From: jbm@hal.trl.OZ.AU (Jacques Guy)
Subject: Re: Civilization - Help on Higher Levels?!
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:00:03 GMT

Warning: there is nothing new in what follows, just a lot of 
stuff from much earlier posts in this group, and practically
nothing I discovered myself.

First, you can play either for civilization (aiming at advances)
or thuggery (aiming at early conquest).

In either case, you must breed like rabbits, while defending 
your territory.

Playing for thuggery first. 
Aim at these 3 discoveries: Bronze (for phalanxes), Pottery
(for granaries), the Wheel (for chariots).
Build in each city, first a phalanx (or a militia if you
don't have bronze), second a granary.

Third depends on circumstances. If you are at war but not
pressed by enemies, build Barracks. If you are pressed,
build Chariots, or, if you do not have the Wheel yet,
Phalanxes. Use the Chariots to attack, the Phalanxes to
defend territory. If you are at peace, or at war but
have the upper hand, and no enemy units in the vicinity,
and the population of that city is 3 or more, or 2 but
about to increase (Granary near full), build settlers,
but do not have more than 1 Settler unit per city 
(they're a lot of drain on food resources). Use the
Settlers to build roads, and irrigate plains. Don't
bother irrigating grassland, rivers, desert, hills,
forests: you will be in Despotism for a long time,
probably the whole game, and irrigated rivers and
grassland make no difference then. When the city of
origin of a Settler unit grows to an unmanageable
population (demanding temples and what nots), have
the Settlers build a city, and build new Settlers
in the town of origin to reduce the population.
Before Settlers build a city, have them build roads
and irrigate where it matters around the site of
the future city. 

You'll probably have to set taxes about 50% once you
have a Granary in each city, but it doesn't matter:
you're not after advances. The aim is to rid the
continent you're on of anybody else. 

In the early years, use Chariots to explore as
much as possible, and ferret out what's in those
huts. Huts in locations where *you* might think
worth building a city often turn out to be advanced
tribes. If the location is adverse (hills, mountains,
swamps, etc) they never seem to turn into advanced
tribes. The danger is them releasing a barbarian
horde. If you have enough chariots and fear a hut
turning into barbarian hordes, surround it with
chariots first: barbarians only appear in *unoccupied*
squares immediately adjacent to the hut.

Fourth, develop Mapping to build Triremes and conquer
other continents. By that time you may have
acquired Navigation out scrolls of ancient wisdom or
from conquered civilizations; in that case there is
no need to develop mapping. In this game, I never bother
to build any wonders, and let corruption go rampant,
never building courthouses either. 


Playing for civilization.

To be done only when alone on your continent, free
of pesky neighbours (they are *always* pesky, and
the Indians are *NOT* peace-loving, give me the
Babylonians and Egyptians any time). Turn into
a Republic as soon as possible, build city walls
at least for those cities on or near the coast,
aim at developing Railroad as soon as possible.
The first Wonder I try to build then is the
Colossus, the next one Copernicus' Observatory,
in the same city. This means discovering Trade
very soon, and churning out caravans to help 
build those Wonders. After Railroad, I try 
for Industrialization as soon as possible to
build factories.  When in Republic, never, ever,
accept to meet with anyone from another civilization.
That leaves you free to attack them when you please.
Aim at huge cities. Irrigate and put rail on every
single square, rivers included. Mine every mountain
and put a railroad there. You can turn shieldless grass land
into forest by mining it, then the forest into
plains by irrigating it, and irrigate the plain 
again -- ends up more productive than irrigated shieldless
grassland. At the same time, it's unwise to leave
other civilizations in peace. Better to keep weakening
them. Destroying their cities is better than conquering
them. If you conquer a city you have to defending it.
Eventually some will be lost, and, much worse, the 
enemy will acquire some of your civilization advances.
I hate it when a neighbour that has not progressed
beyond the wheel steals Armor and starts churning out
tanks upon tanks. It's totally unrealistic, too.

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