it in the same city as Copernicus), Invention (allows Leonardo's Workshop, which gives free unit upgrades: build it), Computers (allows SETI program, build it!)

2) Happy Techs: Monotheism (Allows Michelangalo's Chapel: build it), Monotheism (allows J.S. Bach's Cathedral: build it), and Medicine (Allows Shakespare's Theatre. Not as strong as the other two, but consider building it anyway.)

3) Other, very important techs: Gunpowder (need we say more?), Railroad (for the Railroads, which you should build, and Darwin's Voyage, which you should also build: two free techs will come in handy by the time you're done, trust me), Explosives (for Engineers, extremely useful), Democracy (switch to that government, and never change), and Communism (build the UN immediately, and don't be afraid to use spies!)

Incidentally, about the time you get Tactics, you should be making or already have two defending units per city.



Step 7. Order for building City Improvements
I usually build city improvements in the order they are listed, but I follow a few general rules on top of that:

1) If I have a good amount of money, I usually build Factories and Mass Production first, usually buying them

when they are a quarter of the way done, in new cities. 2) Never build marketplaces in cities earning less than 2 gold, Banks in cities earning less than 6, or Stock

exchanges in cities earning less than 8.

3) Always build Banks before Universities.

4) Build Harbours, Supermarkets, Oil Platforms, and SDI defences reasonably soon after being able to build them.

5) Always, ALWAYS build SDI before the SAM Missile launcher, if given a choice between the two. The Stealth Bomber won't be the one wasting your city, the nuclear missile will. Step 8. Other General Rules of Thumb




1) Never, ever, ever stop growing, and looking for places to build cities.

2) You don't need a powerful army, so long as you have a spy in every city.

3) My technique (roughly) for balancing my budget is as follows:

a) get science rate under 10 turns.

b) up taxes, keeping science rate under 10 turns

c) get science rate to 5 turns

d) up taxes, keeping science rate at 5 turns

e) up luxury to 10%, with science rate under 6 turns and still earning good money

f) get science rate to 4 turns

g) up taxes or luxury as the spirit hits me

h) get science rate to 3 turns

i) up taxes or luxury as the spirit hits me

j) get science to 2 turns

h) and so on

I also tinker with the balance of it every once in a while. After all, when you have Future Technology 58, perhaps money will be more important than a tech every 2 turns. Trust me, I've been there, on King level.


4) Something I love to do to keep me preoccupied is to find some weak, far-away kingdom, preferably one that is being bothered by a more powerful Civ, and play Kingmaker to it. Me, I have a soft spot for both the French and the Germans. So, if I see a small, weak French empire being bullied by, say, the Zulus, I give the French a whole swack of advances for free, particularly the military ones, and the Zulus get a nasty surpirse when their cavalry meet with Mechanized infantry. I've saved and become long-term friends with empires that way. Also, if you intervene too late, and the other civ eventually destroys your "god-son civilisation", you have some-one to focus your expansionism upon. Scientific does not mean Pacifistic, and if you've been playing well, chances are that the Zulus hate you anyway, and have attacked you more than once already. You just have to be more wise in terms of how you wage your wars, being a Democracy. Be careful when playing King-maker though: unless you really like that Civ, and it's really far away, never play Kingmaker to a militaristic minded civ, like the Carthaginians: if they ever meet your border, they WILL eventually bite the hand that fed them.

Why bother playing King-maker? I mean, it's just some weak Civ that will die anyway, and give away all of your advances anyway, right? Not necessarily. If you're smart, you always hold back a bit on how many advances you give to your god-son civ: be sure to only make it the second or third most advanced civ at most (first, of course, being you). As well, one time, I played Kingmaker to a Civ that then became a SuperPower (again, second only to its teacher). Another time, I saved the French from Oblivion: It was the third time the color cyan had started up, so they were way far behind. As well, both the Russians and Zulus hated them. Pitying France, I played Kingmaker to them. At game's end, they were an ally, and while not powerful, they gave me useful information on the Zulus and the Russians maps, and they could defend themselves without any trouble. They became my only undefended border, and good neighbors... but if I hadn't saved them, I would have had to put up with the unruly Zulus, or fickle Lenin.


5) As a last rule of thumb, if you don't have an army of engineers, like say 10 or 20, you aren't taking enough advantage of them, and probably aren't building enough cities besides.

This is about all I know about how to play Civ2 well. All I know is that I probably could whip some serious ass if I played as a ruthless warlord, or said "To hell with reputation"... but where would the challenge be in that, hmm? Happy Civving, ye Consuls and Presidents!