A few questions

[revco]

Hi all.
Played civ4 a fair bit. Just started playing ciV and looking for a little help. Found a lot of stuff on here helpful (best game forum I've looked at) and a lot of it confusing.

First of all, my gamestyle.....with a few questions at the end.
I spend ages looking for what I think is the perfect starting location. I don't play any coastal cities. Partly as I don't really like naval combat and partly as it's less techs to research. I normally try to find rivered grasslands with a decent amount of hills nearby.
Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes I spend half a day reloading.
I have only finished a couple of games in vanilla on the second difficulty. Had many more that I've gotten half way through and either feel I've researched/built the wrong things.
I tend to not built any type of army for a long time. Focus too much on buildings/wonders and don't grow my cities enough. I know that isn't going to work at higher levels.
Found it too easy on that setting and am just starting a prince game of G+K. Though have to say not looking forward to espionage....may also find religion annoying, maybe not.
Played civ4 much the same way too.


The questions.........

I see people saying they love desert starts....why? Surely your cities grow too slowly.

Is there a way to choose which techs you get from RA? AI always seems to give me the maritime techs, which I don't need until later to fill in the tree.

When you go to city screen and it shows the purple hex for city expansion, if there are more than one showing, is there a way to choose which you get? Whenever there is a grass and hill tile showing, it always picks the one I don't want.

Should you always settle on a hill?

If you don't build roads for a while, are all your resources included in your empire to trade, or do you need to connect the resource.

If you trade marble, do you lose the wonder production bonus?

If you put an academy on marble, do you lose the production bonus?

The first few games I played, if I told a worker to build something, they would complete the job. Now I have to reissue the command every turn, so I have to tell them to build a mine 6 or 7 times, which gets annoying.



Thanks for any replies, and sorry there's so many questions.

 

[Adjuvant]

I see people saying they love desert starts....why? Surely your cities grow too slowly.

Flood plains are good food. Hills are the same if desert, plain, grass or tundra. Also desert folklore pantheon and petra world wonder.

Is there a way to choose which techs you get from RA? AI always seems to give me the maritime techs, which I don't need until later to fill in the tree.

You can catch it the turn before. You can plot in advance beelining a target tech. You can shift click techs you want in order.

When you go to city screen and it shows the purple hex for city expansion, if there are more than one showing, is there a way to choose which you get? Whenever there is a grass and hill tile showing, it always picks the one I don't want.

No. They bettered the choice made in the script, but ultimately if there's a plot you really want soon, you have to buy it.

Should you always settle on a hill?

Depends what's around, I guess. The extra early production is nifty but in the end that's 6 of one, half dozen of the other. I guess the little defense bonus is ok, but I wouldn't lean on it.

If you don't build roads for a while, are all your resources included in your empire to trade, or do you need to connect the resource.

You do not connect resources with roads in civ 5. Only connect cities, or if you're adventurous, build a road into an opponent for military.

If you trade marble, do you lose the wonder production bonus?

Never thought about it. Not sure how to find out.

If you put an academy on marble, do you lose the production bonus?

Not sure why you would. You can, however, build gp buildings on strategic resources and reap the resources. You do not get luxury from gp building on luxury tile.

The first few games I played, if I told a worker to build something, they would complete the job. Now I have to reissue the command every turn, so I have to tell them to build a mine 6 or 7 times, which gets annoying.

Likely there is an enemy unit within 2 turns of hurting or capturing the worker, altho sometimes there happens a bug if you're in close proximity with a leader with whom you've recently signed peace. Usually if you plant a military unit on the worker it stops doing it.

.....

 

[ixias]

Welcome! First off, some Civs have certain start biases that influence where they start (some in rivers, some on coast, desert, etc.) so you may want to look those up if you're that concerned about it. Most starts aren't too bad, though, so you may just want to play it a bit and see where it goes. Hills on rivers are pretty unanimously said to be the best starts; people also like near/next to mountains for certain wonders and observatories and others like coastal starts so they can explore.

As for the whole feeling that you built wrong things, there really aren't wrong things to build. I would select a victory type fairly early and build buildings that cater that. Select a few wonders that you want and don't worry too much about the others. There are some pretty in-depth Social Policy guides in the War Acadamy if that was also part of your question.

If you're planning on turtling, 2-3 ranged units and possibly a melee unit should be enough to hold your cities (assuming you're not next to a massive warmonger and you build defensive buildings). Being offensive, however, is completely dependent on the situation. Also, if you're trying to ease your way into G&K and hesitant on Espionage, you can turn it off in advanced settings.

Desert starts get a lot of love in G&K because of the Desert Folklore Pantheon and the Petra. Usually you at least start on a river so you have floodplains, which allow you to still grow. Most resources can also show up in deserts, so there's a lot of variety to be had.

If you queue up the techs you want in the turn prior to the RA being complete, it should push towards those.

There's no way to select the purple hex, it just happens. It kind of sucks, but of well.

As said earlier, hills are great. They give extra production and defense to early cities and the loss of a windmill isn't too bad. I wouldn't say it's always better, but they're definitely good. Again, situational.

Once you improve a resource, you have it. You don't need roads to the resource or roads connecting your capital.

Not 100% sure on the marble issues, but I'm going to say that you keep the bonus production if you trade it, but lose it if you put a GP tile improvement on it (someone correct me if I'm wrong). For the trading aspect, you'll still have the quarry there, so I think so; GP tile improvements don't connect Luxury Resources, only Strategic ones, so the marble wouldn't even be connected.

In regards to the worker, it should only be doing that if there's and enemy nearby (a barb somewhere in sight, for example). Especially in the early game, I put a military unit on the worker to protect it, which eliminates that problem.

Hope I helped! Let me know if you have other questions!

 

[akashsara]

Placing an Academy or any Great Person tile improvements on a luxury resource does not give you the luxury resource. Therefore, you won't have the bonus either. Unless you happen to have two of them.

 

[revco]

Thanks for the replies.....very helpful.
The worker thing only started happening after a few games. Happens with all of them, even if nowhere near another civ, unit or barbarian. Also if I haven't been at war during the whole game. Did see through google it's happening to others.
Started my first G+K game last night. Mayan. Have Mt.Sinai(sp) right next to my second city. Managed to found the first religion and get second Great Prophet. Sent him off unescorted....hopefully barbs won't get him.
Stepping up to Prince, I've found I need more military. Must get worse at higher levels.

So much to learn.....civ6 will be out by the time I get the hang of it

 

[LostKnight]

Worker get woken up if any military unit are in their *effective range*.

A regular melee unit threaten anything in a two-tile range(two movement point)
A ranged unit usually threaten anything in a 4-tile range(2 movement + 2 range)
A range cavalry unit can easily threaten anything within 7-tile range(5 movement + 2 range)
The unit is threaten even if the enemy unit cannot reach the worker(a mountain range will not prevent the worker from being scared)

Thus, even if there is nothing close to the specific worker, check if there is not a chariot archer or a keshik around.

 

[Crafty Bison]

The importance of settling on hills increases the higher you go in difficulty. On prince I wouldn't worry about it too much, on deity the opponent will see it on the flat and crush it. +1 hammer is good too. As said, the other really important thing with city locations is a river. Very important strategically for military uses, in CiV each tile next to a river gets +1 gold, including any cities founded there, which really adds up, and is even better if you plan doing a lot of golden ages. However, arguably most important are the extra buildings you can get - watermill gets more food = more pop = more science and more everything. Garden if you're gonna run specialists will make more great people, and the hydro plant can be a huge production boost. You can get Gardens just with lakes adjacent (and if aztecs floating gardens too), but the rest is lost .

Desert starts: The river tiles are just as good as normal grassland river tiles, the hills are just as good as normal hills. They also have arguably the strongest pantheon in the game in desert folklore, which will get you your religion so well, needed on higher difficulty levels. There is also a very strong wonder, Petra. This will make all normal desert like plains tiles, except with +1 gold (especially good in golden ages), but will turn each hill tile to produce +3 hammers, +1 food, +1 gold (+1 more if by a river), which are insanely good base tiles. Especially good with the taller strategies which are a little more popular atm. On top of this, deserts have a very high likelihood of having oil for later on, there are a few natural wonders that only spawn in desert, and desert allows you to build the very strong late game solar plant.

Marble: What is said above is true, if you trade it you still get the bonus, if you academy it you lose both the bonus and the luxury to trade. Interesting to note if you settle on marble you'll het the bonus immediately, even without the correct technology to improve it, which it what is required to get access to it for trade/hapiness.

 

[krc]

...the other really important thing with city locations is a river. Very important strategically for military uses, in CiV each tile next to a river gets +1 gold...

Rivers certainly do give important military benefits (with a defensive bonus for troops attacked across the river), but it is important to think carefully about how to place a city along the bends in the river. I once had to attack an enemy city (with hills and woods to the north and south belonging to an enemy AI that was equal in tech) across a river, and located as in the attached diagram (where the river is blue). I started by placing a citadel in the marked location. In this case, the citadel was completely unassailable by enemy melee troops trying to defend the city. They had to stop when they crossed the river, and suffered the penalty from being adjacent to the citadel. Ranged troops behind the citadel then eliminated any of the enemy troops trying to relieve pressure on the city, and the siege unit in the citadel battered the city into submission.

 

[revco]

Thank you very much.
Good to know I can sell the marble and keep the 15% bonus. Could have bought something I needed earlier, but thought my wonder would take longer.
I won't instantly dismiss a desert start again.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Rivers certainly do give important military benefits (with a defensive bonus for troops attacked across the river), but it is important to think carefully about how to place a city along the bends in the river. I once had to attack an enemy city (with hills and woods to the north and south belonging to an enemy AI that was equal in tech) across a river, and located as in the attached diagram (where the river is blue). I started by placing a citadel in the marked location. In this case, the citadel was completely unassailable by enemy melee troops trying to defend the city. They had to stop when they crossed the river, and suffered the penalty from being adjacent to the citadel. Ranged troops behind the citadel then eliminated any of the enemy troops trying to relieve pressure on the city, and the siege unit in the citadel battered the city into submission.

View attachment 340478

In your example the AI will suffer, but a human can take advantage. They can place all their ranged units in a C shape behind the river (without a melee shield, because of the river), and fire at units in or in front of the citadel with immunity from the ranged units behind. It would be difficult to take the citadel away from you, but it doesn't actually add that much in terms of taking the city, and all the opponent is doing is defending the city. The only thing that would worry me is placing siege in the citadel, but even with the citadel bonus, siege can be taken down if targeted.
Of course, in the hands of an AI......... .

 

[krc]

In your example the AI will suffer, but a human can take advantage. They can place all their ranged units in a C shape behind the river (without a melee shield, because of the river), and fire at units in or in front of the citadel with immunity from the ranged units behind. It would be difficult to take the citadel away from you, but it doesn't actually add that much in terms of taking the city, and all the opponent is doing is defending the city. The only thing that would worry me is placing siege in the citadel, but even with the citadel bonus, siege can be taken down if targeted.
Of course, in the hands of an AI......... .

Most humans can do better (most of the time) than the AI. But this setup was memorable (even though I no longer had a save or screenshot) because the AI had so much trouble with it -- they kept trying to cross the river to attack the unit in the citadel and getting destroyed. If they had had enough ranged units to line their side of the river bank, they could have caused more trouble.

In some circumstances, the spot where the citadel is located is easier to defend than the spot the city is located....