Another Civilization 2 Game

 There are 3 ways to win at Civ 2.  One is to land a spaceship on Alpha Centuri.  Another way is to destroy all the other Civs.   I'm a peaceful type.  I like to land a spaceship.  The 3rd way is to just be the highest-ranked Civ at the end of the game.

So I tried the military victory path just out of curiosity.  I suck at that.  I'm a natural builder and defender.  The computer is designed to built military units and attack.  In fact, it cheats.

There is a cheat function (aside from the computer) where you can see details of what the opposing Civs are doing.  I've done that a couple times just to understand what the computer is doing.  The computer Civs build military at 75-80% of the normal cost.  And if the game gets tight towards the end, it cheats more (like 50%).  

So I was trying to play for a military victory just to see what happened.  Part of the game is research to discover new advances.  The computer "discovered" units it did not have the research for!

The game ends in 2020.  I ended up the top Civ at that point, but it really felt unsatisfactory.  My next one will be totally military.  Just build the strongest types and send them all around with some spies to steal stuff and bribe enemy units.  But I'll go back to building cities after that.  It feels better to build.

Civilazation 2 Game

Well, I've gone and done it now!  I found a way to play the old 32-bit Civ 2 Microsoft game on my modern Mac.  Addictive to me as ever.  I LOVE this game.

The World I've explored.  My Part of The World (the gridline places).

 I won a couple nights ago.  I built a spaceship and landed it on Alpha Centuri while the other 3 Civilizations (English, German, and Mongol) tried to join to kill me.  First time I had played in almost a year.  Now I have to try the next level up (where the AI begins to cheat to make things harder).  But I needed one good win to get used to the game again.

Each game takes about 40-100 hours to play.  And I win about 50% of the time.  I say the game "cheats", because it builds military units and city advances faster than it should.  That isn't a complaint; that's just how the game makes things harder as you advance.

When I used to play it obsessively a decade ago, I won 1 game of the 4 I tried at the top level.  I want to get back to that.

It's a detailed game.   If your people become unhappy, that city goes into anarchy and your Government  falls.  But if you build a Temple to make them happy, you are not building a Marketplace to gain gold or a military unit (and there are many from Warrior to Armored Vehicles and Stealth Bombers).  Tech advances go from spears to Nuclear Weapons.  And there are Wonders Of The World to build that provide some advantage to all or some cities. 

The levels are Chief, Warlord, King, Emporer, and Deity (or something like that).  So I won at Warlord.  Next is King.  You have to adjust some strategies at each level because what works best at one level doesn't work best at the next.

It is altogether complicated.  Well, that's why I play it.

I guess I will start a new game at the next level next week.