Recent content by GI Josh

The problem right now is that there is virtually no downside to ICS. The fun for the human is the strategy and art of playing off benefits, drawbacks, and risks. Do I go light on military to build infrastructure? What's the risk of an attack by neighbor Y? How much will an alliance cost...

I never use the luxury slider. I usually play emporer level and I set tax to 100%, make 1 scientist to get the 40 turn tech, and try to buy my way out of the emporer tech hole I seem to be in. I've heard elsewhere of people using the luxury slider to good effect, particularly in the early...

Sun Tzu is a good read and thought-provoking, but to take the Art of War as military gospel is to take it too far. The military, just like the rest of society, always has some author in fashion. A decade ago Sun Tzu was a must read, several years later is Keegan and van Creveld, a few years...

An *excellent* tactic, Catt. I've never even thought of trading my last resource before.

Well done, Architect, very masterfully played! I just want to point out that your 'Nationalism slingshot' strategy is not dependent upon the increased value of nationalism post 1.29. I consistently play a builder style, focusing on religious and commercial improvements while keeping by far the...

The problem with the AI, as with any intelligence that's not organic, is that it's entirely rule-based. And no matter how much you endlessly add rules, nuance rules, change rules, or make rules more complicated, there will always be situations where particular facts make a rule (which is in...

if the game has mixed human/ai players, breaking the public treaties will have reputation consequences.

While I agree with Cracker's criticisms of novices modding the game (like artillery mvmt rates) instead of learning the game as-is, there is one interesting mod that's on topic - make arty transportable by helicopter. In this way infantry and arty can be dropped behind the lines on...

Cracker & Greg - I love culture-flipping. I've got no problem with starting cities next to another civ and battling the culture war. I've got no problem with razing an ai city and then plopping your own city there on the now unclaimed tile. My only problem is using settlers to start cities on...

Cracker - I've used the settler attack method, but I've given it up - it feels too much like an exploit. First, the ai doesn't know how to use it. Secondly, it unbalances the game play. Third, it's "unrealistic", in the sense that it doesn't model, even in a rough and abstracted way, any...

http://www.columbia.edu/~sdc2002/civulator.html This will answer most of your combat questions - kudos to whomever designed the site. The only thing missing is UUs. Cracker, you're advice is spot-on, but I think you might be off on how defensive bonuses are calculated. It is my...

i've made the (common) rule changes so that you can't found a city in desert, tundra, or jungle (also, settlers are tagged as 'wheeled' and can't cross mountains or jungles w/o a road). in such a mod, colonies become necessary - large tracts of desert and jungle become geographic barriers to...

border cities will be much more vulnerable in mp - cities that are only 1-2 tiles from a border are vulnerable to a surprise attack in a single attack by horseman/knights/cav. Post-RR, suprise attacks on border cities will be most of the fighting. Overall, wars will be shorter and more vicious...

the germans usually do fairly well in my experience. has anyone seen a major panzer offensive by an ai germany? i've seen a few panzers roaming around, but never a huge offensive taking advantage of the 3 mvmt points. perhaps it's more likely with the 1.29 patch?

i'm with zachariel, let the computer do the work. i automate my workers after ancient age, leaving only a pack of 6 which i keep manual for use in wars, etc. i always have governors keep my citizens happy - that saves a ton of micromanagement. the only exception is when i'm trying to build a...