Starting moves for Spanish

[derekliese]

So I recently won a Domination Victory by the Spanish on King, but barely, and also when the guy tells you there are only 5 turns left ( I hate that B.S., why cant we just finish till somebody wins??) Anyway, does anybody have good starting strategies for this Civ?? When do you start expanding, how many cities should you have. I never really have more than 3, I have them all protected with battleships so NOBODY can even come close to coming in so I then focus on Science, gold and culture not having to worry about armies. I never attack other cities, I just let them come to me watch my battleships sink theirs carrying soldiers, hahaha!!! But just wondering what other Spaniards do??? thanks, this game is soooo sick!!!

[OpenAgony]

Battleships are not indestructable, I just send bombers, bomb the ships, then move my troops in to destroy the un-supported city.

[Virodeath]

I play Spanish all the time.

I had this long drawn out "how to" all typed up then realized you prob. don't want to play exactly the way I do so here are some pointers.

1.) You get galleon's right off so use that to get ALL the ancient artifacts. Just be sure you send an army out so you can overrun any barbarians you find in fast turns (no healing) for their cash

2.) Place defensive units at bottlenecks to slow down other civ. advancement (not a Spanish thing but a common sense thing)

3.) Work towards getting Catapults ASAP, first research I study is Alphabet and I get the others from Atlantis when I get it (normally within a few turns)

4.) Once you get catapults you can very easy defend/attack the AI with a catapult army.

5.) This is Spain so the next thing I focus on is Cruiser (sea dominance) and I only roll in fleets because the AI doesn't understand to build fleets so they always send 1 ship. German ships are tough and I always loose a 1 on 1 fight with their cruisers.

6.) Build your cities so they have sea support (also nice if your bottleneck positions have sea support)

7.) Democracy is a great gov. to take early on for advance science & gold.


City wise "normally" Spanish capitol gets a good science location so I pump science there, you need to have a secondary city pumping gold. I will often load my first settlers on a galleon and setup shop in the ocean where only a galleon can get to (while searching for ancient artifacts). This gives you a lot of time to guild that city up (harbor, granary, etc).

Then battleship "fleets" a must in long game.

Depending on where the first AI is and if I can block them from advancing determines if I build temples right away. I try to do military tech. as much as possible because when you start building temples you start flipping cities faster than you can protect them.

Also have a min. of one spy per city as attackers always come with a spy.

The number 1 thing I have learned is when scouting for ancient artifacts when you see the edge of a border to another civ, GO AROUND IT! The longer it takes the other civ's to discover you the longer you have to build your cities and not be on the defensive.

Viro

[bush man 2.0]

What do you think about building a city on a 1 square island for possibly a scouting position, or just to hold the attention of a nearby civ. I tried it and after a couple of turns the city actually held its own after a harbor and a couple of other things. any ideas?

also, do submarines get any special attack or anything against battleships? if they dont they should.

[tbonicles]

I play Spanish all the time.
1.) You get galleon's right off so use that to get ALL the ancient artifacts. Just be sure you send an army out so you can overrun any barbarians you find in fast turns (no healing) for their cash

I stuggle with Spain because I have a hard time working their early Navigation into a viable opening.

Ideally, you'll have 2-3 forests for your opening city. Say you have 3.

You spend the first 5 turns going from 2 to 3 population. Then another 5 for the 30 hammers a Galleon requires.

Then 2 more for a Warrior to send on it.

Is the 12-turn galleon+warrior what you open with ?

[Virodeath]

Your forgetting about the gold you get from the barbarians and buying it outright. You just want to wait till you get your 100g settlers.

Each map is so different, today at lunch I started a new game, made 3 warriors (2 from turns 1 from rush gold) then set unit to wait for galleon. Two warrior parties each took 2 huts (upgraded)(then encountered Indians (boooo)). So I pulled back to the bottleneck.

I had only had 1 bottleneck so I left one upgraded warrior at bottleneck sent the other back, rushed the galleon and rushed 1 more warrior then formed army around advanced warrior and placed on galleon with settlers.

Searched and found Atlantis real fast (giving me pottery, horseback & bronze) checked worker management and using production it didn't change my city growth so I went production/archers. I also found two GP (50% gold producer and 50% population increaser which I later settled at island location.

Galleon found 3 more barbarians and 1 friendly village then I found a one square island that you needed a galleon to get to. I like 1 square islands because AI doesn't know what to do since they can't land their units. The island had a whale and two fish as resources so needles to say this is the ultimate gold producing location.

I reinforced the bottleneck with 2 army of archers then build barracks & catapult army (you can destroy anything early on with this setup). At this point with all ancient discoveries under me and 4 GP and Science and gold pumping I built a temple and flipped my first Indian city and now I have no doubt tonight I will have any victory I want. I saved it at 1780 and already have 2 fleets of battleships and modern infantry and own the main land.

I don't even make more than 2 cities because I know I will flip them mid 1700's so why waste the population or time.

As for the question about 1 square islands that is my fav. locations for city #2, just make sure there is fish for your population to grow fast.

Oh and about subs, I do not research them, subs are only good if you can sneak up on someone, a galleon can kill a sub if it attacks first. A sub only moves 2 squares at a time so station your ships in a place a sub will have to stop 1 square short of attacking you. AI is stupid this way. I also move ships in a high conflict area around two spaces looking for inc. subs and take them out before they get near. Just don't let subs get the jump on you cause they will tear anything in the water up!

Viro

[salesninja]

# 1 thing to do with the spanish, wander a coast till you find a whale or 2. It's like ingecting steroids into an early game city. My buddy plays them all the time, it drives me nuts when i find his capitol city and its 33% bigger than mine in the early game. It makes a huge diffrence.

[deadbuffalo]

Whoa! Never ever wander with your first settler. Those whales will still be there for your 2nd and third settler, but its really bad advice to suggest moving your first settler until you find whales. First because you can't get more than 2 food from 'em until later on, 2nd because you are possibly passing up plenty of turns while your opponent is growing.

[xsubtownerx]

My advice is to go for a economic victory with them. Also, if you get lucky and get a "great builder" as your first or second great person, build the "East India Company" wonder for free with him.

[tbonicles]

So, I decided to give the spanish another try last night. Madrid was build on a plot giving 3 forest, 2 food, 2 trade, 1 mountain.

I started with a warrior, then went to food for 5 turns for 1 pop, then back to all forest. Built a another warrior, then a galleon, then more warriors.

By 0AD, I had almost the entire map explored, atlantis & 7 cities of gold, with 400 gold in the treasury. Since I had so much exploration, I was able to get city #2 on a site with 2 whales, for speedy growth. And, one of the barbarian towns yielded a spy, which I used to snatch a scientist from Beijing and she went on a boat to city #2.

I'm starting to like the spanish !

-T

[Virodeath]

The Spanish are fun once you get the setup right! But boy it can go ugly early on if the Americans,Germans or Indians are too close to you. They are an aggressive bunch...

Viro

[salesninja]

That's actually incorrect, you get the full food bonus for whales at the start. I know, cause I have done it. You will catch up on food production within 4 turns. It's worth it, the math dosent lie.

[Raeyo7]

1. Begin by building a Warrior.
2. By the time that you have reached your second Warrior you should be able to research science.
3. Research Bronze Working and begin to build a Galleon.
4. After you finish Bronze Working begin on Pottery and follow it up with Masonry to give yourself a free wall (If someone else didn't get it first.)
5. After finishing your Galleon begin work on a Barracks followed by 3 Archers to construct an Archer army. (If you finish Bronze Working before your Galleon, if you finish your Galleon before Bronze Working have it defend until Bronze Working is finished.) Also put one of your Warriors on board the Galleon before sending it to find artifacts, barbarian camps, and goodie huts.
Note: Try to avoid other civs since you want to build yourself up before going to war.

[tbonicles]

Side question Re Spanish: Do Conquistadors actually have better stats than knights, or are they exactly the same, just with a different name for purposes of theme ?

[Raeyo7]

Side question Re Spanish: Do Conquistadors actually have better stats than knights, or are they exactly the same, just with a different name for purposes of theme ?

Yes it is just a different name for the theme of Spanish. Just like the different tanks of American's (Sherman), German's (Panzer), and Russian's (T34).