Playing the French on Monarch on a Huge map

[Mountain Sage]

Hi everybody,

I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.

The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.

Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.

A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:

- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.

Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:

- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.

This is ONE way of achieving all this:

1. Playing a Huge map

Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):

- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.

2. Use and abuse your Workers

The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.

With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.

All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.

Two more tips:

- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.

3. The early cities


On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.

The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.

Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).

You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.


4. Science


As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!

Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!

My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.


5. Tech research

Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:

- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.

My opinion is to research as follows:

- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.

Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.


6. Wonders

Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).

What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.

As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.

7. Military

Ah, the military! Very simple: don’t build any, you don’t need them yet, the nearest Civ is 20-30 tiles away (unless…). Later on, go for Spearman in cities (it updates very nicely) and Horsemen as a mobile reserve (3 tiles/turn with all your Empire roaded…

Of course, forget all above if you still want to go to war on a Huge map after 10 turns.

The biggest drawback of this is that you won’t get many GL, so no speeded-up FP or Wonders, but since you’re playing the French, you planned to build them from scratch anyway, isn’t it?


8. City improvements


I am a builder. This is why I play Civ. If I wanted to play a game of gore and blood (no offence intended to the warmongers!), I’d play ‘Panzer’. (Well, D&D is bad enough for me). Therefore, I play the French,

Therefore, I build pretty well everything in sight. And I can afford it. Every single improvement, and more. An example? I won a Space Race in AD 1180 having build everything I could, including stupid things like barracks and coastal fortresses on coastal cites when I had 45 subs to protect my continent/island and not a shot was fired for the whole game, and of course libraries and universities in all my cities. I still had over 14’600 Gold.


The later game

There is not much to say about it, except that you still should play the strength of the French and of the map. So:

- Beeline for Economics (banks) to get Smith Trading Co. and Wall Street. Marketplaces + banks + Smith + WS =
- When the basic of your terrain improvement and your road network is done, give your Wo a zone implant (I call it shift-A). Managing 30+ Wo is tedious and they can’t make that many mistakes any more. Just take it out when you get Steam Power because YOU want to build the railroad network (the automated Wo tend to build it like they were all stoned).
- If you’re on an island/continent, adopt Duke Leto’s strategy, rule your world by sea- and airpower alone.
- Use the MAR doctrine against the first stupid Civ who starts a war with you because they politely asked you ‘Give me or else…’ and you told them to somebody else (being a pacifist doesn’t mean you have to drop…, well, you understand). Oh, MAR stands for Massive Allied Retaliation. You contact all other Civs and bribe them to go to war with the offender. In the Middle Age you should manage it with your World map and 300-400 Gold/Civ (another beauty of being Commercial). Then relax while the poor Civ is at war with the other 6 and everybody else has to scale down their Science to pay for their military expenses. Don’t bother to build many more military units. That Civ won’t bother you again.
- Don’t research Recycling and don’t build Mass Transit (even when you can afford it). You have 30+ Wo working 4x speed (French + Replaceable Parts). A pollution tile? Fine, the next turn you have 10 idle Wo on it and it’s gone.

Well, that’s all for now (I can hear your sighs of relief from here). I really hope that some of you will try my ‘poor’ French at least one (on a nice archipelago for a change?) and even have fun…

Don’t forget to criticise all the above. That’s why I posted it. I just started on Emperor today and I already see the thunderclouds, locusts, barbarians, bloodthirsty Civs and other assorted vultures bearing down on me…

P.S. The Civver who tells me how to change that ghastly colour of pink of the French deserves my eternal gratitude.

Personal message for Arrian: I will pray every day to firaxis that you read this thread and try ONLY ONCE to play the pacifist French. Maybe you are not completely lost to the Dark Side. Remember your UP thread? Maybe this is the answer. Hi everybody,

I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.

The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.

Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.

A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:

- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.

Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:

- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.

This is ONE way of achieving all this:

1. Playing a Huge map

Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):

- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.

2. Use and abuse your Workers

The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.

With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.

All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.

Two more tips:

- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.

3. The early cities


On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.

The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.

Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).

You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.


4. Science


As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!

Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!

My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.


5. Tech research

Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:

- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.

My opinion is to research as follows:

- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.

Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.


6. Wonders

Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).

What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.

As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.

END OF PART ONE

[Mountain Sage]

PART TWO


7. Military

Ah, the military! Very simple: don’t build any, you don’t need them yet, the nearest Civ is 20-30 tiles away (unless…). Later on, go for Spearman in cities (it updates very nicely) and Horsemen as a mobile reserve (3 tiles/turn with all your Empire roaded…

Of course, forget all above if you still want to go to war on a Huge map after 10 turns.

The biggest drawback of this is that you won’t get many GL, so no speeded-up FP or Wonders, but since you’re playing the French, you planned to build them from scratch anyway, isn’t it?


8. City improvements


I am a builder. This is why I play Civ. If I wanted to play a game of gore and blood (no offence intended to the warmongers!), I’d play ‘Panzer’. (Well, D&D is bad enough for me). Therefore, I play the French.

Therefore, I build pretty well everything in sight. And I can afford it. Every single improvement, and more. An example? I won a Space Race in AD 1180 having build everything I could, including stupid things like barracks and coastal fortresses on coastal cites when I had 45 subs to protect my continent/island and not a shot was fired for the whole game, and of course libraries and universities in all my cities. I still had over 14’600 Gold.


The later game

There is not much to say about it, except that you still should play the strength of the French and of the map. So:

- Beeline for Economics (banks) to get Smith Trading Co. and Wall Street. Marketplaces + banks + Smith + WS =
- When the basic of your terrain improvement and your road network is done, give your Wo a zone implant (I call it shift-A). Managing 30+ Wo is tedious and they can’t make that many mistakes any more. Just take it out when you get Steam Power because YOU want to build the railroad network (the automated Wo tend to build it like they were all stoned).
- If you’re on an island/continent, adopt Duke Leto’s strategy, rule your world by sea- and airpower alone.
- Use the MAR doctrine against the first stupid Civ who starts a war with you because they politely asked you ‘Give me or else…’ and you told them to somebody else (being a pacifist doesn’t mean you have to drop…, well, you understand). Oh, MAR stands for Massive Allied Retaliation. You contact all other Civs and bribe them to go to war with the offender. In the Middle Age you should manage it with your World map and 300-400 Gold/Civ (another beauty of being Commercial). Then relax while the poor Civ is at war with the other 6 and everybody else has to scale down their Science to pay for their military expenses. Don’t bother to build many more military units. That Civ won’t bother you again.
- Don’t research Recycling and don’t build Mass Transit (even when you can afford it). You have 30+ Wo working 4x speed (French + Replaceable Parts). A pollution tile? Fine, the next turn you have 10 idle Wo on it and it’s gone.

Well, that’s all for now (I can hear your sighs of relief from here ). I really hope that some of you will try my ‘poor’ French at least one (on a nice archipelago for a change?) and even have fun…

Don’t forget to criticise all the above. That’s why I posted it. I just started on Emperor today and I already see the thunderclouds, locusts, barbarians, bloodthirsty Civs and other assorted vultures bearing down on me…

P.S. The Civver who tells me how to change that ghastly colour of pink of the French deserves my eternal gratitude.

Personal message for Arrian: I will pray every day to firaxis that you read this thread and try ONLY ONCE to play the pacifist French. Maybe you are not completely lost to the Dark Side. Remember your UP thread? Maybe this is the answer.

And I promise you to turn off the diplomatic, space race and cultural wins and go for domination on one of my games. Deal?

[CerberusIV]

Interesting. I have to confess that one of my best games was with the French building in the ancient era and then world conquest from early medieval. The combination of industrious and commercial means the cities you conquer are actually worthwhile at production and can be rapidly given terrain improvements. Maybe I am lost to the dark side but trampling the other civs with pink units is kind of fun.

You can change the colour in the editor. Under the civilisations tab select the French and you can alter their primary and secondary colours.

[Arrian]

Personal message for Arrian: I will pray every day to firaxis that you read this thread and try ONLY ONCE to play the pacifist French. Maybe you are not completely lost to the Dark Side. Remember your UP thread? Maybe this is the answer.

I have played the French. The first game I played as France was a "peaceful builder" style game (on my usual map settings). I did quite well. I expanded well, I built up well, I traded well. Then something happened: a war erupted on a nearby continent. China vs. Persia. Persia began to win. And I made a mistake: I traded iron (and later horses, and then even saltpeter) to China pratically free of charge, figuring I could prop them up. Nope, they got crushed, and so did my reputation. Once Persian troops cut my trade connection with China, I was a "cheat and a liar." So I landed Cavalry over there and conquered former China and Persia. Doh! It appears I strayed from the light.

Second French game... heh, I warrior rushed the English, knocked off the Indians with Knights, beat up the Americans with Cavalry (they did start that one, though) and mashed Egypt with Modern Armor.

[Vader]It is too late for me, Luke[/Vader]



-Arrian

[vmxa1]

That tact can work, as many strategies will work. My issues is that a Huge map is just too painful, takes way to long and war is more fun.
I would note that is you do as you suggest and use even roaming barbs, you will have some set backs. IF you go with relentless barbs, you will be toasted.
What I am saying is that the sedintary barbs is a must for that style.

[Master Zen]

Mountain Sage:

here's a little summary of my current game (huge, France, roaming barbs, emperor) which I posted on another thread yesterday:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...37#post1769937

[Mountain Sage]

Cerberus IV

You are right. I see the advantages of going to war with the French (and ebven had to use them!) on a Huge map as following:

- Terrain improvements: you can happily destroy all enemy's improvements and thanks to the French workers you'll have brand new in a few turns, and even better ones since you put them and not the AI.

- Corruption: your overall corruption is lower.so your conquered cities are not that useless and often you don't have to do a Palace-flipping.

- City improvements: with your Central Bank, you can hurry culture buildings ( and precent a flipping-over) AND military buildings (specially airports later on) AND.

You can also take advantage of the French workers and a Huge map by creating 'Killing Fields' if you know your'going to war soon.

In one of my recent games, I landed on a Pangea, me south with the Germans north of me. I don't particularly plan for war, certainly not for an early war, but the Germans are soooo predictable.

Between your two Civs the land mass narrowed to 3 tiles. Just South and going fromEast to West was the sea, two tiles of plains, a mountain range 12 tiles long (North-South), then 3 tiles, a river, 3 more tiles of grassland, some hills and the sea again.

I double-speeded a road between the sea and the mountain range to the narrowing (2 Workers makes 1 road/tile/turn) with a Settler and a bunch of Spearmen and barely beat the Germans there. I had build some cities on my 'central plains', leaving 5 tiles between the eastern seashore and them (I wanted to build 3 cities later on), all connected by roads. Finally, I walled by city by the narrwing, stocked it with enough military and put some Spearmen on the mountain range.

When Bismarck declared war, he failed to take my city and, as he would do, started going south along my coastal road. His 'army' was strung along it by groups of 2s or 3s (mostly Warriors). At the end of the road his might forces were met by my valiant Horsemen. All German units not destroyed started the looong trek north, where thy were picked up by my Spearmen/Horsemen on the mountains. My road in the central plains gave me double mouvement to my troops (which were never more that 8 Spearmen and 10 Horsemen). End of the war.

P.S. I do not pretend being a brilliant tactician (not experience enough!), but I used the same tactic Hannibal used at Lake Trasimene.

ater on I used another Roman tactic: I burned berlin to the grand and strew salt on it (after he declared war 3 times on me... ).

[Mountain Sage]

Arrian,

Well, at least my conscience tells me that I did try.

Oh, by the way, I can't remember any more, but how did Darth Vader end?

P.S. any comments on my post?

[Mountain Sage]

Master Zen,

Interesting post.
The more I play with Huge maps, the more I realize that the tactics are quite different from those on Standard maps.
I usually don't have to go to war to have a good-sized empire because (usually) there is room enough to expand.
In my first game at Emperor (world random) I landed on a 'big continents' setting. I have my continent all for myself with 35 cities. Some of the othe Civs are bigger, but why go to war for land? Besides, all Civs are 'Polite' to me.

The bigger headache for me now is the Tech research. I missed the GL, we are in the Industrial Ages and I'm still 3 Techs behind. I'm beelining for Theory of Evolution. If I get it...

I think I should start to play on Standard maps just to get the feeling of 'containment' you get.
Or maybe I stick to my Huge maps and play with 16 Civs...

[Mountain Sage]

vmxa1,

I agree with you. A (almost) non-existent barbarian threat is a must for this kind of game.

But then, why bother with hut-barbarians when you have 7 barbarians Civs?

[Arrian]

Mountain Sage,

Yeah, yeah, I know - Vader comes back to the light.... right before dying.

Your strategy looks good, but as I do not play Huge maps (and never will - don't have the patience for it), I can't really say much beyond that. The French are one of the very best "builder" civs. They are just perfect for a "builder" style on a map with extra room (as in Huge/8 instead of Huge/16).

-Arrian

[minke19104]

Originally posted by Arrian

They are just perfect for a "builder" style on a map with extra room (as in Huge/8 instead of Huge/16).

-Arrian

Well you just have to "make" that extra room urself

Anyway I was playing against French, Huge Monarch map. I hated them, cos their cities, which I took by force, kept on flipping back even though I only left French 3 cities on the other side of the continent.

Although they're paying 19/Turn for Peace, I just thought by the time a second city flip back to them, I would end their suffering

[Harovan]

I played my best huge map Emperor game with the French, although it was crowded, with 16 civs. As builder civ, they are utterly amazing. Although I did fight several wars, and always I was the bad boy (hey, or girl, whatever). So I archerrushed Egypt and Russia, finished Russia with Knights (and Musketeers for a GA), Egypt with Cavalries and Germany with Infantries and Tanks. Aside from this, I played about as you described, a large, wealthy empire. Except Sun Tzu's and Leo's, I built every single medieval wonder and, of course, all later wonders as well, without a leader. I didn't get a single leader in the whole game and, to be honest, I didn't need one.

[minke19104]

Sir Ralph, why did u change ur icon image? :P

[Harovan]

Because I was asked to do so, and didn't care much about it. Why, did you like Knollo the inventor?

[vmxa1]

I some how suspect that archer rushing a Civ is not exactly what a builder would be doing.

[Master Zen]

Why build when you can destroy and conquer??

I can never get the AI to like me and play a peaceful game (unless I'm isolated)

So I beat the living *expletive deleted* out of them. Hope this doesn't affect my aspirations for a diplomatic victory..

Sir Ralph:

me thinks I have met thee in my past adventures! Care thee for a drink at the Wild Boar?

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Master Zen Sir Ralph:

me thinks I have met thee in my past adventures! Care thee for a drink at the Wild Boar?

I would enjoy a drink with thee, but officially I died by self sacrifice in the crematory of Monitor. (Richard Garriott )

[VJ]

I am a builder.

Well, that explains BOTH huge map AND French civ.
Lucky you, for owning such PC...

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Tuomerehu

Well, that explains BOTH huge map AND French civ.
Lucky you, for owning such PC...

Well, even you can get a faster PC, you just have to:

Ask your parents/wife (or husband)/girl (boy) friend/Santa Claus...
You can even work...
Or sell your car...
Or ask Firaxis to fix this 'bug'...



I presume you the French only because you never won a space race with only 1 Galley and 2 Spearmen as your only military ever built

[badams52]

Originally posted by Mountain Sage
I presume you the French only because you never won a space race with only 1 Galley and 2 Spearmen as your only military ever built

Ah, you won't have to worry about Tuomerehu anymore, he was just spammin' his way up to 500 posts to get that custom avatar. I don't expect to see him around here anymore.

[Master Zen]

From experience I'll say people will always have an excuse to keep on spamming... I'm only half-way to Emperor...

anyways, seems like this is turning into a warmonger vs builder thread... I'd just like to add that no true warmonger discourages his builder instinct because that is the foundation of an even more poweful war machine.

[Theseus]

Damn right... production power wins the day, whether in cash, research, or military.

Can we say WW2? The Cold War?

Civ is so great.

[Master Zen]

I hear you bro!

How to get 2-turn tanks? 2-turn bombers? Being a simple warmonger is just not enough. You'll need the librarys and unviersities to get the techs, you'll need the techs to get the factories and the wonders, and THEN, you start kicking some serious @SS.

It's truly amazing what you can do with just 10+ cities with over 50 shields of production.

[Odin]

I have a relatively new computer, but waiting 3 minutes for the next turn is too long for me.: rant: I usually play on a standard or small map. I usually play Carthage, Persia, or Babylonia on a Pangaea or Continental map. Through my experience I have seen some good things do do on smaller maps.
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Mine most grassland untill you get hospitals, most cities can get to size 12 when all the grassland is mined.

Have some city overlap, space is at a premium on small maps. I don't like placing them too close together, ICS SUCKS. I overlap no more than 8 tiles unless there is a good reason for doing so.

REX ASAP, The AI seams to have diarrhea when it comes to settlers, Expansionist civs are even worse. You do not want to get stuck with not enough cities, REX like the AI, just build Barracks and maybe a Temple and then build settlers like crazy.

PREPARE FOR WAR! Lack of space will result in a lot of jostling for space when REXing is finished, keep you cities protected from oppurtunists who sneak-attack you when you have a RoP agreement. Germany is VERY guilty of this, don't trust them with RoP agreements.

[TriMiro]

Thanks for this tread. I myself have always been a builder and I tend to work more peacefully with other Civs. I hate Zulu AI for instance, he always attacks no-matter what. Even if I have infantry vs his Impies. Most of the others are not much better. When I start a war I make sure that first: no enemy will ever come to my teritory and second: I am so powerful that I have at least 2 to 1 for his units. Then I end it as fast as i can.

It wasn't too long ago that I realized the pleasure to play with France. I just wish I had done this earlier.

Thanks for the tread.

[Mountain Sage]

Tri Miro,

You're welcome

You can look at the AU207 Spoilers thread. I will be posting the 'History of the French' with lots of screenshots. It's a very interesting game with a bit of war and lots of building, on a huge map.

[MPatton]

I play French but I play a warmonger monarch government. I play on on huge. I select the middle one for barbarians. I build 10 cities or so conquer the rest. I like pangea. Pratically all my money goes to upgrades.
Current game Regent level 1770 and I have 70 tanks. Three of my cities make 1 tank a turn. Currently the only one who starts wars is me. I only trade luxury items I never trade strategic items. If a country has a crap load of culture raze every big city unless it has a working wonder.