Civ1 retrospect

[T-hawk]

* the AI really is surprisingly competent. Most obvious is the warlike leaders with their chariot rushes, which are a serious danger on Emperor. But in that screenshot I showed, Abe Lincoln beat me to rifleman and landed two of them next to my capital. I was able to defend it but... there was a real chance I could have lost it if I hadn't rushed out a diplomat over railroads. Then he beat me to Hoover Dam, because he apparently skipped factories and went straight for the tech that gives Hoover Dam (a very powerful wonder, but it doesn't do anything if you don't have factories).

Yeah, the AI can be competent because of the simplicity of the units. You don't need to worry about stack defenders vs each type or the right promotions or intricate attack order or artillery bombarding, just send in the highest attacker and that's it. Up through SMAC and Civ 3 the AI was fairly good at attacking just by doing basic stuff like that.

As for wonders, yeah the AI in Civ 1 doesn't really build wonders with production, there's just a random chance each turn that they get one. I don't think Abe actually planned any of that in your case, its decisions just happened to lead to that.

[NobleHelium]

I think Caravans were unbalanced because they were used to rush wonders so essentially wonders were a group project between multiple cities?

[DaveV]

No one has mentioned the galley cheat? Going by memory here, but I recall that player galleys had a 50% chance of sinking every time they ended turn away from shore (i.e. in an ocean tile). The AI chance of sinking was 0%. Between this and the wonder cheat, I felt like the AIs weren't playing the same game as I was. Production cheats don't feel as asymmetrical to me as having the AIs use completely different rules.

[haphazard1]

I was reminded of the suicide galleys thing while watching Sulla's reccent Civ 7 game with his cog sinking as it tried to find the other continent. I wonder if Civ 7 AIs get a similar cheat?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I was reminded of the suicide galleys thing while watching Sulla's reccent Civ 7 game with his cog sinking as it tried to find the other continent. I wonder if Civ 7 AIs get a similar cheat?

They have a flat -33% damage reduction on water. That was presumably to guard them from Rough Seas because the robots are too dumb to properly weigh the risk/reward of exploring, but the devs in their wisdom applied that reduction to all damage, so the player's ships are also a bit gimped against them, as well (lots of embarked units I should have one-shot but failed to).

[haphazard1]

Useful to know, thanks. I always found the suicide galley thing in Civ 1 kind of weird. Sort of a "Go forth, brave sailors, and take one for the empire!" Morale on those ships was probably not very good. Given the risks of early sailing ships leaving sight of land, I guess it is not totally ahistoric.

[Japper007]

I was reminded of the suicide galleys thing while watching Sulla's reccent Civ 7 game with his cog sinking as it tried to find the other continent. I wonder if Civ 7 AIs get a similar cheat?

They have a flat -33% damage reduction on water. That was presumably to guard them from Rough Seas because the robots are too dumb to properly weigh the risk/reward of exploring, but the devs in their wisdom applied that reduction to all damage, so the player's ships are also a bit gimped against them, as well (lots of embarked units I should have one-shot but failed to).

Worse: it even applies extra damage to your units and cities (I think the damge reduction must do something wonky to combat strenght) Since ships no longer have distinct types they can blast down the defenses and sail right in without needing Galleys and Quad's like in civ 6. I've had independents sail two (!) galleys up and burn down my expansions in a single turn  and the AI has managed to do so too. And there's almost no counterplay: archers plink away with scratch damage and your own galleys get almost one-shot.

Then again the player can do a less absurd version of this. Coastal settlements are easier to take than ever. I had a single stack of Carracks and took most of the new world islands in Exploration. Feels really unbalanced IMHO.

[luddite]

I think Caravans were unbalanced because they were used to rush wonders so essentially wonders were a group project between multiple cities?

That's certainly a *good* strat. I don't know if it makes them unbalanced though. For the early, most powerful wonders, you can't rush them that way because you haven't unlocked caravans yet. You can do it for the midgame wonders, but at that time you're still making settlers to expand and improve cities, there's a pretty big opportunity cost to building caravans, moving them a long distance, and storing them up.And most cities just don't have a lot of production anyway, since production costs food and there's not much food to go around.

A bigger issue is that you can get unlimited overflow and switch with no penalty  . So just build a militia for 50 turns and then switch to 1-turn build JS Bach's Cathedral.

[Aurorarcher]

No one has mentioned the galley cheat? Going by memory here, but I recall that player galleys had a 50% chance of sinking every time they ended turn away from shore (i.e. in an ocean tile). The AI chance of sinking was 0%. Between this and the wonder cheat, I felt like the AIs weren't playing the same game as I was. Production cheats don't feel as asymmetrical to me as having the AIs use completely different rules.

I remember this! If I remember correctly you were able to sail to America with galleys if the luck was on your side.

I use to play Civ1 with my brother when I was like 7 or 8 years. We didn’t understand the language at all and just learned by trial and error. I have many great memories from that time. We used to come up with our own way to pronounce the names of units, techs, wonder, etc. and some of those I still remember. They were kind of a mix of finnish and english and really not close either of them . Good times. That game really got me hooked up with civ, never played civ2 though.

[haphazard1]

We used to come up with our own way to pronounce the names of units, techs, wonder, etc. and some of those I still remember. They were kind of a mix of finnish and english and really not close either of them .

I am trying to imagine what that sounded like. It is fascinating to see how different people played Civ at different points in their lives.