CIVILIZATION 1
BEATING IT AT EMPEROR DIFFICULTY
BY: EDMAN
VERSION 1.1
29th of December, 2002
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COPYRIGHT
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This guide is copyright (c) Edman (a.k.a. Edmunds Steins)
- edman@hackermail.com. This guide or any part of it may
not be reproduced without the permission of the author.
If you wish to use this guide on your web site, feel free
to do so, but email me (edman@hackermail.com) first.
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Basically, there are some people who have spent quite a lot
of time playing Civilization and still can't beat it at the
highest level of difficulty - the Emperor.
This guide will offer you with some very simple strategies
which allow you to beat the game with ease even at this
level of difficulty.
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CONTENTS:
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1. Exactly how difficult is it?
2. The easiest way of doing it
3. FAQ
4. Credits & Version History
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1. EXACTLY HOW DIFFICULT IS IT?
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Don't get me wrong - even with this guide, Emperor is really
difficult. The following factors make it extremely difficult:
--> The Computer cheats with no end. For example, the AI
can get Wonders at their convenience.
--> The AI researches techs at an impossible speed. They
can get into the Future Techs (if left alone) by
1300 AD.
--> The AI has an advantage at city happyness. Their
unhappyness is like your Prince difficulty.
--> They build imporvements/units at around double speed.
Now that you know what you are up against, let's tackle the
problem!
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2. THE EASIEST WAY OF DOING IT
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The way to beat the game the easiest way (I have once done
this in 17 minutes, and no, I'm not joking!) is to simply
"overmass" them. If you can't beat them technologically,
then just do it by beating them at everything else! And that
includes
--> Building as many cities as possible
--> Building as many units as possible.
Basically, the number of cities you have has got to explode
at the beginning of the game. Once you have a large number
of cities (20 will usually do), you can start building units
in large numbers.
So this is a walkthrough of doing it:
1. Start a new game. Pick Earth if you want things to be a
little bit easier. Pick 3 Civs. Makes it easier to hunt
them down. If you want things to be even easier, pick
Russians. There are two reasons for doing this:
--> The Russians have a small chance of starting with
2 settlers. This can be very useful in your tries
to build 20 cities as quickly as possible.
--> The Russians start in a region full of forests.
This is bad if you want to get your cities at high
population, but good if you want production. As
you want to mass-produce units, you want this type
of landscape.
2. Build Your city at 4000 BC. Immediately switch to building
a Militia. Set your taxes to 0% and science to 100%. For
research, pick them in this order:
--> Bronze Working
--> The Wheel
--> Alphabet
--> Map Making
Once you have finished researching these techs, stop all
research (switch taxes to 100%).
3. Once you have build your Militia, build another one. Have
that one walk around and explore the map. If you chose the
Russians on earth, walk west to find either the Germans or
the French. Walk south to find either the Zulus (bad, these
guys are dangerous) or the Babylonians (very good, these
guys are worthless).
4. Once your second militia is produced, start making settlers.
And then just continue to make settlers, and don't really
try to stop. When you finish Bronze Working, stop building
a settler and build an extra phalanx for protection from
barbarians.
5. Don't bother building new cities far away from your capital.
One square between cities is all that is needed. Don't
bother building roads, as that takes up too much time.
Just keep on building cities right next to each other. As
the level of unhappyness in emperor is very high (cities
get unhappy with size 3), keep 2 phalanxes in each of your
cities and don't let them grow over size 4 - adjust the
food squares so that you can have the maximum production
and the minimum food. Once you have everything in place,
build some barracks.
6. Once you have enough cities (don't think that anything
below 20 will be enough!), you can start producing
chariots (that is, you should have wheel by now).
7. If you have Zulus on your map, I suggest targeting them
first. They will usually have no more than 5 cities. If
you have built enough chariots (around 20, and no, it
doesn't take that long), you should be able to take out
a couple of their cities. That's all you need - to weaken
them. Once that has happened, attack the second civ on
your map. Weaken them down to a couple of cities. Once
you have done that, return back to the first civ (zulus
in my example), and destroy their capital, leaving them
with only 1 city with no palace. Do the same for the
second civ.
8. You should have gotten map making by now. Using Tiremes,
you can go anywhere on the world map if you are playing
on the earth. Simply load your chariots and unload them
in all parts of the world. Make sure you have the whole
world map covered.
9. Destroy the two opponents.
10. Two more AI civs will be made. Of course, as you have
your units everywhere, you will see them immediately
(you will see their first settlers). Leave them alone
(let them go out of your sight). They will create their
first city. It will be undefended, so just take it over.
The reason you can't kill the settlers themselves is
because there is a bug in civilization: if you kill a
civ before it has created the first settler, you will
never win the game.
11. Go and brag that you beat Civ 1 at emperor difficulty!
This strategy works all the time. Build as many cities as
you can, then build as many units and then just
assassinate everyone. Good Luck!
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3. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Q: Is It REALLY possible to beat the game at Emperor level??
A: YES!! I didn't write this guide as a joke, OK?
Q: What is the highest score you have ever gotten in a Civ
game?
A: I really can't remember, but I think it was 183%.
Q: What year did you finish your fastest Emperor level game?
A: It was at year 2420 BC.
Q: Apart from this beat-them-up-as-fast-as-you-can method,
is there another way of beating Emperor.
A: Yes there is, but you should remember that you should only
attempt to do this another way if you want to have fun,
because you will simply make the game much more difficult
for no apparent reason. The way to do this is to simply do
a conquest (like I described) to take over a continent, then
switch all income to research and simply develop your
cities like you normally would. For this to work, you
should be isolated, otherwise the AI will most likely
declare a war on you. Simply develop until you get Nuclear
Weapons and then just nuke your opponents. Most likely
they will nuke you back, but it will be fun.
Q: Why is it that I can't beat the game? I have taken every
enemy city!
A: You must have destroyed an enemy civ before it had built
it's first city. The only way to counter this is to
restart the game.
Q: I can't build nearly enough chariots/cities! What did I
do wrong???
A: Basically, to win this challenge, you have to concentrate
on producing cities one after another. Never stop, and
never do anything else, like research another technology
when that money could have gone to something useful, like
another chariot!
Q: I've been trying to do this, but my cities keep on getting
into civil disorder! HELP!!
A: Every city should have a size 4. If it has a larger size,
then starve it. That's right, kill off the people you don't
want. After all, this is despotism! Each city should have
two phalanxes in it. That should keep the population happy!
Q: Is there anything more difficult than Emperor?
A: In theory, yes. Practically, no. Within the game itself,
there is nothing worse than Emperor. However, you can hack
the Civ save and edit the level of difficult one higher than
Emperor (as far as I can remember, emperor was 4, so change
it to 5). Get a save state hacking program if you don't know
how to do this.
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4. CREDITS & VERSION HISTORY
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I would like to thank:
--> Cid Meier for making this game
--> People at the current GameFAQs board, you inspired me to do
this (I know that there aren't many/any...).
--> InfoGrames for keeping up Civ series with Civ 3
--> Me, for typing this guide and playing this game for 5 years
straight!
--> My sister, she showed me Civ 1!
Version History:
Version 1.0: Well, this is it! The first version! Includes all the
basic strategies for beating emperor.
Version 1.1: Fixed some spelling mistakes.
Planning:
Version 2.0: This will include the High tech way and the usual way
of beating Civ 1. Date for release not known (I will
do it if I ever get the inspiration!)
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!! THANK YOU FOR READING !!
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Guide Copyright (c) Edman (edman@hackermail.com)
