Tiny tricks

I have discovered some tiny tricks that have helped. I want to share them. My underlying hope that others will share more that I have not discovered. Here are some:

1. Build roads to nowhere on at least some of the tiles immediately around your capital and other cities of high traffic. This is particularly true of cities on rivers and in hilly terrain.

2. Click on the "New Social Policy" icon before doing any other part of your turn.

3. Move units into unknown territory a single tile at a time. This is especially true when involved in a protracted naval campaign.

4. Do not sweep out barbarians in territory you wish to eventually settle. Leave them and escort your settler instead.

This is such a broad topic. I think I will leave it at just these for now.

"1. Build roads to nowhere on at least some of the tiles immediately around your capital and other cities of high traffic. This is particularly true of cities on rivers and in hilly terrain."

This is normally not a very good idea as roads cost money to maintain! There is a very limited set of circumstances where it is smart (especially hills around border towns or fortresses, it can make a huge difference if you can move an archer on a hill and shoot the same turn), but as a general strategy I don't think it is worth the cost.

Building towards the front where you expect an imminent war probably is smart, especially if the road will become a city connection to your newly conquered territory anyway.

Finnagain said:

2. Click on the "New Social Policy" icon before doing any other part of your turn.

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I cannot tell you how many time I killed a bunch of units on a turn, then clicked on the "New Social Policy" icon to discover I could have taken the Honor policy that gives 50% more experience first and earned even more. Or spent a ton of gold on CS's only to discover I could have taken the Patronage policy that gives more Influence for gold spent

If I don't have Pyramids and Citizenship I will sometimes 'half' build roads so I can complete them later in one turn when needed. Or half chop forest/jungle in case I need an emergency clear.

Finnagain said:

I have discovered some tiny tricks that have helped. I want to share them. My underlying hope that others will share more that I have not discovered. Here are some:

1. Build roads to nowhere on at least some of the tiles immediately around your capital and other cities of high traffic. This is particularly true of cities on rivers and in hilly terrain.

2. Click on the "New Social Policy" icon before doing any other part of your turn.

3. Move units into unknown territory a single tile at a time. This is especially true when involved in a protracted naval campaign.

4. Do not sweep out barbarians in territory you wish to eventually settle. Leave them and escort your settler instead.

This is such a broad topic. I think I will leave it at just these for now.

Click to expand...

1) No . . .
2) Yes-ish. Eventually you'll figure out when you should do this but usually the game will notify you appropriately so you don't have to always. But sometimes it doesn't notify you if you can take a policy when you've gathered culture mid-term . . . e.g, culture ruin. After a culture ruin or killing a barb w/ Honor, sure, take a looksee.
3) YES. Big YES here. Sometimes I get impatient and don't do this, and then I relearn the lesson.
4) Generally agreed I suppose. Takes too long to clear them out completely, much more efficient to settle the city, if you can get your Settler there safely, and then you can use the city to attack barbs, even barb encampments.

I do half-building of roads often, as mentioned in another post, when I'm trying to keep all my workers working each turn by moving one space, then building, rather than moving two spaces and doing nothing for a turn. Half-chopping is far more rare for me but I suppose it might be part of optimal play on rare occasion.

Another tiny tip, using civilian units to uncover where barbarians and their encampments might be. Just right drag all over and where it's red, there's something there. Can't do this with military units. It's a bit of an exploit.

With #4 you also have a better chance that the AI will lose his settler to barbs if trying to settle that area.

I only recently started building the roads around my cities that I think will get attacked. I will be doing so from now on though due to the big increase in flexibility. You should try it before outright condemning it because at a cost less than a single military unit I can get my units around considerably faster.

The "don't go killing barbarian" part is specifically to get them to nab AI settlers.

Looking for red circles is a great idea. Good call.

Finnagain said:

4. Do not sweep out barbarians in territory you wish to eventually settle. Leave them and escort your settler instead.

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Can you elaborate?

If you kill them and leave that area unlit they will respawn and it will have all been for nothing, that's my reasoning at least

stormtrooper412 said:

If you kill them and leave that area unlit they will respawn and it will have all been for nothing, that's my reasoning at least

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I do it but for another reason. It makes the AIs expansion slower on that zone. They may even maybe lose a settler.

kaltorak said:

I do it but for another reason. It makes the AIs expansion slower on that zone. They may even maybe lose a settler.

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Yes. This is why. The barbarians essentially protect the land for you until you are ready. It's either that or use some units to manually prevent the settlers from where you think they are headed.

Regarding barb camps, when it's relatively close to a city state leave it until the CS makes it a mission.

Finnagain said:

I only recently started building the roads around my cities that I think will get attacked. I will be doing so from now on though due to the big increase in flexibility.

Click to expand...

Alright I'll give it a try someday. On occasion, it IS patently obvious which city of mine the AI are planning to attack. In that case I think the increase in tactical mobility it provides me might be worth it, if I have a worker nearby doing something relatively unimportant anyway.