A few BNW Questions

1) I was one of 5 civs and the third to reach ideology. The first two civs had chosen order. I chose freedom and immediately my population was -15 happiness from where it was. I had the second most culture and the second most tourism in the game.
A) Why did I start out at -15 unhappiness
B) Since my civ is the second most powerful in tourism and culture, will that number change if I keep pushing tourism and culture in my cities?
C) I was just declared on by the weaker civ who is the culture leader. He has no hope of winning. As I destroy and capture his cities will that -15 change?

2) If you found a city and flood it with culture but not using any "culture bomb" methods, can you win territory back from a neighboring city with much less culture? Or does culture only acquire unclaimed territories?

3) What do you do with low level spies you recruit in the end game. It seems useless to have them gather Intel if they can't get a breakthrough within 50 turns. Is there a reliable way to level up low level end game spies (like the second and third ones you get).


Thanks

1 A If either of the civs is more influential over you then you are over them you get unhappiness, you can see lots of detail on this on the last two tabs of the culture viewer. (More influential means familiar (him on you) vs exotic (you on him) for example, not 24% vs 23%, as with those values you would both be on the same level of influentual-ness.)
1 B Pushing culture and tourism will help, if another civ who has more influence over you than vice versa chooses freedom that will also help.
1 C If you completely destroy the Civ, that will help immediately, otherwise it will help you pushing your culture and tourism beyond that of the civ

2 No, that is a civ 4 mechanic, you cannot claim other civs tiles except through conquest or a citadel

3 I'm not sure, I have only seen level-ups with tech steals

3) What do you do with low level spies you recruit in the end game. It seems useless to have them gather Intel if they can't get a breakthrough within 50 turns. Is there a reliable way to level up low level end game spies (like the second and third ones you get).

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You can build the National Intelligence Agency national wonder (requires police station in each city) which will level up each of your current spies by 1 level.

offworld said:

1 A If either of the civs is more influential over you then you are over them you get unhappiness, you can see lots of detail on this on the last two tabs of the culture viewer. (More influential means familiar (him on you) vs exotic (you on him) for example, not 24% vs 23%, as with those values you would both be on the same level of influentual-ness.)

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Did I start at -15 because he had more influence over me than I had over him at that one point in time? Or did I start at -15 because he had ideology several turns before me and was able to accumulate influence before I was generating ideology (push without me pushing back), and therefore all things being equal now that I'm producing culture that 15 will eventually go down?

greggbert said:

Did I start at -15 because he had more influence over me than I had over him at that one point in time? Or did I start at -15 because he had ideology several turns before me and was able to accumulate influence before I was generating ideology (push without me pushing back), and therefore all things being equal now that I'm producing culture that 15 will eventually go down?

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"Did I start at -15 because he had more influence over me than I had over him at that one point in time?"

This is correct

"Or did I start at -15 because he had ideology several turns before me and was able to accumulate influence before I was generating ideology (push without me pushing back), and therefore all things being equal now that I'm producing culture that 15 will eventually go down?"

This is incorrect, you do not generate ideology, you generate tourism, the unhappiness effects of having less tourism than another civ will only take effect when you select an ideology. Both culture and tourism will help you, but tourism probably more so. Getting a huge amount of culture could theoretically make the other civs influence over you fall. But the more typical way of getting rid of the unhappiness penalty involves you attaining the same level of influence over the other civ as he has over you, this requires tourism.

offworld said:

But the more typical way of getting rid of the unhappiness penalty involves you attaining the same level of influence over the other civ as he has over you, this requires tourism.

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Honestly I'm the second highest in tourism but he's double my tourism me so I guess it's smashing time. Fing Hiawatha.