Estratégias para Civilization II

Temos aqui um pequeno guia escrito por Mike DelPrete com estratégias para Civilization II, a continuação do Civilization que, aprimorando e revisando elementos e mecânicas do indelével clássico de Sid Meyer de 1991, tornou-se também um grande clássico.

Pra quem não fraga, Sid Meier’s Civilization II é um game de estratégia em turnos 4X da série Civilization. Desenvolvido e publicado pela MicroProse e lançado em 1996, coloca os jogadores (numa partida vanilla), no controle de uma tribo primitiva competindo com outras civilizações rivais em busca do domínio, seja por dominação global ou por vencer a corrida espacial. Isto é feito gerenciando cidades, unidades militares, desenvolvimento de tecnologia, diplomacia, modo de governo, roubos estatais (impostos) e outros aspectos. Civilization II foi um sucesso estrondoso de vendas e críticas, e é de fato um jogo muito bom, inclusive um de nossos Hall of Famers.

Já o texto foi publicado originalmente em 25 de abril de 1996, na época que a internet ainda era escrita com PH, e ensina como aprimorar e administrar com sucesso a sua civilização, dando exemplos de como iniciar bem uma partida e tudo mais. Como é também uma daquelas viagens no tempo que nos leva à era onde os guias eram publicados em formato ASCII, adicionei-o aqui sem modificações, incluindo em seu idioma original (inglês), pra manter a fidelidade e manter a nostalgia.

Mas chega de papo furado e vamos às estratégias para Civilization II.

Civilization Strategies

                  by Mike DelPrete
                      4/25/96

CONTENTS

I. Starting Strategies
II. World Conquest


I. Starting Strategies

  In this section, we will discuss good strategies for the 
beginning half of the game. First off, you must decide what your 
method of play will be. Generally there are two types, world 
conquest and the long term space race. The first, of course, is 
where you gear your entire economy toward eliminating the 
opposing players as quickly as possible. The second is where you 
build up a sound infrastructure and deal diplomatically with the 
other players until you can launch a spaceship, hopefully before 
they do. Each of these particular strategies will be discuss 
later in detail.

  When you start out, the first thing you should do is to check 
if you have one or two settlers. In some rare cases games will be 
started with one civilization having a pair of settlers instead 
of just one. If you have two you are very, very lucky. No matter 
what you start with though, you must first decide where to 
settle. It is a good idea to build your first city on a river or 
on the sea. This will give you a boost to trade at the beginning 
since rivers act as roads for trade purposes. If you build your 
first city on the sea, this will guarantee you a port from with 
to launch ships to go explore the remainder of the world, or just 
explore the small landlocked lake that it really is.  Whatever 
the case may be, keep an eye out for bonus squares on the map 
near your first city. The most valuable your first city are the
whale, the pheasant, or the corn. The first two will give you an
ample supply of food and resources, and the corn will yield more
food than normal, especially when you irrigate it. So, in 
conclusion, if you can locate your first city near or on a river, 
on the sea, or near a bonus square, do it, but do not spend more 
than three turns doing so! You need to get your city up and 
running so you can pump out more units to explore and settle.
                  
  If you have a second settler unit, treat it like it was your 
first. Pick a direction to move in, rivers often make a good 
choice since they act as roads, and move a bit away from your 
city until you come across a good city location. Of your first 
two cities, at least one should be on the sea, and at least one 
should either be on a river or near a bonus square. 

  Well, your first city is now founded, and you find yourself 
wondering what to build. Either that or you are making some 
warriors because you have played before and have some clue as 
what to do. If you haven’t figured it out yet people, produce a 
unit of warriors first and then send them out to explore. Do not 
send them in only one direction though, like just moving up every 
turn. Have them zigzag so as to explore the most territory for 
possible city sites. If you encounter a hut, you must make a 
decision. It could either be money, a unit to join you, settlers, 
a new city, technolgy, or barbarians. Usually at this point in 
the game, it will either be a new city or some unit to join you. 
But remember that the possibility still exists for it to be a 
group of barbarians that will destroy your unit and sack your 
city. If it is the later, you can always load up the auto 
save of your game and try again. But anyway, if it is a new city, 
you are very lucky indeed. What is under these huts can shape the
development of the game ahead, since if you uncover two or three
new cities it will give you a huge boost to trade, production, 
and unit production. But back to the first city. After you make 
two units of warriors, you should shift to one of three things. 
If for some reason there is already a good defensive unit in your 
city (bonus hut gave you and archer), then go ahead and make a 
settler. If you have bronze working, make a phalanx, and 
providing you have enough money try to buy it half way through. 
If you don’t have bronze working, which may very well be the 
case, then make another warrior to garrison your first city. For 
the last two cases, after you make the unit, fortify it and start 
making settlers. 

  We will take a little detour here to quickly discuss tax, 
science, and luxury rates for the beginning game. You should go 
under the Kingdom menu and then Adjust Tax Rate. You can play 
around with the figures a bit, but the desired result would be 
where you are making a few coins each turn and the rest go to 
science. If you are playing on a hard level, you may later on 
want to increase luxury a bit to keep you citizens happy. Make 
sure you adjust this early, since if you are getting a lot of 
trade arrows at the start you will be making more money than you 
need to be and which science could greatly benefit from. Make 
sure you check this menu often, and definitely after a change of 
government or construction of a wonder that will affect it 
(Colossus, Adam Smith’s Trading Company, Isaac Newton’s College, 
etc.)
     
  All right, back to the game. You should now have your first 
city (possible more if you had luck on your side) and a settler 
unit ready to settle. Send your settler out to a good location 
for a city, again following the hints above for city placement. 
You want it in a location where it will grow quickly, not where 
it will take settlers a dozen turns to develop the mines and 
irrigate the plains near it. At this point no settlers can be 
spared for land development yet; you need more cities. 
  
  Well, now that you have your first two cities, it gets harder 
to give good advice. It all depends on whether you are on an 
island, a huge continent with other civilizations, or don’t even 
know yet. If you have come in contact with other civilizations 
and you have decided to eliminate them, you should start building 
good defensive units (phalanx or archer) and fortifying them in 
good defensive locations between your civilizations. After this 
border is established, you can then start to produce more 
offensive units at your discretion and attack when you feel 
ready. It is a good idea though to try to destroy the enemy 
quickly, especially at this early in the game, so you can get 
back to building up your civilization.  

  If you find you are on an island all alone, you can pretty much 
give up an idea of fast global conquest. If your island is very 
small (only capable of sustaining up to three or four good sized 
cities) you should get map making and triremes as fast as 
possible. Once you have a ship, get a settler on it as soon as 
you can, along with an escort or explorer. Send it around your 
island looking for land, and once you find some get your units on 
land quickly. Then send your trireme around this newly discovered 
land mass to get a better idea of what to expect. Have your 
settler build a city quickly, and send you unit or explorer 
around to scout the nearby land area. Get your ship back to port 
and loaded with either a settler or another military unit, 
preferably both. Then send your ship to your new found land mass, 
and drop the settler off to found a new city. This new city 
should be on the sea if the other one wasn’t, and remember to 
look for rivers. These new cities should start the entire routine 
over again; building warriors or explorers, then settlers to 
found new cities. A good method for expansion that I used was 
that after a city was founded, I build a phalanx, then a settler 
(to go found a new city), then a granary or temple (this was on 
emperor level), then another settler to settle the lands around 
the city. After this I started to build what the city needed, 
such as a granary, marketplace, etc., and the occasional military 
unit of needed.

  On to governments. It is very important to switch to a Monarchy 
as soon as possible. It is just so much better than Despotism, 
and if you can get settlers to irrigate just a few squares around 
the city growth will be much faster. After Monarchy, government 
type depends on what you want to accomplish. The next logical 
step, unless you are engaged in a huge war, is to advance to a 
Republic. This will double all of your trade, thus giving you a 
lot of money and faster scientific progress, as well as making 
more people happy with luxuries. This is where you face a problem 
though, the next government (although it is possible to stay with 
Republic), either Fundamentalism or Democracy. Personally, I love 
Fundamentalism, since you don’t have to worry about keeping 
people happy (which is a big relief on the harder levels) and 
unit maintenance is non-existent until the eleventh unit. Of 
course scientific progress is cut in half, so this government is 
best suited for someone who wants to conquer the world. Democracy 
though is a good choice for someone who is aiming to win the 
space race. It has the benefits of increased trade as well as 
giving you the chance to successfully wage war against an enemy. 
These are just the two extremes of government, and depending on 
your style of play and goals in the game, your ideal government 
will vary. I suggest trying each government for a while at least 
once, and just seeing how it works out. 

  One last thing I have to mention that is very important here:
Wonders. In the early stages of the game, committing a city to
complete the right wonder can be a huge boon to your 
civilization.  Basically, what you have to choose from are the 
Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens, the Colossus, the Lighthouse, the 
Great Library, the Oracle, and the Great Wall. If you are in a 
real “conquer the world” type game, the Great Wall will probably 
help you the most, that is only if you want to commit the time to 
building it instead of those extra catapults. Personally I used 
to think the Colossus is great, since it doubles trade in the 
city it is built. That is really good for more money and science, 
but it doesn’t affect your entire empire. The Lighthouse isn’t 
really worth the effort, unless you have nothing better to do. 
There are other Wonders you could build, such as the Great 
Library. This is good if you are behind the other civilizations 
technologically, or if you want to set your science rate real low 
and make tons of money. This is possible mainly because if two 
computer civilizations are allied, they will usually trade 
technology often. This will leave you the victor by getting both
of their technologies for free. The Pyramids are good, since if
saves you the time of building a granary in each of your cities. 
It is worth it if you can spare a city to build it, and your 
strategy is expansion, not war. The Hanging Gardens are good, but 
will only prolong the inevitable unrest that will sweep over your 
cities on the harder levels. If you can’t get the Oracle, then go 
for the Hanging Gardens. Finally, the Oracle is probably the best 
early wonder you can build, especially on the harder levels. 
Combined with a temple and mysticism, you can make four unhappy 
citizens in each city content. This saves a lot of trouble when 
you can’t build a colosseum, cathedral, or Michelangelo’s Chapel 
yet. So, in conclusion, go for the Oracle if you like to play on 
a hard level and don’t want to deal with unrest in your cities, 
but on easier levels the wonder you want will have to depend on 
your style of play.  Well, hopefully this past section has given 
you some idea how to get your civilization off on the right foot. 
These first few thousand years are the most important, and what 
you do then will affect how the game plays itself out in the 
future.


II. World Conquest

  This section will deal with good hints for successful world
domination in Civilization II. Remember, these are only one 
persons view on how to do this, and they are by no means perfect 
or the only way to go about it. The best method is to experiment 
yourself, and to do what you feel is right. This section is only 
here to give you some ideas and pointers, and how veteran 
Civilization players would go about it.

  The most important thing to remember when attempting this is
speed. Once you decide to conquer the world, you must commit
everything to it and do it as fast as possible. Speed as two
advantages. First, the faster you defeat everyone, the higher a
score you will get. Believe me, you get a lot more points when 
the world is yours at 1500 BC then at 1990 AD. The other 
advantage is the faster you assault a city or attack a 
civilization, the less time they have to build up forces to 
counter-attack or defend. If you can take a city in one swift 
blow the benefits are greater than if it were long siege.

  Basically, I think there are two basic methods of world 
domination. The first is the obvious one of supreme military 
power and just rampaging over enemy cities. The second is a 
little more subtle, and consist of subverting enemy cities one by 
one. Both can work just as well as the other, although the second 
method cannot be done until your civilization has large cash 
reserves, usually only in the later half of the game.

  In the first method, the goal is to build up a strong enough 
military to defeat all opposing players. Unless you have a huge 
empire and can afford the expense, you should only concentrate on 
one, maybe two, fronts at once. In other words, don’t declare war 
on everyone at the same time, that would be suicidal. Take them 
out one at a time, then move on to the next. It is a lot easier 
than facing a united world against you. 
One quick note: When you destroy a civilization, another one will
pop up somewhere in the world. That means that you should move
quickly to find were the new one has spawned. It is a whole lot
easier to destroy a civilization in its infancy than when it has 
a moderate amount power.

  First you should pick a neighbor that you don’t want around any
longer. It should be the closest if possible, with a land route 
to their empire. If there are several civilizations an equal 
distance from you, you should either pick the weakest or 
strongest, depending on how you are doing. If you defeat the 
weakest one first, you will get more cities to make units and 
eliminate a foe later on the game, but at the same time the 
strongest enemy just got stronger, and they could attack you at 
any moment. If you defeat the strongest enemy first, then that is 
all over and it is downhill from there. With your economy all 
geared up for a tough war with a formidable opponent, you should 
be able to take out the remaining civilizations rather easily. 
Usually though, it works out that your civilization will attack
the closest foe, which is usually just one civilization. No 
matter what the case is though, these are good points that you 
should consider before going on a war.

  After you pick your target, start building up an offensive 
force to attack with. If you have diplomats available, build them 
to. Even if you can’t afford to bribe units or cities, sabotaging 
units and destroying city improvement (city walls) will prove to 
be invaluable.  Send a good defensive unit toward your border 
with the enemy civilization and fortify him in a good defensive 
location. This will keep hi units away from your home turf an act 
as a staging point for attacks into his territory. After you get 
a good sized force (it will vary on your empire size and his), 
move it around your staging point. Now you must deal with them 
diplomatically. Talk to them if you can, and try to get them to 
break any treaties of cease-fires you have. Try demanding 
tribute, that usually works well. If it comes to it though, you 
may just have to declare war on him and face the loss in 
reputation. Another good method to declare war on them with
minimal consequences is to talk to a third party civilization 
that doesn’t like your enemy very much. If you can get them to 
ask you to attack the civilization, then go for it. Try as hard 
as you can to get another civilization to help in your attack, 
and ally with them if it is favorable to you. 

  Now to the attack. Send you diplomats in first, scouting the 
territory for you slower units behind. Send cavalry or other fast 
moving units first also. Try to get an idea where the enemy 
cities are, where their units are, and how their road system is 
laid out. When you get to a city you want, you can do one of many 
things. First, you can just brute force attack it. This works 
best if it doesn’t have city walls or you know the defending unit 
is very weak. The other option is to lay siege to the city. This 
consists of fortifying your units around the city in good squares 
and destroying the roads, mines, and irrigation in the other 
ones. This could starve the city down a bit, but is usually only 
used to wait while stronger units are brought up to attack 
directly. When this strategy is used on the harder levels, the
enemy city will be able to still make units faster than you (they
cheat), and you will end up making the city stronger than it
originally was. The best method for attack is to send a diplomat 
in to destroy the city walls (if first you don’t succeed, try, 
try, again), then attack with your good offensive units (catapult 
or legion). If you have the money and you really don’t fell like 
fighting for another city, just send a diplomat in and bribe the 
city to revolt. This method works especially well if you control 
the enemy capital or if it has none, since that lowers the bribe 
price significantly.  There isn’t much else to add here for the 
attack, just that you should never let up making units, and 
making faster ways to get them to the front (ships or roads). 
Make sure you have a settler making roads that keeps moving into 
enemy territory after you crusading force since this will help in 
rapid troop movement to help the war. This probably only applies 
to longer wars, since the short, earlier ones don’t really last 
that long.

  Eventually you will face the task of fighting an enemy that is
overseas. What to do in this case, if it is still early in the 
game, is to produce a few ships and load them up with good 
offensive units. Just land them near the city and attack. Most 
likely you surprised them, and took the city. With this city you 
can ship more units in, and proceed to take the empire by the 
conventional means discussed above. If you have time on your 
hands in the game, and want to play it safe, you could send 
diplomats and explorers over to scout around and choose an ideal 
city to attack. Or you could get a diplomat to bribe the city and 
avoid the battle all together. There are many ways to do it, so 
again experimentation is the best advice.

É isso aí!

Mais uma curadoria da Era de Ouro da Internet feita com sucesso.

Espero que este guia com estratégias para este grande clássico, Civilization II, seja útil de alguma forma para você e, como sei que você vai compartilhar com a turma, por que você é muito gente boa, seus amigos. Depois, comente aqui suas experiências com o CIV2 e considere também tirar o escorpião do bolso e tornar-se nosso apoiador para financiar nossa campanha de dominação mundial!

Abraços!

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