Recent content by Xiahou Mao

Since BtS came out, I don't think Chichen Itza becomes obsolete anymore, does it? With the changes to bombardment, an extra 25% isn't a laughable bonus anymore. That's possibly an extra few turns of required bombardment, not that bombardment does set damage rather than a percentage of the...

By the time you have enough techs to be able to form a Permanent Alliance, shouldn't your culture be stretching 4-5 tiles away from your capital (and lone) city? That should prevent her from putting a city close enough to get your stuff.

You don't lose, though. On Noble difficulty, barbarians won't come after your territory until close to 500 BC. Even if this event occurs in 3000 BC, all it means is that there's some stronger than usual barbarians roaming around for a while, killing exploring units. It doesn't mean that your...

There is a spying relations hit when they're discovered and their nationality is identified already. I forget the exact wording, but it's something like "-1 Your spies were causing trouble in our lands!". I don't know how long it lasts, because Charlemagne didn't live too much longer after he...

Free Settlers from goody huts only show up on Warlord or lower difficulty. And while you may think of free techs as a good bonus, the AI can get them too, so it balances out. It's a boost for someone who starts with Hunting, and encouragement to send Scouts out early on, rather than spamming...

Well, you reveal your problem here. You never build Cottage improvements. You need those in order to keep up on technology (unless you use a Specialist Economy, which is a more advanced option you shouldn't worry about now). A newly built Cottage is just +1 Commerce, yes. But over time it...

If they all declared war on you at once, it was an Apostolic Palace resolution because you don't share their religion. They wanted to take out the infidels. ;)

Hattori Hanzo was a ninja and spymaster in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu (yes, Civ 4's Tokugawa). He quietly handled Ieyasu's subterfuge, and at one point helped him escape an attempted assassination and smuggled him through dangerous territory to safety. He's become almost a mythical figure...

Except that you can only have three Missionaries of a religion at a time. Not to mention that, unless you're playing on a Pangaea or Terra map, other Civs might be across the ocean from you. Not to mention that even if you found a late religion, it's still pretty capable of spreading on its...

Several AIs, usually the ones who value religion, will spread the AP's chosen religion through their cities on their own, even if they currently have a different state religion. I had Pericles do it with me. So that's a built-in factor to help prevent something like this from happening, though...

It depends on the leader, some are pickier than others. Catherine and Louis get angry when you refuse to help them or pay tribute, and they actually take a -2 hit for refusal while most everyone else only takes a -1. Someone like Mansa Musa, on the other hand, will only take a -1 hit and it...

Slavery lets you turn food into hammers. What do you typically have more of in the early game? Food. What no longer becomes useful once your city reaches its cap for happiness? Food. What does Slavery let you make use of in those situations? Food. That alone is reason enough to use it...

And that could happen if said unit was the unit pushing both your Unit Cost and Unit Supply up by 1 each. If that was the case, though, then deleting a second unit immediately wouldn't reduce any maintenance, because both Unit Cost and Unit Supply are advanced on a 1 gold/2 units ratio beyond...

Uh, there is no new bonus for Archers. But if you're going to go at a city with 7 troops defending, with a large cultural defense bonus (as Isabella always has due to religion founding), you'll either want to bring Catapults for bombardment/collateral damage, or have a spy incite a revolt to...

I believe Unit Support costs are 1 gold per 2 units over the 'free' limit, not 2 per 1. The actual Unit Cost has to be factored in as well, but it's still not quite as bad as 2 coins per troop even counting that. And by the late game, he should have enough Markets/Banks/etc. built that by...