Quirks, Exploits, Loopholes, IMBAs: Any I Have Missed?

You can optimize the science / culture revenue from a Great Scientist / Great Writer which is based on the respective science / culture production during the last 8 turns. (On slower gamespeed, it is still based on 8 turns but the revenue value is multiplied with the respective rate modifier, e.g. 300% for marathon.)

Science :
Before using the Great Scientist, have all cities finish the current high level science building (e.g. university).
If possible, wait for social policies which increase science output (e.g. Rationalism, Secularism).
Change production / production focus in all cities to science, especially if you have social policy SECULARISM (+2 Science per Specialist).
Wait for 8 turns to maximise the revenue of the Great Scientist.

Culture :
Research key culture techs.
Buy / build culture buildings (e.g. Broadcast Tower) in all cities.
Build culture wonders (hermitage, Sistine Chapel).
Optimize Great Works, artifacts to optimize culture output.
Set focus to culture if you have culture from improvements (religion, UA)
Win World Fair (+100% Culture)
Start Golden Age (+20% Culture)
Wait 8 turns before using the Great Writer.

If you are going for winning World Fair, it is a good thing to accumulate a Great Artist (or Golden Age Wonder or Golden Age Social Policy) and several Great Writers (e.g. playing as Sweden) before. Revenue of optimized Great Writers can be 2-3 times more culture than usual.

By selecting the Great Scientist / Writer You can check every turn the current revenue value. If this value stops increasing or starts decreasing, it might be a good time to use it.

I would think/hope/bet that 'GPro' means Great Prophet (GP); my proposed abbrieviations are: Inquisitors (IQ's), and Missionary's (MSSY) .

dasaard200 said:

I would think/hope/bet that 'GPro' means Great Prophet (GP)

Click to expand...

You are corect about GPro being a Great Prophet, GP is normally used for Great Person

I usually use GPr (the additional "o" doesn't add much and, well, an extra keystroke spent is a keystroke forever lost).

OP, you should edit your first post so it becomes a nice index page. Here one just learned 5 min ago, did you know Heathen conversion work on rebels?

The most common "exploit"-like tactic that I use is to pay a civ anything and everything [excluding cities] to DOW every other civ that it is willing to, then DOW-ing THEM on the very next turn, depriving them of all the goodies that I just gave them, and finally watching them curl up into the fetal position as the entire world descends upon them.

declaring war in cs attacking it then declaring peace so it doesnt attack you...rinse and repeat
but it has massive diplo penalties so dont no if its an exploit the dev's or a mod should make it so you have to wait 5 or 10 turns before making peace

^^Huh... stealing workers from cs is so easy to get away from by making peace the same turn.

reddishrecue said:

^^Huh... stealing workers from cs is so easy to get away from by making peace the same turn.

Click to expand...

He said that it was easy, but that be repeating it you start to rack up warmongering penalties with other Civs. And that you can do it each turn with the same city state to steal multiple workers without them being able to attack you back, and thusly that there should be a 5-10 turn peace treaty.

OBRkenobi said:

declaring war in cs attacking it then declaring peace so it doesnt attack you...rinse and repeat

Click to expand...

Rinse and repeat is a bad idea. CS much more valuable for allies than workers. This exploit is optimal once per game, so not very OP.

Settle second city near a CS to use as a whipping boy (preferably a rubbish one with little to offer other than their luxury). Use Honor to hunt barbs to please other CSs, try to get Statue of Zeus. Use Warrior Code to Citadel within two tiles of whipping boy, stealing their resource. DoW to steal their worker, and have units play musical chairs in the citadel. Get a Medic 2, a Shock 3 Cover 2 March Siege swordsman, and two Range Logistics archers. This elite squad will destroy most armies and capture any capital that does not have the Red Fort, a Military Base, Artillery or an air force.

Click to expand...

that sounds like a lot of work

It is, but it'll win the game. Although I don't follow exactly that to the letter, though. The point is that he's farming for an experienced army.

3. When at war: Pillage a tile, fix it with your worker for gold, then pillage the tile, then fix it with your worker for gold, rinse and repeat I read somewhere that you can pillage your own resources (and repair them for the same gold loop), but, I don't think this is possible? I haven't tried this, either.

Click to expand...

This really shouldn't be allowed. It made sense BEFORE pillaging healed a lot. Now it's just a dumb mechanic and hopefully should be fixed.

Settle second city near a CS to use as a whipping boy (preferably a rubbish one with little to offer other than their luxury). Use Honor to hunt barbs to please other CSs, try to get Statue of Zeus. Use Warrior Code to Citadel within two tiles of whipping boy, stealing their resource. DoW to steal their worker, and have units play musical chairs in the citadel. Get a Medic 2, a Shock 3 Cover 2 March Siege swordsman, and two Range Logistics archers. This elite squad will destroy most armies and capture any capital that does not have the Red Fort, a Military Base, Artillery or an air force.

Click to expand...

This can be done in a number of ways and I think this can be summarized as "expoloiting CS for military exp". Really, there should be diminishing returns for the SAME unit attacking the SAME city/civilization for balance and sake primarily but also for realism sake. I mean how much can an archer really learn by shooting arrows at a city?

If that city shoots back...plenty.

If a civ you later meet pledges to protect your whipping boy do they get annoyed like when they would had you DOWed the CS after you met them/they pledged to protect?

On the Strategy & Tips Forum right now there is a Deity thread about early exploits... it's somewhat frightening reading .

Haha, I'm kidding, of course, but the nefarious ways designed to exploit the AI City States are pretty impressive.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=534196

phillipwyllie said:

If a civ you later meet pledges to protect your whipping boy do they get annoyed like when they would had you DOWed the CS after you met them/they pledged to protect?

Click to expand...

From the linked thread:

JeSuisNapoleon said:

A note about CS worker stealing:
I find the best approach is to DOW the nearest CS as soon as I meet them if I am the first to meet them. So, if they give me 30 gold, I DOW. I often stay at war for a long time. This allows me to farm workers, train armies, and avoid diplo hits.

No one will be angry with you if you are already at war when they meet you.
Same goes for DOWing an AI really.

Click to expand...

Another quirk for citystate quests. Often you're beelining technologies right? So say you're focused 100% on Education so much so that many other older and cheaper techs like sailing, optics or iron working etc may only take 1 or 2 turns to research.
Now if you keep your eyes on your citystate quests you may notice the quest to research the most number of technologies in a particular period. If that comes up (or more than one) it can be well worth delaying the tech you're beelining for just to research some 1 or 2 turn techs so you can win the CS quest.
Also barb camps near citystates don't always trigger a quest to clear the camp. In that case you should keep a swordsman unit between the CS and the camp to damage the barb units before they get to the CS borders. Once they are either on the CS border or inside the CS territory you can finish off the barb unit for 12 influence. That can be a very game-changing means of maintaining an alliance or friendship with citystates even if you're not getting offered quests you can complete.

Redaxe said:

In fact if you let barbs capture a CS worker you have 2 options.

1. Capture the worker without hurting CS relations.
2. Let it return to near the encampment (adjacent another barn unit), liberate it for 40 exp then wait until the barbs capture it again & get another 40 exp. Easy!

Click to expand...

I've already done this, albeit I didn't set it up deliberately (I am not that gamey, but I won't let it slide when the AI's practically giving it to me. )

I can't recall how exactly it happened, but there was one game where a CS worker was captured by barbs, I would rescue it and give it back to the CS, on the way back to the CS he would get captured again, I would rescue him and give him back again, and so on. That happened at least five times.

Whoa, the pyramids thing is seriously exploity. How's this: raze a city. The improvements around it are all pillagable, unopposed. Build scouts. Stack a scout and a worker on each tile you can pillage. Make 50gpt pillaging away.

I won't do it, but....