Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

Thanks Optional on the answer regarding defensive bombardment.

A quote from Rat38 SG:

vSword dies on 2hp spearman (received a ZoC hit from Boston on the IT).

How does zone of control work in the ancient age? Do archers have a ZOC ability too?
My vanilla experience taught me to only expect ZOC action from Cavalry and higher. So is this ZOC ability in PTW or only C3c? and does it work in the field or just cities?

Donny Brook said:

I believe I am correct that a captured city cannot flip on the same turn that you capture it. Does it also follow that a city you found will also not flip on the same turn that you create it?

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I am almost certain you are correct.

IvanDolvich said:

A quote from Rat38 SG:
vSword dies on 2hp spearman (received a ZoC hit from Boston on the IT).
How does zone of control work in the ancient age? Do archers have a ZOC ability too?
My vanilla experience taught me to only expect ZOC action from Cavalry and higher. So is this ZOC ability in PTW or only C3c? and does it work in the field or just cities?

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I'm not 100% sure on Zone of Control, but certainly armies have it, and the Keshik (Mongolian horse archer) has it. Same in PTW as in Conquests. If a unit has Zone of Control it can inflict a hitpoint damage to an enemy unit that passes it. Whether the unit with Zone of Control is in a city or not doesn't matter.
I believe walls give Zone of Control as well, so I think in the example from Rat38 you gave it were Boston's walls that gave the hit.

Optional said:

I'm not 100% sure on Zone of Control, but certainly armies have it, and the Keshik (Mongolian horse archer) has it. Same in PTW as in Conquests. If a unit has Zone of Control it can inflict a hitpoint damage to an enemy unit that passes it. Whether the unit with Zone of Control is in a city or not doesn't matter.
I believe walls give Zone of Control as well, so I think in the example from Rat38 you gave it were Boston's walls that gave the hit.

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Walls give ZoC
Ancient Cavalry (the one you get from Statue of Zeus)

That's all I can recall Civilopedia says in unit description if unit has ZoC. (scroll down for pic)

This time you're not quite right, Northen Wolf.

Ancient cavalries (Conquests only unit) do not give Zone of Control.
We did overlook a unit, though: the Spanish Conquistador.
And also the Aegis Cruiser has Zone of Control.

Guess your right. Fixed previous post. This is what civilopedia says:

I rather liked the ZoC from the previous games. You could set up a 'Maginot Line' much easier.

okay phony wars question. I am on a landmass with Russia and one or two vicking towns the far side of russia, the rest of the gang is on another landmass. Only the vickings with wonder that gives extra sea movement (cant think of it's name right now) is crossing over and back. My sucide galleys have uncover the coast of other landmass and met the other civ's.

The vickings have declare war on me (yet again) No real problem It only means I have to spread my troops out to stop them picking off an undefended town. They have now ropped france and the arbian's in on the act. I don't expect to see any action from these folks.

So should I just let them rope in the rest against me. I am not interested in going to war across the sea till i can do it safely and have cleared my landmass (which will take time)

Is there any negative to me from these phony wars?
The only fighting that will happen is me upgrading to elite's against some landings, so will war wearness be an issue?
I have heard people talk of war happyness is this a situation where it may kick in?

ronanp said:

So should I just let them rope in the rest against me. I am not interested in going to war across the sea till i can do it safely and have cleared my landmass (which will take time)

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Yes, it's usually best to try and control your own continent first.

Is there any negative to me from these phony wars?

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Well, you can't trade with civs you're at war with.

The only fighting that will happen is me upgrading to elite's against some landings, so will war wearness be an issue?

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War itself does not lead to war weariness. What leads to war weariness is:
* having a unit attacked, regardless of whether it wins or loses;
* losing a unit in battle;
* having a unit without defense taken;
* being in enemy's territory during an interturn;
* losing a town.
So if you now and then experience a landing, but you can brush the invading units away, you will not start to experience war weariness. It's different if dozens of your units would die while trying to deal with the ivaders, but from your post I understand this is not the case.

I have heard people talk of war happyness is this a situation where it may kick in?

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You should already be enjoying big war happiness: it kicks in as soon as a nation declares on you, so you should have war happiness from the Vikings, the French and the Arabs. What I would advise you to do is to look at your population as soon as a nation declares on you, because you will see a happiness boost immediately, even in anarchy.

A question: since Russia is on the same landmass as you and the Vikings, can't you get them in an alliance? This perhaps could weaken both the Vikings and Russia, and give you an easier time later to take over the continent. Even if it are russian towns you'd like to conquer first, it might help to weaken Russia with an alliance first before invading their territory.

was happily planning to play a few scenarios ı had downloaded . Unfortunately on my part they refuse to start ; say the bar that shows the ratio of finished job remains fixed about 75 % or so . The solution to such problems is patch 1.22 , ı know and ı could live with the way it replaces options say civ-content button leading to high scores screen etc etc . Even with the jokes that says something like last one out turn of the light at the bottom of the screen , is it intented to mock those without official games ? As it is the need is for a CD and my odd Civ3 doesnot run on one . How odd ı believe it to be has already been discussed . So ı know that there are official , Firaxis approved no CD patches for the game , how do ı get one . If ı can't , the game is well , enough on its own . No problem...

since ı returned to basic conquests , ı had this strange idea. My neighbours are of course crowding in my territory on their way to unsettled areas on the continent .Preparing for a possible war ı used a worker to better the odds for my soldiers . But ı was mistaken , no boost through outposts . Yet the prospective enemy seemed to avoid the outpost , walking around it . A RoP might be different , but in case of no deal but peace , will a unit entering a tile with outpost of a different civ destroy the building ? If so ı might use them to build a wall of China across choke points as wars give up many workers but building settlers is time consuming business and ı like to fill empty spaces on my terms , where you can calculate optimum positions for cities .

Regarding the No-CD Patch, Firaxis does offer one through their tech support. I don't know how easy it is to get one, but you should start there first.

I seem to recall a news article here from several years ago when they made that patch officially available, but I can't seem to find it now.

Optional said:

You should already be enjoying big war happiness: it kicks in as soon as a nation declares on you, so you should have war happiness from the Vikings, the French and the Arabs. What I would advise you to do is to look at your population as soon as a nation declares on you, because you will see a happiness boost immediately, even in anarchy.

A question: since Russia is on the same landmass as you and the Vikings, can't you get them in an alliance? This perhaps could weaken both the Vikings and Russia, and give you an easier time later to take over the continent. Even if it are russian towns you'd like to conquer first, it might help to weaken Russia with an alliance first before invading their territory.

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Well russia has now declared on me as well meaning four civ's have dogpiled on me, two of which are total phoney wars. One is just a nuisence and I think I can take Russia with my new sipihi. Will have navagation soon to sink ai before they get to my shore.

My problem is that I really need the war happyness boust as I have only two lux's and Russia has none to annex. So I kind of need these wars to keep going.

The other thing is the Vickings are willing to sign for peace for a tech, I don't want to give it to them but seeing as they are clearly in miltary packs with 3 other civ's against me if I sign peace with the vickings will that trash the vickings rep with the three other civ's? that maybe worth it, as when i invade the other landmass i don't want them pally with each other,

I have seen that Science Farms can be huge in C3C and can allow a human player to catch up in Tech with the AI on very high difficulty levels.

My Question is this, Does the AI us science farms too? In other words will it use specialists in totally corrupt cities to boost science output? Or will it continue to waste food and shields on 100 turn marketplaces and the like?

IvanDolvich said:

I have seen that Science Farms can be huge in C3C and can allow a human player to catch up in Tech with the AI on very high difficulty levels.

My Question is this, Does the AI us science farms too? In other words will it use specialists in totally corrupt cities to boost science output? Or will it continue to waste food and shields on 100 turn marketplaces and the like?

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I'll give you one hint: We don't refer to it as "Artificial Stupidity" for no reason.

IvanDolvich said:

I have seen that Science Farms can be huge in C3C and can allow a human player to catch up in Tech with the AI on very high difficulty levels.

My Question is this, Does the AI us science farms too? In other words will it use specialists in totally corrupt cities to boost science output? Or will it continue to waste food and shields on 100 turn marketplaces and the like?

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There was a thread not too long ago where the general consensus ended up being - the AI only uses clowns. So, no, the AI does not use science farms.

umm... "no" then?
Poor Ai, I mean AS.

So science farms are all well and good for C3C. But I'm still stuck at PTW and dont get the same bang for the buck. I do however get cool exploits like rank corruption and palace jumps to make up for it.

IvanDolvich said:

So science farms are all well and good for C3C. But I'm still stuck at PTW and dont get the same bang for the buck. I do however get cool exploits like rank corruption and palace jumps to make up for it.

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The overall advantages in C3C more than make up for that.

Just the improved interface is enough for me.

IvanDolvich said:

umm... "no" then?
Poor Ai, I mean AS.

So science farms are all well and good for C3C. But I'm still stuck at PTW and dont get the same bang for the buck. I do however get cool exploits like rank corruption and palace jumps to make up for it.

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Even with scientists producing one breaker(light-bulb) per turn, you can still use science farms. War Academy article was written before C3C (or when it first appeared). Effect will just be 1/3rd of what it is in conquest, and surely not all of your towns are in the "corruption circle".

Northen Wolf said:

Even with scientists producing one breaker(light-bulb) per turn, you can still use science farms. War Academy article was written before C3C (or when it first appeared). Effect will just be 1/3rd of what it is in conquest, and surely not all of your towns are in the "corruption circle".

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Good point. I can use my PTW corrupt towns to produce science or taxes through the use of specialists and I do. However I will never get the bang for the buck that C3C gets where science farms can actually carry your research down to 4 turns, etc. I also don't get the use of civil engineers which can do wonders with a corrupt town. But like I said, I do have some other options open to me that allow me to mitigate some of the effects of corruption (my max is 95%) and can make my empire productive as well.