Best strategy

Hendrik the Great · February 14, 2001, 18:30

I don't know if anybody ever asked so I'll just go ahead with it.

What, in your opinion, is the best strategy to win a normal game of Civ II and why? When will you follow what kind of strategy?

I know the situations can be very different for each game but I would like to keep this a general discussions.

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys

February 14, 2001, 18:38

in MP:
on King: ICS à la EyesOfNight
higher: anything but ICS à la EyesOfNight

in SP:

have no idea, something Perfectionist I suppose

Bereta_Eder · February 14, 2001, 19:06

Do whatever it takes to have 8 to 12 cities as soon as possible.
One of the two first cities goes right ahead on building the first wonder.

crank up science

TRADE!

Never lost if the first step is established! (on emperor)

Ming · February 14, 2001, 19:48

Against the AI... race to a better government... and expand. Besides that, just about any strategy will get you there. If people can win consistently with only one city...

In MP... ICS (keep building settlers and more cities at the expense of everything else) is VERY powerful at lower difficulty levels... and is still very effective at Deity with a happiness wonder.

And ignore CW's comment... even at Deity, I'm sure eyes of night would beat him 8 or 9 times out of ten using ICS

If you are playing an ICS'er... find them quick and jump all over their non defended cities early... If you don't, you are toast

February 14, 2001, 20:37

hey, actually I tried that ICS on King myself, and it worked just fine! on Deity, Eyes even lost to someone ho hadn't ever won before (just like me

)

come on, Ming, Eyes is NOTHING on Deity!

Smash · February 15, 2001, 01:18

The easiest way to win at deity in a normal game is OCC.No question.

4-8 cities in perfectionist fashion is also an "easy" way to win a spacerace.

Hendrik the Great · February 15, 2001, 06:44

My problem in SP and MP ususally is that I end up in one or more wars that keep dragging on which prettty much eliminates my chances to win the spacerace.
If I go for all out war I tend to overstrech my troop deployment by a factor of 5 or 10 but can still be able to move ahead in SP, I never tried this in MP though and I don't think it would work against a human player.

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http://members.nbci.com/thalys

Edward · February 16, 2001, 15:02

Hendrik the Great,

Speaking from a single-player point of view, don't let the AI suck you into an offensive war if you're going for Alpha Centari. You need to decide early on whether you're going for AC or conquest.

If it's conquest, ICS is one of the best strategies. Even if you don't use closely spaced cities, make founding many, many new cities your top priority in the beginning. Get the Hanging Gardens, Sun Tzu's, and Michaelangelo's Cathedral. Then you only need to make troops (and occasionally settlers to keep a city from revolting). Any city improvements you make are taking away resources from building your massive horde. I don't know what you mean by "overstretching your troop deployment" but if all your cities are making crusaders you should have plenty to spare. Early in your conquest you may need to delay a number of turns to get an assault force together, but soon it's all downhill.

If you choose Alpha Centari, then you need to avoid being in an offensive war (as you already know). Maybe you can bribe some key cities or take advantage of being the only one with musketeers, but generally an offensive war is taking you away from caravan building. The AI is very contrary and it's usual to have three or more AI's at war with you for centuries. HOWEVER, this doesn't mean you're sending troops in to do battle. Find chokeholds and make some fortresses on your borders on good defensive terrain (use settlers to "mine" flatlands into forests or hills if need be). Let the AI continually bash against these fortresses while you concentrate on science. You might be surprised at how seldom you need to replace the defenders and at how persistent the AI is at attacking when it has little to no chance of success.

Roman · February 17, 2001, 10:41

What or who is EyesoftheNight?

Hendrik the Great · February 18, 2001, 18:51

The problem I often face when I decide to take over the world is that I can successfully defeat most enemies with sometimes a huge effort sending dozens, sometimes up to 200 hundred units against them. But where I fail is in decisivly defeating all civs in time before they are either armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons or they are building their own space ship. I don't know how but the AI always seems to be able to built an entire spaceship in just a single.

Quite frankly I don't really like ICS. It's no fun in my view. But everyone should have his or her own opinion about this. I'd like to be able to take the planet without ICS.

By "overstretching my troops" I mean that I often have only a small number of units, say crusaders or cavalary, battle entire empires on different sides of the world. This means that the war will drag on and I will reduce the enemy's army size and take apart its improvements. I do take cities but it goes awfully slow. One at a time. But I cannot build up such huge numbers because I cannot support all of them when fighting 3 wars all over the place.

If I go for AC I always get close and can win but its always a very touch job. The AI will simple win the techrace even though I am in Republic or Democracy.
It always puzzles me because I can't find any real flaws in my way of doing business.
Chock points are my favorites. That's how I can defeat huge civs with only a transport full of units!

But it's a great help all your comments!

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys

geofelt · February 19, 2001, 00:26

The easiest way to win bloodlust against the AI is with economic warfare. At the start, get as many cities started as possible. Leave space so they can eventually use all 21 squares. Accumulate gold from caravans, and tribute. Get democracy and SOL. Use celebrations to grow to 8. Shift to communism or fundamentalism and build some infrastructure like aqueducts and marketplaces. Repeat the process and you will develop a powerful economy. When a nearby civ attacks you(and they will), use some diplomats to bribe cities. This helps you with a fully functional city, and weakens your target. Early on, there will be no democracies, which are immune to bribery. Later, target the non-democratic civs first. The cities you bribe will build the army to take out the capitol.