A Few Questions

[Noobilator]

Okay, I started Civilization IV a week ago. I had been reading many of the guides/strategy and now I am playing at Noble level. The War Academy was a great help . It has almost every I needed to know.

But there are still a fews questions in my mind that the academy did not address:

- when you are specializing a city, why do you build Oxford in your second largest commercial city?

- I seemed to be unable to gain experience from animals once my warrior hit level 2. Is this the way the game works? (answered)

- Is whipping necessary for early production? I only whip when the pop grew over the happiness/health capacity. Should I whip any time other then that?

- I heard that chopping outside border gives production bonus is this true? (answered)

- In Warlord level I managed to eliminate two capital cities early and double everyone else's score. I found the maintenance of 4 cities early game quite suffocating. I stop conquering new cities after I acquire those two capital cities. In general how many cities should you keep at ancient? classical age? medieval? industrial age?

- How strong does AI become in each successive difficulties?

- Copper: Is there a easy way to find them? Sometimes I just can't find them and failed to pull out a early axeman rush.

- Colonies: Would they build new cities on their own? I was wondering if I set up multiple colonies in the same continent, would they compete/wager war against one another?

That's all for now. Thanks in advance for your help .

 

[Dubai Vol]

- when you are specializing a city, why do you build Oxford in your second largest commercial city?

Sounds like they are planning ahead, leaving room to put Wall Street in the largest one?

- I seemed to be unable to gain experience from animals once my warrior hit level 2. Is this the way the game works?

No more than 5 exp from animals, and 10 from barbarians

- I heard that chopping outside border gives production bonus is this true?

You get hammers from chopping no matter where , but the further away from your city, the fewer hammers you get. Inside or outside your borders has no effect , only the distance

- In Warlord level I managed to eliminate two capital cities early and double everyone else's score. I found the maintenance of 4 cities early game quite suffocating. I stop conquering new cities after I acquire those two capital cities. In general how many cities should you keep at ancient? classical age? medieval? industrial age?

Consensus is to have as many as you can without wrecking your research production. My rule of thumb is to stop expanding when I have to turn the research slider below x% (you pick!) and build commerce improvers and courthouses until it's back to 100% (or less if you want) then expand again.

Welcome to CFC

 

[zalym]

Consensus is to have as many as you can without wrecking your research production. My rule of thumb is to stop expanding when I have to turn the research slider below x% (you pick!) and build commerce improvers and courthouses until it's back to 100% (or less if you want) then expand again.

Welcome to CFC

That's sounds like a great tip. I'll give that a try as part of my strategy next game. thanks

 

[Noobilator]

Sounds like they are planning ahead, leaving room to put Wall Street in the largest one?
No more than 5 exp from animals, and 10 from barbarians


You get hammers from chopping no matter where , but the further away from your city, the fewer hammers you get. Inside or outside your borders has no effect , only the distance

Consensus is to have as many as you can without wrecking your research production. My rule of thumb is to stop expanding when I have to turn the research slider below x% (you pick!) and build commerce improvers and courthouses until it's back to 100% (or less if you want) then expand again.

Welcome to CFC

Thanks for the information/tips.

Here's a fellowup question:

What do you mean by their are planning ahead, can't you build Wall Street and Oxford in the same city? You can only build 1 national wonder per city?

 

[pi-r8]

I thought most people just put oxford in their capital? That's what I always do.

 

[Dubai Vol]

You can build two national wonders per city, so you COULD build Oxford and Wall Street together. I am just guessing at the motive of your source. Maybe someone else can help?

 

[Everest]

- when you are specializing a city, why do you build Oxford in your second largest commercial city?

Can you please point me to the source of that information?

- Is whipping necessary for early production? I only whip when the pop grew over the happiness/health capacity. Should I whip any time other then that?

Well, in this game nothing is necessary at all times. I wasn't a big fan of whipping myself (not wanting to kill people and all), but now I whip the hell out of them. Whipping away unhappy faces only works if you will be wipping 2 or more people, since whipping decreases your happy cap 1 - that is unless you are whipping a + building.

Whip whenever you feel it is necessary you get something immediately. It'll take some time to calibrate.

- Copper: Is there a easy way to find them? Sometimes I just can't find them and failed to pull out a early axeman rush.

Scout and you may see it when you get the tech. If there isn't any, make iron your top priority.

- Colonies: Would they build new cities on their own? I was wondering if I set up multiple colonies in the same continent, would they compete/wager war against one another?

They are vassal civilizations. They do what civs do: Build units, settlers...etc. They can't go to war against each other as long as they're your vassal and they will be for the entire game if you don't piss them off bigtime.

 

[MrCynical]

- when you are specializing a city, why do you build Oxford in your second largest commercial city?

Not quite sure where you've got this idea from. Unless you're running a very low science rate, you want Oxford in the best commerce generating city. With a focus on specialists you might build it elsewhere, but even then not in the second best city.

- I seemed to be unable to gain experience from animals once my warrior hit level 2. Is this the way the game works? (answered)

Units cannot get to more than 5 experience from fighting animals (which equates to two promotions). Experience from fighting Barbarians is capped at 10xp.

- Is whipping necessary for early production? I only whip when the pop grew over the happiness/health capacity. Should I whip any time other then that?

In the early stages the whip is a very effective means of production. Whipping population from well over the health cap is actually not very efficient. The whip is at its best when the cities are small.

- In Warlord level I managed to eliminate two capital cities early and double everyone else's score. I found the maintenance of 4 cities early game quite suffocating. I stop conquering new cities after I acquire those two capital cities. In general how many cities should you keep at ancient? classical age? medieval? industrial age?

Far too many factors to even begin to give you a number. Map size? Map type? Terrain?

- How strong does AI become in each successive difficulties?

Noble level is roughly neutral. The AI gets negligible bonuses/penalties relative to the human player at this level. Below Noble the AI is weakened by penalties (quite drastically). Above Noble it is strengthened by bonuses over the human player. The exact bonuses are specified in the Handicap XML file.

- Copper: Is there a easy way to find them? Sometimes I just can't find them and failed to pull out a early axeman rush.

Luck of the draw. If there's no copper nearby, you just have to deal with it. Best you can do is scout out the terrain, get bronze working early, and be prepared to go a long way to found your second city by copper.

- Colonies: Would they build new cities on their own? I was wondering if I set up multiple colonies in the same continent, would they compete/wager war against one another?

Yes, they'll build new cities, and essentially function as an independent (but usually feeble) civ. I don't think the game allows you to set up multiple colonies on the same land mass. In any case, colonies have to follow you in diplomacy unless they break away completely. Therefore they cannot declare war on anyone (without your say so), let alone each other.

 

[Supr49er]

...
- Copper: Is there a easy way to find them? Sometimes I just can't find them and failed to pull out a early axeman rush.

Build a scout and explore the map, while you beeline researching Bronze Working to reveal the Copper on the map. No guarentees that you will find any nearby.

- Colonies: Would they build new cities on their own? I was wondering if I set up multiple colonies in the same continent, would they compete/wager war against one another?

That's all for now. Thanks in advance for your help .

You need a really strong economy to support a Colony. They are most helpful with the Apostolic Palace and United Nations votes.

Welcome to the Forums Noobilator.

 

[MrBrown]

- Is whipping necessary for early production? I only whip when the pop grew over the happiness/health capacity. Should I whip any time other then that?

I have to admit that I've never liked Slavery. I recognize it usefulness, but so far, it's simply something I've never used. I can certainly win on Noble without ever using it, and on Monarch on some tactics.

 

[Bushface]

About colonies. To found a colony you need two (or more) cities on another landmass; if you have conquered them, you must wait until they come out of resistance before they can be turned into a colony. Assuming you have indeed conquered two cities and made them a colony, any other cities conquered on that landmass can be gifted to your existing colony: do NOT, under any circumstances, make peace with the original owner of those fresh conquests, because if you do your colony will simply hand them back, one or two at a time, as each city makes its "rightful demand" to rejoin its original civ.

And no, you can't make two colonies on the same landmass.

 

[Noobilator]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=241565

Post #3. The original poster might've edited it. But throughout the guide he talks of Wall Street and Oxford from two different cities.

Thanks for all the helpful information. You guys are awesome.

 

[Sisiutil]

Thanks for the information/tips.

Here's a fellowup question:

What do you mean by their are planning ahead, can't you build Wall Street and Oxford in the same city? You can only build 1 national wonder per city?

I thought most people just put oxford in their capital? That's what I always do.

It really depends. There's no "wrong" way to do it here, it's just that some choices are better/more optimal than others, and will therefore be more advantageous as you move up through the difficulty levels.

Turning to specifics. Oxford and Wall Street may both seem to be compatible national wonders, but in fact they're not. Oxford is all about science ("flasks"), while Wall Street is about money ("gold").

The question is, where is the city getting its science/gold from? Cottages is the obvious answer, but that's not always the case. Cottages provide raw commerce, which is in turn filtered through the science/espionage/culture sliders. Whatever's left over is then multiplied by appropriate buildings. Oxford takes the slider's research output and multiplies it, while Wall Street takes the slider's gold output and multiplies that.

The thing is, there are other sources (non-commerce ones) of research and gold. You can also get research from specialists, for example. And you can get gold from specialists too, and also from a religious shrine and/or from corporations. The national wonders will multiply the output of these things as well.

I think you can start to see where having these two wonders in the same city gets you into a bit of a conflict. Which types of specialists do you run? Scientists, whose research output is multiplied by Oxford? Or merchants, whose gold output is multiplied by Wall Street? By running one type and not the other, or by running a mix, you're not getting the most out of one or both of these special buildings.

Furthermore, what type of Great Person are you trying to generate? If you have both Oxford and WS in the same city and are running a mix of scientist and merchant specialists, you have no guarantee as to whether you'll get a Great Scientist or a Great Merchant. Granted, both types of Great People are useful, but often you're trying to generate a particular type of GP. Keep in mind that if you're not running Caste System (which often becomes necessary once everyone else starts running Emancipation), these national wonders will allow you to run additional specialists of their appropriate type. So again, if you have Oxford and WS in one city but you're only running scientists or merchants, you're missing out on one of the abilities of one of your wonders.

As to the capital, often it's your best science and gold city for most of the early game, but this may change by the mid or late game. I usually have a GP farm--often a captured capital--where I'm running scientist specialists (since Great Scientists are usually the best GP type). I'll try to build the Great Library there, and I'll often build Oxford there too. Wall Street, meanwhile, will usually go in a shrine city, where I'll later found corporations if I go that route. This is rarely the capital.

In fact, in most of my recent games, I haven't built many national wonders in the capital at all. That's actually great, allowing the capital--which is nevertheless an excellent city--to be more of a "freelance city", able to direct its powerful commerce, production, and so on to whatever is needed at that point in the game.

 

[Supr49er]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=241565

Post #3. The original poster might've edited it. But throughout the guide he talks of Wall Street and Oxford from two different cities.

Thanks for all the helpful information. You guys are awesome.

If it's possible:

Merchant City: Wall Street; Colossus; Great Lighthouse; Temple of Artemis; Versailles; Statue of Liberty; Eiffel Tower, and if playing with the Diplomatic victory condition, United Nations.

Science City: Oxford University; Great Library; University of Sankore; and if playing with the Space Race victory condition, Space Elevator.

Of course, you'll never build all these, but make your top choices a priority.