OFF: Amber Revisited

[M Holmes]

Mike Parkington writes:

> Damn,

> I've been trashing these Amber mails & now it seems that we are
> talking about computer games.  What is this one then?

Civilization II by Sid Meier has been voted numero uno strategy game at
least once. It was based on a board game but is like a very very
advanced version of the old "Populus" computer game.

In the game you get a terrain map, which you may only see one tiny part
of at the start. You initialy have one Settlers unit which can build a
city wherever you decide the terrain is good. Different terrain allows
you to produce food, resources or trade. Some food feeds the population
and any excess goes into food store. Once you have enough excess, you
get more population and the food store empties again. That new
population unit can be assigned to any terrain square within the city
limit and this may be chosen to create more excess food, so allowing the
store to build up and continue increasing population in the same way, or
perhaps different terrain will allow creation of resources (shields) or
trade.

Shields accumulate into the resources box and can contribute towards
building city improvements or new units. New units could be settlers,
military units, or city improvements. Settlers can irrigate, mine or
build roads to increase production in a city square, or speed travel, or
start a new city nearby. City improvements can help city production of
food, shields, or trade (trade is subdivided into tax, science, and
luxuries and each of these can also be increased by some city
improvements). Other city improvements contribute to defence of the
city.

Military units and city improvements can be built. What you can build
depends on your tech level. Your tech level depends on how much science
is produced which depends on your choices of improvements and what on
the available technology tree you choose to research. Usually each new
(and more powerful) military unit depends on two specific advances
having been successfully researched, as do certain city improvements.

You play against up to 7 AI civilizations who start somewhere unknown on
the map. You explore until you find them. If you find that you;re on an
island then you need to research seafaring to move units to other
islands and explore. When you meet other civs, there are diplomatic
options such as treaty or alliance. Of course there's always war. If you
break treaties, other civs remember and it'll cost more in tribute (paid
from tax).

So you have to guide your civilisation through exploration, expansion,
and dealings with other civilisations. You have to manage an economy to
ensure that you have enough researchers (no good going against tanks
with armoured knights) to ensure that you stay in the game militarily
and are able to defend your cities. You have to produce enough food for
any expansion. You have to raise enough tax to cover the costs of
maintaining city improvements and perhaps bribing attacking units or
subversives in opponents cities, or perhaps to maintain a military
expedition. You have to be a shrewd negotiator and know how to use
diplomats and spies. You may be called upon to fight with Chariots on a
plain, a submarine war, and air war, or even a nuclear war, with many
units of different capabilities to use and defend against.

You can win either by being the first Civilisation to build a starship
and send a Settlers unit to Alpha Centauri, or you can win by conquering
the last enemy city in the world. Of course, they'll all be trying to do
the same and it can be fairly heartbreaking to see a civilisation that
you've built fall to an enemy attack because you didn't have enough
naval patrols to stop 'em establishing a beachhead.

You can also play scenarios designed by other enthusiasts, either by
saving an interesting position in a random game, or by deliberately
designing their own world maps, technology research trees, military
units, city improvements etc.  There are at least 100 scenarions out
there on the Web including Gulf War, Nuclear Strike, Melnibone, Middle
Earth, Pacific War, and I've even heard of one for Ringworld. You can
also design your own.

To call this game "addictive" doesn't do it justice. You will miss
meals. You will miss sleep. You will say "I'll just finish off the
French on this island and then I'll go to bed".

FoFP