So I held out on making the move to Civ 5 for quite a while, but I just recently bought BNW and decided to dive in. After some trials and testing - no wins yet - I feel that 5 may be the superior game. But I have so many questions that aren't answered by in-game information. Here are just a few:
1. Do I have no control over natural border expansion? It seems not, and that the purple tile in the city view tells me where the next expansion will be. Except I've had the border expand to a different tile on numerous occasions. So it seems like a crap shoot where my borders expand, and the purple highlighted tile is meaningless. Am I wrong?
2. What's the combat strength of an embarked unit? Overall I love the embarkation system, but in-game it just says something like "they'll have weak defense". Anyone know how it actually works? Is it based on their melee combat strength at all?
3. I can't get a handle on how many cities I should have. I keep reading in threads that most people stop at 4, maybe 5. But this seems like so few on a Standard map. Why is 4 cities a sweet spot?
4. When do you usually found your 2nd city?
5. In Civ 4 it seemed much easier to get a build out quickly when needed. Between whipping and chopping I could get a Settler up and have my 2nd city very early if I wanted. In Civ 5 this seems impossible. There is no Slavery, and the 20 production from a chop shaves 1, maybe 2 turns off the Settler build. I don't see any way to beat the computer to choice territory right now, and this is at King or below. Am I missing some tricks to quick expansion? Or do you just resign yourself to expanding slower than the AI then dealing with it later?
6. Speaking of chopping, do forests ever grow like in Civ 4? I don't think I've ever seen it. Are most forests better saved for lumber mills?
7.For a Conquest Victory, do I need to keep all the capitals, or can I raze them? I now know you can't raze capitals.
8. I get the idea that a focus on food and growth is basically always preferable to a production focus. But is this true even for builds that will themselves contribute to growth, such as a Worker or Granary? Can it make sense to turn on production focus for stuff like this? (Yes I am still using the governor at this point. It at least seems better than in previous versions.)
9.I hear a lot of talk of "tall vs wide". I have always loved the idea of small empires having a chance to win, so the notion of tall intrigues me. And it must be viable given that Venice is a civ. But it still seems like land is power in most cases. Could anyone give me a quick rundown of how tall and wide differ in their approach to winning, and particularly how a tall empire should play? I think there are enough threads on this for me to get an idea with a little more research.
Phew. So I'm sure I have more but these are the main ones right now. My mind is just so steeped in Civ 4 that I'm having a hard time making the transition and I want to get better faster.
Thank you in advance for any info!
P.S. If I can squeeze one more in: what are the benefits of religion? There's the founder/follower bonuses, and I think a diplomatic boost from sharing it. But what else? Focusing on it seems like a significant investment. Is there any good reason to?
1. Do I have no control over natural border expansion? It seems not, and that the purple tile in the city view tells me where the next expansion will be. Except I've had the border expand to a different tile on numerous occasions. So it seems like a crap shoot where my borders expand, and the purple highlighted tile is meaningless. Am I wrong?
2. What's the combat strength of an embarked unit? Overall I love the embarkation system, but in-game it just says something like "they'll have weak defense". Anyone know how it actually works? Is it based on their melee combat strength at all?
3. I can't get a handle on how many cities I should have. I keep reading in threads that most people stop at 4, maybe 5. But this seems like so few on a Standard map. Why is 4 cities a sweet spot?
4. When do you usually found your 2nd city?
5. In Civ 4 it seemed much easier to get a build out quickly when needed. Between whipping and chopping I could get a Settler up and have my 2nd city very early if I wanted. In Civ 5 this seems impossible. There is no Slavery, and the 20 production from a chop shaves 1, maybe 2 turns off the Settler build. I don't see any way to beat the computer to choice territory right now, and this is at King or below. Am I missing some tricks to quick expansion? Or do you just resign yourself to expanding slower than the AI then dealing with it later?
6. Speaking of chopping, do forests ever grow like in Civ 4? I don't think I've ever seen it. Are most forests better saved for lumber mills?
7.
8. I get the idea that a focus on food and growth is basically always preferable to a production focus. But is this true even for builds that will themselves contribute to growth, such as a Worker or Granary? Can it make sense to turn on production focus for stuff like this? (Yes I am still using the governor at this point. It at least seems better than in previous versions.)
9.
Phew. So I'm sure I have more but these are the main ones right now. My mind is just so steeped in Civ 4 that I'm having a hard time making the transition and I want to get better faster.
Thank you in advance for any info!
P.S. If I can squeeze one more in: what are the benefits of religion? There's the founder/follower bonuses, and I think a diplomatic boost from sharing it. But what else? Focusing on it seems like a significant investment. Is there any good reason to?