A bunch of questions from a new guy

[aperson]

Ok so I read part of the condensed tips for beginners section but I figured it would be easier to just ask on a separate thread as it is like 30 pages long.

So here are some things I was wondering (I am asking these questions based partially on the game I finished recently, which was on a 'continents' style map, with 7 civs, standard size, noble difficulty, as George Washington, only because I had no idea who to pick so I took the patriotic route, also so the city names would be recognizable):

1. How many cities should I found at the beginning? I worry that if I dont found enough I wont have enough land (and not get certain later resources like oil), but too many means I pay a lot in maintenance and cant spend any cash on research, so what is the optimal number?

2. Is it worth founding an otherwise crappy city to get certain resources (like a city half in arctic land)? It seems to me that it would for something like copper or iron or marble, but not for, say, fur.

3. What to do with Great People? It seems to me that joining a city as a super specialist is kinda dumb (for example a great artist can get 4000 culture at once or 12 per turn. It would take over 300 turns to equal the amount you get up-front). Is there a reason to do that, other than maybe you have someone with nothing else to do? like a late game prohpet?

4. I hear you should specialize cities. What types of specialties? Great Person-land, production, science, money...anything else?

5. When should you raze cities, and when should you take them? I pretty much never raze a city...is that bad?

6. Should I clear-cut my forests? I like to keep them around, so I can make lumber mills eventually, which seem pretty good, plus forests arent that bad even with nothing in them. Should I kill the environment and cut down the trees?

7. Last game, early on I was behind on tech. A nearby guy was at the front of the tech race, and he was 'friendly' with me, partially because I gave him a technology, or money, or something early on. I asked him for techs when I was behind, and he never would give them to me. Are the computer civs all selfish and I just have to accept it, or will they help out if i am friendly enough?

8. Often new guys I meet will immediately be annoyed with me (often due to religion, but sometimes not) and so they will not trade, sign open borders, or anything. Is there anyway to make them like me other than giving them free stuff? How much free stuff? is it even worth it?

9. I had a situation somewhat like this. Person A and B are my friends/religious buddies/I spent some time getting them to like me. Other people demand I stop trading with one or then other, and I refuse, so now the rest of the world hates me. Then A goes to war with B, and now I am left with at best one friendly guy. In the end, I just had to hurt everyone and make so many guys with guns/tanks/planes that they would all shut up and sit down. But do you avoid alienating people when constant demands to stop trading with x pop up?

10. should i put a city in a worse spot in order to be on the coast? what if it shares a few tiles with another city's area?

11. say i found judaism, and it is my national religion. then i found christianity - any point in spreading it around?

12. When/where do you build the forbidden palace? if my cities are all in the same area, i usually end up forgetting about it. should i build it anyway?

13. with the national park wonder, should i keep forests around in one city, holding out to build it eventually? in the last game, i had 9 forest tiles where i built it - so 9 free specialists, in a city of like 24 already, but i never chopped down the forests to get the hammers early on.

14. i dont get the point of corporations, except in certain cities. like i had the sushi one last time, it makes food and culture, so i only put it in unhealthy places/my 3 most cultured cities as i was going for that type of win. but they cost so much, even if you found it - should you spread a corporation the way you spread religion, ie everywhere?

15. do you usually switch to state property or environmentalism, or use free market (which i usually stay with)?

16. should i worry about making cities larger than size 20, to ohave more specialists, to make more great people? or should i only make enough food to get to 20?

17. when if ever do you have cities make wealth/science/culture (as opposed to a building or unit?)

18. i always found my capital in 4000 BC. should i take a turn or two to find the optimal spot (keep in mind that the capital is usually not in an overly-bad spot).

19. if I have only one oil, and it is underneath a town, (but I cant actually use it yet) should i go to war to get another oil or kill the town?

20. I rarely use carriers, as they cant hold bombers and are fragile. should i use them?

21. do you usually build the industrial park? it seems like a lot of unhealthiness for not much benefit.

thanks for the help.

 

[Jet]

1. How many cities should I found at the beginning? I worry that if I dont found enough I wont have enough land (and not get certain later resources like oil), but too many means I pay a lot in maintenance and cant spend any cash on research, so what is the optimal number?
If you have a close neighbor, try 2-4, then attack him. Otherwise just keep adding them gradually, along with workers (at least 1 per city total) and a generous number of cottages and/or scientists.

2. Is it worth founding an otherwise crappy city to get certain resources (like a city half in arctic land)? It seems to me that it would for something like copper or iron or marble, but not for, say, fur.
Generally yes, if you can and will use it. For the fur, your cities have +1 happy, so grow each of them up to that. Maybe build markets for another +1 happy.

3. What to do with Great People? It seems to me that joining a city as a super specialist is kinda dumb (for example a great artist can get 4000 culture at once or 12 per turn. It would take over 300 turns to equal the amount you get up-front). Is there a reason to do that, other than maybe you have someone with nothing else to do? like a late game prohpet?
All uses of great people are good, except for discovering technologies that you don't need or are cheap. Settling is good early or if you are going to run Representation.

4. I hear you should specialize cities. What types of specialties? Great Person-land, production, science, money...anything else?
That list is fine.

5. When should you raze cities, and when should you take them? I pretty much never raze a city...is that bad?
When you can't afford them. Develop an intuition for it.

6. Should I clear-cut my forests? I like to keep them around, so I can make lumber mills eventually, which seem pretty good, plus forests arent that bad even with nothing in them. Should I kill the environment and cut down the trees?
Up to you. Think about if there's something you need to build quickly, like a good world wonder or an army.

7. Last game, early on I was behind on tech. A nearby guy was at the front of the tech race, and he was 'friendly' with me, partially because I gave him a technology, or money, or something early on. I asked him for techs when I was behind, and he never would give them to me. Are the computer civs all selfish and I just have to accept it, or will they help out if i am friendly enough?
Rarely, they'ill give you techs. If you're way behind, they will offer them to you.

8. Often new guys I meet will immediately be annoyed with me (often due to religion, but sometimes not) and so they will not trade, sign open borders, or anything. Is there anyway to make them like me other than giving them free stuff? How much free stuff? is it even worth it?
Try 40 gold, an old tech, or your map. But you probably don't want to do that with everyone, better to pick friends and enemies. Some people you meet don't like you because you already traded with their enemies. General things that give plusses are religion, favorite civic, shared war, resource trades, open borders, agreeing to requests and demands.

9. I had a situation somewhat like this. Person A and B are my friends/religious buddies/I spent some time getting them to like me. Other people demand I stop trading with one or then other, and I refuse, so now the rest of the world hates me. Then A goes to war with B, and now I am left with at best one friendly guy. In the end, I just had to hurt everyone and make so many guys with guns/tanks/planes that they would all shut up and sit down. But do you avoid alienating people when constant demands to stop trading with x pop up?
One friend might be the best you can do. You have to analyze the relationships and the game to see if there's a group you can be friends with.

10. should i put a city in a worse spot in order to be on the coast? what if it shares a few tiles with another city's area?
Depends, if it's only a few coast tiles, might not matter... depends on the exact tiles and other things. Sharing a few tiles is fine.

11. say i found judaism, and it is my national religion. then i found christianity - any point in spreading it around?
More happy from Free Religion and/or temples. More money if you build both shrines, but that's often not worth the price of the missionaries. For a cultural victory, more cathedrals.

12. When/where do you build the forbidden palace? if my cities are all in the same area, i usually end up forgetting about it. should i build it anyway?
Away from the palace, near other of my cities. Sure, build it you can.

13. with the national park wonder, should i keep forests around in one city, holding out to build it eventually? in the last game, i had 9 forest tiles where i built it - so 9 free specialists, in a city of like 24 already, but i never chopped down the forests to get the hammers early on.
Yes.

14. i dont get the point of corporations, except in certain cities. like i had the sushi one last time, it makes food and culture, so i only put it in unhealthy places/my 3 most cultured cities as i was going for that type of win. but they cost so much, even if you found it - should you spread a corporation the way you spread religion, ie everywhere?
No. Spread it in cities where the benefit is important, small cities where the maintenance cost is low, and foreign cities.

15. do you usually switch to state property or environmentalism, or use free market (which i usually stay with)?
Some of each.

16. should i worry about making cities larger than size 20, to ohave more specialists, to make more great people? or should i only make enough food to get to 20?
Depends what you have to do to get them there. If it's working farms, analyze the specifics of what you'd get from more specialists versus putting a different improvement on that farm tile.

17. when if ever do you have cities make wealth/science/culture (as opposed to a building or unit?)
Culture: new cities. Science or wealth: early, when expanding quickly and need the short term injection. Late, when there's nothing better to do.

18. i always found my capital in 4000 BC. should i take a turn or two to find the optimal spot (keep in mind that the capital is usually not in an overly-bad spot).
You can, but you don't have to. Sure, try it.

19. if I have only one oil, and it is underneath a town, (but I cant actually use it yet) should i go to war to get another oil or kill the town?
Once you have Combustion it will be just like you built a well there.

20. I rarely use carriers, as they cant hold bombers and are fragile. should i use them?

21. do you usually build the industrial park? it seems like a lot of unhealthiness for not much benefit.
If it's a production city with extra health, sure, maybe.

 

[jerVL/kg]

I'll try tackling a few:

1. 4-6 early cities is considered the benchmark. Ideally you should keep expanding until your research rate drops to 40% or so, then scale back and work on economy until you can afford more cities. This is situational, of course -- if you're financial and/or organized, or if you build the Great Lighthouse on an archipelago map, you can afford several more cities. Once you discover Currency (extra trade routes) & Code of Laws (for courthouses) you can afford to expand much further, though most of the good land will probably be taken by then...

2. It's worth founding a crappy city for copper/iron if it's the *only* resource available. Marble/stone, not so worth it unless you plan to spam wonders. Fur is such a pain, it always shows up in vast quantities on ice with NO food nearby -- usually when I play a map like that, I just restart.

3. Super-specialists can be VERY powerful if you add them early. It all depends on what else they can be used for -- got a prophet, but no holy city to build a shrine? An engineer, but no useful wonders to rush? A merchant? Go ahead and add them! HOWEVER, with BTS you can now start a golden age with only ONE great person, so that's another option you'll have to consider! (And it's almost always pointless to add an Artist to a city...unless you're planning for a cultural victory.)

4. A complicated question. The simple answer is...yes, you should. I'll let others fill in the details.

5. If you wage an early war (pre-Construction/Currency/CoL) you should raze most cities simply because you can't afford to keep them. You can always rebuild them later. Holy cities, AI capitals & cities with useful wonders should always be kept. Later in the game, it depends on what your goals are.

6. Cutting down trees is a tradeoff; sure, you get the extra hammers now (and that can be critical for getting something like the Pyramids built) but you'll pay for it later with unhealthiness penalties. Generally, I'll cut down trees on hills/rivers but leave the rest. Tundra forest should ALWAYS be kept standing because the tile is useless otherwise. And you should plan ahead for a city with as many forest tiles as possible for the National Park wonder.

7. AI's can be stingy about techs, but sometimes they'll surprise you. I find I have better luck if I ask for a tech from a previous era -- Polytheism, for example. Keep in mind that the more you bug your neighbors for help, the less likely they will help you!

8. I think you get a higher relations boost by SELLING old techs instead of giving them away. Of course, you have to ask yourself...do I need this civ as an ally? Some civs can be very good friends if you give them stuff, but some AI's are naturally recalcitrant (Isabella & Tokugawa, especially) and it's usually best to just leave them alone...or take their cities by force.

9. I'm confused as to what you're asking here??

10. Coastal cities are almost always better than non-coastal, especially in BTS with the new Customs House. Don't worry too much about city overlap.

11. Sure, why not?

12. Wherever it does the most good. Sometimes I'll wait to build the FP until I conquer another continent.

13. See #6.

14. Corporations are tricky. You can offset the cost by spreading corps to the AI, since they have to pay maintenance and you get only the profit. But I would not spread something powerful like Mining, Inc. to the AI. Basically, I'd start by only spreading corps to cities that really need it -- Mining, Inc. to low-hammer towns (as well as a few production powerhouses) and Sushi Corp. to low-food towns and GP farms.

15. In vanilla I used State Property all the time (gotta love those +1 watermills!) but with BTS it looks like Free Market all the way. Never used Environmentalism.

16. Again, it depends. If you're running a Specialist Economy, you want to get your population as high as possible to run as many specialists as possible. With Sid's Sushi, I'm experimenting with massively-sized cities, like pop 35 or higher.

17. Rarely. If I'm in a tight tech race I'll build wealth/science in cities that have run out of stuff to build anyway. And new cities can build Culture until they pop their borders...but I don't like doing that because I always forget to turn it off!!

18. I almost always settle in place, though I'll move my starting warrior/scout around first just to see if there's a better location nearby. Sometimes I'll move the settler to grab extra food, or get on the coast. Keep in mind that losing a turn or two at the very beginning can put you at a severe disadvantage, so don't do it unless you have a VERY good reason to do it!

19. You're talking about a cottage that's grown into a town, right? If so, yeah, raze it & build a well. If you mean an actual city, then you get the oil as soon as you learn Combustion so there's no problem!!

20. Carriers can be useful if you have to wage war far overseas. Stack them with destroyers & battleships to protect them.

21. I usually build Recycling Centers before starting on Industrial Parks.

 

[Brian Boru]

A few extras to the good stuff you got already

Great People? ... for example a great artist can get 4000 culture at once or 12 per turn. It would take over 300 turns to equal the amount you get up-front

Re settling Greats, remember their output will be multiplied by various modifiers--eg a G Priest's 1 hammer/turn can end up as ~8/turn if it gets the max multipliers from buildings like Forge, IronWorks, Angkor Wat. Your artist's 12/turn could get quite high in an extreme with loads of cathedrals, Free Speech etc.

You can usually make a good case for settling GPs in their max-output city--Oxford city for Scientists, Wall Street city for Merchants and Priests, IronWorks city for Eng and Priests with Angkor Wat.

10. should i put a city in a worse spot in order to be on the coast?

I wouldn't, I gen prefer inland for more prod/comm, unless:
- I need a naval base on that coast;
- I have Great Lighthouse and/or Colossus;
- I need to block galley passage from other civs to protect my 'backfill' city locations.

17. when if ever do you have cities make wealth/science/culture

Culture: to flip an enemy resource tile or city, to hold a captured city which is under severe cultural pressure [assumes you're whipping cultural buildings rather than building them], if going for cultural win.
Wealth: Shortly before a key military upgrade, eg I'm close to Military Tradition and want the cash for old Mounted > Cavalry. Often this combines with dropping research slider to 0% when tech is researched.
Science: In a race for a big tech [eg Liberalism], worth checking if building science in a few of your prod cities will shave a research turn. In Space Race, all cities not doing something essential should build science until all the techs are researched.

18. i always found my capital in 4000 BC. should i take a turn or two to find the optimal spot

I usually move away from a coast start, especially if my leader isn't Creative. Reason is to use my capital's culture to claim more land. It is a crap shoot though, especially as you have no view yet on copper, iron, horse.

20. I rarely use carriers

They're great if:
Enemy has destroyers--give carriers the med promo, so your fighting ships can have all combat promos;
Enemy doesn't have SAM Infantry--fighters can knock city defences, attack defenders and resource tiles;
You don't have sentry subs, and need ocean visibility, eg to warn of an approaching invasion force, or check the path of your invasion flotilla--send each fighter out on a different recon mission.