Traius' Trivia

What is the highest possible number of trade routes a city can have?

Will post answer after a couple of guesses, though I assume someone will get it before that is necessary...

Let's see...
1 base
+2 Great Lighthouse
+1 Currency
+1 Cothon
+1 Castle (or +1 Free Market)
+1 Single Currency UN
So the answer should be 7, but there's probably some stupid random event so my answer will be 8.

My Civ4 memory is fading!

Windsor said:

Let's see...
1 base
+2 Great Lighthouse
+1 Currency
+1 Cothon
+1 Castle (or +1 Free Market)
+1 Single Currency UN
So the answer should be 7, but there's probably some stupid random event so my answer will be 8.

My Civ4 memory is fading!

Click to expand...

+1 corporation
My guess is also 8 as ive never seen any event giving +1

corp obsoletes glh and not having corp when UN is built seems weird.

sinimusta said:

corp obsoletes glh and not having corp when UN is built seems weird.

Click to expand...

ouch forgot! But someone else can have UN

Two people guessed 8, two people are right, though neither of them got all of the sources.
1 base
+2 Great Lighthouse
+1 Currency
+1 Cothon
+1 Castle (or +1 Free Market)
+1 Single Currency UN
+1 Airport
Airport being the missing one. It would be weird to have airports without the corporation tech (very expensive building without factories; it's in fact as expensive as a factory!), but it is possible. Combustion and physics are the reqs for flight, which is the only req for aiports, and neither Combustion nor Physics requires Corporation.

If a knight has combat 2, and a pikeman has combat 1, is the knight better off defending or attacking the pikeman?

The knight is better off sending his friend the mace. Or is that not one of his choices?

I'm going to claim without investigation that on flat terrain it doesn't matter, that combat will apply regardless to the base (is not a defensive bonus)

I don't know if there is a difference between attacking and defending versus the pike's counter-bonus though.

I also don't know why you're even doing this either. Do you even sun-tzu?

If the knight defends, the pike's counter bonus removes combat bonuses first. When the pike's +100% is applied against the knight's +20%, it removes the 20%, and then divides the remaining strength by 1.8 (the remaining 80% of bonus) yielding an effective knight strength of 5.5555. The pike has a str of 6.6 yielding a ratio of 0.8417 (from the knight's perspective).
If the knight attacks, he has a strength of 12, and the pike has a str of 12.6. From the knights perspective, this yields a ratio of 0.9524, so the knight is better off charging into a group of defending pikemen than letting said pikemen come after him (somehow).

From this and some handwaving math (I crunched the numbers behind the scenes, but we could also prove it directly theoretically, but instead, HANDWAVE! because it's already mathy for many people) we get a general rule of, if the combat of the knight is higher than the pike, he's better off attacking.

I understand what you're saying tristan, but this is also sort of true for Conq's (or Cataphracts) and pikemen, though in that case it's more trivial. Defending vs a pikeman is bad if you have the chance to kill it on open ground.

This math also comes up with landsknechts and macemen, where a maceman with higher combat should be attacking rather than defending landsknechts. Or running away. Or finding a x-bow.

If you have a bonus for espionage points "spent" (game term) on a target, do you lose that bonus if you use it on a mission?

By bonus do you mean you've spent more EPs on the AI then they've spent on you?

indeed. Like if it said in the mission cost details "-10% for espionage point spending"

Isn't that -10% for turns the spy has spent on that particular tile? It goes away if the spy moves or runs a mission.

Nope, I know this because of the GW for the GS gambit I play with as Russia. I generally put those espionage points into a civ with a tech I really want. After I do that I gain a large discount on espionage point spending. After I steal some techs, that bonus is still there. Until the AI or the player spends espionage points on you, that discount isn't going away. Which means it is pretty pointless to spend points on Sitting Bull cause he'll just spend points on you to spam those stupid well poisoning missions and the odds of him having a monopoly on a tech that you want are low so you can generally look to someone else.

True true It's why I always wonder why people say you should settle a GSpy. It's almost always better to infiltrate; you get bonuses now (instantly stealable techs for a nice discount) and forever (discount lasts forever)! Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Especially since that Gspy takes half the game to "pay off" the other way, assuming you don't use a single EP and you're opponents produce none (I realize they usually say make a SY with the next one which diminishes that, but still, you have to pay off two infilitrate missions now anyways). A SY if going all EE is ok though, though the insta payoff may still be the better choice.

What 2 units, when upgraded using your hard earned gold, are worth LESS power than before? (hint, one of them actually kind of --sort of -- makes sense IRL but not so much in the game, the other makes sense in the game but probably not in real life).

I think one of them is the SAM Infantry?

Indeed! That is one of them. If you upgrade an infantry to a SAM infantry, you get less power out of the deal.
That is the one that I considered to make sense in the game but perhaps not real life (Guided anti-aircraft missile launchers cost more than assault rifles IRL, but in the game you are changing a 20 STR to an 18 STR, so it kind of makes sense in game that you'd have less power).

traius said:

True true It's why I always wonder why people say you should settle a GSpy. It's almost always better to infiltrate; you get bonuses now (instantly stealable techs for a nice discount) and forever (discount lasts forever)! Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Especially since that Gspy takes half the game to "pay off" the other way, assuming you don't use a single EP and you're opponents produce none (I realize they usually say make a SY with the next one which diminishes that, but still, you have to pay off two infilitrate missions now anyways). A SY if going all EE is ok though, though the insta payoff may still be the better choice.

Click to expand...

IMO, when none of my neighboring AI is gaining a big tech lead and also researching at different directions. In that case, I go for settled spy, SY and run EE. I feel more comfortable to wait until I can see a viable partner(s) to steal. I don't think the EP spread across the AI is wasted because you can send spies to tactically destroy improvements or incite city revolt later on your conquest.

Of course, when you have neighboring AIs that can tech well like Pacal, Willem, Elizabeth or Mansa, the situation changes.

This is actually a good question. .. trade routes come from so many sources though. .. sources like tgl, economics, and the airport all add trade routes to cities. Civilization 4 has an aerial trade route from the airport...