Civilisation - A Few Pointers
                       by James Judge

As it seems that BMK has crawled back from the rock that he came
and died (now, stop cheering!), he has left his Civilisation
'guide' up in the air. How can we complete the game now that his
guiding hand has been removed?

Well, here are a few hintettes that you may find useful. Just
remember that there are no set rules to a game of Civilisation.
You don't do such and such when someone attacks EVERY single time.
Instead you just follow your instincts. So, instead of trying to
keep hold of all of your cities you may like to lose a really
small one to the barbarians so that they can harass your
neighbours.

There are also a few things which BMK said that I completely
disagree with (and so do a few other players who I've chatted
with).

To begin with, Earth is a relatively simple place to start. You
know where everything and everyone will (or should) be, and you
know that heading off to the Sahara desert to set up a few
productive cities isn't going to be easy.  Also due to the large
land segments you can move troops around VERY easily (especially
when there is a good road/rail network setup) and you can split
the continents up easily too. To separate Africa from Asia you
need just a fortress backed up by a phalanx unit or two. Europe
can be sectioned off by two or three phalanx units and the same
goes for dividing North and South America.  Australasia is pretty
scattered anyway, so there is no need to fiddle around there.

Starting on Earth with a relatively low difficult level can teach
you the fundamentals of the game and lets you build up effective
networks to cover large land masses. Also it saves fiddling around
with ships 'till later on in the scenario when you can afford to
lose one or two units through stupidity, or lose some time through
figuring out the best routes to get from A to B.


And, finally, you can choose whether you want a good starting
place (ie Europe or North America) or a poor one (Africa or South
America) by choosing the relevant civilisations. If, say, you
start as Romans you have sites for four great cities within easy
reach and, if the French are also playing, you get a city for free
(by moving your settlers into their undefended city).

As BMK said, you need a pretty good capital city. If it isn't one
of your largest cities doesn't really matter - I normally find
that my capitals top out at about 10 while three to six other
cities rocket on to the heady heights of 14 or 15. There's no real
point in moving your capital around, well, I haven't found any
benefits (apart from reducing corruption marginally as the level
of corruption is worked out from the city's distance from the
capital).

While on the subject of cities - get as many as possible. Three or
four by 1AD (as BMK suggested) isn't practical, especially on the
higher levels. If you have been given a particularly weak starting
position you will be unable to beat the opponents by taking their
cities over. Instead you will have to be prepared to have loads
and loads of units destroyed in protecting your precious cities.
If you can cram lots of cities into a small area you will be able
to create a good road network, place three or four chariots (and
the same number of catapults) onto them to give a really strong
coverage of your cities until gunpowder is invented. Also having a
few 'blocking' troops (such as three or four phalanx) wandering
around isn't a bad idea as it allows you to slow down the approach
of a marauding army.

Normally when I'm playing on Earth I create four cities as early
as possible, defend them with one or two Militia and then get them
to produce a settler each.  Then, as I cultivate the land around
the four cities (and when I mean cultivate I mean cultivate -
somehow change EVERY sector around your city by irrigating or
mining and add roads to EVERY SINGLE square to allow quick access.
It may be time consuming, but it really does come in useful later
on in the game when the city can make use of one extra square due
to its size and it has had it cultivated beforehand) I build up
the cities - starting with granaries, then a phalanx, then
barracks and so on. This way you'll get four cities that are about
the same level able to throw out a wide variety of units.

By the end of the game I end up with about thirty five cities on
Earth. This may seem a rather large empire, but it all comes down
to my methodology.

I never bother with Democracy as I find the senate too impeding
when it comes to treaties. Also, being unable to move units around
(without making someone unhappy) is severely disabling. Instead I
just keep to the Despot regime until three or four moves from the
end. Then I disband all my units, go to Democracy, make loads of
people entertainers (oh, and I remove all taxes) and (if
everything goes to plan) I will have a 'We Love The Emperor day in
99% of all my cities. This helps to boost up your score. (One time
I was able to get over 70% on the hardest level using this method
and I finished the game in the mid 12th century AD!).

As I never flip to being a Democratic leader, cash reserves aren't
plentiful, but by having, say, 15 REALLY strong cities with all
the improvements going and then a further 15 cities that are just
money makers (ie only a granary and temple, but a relatively large
population that gets loads of taxes for little old me (and the
city is able to throw out the odd attacking unit when needed too))
I find that my cash deposits very rarely dip below the 5000 mark
after the 13th century AD.

Now onto attacking cities. First off never (unless you are in a
strong position with only weak opponents remaining) send one unit
into a fight against a city - always send two or three. What I
find best is a really strong attacking piece (such as the cannon)
teamed with a knight and a phalanx. What this does is enable you
to use the knight as an outrider cum quick attack force to take
out anything that may threaten your cannon. The phalanx can
also be used as a blocking piece for moving through enemy
territory.  Finally, when you get to the city you wish to attack
put the cannon, knight and phalanx beside the city and then wait
for the next turn. Have the cannon attack the city and then (if
there is only, say, a phalanx defending the city) let the knight
have a go (but only once, his attacking strength is greatly
reduced with his next possible strike).  Keep on doing this until
there are no defenders left. Then let the phalanx walk in, take
over the city and provide instant defence.

Then move onto the next city with just the knight and cannon.
Employ the same attacking trick, but then let the knight enter the
city and provide defence.

Finally, let the cannon move on to a third city. If you have sent
two teams of these invaders (or maybe even three for a large-scale
take over) the cannon will be of little use as the next team will
be ploughing through another two cities.  If not, you can take a
chance that it won't be attacked and let it continue with
attacking the third city. It should easily take it over (as the
cannon is a damn fine piece of kit) and then be able to provide a
rudimentary defensive force until you are able to build a proper
force.

You should be pretty successful using this tactic, but don't be
scared of, say, piling two or three shipfuls of chariots into a
continent that you wish to take over and using the greater numbers
(hopefully) to your best advantage.

Another no-no when attacking is putting two or more pieces into
the same square. If you do have to do this try and make sure that
a defensive piece is placed onto the square last, otherwise the
whole lot only have the defensive capabilities of the top piece.
This means you could have ten knights being defended by a catapult
which isn't a very good move. This way you could lose eleven
pieces in one foul swoop.

Luckily the enemy really does like doing this, so wait for them to
start doubling the pieces and then attack - it makes your job
easier, after all.

BMK also said that it is a good idea to cultivate your enemies
territory before you attack, so you can 'fatten them up'. That's a
load of old tosh. As you are unable to enter friendly territory
without breaking a treaty, you are increasing the distance you are
from the city you wish to attack before you can actually attack.
This isn't a good idea as the enemy will be alerted to your
presence all that quicker. Anyway, it takes just as long
cultivating and then attacking as it does to attack and THEN
cultivate.

Other than that there is little which I can impart. Just remember
to have a rough idea of what you want to do when you launch an
attack, but don't worry if it all goes wrong. Basically, don't
hang your entire future on one out and out attack just in case it
goes seriously wrong.

Also don't bother at all with inciting a revolt (apart from in the
capital cities), subverting troops - especially inferior ones, or
investigating cities with diplomats. They are a good mapper,
though, if you want to find out the extent of an opponent's empire
and an embassy in all of the enemy civilisations is a must.

Remember to trade as often as possible. Trading from large cities
to large cities is a really good idea, as it generates more
revenue than trading from small to large or small to small.

Also when you are trying to finish the game peacefully try and get
rid of all the large empires and leave one or two really small
ones that will provide minimal opposition. That way you'll get
more of a peace bonus.

And finally, if there is no way you can save a city from an
imminent attack SELL ALL ITS IMPROVEMENTS!!!! That way you'll
still lose some money, but not as much...

For a guide as to the order in which you should invent
technologies (for a more efficient R+D team) see my other hint
file that'll be somewhere in the hallowed pages of SynTax.






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