Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

SquirrelCensus said:

Question about building/wonder obsolescence: Let's say I'm the first one to discover astronomy. My Stonehenge becomes obsolete, but does everyone elses' monuments become obsolete too? But let's say Elizabeth discovers astronomy first. Her monuments are obsolete, but are mine still good? Or do they fizzle only once I discover astronomy?

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Obsolescence is only applied to the owner of the tech. You got the tech, your things get obsolete.
BTW, get wary about some monasteries being built while you are getting Scientific Method; once tech gotten, all the hammers into those monasteries vanish. And don't try to time both the tech and monastery finishes; tech has priority and will still make your hammers vanish. Trololol.

As Tachywaxon says. No one else loses their old stuff when a civ learns a tech, only the one doing the research does so. Regarding the timing of monasteries that he mentions: you can time them but be sure that all the buildings that you want will be finished 2 or more turns before the tech that will obsolete them. If some of your cottages grow to produce another commerce at that time, you could find the tech finished a turn earlier than you expected. I do time it like this and have found that a 2 turn lead is usually fine.

This gives me a genius idea... Once you have to research such a tech, as the leader, give it to all other AI's, get diplo bonus and weaken them!!!

Anyone been in a similar situation? You are at war with a civ on a different continent, but he's completely landlocked so nothing he can do, short of nukes can harm you. Is there any harm to just keep the "war" going? I won't get war weariness unless there's actual combat between us, right?

War weariness comes with each combat; winning ones and losing ones don't matter.
Yes, you can keep warring and you're gonna cumulate zilch.
And even, there's an advantage, not only that loser is gonna spend much on units AND
will set the slider down by 20% on espionage.

calibur said:

This gives me a genius idea... Once you have to research such a tech, as the leader, give it to all other AI's, get diplo bonus and weaken them!!!

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For mass media, this is known. But generally, giving a tech is giving some edge to the AI. Even SM.

Tachywaxon said:

War weariness comes with each combat; winning ones and losing ones don't matter.

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Wait. I don't know the post this responds to but it seems like the more I win the more the opponents war weariness (mine seems to stay minimal ... maybe my civics and wonders?) ... so it appears that winning or losing does matter, yes?

dgang said:

Wait. I don't know the post this responds to but it seems like the more I win the more the opponents war weariness (mine seems to stay minimal ... maybe my civics and wonders?) ... so it appears that winning or losing does matter, yes?

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War weariness works like this:
If you attack, you will get 1 or 3 WW. 1 if you win, 3 if you lose. Not sure where withdrawals fall. No WW is suffered for attacking in your own culture. Note that this is CULTURE, not borders, so if you lose a city, the borders may change, but the tiles will still be yours for WW purposes (the city tile will show their borders, but the % culture of the city should be more than 50% yours, and so it is considered YOUR tile for WW, even though it isn't in your borders)
If you are defending, you will get 2 WW regardless of outcome. Again, no WW in your own culture.
The culture thing is really important if your war stalls after you take a couple of cities from an opponent. If you keep defending the cities you just captured, you will keep suffering WW and your opponent won't, because he's fighting on his tiles! Incidentally, this is a big reason why the Statue of Zeus sucks so much; if your attack is going well, all the fighting will be in the opponent's territory and they will not be suffering ANY WW

To quote another poster named Beamup:
"An observation: This means that you'll be much better off, in terms of WW, to let your enemy's stacks come to you and crush them in your own territory before you start your offensive. The less of their mobile forces you have to destroy in their territory, the better.

Which means that your people will actually be happier if you let the enemy invade and trample all over them instead of keeping them safely away from your cities. Go figure."
Of course, tacitcally, you shouldn't be declaring war if you aren't invading that turn (unless maybe you have both the SoZ AND the GW -- to make his people angry and give you more GG's -- and his army was already on your borders and you can take it out with ease in a turn or two after it moves into your territory), as the longer the war is, the more troops he can build, obviously

@ SquirrelCensus

No, If if someone else is ahead of you and makes something obsolete it does not effect you until you research it.

A little hint: if you research something and lets say it obsoletes whale, you can trade an AI who has whale but has not researched the tec. that obsoletes it. So you can still have whale even though it is obsolete!! LOL

@traius Great explanation of WW! Thank you!

Thanks traius. Even a veteran in game mechanics can learn from others.

wazzzuup said:

@ SquirrelCensus

No, If if someone else is ahead of you and makes something obsolete it does not effect you until you research it.

A little hint: if you research something and lets say it obsoletes whale, you can trade an AI who has whale but has not researched the tec. that obsoletes it. So you can still have whale even though it is obsolete!! LOL

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Hmmmm, wasn't it patched on BTS? 'twas Warlord expansion time you are referring to.

out of curiousity, what's a good strategy for windmills vs mines? Is it just resources spawning probablity and better to go for hammers, than food and hammers, or...

In general, mines are better early in the game. There are a few exceptions. If you are a financial leader then early windmills on river hills give 3 commerce so for your commerce cities they are a pretty nice investment.

If the city needs the food from a windmill to grow, you probably should have settled someplace else. It rarely pays off to build windmills in a city with a severe food shortage. See exceptions below.

Once you get replaceable parts, windmills are probably better for almost any city or leader. If the city is your production city (building critical wonder or your Heroic Epic city) then the mines are still better probably.

Once you get replaceable parts and electricity then windmills are certainly better. Again exceptions are made for cities that are focused on production especially after you get railroads.

If you expect to spend a long period in a golden age and have excess workers, even a few temporary windmills might make sense since you get an extra hammer and commerce from them in a GA.

Depending on the map you are playing and what victory condition you are playing for, a late switch to environmentalism and a tons of windmills on hills can really pay off.

traius said:

War weariness works like this:
[...]

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..splendid!! i know already read an article like that before somewhere.
..i almost forgot about it,so thanks..

How does the resources connect between your cities?
Sometimes they connect if I build road to river that has city besides it, sometimes not. Seems random. Is there some distance related rules?

^^^

The rules are complicated but distance is not part of it. This is probably not quite right but here goes:

1) they can be connected by coast after Sailing or ocean after Astronomy
2) they can be connected by coast if the coast is entirely inside your culture.
3) they can be connected by river if the river is entirely inside your culture.
4) they can be connected by road.
5) they can be connected river after Sailing.
6) they can be connected by some combination of the above.

As you point out, the one which is tricky is when a combination of river and road works. TBH, I often been surprised when a route appears that I didn't expect or vice-versa.

Is the united nations taken out of the game on duel maps?

nerdfighter13 said:

Is the united nations taken out of the game on duel maps?

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Yes. You have to add a third party, a second AI.

in the concept of WW, does airstriking improvements or pillaging them outright count towards that?