Cash Flow Strategy

[Drago Sinio]

“Its the Economy, Stupid.”

A strategy for CivII based on cash flow.

Overall Goal- To build an empire that has a large enough treasury to rush build and
launch a Space Ship on the first turn in which the technology is available.

Supporting Goals- A: To Build, Bribe or Conquer an Empire of 34 Cities
B: Each City should be in the 20+ size range, with marketplace,
bank, stock exchange and Superhighways.


In summary, the idea is to start with a perfectionist, peaceful expansion to get the
economy started, concentrating on cash for rush building improvements, as opposed to
science or building huge armies. When you have developed the cities you started with
to a powerful and profitable size, the focus shifts to expanding the empire to 34 cities, by
conquest if needed. Once you have the 34 cities, the focus shifts back to development of
your infrastructure and building a huge treasury for the space race.

One of the GREAT things about CivII is that every game is a bit different. So rather
than try to create an exact blueprint, I have written something more like a list of
materials to describe the details of the strategy. It is up to the player to use these
materials to achieve the overall goals of the strategy, as dictated by the situation in your
individual game. Here are questions that you might ask each of your advisers in the
“High Council Meeting”.

Military Advisor:

Q: What sort of a military should I build?
A: As little as possible. Some strong defenders for each city, and just a few mounted or
mobile attack units that can get to a trouble spot in a hurry. When the mounted units
aren’t needed , they can act as scouts and hut tippers to gather information about the
surrounding areas. Creating and maintaining a military is very expensive, and our goal is
to expand the treasury, so it is wiser to invest elsewhere. A military unit is only a good
investment if it is actually in use, otherwise it just sits there looking mean, but wasting
resources.

Q: How about conquest? What should I build for that?
A: When and if conquest is required, our strong point is our economy. So we will use
diplomats or spies and simply bribe the enemies cities out from under him.

Science Advisor:
Q: Should I build science facilities?
A: Don’t bother. Build caravans instead to aid our research, and turn a tidy profit in the
process.

Q: What technologies should I research first?
A: Monarchy, Democracy, Monotheism, Theology , and Economics are most important.
And of course, the techs for building a space ship. Democracy is important so you can
build the Statue of Liberty, and for WLT*D . ( If you dont build the Statue of Liberty,
then you need to research Fundamentalism too,) Monotheism, Theology and Economics
are important for the Wonders they Allow you to build.

Domestic & Trade Advisor:

Q: And what do you advise?
A: It is critical to our strategy to build every possible facility that will increase our cash
flow. And we want to build them as quickly as possible, so we should rush build them.
Marketplace, Bank, Stock Exchange, Super highways. The sooner we build them, the
sooner they turn a profit! And remember that happy citizens are productive citizens, so
make sure to build all the happiness facilities you can. In fact I would recommend
making temples, cathedrals etc. your first priority when deciding what to build next. You
want to make sure that each and every citizen is happy, and out there working and paying
taxes! None of those lazy Elvis’s should be tolerated.

Q: What about caravans?
A: Yes, build many caravans! They will generate tons of cash and science, and are also
good to scout the enemies territory.

Q: How about the tax rates?
A: You want very high taxes! Just a bit of science too, and of course enough luxuries to
keep all the people happy.

Q: What type of Government is best?
A: I recommend researching Democracy as fast as possible and building the Statue of
Liberty. The two best governments are Democracy and Fundamentalism. You want
Democracy for Celebrating until you reach population limits, and Fundamentalism for
generating big piles of money.

Q: What Wonders of the World should we Build?
A: Michelangelos Chapel, J. S. Bach’s Cathedral, Statue of Liberty and Adam Smiths
Trading Co. are the best ones. When you get the tech for one of these wonders, you
should start your city with the most minerals building it, then rush build as soon as you
have enough cash. Often you will have cash on hand to build it right away. If not, set
taxes to max for a few turns. The other wonders are not really needed.

Foreign Affairs Advisor:
Q: What should our relations with the other nations be like?
A: Entirely peaceful, as much as possible. You should gift or trade them whatever they
ask for in technology. Even cash is okay to give away if it will prevent an expensive war.

Q: Should we train a lot of diplomats and spies?
A: Yes, many , many of them. In the event you have to go to war, they are your best
weapon. Just bribe the enemies troops and cities right out from under him with your huge
cash flow. Remember that a veteran can bribe a city more cheaply. If you get a veteran ,
reserve him for that purpose. If you have a coastal city within range of a likely enemy, its
a good idea to keep a large group of diplos/spies there standing by with a transport to
bribe or steal techs in the event war breaks out. You should also establish embassies as
soon as possible.

Happiness Advisor:
Q: How important is happiness?
A: Extremely! You want to keep all the workers happy, all the time. You should make
this a top priority when deciding what to build next. It is best to time your builds to be
completed at the same time as the city grows in size.


Other things to keep in mind.

The reason for having 34 cities is that with 34 cities you can build, all at once , a fusion
powered spaceship that will reach its destination in 10 years. (21 structurals, 5 fuel, 5
propulsion, and the 3 modules)


You should have plenty of settlers and engineers making improvements, like 2 or 3 per
city.

If at all possible, avoid war. You only want to go to war if you must, in order to get
enough land for 34 cities.

Dont wait too late to expand to 34 cities.

When you have just built a Happiness Wonder, it is usually time to build some new
cities.

You cant have too many spies. Train a lot of them.

Avoid building things that will become obsolete. For example there isnt much point in
building a Wonder of the World, or a barracks, if the technology that will obsolete them
is right around the corner. I dont like to build ANYTHING that wont last the length of the
game.

Let the AI build the Apollo Wonder, while you stockpile cash instead. Then build and
launch your spaceship in a single turn.

If you find yourself lacking the technology at that point, which is unlikely, trade for it or
STEAL it!

Comments/ disagreements/ improvements welcome!
[This message has been edited by Drago Sinio (edited November 08, 2000).]

I think it's easier to get to apollo faster by playing for science, and then take extra turns for building the ship. Then again, this would kick the ai's arse as fundy in a bloodlust game.

[Xin Yu]

How about building a wonder and switch to capitalization? You keep the shield when you switch back to SS parts.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Two caveats as I chime in: I'm pretty new at Civ, and I only play at King. That being said, I use a version of this strategy that differs slightly, in that I don't think it requires that much game-long planning; instead, acquiring enough cities (they don't need to be size 20) and builing an SSC are generally all the prep I need:

1) The key is definitely having enough cities by the time Apollo gets built. I try for about 40, which generally works out to be 25-30 built, 10-15 conquered along the way. Why 40? It will allow me to set 33 civs to build structurals while the others can still produce military. This is important because, by the time the space race starts, I always seem to be at war with several civs, despite my best efforts to the contrary.

2) Up until the space race starts, I play a perfectionist strategy as a democracy, allowing me to have high science and a good cash flow, provided I build happiness wonders.

3) Once I get space flight, I give it away to every civ that will take it, and let someone else build the Apollo program; meanwhile, I set science down to about 10% (which generally means discoveries every 8-10 turns) and start saving cash (generally about 1000-1200 gold/turn).

4) Once Apollo gets built, I immediately switch 33 cities over to building structurals, trying not to weep too much over the lost shields, and then rush build all that I can -- which is often all 33. By this time, because the AI took it's time building Apollo, I also have the tech to build components, so once the structurals get built I set my 16 most productive cities to the task of building components; the rest get switched back to regular production.

5) At the same time as I start building structurals, I switch the tax rate again so that I'm getting discoveries every 3-4 turns while clearing 300-500 gold each turn. I will generally have to move through 2-3 techs at this point to get modules, so I don't rush build the components; however, when any city finishes a component I have it start on another.

6) Upon getting modules, I rush-build the rest of the components I need, making sure not to rush build the ones in my 3 most productive cities; those I switch to modules. Any city building an unneeded component after I do these two things gets switched to capitalization.

7) Now it's time to jack the science rate up as high as possible, so that I'll get fusion in only a turn or two; ideally, the modules will be completed without rush building on or before the turn that I get fusion (if they're not going to be, then I rush build them so that they are).

8) Get fusion; launch; land 5.7 years later.

In the game I finished last night, it took me 8 turns from Apollo to launch, in a game where I was at war with at least two civs on any given turn, where I didn't have a complete SSC (I lost the Observatory to the bloody English), where I never switched out of democracy, and where only 6-8 of my cities were over size 20 (not that I'm proud of that, mind you). It probably could have been a turn or two quicker with bigger cities or Fundy govt., but it works just fine.

------------------
Dig trenches, with our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made. Here, run out and get some trenches.
-- Rufus T. Firefly, the original rush-builder
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Rufus T. Firefly (edited November 09, 2000).]</font>
[This message has been edited by Rufus T. Firefly (edited November 09, 2000).]