But to get you started, this might help some.
../../Forum28/HTML/000244.html?date=20:35

It is a list of many of the known cheats and strange things in CivII. It was compiled to help the development of CivIII.

I will now be adding all the material from my question from yesterday regarding Einsteins & Taxmen. The collection covers the topics that are of interest/concern to me so you will probably want to continue your own search.

You're right: there's an incredible amount of great insights, facts, and advice in these threads.

Improvement(Maintenance Cost): Function

Airport(3): Allows one Airlift per turn to and from another Airport: City produces Vet Air Units: 1 turn repair for damaged units: Increases trade route potency

Aqueduct(2): Allows city to increase beyond size 8: Can sell it when city is maxed out in size

Bank(3): Tax/Luxury Output Increased 50% (cum with MarketPlace): Don't build if city has less than 6 coin output

Barracks(1): City produces Vet Ground Units: 1 turn repair for damaged units: These are made obsolete and must be rebuilt

Capitalization(0): Converts Production into Trade

Cathedral(3): Makes 4 unhappy citizens content (3 after Communism)

City Walls(0): 3x Defense for Ground Attacks

Coastal Fortress(1): 2x Defense vs. Shore Bombardments

Colosseum(4): Makes 3 unhappy citizens content (4 after Electronics)

Courthouse(1): Corruption decreased 50%. More bribery resistance. Under democracy, makes 1 content citizen happy

Factory(4): Resource Production Increased 50%

Granary(1): Only 50% decrease in food supply after a population increase

Harbor(1): All ocean squares produce 1 more food

Hydro Plant(4): Factory Output Increased 50%, cleaner than power plant, safer than nuclear plant

Library(1): Science Output Increased 50%

Manufacturing Plant(6): Factory Output Increased 50% (cum with Factory)

MarketPlace(1): Tax/Luxury Output Increased 50% (cum with Bank): Don't build if city has less than 2 coin output

Mass Transit(4): Eliminates population based pollution

Nuclear Plant(2): Factory Output Increased 50%, cleaner than power plant, same as hydro plant, but there is meltdown risk

Offshore Platform(3): All ocean squares produce 1 shield

Palace(0): Eliminate corruption and waste, reduces it in neighboring cities: Immune to bribery

Police Station(2): Decreases unhappiness from troops away from city by 1

Port Facility(3): City produces Vet Naval Units: 1 turn repair for damaged units

Power Plant(4): Factory Output Increased 50%: Wait for Hydro or Nuclear (if you can) to avoid pollution problems

Recycling Center(2): Decreases pollution caused by factories

Research Lab(3): Science Output Increased 50%

SAM Missle Battery(2): 2x defense vs. Air units and non-nuke missle units

SDI Defense(4): Nuke protection for everything 3 spaces from city

Sewer System(2): Allows city to increase beyond 12: Can sell when city is maxed out in size

Solar Plant(4): Factory Output Increased 50%, cleanest form of power

Stock Exchange(4): Tax/Luxury Output Increased 50%: Don't build if city has less than 8 coin output

Superhighways(5): All roads produce 50% more trade

Supermarket(3): Farmland squares produce 50% more food: Don't build unless you have farmland (double irrigated squares)

Temple(1): 2 unhappy citizens made content

Wonder (Advance that expires it): Function

Adam Smith's Trading Co: Pays all 1 cost city improvements

Apollo Space Program: Allows construction of spaceship parts

Colossus (Flight): City gets one extra trade arrow in each trade producing square

Copernicus' Observatory: City Science Output Increased 50%

Cure for Cancer: One extra happy citizen in each city

Darwin's Voyage: 2 free civ advances

Eiffel Tower: Foreign civs like you more, and attitudes improve with time

Great Library (Electricity): Get any advance 2 other civs have

Great Wall (Metallurgy): Civs must offer peace/cease-fire: Acts as City Walls in every city (but no maintenance costs): x2 strength vs. Barbarians

Hanging Gardens (Railroad): 1 extra happy citizen in each city

Hoover Dam: Acts as a Hydro Plant in every city (but no maintenance costs)

Isaac Newton's College: City science output x2

J.S. Bach Cathedral: -2 unhappy citizens in each city on continent

King Richard's Crusade (Industrialization): Every city square produces one more shield

Leonardo's Workshop (Automobile): Automatically upgrades old units

Lighthouse (Magnetism): Triemes don't sink: All ships movement increased by 1: New ships are Vets

Magellan's Expedition: All ships movement increased by 2

Manhattan Project: Allows nukes

Marco Polo's Embassy (Communism): Acts as an Embassy with every civ

Michaelangelo's Chapel: Acts as a Cathedral in every city (but no maintenance costs)

Oracle (Theology): Temple effect is doubled

Pyramids: Acts as a Granary in every city (but no maintenance costs)

SETI Program: Acts as a Research Lab in every city (but no maintenance costs)

Shakespeare's Theater: All unhappy citizens in city are content: Can assign units to Shakes city to wage war in Democracy, or put in SSC (Super Science City--see other messages for more on SSC) for fast population growth

Statue of Liberty: No unrest for government changes: Can pick all government types, even if tech isn't discovered (usually Fundamentalism)

Sun Tzu's War Academy (Mobile Warfare): All new ground units are Vets: Win means Vet promotion for other units

United Nations: Embassy with every civ: Other civs must accept treaties: Can delcare war while democracy 50% of the time

One of the ideas that most improved my play is the use of the Super Science City (SSC). The goal is to crank up the Science output of a single city, so you are way ahead of the AI civs throughout the latter stages of the game.

If you have a city on some river squares, with ocean squares, and with some special resources for trade (Gold is 6: Gems, Ivory, Spice, Wine are 4), then you have an incredible site for a SSC.

By building all the science and trade boosting wonders in this one city you can create a Science monster, churning out 500+ beakers/turn. Colossus will increase your trade greatly so you have a nice base to start enhancing, but remember to prolong Flight until you are ready to obsolete the Collosus. Add Copernicus' Observatory to get another 50% science. Build Isaac Newton's College to double your science after that.

Build caravans like crazy to transport shields to your SSC to build these wonders!

If this city is your capital, you don't have to worry about loss to corruption. But if the city is far away and you are losing some trade to corruption, consider building a palace in your city to relocate you capital.

Now add to that the Library, University, and Research Lab city improvements, for another 150% boost.

Terraform all non trade-producing squares to trade producing terrain with roads (remember, roads = trade = science = bombers vs. knights). When you build superhighways later on, the roads will increase your trade even more (river + road + superhighway = 3 trade--same as ocean)!

Get three solid trade routes to pump those arrows into the city, preferably with the best AI cities you can find (big AI cities on different continents far away are nice). Get three trade routes going ASAP with whoever you can (even your own cities), but don't forget to update these early routes with better ones as the game evolves.

I personally like to add Shakespeare's Theater to my SSC, because then I can crank up the population by using We Love the __ Day (WLT*D)--more on use of that tactic in future messages. Then I can convert a huge number of citizens to Einsteins once the population is maxed out. If I have Shakespeare's Theater, I also assign military units to my SSC before they go to war, until my shield support is getting close to my production (but be careful, or a few fortified units on your shield squares will decimate your army!).

In the end, you have a city that guarantees a technology edge to your civ. When I choose to use a SSC in a game, I often forgo building many wonders that expire since I discover the advance way too quickly to make the cost worthwhile (King Richard's Crusade, Leonardo's Workshop in particular).

OK, I admit I had to look around for a while before I knew what "OCC" meant. OCC is civ addiction taken to extremes, which as Martha Stewart would say "is a good thing."

OCC is the quest to win the Space Race to Alpha Centauri (AC) WITH ONLY ONE CITY!!!!

Typically, one the the major civ addicts provides a map with a settler poised at a good city site (4 whales, 2 whales--2 gold, etc). Then there are a set of rules for what cheats are allowed or disallowed and then everyone competes for the best AC (Alpha Centauri) date on a level playing field. There are a lot of OCC threads on this board that can provide you with maps and rules. Give it a try and I guarantee you will use the Foreign Minister a lot more (and your F3 key will get dirty a little faster!).

One important item to note, Civ versions 2.42 and the Civ MultiPlayer Gold Edition (MGE) are not the same. The AI tends to be a bit friendlier in version 2.42, and this difference in diplomacy is critical in the OCC. Buy both editions to see the difference for yourself. Perhaps someone with more experience than I will post a better description of the differences between the versions. As with any software product, there are definitely bugs that get fixed in later versions so figure out what platform you are using so you can compare apples to apples in an OCC.

Barracks: maintenance cost rises by one after each obsolescence.

Cathedral: makes 3 citizens content, +1 for Theology, -1 for Communism

Offshore Platform: all ocean squares produce one MORE shield than they already do.

Superhighways: all roads produce one more trade (I think; I'm not 100% sure about that one)

Temple: one unhappy becomes content; two with Mysticism

Copernicus: Science +100% (manual has this wrong)

Hanging Gardens: +1 happy in all cities; +3 happy in city that builds it.

Isaac Newton: +50% Science (manual has this and Cop. switched)

Bach: manual is wrong again. This works for all your cities, also those on other continents

Supermarkets only provide +1 food to the city if the city square is on a terrain type that could benefit from farmland, i.e. grass, plains and hills.

Great Library only confers an advance on the turn when some other civ gets that advance (via research, trading, plunder, diplo, etc.) and if they are not the first civ to get the advance.

Leo's Shop works similar to GL. It will upgrade units on the turn it is built, but after that it will only upgrade units on turns when the owner acquires a new tech.

Factories only increase shield output by 50%. No other resources are affected.

CFC and HG turn one unhappy citizen to content if there are no content citizens.

Here is another great bit of info I found hidden in a caravan discussion thread....

Depending on the difficulty level (Emperor, Deity, etc.) you are playing there is a number of cities you can build under each government type in which the first citizen is content. When you exceed this maximum city number, in any additional cities you found the first citizen begins unhappy (note that this unhappy citizen may appear in a different city than the one you just founded).

There has been a formula proposed for this phenomenon (although my experiments suggest that it is a bit off):

Max Cities = Riot Factor - (Difficulty Factor*2) + (INT ( Government Factor/2) *2)

Where Riot Factor = 14
Difficulty Factor = 0 to 5 (0 for Chieftain, 4 for Emperor, 5 for Deity, etc.)
Government Factor = 0 to 6 (Anarchy=0, Despotism=1, Monarchy=2, Communism=3, Fundamentalism=4, Republic=5, Democracy=6)

To prove/disprove this, I started a Deity game, and toggeled on the cheat mode. I created a bunch of settlers, and founded cities one at a time, forcing all governments and checking the attitude advisor before building another city (note that the attitude advisor is not always accurately updated, so you must go into each city to verify happiness). Here is a matrix of my Deity level results, with the # of happy cities per government type based on total number of cities:

# Cities Anarchy Despotism Monarchy Communism Fundy Republic Democracy
1_______All_________All__________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
2_______All_________All__________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
3_______All_________All__________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
4_______All_________All__________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
5________4__________4___________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
6________4__________3___________All__________All_________All_______All_________All
7________2__________2____________6__________All_________All_______All_________All
8________0__________0____________6__________All_________All_______All_________All
9________0__________0____________6__________All_________All________8__________All
10_______0__________0____________4__________All_________All________8__________All
11_______0__________0____________2__________All_________All________8__________10
12_______0__________0____________0__________All_________All________8__________10
13_______0__________0____________0__________All_________All________8__________10
14_______0__________0____________0__________All_________All________8__________10

(I can't get the table to post correctly, but you should be able to decipher it!)

You can terraform these special terrain squares into different special terrains as follows:

Buffalo: Mine to Pheasant
Coal: Transform to Buffalo
Fruit: Transform to Wheat
Furs: Transform to Oil(in Desert)
Pheasant: Irrigate to Buffalo
Musk Ox: Transform to Oasis
Gems: Mine to Pheasant, Transform to Buffalo
Gold: Transform to Coal
Iron: Transform to Wine--very useful!
Ivory: Transform to Musk Ox
Oasis: Transform to Buffalo
Oil(in Desert): Transform to Wheat
Oil(in Glacier): Transform to Furs
Peat: Mine to Pheasant, Transform to Buffalo
Silk: Irrigate to Wheat
Spice: Tranform to Wheat
Wheat: Mine to Silk--very useful!
Wine: Transform to Wheat

X->Plains__Forest___Hills__Mtn___Swamp_Jungle_Tundra_Glacier_Desert

A->Buffalo_Pheasant_Coal_Gold__Peat____Gems___MuskOx_Ivory_Oasis
B->Wheat_Silk_____Wine___Iron__Spice___Fruit___Oil(g)___Furs__Oil(d)

Leonardo’s Workshop can be built after you have discovered Invention. It expires when any civilisation has discovered the Automobile. This wonder upgrades obsolete units to modern ones, once you have made the relevant civilisation advance.

Land Units:

Warriors/Phalanx to Pikemen at Feudalism
If Gunpowder is discovered before Feudalism these units become Musketeers.
Pikemen/Archers/Legion to Musketeers at Gunpowder
Musketeers to Riflemen at Conscription
Explorers to Partisans at Guerrilla Warfare
Settlers to Engineers at Explosives
Diplomats to Spies at Espionage

Catapults to Canon at Metallurgy
Canon to Artillery at Machine Tools
Caravans to Freight at Corporation

Horsemen to Knights at Chivalry
Chariots to Elephants at Polytheism
Elephants to Crusaders at Monotheism
(Or if you have Chivalry before Monotheism the Elephants become Knights)
Crusaders and Knights to Dragoons at Leadership
Dragoons to Cavalry at Tactics

Sea Units:

Trireme to Caravel at Navigation
Caravel to Galleon at Magnetism
Galleon to Transport at Industrialisation

Ironclads to Destroyers at Electricity
Cruisers to AEGIS Cruisers at Rocketry

Air Units are not possible to upgrade as LW has expired by the time it is possible to research Stealth.

The Workshop will upgrade in stages, when you obtain another civilisation advance. For instance, if you bribe a Crusader, the next advance you discover will make it a Dragoon, and the following advance will make it Cavalry. (Assuming you have Tactics)

The downside of the Workshop, is the loss of Veteran Status when the upgrade occurs.

----------------

Scouse Git (2)

To your specific question regarding roads: Roads increase trade on Plains, Grassland (and Grassland w/ Shield), and Desert.