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Yes; this is what makes those extra workers pay off - lots of grassland cottages to go with the dyes and gems, making lots of good commerce-oriented cities.

I'm guessing: Banking requires minting coins with speed and precision, which transitions into more general techniques in making replaceable parts. Civil service allows for more professional armies, including men-at-arms on foot, which are presumably what macemen represent.

On the Info Screen, there is a "Power" chart. Power represents a civ's number of "Soldiers." Roughly, every max 1 :strength: is equivalent to 1000 Soldiers. So one Archer represents 3000 Soldiers. There are exceptions though; one 5 :strength: Axeman is actually worth 6000 Soldiers...

Aqueducts come with Maths + Masonry. I play Fractal and once had an isolated start with only pigs and spices. Even with aqueducts and HG, it just wasn't enough health. Leaving two forests for health is somewhat equivalent to having a 1 :health: building that costs 60 base :hammers:, which is...

Thank you. Would it be advisable to whip OF the first half of GT, then direct-whip the rest? Assuming a city with a forge, 15:food: surplus at size 5 and guaranteed 2:food: squares past size 5, normal speed. EDIT: I'll just answer my own question. In this case, OF whipping is roughly...

elitetroops: I guess it's been a long while since I played Monarch. I've always assumed it had to one or the other. Thanks for the tip on Zara; for some reason that never occurred to me. Though it doesn't matter now; I plan to invade him with cav soon. :cool:

Absolutely, with a powerful commerce capital like that boosted with FIN, CS beeline would be better. In my current Darius game I skipped Aesthetics in favor of Currency -> CoL but also made a detour for HBR and Construction for War Elephants for defense (my neighbor was Zara, who can declare at...

That's a great point; experience is determined by strength ratios but survival is determined by victory chances as well as withdrawal chances. This is also why Oromos (or their upgrades) are so great; their victory chances are increased by their first strikes, but their experience is determined...

There's a CoL missing there, unless you're implying it'd be necessarily acquired via trade. Also, Aesthetics + Poly -> Lit is also pretty good even without IND, PHIL, or marble. But my favorite opening so far has been to self-tech Math, bulb Alpha, and build research for teching to Lit. If it...

For Egypt, the definition of "early" includes Theo. :lol: In my recent game with Ramesses II, I got two GPs by the time I got Monotheism, allowing me to found a city, found a religion in it, and build a shrine in it all in the same turn. It was fantastic fun producing a boatload of GPs and GSs...

For inland cities w/o fresh water or cities with 5+ flood plains, it may still be a good idea to leave 2 plains forests behind for health, especially if health resources are very limited.

The Numidian does have the free Flanking I promotion though. IMHO that's the best thing about it. You don't have to actually use NC's in combat to benefit from them. Later on, as cuirs/cav, they can get Combat I, Combat II/Pinch, and Flanking II with only 8 xp. Or they can get Flanking II and...

The Dog Soldier ought to be rated higher due to its guaranteed anti-barb effectiveness on very high difficulty levels. It allows SB to skip Hunting and Archery in the very early game, saving valuable turns. It's also extremely powerful on Prince and below vs. civs that don't start with Hunting...

According to this article, whipping late-game national wonders yields only 15 hammers/pop compared to 22.5 hammers/pop for earlier-game national wonders (Normal). Is this true and if so, how are early- and late-game national wonders distinguished exactly?

Wouldn't spending a GE on WP in the HE city be a strong play, especially for a non-IND, no-stone situation? This is especially the case post-Assembly Line when a GPP farm can run more engineers and WP synergizes with Pentagon particularly well for land units (3 barracks + 4 WP + 2 Pentagon + 2...

Due to Civ4's weird combat system, normal axes will actually beat vultures in a fair field battle. The calc is as follows: 6/(1+(0.5-0.25)) = 4.8 :strength: vs. 5 :strength:. You can verify this in worldbuilder. The Carrack does allow you to squat on and develop good overseas sites early, but...

It gives Spain a strong Lib-Steel play. Build a ton of trebs using the citadel while running vassalage/theo. Grab econ for the GM then Lib-Steel. Result: CR3 cannons ready to go. Trade around for MT so you'll also have Conquistadors to protect them.

The main strength of the obelisk is to be able to build a shrine or settle a priest incredibly early. The early gold does wonders for expansion and/or slider. Research Institute, Salon, and Shale Plant are probably the worst offenders. Some suggestions: Russia: Some sort of...

People love to hate on ironclads, but I've found them useful on many occasions. Considering: Many wars are fought against your immediate neighbor on the same continent with many of his major cities on the coast. Bombarding them with warships before your land armies arrive is a good strategy...

As usual it always depends on the situation and context. Qin's IND synergizes well with the Pavilion for cultural victories, while the Hippodrome has no particular synergy with IMP/SPI and kataphraktoi. Also, personally by the time I get Drama I'd either have gotten Monarchy, Mids, lots of...