[BNW] Semi-noob questions from a former Civ3 player (Long post warning)

[GerrardCapashen]

Hey everybody,

I am a former Civ3 player who recently picked up Civ5 Gods and Kings. I beat Emperor a few times without too much difficulty. Last week I bought Brave New World and started my first game on Immortal. I am playing as the Shoshone, trying for a Science Victory mostly modeled after this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=506043). I have 4 cities, very little military (3 gatling guns, 4 artillery), am currently slightly ahead in tech, and have just finished Flight. Settings are 8 civilizations/16 CS, standard speed, and Pangaea.

I have a few questions about Civ5 that the wiki and Civilopedia didn’t seem to answer very well. Any help that you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I realize it is very long so feel free to answer specific questions and skip others as you see fit.


1. Do Great Person Points for Great Artists, Writers and Musicians decrease the frequency of generation of the other types of cultural Great People from the same city, or the same civilization? If I put the Writer’s Guild and the Artists’ Guild in the same city, will I still get the same number of GWs/GAs as if I put them in two different cities? If so, then I guess I should put them both in my capital so they can benefit from the National Epic and Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or is having the guilds as well as several Academies too much pressure on food production in one city?

2. Regarding popping Great Writers for instant culture and Great Scientists for instant science: My understanding is that their boost was recently changed to be fixed upon their creation and doesn’t increase if you just sleep them while waiting to get more culture or beakers per turn. Is this true? Should I just pop them immediately under all circumstances if I’m not making an Academy or Great Work?

3. Is it better to time Oxford University/finish Rationalism to tech to Plastics for Research Labs, or should I save the two free techs to jump to Satellites so I can start the Hubble Space Telescope? Or should I use them for the last two techs to start building the last spaceship part (either Engine or Stasis Chamber)?

4. An Order level 3 tenet (Spaceflight Pioneers) allows you to use Great Engineers to rush spaceship parts, and also gives you a Great Scientist and a Great Engineer. However, assuming you max your Science specialists, the generation of GSes slows down the generation of GEs so much that you will never really get GEs, especially if you aren’t putting specialists in your Factories/Workshops. Should I be putting production specialists in these buildings, or is it better to focus exclusively on Great Scientists? The Engine and Stasis Chamber require more science than the Cockpit or (3x) Boosters, so I assume you will have time to hard build the first 4 while you are teching to Nanotechnology and Particle Physics.

5. If I put specialists in my Factories and Workshops, how can I feed my city to continue growth? Even with Hospitals and numerous 4-food tiles it seems difficult. Is it worth switching some of my trade routes to internal routes to generate food rather than gold?

6. Is using Faith to buy a GE the best way to get a second one so I can rush the last two parts? Or do you really only need to rush the last one? Should I just buy GSes instead?

7. An AI (William of Orange) with whom I had previously had a 100+-turn Declaration of Friendship and multiple Research Agreements declined to renew the DoF and also didn’t try to renew Open Borders with me. This was a few turns after I had adopted Order and then he went Autocracy, so maybe that explains the diplo hit. His troops, which were on their way through my territory on the way to attack another AI, got teleported outside my borders. I figured the canceled DoF meant that he was preparing to attack me. I had virtually no military, so I bought an Artillery in each of my 4 cities to muster some semblance of a defense. He then moved his army off of my borders. Was he not actually planning on attacking me, or did the sudden increase in my military capability dissuade him from actually declaring war?

8. William and I still have a Research Agreement running. Does having a research agreement make the AI less likely to declare war on you? Also, if you see an army headed your way, will buying military units make the AI rethink its attack, or is it already too late at that point? Obviously you still want the buy the units to defend but I am wondering if they can prevent the DoW in the first place.

9. I was the first to discover Printing Press, so I hosted the first few sessions of the World Congress. Unfortunately I’ve been spending all my money on rush-buying universities, factories, observatories, public schools and research labs rather than buying city-states, so didn’t have many votes and lost the host status pretty quickly. How important is it to have CS allies in the midgame?

10. During my previous diplomatic victories (Emperor difficulty), I basically ignored CSes until I got the Freedom level 3 tenet for trade routes giving +4 influence per turn. Then I just ran trade routes to all the CSes, used spies to rig the elections twice as much (Freedom level 2 tenet), and then got them as allies in the lategame. However, since Order doesn’t really help with getting CS allies, the only way I can really get CS allies is to pay them off. My cities have decent production, so is it worth hard-building the science and production buildings and spending the money on bribing CSes instead? If all you want is happiness, is it more cost-effective to buy mercantile city-states or just buy other types of luxuries from the AIs?

11. I figured it was worth the head start to rush-buy the science buildings. I have the Order tenet for -33% buying building cost and I also got Big Ben (-15%, I think it applies to buildings also). I randomly dipped into Commerce for the +2 gold on land trade route policy while I was waiting for Rationalism to become available. Is it better to open Patronage and build the Forbidden Palace?

12. Now that I have it, Big Ben actually seems like a waste of 750 hammers for a small, peaceful science empire that isn’t planning on buying a bunch of army units with gold. I just built it because my capital didn’t have anything else to work on. Since the nerf to Pledge to Protect, Patronage is less useful as a 2-point dip than it used to be. However, is it still worth going for Consulates? Is it worth building the Forbidden Palace if you aren’t interested in pursuing a diplomatic victory? If not Patronage, what policy should I open up after I finish Tradition before Rationalism becomes available?

13. How should I try to generate culture at the same time as keeping a science lead? I’ve been spending all my time building/buying science, gold and production buildings. Also, since the BNW changes the culture buildings don’t actually produce that much culture on their own. How many policies should I be planning on ending the game with, and how should I best achieve that? Is it enough to stick a few Great Works of Writing in Amphitheaters, or do I need Opera Houses and music works? Mainly, I just want to avoid crushing unhappiness from my ideology, although speeding up policies is nice too.

14. I think the minimum answer to the number of policies question would be at least 20, 6 in Tradition, 6 in Rationalism, 6 in Order and 2 in Commerce (I already took Commerce, but might want to change that in future games). Any extras ones I could throw into Order or Patronage. If I want to finish these trees, how many culture buildings/Great Works in each city should I aim for? Is it better to use the Great Writers for the one-time culture boost if I am not going for a tourism victory? Is it worth detouring on the tech tree to pick up Kremlin for the free social policy, or should I just beeline straight to Satellites from Plastics?

15. I don’t have any Oil in my territory, but there is one tile with 7 oil that is 4 hexes away from a city of mine. It is just outside my borders in the middle of a useless desert. I haven’t fought any wars, otherwise I would pop a Great General on it to take it. Settling this might be considered forward setting on the Songhai, who wiped out Mongolia, one of my neighbors. Supposedly the Songhai are plotting against me, but they are fighting 3 other civs right now, so I think they’re too busy to come after me for the moment. Is the best way to get it to bribe a City-State? Should I found an otherwise completely worthless city simply for the oil?

16. If I buy up all of the tiles in a 3-ring radius around my city, is that a good strategy for speeding up the process of culturally grabbing that oil tile? This would be sort of expensive but I do really like bombers….

17. Can I fight a war in the Flight-onwards era without oil? In previous domination games I would just use Artillery and Great War Bombers as the beginning of my global conquest, but I may not actually have any oil until I steal a city. Should I just pray that nobody attacks me/bribe AIs to incite wars for the next 60 turns while I finish my spaceship? Is Artillery/Infantry good enough to hold off the AIs?

18. Is Order as good as Freedom for a 4-city Tradition science victory? The “specialists require half food” tenet of Freedom just seems way stronger than what Order offers. Also, on high difficulties when you can’t afford to build Stonehenge and go heavy on religion, it seems like the Order level 3 science tenet isn’t as good as it would be if you had more faith.

19. Will the AIs notice that your spaceship is nearing completion and decide to do something about it? Would it be better to sit all of the parts right next to my capital until I am ready to launch so they don’t get notified that I have completed the various parts? Obviously, if a war started I would immediately start assembling the spaceship to avoid danger to the parts, but my capital is far enough away from my borders that I think only a nuclear missile could really pose any danger to the parts in the 1 turn of war before I added them to the spaceship. Of course, if the AIs don’t take the notifications into account, then I will just add the parts to the spaceship.

20. I also have no Aluminum, but I can build Recycling Centers to get that. Once I add a Spaceship Part to my Apollo Program, does the Aluminum go back into my stockpile, or it is gone forever? This will determine whether I need to build 2 or 3 Recycling Centers. Or should I skip those and just try to buy a city-state with Aluminum/settle a new city on some?



I can post my current save game if anybody is interested in critiquing it, but I figured this was longwinded enough already. Thank you for any advice you can provide!

 

[mhtrtc]

1. Do Great Person Points for Great Artists, Writers and Musicians decrease the frequency of generation of the other types of cultural Great People from the same city, or the same civilization? If I put the Writer’s Guild and the Artists’ Guild in the same city, will I still get the same number of GWs/GAs as if I put them in two different cities? If so, then I guess I should put them both in my capital so they can benefit from the National Epic and Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or is having the guilds as well as several Academies too much pressure on food production in one city?

Artists, writers and musicians are all on their own independent counter. Doesn't matter if they are in the same city or not. I think putting them in the capital is preferable for the reasons you mentioned, but sometimes if you have a different city with plenty of growth it is better to house them there. I'd say 80% of the time I put them in the cap. Usually I have food trade routes running to my capital also, so it's possible to grow and run the cultural specialists.


2. Regarding popping Great Writers for instant culture and Great Scientists for instant science: My understanding is that their boost was recently changed to be fixed upon their creation and doesn’t increase if you just sleep them while waiting to get more culture or beakers per turn. Is this true? Should I just pop them immediately under all circumstances if I’m not making an Academy or Great Work?

Writers and Scientists aren't fixed. They reflect the last eight turns of beakers/culture and the value changes. So with scientists, for example, it is often preferable to save them up until eight turns after research labs. Musicians, on the other hand, are fixed at the value they have when you pop them. So if you want to bulb them for tourism, try not to pop them until your tourism is high.

3. Is it better to time Oxford University/finish Rationalism to tech to Plastics for Research Labs, or should I save the two free techs to jump to Satellites so I can start the Hubble Space Telescope? Or should I use them for the last two techs to start building the last spaceship part (either Engine or Stasis Chamber)?

I often use Oxford to grab Radio and get an ideology. Rationalism closer for me depends on a few things. If I have a lot of research agreements, I might use it on a earlier tech to get the bonus as the game goes on. If not, I save it for one of the last spaceship techs.

4. An Order level 3 tenet (Spaceflight Pioneers) allows you to use Great Engineers to rush spaceship parts, and also gives you a Great Scientist and a Great Engineer. However, assuming you max your Science specialists, the generation of GSes slows down the generation of GEs so much that you will never really get GEs, especially if you aren’t putting specialists in your Factories/Workshops. Should I be putting production specialists in these buildings, or is it better to focus exclusively on Great Scientists? The Engine and Stasis Chamber require more science than the Cockpit or (3x) Boosters, so I assume you will have time to hard build the first 4 while you are teching to Nanotechnology and Particle Physics.

Yeah, I don't often pop GEs in a science game. They are very useful, but I'd usually rather have the GS. The free one is nice for your last part, though.

5. If I put specialists in my Factories and Workshops, how can I feed my city to continue growth? Even with Hospitals and numerous 4-food tiles it seems difficult. Is it worth switching some of my trade routes to internal routes to generate food rather than gold?

Case by case basis. I would definitely be using some trade routes for food, though. Gold is nice, but big growing cities are nicer.

6. Is using Faith to buy a GE the best way to get a second one so I can rush the last two parts? Or do you really only need to rush the last one? Should I just buy GSes instead?

Depends. If your science is outpacing your production, then GE. But usually GS for me. I have had to buy GE instead though, when my science is awesome but my cities have lousy production.

7. An AI (William of Orange) with whom I had previously had a 100+-turn Declaration of Friendship and multiple Research Agreements declined to renew the DoF and also didn’t try to renew Open Borders with me. This was a few turns after I had adopted Order and then he went Autocracy, so maybe that explains the diplo hit. His troops, which were on their way through my territory on the way to attack another AI, got teleported outside my borders. I figured the canceled DoF meant that he was preparing to attack me. I had virtually no military, so I bought an Artillery in each of my 4 cities to muster some semblance of a defense. He then moved his army off of my borders. Was he not actually planning on attacking me, or did the sudden increase in my military capability dissuade him from actually declaring war?

Ah, mysterious AI behavior. Who knows? Not me, certainly. Opposing ideologies do greatly up your chances of being attacked, though. But just because he didn't renew a DOF doesn't mean he was going to attack. Best to be prepared anyway.

8. William and I still have a Research Agreement running. Does having a research agreement make the AI less likely to declare war on you? Also, if you see an army headed your way, will buying military units make the AI rethink its attack, or is it already too late at that point? Obviously you still want the buy the units to defend but I am wondering if they can prevent the DoW in the first place.

I'm pretty sure having a small military will increase your chance of a DOW.

9. I was the first to discover Printing Press, so I hosted the first few sessions of the World Congress. Unfortunately I’ve been spending all my money on rush-buying universities, factories, observatories, public schools and research labs rather than buying city-states, so didn’t have many votes and lost the host status pretty quickly. How important is it to have CS allies in the midgame?

Cultural CS allies are very nice, because culture can be hard to come by. I definitely try to ally as many CS as possible of any variety, because the perks are great, but you don't NEED them to have a great game.

10. During my previous diplomatic victories (Emperor difficulty), I basically ignored CSes until I got the Freedom level 3 tenet for trade routes giving +4 influence per turn. Then I just ran trade routes to all the CSes, used spies to rig the elections twice as much (Freedom level 2 tenet), and then got them as allies in the lategame. However, since Order doesn’t really help with getting CS allies, the only way I can really get CS allies is to pay them off. My cities have decent production, so is it worth hard-building the science and production buildings and spending the money on bribing CSes instead? If all you want is happiness, is it more cost-effective to buy mercantile city-states or just buy other types of luxuries from the AIs?

Be sure to check which luxuries the mercantile CSs have. If they have two that you don't have, the happiness perk is quite large. You really just have to evaluate each situation. If you have happiness to spare, then buying your science buildings is probably more helpful. If not, well, you need to be happy, so do what you have to do.

11. I figured it was worth the head start to rush-buy the science buildings. I have the Order tenet for -33% buying building cost and I also got Big Ben (-15%, I think it applies to buildings also). I randomly dipped into Commerce for the +2 gold on land trade route policy while I was waiting for Rationalism to become available. Is it better to open Patronage and build the Forbidden Palace?

I'd say I go patronage 75% of the time if I can't open rationalism yet, but commerce can also be quite nice. Either way is a valid way to go. Of course, ideally you can time it to open rationalism right after finishing tradition. Sometimes you can unemploy your guild slots to slow down your culture a bit to achieve this.

12. Now that I have it, Big Ben actually seems like a waste of 750 hammers for a small, peaceful science empire that isn’t planning on buying a bunch of army units with gold. I just built it because my capital didn’t have anything else to work on. Since the nerf to Pledge to Protect, Patronage is less useful as a 2-point dip than it used to be. However, is it still worth going for Consulates? Is it worth building the Forbidden Palace if you aren’t interested in pursuing a diplomatic victory? If not Patronage, what policy should I open up after I finish Tradition before Rationalism becomes available?

I don't often build Big Ben or Forbidden Palace in a peaceful science game, but they certainly aren't bad wonders. I think consulates is still pretty good.

13. How should I try to generate culture at the same time as keeping a science lead? I’ve been spending all my time building/buying science, gold and production buildings. Also, since the BNW changes the culture buildings don’t actually produce that much culture on their own. How many policies should I be planning on ending the game with, and how should I best achieve that? Is it enough to stick a few Great Works of Writing in Amphitheaters, or do I need Opera Houses and music works? Mainly, I just want to avoid crushing unhappiness from my ideology, although speeding up policies is nice too.

Many times I don't even bother with Opera Houses in a science game. Quite often I don't even build the Musician's guild. Ally the cultural CS for lots of culture. In terms of ideological unhappiness, usually the happiness boosters from the order or freedom tenets are enough to offset it. I build the Eiffel Tower sometimes, too.

Alright, that's all I have time for now. Perhaps others can chime in.

 

[Browd]

1. Do Great Person Points for Great Artists, Writers and Musicians decrease the frequency of generation of the other types of cultural Great People from the same city, or the same civilization? If I put the Writer’s Guild and the Artists’ Guild in the same city, will I still get the same number of GWs/GAs as if I put them in two different cities? If so, then I guess I should put them both in my capital so they can benefit from the National Epic and Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or is having the guilds as well as several Academies too much pressure on food production in one city?

No. Yes. City with National Epic is better than city without, but Garden + Epic is best. Pisa applies empire-wide (so it can be in any city). Food can be an issue in any specialist-heavy city, but sending food trade routes can mitigate that issue.

2. Regarding popping Great Writers for instant culture and Great Scientists for instant science: My understanding is that their boost was recently changed to be fixed upon their creation and doesn’t increase if you just sleep them while waiting to get more culture or beakers per turn. Is this true? Should I just pop them immediately under all circumstances if I’m not making an Academy or Great Work?

Not true for Great Writers and Great Scientists, but is true for Great Musicians. You generally want to defer creating Great Musicians until you are enjoying many tourism multipliers, to max the value of a concert tour.

3. Is it better to time Oxford University/finish Rationalism to tech to Plastics for Research Labs, or should I save the two free techs to jump to Satellites so I can start the Hubble Space Telescope? Or should I use them for the last two techs to start building the last spaceship part (either Engine or Stasis Chamber)?

All those are options, but the last is the poorest of the bunch (Oxford itself gives 3 beakers, so finishing it earlier is marginally beneficial.

4. An Order level 3 tenet (Spaceflight Pioneers) allows you to use Great Engineers to rush spaceship parts, and also gives you a Great Scientist and a Great Engineer. However, assuming you max your Science specialists, the generation of GSes slows down the generation of GEs so much that you will never really get GEs, especially if you aren’t putting specialists in your Factories/Workshops. Should I be putting production specialists in these buildings, or is it better to focus exclusively on Great Scientists? The Engine and Stasis Chamber require more science than the Cockpit or (3x) Boosters, so I assume you will have time to hard build the first 4 while you are teching to Nanotechnology and Particle Physics.

You cannot count of using "naturally" generated GEs for Spaceflight Pioneers. Save the one when you get the tenet, keep trying to generate natural Great Scientists, buy one or two more GEs with faith (see 6. below), and hard-build the remaining spaceship parts.

5. If I put specialists in my Factories and Workshops, how can I feed my city to continue growth? Even with Hospitals and numerous 4-food tiles it seems difficult. Is it worth switching some of my trade routes to internal routes to generate food rather than gold?

Very much worth it. If your specialist-heavy city is coastal, cargo ship food routes are best.

6. Is using Faith to buy a GE the best way to get a second one so I can rush the last two parts? Or do you really only need to rush the last one? Should I just buy GSes instead?

I will generally hard-build all parts except the last couple. So no more than 1-2 GEs with faith. Rest of faith used to buy any needed GSs.

7. An AI (William of Orange) with whom I had previously had a 100+-turn Declaration of Friendship and multiple Research Agreements declined to renew the DoF and also didn’t try to renew Open Borders with me. This was a few turns after I had adopted Order and then he went Autocracy, so maybe that explains the diplo hit. His troops, which were on their way through my territory on the way to attack another AI, got teleported outside my borders. I figured the canceled DoF meant that he was preparing to attack me. I had virtually no military, so I bought an Artillery in each of my 4 cities to muster some semblance of a defense. He then moved his army off of my borders. Was he not actually planning on attacking me, or did the sudden increase in my military capability dissuade him from actually declaring war?

Ideology differences can scuttle long-term friendships (as in real live ). He probably wasn't intending to attack you, but the additional units might have been enough to dissuade him if he was so inclined.

8. William and I still have a Research Agreement running. Does having a research agreement make the AI less likely to declare war on you? Also, if you see an army headed your way, will buying military units make the AI rethink its attack, or is it already too late at that point? Obviously you still want the buy the units to defend but I am wondering if they can prevent the DoW in the first place.

An AI that is sufficiently incented to DOW you will do so before the RA matures. on wandering armies, better than buying units is to bribe him to DOW another civ or another civ to DOW him (use the trade screen). The gold is usually better spent to bribe than to buy units that you don't actually need (and that will cost you maintenance).

9. I was the first to discover Printing Press, so I hosted the first few sessions of the World Congress. Unfortunately I’ve been spending all my money on rush-buying universities, factories, observatories, public schools and research labs rather than buying city-states, so didn’t have many votes and lost the host status pretty quickly. How important is it to have CS allies in the midgame?

As important as in other parts of the game. Main value is in their bonuses, secondary is WC voting, and tertiary is buffer against AI aggression (if the CS is betewen the AI and you).

10. During my previous diplomatic victories (Emperor difficulty), I basically ignored CSes until I got the Freedom level 3 tenet for trade routes giving +4 influence per turn. Then I just ran trade routes to all the CSes, used spies to rig the elections twice as much (Freedom level 2 tenet), and then got them as allies in the lategame. However, since Order doesn’t really help with getting CS allies, the only way I can really get CS allies is to pay them off. My cities have decent production, so is it worth hard-building the science and production buildings and spending the money on bribing CSes instead? If all you want is happiness, is it more cost-effective to buy mercantile city-states or just buy other types of luxuries from the AIs?

Mercantiles are, hands down, usually the best source of happiness in the game, and more reliable than AI luxury trades (although those do work as well). In general, you should cultivate some CSs for their bonuses all game long -- extra culture, extra happiness, free units (which you can disband for a bit of gold or gift back to CSs), extra food, etc. Satisfying quests from CSs is usually far more efficient than dropping gold on them. Also use your spies to rig elections with key CSs,

11. I figured it was worth the head start to rush-buy the science buildings. I have the Order tenet for -33% buying building cost and I also got Big Ben (-15%, I think it applies to buildings also). I randomly dipped into Commerce for the +2 gold on land trade route policy while I was waiting for Rationalism to become available. Is it better to open Patronage and build the Forbidden Palace?

Only if you need the happiness and/or are aiming for a diplo victory. Otherwise, meh.

12. Now that I have it, Big Ben actually seems like a waste of 750 hammers for a small, peaceful science empire that isn’t planning on buying a bunch of army units with gold. I just built it because my capital didn’t have anything else to work on. Since the nerf to Pledge to Protect, Patronage is less useful as a 2-point dip than it used to be. However, is it still worth going for Consulates? Is it worth building the Forbidden Palace if you aren’t interested in pursuing a diplomatic victory? If not Patronage, what policy should I open up after I finish Tradition before Rationalism becomes available?

Pre-nerf, always went for Consulates and PtP. Now, almost never. Commerce is a strong alternative to Patronage, notwithstanding your lack of affection for Big Ben.

13. How should I try to generate culture at the same time as keeping a science lead? I’ve been spending all my time building/buying science, gold and production buildings. Also, since the BNW changes the culture buildings don’t actually produce that much culture on their own. How many policies should I be planning on ending the game with, and how should I best achieve that? Is it enough to stick a few Great Works of Writing in Amphitheaters, or do I need Opera Houses and music works? Mainly, I just want to avoid crushing unhappiness from my ideology, although speeding up policies is nice too.

You absolutely need culture in a science game. Ally cultural CSs. Build Writer and Artists guilds early, work them continuously, bulb writers for instant culture boosts and bulb GAs for golden ages (+20% culture, gold and hammers).

Sorry, out of time, so others can respond to the rest.

 

[Grogs]

1. Do Great Person Points for Great Artists, Writers and Musicians decrease the frequency of generation of the other types of cultural Great People from the same city, or the same civilization? If I put the Writer’s Guild and the Artists’ Guild in the same city, will I still get the same number of GWs/GAs as if I put them in two different cities? If so, then I guess I should put them both in my capital so they can benefit from the National Epic and Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or is having the guilds as well as several Academies too much pressure on food production in one city?

If you have the food, putting all the guilds in the same city with the National Epic and a garden will mean you'll generate them faster. If you don't have the food to work them all, then split them up.

2. Regarding popping Great Writers for instant culture and Great Scientists for instant science: My understanding is that their boost was recently changed to be fixed upon their creation and doesn’t increase if you just sleep them while waiting to get more culture or beakers per turn. Is this true? Should I just pop them immediately under all circumstances if I’m not making an Academy or Great Work?

Generally for scientists, 1-2 academies, then save the rest for after research labs. If you really want to max out the science from the bulbing, work all specialists and set all cities to build science for 8 turns after RLs. You can monitor the number of beakers you'll get each turn and wait for it to plateau. Save GWs for winning the World's Fair (if you can) or at least a golden age since these will increase the culture you get out.

3. Is it better to time Oxford University/finish Rationalism to tech to Plastics for Research Labs, or should I save the two free techs to jump to Satellites so I can start the Hubble Space Telescope? Or should I use them for the last two techs to start building the last spaceship part (either Engine or Stasis Chamber)?

If you time the tech and GS bulbing right, you can probably hard build all the space ship parts but the last. My preferred order is satellites (for Apollo/Hubble) -> beeline to robotics (for SS factory) -> beeline to advanced ballistics (for SS boosters) -> nanotech -> beeline to particle physics. There are quite a few techs from nanotech to particle physics, so unless your production is poor you'll probably be done with the first 5 parts before you reach Particle Physics. My capital usually builds 2 parts, while my other cities build 1.

4. An Order level 3 tenet (Spaceflight Pioneers) allows you to use Great Engineers to rush spaceship parts, and also gives you a Great Scientist and a Great Engineer. However, assuming you max your Science specialists, the generation of GSes slows down the generation of GEs so much that you will never really get GEs, especially if you aren’t putting specialists in your Factories/Workshops. Should I be putting production specialists in these buildings, or is it better to focus exclusively on Great Scientists? The Engine and Stasis Chamber require more science than the Cockpit or (3x) Boosters, so I assume you will have time to hard build the first 4 while you are teching to Nanotechnology and Particle Physics.

I try to run all of the science specialists and guilds ASAP, and leave the merchants/engineers empty. Late game, your cities aren't going to be growing fast anyway and you won't get much extra out of growth so it's more beneficial to run them all. This minimizes the chances of an unwanted GM or GE, and will maximize bpt, gpt, and production. The free specialists from SS Pioneers don't count against faith buy or natural costs BTW.

5. If I put specialists in my Factories and Workshops, how can I feed my city to continue growth? Even with Hospitals and numerous 4-food tiles it seems difficult. Is it worth switching some of my trade routes to internal routes to generate food rather than gold?

See the above. Do whatever you can to get the scientists up ASAP.

6. Is using Faith to buy a GE the best way to get a second one so I can rush the last two parts? Or do you really only need to rush the last one? Should I just buy GSes instead?

You will probably only need to rush one part. That said, if the production is low a GE might not be able to finish the last on in one turn. Check and see what the bulb value is on one of the earlier parts. Try to make it your highest production city if you can. If it will leave much more than 1 turn to complete, you probably need a 2nd GE. I think the bulb value is 8x the production of the city before trade routes are added, so 167 hammers/turn gets it built in 1 turn. The scientist faith buys will cost 1000, 1500, 2500, 4000, 6000, etc so buying 1 GE probably for 1000 late might not interfere at all.

10. During my previous diplomatic victories (Emperor difficulty), I basically ignored CSes until I got the Freedom level 3 tenet for trade routes giving +4 influence per turn. Then I just ran trade routes to all the CSes, used spies to rig the elections twice as much (Freedom level 2 tenet), and then got them as allies in the lategame. However, since Order doesn’t really help with getting CS allies, the only way I can really get CS allies is to pay them off. My cities have decent production, so is it worth hard-building the science and production buildings and spending the money on bribing CSes instead? If all you want is happiness, is it more cost-effective to buy mercantile city-states or just buy other types of luxuries from the AIs?

Be selective and get the CSs you really need, i.e., if you need culture try to focus on them. Generally I think the money is better spent getting science buildings up ASAP.

13. How should I try to generate culture at the same time as keeping a science lead? I’ve been spending all my time building/buying science, gold and production buildings. Also, since the BNW changes the culture buildings don’t actually produce that much culture on their own. How many policies should I be planning on ending the game with, and how should I best achieve that? Is it enough to stick a few Great Works of Writing in Amphitheaters, or do I need Opera Houses and music works? Mainly, I just want to avoid crushing unhappiness from my ideology, although speeding up policies is nice too.

If you can win the World's Fair, start a GA, and then pop your GWs 8 turns in, you'll generate an amazing amount of culture. You can easily get 3-4 policies in 20 turns this way. Winning is easier said than done on Immortal I imagine, but at least save GWs for golden ages.

15. I don’t have any Oil in my territory, but there is one tile with 7 oil that is 4 hexes away from a city of mine. It is just outside my borders in the middle of a useless desert. I haven’t fought any wars, otherwise I would pop a Great General on it to take it. Settling this might be considered forward setting on the Songhai, who wiped out Mongolia, one of my neighbors. Supposedly the Songhai are plotting against me, but they are fighting 3 other civs right now, so I think they’re too busy to come after me for the moment. Is the best way to get it to bribe a City-State? Should I found an otherwise completely worthless city simply for the oil?

16. If I buy up all of the tiles in a 3-ring radius around my city, is that a good strategy for speeding up the process of culturally grabbing that oil tile? This would be sort of expensive but I do really like bombers….

The city expansion usually seems to prioritize resources first. You can probably speed it up by buying tiles in that direction. If you can keep the AIs in line diplomatically, you can manage without oil at all.

17. Can I fight a war in the Flight-onwards era without oil? In previous domination games I would just use Artillery and Great War Bombers as the beginning of my global conquest, but I may not actually have any oil until I steal a city. Should I just pray that nobody attacks me/bribe AIs to incite wars for the next 60 turns while I finish my spaceship? Is Artillery/Infantry good enough to hold off the AIs?

Try to use diplo. Also, it seems like the military strength calculation favors melee units (think it's based on combat strength) so you might even look stronger than you are with a lot of infantry. Not so great if you actually get attacked though.

18. Is Order as good as Freedom for a 4-city Tradition science victory? The “specialists require half food” tenet of Freedom just seems way stronger than what Order offers. Also, on high difficulties when you can’t afford to build Stonehenge and go heavy on religion, it seems like the Order level 3 science tenet isn’t as good as it would be if you had more faith.

You'll get more bpt from Order *IF* you have factories (Level 2 tenet Workers' Facilities gives a 25% science bonus for factories) *AND* you have enough food to work all your specialists. If you're food starved, and can't work all your specialists, Freedom may work better.

20. I also have no Aluminum, but I can build Recycling Centers to get that. Once I add a Spaceship Part to my Apollo Program, does the Aluminum go back into my stockpile, or it is gone forever? This will determine whether I need to build 2 or 3 Recycling Centers. Or should I skip those and just try to buy a city-state with Aluminum/settle a new city on some?

The aluminum comes back after you add the part to the ship. If you can get it from a CS that's great, but watch out for a coup cutting off your supply. Recycling centers are fairly far along the path to Particle Physics so if you can do without them you can run a tech path that maximizes your time to hard build the parts. You'll want 1 aluminum for a SS factory in each city, plus 4 more to simultaneously building parts in all cities.

 

[PhilBowles]

Ideology differences can scuttle long-term friendships (as in real live ). He probably wasn't intending to attack you, but the additional units might have been enough to dissuade him if he was so inclined.

To address the OP's question more generally than William's specific motives, no it's not the case that a change in relations, such as a refusal to renew a DoF, is a prelude to war - it just means that for whatever reason the civ doesn't like you as much as it used to. This could be ideological, but could also be because you did something else that made them think more negatively of you - e.g. got caught spying, refused to stop doing something they asked you not to, built Wonders or allied with city-states they wanted. Civ IV had a flavour tooltip to describe disallowed trades - "They just don't like you enough" - and the Civ V system works the same way.

Yes, an AI does factor in your military strength if going to war is an option and can be dissuaded from doing so by a large military, but thaws in relations can happen when you have no military to speak of and in pre-ideology game stages.

One thing to look out for if you have good relations with a civ is whether they'll accept a defensive pact - an AI will never sign a defensive pact with someone it's going to attack (possibly the logical conflict would cause the computer to explode), but rarely have any objections to signing one otherwise as long as you have reasonably good standing with them.

17. Can I fight a war in the Flight-onwards era without oil? In previous domination games I would just use Artillery and Great War Bombers as the beginning of my global conquest, but I may not actually have any oil until I steal a city. Should I just pray that nobody attacks me/bribe AIs to incite wars for the next 60 turns while I finish my spaceship? Is Artillery/Infantry good enough to hold off the AIs?

The last patch fixed a longstanding bug with AA guns, which is that the AA attack wouldn't fire if the SAM/gun itself was the target of the attack. Now that this is fixed, these are actually good deterrents if you have no oil - the AI isn't bright enough to avoid sending planes your way, but you'll shoot a lot of them down; two SAMs firing will destroy a full-health bomber, and one in a well-defended city will often bring one down per turn as well. Any plane that survives an AA attack deals reduced damage to the target that turn. The AI is also known to waste plane attacks on targets its melee units can't reach, though it has become a lot better about targeting its planes appropriately. But the best way to get oil is to trade for it with a friendly civ (CS allies can turn into someone else's ally without warning, leaving you oil-less).

19. Will the AIs notice that your spaceship is nearing completion and decide to do something about it?

They notice, but 'doing something about it' will usually mean they try to rush theirs to completion (or at least used to - the AI is now a lot better at popping spaceship parts as soon as it builds them, but for a long time it would build one or two parts then do nothing for the rest of the game ... until you got a spaceship near completion, when out of nowhere it would finish its final parts and beat you to the win). In my experience an AI won't go to war to stop a spaceship, and if already at war it doesn't have the ability to specifically target any spaceship parts you have lying around. I had one G&K game where the AI redoubled its efforts to hit my capital (as they were already at war) when my ship neared completion, but made no effort to attack the final spaceship part as it was en route (if it had, I'd have lost).

20. I also have no Aluminum, but I can build Recycling Centers to get that. Once I add a Spaceship Part to my Apollo Program, does the Aluminum go back into my stockpile, or it is gone forever? This will determine whether I need to build 2 or 3 Recycling Centers. Or should I skip those and just try to buy a city-state with Aluminum/settle a new city on some?

A spaceship part works like any other unit that uses a strategic resource - while it's on the map it takes up 1 aluminium, but as soon as its gone the aluminium is back again - whether that's because the part was destroyed or because it was added to the ship.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

Thank you all for your responses! I ended up launching the spaceship on turn 334. Pretty slow, but your advice has pointed out a lot of things I could do better. Mainly:

1. Start running food trade routes internally earlier
2. Finish Oxford and Rationalism sooner, since they do boost your base science generation and you get plenty of GSes for the final bulbing anyways.
3. When you’re far ahead enough in tech, you don’t even really need GEs since you can just build the wonder before the AI gets there anyways. Also, after Porcelain Tower you don’t really need wonders other than the Hubble. I built the Kremlin and Cristo Redentor while I was waiting for part-enabling techs to finish, but they aren’t really essential.
4. Pay more attention to city-state quests.
5. Build the Writers/Artists Guilds earlier and pop them to cause golden ages/immediately after a GA ends for culture boost

I did manage to win the World’s Fair and ISS production contests. I put all four of my cities on it both times and won by a wide margin. Popping two great writers after the WF gave me almost two policies, so that was very helpful.

I’d say my biggest problem was just a lack of growth in the cities. Changing my trade routes to generate food helped with that problem a lot. I think by implementing these suggestions I can probably shave 50 turns off of my time. Now to try it on Deity…