posted 11-03-98 05:39 AM ET        

So there I was 2 weeks ago .. on a week long vacation with nothing left to do ... so what do I do ???

I boot up Civilization 2 ... need I say more .. there went my entire vacation !!!

Anyways, what did you all do in the 2 weeks of non-smaciness ???

I'm still playing a super long game ... the whole bloody world is conspiring against me ... geezz .. just because I stole Genetic Engineering from the English and they had aliances with the French, Spanish and Babilonians, and the French in turn had alliences with the French and the Sioux !!!
What a nightmare ... and I was still in my "solidification stage" ... but hey ... I just had to be the first to find a cure for Cancer !!!

I'm going to have a hard time ridding the world of those damn Englishmen though .. I only have about 140 years left, and I still have 6 Factions to conquer !!!

posted 11-03-98 09:39 AM ET            

I might aswell just kiss my live away on 1998Nov14 !!! lol

SMAC is going to totally ruin my life !!!

posted 11-07-98 04:50 AM ET            

How-about we turn this thread into a CIV2 memorial !!!

How did all of you feel once you finished you "ultimate" game of Civ2 ???

Did you feel fulfilled or sad that it was over ???

posted 11-07-98 02:56 PM ET            

Heh, I even remember my first game of Civ I, back in the day. Started out as the Germans on a penninsula and got wiped by the Egyptians about 500 BC.

posted 11-07-98 11:27 PM ET            

You said you had enough settlers to save your cities !!! But how did your cities survive the nukes ???

posted 11-07-98 11:58 PM ET            

After making peace with the Carthagians, I loaded up something like 10 Howizters and 8 Tanks in a fortress city next to their territory, and successfully backstabbed them (I had to get past the Senate, you see). I was able to unload my entire force upon their unsuspecting hides. Man, can you say Blitzcrieg? In one turn, I had annexed their four nearest cities with one casualty (a tank), and was at the doorstep of their capital. Next turn, I took the capital and the largest city, causing their civilisation to fall into civil war, dividing to Carthage/Indian camps. After that, I was taking out at least one city per turn, using railroads to aid the Howizters to best effect. Twice I came whisker close to losing my entire force, but always managing to take the city and hide everyone inside before the turn ended (still using the original force, plus Mobile infantry to reinforce the captured cities).

Meanwhile, the western most flank of my empire was fighting a heavy battle against the invading egyptians, who were pounding nukes, battleships and bombers on my cities (build coastal fortresses against ships and use S.D.I's to counter nukes, disband and buy in each city, and do it real quick). While resupplying my forces in the east, I had neglected my navy, and was boxed in. I unloaded my single nuke on part of their fleet, buying time, but meanwhile the Indians counter-attacked in the west. And the Celts patched up their differences with the Egyptians and came to join in. I took out the indians, by now robotically moving from one city to the next in the east, investigate with spy, pound with howizters and fortify with tanks, disband broken howizter and buy mobile infantry.

Unfortunately, the game eventually petered out into a draw at 2020, with no spaceships, no Carthage, no India (except for one small island), and the Egyptians finally starting to dismantle my empire in the east. But I remember it in crystal clear detail for the way I conquered sooo many cities in such a short time, and for way I almost held out with so few units against the egyptians. It was a triumph of guesswork and superior deployment, and I reluctantly finished with the feeling that I had humiliated the A.I against huge odds.

posted 11-08-98 12:26 AM ET            

Anyway, my most memorable Civ game (probably because it took so long time to complete - I spent weeks on it) was playing Persians on a 'large Earth' map. I built nothing but settlers and military units until ~500 AD, but by then I had conquered the entire world except for some Aztecs in America. I turned to democracy and built cities and city improvements like a madman. Eventually, I conquered all but one Aztec city (surrounding the last one with my fine fine military, of course), and just continued expanding like mad. By the 1950s my old Amiga couldn't take it anymore - I think I had something like a 300% score....

posted 11-08-98 07:19 AM ET            

That's if I mess up ... although if all the other factions gang up on me again I'm doomed .. but since I have the U.N., I should be OK ... I also just developed the cure for cancer ... a great wonder on it's own ... I think I have about 40% of the wonders so far !!! There are about 4 more left!!!

posted 11-11-98 12:21 AM ET            

Since the topic is going kinda of slowly, I have a question. Nukes or no nukes? Try not to stray off the topic too much because I love to hear good war stories (HINT HINT SMAC site!).

posted 11-11-98 01:02 AM ET            

Sorry if that sounded like rambling, it most likely was.

posted 11-11-98 12:25 PM ET            

Keep them coming !!!

I hope we'll have more great SMAC stories when it gets released !!!

posted 11-12-98 03:15 PM ET            

Well, I told most of my best already. Maybe I'll recap it later for those that didn't read it. Here's my first game of Civ on the Amiga 500:
I started as the "Peterons." I had read teh manual but didn't really understand the game yet. I also didn't know to use the numeric keypad, so my forces moved in only 4 directions. Worse, I never bothered irragating my cities, nor understood that a city only worked on one project at once (I thought I was building 5 things at once when I hit change). I was however able to conquer the Americans, who were on my continent. Washington was my only good city because of all the little blue things around it and all the food it seemed to get from nowhere. Meanwhile, the Russians had conquered a huge amount of territory on a continent north of me (and the Germand and Babaloynians). I sent regular expeditions of riflemen to attack them, but I always forgot to garrison cities (I hadn't yet learned that no black border=no troops in it). My troops slowly marched around pillaging Russia before dieing. And the Russians landed a few attacks against me as well. It continued like two blind men boxing until we ran out of time. In a chieftain level game, it amazes me that neither side never even discovered flight. The Egyptians, who were somewhere, were never found. How odd...

The second game I played I was more "in the know." I had gotten a hint guide on it (that I now recognize had some bad advice in parts). I played on Earth as the Germans against the Russians (my arch rivals yet again), the Americans, the Aztecs, and the Babolynians. I was foolish enough to be rather hesitant against initial expansion against the nearby Russians, and they established Kiev in the fertile area of South Eastern Europe. I controlled all Western Europe, Scandanavia, and soon some imperialistic area in Western Africa. Stalin had the communist bloc, Eastern Africa, conquered Babolynian lands, and later most of Asia I assume. Stalin had me in endless tribute: give me ALL your money or I crush you. One day I said no. And the greatest war ever broke out (later, most wars would be a cakewalk for me in later times. I do believe this was the first ever fair war with modern equipment). Hundreds of Russian troops attacked Berlin. Berlin, with its 4 wonders and mighty walls, could not fall it seemed. But no matter how many attackers it beat back, it seemed that 2 more took their place. While I was winning the naval war, all at once the defenses started to creak... and in one titanic sound Berlin had fallen. I knew there was no hope now. While I probably could have SURVIVED, I had no heart to continue playing.

posted 11-13-98 05:09 AM ET            

My first city was Arifilion !!!
(My real name is actually Arif)

posted 11-13-98 08:01 AM ET            

Or worse,by a warrior or settler?

Well,I do.

posted 11-14-98 10:34 AM ET            

What REALLY annoys me with Civ I-II are the woefully inadequate diplomacy mechanics. Civ I is downright criminal: if you have any neighbouring nations, you pretty much have to be constantly at war. In peacetime, the AI simply pours military units into your country, blocking roads and city resources. I have plenty of other grievances too, but it doesn't really matter anymore. Civ II is better (but not good enough by far) and SMAC (which should be BRAC!) should be great if what I've heard is true....

posted 11-14-98 10:53 AM ET            

A related problem is that if those stone-age guys steal some nifty tech, they might suddenly churn out tank divisions at alarming speeds, without ever knowing stuff like iron working or gun powder (presumably the tank operators throw rocks at people from the turret).

posted 11-15-98 11:40 AM ET            

My most beloved CIV very long time ago a map to begin with:
. ocean * land O city

...........................................
.............*****************.............
..........************0**************......
.........*****0***********************.....
...*O*...*******...............*0******....
............***..................*****.....
...................***0....................
...................****....................
...................****....................
....................****...................

and it conitnues south with room for 3 or 4 cities

posted 11-16-98 12:54 PM ET            

Good city placement is imperitive for a successful game !!!

posted 11-16-98 02:39 PM ET            

Don't recall how the rest of the game went, but I think I did win because I had gotten such a good start.

On the topic of nukes, I hardly ever used then as I always went for the spaceship. But I know I once decided to just be a bad guy. I managed to stockpile about 100 nukes in a relatively short time frame. I had to disband my Republic, change to Monarchy ,and then I pasted every single opposing city with a couple nukes each. Also took out a few large collections of units. The pollution on the map was incredible, but the other civs all took such a big hit, they never recovered and I was able to roll through them fairly easily.

posted 11-16-98 07:48 PM ET            

I went into my Civ II this summer and created a totally new game with the Civ II editor. Created a large "Pangea" like continent. Went in and edited all the terrain: a circle continent with a large river running north and south and east and west. Within the four divided parts, I created four nations that were already in 2100AD. NO NUKES. I wanted to see if these countries could outlive one another without going nuclear.

I set up another two continents with the other three nations. Now, here is the kicker: 5 of the nations were outright 99% at war, hated each other, ruthless dictators, while one was Communists, and the other Democratic. I took the countries, changed there names, created names of leaders from Star Trek, the old episodes, and then created all the cities on the map. An incredible amount of work. All nations were to be equal in city size and military with the exception of the Democratic state and the Communist. They were to be at peace with everyone.

I lined up all four countries on the Pangea continent with over 128 armored units, aircraft, etc, etc. I mean I poured on the military units.

A fluke, I discovered I could create, create Barbarian units, by the tons!! They actually became an Eigth Faction!!

The war began and I turned up my speakers. You never heard so much armor, bullits, aircraft, naval bombardment, etc. Great game! Each nation took several minutes to at turn. And I have a fast computer. IT was neat seeing the computer play the terrain, start the offensives, etc. A fun created game. I hope SMAC will allow that too, and I can't see why not. That is my own personal scenario I created, titled "World War IV".

posted 11-16-98 08:36 PM ET            

A nuke striking a city will automatically obliterate every unit inside the city, and slice the population of the city in half. In addition, the 6 terrain squares immediately surrounding the city are all polluted.

Global warming does not create more polution scattered around the world - it actually changes the terrain. Grasslands, forests, etc, will shift towards warmer terrain types, with desert forming towards the equatorial regions.

Now as far as my most memorable game of Civ 2 ever, that would have to be the game in which I played for thousands of years with only *3* cities. I was an island nation, the Lyrrans, capital city Aldindale. My territory consisted of two small islands. The main island had my capital and another city, Lyrr. Off to my west a short distance was a smaller island, large enough for only one city, on which I founded Naran. I played with those three cities exclusively for most of the game, concentrating all of my energy on terrain improvement and the aquisition of trade via caravan and wonders. My capital became the site for such wonders as the Collosus, Great Library, Issac Newton's College, Copernicus' Observatory, and ultimately every single money or science improving wonder in the game right up to the SETI project. It produced *hundreds* of science beakers every turn on its own, more than the total most large civilizations can produce.

posted 11-20-98 01:49 AM ET            

Started out colonising the island/continent of Australia, which can hold about 7 cities, all on or near the coast. The desert in the middle kills the idea of inland cities until later.

I then expanded into Indonesia and all those other islands, at which stage I ran into the Chinese, Japanese and Indians, who were merrily killing each other. Allied myself with the Chinese (they were the first I met), then set off to discovering with my Trireme and a Horsemen unit.

Found the Egyptians, Celts and Vikings all close together in Europe. The Egyptians immediately declared war on me, as did the Vikings, but the Celts wanted peace (probably cos the Vikings were pounding them).

Landed a settler unit on the sth tip of Africa, and started a city there, but the Egyptians quickly found it, and started trying to pound it with Crusaders. My riflemen just laughed at them though from the quickly built city walls.

So, deciding that expansion into Africa was going to be a hassle, I left the one city on it's own, and deducing that no-one would be on the continent of America, sent two settler units off to America, and founded a coupla cities.

Which is where I am at now.

I'm ahead in tech, though only slightly over the Vikings. Having some mad rushes with them right now over who can build which wonder the quickest. At one stage, they built Adam Smith's trading centre in about 4 turns. Bastards.

Also beat me to the Eifel Tower.

But I got Michaelangelo's Chappel, Leonardo's Workshop (outdated now), Darwin's Voyage, the UN, and the Cathedral (whose name I can't remember right now), and Shakespeare's theatre. All of this thanks to Sydney, which built King Richard's crusade early on, had four mines going, and was producing over 30 shields by 1000 AD.

So, right now I am concentrating on expansion in America, and terraforming all the desert in Australia into fertile land.

Gotta worry about those Vikings though, I can see trouble there later.

posted 12-01-98 07:09 PM ET            

My most memorable Civ2 game was not particularly a game, but rather a Midgard scenario. I was completely mesmerized by its brilliant design. Yes, I know that I could be easily win by saving money and bribing the Dragon, but I did't want to ruin the game and have restrained myself from doing this. I had a very hard time defending my strugling people against Forces of Darkness. City after city fell to evil creatures and hordes of goblins but I fight back and made them pay twice. And what a relieve it was when Scinthias (sp.?) have been erased by some divine intervension ! That scenario made me feel noblier than usuall Civ2 bloodshed

posted 12-19-98 12:25 PM ET            

I was the French the map was WWII Europe. My enemies were the English, Americans, Romans, Zulus(I think), Mongols, and some guys that were wiped out.

posted 12-19-98 04:46 PM ET            

I discovered the tech for SS Modules first and thought I could relax and build a ship with all the goodies. When I had it all ready and launched, the Aztecs stole the needed few techs and built their ship ready in no time. They had about 8 engines and all the structures ready. When they sent it, I looked at the estimate: Mine 17.2 years, theirs 17.1 years. Depressing.

In another game I was clearly the best. I had a full ship on the way and no savings for a few hours. To gain more points I decided to conquer the Vikings. They did what the AI usually does - swithced to Fundamentalism. They managed to fight actually a bit too well, but not alarmingly well. But suddenly, a nuke in my capital and some paratroopers to follow. Capital gone, so was my USS Grosshaus. Sob

Ah, this I remember more clearly, 'cos it was the last time I won it. Actually it also gave me the best points, although I might have been able to get more later, but nowadays I always get bored when my empire gets too big. I started as Carthaginians in north-eastern Siberia. Not the best places to start. I conquered the Celts in China and started to expand further west. After a while I had Europe under my command and my war against the Americans in Africa turned out to be succesfull also. I played in med world and had all Eurasia before 1100 AD. Quicly I sent troops to America and easily defeated Aztec phalanxes with my dragoons. When they were all down there was someone still left. I had no idea where. I've allready built cities throughout Eurasia and Australia, including all those island between them. It took me about 20 turns to find those bloody Sioux hiding in New Zealand. They had no irrigation or roads and they kept their units within that one single city. I had left one square unexplored and there they were. Goodbye 200+ points.