I was playing a demo of Alpha Centurai the other day, and it's pretty cool. However, i prefer Civ II because...well, just because. It's Earth.

However, I loved the brilliant new abilities on AC. For instance, actual boarders of territory, advanced diplomatic screen, sea bases and loads of other things.

I haven't played the newest Civvy game (the half 3D one, with future). I was wondering, is this a mix between the two games, i.e. Civ II but with better additions? Because I wouldn't mind getting it, if it was for the Mac...

Also, what's your best strategy on Civ II?

I had a good conversation with OF on this one, and I have two favourites:

1.
Ancient: Build good defences, attacking is almost useless. Just build Phalanxes (4 or 5 is best) and sit out any attacks. Get city walls built early so you have defence which lasts for ages. Try to ally with someone quickly in order to have at least one friend to help you out in times of need.

Middle: Build dragoons and musketeers mainly, with good balance between attack and defence. It's good to attack but beware of attacks yourself. Build fortresses throughout your empire, as stops for any advancing armies.

Modern: The best of times. Fundamentalist or a Communist government is best for war, but if you want a peaceful society then Republic or Democracy is good (gets the money and research in). If under attack and a democracy, either get Woman's Sufferage or change to a republic. Build lots of spies, tanks, howitzers and bombers. You'll be invincible.

2.
Just expand your empire very quickly, by building loads of Settlers. Don't worry about cities, and pay only a little bit of time to defence. With a huge empire, you'll produce things very quickly, perfect for war, trading or money-making.

What say?
~Gav

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I can't be bothered to think up a witty, funny or no-sense sig.
-Sorry

I always preffered to try to get chariots as early as possible, and take as much from my neighbors as possible early. With superior fast units and a handy river or two, you can keep up an offensive a good distance from your own cities. If you do this, they need less defense because your opponant wont be able to send any at you. Also, until they get legions, I love to park phalanxes a)right next to their cities giving the poorly defended chariots a place to safewly stay during the opponants turn and on any good procuction squares they have.

Later in the game, my opinion is that a unversal rail system is an early need. With every city linked and a few airports or transport links accross short bays, ANY unit can be ANYWHERE in 1 or 2 turns. This means you dont need nearly as many units and can concentrate virtually all your forces in one or two locations without worrying about defense.

Also, get those wonders. The main one I remember you need is Leonardo's Workshop (or something like that). Free upgrades actually give you a reason to put off researching cars before you have gotten every advanced unit below that.

Granted I havent played much for a while, but I did spend ridiculous amount of time on it. If I say something that sound really stupid, its probably because it is.

jimmy

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After playing "old school" civ, I started to play CivII, my strategies remain generally the same.

1. Peaceful
Usually I only play this on med-large islands where I'm the only player present.
- build the maximum number of cities you can fit on the island without overlapping their production areas as quickly as possible, with any spare settlers, create necessary tile improvements
- sit back and keep on building wonders and city improvements
- research tech that gives you spaceships fastest
- keep science at maximum until your funds start running low, then switch so that your science is nil, but your income is huge - stay this way until you have roughly 15 turns of cash for your cities, then switch back

Using this technique, you can advance exceedingly rapidly, building spaceships at around 1700 if you do it well

2. Not Peaceful
This works very well in crowded continents
- closely pack your cities, do not use tile improvements at all except maybe some roads
- once catapults can be built, stop all research
- do not build city improvements at all
- see how many units you can build, then use them

This technique is a rush tactic, designed to capture enemy cities before they get a chance to build an army of their own to defend themselves, and even if they do manage to build city walls, don't sop attacking, one of your horde is bound to get through. My best result using this tactic is conquest of the world by 700 BC.

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(No Shuttlecraft were harmed in the making of this post)

At what difficulty level?

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My strategy?

Early in the game:
Build phalanxes in all your cities for defense, and then Barracks, until you discover Polytheism.

Then, make all your cities build Elephants except one, make that one build the Lighthouse. Send your Elephants to explore and Conquer the land arround you. After you build Lighthouse, get Elephants on tririmes and establish contact (and Conquer) other civilizations you find there.

For the military, I only build Elephants and the units they evolve into (Crusaders, Dragoons, etc.). To upgrade my massive forces, I build Leonardo's Workshop; to avoid having to build city walls, I build great wall. Until I get Ironclads and fighters, of course.

I like totaltarian governments. Democracy and Republic dosn't let my play dirty, and everytime one of my diplomats/spies gets caught poisioning city water suplies or knocking down city walls or something, the Democracy or Republic collapses, that sucks. Monarchy and Communism all the way.

Basically, I believe that a strong army of state-of-the-art offensive units, the correct Wonders of the World, and lots of espionage leads to inevitable victory.

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I usually play at King or Emperor level.

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(No Shuttlecraft were harmed in the making of this post)

Totally. I find that because I only ever play the computer (expensive and slow internet connection) and they're just too powerful on Deity. King all the way, but I want to upgrade to Emporor soon (I am an emporor at heart).

My favourite government would be the Despotism type, if only the corruption wasn't so high and the penalties of resources. I think it's a nice idea to have a higher population able to support military freely. Makes sense to me.

I like to have 2 phallanxes, one archer for early. That equals good defence, but if something too strong like an elephant comes, you still have a reasonably powerful attacker waiting to intercept.

Wow, I was expecting more replies to this. Either it's been posted before or Civ II isn't as popular as I first suspected...
~Gav

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I can't be bothered to think up a witty, funny or no-sense sig.
-Sorry

Yay! A topic I can truly ramble about.
What I tend to do is start by expanding as rapidly as I possibly can and capturing heaps of territory - 1. build city 2. build phalanx/pikeman/whatever 3. build settlers 4. goto 1. Once each city has built a settler or two it gets to build improvements, but churning out some settlers is the very first priority.
One thing I'll try to do with building cities is build some cities at various places far away on the same continent, and expand from them until the various bubbles of expansion meet each the primary one. What people have said about road and rail is absolutely true, and they're especially useful for cannons and artillery that take forever to move anywhere. Also, once railways really start to happen, your largrest cities can become monstrous production thingies, sending off a tank every 3 turns or so straight to the front lines.
This rapid expansionist thing tends to leave me a bit poor, but this changes later on when I build Adam Smith's Trading Co - undoubtably one of the most useful wonders.
Once I encounter another civ or two, I capture as many of their cities as I can early on, as the diplomatic repercussions of being a real bastard are almost non-existent at this point, especially if you've only met a few civs, as people can't ally against me if the people they're trying to ally with haven't met me. If the civ is on the same continent as me, I'll try to quickly contain them with fortresses and archers, denying them access to huge areas of unclaimed territory so I can colonise at my leisure.
Furthermore, the civ I'm containing will tend to get desperate and 'sneak attack' me to get past, and the great thing about this is that I can then take a few of their cities without fear of alliances being activated, or too many diplomatic repercussions, because that stupid civ has just knocked its reputation down in the eyes of its allies.
All of this is empire building in preparation for the 'big' wars, which I tend to fight exclusively with cavalry if I can.

Lastly, probably one of my favourite little things to do in Civ2 is, if I haven't built it myself, to send a win-at-all-costs incursion into enemy territory to capture Leondardo's workshop. If I manage to hold it for two turns or so, all of my old, crap units nationwide get upgraded.
Oh yeah, and I always play on King or Emperor, but never Deity. Not satisfying enough. Too hard.

Well, that's all I can think of for the moment. Sorry if I've repeated something that someone else has said, but I don't think I've done that *too* much this time.
SMAC was tedious, bring on Civ3!

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"...as we talked excitedly about shovels and precipitation..."

[This message has been edited by Veillord (edited 09-27-2001).]

I don't care about diplomatic reputation - if others don't like it, they can taste my steel. I like to be war with 3 or 4 people at once, I hold back my forces and let them surround me. Then I release a torrent of tanks, howitzers, fanatics, bombers and battleships.

Who needs the element of surprise when you can have the element of brute force?


~Gav

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I can't be bothered to think up a witty, funny or no-sense sig.
-Sorry

Hmm. I usually just sit and defend until I can build Carriers, Fighters/Bombers/Helicopters, Battleships, and Cruisers. Then, I load my carriers, split them into pairs and use the Battleships and Cruisers to keep those damn subs and cruise missiles away (there's nothing worse than losing a full carrier to cruise missiles). I tend to do this even on maps that are probably better suited for land battles, but moving ground troops just seems to take too long for me. Plus, the carriers make a great coastal defence, so I usually only have 3 units defending my cities.

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<Insert Signature Here>

Brute force, huh?
Well, the thing is, if too many people don't like me, and I'm the top civ, they all ally against me. You don't seem to mind this, but I just don't like losing ANY of my cities to anyone (all that hard work pillaged to mediocrity and beyond...), so I usually prefer to war against people who I can beat without sweating too much, and always only one or two at a time (max 3). I guess I'm a bit paranoid, but I like my cities. Lots of them. I rarely come 2nd in the population demographic.
I've never found a good use for naval units other than ironclads (bombing the crap out of stone-age coastal cities) and transports. Maybe I should try something with carriers in the game I'm playing now...
Any more naval strategies, people?

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"...as we talked excitedly about shovels and precipitation..."


[This message has been edited by Veillord (edited 09-28-2001).]

Yeah, the only thing I really use naval units for is transporting troops and attacking cities from the coast. But I also like to have a few by my coastal cities to kill Barbarian transports before they land and more barbarians come out.

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"On the way to Jerusalem, a man came up to Jesus and said "You are the one whose mother, they say, is a virgin." Jesus replied "You are the one whose mother, they say, is so fat that her butt has its own tax collector." The man wept and Jesus walked on, victorious." - bigfurrydeal 403 error message
DrippingChipmunk.com
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Yeah, defence against barbarians is all well and good, but then you've gotta keep on hitting the space bar every turn to skip past the ships when there aren't any barbarians nearby...

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"...as we talked excitedly about shovels and precipitation..."

That's what Sleep mode is for

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Beneath the "s" key on your keyboard is a miniature telescreen. I am watching you.

Sleeping.

Oh yeah. Oops. Should've thought of that.

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"...as we talked excitedly about shovels and precipitation..."

Carriers are quite useful. I protect them from cruise missiles with AEGIS Cruisers, whose defense against missiles is 40. Just load a bunch of stealth bombers on a carrier and go kick the crap out of someone.

For ground forces, I use howitzers, mech inf.'s, and spies. The mechs protect the howitzers, the howitzers do the killing, and spies scout and do the dirty work. Works like a charm...

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"I may detest what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire

I use a balanced fleet, with destroyers and AEGIS cr. patrolling the core of carriers and battleships. Moreover i dedicate carriers, i.e.: 1 for fighters, one for bombers, one for missiles.
Ras


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I played civilisation2 last weekend but sadly didnt I find it very intersting I like games like Starcraft...
But alpha centuari was an good game!

Will civ3 be ported to mac?

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The romans The best SC Clan on the net!

[This message has been edited by Desert-Rat (edited 10-20-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Desert-Rat (edited 10-20-2001).]

Considering the number of topics you've just posted in, you should try to make your posts a bit more relevant

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Go for Philosophy followed by a direct thrust for invention to build Leonardo's workshop ASAP. Build up your city defenses with phalanxes and some city walls particularly in border and sea bordering cities. If you are at war with anyone, build a city or fortress in a forest or mountainrange close to their border (at least early in the game). That will make their chariots unable to sweep in and attack in one turn. Build roads back to your civ so that your units can cros fast and easily, but not theirs. Toss in about four phalanxes and a few catapults depending on the enemy strength, and preferrably a barracs and city wall. When you get the workshop, you can sit back and relax on the building front much more, as the units will upgrade automatically, thus your defense will remain strong if you research fast enough.

In Civ 1 I'd skip City Walls though, at king (or was that emperor, I can't recall) they cost an expensive five gold a turn.

Short version; Research all the way!

As for your comment where you mentioned "Go for tanks", I disagree. Howitzers beat tanks big time. Especially if your empire has a good railroad network. Tanks are too weak. As are choppers. Bombers howitzers and a few subs with cruise missiles. Avoid carriers if you can, if you use a carrier be sure to stay far away from the enemy shore, and send in lots of bombers followed by a chopper to take a city fast. Then, use the city as a base, avoiding the danger of an unseen sub or some AEGIS cruisers the enemy might send in to sink your carrier.

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[This message has been edited by WebWarrior (edited 10-25-2001).]

My best achievement was to conquer all seven enemy factions in the SMAC demo. In about 70 turns.

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Hmm...lets see...what to do when you're outgunned, outnumbered and outpositioned...it says here: Don't have a battle.
-Tacticus, Jingo

Do you mean Civilization III or Civilization: Call to Power? Totally different games, but since Civ II wasn't out when you posted this, I'll take a gamble.

Call to Power is an alright game, but it isn't as good as Civ II was. True, nicer graphics, movement system a la Alpha Centauri, but I found the interface much to clumsy, building units etc. could not be done as in Civ II but had to be done via a universal city menu, where build queues are set. You can technically do it individually, but the interface is even worse.

Call to Power also has other wierd features such as the working day which affects city happines, ability to terraform terrain if you have enough of the points to do so, animated units that actually walk. But it just didn't grab me like Civ II. Some of the wonders are far less impressive (Contraception, The Agency, Sensorium) whilst some I could do with in Civ II (Gaia Controller, Eden Project). Also, the new method of winning, the Alien Life Project is quite buggy, as my game kept "forgetting" that I actually had build various pieces of the project, costing me valuable time.

The space and sea colony aspects are good in theory, but space works woefully in practise. Never played with sea much. Oh, and also, there is no map of 'Earth' included with the game, and as far as I can tell you cannot give your civilization a custom name. You can pick your name, but not that of you Civ!

Overall, Call to Power is a flawed version of Civilization. Yes, it's Civ and you'd probably like it, but I'd advise just playing Civ II and SMAC until Civ III comes out in February. After all, at least Civ III was designed by Sid Meier.


-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

Actually owning a copy of Civ CTP, I can say that yes, it's not nearly as good interface-wise as Civ 2, and bits of it are buggy. My main problem with it is the woeful lack of AI. Crushing entire civilisations with space bombers and swarms (I find juggernauts WAY too slow, even if their att, def & range values are 40), or bombers carrying nukes, is not particularly hard, the enemy's only defence being the fact that numbers make much more of a difference in a battle than technology (its common to see 4 musketeers (4/4/4) beat 2 Storm Marines (24/0/24)).

But what you say about space cities being woeful... the space mega-ore processor thingy produces a whopping 95 production.... the only mines being more productive are undersea megamines built on volcanoes, which produce 105. A fully developed space city can have populations of 60+ and the capacity to build almost everything in a single turn.

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[This message has been edited by God (edited 20-20-6003).]

Yes, that is true, but when building units up in space cities, the game often would not let me move them to the surface, or would lock itself up. Thus, whilst I admit that space cities themselves being good for production, for me they caused more problems than they solved. And as to the undersea mines.... I didn't really use sea cities much.

If anyone knows about a patch for Mac Call to Power, or if I get bored with Summoner, I might start to play it again. I must confess that I didn't play it much, due to the problems with the interface, bugs and the 'feel' of the game, but they were compounded by me only having 64 MB of RAM. Now that I have 320MB, maybe some of the problems will go away.....


-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

I have the PC version.. It doesn't seem to have these problems.

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[This message has been edited by God (edited 20-20-6003).]

I did it in 68 turns.

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'The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day when they start making vacuum cleaners'

[quote]Originally posted by Talon Karrde:
...conquer all seven enemy factions in the SMAC demo. In about 70 turns.  

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'The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day when they start making vacuum cleaners'