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rah
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Apolyton Prince of Moderators, Master of Reason
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Lord of the Ferrets
Jan 1970 time: 23:18
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The damage is already done. You shouldn't have let them build those cities in the first place. (I know it's obvious) But how do you stop them?
1. Keep caravans in waiting (or obsolete non-units)on good terrain in areas where you suspect it likely to occur. (this will cost you a caravan every now and then through sneak attack, but if you have cities cranking food caravans every turn, no great lose)
2. Shadow those settlers when they show. If you have an offensive unit next to a settler, it is not likely that it will create a city. Keep a spy with the unit and if a city is made, it should be cheap and then you can disband it.
If all this fails (because of demo), the city must be trashed as quickly as possible. (OR YOU learn to live with it and quit whinning about it) If you have SOL, just revolt and kill it. Take the opportunity while you're not in Democ to demand some tribute. If you have the UN, you can make peace again. And if it's that late in the game where they all hate you, you're going to be at war with almost everyone anyway, so don't worry about it.
OR THE DEAL WITH IT APPROACH>
Go claim the overlap square for your city to use with an offensive unit. Once you've claimed it. Hold it with diplos, settlers or caravans to keep him from claiming it back. Or if you have a lot of resources, just alternate a couple of bombers parking there every other turn.
Ok, not all of this is foolproof, but it should hopefully stimulate some ideas.
RAH
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Campo
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Buffalo, NY, USA
Oct 1999 time: 00:18
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I wouldn't tolerate those cities -- not only are they a recurrent annoyance, but once you get space flight they'll be harassing you with attackers and spies, which will be very hard to control being so close to your cities.
I haven't seen the save game so I'm not sure how big they are, but you should be able to bribe the cities. If they're still small (or you've built up your treasury) you can bribe them "x2" which prevents an incident. Bribery (regular or x2) would be my first choice.
My second choice would be conquest. Build and position units in preparation for when you can change governments, then conquer quickly. You can either use or disband the cities.
As rah said, after that you should position units where you think they arrived. I'd use spies because they're mobile, don't require support or cause unhappiness, and can bribe AI settlers. While it's true that they won't found a city while you're trailing them, it gets really tedious following them around everywhere.
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-Jrabbit
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of the Electronic Egyptians
Feb 2002 time: 23:18
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OK, so I'm about to finish 1921 and it hasn't gone too badly. Savegame is attached.
My biggest question is this -- Should I bother with Cure for Cancer? I've been ignoring it while working on things like coastal defenses, rooting out enemy evil on my shores, etc. But now the Persians are researching toward it, so I need to make a decision.
Getting rid of the cities was fun. Needed to get them to declare war (not too tough) and required the good fortune of a couple rounds of Senate approval to finish the job, but I got it done and stayed in Democracy the whole time.
So, how about Cure 4 Cancer? My inclination is to go for it. I've got about 5 caravans stashed so it wouldn't take long. Certainly the extra happiness couldn't hurt, I like the idea of letting the Persians waste a lot of shields on it, then taking it away. (so they can't use it to buy more troops).
The isolationist plan is coming together. With flight, I'm now building coastal air patrols to warn of incoming ships, and can strafe their freights before they get t me. That should buy me some time.
Mass Production is next. Still at 3 years between techs.
Outside wisdom always welcome.
Attachment: -jrabbit 1921.zip
This has been downloaded 5 time(s).
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-Jrabbit
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of the Electronic Egyptians
Feb 2002 time: 23:18
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HUNDREDS??
Remember, this is an AC run and I'm trying to play defense to get there.
My current spy force is a mixed bag of vets and non- (have been building barracks to upgrade my overall force to vets per advice received here / thx SG). I have one spy in just about every city and several spares on patrol. I'm also building vet defensive units (marines and alpine troops) to upgrade my old riflemen as I go. Port cities are getting subs to help fight off the cruisers etc. Just about every port city now has coastal fortress and city walls.
I was (am) afraid to produce too many military types due to being in democracy and then creating unhappiness. (I want to keep my tech acquisition no worse than every 3 turns.) I have noticed that cities with 4 or 5 military still seem relatively OK on happiness, which was not true 100 years or so ago. Does this change over time, or did I just finally get enough temples and marketplaces?
I'm hoping to avoid going commie unless I absolutely have to, and I would prefer to keep my cash for the SS build (at which time I will likely go fundy).. Right now, my isolation allows me to limit their attack points, which should improve as I get more Fighters available to do shore patrol.
I am, however, considering making some poison runs to nearby enemy port cities (per Campo) while I'm still war with everyone. Probably not yet, as cruisers and marines are their best units, and no enemy is yet researching either flight or battleships.
Any thoughts on Cure For Cancer? Worthwhile Y/N? I've never built it before...
Thanx again rah... 
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Six Thousand Year Old Man
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Ad Rock
Aug 2000 time: 00:18
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OK. I'm nowhere near as good as Ming, Rah or the SGs... but here's my thoughts.
The Gits are right - you can have too many units. For the number of cities you have vs. the number the AI has, probably 1 good defensive unit in each city is enough. Coastal cities that are being bombarded a lot may need more. But if your civ is connected by rail, you can rush armor or mech inf. or spies or howitzers to wherever trouble crops up. With your air forces you should be able to see them coming. And use spies to buy your opponents rather than necessarily killing them... buy one unit with the spy, and use it to attack the other AI units. The AI is too dumb to do the logical thing, which is to send three transports over loaded with troops and spies and covered by battleships. It attacks piecemeal, so you don't need to worry about a 20-unit attack force popping up on the horizon, unless you have a very, very big AI Civ facing you.
Also. Spies have no maintenance cost and don't cause unhappiness. Fighters and stealth fighters don't cause unhappiness, but bombers and missiles ALWAYS cause unhappiness, even in a home city. So if happiness is an issue, you may want to build more fighters and spies and fewer ships, bombers and missiles. If shields are an issue, build spies.
You'll gradually get a feel for how much defense is needed... but 2-3 ground units per city is usually excessive, I find.
Specials. You might already know this, but any square with a special resource on it (wheat, coal, oil, fish, whales, spice etc) is herein called a 'special'. If you position a city in the right square when you found the city, you can take advantage of a maximum of 4 specials. This is an advantage (especially in the early going), because a city working a special will get more trade/production/food than otherwise. Thus, if you have a city working 4 specials, it will be very valuable, more likely than not. And if you reforest or transform Grassland squares that 'fit' the special pattern, a special may appear on the new terrain, since Grassland doesn't have specials. That's what a 'hidden special' is. Am I making sense? 
Anyway, making a city with 2 or 3 trade specials and a lot of grass, plains or rivers into a SSC makes good sense because it will produce an unusual amount of arrows... and when you add multipliers like the science improvements and wonders, colossus and superhighways, the science output can get downright scary. Like 1 advance/turn!
Oh, also, barracks don't produce vet spies, IIRC - only communism or a successful mission can do that.
Good luck.
STYOM
Last edited by Six Thousand Year Old Man on 16-03-2002 at 06:03
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-Jrabbit
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of the Electronic Egyptians
Feb 2002 time: 23:18
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Well, my wife had a killer migraine so I couldn't leave the house Friday for the usual hang with Ming and rah. Which means I got to play a bit. Then a little more while watching Illinois and SIU kick tail on Sunday.Per Scouse Gits suggestion, I took Taras and built a coastal fortress there. Got C4C (some minor celebrations) and SETI (down to every other turn for new techs). Continuing to blast transports out of the water before they reach me.
I'm gonna win at Deity!
It's 1950 and I'm building the SS. Have fusion power. I can build all but a few components this year. (To ensure victory, I'm going for the 33-8-8-1-1-1 version found in the GL. This is fastest, right?) I should be able to launch in one more turn -- cranked the taxes to 80 percent with luxuries at 20 to maintain happiness. That should give me the revenue to finish everything. (Standing army already significantly reduced per SG and STYOM suggestions.)
The closest competition I have (Persians) now have Flight and Automobile (Battleships). A couple battleships have appeared on my recon runs, though no evidence of Fighters yet. Other civs should have these techs any minute now.
I've built a couple bombers to help fend off the battleships and am not doing any SS build in the border cities, so I should be OK for the launch. But then what?
QUESTION: It's OEDO time. Do I drop into Commie or Fundie in preparation for the (presumably) coming AI onslaught when I launch, or do I stay Democratic and try to pump my happiness through pollution cleanup, banks/colisseums/etc? (Will build Manhattan, the last wonder, in any case.) If I go fundie, I can probably build a decent invasion force and get more cities.
In other words, I know I'm gonna win. Now I want to get a little greedy and pump my score a bit. What's the better way?
(Tonight is Buffy The VS on the tube. My girls will watch that. I'll try to finish his!) Any final words of wisdom gratefully accepted. Wish me luck..
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-Jrabbit
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of the Electronic Egyptians
Feb 2002 time: 23:18
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LAUNCHED SPACESHIP IN 1954.
Used 33-8/8-1/1/1 config, landing in 1959. I still have to play out the intervening years, but the AI would have to wipe out my civ in order to beat me now, and they don't have the technology to do that. So far, no need to drop out of Democracy. The people are celbrating like mad. Glad I didn't panic and switch!
All I have to do now is to play out the string for 5 turns and I'll have MY FIRST DIETY WIN!
Many thanks to Campo (for good advice and a notable lack of complaints about my threadjacking), plus Smash, geofelt, RAH, Scouse Gits, STYOM, Thoth, and probably a couple more I'm forgetting at the moment.
I like to think I'd have managed this myself, but credit where due for helping me keep the boat steady as I went through some uncharted waters.
THANX!!
...and here's the savegame.
Attachment: -jrabbit 1954.zip
This has been downloaded 1 time(s).
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-Jrabbit
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of the Electronic Egyptians
Feb 2002 time: 23:18
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Well, truth be told I actually work for a living. It was nigh onto midnight and my alarm is set for 0500. So I actually stopped voluntarily once I launched and saved.
The AI was surprisingly docile as I approached launch conditions. A couple battleship attacks, a couple transports I had to take out, some posturing with cruisers here and there. One fairly determined attack on Taras, netting them SS Structural via diplo (after I agreed to a peace treaty). That was about it. I believe the full ownership of the megacontinent, with coastal cities having fortresses and guarded by a fleet of subs and fighter planes, was a situation the AI simply couldn't respond to.
Now that I've launched, I'm expecting a more determined assault. But rather than build for it, I'm expending most of my efforts on getting Happy. Building banks and courthouses, adding a few missing trade routes.
One thing that confuses me is that I never got much Senate interference. They forced peace a couple times, but as I got to the late game, I got Senate support for my "peacekeeping" a couple times and then -- nothing. I remember the AI asking for peace a couple times, then immediately violating the treaty. Is that when the Senate stopped worrying about being at war with everyone?
In fact, even the construction of late-game bombers (once battleships appeared) did not seem to cause happiness problems, even when I moved them without rehoming. Never raised luxuries over 20 percent (until now). Comments?
My wife is not **quite** ready to kil me. Most Civ time comes out of sleep, not family time, so she figures it's my loss. She does have trouble understanding how it can take 10 minutes to get to a screen where I'm allowed to save and quit...
As for the endgame, that will have to wait awhile. I leave Friday AM for a bit of vacation, returning at end of month. Beaches, golf courses, restaurants.
Today and Thursday will be a time of shockingly Real Life, both at work and home, in preparation. I'll probably get to check in here while on the road on occasion (love those laptops!), but that'll be about it.
So long, and thanks for all the fish...
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Campo
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Buffalo, NY, USA
Oct 1999 time: 00:18
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quote: The AI was surprisingly docile as I approached launch conditions. |
That's very unusual, in my experience. I've pretty much given up on the isolationist spaceship approach -- I get fed up with constant AI attacks, even in the face of overwhelming force. I usually go for pure conquest, though occasionally I decimate the AI along the way to AC. I wonder why they didn't bother you as much.
As for senate interference, I think as long as the AI is attacking you and not requesting peace, the senate will leave you alone. You're allowed to defend yourself.
quote: the construction of late-game bombers (once battleships appeared) did not seem to cause happiness problems, even when I moved them without rehoming. |
It's not necessary to re-home the bombers. Military units under Democracy do not cause unhappiness if they're in a city of yours -- any city, not just their home city. (Same applies to fortresses within 3 squares of any of your cities.)
quote: As for the endgame, that will have to wait awhile. I leave Friday AM for a bit of vacation |
That means the rest of us will be able to finish your victory before you can. That will count as a win for us, not for you!
quote: thanks for all the fish |
You're welcome. We didn't give you fish though, we gave a few pointers on how to hold the rod and reel.
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