Archeological Sites

[ParadigmPlague]

How can i take AI artifacts and not have them flame me? Is there a way, or is that the price I pay to get theming bonuses

 

[Cicerosaurus]

If you can arrange it, have several archeologists start digging at precisely the same time in the same country. That way you can get several artifacts and only get flamed once. Otherwise you can always take them from CS's.

 

[ParadigmPlague]

If you can arrange it, have several archeologists start digging at precisely the same time in the same country. That way you can get several artifacts and only get flamed once. Otherwise you can always take them from CS's.

My game was a standard terra map and the culture info said there was 39 antiquity sites and 14 undiscovered or something. I looked on my discovered land and hardly saw any. Are they prominent on outskirt islands/outside of city territories?

 

[Cicerosaurus]

I understand they form where there have been battles, so if you have wiped out a barbarian encampment somewhere you are likely to find one there. I normally play on Continents plus and I haven't noticed any particular pattern as to where they form. I have no idea if the "hidden" sites form the same way.

If you get exploration early enough you will find them often in land where no one has yet settled - or spread. Of course you then need the appropriate techs to build the diggers (archeology and university)

 

[Major_Heartfire]

They also drop where there have been ancient ruins in a few of my games.

 

[ParadigmPlague]

I understand they form where there have been battles, so if you have wiped out a barbarian encampment somewhere you are likely to find one there. I normally play on Continents plus and I haven't noticed any particular pattern as to where they form. I have no idea if the "hidden" sites form the same way.

If you get exploration early enough you will find them often in land where no one has yet settled - or spread. Of course you then need the appropriate techs to build the diggers (archeology and university)

Yea im playing brazil i managed to get louvre, hermitage(with religion bonus), sistine chapel etc, but persia played a very aggressively early wide game and im sort of pideon holed in the corner of terra and I dont have oper borders with 2 or 3 civs, so i was wondering if it was worth it to embark and try to find them in corners of the earth and stuff

 

[Cicerosaurus]

They also drop where there have been ancient ruins in a few of my games.

That would make sense, although I'd be flat out remembering where the ancient ruins had been

 

[Browd]

They can be easier to see in Strategic View with resource icons turned on.

 

[kingofsealand]

the sites show up wherever something historical happened in the earliest eras of that game whether it be the exploration of a site or barbarians attacking/dying or any civs fighting each other. I noticed they show up heavily in places where barbarian camps were not cleared away for a long time. Especially on island maps, one stupid civ might keep funneling units to their death on a barb infested island and produce 2 of em on the same island while an island which never had barbarians wont have any. I know that doesnt help a ton, you could just let them dig the artifacts up for you then declare war, you dont even have to keep the cities just make sure to move all the artifacts out of them before theyre razed to the ground

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Maybe some of the knowledgeable contributors can help here, but do the number of sites allocated differ per size of map and difficulty level?

15 seems to be standard for hidden sites, and I have seen 39 before for open sites but I tend to play on the same difficulty level and same size map. I was wondering if after the 39 have been allocated by the computer that is it.

 

[phillipwyllie]

The exact numbers change from game to game. My last one the was around 30 normal sites and about 20 hidden. In this one it was around 20/15. One way to see them all is to research satellites so it shows all the map. You might find some sites in the most obscure of places(a barb encampment at the top of the map on a snow hill for instance).

 

[_invy_]

If you can arrange it, have several archeologists start digging at precisely the same time in the same country. That way you can get several artifacts and only get flamed once. Otherwise you can always take them from CS's.

I was thinking about this but haven't tried it yet. Is this possible, has anyone tried?

 

[StrideColossus]

I was thinking about this but haven't tried it yet. Is this possible, has anyone tried?

I tried this last night going for a cultural win with Venice - spammed archaeologists and sent them into my neighbours territory, the nearest ones waited until the furthest ones were reached, then started them all at the same time.

Was quite fun getting 3-4 artifacts all on the same turn Yes I got a wrist-slapping from my friends, but only the one (even though I'd taken multiple artifacts) and it wasn't severe enough to hurt relations.

Another good gag is to post units on sites to prevent other players taking them.

 

[RealHuhn]

I wish you could take hidden sites without the AI noticing it.

That's kinda lame because you have to complete the whole Exploration tree in order to see them. That's almost always later on in the game and you have to tell every AI that you dig wherever you want to. Unless you want to get even higher penalties.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

I was thinking about this but haven't tried it yet. Is this possible, has anyone tried?

I managed it- quite unintentionally though.

 

[snoochems]

Speaking of which, anyone else struggle to find the sites on the map? All my games so far, there are a handful of site that just are not on the map. I even look in strategic view, as sometimes he 3D map hides them behind farms and other improvements.

Im guessing that they can be destroyed from city playment or something, but do not count down on the antiquity counter in the tourism screen.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Not really- I always seem to be able to locate them. I operate strategically with icons on so maybe that helps.

 

[Anarchist]

Another good gag is to post units on sites to prevent other players taking them.

I tried this a couple of times. both times I got roundly attacked, once by three Civs at once. With all my units spread about, I was toast both times.

I was pleased that the AI now seems to know when my cities are undefended. It used to base DoW on my number of units as far as I could tell. Now it takes location into account.

Now I make sure to keep a good standing army too.

 

[tomplum68]

I've seen where an antiquity site was totally obscured by a lumber mill. You couldn't see it at all. When you moused over it was there just wasn't visible. Usually you can still see them when an improvement is built over them. Not sure if this is every lumber mill will do this or just that one for some reason.

 

[Durtag]

I've seen where an antiquity site was totally obscured by a lumber mill. You couldn't see it at all. When you moused over it was there just wasn't visible. Usually you can still see them when an improvement is built over them. Not sure if this is every lumber mill will do this or just that one for some reason.

I've had this happen on various types of improvements. Went 50 turns not noticing an antiquity site 2 tiles from my capital hidden under an improvement.

Also, if you are just trying to deny the culture leader in a game access to artifacts you can turn them into landmarks with no diplo penalty to the civ you are digging in. Obviously you don't want to create landmarks in range of their cities, but its a great way to prevent them from stealing artifacts from other civs.