civilization 2

[Enforcer Talen]

any players? whats the highest level you've defeated, and your fav strategy?

[The Yosemite Bear]

The end run for Railroad

Tends to make everything so much easier

[Stormbringer]

any players? whats the highest level you've defeated, and your fav strategy?

The top one, I can't remember which that is.


I usually just go for a flat out conquest victory. There's nothing like laying waste to your opponents.

[Doomriser]

Approach goody hut. Save game. Repeat until goody hut yields city or settlers. Save game every turn, multiple times, until everything goes exactly as planned. If there was a God, that's how he would do it.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I still play from time to time. I place a lot of importance on Leonardo's Workshop.

My favorite units are cruise missiles and marines.

I also have fun, trying to get really big caravan/frieght payments.

[ArmorPierce]

I play civ3, before that the call to powers games.

[Enforcer Talen]

I generally build max number of settlers in all cities, stopping before famines, building roads and lots of cities, when I reach another nation, am surronded, I make deals, build up cities, armies, leonardo's workshop, and railroads, then go forth.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Did anyone play around with editing the rules.txt to make custom units?

[tharkûn]

I've beat it on God, Ravagin Hordes or whatever the worst setting for barbarians. Favorite strategy is wonder mongering, but that requires a real good opening setup on a decent island.

Here's a sure fire win.

Basic rules:
1. The most important unit in the game is the spy.
2. Government shoulds be used in order monarchy -> democracy -> communism -> fundementalism.
3. After the spy the most important unit is your egineer.
4. Railways are godly.
5. Bribery is your friend.
6. Wonders you MUST build:
a. The Great Library
b. Leonardo's workshop
c. Adam Smith's Trading Company
d. Hoover Dam
e. United Nations

The last 2 are if you are still facing compotent enemies at that stage.

Basic idea:
In the first part ... expand. I like to have my capital pump out the pyramids and the great library everybody else goes for defensive units and settlers. Expand, expand, expand. Trade tech's (excepting those leading to the great library) like mad.

Cheap trick's to remember:
Wonders are expensive, but they are vital. Keep caravans (or in a pinch, warriors) around cities building wonders. If you get a warning message ... use em to rush finish the wonder.

Barbarians take a fraction of your gold ... if there is something that would really help ... buy it before they get close to a city, then evac all the troops from the city and pay the ransom.

Continue expanding until you get democracy. Once you get democracy ... invest into science heavily until you have a kickass trade system going and all of your cities heavily irrigated (sewers and aqueducts are a given). Then once you have communism (or the Statue of Liberty) turn science off and enjoy the rapid population growth. After this you go for espionage, and pump veteran spies until you get railroads. At railroads you want to go fundy and begin to buy enemy cities in mass. You should have a near max on gold and a paltry amount of science.

When you go to destroy another civ:
1. Get rail links. Unlimited movement = good.
2. Many, many, many spies. Spies do all sorts of nice things: bribery, knocking down those pesky city walls, kill SAM sights, steal tech ...
3. Use the rails to your advantage. First send spies in to do recon and determine where on the enemy's rail grid most of the troops are located. Then use a caravan or spy to move your troops through those restricted zones (move caravan 1 space past enemy unit, move say armor units to follow). Cut rail links next to your intended target, especially ones on hills and mountains.
4. Use your egineers. Deploy using the rail system to get deep into enemy territory then pick some key locations and use many, many egineers to rush complete a fortress ... then stack defensive units.
5. On defense ... use your railroads. Have every square in your empire railroaded. Keep access to your rail lines under surveilance and use artillerly to respond enemy stacks that approach your rail lines.
6. If the enemy goes democracy ... pick his biggest city with the most troops out of city ... go burn the coleseum, the temple, the cathedral, the courthouse ... and make his life miserable until the city falls into anarchy and topples the government.
7. Sit back and buy cities at your leisure. Look for ones with wonders, ones with loads of troops inside, etc.

Using this strategy I've conqueored the world by 1900 on deity, I've also gotten something like 1000% rating (swapping back to democracy and kicking my happiness through the roof). Its cheap, but it works. The fundy spy/moderate warrior is the most powerful way to play the game.

[Bob McDob]

Anyone tried the SWTC for CIII

It's supposed to be very . . . um, yeah! . . .

[Robert Treder]

I used to play all the time. For a while, I would only play the game while this one winamp playlist was playing, so now whenever I hear any of the songs that were on that playlist, I get Civilization II flashbacks.

Tharkun pretty much laid down the best strategy.
I remember the first time I played it, I allied myself with one group and together we took over the world. Then I spent a long time maneuvering enough troops into position around every city my ally had so that I could conquer each of them. Then I cut our treaty, and *poof* all my troops went back to my cities instead of remaining poised to strike at my newfound enemy. I was PISSED off.

[Enforcer Talen]

Did anyone play around with editing the rules.txt to make custom units?

yep. great library and workshop last forever, civilians need 1 food, fundamentalism gives 50 free units and 150% science bonus, fanatics are 12.12 and move 3, they cost 10 sheilds, and science takes 7/10 normal time.

course, now I'm trying a more normal game.

[Enforcer Talen]

I've beat it on God, Ravagin Hordes or whatever the worst setting for barbarians. Favorite strategy is wonder mongering, but that requires a real good opening setup on a decent island.

Here's a sure fire win.

Basic rules:
1. The most important unit in the game is the spy.
2. Government shoulds be used in order monarchy -> democracy -> communism -> fundementalism.
3. After the spy the most important unit is your egineer.
4. Railways are godly.
5. Bribery is your friend.
6. Wonders you MUST build:
a. The Great Library
b. Leonardo's workshop
c. Adam Smith's Trading Company
d. Hoover Dam
e. United Nations

The last 2 are if you are still facing compotent enemies at that stage.

Basic idea:
In the first part ... expand. I like to have my capital pump out the pyramids and the great library everybody else goes for defensive units and settlers. Expand, expand, expand. Trade tech's (excepting those leading to the great library) like mad.

Cheap trick's to remember:
Wonders are expensive, but they are vital. Keep caravans (or in a pinch, warriors) around cities building wonders. If you get a warning message ... use em to rush finish the wonder.

Barbarians take a fraction of your gold ... if there is something that would really help ... buy it before they get close to a city, then evac all the troops from the city and pay the ransom.

Continue expanding until you get democracy. Once you get democracy ... invest into science heavily until you have a kickass trade system going and all of your cities heavily irrigated (sewers and aqueducts are a given). Then once you have communism (or the Statue of Liberty) turn science off and enjoy the rapid population growth. After this you go for espionage, and pump veteran spies until you get railroads. At railroads you want to go fundy and begin to buy enemy cities in mass. You should have a near max on gold and a paltry amount of science.

When you go to destroy another civ:
1. Get rail links. Unlimited movement = good.
2. Many, many, many spies. Spies do all sorts of nice things: bribery, knocking down those pesky city walls, kill SAM sights, steal tech ...
3. Use the rails to your advantage. First send spies in to do recon and determine where on the enemy's rail grid most of the troops are located. Then use a caravan or spy to move your troops through those restricted zones (move caravan 1 space past enemy unit, move say armor units to follow). Cut rail links next to your intended target, especially ones on hills and mountains.
4. Use your egineers. Deploy using the rail system to get deep into enemy territory then pick some key locations and use many, many egineers to rush complete a fortress ... then stack defensive units.
5. On defense ... use your railroads. Have every square in your empire railroaded. Keep access to your rail lines under surveilance and use artillerly to respond enemy stacks that approach your rail lines.
6. If the enemy goes democracy ... pick his biggest city with the most troops out of city ... go burn the coleseum, the temple, the cathedral, the courthouse ... and make his life miserable until the city falls into anarchy and topples the government.
7. Sit back and buy cities at your leisure. Look for ones with wonders, ones with loads of troops inside, etc.

Using this strategy I've conqueored the world by 1900 on deity, I've also gotten something like 1000% rating (swapping back to democracy and kicking my happiness through the roof). Its cheap, but it works. The fundy spy/moderate warrior is the most powerful way to play the game.

dude. my highest was 463%, and that was me hacking the codes. I must try that strategy.

[CmdrWilkens]

the highest I ever won on was King mode (I think that was the name, one short of Deity anyway). My usual strategy was expand until I can't effectively link cities together, then slow down until my roads and irrigation link everyone back together, continue. Along the way make sure to swithc quickly to Monarchy and use the ability to have 1 defensive, 1 offensive, and 1 settler per city. Using my offensive units capture key enighboring territories but generally attempt to bun their cities to the ground (unless they have wonders) this keeps me from haing to rush roads and irrigation out to that city which means I can keep my defenses together tightly. I prefer to use republic instead of democracy just because it reduces the unhapiness penalty (and its compeltely gone once I get Women's Suffrage). Anyway at that point I'm usaually well into the railroad building era and I take the bonus research and cash to fund more untis and a quick advance up to howitzers and armored untis then to fundamentalism and the forward crush of my mechanized armies beigns.

[Shrykull]

Don't you think it's kind of stupid how in it swords can destroy tanks, I know people have stopped tanks with knives before, but if it works so well, why don't we throw away our anti-tank guns, rifle infantry, tanks and A-10's?

[TrailerParkJawa]

I really hated it in Civ 1 when a Phalanx would defeat a battleship.

They improved things in Civ 2 with the firepower and hitpoint concept, but weird results sometimes happened.

However, it seems like they totally went backwords in Civ 3. I routinely lost riflemen to lesser units like barbarians. Ugh!

[Enforcer Talen]

never played civ3.

tharkun, you start wars early on?

[phongn]

the highest I ever won on was King mode (I think that was the name, one short of Deity anyway).

Emperor is the next hardest level after King, then comes Deity.