Recent content by Kallikrates

I did not mean that iron and copper are overpowered as far as tile yields go. I also do not really think that *precious* metals (gold, silver, gems) are overpowered as far as the tile yields go. But they are in relation to e.g. calendar goods. And they get another boost with forges. So calendar...

In the older games (mainly Civ 2, I never played 3 and while I played Civ 1 a lot, it's been almost 25 years) there was no completely flexible slider for most of the game and there was no failgold and (I think) no building wealth (or if so, it came with penalties). So marketplaces were useful...

For me the problem is also reducing both complexity and "simulation plausibility" by having a certain complexity (i.e. lots of different improvements for cities and terrain) in the first place that soon turns out to be mostly useless. Because the better strategy is the simpler (and "abstract"...

You are probably right about the best way to play as it is now but I think this is poor design. (There is too much stuff in the game one hardly ever uses because other things are more simple and more powerful.) While it is impossible to design such a game perfectly, I think there should be some...

Space race is among the harder victories, even on monarch, I'd say. If you can keep powerful or peaceful long enough for space you can do the same for a cultural victory. Usually the easiest way on many maps is domination. Look up some guide for cuirassier rush. This should work almost always on...

It's a good idea! I think in Civ I there were some random events that led to civil unrest and citizens demanding city walls... (As I have probably said many times elsewhere, I think a real downside of Civ IV is that often the best strategy is to build very few city improvements.) But generally...

How is determined which/how many buildings survive? This seemed almost random to me. Does it depend on whether one does a lot of bombardement?

One needs preferably three religions for culture victory. In (semi)isolation one cannot count on getting *any* from the AI. It can also happen that there is a religious nut or two on a different continent and they grab 4 early religions before oneself or the neighboring AI have gotten any...

Slavery is already vastly overpowered now, so I would disagree with making it even more powerful for aggressive leader. One simple minor improvement would be to give ALL Agg units one free promo (i.e. a certain number of XP) from the start, instead of only combat I to melee/gunpowder. This...

With "useless" I meant for interesting strategies the human might use. You are of course right that the AI can make one's life harder by going for military science fairly early. I also remember that on one of my first attempts at immortal I was isolated or semi isolated and suddenly Ragnar...

The point with the great library is to get it fairly early so it helps with the scientists who bulb education (and maybe another tech or two). It does not obsolete that early. If on normal speed I get the library around 0 AD (earlier, if possible, but according to the typical wonder dates...

It seems we all agree that Grenadiers have basically become obsolete/useless in BtS. (I have no clear idea how this could be changed: Give them the bonus vs. rifles both in attack and defense but cavalry would remain far stronger.) It is true that musketmen are fairly useless (at least for...

The default units are strange and both the huge axes and the chain+spiked ball maces are largely fantasy weapons but this does not matter as it is not supposed to be realistic (there is nothing realistic about most of the specific "counter" units, except maybe pikes vs. mounted). I agree that it...

I like the opportunistic variant :D The only trouble is that there usually is a lot of other stuff to do around that time. I was way to enamoured with the oracle in earlier times and usually followed your 2. Only when I got to Emperor and sometimes Immortal I realized that it was crippling to...

Somewhat re-assuring to see that Turn 67 (1320 BC) was really VERY early for the pyramids when I ragequit a few hours ago. Otherwise the numbers roughly agree with my experience. Some seem rather late but this might be because I usually make them high priority and try to build them myself (e.g...