Boy is my face red :(

[darski]

I am trying to train myself to leave some cities undefended but I never leave the capitol without good defense. Too many rivals have dropped troops near,or headed for, my capitol for me to trust that one to the RNG's.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

You betcha! I made a point of that, it was actually the only nuke I built that game, The tanks and artillery were the real workhorses. First game I ever won when my enemy was tech leader and they had Modern Armor and I didn't for many turns. I used empty cities 6 tiles back to draw them in, then artillery, bombers, tanks and even cossacks would kill them. That was a game that taught me how the AI can be manipulated.

Does the AI know about undefended cities that far in?

 

[Aabraxan]

I may be wrong, but I think the AI knows all of the contents of all tiles, including units and resources. So it would automatically know about your undefended cities, no matter where they are.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Impressive.

I can see how that could be used to your advantage.

 

[timerover51]

Based on some of my archipelago and continent games, the AI alsos knows your moves when you make them, regardless of the fog of war. I have had the AI just beat me to an island or a good resource near the coast with a settler not to think that.

 

[Scratcher]

I can confirm that the AI takes into consideration your long distance move orders. I generally only move a unit the distance it can move that turn, especially navel units.

 

[silver 2039]

I've nuked my own cities on occasion...

 

[Theov]

I've nuked my own cities on occasion...

there's nothing wrong with sharing some experiences you wish you never did

 

[Spoonwood]

Last night I built The Great Library in my Deity-Iroquios game. I built in a city next to my capital. I merged in slave workers I had purchase. This morning after playing for a turn or two, the city with The Great Library FLIPPED. I reloaded to the previous turn and sure enough it flipped again. I reloaded and raise the luxury slider significantly and it still flipped. I don't think I'll merge in slave workers on Deity anymore. Some saves:

 

[TheOverseer714]

Never merge slaves into your cities. They are too valuable to waste, but there is also the factor of having foreign citizens in a city increases flip risk, especially if you are at war with their parent civilization. The city was probably going to flip anyway, but adding the slaves may have hastened it. Deity level, the AI's have so much culture and can build temples so fast that flips are inevitable. What you could do is leave that cty alone and take it back to get free techs beyond Education later on.

Edit: Post #2000, wow!

 

[rysingsun]

The Great Library FLIPPED.

there was once a time when i merged slaves like that too. then i had iron works /forbidden palace flip. who would have thought a fp could flip?

 

[darski]

Edit: Post #2000, wow!

I am so ticked that I completely missed my 1,000th.

Ah well. I'll just have to head for 2,000 and keep better track of them.

 

[Kumquat]

I set my slaves free in the modern era and put 1 slave in each city that can support them and my cities rarely flip. I guess my temples where useful after all

 

[Spoonwood]

"Never merge slaves into your cities."

I'd rather merge slaves than workers, since slaves work so slowly. Some people like Chainminx mass-merge in workers into almost all their cities to take them to size 12 or their maximum. This actually works out as more efficient empire-wide, since you can get the workers from a worker factory for 10 shields and 10 food with a granary there. Since you merge in workers in other cities, you don't need a granary there and you don't have to get 10, 20, or 40 food for them to grow AND your cities get to max commerce/max production faster (at least I'd think so... I haven't done this yet). Also, with respect to this game, since I played it on Deity, I wanted to bulid the Great Library. Perhaps since I had a nice Palace pre-build going I might have successfully built it without merging in workers (finishing it at 1000 or 975 B.C.E. comes as quite early.. usually you'll start about them and finish by about 630 B.C.E.). But, usually I don't have that sort of luxury and even if I do, I want to ensure that I do build it. If I had delayed a few turns someone might have demanded literature and one of the AIs might have built it as a result of the Temple of Artemis or other wonder cascade. It worked as a cornerstone of my plan, so merging in workers, even with many undeveloped tiles, made sense. Merging in slaves didn't make sense.

"What you could do is leave that cty alone and take it back to get free techs beyond Education later on."

Maybe I could, but the Celts actually came in 1st in the power ranking and lay directly next to me, I'd rather war with ANY other tribe than them, and I wouldn't want to risk it.

 

[Aabraxan]

"Never merge slaves into your cities."

I'd rather merge slaves than workers, since slaves work so slowly. . . . .

Which is why you need, oh, about 300 of them. Slaves do work slowly, but if you get enough of them, that doesn't matter any more. Slaves don't take up any unit support, either, so 300 workers cost less in unit support than 1 native. Admittedly, though: (1) you've got to spend more in shields to build the military necessary to capture 300 slaves than to build 1 worker; and (2) this strategy is harder to pull off (or justify) if you follow a peaceful builder strategy.

 

[Quilty]

Would merging the slaves from a dead civilization produce a culture flip, either to the original civ or a neighboring civ?

 

[anaxagoras]

Would merging the slaves from a dead civilization produce a culture flip, either to the original civ or a neighboring civ?

In a word: No.

 

[Bartleby]

Would merging the slaves from a dead civilization produce a culture flip, either to the original civ or a neighboring civ?

No, if the civ is eliminated there's no population-based flip risk. I think I'd still rather keep the slaves.

hmpf. too slow.

 

[anaxagoras]

I'd rather keep the slaves, too. People complain about how slow they are, but that just means you should move them around in stacks. It would be highly unusual for the extra population and associated flip difficulties to be worth more than the free worker-turns.

 

[Rodent]

If you are warring continuously, you should have considerable amount of slaves (100 on a standard map is common) so them working slow shouldnt be a problem