forum.freeciv.org

I just wanted to share my strategies with you, so that you can be a good player.

Base options: I usually use the Island-based generator(/set generator "ISLAND") and let the game place one player per continent(/set startpos "SINGLE"). This makes sure that I don't get in contact with the AI too fast. Since I normally play with ｎｏｖｉｃｅ or ｅａｓｙ AIs, I have enough time to get a huge advantage. Also, I set contactturns to 100 to have enough time for diplomatic actions after meeting the AI, and phasemode to "PLAYER" or "TEAM" to avoid immediately losing strong attack units due to the enemy attacking when I move my units next to his city. sciencebox is normally 0, since this gives more room for advantage.

Science: Immediately after the game has started, it is wise(in my opinion) to set the currently researched technology to Masonry and set the goal to Bronze Working or Pottery. Either way, the other one is next up. After that, you should research either Map Making(because I like going to sea quickly) or Mysticism. Then come Literacy, Trade or, to help speed up research, Astronomy. The aim of all of this is get the Great Wonders more quickly than your opponents, the Great Wall being the first of them. You should also get to Construction quickly for Aquaeducts, and to Bridge Building so you can build roads on rivers. Monarchy is also useful, but it's up to you to decide. Fact is that you need to get the Wonder-Techs of the first column and second column as quickly as possible.

Building: If you have already gotten Masonry from a hut, immediately build the Great Wall. Then, build a unit for defense! Also, you should build a diplomat or spy to defend against other diplomats/spies. Other than that, you should build any Wonders you can build, City Walls(if you don't have the Great Wall), or Barracks and what else you can build. In general, until the end of the game, this is the order you should build your stuff in:

1. Defending Unit(s)
2. Defense Buildings(if you have laser, the SDI first)
3. Wonders
4. Barracks, Port Facility etc.
5. Production and Anti-Pollution buildings
6. Happiness Buildings
7. Everything else

However, the most important thing is: Use common sense! Think about what you do. If your enemy has some oversea cities, build a Coastal Defense earlier! If the enemy is approaching with military, build Units instead of your Colosseum or Stock Exchange!
Oh, and one more thing: You should probably build most of your wonders in your capital and you earlier cities, not in those easily captured. Also, take care with those like Copernicus' Observatory, Colossus etc., since they only do something in the city they're in.

Diplomacy: Try to get a peace treaty, and maybe an Alliance with the others as fast as possible. Then, you have two ways.

1. Build a huge army, declare war and kill your former allies. Brotip: Do it before they research Laser and nuke the hell out of them. Or come with a swarm of Helicopters. Or both. Works not every time!
2. Build a strong defense and start to build a spaceship. As soon as you launch it, they'll declare war on you, but a perfect spaceship needs only about 15 years, so you're fine.

That's pretty much it. You should explore the whole world(for example, with Helis or the Apollo Program), have an embassy with everyone and terraform the area around your cities.

I'll probably re-work this , but until then, you could try this plan.

- Caedo

I think the most important objective in the first 30-40 turns of an island game is to get the Republic as fast as you can. You shouldn't care about aqueducts until turn 45-55, if ever.
When do you get Magnetism or Gunpowder? I think those techs are the second objective after the Republic.

What I've written so far was only the beginning of the game. And I don't give set turn numbers because the technology costs, production costs and city growth costs can be customized. Overall, I don't want to have everyone to play exactly like me, I'm just giving them part of my knowledge. I usually skip Magnetism in that I get Gunpowder, Steam Engine and Industrialization first, then get Magnetism and Electricity. I'm not sure if it's the best way to do it, but I like to have real fighting ships(Ironclad) before upgrading my Caravels. Also, I'm not that into Republic. I usually have a Monarchy or Communism(although I don't research Communism that fast because it makes Cathedrals less effective), or, if there's peace, I'm in a Democracy.
Later in the game(after I can build Sewer Systems and everything), I usually try to get Automobile, Flight etc. to get Rocketry, and Recycling to reduce pollution. Then, I'm going on Environtmentalism to eliminate Pollution completely.

I will rework the whole first post, but this is it for now. I'll try to get this as good and clean as possible, but I've also got school work to do.

- Caedo

I talk about turns because I'm thinking of a game with "default" ruleset and settings.

I don't grasp the point of researching masonry first of all. Most of the players research Pottery first in an island game.

Well, but the Pyramids are very good, and, if you play by default rules, you're not that good when barbarians/pirates show up, so you need City Walls. Of course, others think differently, and this is only my opinion. I posted it here since I wanted others to see it and build their own strategies based on it.

I usually play multiplayer games neither with barbarians nor huts.

Ok, I usually play single player, or only with my brother against a horde of AIs.

Caedo wrote:Ok, I usually play single player, or only with my brother against a horde of AIs.

Visit the metaserver if you get some time to play against humans http://meta.freeciv.org/metaserver.phtml
We usually play in freeciv-debian server.

I usually go for great library and miss alot of the early wonders.

At first I thought... trolling ? Then I realized, no he's serious.

Well, it seems that the best thing I can do for this thread is point towards the Tutorials site with all the very good guides to playing Freeciv.

Applies equally to both single and multiplayer action

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorials

Cheers !