From: mperry@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: CIV: small cities are better
Date: 6 Nov 92 13:20:59 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

> but whatever version you have, you can take advantage of small
> cities to outgrow all other opponents for the first 2500 years, and
> then do something else.
What is the time scale in V1.0? In the deluxe version on my Brother-in-Laws
PC it is 20 years per turn to 1000AD (250 turns from 4000BC to 1000AD). As
such, I don't see how you can do so much in the first 2500 years. 
Consider a start:

You build a city in 4000BC
You build your first militia in 3880 (or worse).
	what do you do with it? wonder round and map? try to find scrolls of
	wisdom? find money? block the enemy? get tech from the enemy?
	Problem - the militia wont last 5 minutes doing anything but wander and
	block the enemy.
You build your first settler next in 3480 (this is being generous)
Build second city in 3420
Build third in 3100

1000 years has gone by and you have 3-4 cities, and tech? what tech?
On emporer level the number of barbarians around is tremendous, you need armies
around in the early stages (2500 yrs) to stop the loss of cities.

My experience with barbarians at emporer level suggests that you need more
armies. Problem 2, getting your settler from an inward city to make an outer
city.

My strategy:
set science on 100%. 
	Develope along wheel, demorcracy, mathematics, religion, rest.
build 1'st city stait off.
build 3 militia units - two to map and block, one to guard.
	leave possible scrolls alone.
build settlers and make more cites well spaced around.
	defend all outer cities with one army.
develope every city square (after a while I have about 6 settlers moving in
	force developing every square)
As soon as you can, change to monarchy for extra production.
As soon as you can, change to democracy and put luxery rate up.
	build temples, cathedrals
Send a veteran army (usually phalanx) around and pick up all the scrolls, 
	(do as soon as you get a veteran phalanx)
Declare peace with all other nations, and exchange tech. Before turning
	Democracy, break all treaties, and never meet with others again.
Change tax level to pay all bills and have a few $$ left.
Build caravans in mass, send amoung your best producers.
Build no more than two wonders in each city (buld caravans instead, the
	population seams happier)
Use diplomats to protect any outlying cities and to buy more. 
Build extra cites to mop up all the gaps between large cites and to 
	increase sea trade.
Did I mention railroad every sector accessable by a city (including sea)
Set up some central mass producers (with lots of mines, or forest) and produce
	all the army requirements for the continent. Later all the mines and
	forests can be irrigated to get more population.
If you can, destroy/take enemy cities. Taking an enemy capital is a bonus - do
	it.

By 1000BC you have a small thriving democracy comunity which is developing and
expanding and growing at an enormous rate. You build a new city, you develope
around it. You build the next. With a reasonable luxery rate and
temples/cathedrals you can have two armies out of every large city, enough to
attack anyone (with womans sufferage). You should be the tech leader.
I generally buy the granery for each city, and the aqueduct (and sometimes an
odd army and a cathedral or temple), and mass transit to reduce polution.
When polution gets to be a problem I irrigate the hills and remove the forests
and irrigate them - this increases the population and removes possible
polution. Sometimes (like when playing on earth) the lands of russia are full
of forest so it can be advisable to remove forest from near the start
(usually one line of irrigation from one side of the continent to the other)
Even if you are behind, taking an enemy capital has a decided effect. Enough
armies, and even militia will take the enemyies fortified riflemen. I had two
fortified riflemen on wednesday defending a small city. The russians attacked
with 12 units of catapults/militia/knights/phlanx/muskeeteers and lost 9 units,
but they still took the city! 
You can steal tech twice - once you steal the tech, the second you incite a 
revolt and take the city - with money you can catch up tech.

Some say the pyramids are important, I only have anarcy once in the game, as I
change from monarchy to democracy, building the pyramids seams a waste for
three turns of anarchy - I would need to have lost 300 shield production to
find building worth while. Anarchy is bad when many cities are unhappy, but
someone else has ussually built the pyramids anyway.