We are new to these pages, so forgive us if we are telling you old news. As President Harry Truman once remarked; "the only thing new is the history you don’t know". What follows may be in the strategy guides. However, all of these are out of print in the UK.

The object is to gain the double trade bonus awarded to a celebrating city under Monarchy, Fundamentalism or Communism before the system would normally allow you to enjoy this. WLT*D can be achieved early by minor (or occasionally radical) alterations to the squares worked in the city. Once a city is in celebration the double trade arrows gained will usually sustain the Celebrations when the default settings are resumed.

Here is an example from a game under a "fundy" government. The Tax Rate is:

Tax=0%; Science=50%; Luxuries=50% (Yes, living off tithes – you don’t actually tax people in fundy do you?). The city in question has 6 citizens and is coastal. The terrain is mixed – the only special being pheasant. The default setting for the workers produces 2 Happy and 4 Content citizens. The city’s production is as follows:

Food 12 Surplus 3 Trade 5
Tithes 8 Production 9 Gold 13
Luxuries 3 Science 1

Now, two of the squares are changed. The non-trade generating squares {three shields and one food (railroaded wood) together with three shields and three food (railroaded pheasant)} are put out to sea. The new allocations contribute two trade icons and one food in each square. This is enough trade to make the city celebrate as a third citizen turns light blue. After this change the city produces the following:

Food 12 Surplus 1 Trade 9
Tithes 8 Production 3 Gold 13
Luxuries 6 Science 2

Now place in the oven on a medium heat and await the next turn!

Sweet music - the city celebrates. Now "click" the city to obtain the new default setting:

Food 12 Surplus 3 Trade 10
Tithes 8 Production 9 Gold 12
Luxuries 7 Science 3

And the city remains in celebration! This was a relatively easy example. Many are more extreme by actually going into hunger for the transition turn. However, once those double trade arrows appear the next turn, there is far greater latitude to rearrange the city to your advantage. In some cities entertainers are needed to force the happiness – and yes the city will look a mess for a turn – but next time even if you can not quite sustained celebration in the default mode, a minor change may produce the desired effect.

This type of management carried out for every city (it’s not possible to achieve in every case) can bring down the turns required for advances by one or two. We frequently double the science production of our civilisation.

Generally, it is easier to carry this out with an even number of citizens present. Odd numbers require one more happy than content. We have used the technique mostly in "fundy" but it also works well in Monarchy. We are not comrades very often, so it is not proven under Communism. The principles should be similar.

We would like to hear from anyone else using the same tactic. There is an annoying habit of cities suddenly falling out of celebration for no apparent reason. (Obviously, increase in population is the common cause) When none of the tangible variables have altered some cities stop the party. We suspect there is some overall equation involving the total number of cities built – but this is only a flimsy theory.

Anyone out there know more?
And where can we lay our hands on the strategy guides?

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i) with the first unhappy citizen
ii) when the number of content citizens exceeds the number of happy ones
iii) if there is no food surplus in the city

In rep and demo celebrations can be held without effect (no pop increase) if it's a size 8 (12) city without an aqueduct (sewer system).