Discovered a cheat that isn't really a cheat?

[fredzgreen]

Discovered by accident if you have a city with more than 10 production you can quicken production by buying a diplomat for example and then immediately changing to something that in reality costs more to complete say an elephant for example it will still be ready next round, but you will have paid less for it!

Have you known about it ?

This is not right is it - unethical right?

[funxus]

Welcome to CFC

This is known, and widely used, and I don't think anyone consider it a cheat.

A few other tips:
If you buy something from scratch, it's twice as expensive. So, sometimes it's cheaper to buy a cheap unit or improvement from scratch, and then switch to and buy a more expensive product.

Did you know that if you want to buy an elephant, it's cheaper to first buy a warrior, then a phalanx, then an archer and then the elephant than to Rush an elephant directly. This is because the shields cost more, the more of them that you buy.

[ElephantU]

The technique is called "Incremental Partial Rush-Buying", and is frequently used for rushing units, because the "total cost" of the unit can be broken down in different ways, depending on whether you are RushBuying a partial row of shields, a full row, or multiple rows. This does not work for City Improvements, Wonders, or Spaceship Parts, which have only two costs: the cost to RushBuy from an empty production box, and the cost to RushBuy with one or more shields in the box.

See Starlifters's thread on Civ terms and techniques.

[Great Mattezuma]

Yeah its really useful if ure short of cash and really eed to buy something expensive. But its boring so its not worth it at other times.

[Old n Slow]

As per the first post, the city will put the last set of shields into the box and if enough, complete the item.

One nit to be aware of, however, cities returning from disruption don't add shields if I recall. Thus you'll have to buy the whole item -- either incrementally or outright. On the other hand, this nit will allow you to buy units where you are otherwise not allowed (buy a library (80 shields) & switch to Rifle -- it is there next turn, even though "not allowed". This one might be a "cheat", but I don't recall anyone discussing nor too concerned about it.

[ElephantU]

Cities in "disorder" cannot RushBuy anything.

[Duke of Marlbrough]

IIRC, Cities in disorder can rush buy City Improvements, but not units.

[funxus]

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
IIRC, Cities in disorder can rush buy City Improvements, but not units.

Yep. I RB temples to get them out of a riot quite often.

[la fayette]

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
IIRC, Cities in disorder can rush buy City Improvements, but not units.

DoM has it right, Elephant

(I know you build few improvements though, so do I )

[Old n Slow]

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
IIRC, Cities in disorder can rush buy City Improvements, but not units.

After the rush buy of the infrastructure, one can then switch to a unit (note the loss of shields) thus a Coloseum can become an alpine; a granary can become a spy.

I often do this during the romping phase of the game, getting a defender or another spy into the newly acquired territory (take a city; it goes into disorder; RB a barracks, switch to a larger building, switch to the desired unit of half the purchased shields, and voila! next turn, the city recovers from disorder and the unit is there.) -- thus the "new" cities are contributing right away.

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Yep, just as you said before, City Improvements can be switched to units. But, units cannot be rushed directly.

There's a way around most things in the game.

[ElephantU]

Sorry - the "context" above my post was IPRBing units; I should have been more careful. Switching a RBed improvement to a unit loses half the shields just bought, which means things cost double, but for Old n Slow's situation time is the greater issue than money.

Also, later in the game, the "cheapest" thing that can be bought from an empty box is Barracks or Temple (160g - the 30 shield Dip/Spy is 210g), switching that to a Dip/Spy and RBing the next row costs another 25g (total 185g), then you can do the 5th and 6th rows individually but not the 7th and 9th (if you have all the "modern" units discovered).

If your city is making at least 10 shields, leave the last row of the unit unfilled and let the city finish it, saving a little gold.

Welcome to CFC, Fredzgreen! Check out some of the older Strategy & Tips threads, also the General Discussions area, and consider joining the Game Of The Month or the Diplomacy Game!

[la fayette]

Originally posted by ElephantU
then you can do the 5th and 6th rows individually but not the 7th and 9th (if you have all the "modern" units discovered).

... not the 7th row?

(what about buying a Howie then ? )

[ElephantU]

Forgot that one (been playing OCC too long...); maybe its 9th and 11th rows?

[funxus]

Originally posted by funxus
Welcome to CFC

Originally posted by ElephantU
I dont think anyone welcomed you to CFC, Fredzgreen!

I beg to differ.

After a quick check:
There are no units that cost 90s, and there are no units that cost between 100s and 160s, and there are no units that cost more than 160s in a normal game. The step of IRBing from 100s to 160s on units costs 300g.

[Old n Slow]

IIRC, one can get a bomber for 120, but that option comes late & leaves later (with stealth.)

[funxus]

OK. I went into cheat mode and gave all techs, which is why I missed it. I probably should have checked rules.txt.

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by funxus


I beg to differ.

Sorry - too little time reading the first posts.

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
IIRC, Cities in disorder can rush buy City Improvements, but not units.

Isnt it onlyt happiness improvements that can be bought in disorder?

[Duke of Marlbrough]

I usually use the Barracks as my first step when I do that, so I would think it is not just happiness improvements.

A quick test shows that it works for Barracks, Aqueducts, Granaries, Libraries, Mass Transits, Factories, Supermarkets, etc.