Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

Related question (I think) - when you raze a native settlement, do you always receive 1 converted native? I seem to recall that it doesn't happen all the time, though in my current game I seem to always receive one. If it is conditional, what is the condition? City size? Existance of a mission?
 
Does anyone else's treasury suddenly start to decrease, as mine has done?

Apart from your own purchases there are two instances that I can think of where your actions cost you money. There is a small cost each time you use your pioneer to build a road or a farm etc, and a much larger cost when you train a student in your schools.
 
Thank you, Dalgo. That's worth knowing and may be the answer to some of my money disappearing!
 
I played the game my first time and started a revolution.
The REF came slowly (4 turns) and landed in small stacks.
The strength was-24 soldiers, 12 dragoons and 11 artillery (I had 12 soldiers,18 dragoons and 13 cannons).

Why the REF isn't attacking my chief city?
Do they afraid of the units there (8 soldiers+10 cannons, all soldiers have minutemen 1 or 2 promotions+fortress)?

They just landed and started pillaging tiles until my dragoons got them, then again and again until all surviving dragoons were veteran 2+formation or veteran 3 and they had no chance against them anymore.
The REF didn't seriously tried to take the undefended cities either until the very end. Only in the end they captured such city and waited there until my grenadier promoted soldiers and cannons arrived to destroy them.
All this "strategy" was like the strategy of Cornwallis at Yorktown with the same results...
 
The AI is not very imaginative. I find the combat more interesting if you play into the late game and give the REF time to build up a little. If you use the quick revolution technique and free the slaves, you'll have enough units to slaughter the AI on the beaches. The AI colonial powers are also pushovers. They basically just sit around and wait for you to roll up your cannons and take their cities.

Also, the AI will continue to land in one area until it is secure, then they'll start to sail around and spread out. So if you keep killing them in one spot, they'll keep showing up there. This more than anything makes the AI as easy to defeat as lemmings. The AI has little or no concept of military tactics. At least in Civ3 the AI would try to drop units near weak/undefended cities.

Why doesn't the AI take undefended towns? I have no idea. I've found if there is no garrison and it is not building a cannon or warship, the King's forces will ignore/attack them at random.
 
Misled by a wrong post by someone else in another forum (grmbl), I somewhat hastily started a game with all victory conditions disabled, as I was told I could still declare independence and fight my damn king, just without it ending the game. Turns out I cannot. :blush::mad:

Is there any way to change the victory conditions? I am ready to declare indepence, my king does have a really sweet and huge army, so... I would love to have all my colonising work redeemed.
 
Does trading with the natives (guns, horses and other goods) trigger tax increases?
All I did was buy units from Europe and sell some stuff to the natives and I got two tax razes.

I also find it ridiculous how the king will usually request about 90% of your money (he asked for 14k). I started ignoring him.

>edit
Right, I'm convinced. Just traded a wagon of guns and another one with rum and cigars. 4% tax raise next turn (guns party), sigh why bother. I now have to sell in Europe and trade with the natives in the same turn to minimize taxes...
 
Yes you are right - selling goods to the natives results in tax increases. That must be a bug, I can't see any logical reason for it.

However one advantage of trading with the natives of course is you don't pay any tax.

You certainly don't have to cave in to the King's demands for cash. If you do accept his exhorbitant requests for funds you will delay increases in the REF and perhaps be able to buy cheap military units from him, but personally I just refuse all requests – I’ve got better things to do with my money
 
Newbie here, got the game recently from steam but haven't got the hang of it yet.
Hope this is not too many questions:

Read in some guides and converted natives can be retrained in native settlements but I can't do it, option doesn't show up on screen. Had the game been changed or am I missing something?

Any combat guide around for newbies? I haven't even played civ4 so I am not familiar with the combat system yet. Can soldier working in city pick up arms when attacked by themselves? Promotions gained from soldier, can they be applied if I change that unit into a dragoon (like Ranger and Mountaineer)? Number of XP gained for each fight? When a unit doesn't get defensive bonuses, is that terrain bonus, promotion bonus, building bonus, or rebel bonus, or all of them? How do you read the 2 numbers for xp for units (like 5/9)? How does the healing maths work with respect to own/friendly neutral/enemy territories? Do they heal quicker when in city? Does each promotion heal 1 point? The +25% for Spanish against native doesn't show up on the battle odds stat screen (when holding right click), I still get 3.30 for the initial vet soldier, does it work as -25% for natives instead, or is there some bug...

10 turns peace treaty set up with natives without my knowledge, and I can't do it when I want to. How does it work?

Read the school system is screwed up, prices fluctuate with no logic. Is it worth building school or should I give up altogether? Does each new school get the same school point requirements (reset to minimum) for training or do they accumulate from your previous trainee?

Thanks a lot
 
Newbie here, got the game recently from steam but haven't got the hang of it yet.
Hope this is not too many questions:

Read in some guides and converted natives can be retrained in native settlements but I can't do it, option doesn't show up on screen. Had the game been changed or am I missing something?

Any combat guide around for newbies? I haven't even played civ4 so I am not familiar with the combat system yet. Can soldier working in city pick up arms when attacked by themselves? Promotions gained from soldier, can they be applied if I change that unit into a dragoon (like Ranger and Mountaineer)? Number of XP gained for each fight? When a unit doesn't get defensive bonuses, is that terrain bonus, promotion bonus, building bonus, or rebel bonus, or all of them? How do you read the 2 numbers for xp for units (like 5/9)? How does the healing maths work with respect to own/friendly neutral/enemy territories? Do they heal quicker when in city? Does each promotion heal 1 point? The +25% for Spanish against native doesn't show up on the battle odds stat screen (when holding right click), I still get 3.30 for the initial vet soldier, does it work as -25% for natives instead, or is there some bug...

10 turns peace treaty set up with natives without my knowledge, and I can't do it when I want to. How does it work?

Read the school system is screwed up, prices fluctuate with no logic. Is it worth building school or should I give up altogether? Does each new school get the same school point requirements (reset to minimum) for training or do they accumulate from your previous trainee?

Thanks a lot


Welcome to the forum xploring.

1. You have the patch installed, which is good, and one of the changes in the patch is that native converts can no longer be trained in a native village.

2. Yes a citizen working in the city will take up arms when attacked, providing sufficient guns are available. However it would be better to have the soldier on permanent sentry duty because he will get an extra 25% ‘fortify’ defence. A cannon is better still.

3. Specific soldier promotions do not apply if he is changed to a dragoon but they are not lost and will reappear when he is changed back to a soldier.

4. There is a random factor involved but usually a citizen gains 1 xp and a veteran 2 xp.

5. The defensive bonus (or lack of) only applies to terrain and buildings. Promotion and rebel bonuses apply to all troops.

6. An xp of 6/10 would mean 6 xp gained, 10 needed for the next promotion.

7. Healing is slow in enemy territory, faster when there is a surgeon in attendance or in a village or colony, and fastest with both.

8. A promotion provides a percentage healing (not sure just how much).

9. I don’t play the Spanish much, have a look at the combat log after the battle and see if it is included there.

10. Not sure about the peace treaty unless it resulted from a FF such as Pocahontas.

11. The school system was screwed up before the patch, OK now. Training takes longer for each student but each colony is separate.
 
Thanks for replying so quickly dalgo. I read and enjoyed your revolutionary guide on xl map too. :)
Now if only I can finish a game and get a win...
 
Oh, is there any way to find out how much money a native clan has without having a ship or wagon going all the way to visit them? It's so frustrating to go all the way there with 200 guns to find out they don't have enough money to pay for them. Either that or if only there's a way to trade the amount of goods I want to, not everything in the transport
 
Oh, is there any way to find out how much money a native clan has without having a ship or wagon going all the way to visit them? It's so frustrating to go all the way there with 200 guns to find out they don't have enough money to pay for them. Either that or if only there's a way to trade the amount of goods I want to, not everything in the transport

I don't know of any way either. What I do is keep a written total of each tribes cash balance so I know what to send them next time. However this doesn't work if they are near another European power who are actively trading with them.

There is no way to sell a smaller amount of goods from a wagon but there is a way to do it by ship. Take a wagon with you on the ship and unload it into the village then transfer the goods you wish to sell. You can still only sell a complete cargo bay however, you can't sell a partial load.

For instance - Load a merchantman with 250 guns and a wagon. When you get to the native village and find out how much money they have you can then sell them 50, 100, 150, 200 or the whole 250 guns.
 
I believe a wounded unit heals about 50% (of the missing health) when promoted.
The conquistador bonus against the natives works. It reduces the natives strength (you can see it in the odds). In the same way rebel sentiment works against the royal expeditionary force.

The lower the combat odds the more XP a unit will gain if it wins. About 4 xp for 50%, 2 for 98-99%, 1 xp if better odds. Vets earn double.

Use the colleges and universities a few times in each city and train in batches of three. (when the time is too long, change the city).
 
There is no way to sell a smaller amount of goods from a wagon but there is a way to do it by ship. Take a wagon with you on the ship and unload it into the village then transfer the goods you wish to sell. You can still only sell a complete cargo bay however, you can't sell a partial load.

For instance - Load a merchantman with 250 guns and a wagon. When you get to the native village and find out how much money they have you can then sell them 50, 100, 150, 200 or the whole 250 guns.

Nice idea with using wagon and ship together, never thought of that before. I think you can hold down shift when moving cargo between wagon and ship to get any number you want, haven't tried that though.

Thanks for the info about xp and bonus too, Ansive. Good to know I can train people in my cities.
 
I'm having problems automating the wagon trains. When I click the automate button, it doesn't give me any options as far as where I want it to go or what I want it to do. What am I missing?

Also, I read somewhere that you could tell the unit what to take, how many of the item to take/leave, etc. If I can ever get the automation itself figured out, does it also give you these options?
 
You need to set up trade routes first.
For example go in a city, and set export sugar. Then go in another city, and set import sugar. (there's a tab in the city screen for trades)

Now you can use that button with a wagon train.
 
I'm playing the scenario western hemisphere - it is 1760 - I have a 70% want revolution rate and have stopped trading as it just isn't worth the tax rate. My army is ready on the beaches and in the towns. How come I don't have the start revolution icon up? Is this scenario designed to start at 1776?
 
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