My Adaptive Stratagy

[IMADAJ]

The beauty of this game is that there is no right way to play. There is no one strategy to go by.

This is how I play.

My goal is for balance. I feel that by picking one path to victory leaves me vulnerable in other areas. I lead my civilization to be able to take on different situations no matter what era I may be in, what civ I am playing, what civs I am playing against, or how aggressive/passive other civs are. By being a balanced nation I find that during the end game I am first in techs, wealth, culture, and dominance.
I break the game down into different phases. Each city will individually move between the first two phases. If at any time a city can go back to a previous phase then it should.

1. Opening Phase
1.1 Land Grab
1.2 City Defense
2. Managing Your Nation Phase
2.1 World Wonder
2.2 National Defense
2.3 War/Peace
3. End Game Phase

(Note: several times I mention building or researching the cheapest building or tech. As the game progresses you will be able to research and build thing quicker. For example: Why spend 20 turns building/researching something that you will be able to do in 5 turns later on? You could be doing something else during the difference of 15 turns)

1. Opening Phase

1.1 Land Grab
Why go to war for land when you can get it for free? The land grab is one of the most important phases in the game. If you expand to slowly your nation can be crippled. Population is the most important part of your nation. That needs to be repeated. Population is the most important part of your nation. The higher your population the more wealth/science/production your nation may produce. This is the time to get land uncontested. This is also the time to explore the world gaining goody huts, artifacts, and learning the land. Some of the land you uncover will eventually be clamed by another civ, but by exploring early you will have a map of their land and that will come in handy during war.

Every city goes through this check list:
1. (Starting city only) - Build 1st defensive unit.
2. If there is a good spot to build a city make a defensive unit followed by a settler. March them out together and build the city. Otherwise skip to 3.
3. If there are no good city spots that are visible but there is still unexplored land next to the city, build a unit to explore and go back to 2, otherwise progress to 1.2 City Defense.

1.2 City Defense
What good is a city if you lose it? Before you improve your city, make sure that you can protect it. There is nothing worse then spending time and money to build up a city and having someone else take it from you. Make sure you can defend yourself before you worry about anything else.

1. Make sure you have an army of the best defensive unit you can build. If you do not have a barrack then build two defensive units followed by the barrack, then the 3rd defensive unit. This will give you a defense long enough to build the barrack and the 3rd unit will be a veteran, which will cause the army to be a veteran army once combined.
2. Make sure you have a spy in the city (once it is available).


2. Managing Your Nation

2.1 Wonder City - Only 1 city!!!
As much as you might want to build every wonder, it's usually not possible (at least not on the higher levels). If you tie up your cities building wonders you won't be able to do anything else. Keep in mind that you’re not the only nation trying to build them. It’s a waste of time to have the wonder almost completed and then have someone else finish it before you.

1. City with highest production builds cheapest wonder. If that city is currently in the opening phase I usually hold off building a wonder until the city moves to the Managing Your Nation Phase.

2.2 National Defense - When a civ has a stronger military then you.
This goes hand in hand with the defense phase of you city, but on a national scale. Always keep an eye out on everyone else’s military and make sure your military is at least even. You need to be prepared for a fight at any time. A strong military is a good deterrence to war, allowing you to improve your cities, and it's a good thing to have a standing army ready just in case someone does declare war on you.

1. Build best offensive unit
2. Rally units in a city on your boarder and build armies there.
3. Repeat until your military adviser tells you that you military is bigger then the other civs.

2.3 If at war then...War Phase, otherwise Peace Phase.
This is where you measure yourself up the other civs. Only go to war if you have to and/or on your terms. If someone attacks you first then take the fight to them. Why else would you need to war? As I said before, "Population is the most important part of your nation". If someone has a higher population then you they will be able to out research, out produce, and earn wealth quicker then you. Buy going to war and taking over cities you increase your population while lowering theirs. Once you have the highest population you will be the one to out research, out produce, and earn wealth quicker then everyone else.
Your number one priority is to keep you civilization growing. If your might and technology are both stronger compared to a bordering civ then now is the time to take them out. Your civilization will grow by converting more and more cities to your nation, but by focusing on war you will fall behind in science. If you have fewer advances then the least advanced civ bordering you then now is the time to build up your cities in the Peace Phase.You want to get your units/science on par with your opponents. Always keep in mind how your military compares to everyone else’s. You will have to go back and forth between the peace/war phase and the national defense phase.

War Phase - If someone declares war on you
War Phase - If your military and tech are stronger then opponent civ
Peace Phase - If your military or tech is weaker then opponent civ

War Phase
Target the lower tech civ that is nearest to you 1st.
Keep building up your military until your advisor says “the enemy is no match for you”, then it’s time to declare war.

1. Build best offensive unit (with naval support and spies if need be)
2. Rally units in your city on the war front and build armies there.
3. Attack enemy units next to your city (artillery is good here)
4. When you have at least 3 armies and your advisor says “the enemy is no match for you” march them in a stack to enemy city.


Peace Phase
The goal during the peace phase is to get your nation up to speed with everyone else on all fronts. You will bolster up your defense and culture, allow your population to grow quicker, and expand your wealth and science.

Build cheapest building
Order of tie:
1. Defense
2. Culture
3. Court house
4. food/population
5. Production
6. science/wealth

3. End Game
What ever option pops up 1st is the way to go. This will vary from game to game depending on what level you’re playing and how warlike/peaceful the other civs are.


Government (I loosely go by this)
Despotism - Leave ASAP
Republic - land grab
Monarchy – if bordering civ has a higher culture
Democracy – peace phase
Communism – while preparing for war
Fundamentalism - during war


City Wealth/Science – I like to split up my cities so I am producing a national 50/50 split between science and wealth, favoring science if 50/50 not possible. Use the screen that shows all of your cities and the total amount of what is being produced. As you gain great people you will switch the number of cities producing science/wealth as to keep the national total at 50/50.

Great People – Settle them in the city that produces the most of what ever bonus the person grants. If there is already a person there with the same bonus then send him to the next highest and so on. Use your city view to see the best place.

Tech Tree - Techs lose value as time goes on, so always buy the cheapest tech first. You will pull ahead far enough that you will be 1st to research even the cheep techs. There are usually a few techs that tie for cheapest. Learn the techs that allow you to construct these types of buildings/units in this order:

1st Defense/Units - You need to be able to defend yourself before you do anything else
2nd Culture - Once you can fend off a military attack, you need to defend from culture flip
3rd Production/Population - Now that your defenses are up, work on the resource that allows you to build anything/everything.
4th Science/Wealth/Other - Everything else is just gravy


I find that this style of play lets me adapt to however the world unfolds. My outlying cities produce the units needed to settle more land while my inner cities jump into the meat of the game, allowing me to spread quickly and also build up my cities. Next I get my defense up and running. Once my standing army can hold its own I choose between war and peace, which will depend on what the other nations are doing. I am always comparing myself to everyone else to see what my nation needs to focus on next.

This is how I play. Is it effective? Is it fun? It’s an adaptation on how I have played Civ through Civ 3 conquests and it’s worked for me then. I’ve only played a few full games of Civ Rev but it seems to be working for me.

I’m sure I’ve left a lot out. What’s the best way to fight a war? How about trading techs with other civs? When to give in to demands and when to ignore them? But that’s for another thread…

[Syiss]

Mostly good advice, but a couple points I have to disagree on.

First off, I never build a settler right away. I try to rush at least 1 enemy civ and then use barbarians/goody huts to get 100 gold for the free settler. This will give you 3 cities pretty quickly without sacrificing 2 population in a small city that needs it. Generally I won't build a settler until population 5, at which point I usually make 2 or 3 (one from each city) depending on how many good spots I can find to plant them.

Second, defensive units and a barracks early - NO! Building a couple warriors (I usually end up with 3-5) and getting a couple units from barbarian/goody huts will stop any civ from even threatening you for like the first 40 turns at least. Wasting that much production this early in the game that could be used on granaries/temples/libraries/wonders is a quick road to defeat, at least on deity. On the other difficulties you could probably do whatever the hell you want and still win.

The above is strictly for SINGLE PLAYER (I believe you were referring to single player strategy too, correct me if I am wrong) only.

[IMADAJ]

I try to rush at least 1 enemy civ

If anouther civ is right on top of me in the begining I will sometimes go after it. I find I get mixed results otherwise. It's something I should try more often though giving the amount of people on this forum that make it work.

Generally I won't build a settler until population 5

Here is the draw back that I see with this. The higher the city population the more food it takes to raise the population by one. The city that drops from a pop of 3 to 1 loses less food/time then the city that drops 5 to 3.

Second, defensive units and a barracks early - NO!

It's a habit that has carried over from Civ 3 I guess. If I didn't do this then I would get over run VERY early in the game.

EDIT: I'm referring to the harder levels

The above is strictly for SINGLE PLAYER (I believe you were referring to single player strategy too, correct me if I am wrong) only.

I haven't tried multiplayer yet, which is the reason I bought the game in the first place. I just can't find the time to sit through a full online game between work, a wife, and 2 kids.

I realy wish you could save an online game as to be able to pick up and play later.......

[Soulless]

good post. i do things similarly with obvious differences, because everyone plays this game differently. posts like these help first time players and people who have difficulty branching out to other civs alot.

and i too, have yet to play online because of 2 kids, wife, work . . . etc. that and i get distracted by other games

[Apolo Imagod]

Mostly good advice, but a couple points I have to disagree on.

First off, I never build a settler right away. I try to rush at least 1 enemy civ and then use barbarians/goody huts to get 100 gold for the free settler. This will give you 3 cities pretty quickly without sacrificing 2 population in a small city that needs it. Generally I won't build a settler until population 5, at which point I usually make 2 or 3 (one from each city) depending on how many good spots I can find to plant them.

Second, defensive units and a barracks early - NO! Building a couple warriors (I usually end up with 3-5) and getting a couple units from barbarian/goody huts will stop any civ from even threatening you for like the first 40 turns at least. Wasting that much production this early in the game that could be used on granaries/temples/libraries/wonders is a quick road to defeat, at least on deity. On the other difficulties you could probably do whatever the hell you want and still win.

The above is strictly for SINGLE PLAYER (I believe you were referring to single player strategy too, correct me if I am wrong) only.

I agree. As long as you have at least a warrior unit in your city, the other civs will leave you alone. Heck, sometimes I even leave cities empty, if they are "internal" cities.

-- AI

[rjwc22]

A very comprehensive post.

I have to say I find the deity AI not very accepting of this approach at times and have to adapt my strategy accordingly.

However do agree with the essential point about population being the most important factor in the game.

[xbman22x]

this works in single, but in multi if you try to do this you will find that you will be losing in everything. in multi you have to focus on 2 of the goals and put most of your resources into them. if you can spread your recourses out going for all 4 VC and you are ahead in all of them your opponents suck. in single, japan will always get a tech lead unless you put EVERYTHING into tech. overall though....nice post.

[IMADAJ]

I work grave yard shift so on my nights off I'm up until the sun comes up.

One day my newborn will sleep through the night.

Then I can see for myself how I fair over multiplayer. Win or lose I'm dying to give it a try.

[Bonham63]

Lots of good strategies here. I think that knowing the strength of weakness of all the civs you encounter is important. I don't waste time researching or building stuff that I know I will get free, in a different era. I only rush the free stuff, if I'm being pressured by AI or human, as you have to adapt. Finding and using good terrain is the hardest part. I think the land mass in the game is strange set up, with tiny little islands, most games that don't accomadate the food, production and trade that is required for all cities.
I also like to specialize cities. Some are gold cities, some are unit cities and others are knowledge machines. Spread wonders out, instead of planting them all in one city, as you could lose that city and a big part of your culture and probably the game. Find some weaknesses in the civs you meet and exploit them, as well as your strengths. Chat with the AI through diplomacy occasionally, as it can be a way to placate them and learn things about the human players in the game that won't or can't chat with you.

PSNID=Bonham63

[British demon]

This a good thread mate, I'm putting it in my Archive thread. Let me know if you want me take it down.

[IMADAJ]

British demon, thanks!

[British demon]

Not a problem buddy!