Welcome to the CIV FAQ.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the game, we would like to thank 
personally a few people who without their help, this FAQ would not be 
possible. In No particular order:-

        Garth Sweet, Roger Kemp, Bryce Harrington, Earnest To,
        Ralph Betza (FM), skipmeister (laus@midway) and Ronald Bense.
        James Ollinger, Mark Lilback, David Gosselin, Devin Ben-Hur
        and Albion.

A special thanks is due to Maurice Schekkerman for sending us a large 
collection of posts that he had collected before we started searching. If 
we have left anybody out, we are terribly sorry, but we really appreciate 
all the stuff that has been given.

This is NOT the definative version, but more of a preview of what we would 
like the FAQ to be. We do not take credit for the information contained 
here, as all we have done is collect it together into one document. If you 
have any questions, comments, criticisms, or tips please post them to us at 
stanworthdjh@bham.ac.uk [Dave] or aev@dcs.kcl.ac.uk [Alex]

What is civilization. I consider it more than a game, it is more a way of 
life. Just ask anyone who has played it. The aim of the game is to take a 
tribe, settle them and try and create a civilization from them. Along the 
way you develop new sciences, meet other tribes (some warlike, some not), 
visit new continents all for the aim of trying to get into space, and/or be
the dominant civilization.

A lot of the information in the FAQ is design to give not only the new 
player an insight into the game, showing the various strategies and tricks, 
but to also provide the experienced player with information on how to make 
his civilization stronger with the aim of getting a higher score. In 
compiling the FAQ, we have both found numerous new things that have enabled 
us to really enjoy the game further and tell us EXACTLY what a certain city 
improvement or wonder does.

We will Now proceed....

 A GENERAL

         1) How can I tell which version I have ?
         2) Which is the best version of CIV ?
         3) What is the advisory bug ?
 B CITIES

         1) How do I make a city?
         2) How do I make my city grow?
         3) More cities or less ?
         4) Is there a limit to the size of my city?
         5) How do you keep a city from getting unhappy ?
         6) How do I make an Elvis (Taxman or Scientist) ?
         7) How much money does a taxman collect ?
         8) How many lightbulbs does a scientist create ?
         9) What is the difference between subvert a city and revolt ?
        10) How does the computer cheat ? 
        11) How do you calculate pollution ?
        12) What is the highest population for a single city ?

 C DIFFERENT GAME STRATEGIES

         1) In general
            Which is the best Govt type
            Despotic Conquest
            Democratic Ostrich
            Flexible Evolution
            Republic
            Pyramid
            High Tech
            Rich
            Balanced
            Peaceful
            High Tech Conquest
            Hide in a Corner
            Archipelago
            Diploblitz
            Trading Cities
            Take No Prisoners
            The Helping Hand
            The Rock
            Replay

         2) Colossal City Strategy
         3) What is the best way to take an enemy city
         4) What are the best wonders to build
         5) Final score
         6) Lightbulb formula
         7) Misc. tricks and tips

 D CHEATS

         1) Shift 1-8 cheat
         2) Movement cheat
         3) Settler cheat
         4) Ship movement cheat
         5) Convoy cheat
         6) Unloading ships cheat
         7) Save game cheat
         8) Settler movement cheat

 E THE FUTURE

         1) Will there be a CIV II?
         2) What would people want in it?

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                        G   E   N   E   R   A   L
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1) How can I tell which version I have ?
----------------------------------------
When you run CIV it asks various setup questions. The version number is on 
these screens. The number is 474 plus an increment, so version 5 is shown 
as 474.05. If you have an older version, you can get the latest version by 
anonymous FTP from some of the big game sources such as wuarchive.wustl.edu.
                    
2) Which is the best version of CIV ?
-------------------------------------
There has been much debate on Usenet about the various pros and cons of the 
different versions. The only two versions worth considering are 474.01 and 
475.05 (versions 1 & 5). The easiest of the two is version 1. If you are 
playing with version 5, and not having much luck, try to get hold of 
version 1. This is also the version that allows the "shift 1-9 cheat", that 
can be a good way of learning the ins and outs of the game. Originialy it 
was the Beta copy for the playtesters and they didn't remove the cheat. 
However, if you like a challenge, then ver. 5 is really the only one to 
play. A further impetus to buy the game is that version 5 contains far less 
bugs. If you do get the latest version, the chances that the game will not 
crash are far greater. :) . The big problem is the Instant Advice. This is 
known as "advisory bug". Fixed in one of the latest versions of CIV. Can be 
temporary avoided by turning advisory off. Get the latest update of CIV. On 
almost all msdos anonymous servers.

---
Version 1 : Came with the game.

Version 2 : Attempted to fix the Advisor bug.  Fixed the tundra bug.
            Fixed the Civ score bug.  Removed %^ cheat.

Version 3 : Attempted again to remove the Advisor bug.  Added some 
            new pics and Very Happy people.  Removed disbanding 
            a city by buying a settler at 1 population.

Version 4 : No bug fixes, just made the game harder for veterin 
            players.

Version 5 : Finaly fixed the Advisor bug (They think). Version 5 does 
            not include version 4, but does include all other fixes 
            in other versions. 
---[Albion]
   
If the above is correct then those people moaning about Ver.5 being too 
hard are getting confused with Ver.4

If you need further Advice or information about the game, there is a book 
called 'Rome on 640k a day'.

===========================================================================
Wilson, Johnny L.
  Sid Meier's Civilization, or Rome on 640K a day
  / by Johnny Wilson and Alan Emrich.
   p. cm.
  Includes index.
  ISBN 1-55958-191-3:$18.95
   1. Computer games. I. Emrich, Alan. II. Title
  GV1469.15.W55 1992
  793.93'2-dc20

                  91-42148
                   CIP

Quantity discounts are available from the publisher, Prima Publishing, 
P.O.Box 1260 CIV, Rocklin, CA 95677; telephone (916)786-0449, On your 
letterhead include information concerning the intended use of the books and 
the number of books you wish to purchase.

U.S. Bookstores and Libraries: Please submit all orders to St. Martin's 
Press, 175 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10010; telephone (212)674-5151. 

===========================================================================

3) What is the advisory bug ?
-----------------------------
I have never met this bug, but it is know by Microprose, and has been 
reported by a number of sources.  Supposedly fixed by version 5. 

-----
Scrambled oceans? Extra "land" at the north pole? Screen goes crazy if you 
try to move a unit there?

I have this *every* time I look at the "Civilization Score" So I don't do 
that any more. The problem, once it occurs, corrupts the save files as 
well, so there's no recovery. If you *must* see your "Score" then do a save 
_first_ and restart _after_

You can see the corruption in the small map - some of the "people" from the 
score screen get left drawn on the map, and apparrently they distort the 
.map file as well. Often, there's lots of new grassland around the north 
pole, and even some "mystery" houses. You can, in fact, go get the $50 
prizes, if you care to go to the trouble. Or maybe my system's more 
forgiving than most. 
-----[Bob O'Bob]

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                        C   I   T   I   E   S
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1) How do I make a City?
------------------------
Apart from RTFM, take a settler unit and find a suitable place to build a 
city. It is my opinion that you should always look around your continent 
before building a city, especially at the begining where you are very 
vulnerable. When you have found the site of your city press the 'b' key to 
build the city.

2) How do I make my city grow?
-------------------------------
The only way to make a city grow in terms of population is to feed it. The 
best way to feed a city is to provide squares with as much wheat in them. 
The best way to do this is to irrigate and build roads in the squares and 
then change to a republic/democracy. Your cities will have an explosion in 
population. Remember you can change you government to suit your needs. So 
after you change to the republic/democracy you can change back, although it 
is not really worth it unless you want to have a military campaign.

3) More cities or less ?
------------------------
I think the general view is MORE, MORE, MORE !!!
I never play with more than about 30 cities as it gets boring trying to 
look after them all, but some people just love 70+, and one person has 
mentioned having over 250 !?! Here are a few comments from others.

a) Mark Lilback
More!! My normal strategy is to build as many cities as possible before 
attacking anyone not in my immediate vicinity. When you have 60+ cities, 
it's very hard not to win the game. (I also stay in despotism and build 
cities 1 square apart from each other, just so they are production centers 
for military units when I do go to war. Until then, I just build settlers.)

b) James Ollinger
More. A lot of cities close together are easier to defend, since you can 
move attack units quickly between them to whichever cities are in trouble. 
Second, more cities mean greater population growth, which tends to be 
critical in CIV. Greater population = more of everything + higher score. 
Spin off as many cities as you can early in the game, and then "perfect" 
them later on.

c) David Gosselin
More, the more the merrier. With more cities you can get more of 
everything: resource, population,tax,science...Oh yeah, pollution and 
unhappy people too. But the advantages certainly offset the disadvantages.

4) Is there a limit to the size a city can be created?
-----------------------------------------------------
If you look at the window around the city it seems that the maximum size a 
city can attain is only about 15-20. However it is a BIG mistake to assume 
this. So how does one make LARGE (around 40) cities:-

Food production is the primary problem, although if you're in a democracy 
and have "we love..." days, your food production is really unimportant, as 
long as there is enough to make them grow.

Pollution does become a problem as your city grows, and the following 
things have a knwon impact:

        Mass Transit (at about size twenty)
        Recycling Center (Needed at about size 30)
        Nuclear Plant (Needed around size 28-30)

It's funny, but a Nuclear plant increases production, yet decreases 
pollution. I've had a city size 30 that had 6 smokestacks (60 tons) of 
pollution being produced and minimal production (about 20-30 shields) I 
built the Nuclear plant, and the pollution vanished. Obviously it is a real 
pain building a nuclear powerplant in each city. An alternative (which will 
affect all your cities on that continent) is to build Hoover's Dam instead. 
It has the same effect as the Nuclear Plant, but it acts on all cities on 
the continent, doesn't have the risk of meltdown (before Fusion) and can be 
built at an earlier stage (req. Electronics) A final method of building big 
cities is to remove the most hostile opposition. Taking the Zulus is 
sometimes a good strategy, since it removes the most militaristic 
civilization from the planet.

What is most important in developing the assets of a city - irrigate, build 
roads, trade, mine, ?? What else can you do to a sqaure other than mine or 
irrigate?

I've found that roads and irrigation are most important. Roads not only 
give you trade, but they make your units move faster, which makes it easier 
to amass firepower between cities for a common defense against invasions. In 
other words, if one city looks like it will be attacked, it is far easier 
to bring out the knights/catapults/cannon/armor/whatever to the city's 
defense if there is a good network of roads. I also give higher priority to 
irrigation. Irrigation means wheat, which means population. Population 
increases trade, coins, and lightbulbs. A city with a lot of mines and no 
population will watch those mines go unused. But a city with a lot of wheat 
production grows fast. Generally, I find it best when a city has maybe one 
or two forest squares, one or two mining areas, and the rest are irrigated. 
And everything has a road/railroad on it.

5) How do you keep a city from getting unhappy ?
-------------------------------------------------
When playing Republic or Democracy it can be very difficult keeping cities 
from revolt. The obvious things to do are to build temples and coliseums, 
but these cost to build and are a steady drain on finances. Another way is 
to create some entertainers, but the loss in trade (from the unused square) 
can make things even worse. Here are a few tips from various sources:

1)Mark Lilback
Raise your luxury rate and build wonders. If you go into republic or 
democracy, you should have at least a 20% luxury rate. The increased trade 
values makes up for the loss of raising the luxury rate.

2) James Ollinger
It can be tough. Look at how many military units are away from the city 
(shown on a panel on the left side of the screen. All military units that 
are away from the city have little black sad faces on them) and try and 
reduce that number. If your units are garrisoning another city, make those 
change their home city (with the H command) to wherever they're located. 
Units that are in action will have to be dealt with differently. Try and 
get one or two units from each city so that all the cities have one or two 
units out--it spreads the burden around evenly. Also try and buy (bribes) 
as many enemy units as you can. When you buy an enemy unit and you aren't 
close to one of your own cities, that unit will have a "NONE" home city. 
You can field a decent army of units that won't create any unhappiness this 
way... Also make sure to get the WOWs that make people happy--WOMEN'S 
SUFFERAGE and J.S.BACH'S CATHEDRAL are the best. 

3) David Gosselin
Well, set luxury rate higher, send out as many canavans as possible to 
*large* enemy cities overseas and establish trade routes. If the other 
civilization is also under Republic/Democratic, 3 trade routes can get you 
close to 30 trades (only happened to me once). With more trade routes you 
can also put some luxury back to science. WoW are important too, Bach is a 
must especially on large continents, Woman's Suffrage is even more 
important, especially if you want to fight a war under Republic or 
Democracy. And, primarily use diplomas as your attacking force, buying 
enemy cities really pays off since you will get defending units right away 
and with city improvements.

Finally, remember that when playing Republic, the further your city is
from the capital, the higher the corruption rate.  It can sometimes
pay to build a courthouse instead of a temple, or even to move your
palace to a more centralised position.

6) How do I make an Elvis (Taxman or Scientist) ?
-------------------------------------------------
RTFM !!!

To make an Elvis (entertainer) look at the city portion of your city screen 
and click the mouse on one the squares around your city which you are 
currently using/drawing-resources-from. The little wheat/shield symbols 
dissapear from that square and suddenly you have an Elvis in the top left 
hand corner. This probably made a person happy (turned them light blue) or 
got rid of an unhappy person. This is also how you change the squares that 
you are currently using. Turn a square that you are using into an Elvis and 
then click on another empty square to get rid of the Elvis and make use of 
the resources in that formerly-empty square. 

To make a tax man or scientist, make an Elvis and then move the mouse up to 
the Elvis symbol and click on him. He then turns into a scientist. Click on 
him again and he turns into a tax collector. Once more and he's an Elvis 
again.

7) How much money does a taxman collect ?
-----------------------------------------
A tax collector collects $2 (3 if city has marketplace; 4 if city has a 
bank)

8) How many lightbulbs does a scientist create ?
------------------------------------------------
Each scientist you make in a city adds 2 lightbulbs to your total count. If 
the city making them has a library they're worth 3, (4 with university too) 
But if the square you are abandoning by making the specialist had 3 trade 
arrows (ocean) I don't think you come out ahead. [Roger Kemp]

9) What is the difference between subvert a city and revolt ?
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you revolt an enemy city, you loose some of its units, some of its 
improvements and have an unhappy populace. However, if you subvert it you 
keep all the installations and all of the military units, and the city 
tends to stay happy. Also, revolt tends to break any peace treaties where 
as subvert doesn't.

10) How does the computer cheat ?
--------------------------------
The computer is known to cheat in a number of ways.

a) Computer triremes are allowed to move as sails. This means that they 
don't sink when out at sea.

b) Wonders are built randomly, whenever the computer feels like it.

c) Improvements (at Emperor level) for the computer are at 1/3 normal cost.

d) Technologies are achieved at silly rates with only a couple of cities.

e) Cities that are suffering civil disorder do not have production 
penalties.

f) Caravans are *teleported* to remote cities immediately.

g) Computer opponents make contact with any piece, not just diplomats.

There a probably more, but these few show how difficult it can be to beat 
the computer. It is also a good excuse for some to use the various *human* 
cheats without feel guilty.

11) How do you calculate pollution ?
-----------------------------------
The book "Civilization - or Rome on 640K a Day" gives the formula for 
calculating the probability of pollution around a city each turn.
According to the book:
Each city has a "tolerance" for 20 Smokestack Points (SP) per turn.  The
SP are a sum of industrial pollution (IP) and population pollution (PP).
     SP=IP+PP
     IP= (# of shields generated by city)
     Divide IP by 2 with Hydro or Nuke plant OR (XOR) divide by 3 w/ Recycling
        Center
     PP = (population of city)*(technology multiplier)
     (tech. mult.) = .25 (w/ Industrialization), .50 (W/ Automobile)
                     .75 (w/ Mass Production), 1.0 (w/ Plastics)

The bottom line for all this is Build Hoover's Dam before anyone else does and
your pollution problems will be manageable. [Roger Kemp]

12) What is the highest population for a single city ?
------------------------------------------------------
In theory 55, but in practise there are reports of cities between 39 - 44. 
For the 55 monster you would need all squares to be irrigated, railroaded 
oasis.  Each of these squares would give off 7 wheat icons!!  Not likely 
without cheating, so here are some other comments.

Size 44. To get enough food to support a monster like this, you need to be 
positioned in an area where all of the surrounding squares are either 
Grassland or River. They should all be irrigated and Railroaded. Cities 
like this look nice, but are really quite useless towards the end, since 
there is nothing left for them to build, requiring a switch to build/sell 
SDI defenses. (Does ANYBODY use these?)

Only the first 8 specialists do anything for you; the others look like 
taxmen but produce no money. Therefore, a city of size 29 is no better than 
a city of size 28, except for the final score; and except that you can also 
use such a city to spin off settlers, bring the population back down to 28, 
and use the settlers to build new cities, all the while keeping the city 
"maxxed out".

If you change byte 10 (0x0a) of the save file to a 7, you'll be
playing at a difficulty level 3 steps harder than Emperor. There is
a little bug at this level, and computer-owned cities grow
limitlessly. I [Ralph Betza] once owned a city with a population of 110, 
which I bought from the Chinese. Starvation followed, of course...

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 D  I  F  F  E  R  E  N   T     G  A  M  E    S  T  R  A  T  E  G  I  E  S
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This next section is being compiled using a *single* post from Ralph Betza. 
Although many people have mentioned one or two strategies Ralph really does 
cover the lot!

[QUOTE]

a) In general

In the middle-early days, say after you have started 4 or 5 good cities, in 
order to keep science at 100% and still have money, build a few cities in 
resource-rich and food-poor places, and have them build and sell barracks. 
Don't waste that oil square down in the tundra, Build a tiny city! This 
kind of city should have a stable population of 1 or 2.

Later on, don't forget to build the SETI Program. Everybody always mentions 
the other important Wonders ( suffrage, Bach, Hoover ) but SETI is just as 
important at the stage of the game where it becomes possible.

b) Which is the best Govt type

This really does depend on your strategy.
For a detailed look at the different pros and cons, look at the strategy 
section. However, there are two main options. If you are playing a military 
game, with the aim of destroying the competion as soon as possible, then 
stick with despotism. Although resources are generated slower, your armies 
do not take them up as fast. This means that one city can generate huge 
armies without much penalty. Any other strategy really requires Diplomacy. 
This govt helps to increase trade, which in turn increases science and 
money. The only problem is that each military unit away from home causes 
two unhappy people, and if a city revolts twice in succession, you have 
anarchy for about 6 turns. Republic is a useful government if you have a 
compact productive island. If your capital is located somewhere near the 
center of the island or in your best knowledge town the corruption is not 
too much of a problem. Once you develop women's suffrage, being in a 
republic is like having a license to kill. In this government you still get 
the growth and trade advantages that democracy gets. Most importantly you 
can still celebrate We-Love... The knowledge advances don't come quite as 
fast as democracy but you still get armor quick enough that you can go take 
over the rest of the world.

c) Despotic Conquest

Maximum city size is 6 at Emperor level. Build many cities, build no 
improvements except barracks; possible exception: a few libraries near the 
palace. Another exception: Cities of 5 or more that aren't near the front 
line may be better off with a temple instead of 2 phalanxes.

Begin with science 100%; develop bronze, wheel, iron, math, writing, 
navigation, magnetism (optional), then stop and set taxes 100%, science 0%. 
You now have all the tech you'll ever need, so don't waste money on 
research. ( And be sure not to develop gunpowder! )

Build lots of phalanxes, chariots, legions, catapults, ships, settlers, and 
diplomats. Let me clarify that: by "lots of ...", I mean "infinite numbers 
of them". A dozen ships might be enough, but you can never have too many 
chariots.

Use the "goto" command to simplify moving them around. Attack at all times. 
Build no Wonders, build no caravans; never stop building spears and swords, 
and never stop using them. Ignore all treaties and entreaties, but make 
peace whenever possible ( peace might protect your units from attack until 
you break the treaty; and you just might collect some tribute ). Don't 
worry about your losses, just keep attacking; a bloodless turn is a waste 
of time.

When you capture a city, sell all its improvements and starve the city down 
to a manageable size.

When you invade by ship, build cities on the new landmass. If they survive, 
the military units they build will be helpful. If not, so what? You have 
more where they came from!

Best result: beat 12 other civilizations, world conquest 900 B.C.; ( I 
finished the game in one evening! Without staying up late! ) if the last 
reincarnation hadn't been in such an inconvenient place, would have been 
1200 B.C. Usual result: circa 400 B.C.

You can always play Despotic Conquest, regardless of the world you find 
yourself starting with, and always can win without using any of the mant 
ways to cheat. When you choose any other strategy, you are deliberately 
risking a loss in order to make the game more interesting. Winning the same 
way all the time is boring. If you don't lose sometimes, you are doing 
something wrong.

Note: halvorsen@nbivax.nbi.dk, in message
<1992Nov27.115044.1089@nbivax.nbi.dk>,
does it differently, and conquers the world later but with higher scores. 
He likes to go with Monarchy, Hanging gardens, and no barracks. You can 
probably find a different way to do it...

d) Democratic Ostrich

You find yourself alone on a landmass large enough to support 5 or more 
max-sized cities, with decent city sites. Build them, and start making 
roads and irrigation. Try to keep all cities at roughly the same stage of 
development.

Research bronze, democracy; become democratic. Build Bach's Cathedral!!! 
Now you can have one military unit outside each city. Research Steam 
Engine; patrol your shores with ironclads. After railroads, it gets easy. 
You can choose to build a spaceship or to go out with transports plus 
battleships and conquer everybody.

Most important trick: every so often, boost luxuries way up high for a few 
turns, and make your cities grow ( "Presidents' Day Sale" ). You don't need 
granaries because of this, and the occasional famine is easily repaired.

Finances: You will have many city impovements to pay maintenance on. You 
have to take some taxes in cash. Libraries, universities, markets, banks, 
all are important. Stockpile caravans when in doubt.

Once you build Suffrage, things get really easy.

Note: Monarchy is often a useful intermediate stage.

e) Flexible Evolution

You find yourself with neighbors, on a landmass of unknown size. Play as in 
Despotic Conquest, but build your cities farther apart, so you can change 
over to democracy if you want to.

After you get the continent to yourself, consider how many military units 
you have left, the state of your cities, and how far advanced your 
technology is compared to the date. You may be forced to continue with 
Despotic Conquest; or you may be able to change to monarchy and then 
democracy if you prefer. The mechanics of the change are interesting, so I 
choose democracy when there is any doubt -- at the risk of losing, of 
course!

f) Republic

There are several things about Republic that make it an interesting 
alternative to Democracy; and you can develop the Republic much sooner than 
Democracy.

First of all, civil disorder won't make the government fail. All you lose 
is the output from the city that's in disorder. You can use a disorderly 
city to support a small army in the field...

Secondly, military unhappiness is less. You can have one unit out without 
disorder, even before you build Bach, just by making one Elvis. If this 
stabilizes the city's population, just make that city a barracks-factory.

Third, once you build Suffrage, military units cause no unhappiness. You 
can enjoy a high-tech Republican Conquest! You might not get a great score, 
because it's likely to be after 2000 A.D. when you finally conquer the 
world, but it's fun...

Fourth, if your empire is geographically small, so that everything is near 
the palace, you get just as much trade with the Republic as you could with 
Democracy.

g) Pyramid

You just captured the Pyramids! If you're in Monarchy, quickly change to 
Communism. The only thing that changes is that you have less corruption. In 
the long run, communism doesn't give you enough trade to support all the 
city improvements, and you have to change again.

What else are the Pyramids good for? Perhaps you'd like to go democratic, 
but haven't developed it.

In theory, you should be able to take advantage of the Pyramids by changing 
governments often, to suit changing circumstances. I haven't been able to 
make this happen yet.

h) High Tech

In the Republic or in the Democratic Ostrich, keep your treasury small and 
science high. The goal is advances every turn, and see how early you can 
launch the spaceship. You'd like the game to be peaceful...

The problem with this is that I have read that launching the spaceship 
before time runs at one year per turn is risky; if the spaceship lands 
"between turns", it is effectively lost. Therefore, I always wind up 
waiting around until 1750 ( or is it 1850 ?) when the time-scale changes 
the last time.

i) Rich

In any form of government, keep science at a minimum. If Ostrich, use cash 
to help build cathedrals and factories in the resource-poor cities. If 
Conquest, use the cash to subvert enemy cities.

j) Mercenary

While playing Rich, try to buy as many enemy units as possible so you can 
have a whole army owned by NONE.

k) Balanced

Advances every 6 to 8 turns are all you really need. After you build SETI, 
you can get advances every 2 turns with no trouble. Keep your taxes and 
science balanced.

In the Ostrich, the difference between Rich, Balanced, and High-Tech might 
be just a matter of 10 per cent.

l) Peaceful

Try to get through the whole game without fighting a war.

I managed this in only one game, where I cheated, edited the save file from 
3980 BC, and started out with a huge London that had population 49, all 
improvements, all Wonders, a few extra settlers owned by NONE, two 
battleships from NONE, $4000 cash, and every technology I wanted to have. I 
pumped out diplomats by the score, played Mercenary to the hilt, and kept 
all 6 other civilizations at one tiny city each for the whole game. They 
never even met each other, so *nobody* fought any wars! Except for the 
barbarians, it was a completely bloodless game.

I've tried very hard to have a peaceful game without cheating, and I'll try 
again; but they always sneak-attack me, or make unreasonable demands.

The only way to stop them is to intimidate them, it seems; so things never 
get peaceful until I'm so strong that the computer civs are afraid.

m) High-Tech Conquest

High-tech war involves larger numbers of stronger units than you use in 
Despotic Conquest, and can get quite interesting. Usually, I run these wars 
half-heartedly, but one time I was bombing the Romans with half my cities 
and lackadaisically building a spaceship with a few others, and the 
Babylonians built a small ship and launched it! I had 17 years to take 
Babylon, with no forces near it, and it wasn't even on the coast! I 
succeeded with the last-minute help of a nuke ( build manhattan project, 
next turn buy the nuke in a captured Babylonian city, next turn boom! and 
walk in, just in time), but it was hectic.

Another time, a Babylonian battleship got me really mad, so I changed the 
production of all my cities to nukes, and nuked them repeatedly, an average 
of 5 explosions per turn for 20 or more turns; 6 cycles of global warming! 
I finally managed to destroy all 8 of their cities withou