a question about Triremes

[stwils]

I know this may seem dumb to those of you have played a lot, but I am wondering about how one manages Triremes.

Now I have a game going, and I have gotten 2 Triremes. One is creeping along the top of the shoreline - and suddenly one square under it there is a hut. And I want to see what is in it.

Question: I know that Triremes carry 2 onboard. How do I get them to explore that hut? I have tried and tried. Nothing happens.

Now my 2nd Trireme has in its vision a tiny little island of about 2 squares in size - and with a hut! Now, if I can't get the Trireme to explore the hut, how will I ever get any unit on that little island to explore it?

I don't quite understand how you get units on and off of Triremes.

In Age of Empires I know how to get on and off of boats, etc. But the concept here seems to be different and I don't get it.

stwils

 

[Zerbean]

I know of two ways to do it... at least in the Dos version.. and I also havent played in some time but I still think these are the ways... 1) just try and move the boat onto land and one of your units should disembark 2) when the boat is selected the units on it should appear on the right side of the screen ( I beleive ) click on one of them and they should unsentry themselves to be moved

 

[stwils]

I tried to move the boat onto land. It still sits on the coast. And I can use the mouse or the KB - still nobody gets off and nothing happens. It just sits there blinking waiting for me to move it on down the coastline.

stwils

 

[Zwelgje]

You've got the windows version of civ1 right? well this is how it works: you dubbelclick on the trireme and a little screen will pop up and in this screen you can see which units are in the trireme (if the screen is blank there are no units aboard!) then you click on the unit you want to move and the color will change, then click OK. Then the unit will start blinking and you can move it ashore. That's all!

 

[stwils]

Yes, I have the Windows version. So I just tried clicking on the trireme and a box appeared that only said "Caesarea." (One of my cities.)

So are there no units on board this trireme? And why not? When you produce a Trireme is there a way to get units on board?

I can't find anything about this in the PDF manual on my CD.

If Triremes don't come with anyone on board, then do I have to move a militia into it somehow?

stwils

 

[stormerne]

When you have built your trireme, move it one square onto the ocean. Then move a ground unit, military or settler, onto the trireme. You'll notice that the trireme now looks like one tile on top of another. The trireme is now carrying the other unit. You can load a second unit on board if you like. (Other ships have a higher passenger limit.) Now sail way, staying next to land.

When your trireme has reached the place you want to investigate or settle, click on the trireme. A box will appear with two (or three) units on it. Click on the passenger you want to activate - its outline will go white if you can activate it - and hit Enter. The passenger unit will now be flashing as active and you can land it.

If you make a mistake and decide you didn't really want to activate the passenger right now, click on the passenger. The box will appear again and you can click on the ship and press Enter.

This kind of action will always be applicable if you have more than one unit occupying a square, even on land. This is called 'stacking'.

Note that until you activate the passenger explicitly, it will not appear every turn for a move. It will only appear when you activate it as I described above. But provided it's not the end of your turn, you can activate the passenger whether the ship has finished moving or not.

Note also that you cannot embark and disembark in the same turn. Why would you want to do that, you might ask? You can use stationary ships as bridges across single square wide estuaries. But it takes two turns to get them across.

(Trying to move the ship onto land and getting a "Disembark" option box is a Civ2 manoeuvre.)

 

[Zwelgje]

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[stwils]

YES! I just tried it with the saved game and it works!!!

Got a phalynx on the trireme doing just what you said do. (I typed out your instructions.) And then clicked on the trireme and could see the phalynx listed onboard. Moved to the island to explore hut. Phalynx got off and went to hut. "50 pieces of metal" or something. Not the big prize I just "knew" was going to be there!

However, now I know how to load and unload a trireme. Maybe the other hut close to the shore will be loaded with goodies.

Thanks so much for your help. (Never could find a thing in the manual.)

stwils

 

[Zwelgje]

What do you expect to find in such a hut? There are a few possibilities:

- valuable metal worth 50 pieces
- an advanced tribe after which the hut will transform into a new city for you
- skilled mercenaries which will give you an extra military unit (that you will not have to feed)
- you enleash a horde of barbarians that will try to kill your military unit you send to the hut

That's all if I'm right, so don't think you will find huge amounts of money in such huts.

 

[stwils]

Maybe a pie in the sky.

I think I do my exploring with huts in mind, and that is probably a mistake. It's the surprise element, I suppose. But as you said, there are only a few possibilities.

Well, at least I can get folks on and off my triremes now, thanks to all of you!

stwils

 

[stormerne]

Something else that you find in huts that's very important: free technology advances (scrolls of ancient wisdom)! Extra technologies at the start of the game can be very useful indeed. That's why at the start of the game, experienced players will often send out a horseman or chariot (something with a movement of 2) to explore all the land on your initial continent. This does several things. It explores areas for new cities, it locates any other civilizations that are on your continent, and it locates any of these 'goody huts' that are there. If you do share your continent with one or more other civs (more likely if, like me, you are in the habit of starting a new game by first selecting "Customize World" and selecting Large Land Mass), it's important that you get to the huts before they do.

It's important to know how the huts work in Civilization. (Actually they work in roughly the same way in Civ2 as well.) When you start a new game the program creates a new map and this includes the placing of the huts. HOWEVER, although it places terrain tiles which are fixed and will be the same every time you discover them if you play again more than once from the same saved game position, and although the position of the huts is fixed, what's inside the huts is decided by the program by random at the moment you open it. So if, for example, you were to save your game at the very instant before opening a hut and play on from that saved position more than once, you will very likely get different results each time you open the same hut.