A couple of things that aren't clear to me

[_EGO_]

Hi all guys,

here i am with a couple of questions for you... i'm having some fun with monarch and by now i can manage to win about 25% of the times.

Howewer, there are some things that are not clear to me and i can't find anything about these searching on the forums.

In random order:

1) when i press f9 (or when i click on the icon) to go to the info screen, sometimes i can see the graphs of all the civs i've meet, sometimes only some of them, and sometimes only the mine. Note that - for example in the current game - there are no apparent reason to me for that: i'm at war with mehmed (and he's kicking my ass) and pleased/friendly with sitting bull, mao and mansa musa - and actually only my line is showed in the graph. Some ideas about that?

2) in my recent games i'm focusing on keeping the economy at sustainable levels; in the last three games i've waged succesful wars, absorbed one or two of my neighbours, i was largely first for settled land and population, but my economy was ruined by the war itself and i've found myself lagging behind in the tech race. So i started to analyze in detail how the money flows through the game, and here comes my doubt. On the 'balance screen', i can see something like: "unit cost" and "unit manteinance cost" - what's the difference between these? and furthermore, rolling over with the mouse i can see something like "free for X units". How this 'x' is determined and what exactly means "free"? The question may seems stupid but i can't understand why even if i have (for example) "manteinance cost for 10 units - free for 14 units" and disband a unit, i can see my balance of gold per turn rise of one unit or two! Maybe i'm just going crazy or missing something big?

Thanks in advance for your help guys...

 

[oynaz]

1) You can only see the graphs for your opponents if you have invested sufficient spionage points aganst them.

 

[_EGO_]

1) You can only see the graphs for your opponents if you have invested sufficient spionage points aganst them.

Ahhhh ok!
That's good.
I admit that i usually don't care much for the whole espionage thing, feeling that research and culture are much higher priority... but this may prove not to be true i suppose.

Thanks a lot oynaz

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Have a look here for question 2

Cheers

edit: this was for vanilla but I don't think it has changed.

 

[_EGO_]

Have a look here for question 2

Cheers

edit: this was for vanilla but I don't think it has changed.

Uao, thanks a lot RRRaskolnikov, i've missed that with the 'search' function...

It is nice to see how many europeans there are on the board

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Uao, thanks a lot RRRaskolnikov, i've missed that with the 'search' function...

It is nice to see how many europeans there are on the board

yw, that's because no european site come close to cfc (at least from those I know)!
edit: welcome on board btw!

 

[EmperorFool]

I admit that i usually don't care much for the whole espionage thing, feeling that research and culture are much higher priority... but this may prove not to be true i suppose.

Note that some buildings provide raw points, such as your Palace and Courthouses. You don't have to use the slider to get them, but it helps.

Another good source of points is to build the Great Wall and settle the Great Spy you eventually get in a city. This will let you use the points against whatever civs you want to target (CTRL + E allows you to pick how points are distributed against each rival). Or you can infiltrate a rival to gain a large amount of points against that single rival. This would allow you to immediately steal a few techs using normal Spies.

Finally, you can also assign Spy specialists using Courthouses in your cities.

The real key is that you should assign your point distribution using the Espionage Screen (CTRL + E) as you meet rivals. The default is to split the points among all rivals. This will continue until you assign at least one rival a non-zero value.

 

[_EGO_]

Note that some buildings provide raw :spy: points, such as your Palace and Courthouses. You don't have to use the :spy: slider to get them, but it helps.

Another good source of :spy: points is to build the Great Wall and settle the Great Spy you eventually get in a city. This will let you use the points against whatever civs you want to target (CTRL + E allows you to pick how points are distributed against each rival). Or you can infiltrate a rival to gain a large amount of :spy: points against that single rival. This would allow you to immediately steal a few techs using normal Spies.

Finally, you can also assign Spy specialists using Courthouses in your cities.

The real key is that you should assign your point distribution using the Espionage Screen (CTRL + E) as you meet rivals. The default is to split the points among all rivals. This will continue until you assign at least one rival a non-zero value.

Thanks emperor... i'll make good use of these hints

 

[pfo]

When you settle new cities, maintenance costs go up. When you build military units, military costs go up. When you move military units into enemy territory, military maintenance costs go way up.

To keep your economy going, you need a steady income. Cottages are one way (probably the easiest) to do this. The specialist economy is an alternative where you don't care about incoming money (a good specialist economy can tech at a decent rate w/ the science slider at 0).

When you get to around 4-5 cities, you're going to want code of laws, and build courthouses in all your cities to cut maintenance costs. Larger empires will want currency earlier for the extra trade route per city, and the ability to build markets in cottage heavy cities. Eventually, you want banks and grocers in money cities. If you do these things, your economy will be pretty well insulated. It is normal for economies to decline slightly after expanding into a new city, or during / after a war. With practice, you learn how to manage these things.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Uao, thanks a lot RRRaskolnikov, i've missed that with the 'search' function...

It is nice to see how many europeans there are on the board

I wish I was in Europe right now. How I miss the lovely canals of Amsterdam and those skinny buildings. Ahhhh... sorry [/daydream]