A few Q's

[WillJ]

Greetings, everyone! This is my first ever post in the Civ Fanatics Forums.

I think this has been asked before, but I'll ask it again: Do you guys use fortresses that much? They don't seem all that useful to me, except for guarding resources.
Does an embassy improve the other civ's attidude with you? I think I have always noticed an improvement, but I'm not sure.
Does anyone know exactly how the game determines when you get to improve your palace? I have been curious about this ever since Civ II.
I've heard that more road connections to your capital improves corruption. Is this true?

 

[KDan]

Fortresses are very very useful when you need to protect some sort of choke point, or a far out city that's surrounded by mountains and such. With the fortress bonus and the mountain bonus, even when you're a bit backwards technologically your defenders can hold their ground against strong attackers (it won't make your spearmen fend off cavalry though, but might give your riflemen that extra edge).

One thing I found is that the AI is much more likely to attack your fortress if you stack some offensive units in there too (eg I put some mounted warriors in there, as I was playing the iroquois and I had a few still lying about). Then they consider that fortress a major threat and send a lot of stuff on it. And every cavalry which dies (or at least gets severely wounded, and then can be scooped up by whatever offensive troops you DO happen to have somewhere) is one cavalry which won't be attacking your city directly, or pillaging the roads and irrigations around your city, etc. Gives you a lot more breathing room imho.

Still, they are very much something that I use only for very specific situations, where it is obvious that the borders aren't going to move for a while, that I'm going to get attacked en masse and that the geography is appropriate.

Daniel

 

[Bamspeedy]

I never build fortresses, unless I accidently pushed the wrong button. I continually expand, so building fortreses that won't be on my permanent border, I consider a waste of time. The only time I see them as usefull is at chokepoints. Otherwise, it is too easy for the AI to go around the fortress. Unless I have hundreds of workers, I need/want my workers to improve the terrain so I can build military units easier and just take out the AI that would be threatening me.

 

[MadScot]

I build them when:

1. My workers are bored and there is a useful defensive line to put some down on (anticipating a war).

2. A choke point needs to be held

3. My artillery Stack of Doom needs protection. If it is in my own territory I may accompany it with a few workers (in addition to the usual escort infantry), who can build a fort wherever it is. (Not unlike the Roman legions building a camp at every halt)

But I don't use them very often.

 

[ssmith619]

I, too, an curious about your second and third question, which nobody has addressed!!! As for your fourth, yes, they do. But, there are other reasons to attach them besides corruption. First, it gives you availability to all strat. resources and luxuries. Second, it allows you to share the ones you have. Third, units just move faster, three times faster, on roads. Always try to build them. And remember, a harbor or airport will act as a connector if another city attached to everything else has an airport/harbor.

 

[Beam]

To be precise on road connections! If a connection is there (road, harbor, airport) additional connections do not contribute at all to improving corruption.

On embassies: I don't think that they change attitudes, the important thing is it becomes visible how they think about you!

Palace? Don't know, don't care really either. It just happens.

 

[Hades]

Embassies are very important!! you can't get military alliance without them. Palace improvement has everything to do with your citizen's happiness but sure how it calculates but I tend to get a lot of improvement when there are "love the king day"

 

[WillJ]

Thanks for your responses. I have heard before that you get to improve your palace when you reach certain milestone scores, I wonder if that's true... I guess I'll check my score whenever I get to improve my palace. I think it being based on happiness makes more sense. (It does say "The people love you!") This palace thing isn't very important; I'm just curious.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I seem to always get a palace improvement after I settle my first city (besides the palace), my first war, when I hook up my first luxury, when I enter a new era, etc. After that I don't know what determines when a palace addition is added.

 

[Daaraa]

Yes establishing an embassy does improve relations.

When I meet a civ unless they are polite I will always exit talking to them and then establish an embassy.
Almost 100% of the time they become polite and easier to deal with. (Unless they are Japan, Zulus or Germany )

 

[Zachriel]

I would be willing to build more fortresses if you could pillage them later. (As it is, you have to pillage your rail and road first.)

 

[Daaraa]

Why would you want to pillage them? Shouldn't you push your borders back far enough so the AI doesn't enter them? Do they take away production or food from the tile? Just curious.

I do agree that it stinks that you cannot pick which improvment to pillage like we had in civ 2.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Daaraa
Why would you want to pillage them? Shouldn't you push your borders back far enough so the AI doesn't enter them? Do they take away production or food from the tile? Just curious.

I do agree that it stinks that you cannot pick which improvment to pillage like we had in civ 2.

They're ugly! and I don't want to leave empty ones in the rear of my lines. (I always pretend that the AI could use them, even though I know it's not smart enough.) Also, I would like to build forts on my resources, then clear the fort if the resource disappears.

 

[WillJ]

About pillaging, is there a certain order of what gets pillaged? Or is it random? Like do you always pillage roads before irrigation, etc.?

Originally posted by Daaraa
I do agree that it stinks that you cannot pick which improvment to pillage like we had in civ 2.

I agree. In real life they have control of what to pillage, right?

Originally posted by Zachriel
(I always pretend that the AI could use them, even though I know it's not smart enough.)

So is the AI really too dumb to use your fortresses? They never seem to build their own fortresses, but I always assumed they would use yours.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by willj
About pillaging, is there a certain order of what gets pillaged? Or is it random? Like do you always pillage roads before irrigation, etc.?

I agree. In real life they have control of what to pillage, right?

So is the AI really too dumb to use your fortresses? They never seem to build their own fortresses, but I always assumed they would use yours.

First rail, then road/improvement, finally fortress. Well, pillaging in real life is rather messy, but in Civ3 it may mean pillaging or organized removal.

Due to the general design of Civ3, the general rule is that once the human gains the upperhand, he never loses it. Once the front line starts moving, it never returns to its previous location. At least in most games. It's not a big deal, but it would be nice to pick the improvement you want taken out, like in Civ2.