Civilization II Trivia Quiz

Answer: 20

The basic city environ is 5X5 squares, but the corner squares are not used, and the one the city sits on has already been counted. That leaves 20 squares that you can draw resources from.

Answer: Hills

The Civilopedia (which could be called the in-game reference library) is divided into seven sections: Civilization Advances, City Improvements, Wonders of the World, Military Units, Governments, Terrain Types, and Game Concepts. Reading the Civilopedia often is pretty much a prerequisite for becoming an expert player. Terrain Types is one of the shortest sections of the Civilopedia, but also one of the most important. Having a thorough understanding of terrain types helps you make good choices of where to build your cities.

Answer: 21

There are seven colours. In the original "Civilization" there was only one tribe for each colour, but one of the changes in "Civilization II" is that there are now three tribes of each colour to choose from, for a total of 21.

Answer: Great Library

Sometimes the Great Library turns out to be a disappointment. If you are technologically advanced, there is a good chance that nobody has any Advances that you don't already have, and you might get nothing from this Wonder. Even so, it is a good idea to build it -- even if you get nothing from it, you are preventing your opponents from getting something from you!

Answer: Philosophy

Invention and Gunpowder are extremely useful Advances to research, but they do not give the bonus. Scientific Detachment is a red herring I made up.

Answer: Phalanx

Warriors are used for city defense only at the very beginning. Once a nation has researched Bronze Working it will almost always defend cities with the Phalanx, and Warriors, if used at all, will become exploration units. Elephants and Chariot are purely offensive units.
Legions and Archers are sometimes used in the city defense role, but not as often as the Phalanx, because of their higher cost.
Once a nation researches Feudalism, it usually defends cities with Pikemen, and once it researches Gunpowder, it usually defends cities with Musketeers.

Answer: Leonardo's Workshop

Leonardo's Workshop is so powerful, that if someone beats you to it they will often win the game. However, it becomes obsolete with the invention of the Automobile, so if someone builds Leonardo's Workshop, your best strategy is to pile everything into research and get to Automobile as fast as possible. Of course, if they built it in a city close to your border, you could just go capture it instead...:-)

Answer: Japanese

It's important to remember that there can only be one tribe of each colour on the map, and keep track of who's who. So, if you encounter a Babylonian unit, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there are no (ultra-aggressive) Zulu.

Answer: Democracy

With high trade production, no corruption, and the ability to set the research slider to any level, Democracies can have very rapid research. Immunity to bribery is also a very nice bonus. The downfall of Democracies is their extreme intolerance for offensive wars: mobilizing even a few units can lead to civil disorder.

Answer: Communism

Every Wonder of the World has a corresponding technology Advance that must be researched first. Also, most Wonders (not all) become obsolete at some point, when a later Advance is discovered. Researching Communism has both effects -- in enables building of the United Nations, and at the same time it makes obsolete the earlier Wonder Marco Polo's Embassy.