Hi. i haven't been able to play civ many times yet as my comp is being upgraded. :scan:However, I was exploring the threads and came across a few terms i do not understand:confused:
-How do you "chop" a worker/warrior etc.
-what is unit upgradation and wht is the cost related to it
- which spy missions are recommended - sabotage improvement or production
Thanks a lot and any help is appreciated

once you have the tech bronze orking, you have the ability to make your workers chop forests, thus removing the forest and gaining production in the nearest city. Chopping a unit or a building refers to building a unit/buulding and choping a forest near the city to speed the production.

Once you have the ressources and techs to build a newer unit, you can upgrades the old ones. Just click on an old unit inside your borders and click on the upgrade button. THe cost depends on the difference in production between the old and the new unit.

Not being an expert, I won't answer on spying :)

With Spy missions it's not the question of "recommended" - you need to choose what suits your needs. There are situations where both are usefull - As are other missions - Incite Revolt, Destroy Improved Ressources, Steal Techs, ...

As i assume you just talking about a spy mission here and now, to pick a oponnent, when you happen to have some points - i rarely do it myself - but perhaps sabotage City Improvement. The trouble with sabotage production is - you will not know what he's producing right now most of the time - could be sabotaging something really cheap...

if you have an axeman you can chop an enemy's warriors head off.
upgrading a unit costs about 100 to 200 gold and its better to use old units to chop enemy's warrior's heads off.
the best spy mission is sabotage tiles to cut roads and resources to facilitate attacking isolated cities and chop the defenders heads off.

The best spy mission is "Support City Revolt", which leaves a city with 0% defense for one turn, ready to be invaded by your army.

None of the other spy missions come even close, except for Steal Technology and, in some rare cases, Sabotage Improvement to deny a strategic resource during/before a war.

Spying missions are more powerful in the BTS expansion pack. You used the Warlord expansion pack icon on the title, I don't know if this was a mistake or not. Warlord and vanilla (without any expansion) do have spies, but they work in a different way, they are useful for destroying the production of a city and pillaging a resource, I use them only for space wins.

Well... I can't remember vanilla espionage enough, so I will delve into the best BtS espionage missions.

As with everything in Civ, the answer is situational.

Want to leave an entire nation unhappy/unhealthy? Sabotage improvement (its not PARTICUALLY useful, but it DOES become useful if the resource is in the BFC (Big Fat cross, the tiles 2 tiles away from a city), and thus, not in a fort, as forts are MUCH harder to destroy.

Want to devastate an entire city? Forment Unhappyness. NEVER use forment unhealthyness, its better just to let the spy wait 8 turns, and then forment unhappyness for a second time :P This spy mission gives +8 :mad: for 8 turns (NOTE: I STRONGLY reccomend using Bhruics unofficial patch. If you do this mission WITHOUT the patch, on a speed (I will use Marathon, as it is what I know) which is slower than normal, it is inappropriately scaled, to an INSANE +24 :mad: [Thats right, 24 unhappyness] for 24 turns. After patching, it gives +8 :mad:for 24 turns.

Want to capture a city? Screw building siege to bombard defences, just use them for collateral damage. The support city revolt mission will cause a revolt for 1 turn, reducing city defence INSTANTLY to 0%, and allowing ALL your siege to attack for MASSIVE collateral damage.

Behind in tech? Steal technology (if you let your spy wait 5 turns, to get a -50% reduction in cost) uses less commerce than researching it yourself, in most circumstances (unless the city has a Security Beurau, or is currently running a counter-espionage mission against you), and will allow you to RAPIDLY gain tech parity. However, it is still very expensive, and requires extensive planning.

Getting spied all the time? Preform counter-espionage mission is for you. This DOESN'T help catch spies, but it makes them TWICE the cost (in fact, if the spy is waiting for 5 turns, Perform counter-espionage will make it cost THREE TIMES what it would normally cost, and 50% more than if the AI wasn't waiting, and if you weren't running the counter-espionage mission)

Want to cuturally flip a city? DON'T do spread culture, or Support revolt. The first is too weak, and the second doesn't help at all. Do destroy building, and target a theatre/high culture building. It does more damage in the long-run :P

So those 6 (?) missions are all the missions you should ever need to use. The rest (unhealthiness, spread culture, Steal treasury etc.) are very substandard, and never used in any of my games.

if you have an axeman you can chop an enemy's warriors head off.
upgrading a unit costs about 100 to 200 gold and its better to use old units to chop enemy's warrior's heads off.
the best spy mission is sabotage tiles to cut roads and resources to facilitate attacking isolated cities and chop the defenders heads off.

What the hell are you smoking?

Spying missions are more powerful in the BTS expansion pack. You used the Warlord expansion pack icon on the title, I don't know if this was a mistake or not. Warlord and vanilla (without any expansion) do have spies, but they work in a different way, they are useful for destroying the production of a city and pillaging a resource, I use them only for space wins.
I am using the gold edition and for the rest, thanx a lot for the information. However, it would also be appreciated if you could tell me whether I should go for a religion if I have Mysticism as my starting tech. ( I prefer playing with Gandhi)

Again situational ;)

If you are at a lower level, you should try to go for an early religion. However, you GENERALLY shouldn't convert to said religion, unless you have a plan to spread it everywhere ASAP.

If you don't want to waste :hammers: in spamming missionaries, and possibly being so weak that you get invaded, then just spread it to all your own cities AFTER you get another religion (controlled by the AI) into your lands. This would allow you to become more friendly with them, by adopting thier religion.

If you miss Buddism/Hinduism, don't worry, the later religions are easy to get at middle levels. Using the Oracle slingshot to grab either Code Of Laws (Confusism), or Theology (Christianity) is an easy method to get a religion. And also, if you get a Great Prophet, lightbulbing is VERY useful (I only EVER lightbulb Great Prophets. I settle everything else except for Great Spies and Great Prophets after all religious techs are gone, and use the Spies and surplus prophets for Golden ages. That said, its not a particularly effective strategy, but it does show the power of rushing religious techs...)

Thanx a lot digitcruncher. It sure helps.