From: woodhams@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Michael Woodhams)
Subject: Civilization cheats (was Re: Civilization Tournament)
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University Observatory
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 20:09:16 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.133006.89913@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> che347r@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
>My question is this. What are the movement tricks?
>(I'm still running v01, haven't applied the v03 or v04 patch yet)
>  

I've had Civilization for about a month, and this is the first time
I've read this group, so this information is probably not new to
long-time readers. However, here are the tricks I've found:

WARNING! DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS MESSAGE IF YOU ARE A BEGINER
PLAYER AND WANT TO TRY TO FIND THE TRICKS YOURSELF!

(some blank lines follow)









1) The Diplomat Scam: This is probably the "movement" trick mentioned.
Military land units cannot move from one square adjacent to an enemy
piece to another, unless the space they are moving into already
contains a friendly unit. Caravans, diplomats and airplanes are not
subject to this restriction, but do count as a friendly unit.  By
sending a diplomat (or plane or caravan) ahead, you can them move
military units into the same space, bypassing the restriction.
Futhermore, you can move military units onto the roads of an "ally"
without declaring war on them by this method. With apropriate use of
the "w" key, a single diplomat can escort units arbitrary distances
like this.

2) The Caravan Scam: Tell a city it is building a wonder, move
caravans in to add production, and then "change your mind" and build a
cathedral (or whatever) instead. This allows you to move production
from one city to another as long as there is a wonder you can build.
(I only play Emperor level now, and often there are no wonders
available, because the enemies have built them, or you have built them
as soon as possible to prevent the enemies from building them. Because
of this I haven't used this scam in my last couple of games.)

3) The Courthouse Scam (Money trick 1.) As long as you have some
production accumulated, improvements cost a straight 2 money per
shield to buy. Military units cost more. So, for example, saying you
are building a courthouse, buying it, then changing the production to
build an armour unit is cheaper than buying the armour straight. I
think that buying (say) a phalanx, then changing production to
diplomat and buying and then changing to chariot and buying is cheaper
than buying the chariot straigh, but I'm not certain.

4) The Militia Scam. (Money trick 2) When 'buying' units or
improvements, if you have NO production yet gone into that unit, costs
double (at least they do for improvements. I'm not sure about units.)
This means that buying every second turn at a city is much cheaper,
but if you absolutely HAVE to build something there this turn, buy the
cheapest thing available, change to what you actually want, and buy
the rest.

5) The UN Scam. (The first Emperor level game that I ever got past
1000 b.c. was won because I discovered this.) Build the UN. Sit a
diplomat near your one of your enemies cities. Roll 6 artillary up to
a (different) city of theirs (probably declaring war by using their
railways) and then send the diplomat to meet the king. They must
(because of the UN) make peace with you. Next turn, take the city with
the artillary, and again make peace. Repeat many times. Eventually,
this breaks down, because if you are the most powerful nation, others
tend not to keep peace treaties with you (real logical, huh.) By that
time, however, you don't need the help of this scam. Also, you can't
do it as a democracy or republic because you have to break treaties.

If any other scams have been discovered, I would appreciate hearing
about them.

Michael W.

P.S. blatent boasting about my best game:

At Emperor level, I colonized \alpha Cen in 1890 for a score of 148%.
I had 17 cities all with every useful improvement (except no
factories/prod plants in cities with low production rates), the
maximum sustainable population (37 for the largest city), and 3 trade
routes each. I had total pop of about 88 million, future tech about 20
or 30, and every currently opperating wonder. I was producing one new
tech per turn, I had no discontent people or entertainers, and made a
couple of hundred profit on taxes each turn. I was most powerful
nation from about 2000 b.c. onwards.

Basically I achieved this by being very militeristic from about
3000-2000 b.c. and conquoring the English who had been concentrating
on building wonders, and then very peaceful for the rest of the game,
with a strong emphasis on trade. I was playing on a young, hot, wet
planet, which also helped. Young planets seem to have much more
baroque continent shapes, so there was an isthmus I could easily guard
to protect me from the Chinese peril. Land was very food productive
due to the hot, wet climate. However, gold and gems seemed much rarer. 

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