Civ IV Intermediate Tactics and Gambits

Clownfish said:
Contains some useful stuff, but I object to #7! The use of sharing and flip-flopping is only something that makes overlapping not-necessarily-always-bad. I can't see that it's an advantage. If every city has its own stuff, it can still micromanage according to present needs.
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Overlapping is an advantage because you only have access to a finite number of resource tiles, while you can build as many cities as you want. If you have cities sharing your fixed quota of resource tiles, it's more likely you'll be able to effectively use them all. If you don't overlap, then you sometimes end up with cities at their population limit that can't really use more food, cities that want to maximize hammers and so aren't using their commerce resources, etc.
 
Wonderful ideas Sisiutil. We greatly appreciate the sharing of your recipes.

Re: Riverside ironworks

An often overlooked tertiary option: Yes, a plains workshop is 1F4P(+1C/river) and a grass workshop is 2F3P(+1C). Note that this is IDENTICAL to lumbermills with railroads (plains RR lumbermill is 1F4P(+1C/river); grass RR lumbermill is 2F3P(+1C)). The difference: an early 30 hammer boost, or a +0.4 health for the rest of the game. The tradeoff is situational:
-expansives should use workshops
-non-expansives have to weigh it out, but IMO this is one of the cases where the long term planning exceeds short term gain
-floodplains cities: definitely Lmills. NEED the health, and unless there's a hill or two under those forests, they can find themselves completely w/o hammers once the choppings done.
 
bassist2119 said:
Wonderful ideas Sisiutil. We greatly appreciate the sharing of your recipes.

Re: Riverside ironworks

An often overlooked tertiary option: Yes, a plains workshop is 1F4P(+1C/river) and a grass workshop is 2F3P(+1C). Note that this is IDENTICAL to lumbermills with railroads (plains RR lumbermill is 1F4P(+1C/river); grass RR lumbermill is 2F3P(+1C)). The difference: an early 30 hammer boost, or a +0.4 health for the rest of the game. The tradeoff is situational:
-expansives should use workshops
-non-expansives have to weigh it out, but IMO this is one of the cases where the long term planning exceeds short term gain
-floodplains cities: definitely Lmills. NEED the health, and unless there's a hill or two under those forests, they can find themselves completely w/o hammers once the choppings done.
Click to expand...
That's a very good point. In ALC Game #8 (Alexander), I captured London, which is surrounded by floodplains--great for watermills, lousy for health. I made the mistake of chopping the two remaining forests it had, but I should have left them for lumbermills instead, since the city had some serious health problems.
 
This might be too obvious for this thread, but attacking from 'neutral' territory with Open Borders can be very helpful. Only gunships are fast enough to move in, pillage and retreat in one round, but other units can attack anything on the border without fear of a counter attack as long as the victim doesn't also have Open Borders. One move units should be careful not to kill the last unit in a stack though, or they will be stranded in enemy territory. In one really cool game my friend's culture was strong enough to completely envelop each city I conquered, making them less immediately useful but completely shielding them from counterattack. Most importantly, bombers can base in neutral cities with Open Borders and strike from there, making a carrier fleet much less necessary and letting you use bombers right away when assaulting trans-ocean.
 
a4phantom said:
This might be too obvious for this thread, but attacking from 'neutral' territory with Open Borders can be very helpful. Only gunships are fast enough to move in, pillage and retreat in one round, but other units can attack anything on the border without fear of a counter attack as long as the victim doesn't also have Open Borders. One move units should be careful not to kill the last unit in a stack though, or they will be stranded in enemy territory. In one really cool game my friend's culture was strong enough to completely envelop each city I conquered, making them less immediately useful but completely shielding them from counterattack. Most importantly, bombers can base in neutral cities with Open Borders and strike from there, making a carrier fleet much less necessary and letting you use bombers right away when assaulting trans-ocean.
Click to expand...

about basing fighters/bombers in neutral cities, beware of the neutral civ opening borders with your enemy! Aircrafts and navy don't defend against foot troops.
 
DaviddesJ said:
Overlapping is an advantage because you only have access to a finite number of resource tiles, while you can build as many cities as you want. If you have cities sharing your fixed quota of resource tiles, it's more likely you'll be able to effectively use them all. If you don't overlap, then you sometimes end up with cities at their population limit that can't really use more food, cities that want to maximize hammers and so aren't using their commerce resources, etc.
Click to expand...


Sorry - newbie question - but exactly how can one manipulate which city uses the 'overlapped' tiles? In my experience, if you found a city close to a previously existing one, the game automatically 'darkens out' some of the tiles within the fat cross of the second city (on the logic that these are already under the first city's area). Is there a method to 'flip-flop' a tile, so that the PLAYER can decide which city has control over a common tile?
 
allnightplayer said:
Sorry - newbie question - but exactly how can one manipulate which city uses the 'overlapped' tiles? In my experience, if you found a city close to a previously existing one, the game automatically 'darkens out' some of the tiles within the fat cross of the second city (on the logic that these are already under the first city's area). Is there a method to 'flip-flop' a tile, so that the PLAYER can decide which city has control over a common tile?
Click to expand...

All you need to do is to click the darkened tile from the city screen and it will be available to be worked by that city.
 
allnightplayer said:
Sorry - newbie question - but exactly how can one manipulate which city uses the 'overlapped' tiles?
Click to expand...

No reason to apologize---it took me a while to figure this out, too. For a long time I thought it wasn't possible. As Herse wrote, you just click on the tile you want to work, from within the city screen, and that "transfers" it to the control of that city.
 
Thanks, Herse, DaviddesJ, a4phantom! Guess this is what comes out of not reading game manuals!!

I must try this out immediately...! :D
 
allnightplayer said:
Thanks, Herse, DaviddesJ, a4phantom! Guess this is what comes out of not reading game manuals!!

I must try this out immediately...! :D
Click to expand...

Games come with manuals now? Wow, do people actually read them? It must be a pretty boring game if it's more fun about to read about than play!
 
allnightplayer said:
Thanks, Herse, DaviddesJ, a4phantom! Guess this is what comes out of not reading game manuals!!
Click to expand...

There's nothing in the manual about working shared tiles in overlapping fat crosses. Like almost anything in the game, you can learn way more from CFC than you can from the official documentation.
 
DaviddesJ said:
Like almost anything in the game, you can learn way more from CFC than you can from the official documentation.
Click to expand...

I agree entirely! And it is all thanks to forum-members like YOU, who generously take time out of your deity victories, to guide newbie players out of holes!! Keep it up, guys!
 
Revised October 9th, 2006.

I added a table of contents, revised the Fat Cross Overlap section to include cottages, added a "Flood Plains Caveat" to the Riverside Ironworks (thanks bassist2119!) and added sections on Trade Renegotiation, Trade Denial, and Trading for Obsoletes.
 
Oooooh, thank you, Sisutil :D Appreicate the hard work you've done :D

Edit: Too bad it isn't in .pdf format. Would be of tremendous help if it was :)
 
DeafDolphin said:
Oooooh, thank you, Sisutil :D Appreicate the hard work you've done :D

Edit: Too bad it isn't in .pdf format. Would be of tremendous help if it was :)
Click to expand...
Since it has gotten longer, I see your point. I'll create one and attach it to the article soon.
 
A little trick I have used is to sell my cow/pig/sheep/deer against wheat/corn/rice when possible, since granaries are around ages earlier than supermarkets. AI-s however, seem to value those resources the same.

Something like Spices against Gold is also an option, if you already have forges but no grocers yet...
 
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