How are you guys changing enemy civics and spreading your culture? I NEVER get these missions with my spies. Do you have to be in the enemy capital to do either? Or do you need to put a lot of weight on the leader of the country who you want to affect in the espionage screen first?


Is there an in-depth Great Person Factory tutorial out there? All the info I've found is quite vague. "Make lots of farms".

Ok... so at what point do I start trying to make specialists? Right away? In lategame? I mean, I would think that the sooner you start making specialists, the less tiles you can work, and therefore the less food you'll have incoming. That will slow your growth, which will in turn lower the number of specialists you can have at any given time (due to lower population).

I guess I need to strike a balance, but a little guidance here would be great...


Theres no overlap in unit types, right? I mean, a tank is an armored unit, not an armored unit AND a gunpowder unit, right? An elephant is a mounted unit, NOT a mounted melee unit, right?


... I'm sure I have more questions, but none come to mind. They'll probably do so as soon as I click "submit new thread". Ah well.

There's nothing really wrong with slow growth, as long as it's growing. You should probably just stick to one GP farm(A food heavy city).
And no unit category overlaps, as far as I know. Horse Archers aren't considered archery units.

So at what point do you start making specialists? Do you always have as many as possible, as soon as possible(unless you have the Pyramids, of course)?

What if you get the Pyramids?

Sometimes slow growth is really good in an early game. Having a city with a lot of specialists early on helps you keep from growing beyond your health and happiness limits which essentially wastes your cities potential.

And no there is no overlap with unit types, a tank is armored only.

On the issue of using spies to influence a rival's civics and religion, you need to keep in mind several things.
1) You can only force them to switch to civics and religions you are currently running yourself.
2) The rival must be able to switch to them normally. For religions this means they have at least one city with that faith, and for civics they must have the required tech.
A spy can perform this option in any city of that rival.

As for spreading culture, it's technically possible. First move a spy into a rival city. If you look up the cost on the espionage screen for that SPECIFIC city, it'll list it, but the cost is insane, usually 20,000 eps or more. Which is why it doesn't usually show as an option for the spy - it's too expensive.