From: walk@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Todd Walk)
Subject: Re: Civ: Democracy is a messad
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 21:15:12 GMT

rajat@watson.ibm.com (Rajat Datta) writes:

>In article <BvIA79.21C@news.cso.uiuc.edu> walk@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Todd Walk) writes:
>>
>>Well I always switch to democracy and am usually mopping up the last 
>>stranglers at ~1830 on v4.
>>

>That's apparently the way to do this.  My wife switches to Democracy
>as soon as she possibly can, boosts trade up as high as she possibly
>can, and by 100AD she's usually got enough money coming in each turn
>to buy up every enemy city within reach, enough luxuries to have her
>people multiplying like rabbits, while still getting new inventions
>every 4 or 5 turns.  She builds temples, libraries & marketplaces,
>banks, cathedrals in priority order.  By cathedral timeframe she can
>choose to build whatever she wants.  As for WOWs, Bach, Women's
>Suffrage, maybe Colossus depending on starting conditions, Cure for
>Cancer are the most important.  Magellan and Darwin's Voyage are next
>in importance.  By the time Apollo rolls around she can either mop up
>the 2 or 3 remaining cities or go for space colony as she fancies in
>that game.

>And this is on Emperor level on v4.  Which is supposed to be (rumored,
>anyway) impossible to win.  Her last game was over by 1650, and she
>had at least 4 screenfuls of cities listed.

>She never builds granaries or city walls since early on in the game
>they are tremendously time consuming to build (better off building
>settlers and founding new cities), and by the later stages they are
>pretty superfluous.  City walls are, anyway.  No barracks either until
>later in the game when the increase in effectiveness of bombers and
>battleships vs. their cost to build make it worthwhile.  Courthouses,
>of course, under democracy, are completely worthless.

>Personally, following her strategy, I can now win consistently and
>overwhelmingly at King level.  I haven't played at all in Emperor
>level since I've got Linux installed now and am spending all my time
>playing with that.  Every variation I have tried I have met with
>inconsistent results.  Basically, the importance of trade in this game
>is overwhelming.  With high trade, you can have high luxuries, which
>results in more people, more taxes which means you can buy just about
>anything you want, and your people stay happy.  Increased people also
>mean increased production.  And the way to have the greatest amount of
>trade is to go to democracy.

>Most of my friends I've seen play don't seem to understand the
>importance of luxuries.  Luxuries are important partly because people
>are kept happy or content, but much more importantly, can trigger a
>population explosion.  And if you're ready for that, a large
>population will make your civ unbeatable.
>--
This is pretty much like my strategy, but I head first to religon 
(to get bach's) then trade (caravans to build wonders) then to communisum
(United Nations, best defence of the game).  I make peace with everyone
until I get UN and then I buy up everyone.
     
					Todd Walk
					walk@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games