From: jtgorman@cs.arizona.edu (J. Taggart Gorman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Civilization: capturing cities
Date: 21 Jan 93 04:39:45 GMT
Reply-To: jtgorman@cs.arizona.edu (J. Taggart Gorman)
Organization: Organization?  We don't need no steenking organization!
Discliamer: Upon my being captured or killed, my professors will
            disavow any knowledge of me, my statements, and/or
            my mission.


In article <1993Jan20.181034.3045@riscsm.scripps.edu>,
Citizen rjms@scripps.edu (Russell Mortishire-Smith) writes :
>So I managed to get a copy of Civilization, and haven't got much sleep the
>last couple of days! The game looks and plays great, but the manual sucks
>in terms of the actual mechanics of playing the game. So my first,
>no doubt of many, questions is this ... how do I capture a city and 
>bring it under control? If I attack it, it seems to get destroyed. Is
>the only way to actually take it over to send in a diplomat? My own
>cities seem to get occupied by barbarians even when they don't use diplomats.
>(Yes, I know, more defense needed!)

  Sleep?  We don't need no steeking sleep!

  I got Civ on Friday and have played Banzai Civ since.  I played 5 games, got
beat horribly, sat down and read the manual, played 2 games - won my first on
Chieftain, got pummeled on Warlord, read the manual once more, then took
over the world in 2019 on Warlord.
  Yes, only 2019 and I only hit 31%, but this is only like my 8th game.  I'm
working on it!!!  :)

  So my first hint?  RTFM.  Big time.  And several times.
  Next hint.  Watch where the computer builds cities.  It rarely screws up
in placement.  Learn why it places cities where it does.  Look for area with
grasslands, rivers and hills.  (I built Rome in my last game in the middle of
hills, rivers and grasslands - it would spew out an armor unit every other
turn.)  If you get in a war (and who wants to play Civ and not get in a
war? :), you need to be able to spew out armies and not have to worry about
your cities losing major amounts of production to army upkeep.
  One last hint.  Don't be afriad.  Attack.  The computer, esp. the Zulus and
Aztecs are not afriad to lose a few units to gain a new tech or a new city.  I
used to play peaceful up to 1800 or so then go on the warpath, but I got alot
further by going to war early.  Like right after I built 4 chariots.  (The
Chinese were just _too_ close...)  If you end up in a high tech war, you NEED
Women's Suffrage so you can stay a Republic and keep a huge army in the field.
If someone builds WS before you, find the city, build tons of troops, but keep
them in the building cities.  Drop down to Communism and set out for the city.
If the city is relatively behind the lines, just 1 transport filled with armor
and the support of a battleship can take it out.  Once you have WS, build
material like crazy and never accept envoys or peace, unless you run out of
units and need them badly.  (I nearly ran out of units several times, but I
lost them in constant seiges of the Zulus.  As a result, they were in not in
any position to go on the offense.)

  As for the question posed above, here's why you can't seem to take enemy
cities:
  If an attacker destroys a unit in a city than does not have city walls, the
city will lose 1 pop.  City walls keep the civies from dying.  So what is
happening is that you are attacking cities of size x and have x-1 units in
them.  (Or you only attack once a turn and the city rebuilds a defender
every time, drawing out the battle.)  When you have destroyed all the
defenders, the city is of size 1.  If you move troops in, the city will be
destroyed.  So you can move in and wipe out the city, or leave the fight and
let the city build up, so you can attack some other day.

|--------------------------------|    "If you were happy all of your life,
|      J. Taggart Gorman Jr.     |     you wouldn't be human - you'd be a
| jtgorman@caslon.cs.arizona.edu |     game show host."
|--------------------------------|             Winona Ryder, in _Heathers_
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games