Civ4(warlords); Questions of an Idiot

[R.B.]

Thanks, Kutzov. Also, is there anyway to use it outside of zoom-out? I noticed during play sessions that it only appeared when I was zoomed out. Edit: #2:maybe, I'll be back in 5 after testing it with world-builder. Edit2: #2:Yep, it does. played as Mongolia, WB In two GG's, Joined 'em to city, built warrior, W starts with 4 experiance. Strangely, though, It started with C1

 

[aelf]

1. are medics cumulative? if you have two in a tile, will they heal quicker than if there's just one?

No.

2. are GG cumulative? if u join more that one to a city do you get +4 experience?

Yes.

 

[TheDS]

Thanks, Kutzov. Also, is there anyway to use it outside of zoom-out? I noticed during play sessions that it only appeared when I was zoomed out. Edit: #2:maybe, I'll be back in 5 after testing it with world-builder. Edit2: #2:Yep, it does. played as Mongolia, WB In two GG's, Joined 'em to city, built warrior, W starts with 4 experiance. Strangely, though, It started with C1

Considering that Mongolia is Aggressive, it'd be a bigger surprise if your warriors did NOT start with Combat 1.
--------------------------------------------------
Castles:
I pretty much never build walls, because I never need them. Waste of resources, especially for such a small defensive improvement. And since Walls are a pre-req for castles, I don't build Castles either.

HOWEVER...
As I was looking through the Reference spreadsheet some nice group of fellows made, I noticed that in Warlords, the Spanish are allowed to build a Citadel as their unique building, which replaces the Castle. The Citadel gives you +1 Trade Route, AND +2 XP for Siege units build there. Checking out the difference between that and the Castle, I found that it too gives +1 Trade Route. (They both are also good for a point of Culture.)

HOLY CARP! +1 Trade Route!

So I decided in my next game I'd build some Castles... I like Trade Routes, you know.

But Castles (and Citadels) become obsolete pretty darn quick, and they're really expensive to build, and I've got so many better things to spend my horrendously limited number of hammers on than something that's going to be useless a couple years after it's built. When The Castle and Citadel are obsoleted, they lose their Trade Route and the Citadel also loses its XP bonus for Siege units. That +1 Culture is still available, and if you're hurting for Culture in a captured/border city, then that might be worth it for you.

So, I conclude that only as the Spanish will I build Castles (Citadels) because of the XP bonus, and even that might be iffy.

The Trade Route bonus will have the most effect if you build the Castle in a large city AND if you're not practicing Mercantilism; otherwise, you can skip it.

Now what about when you're playing against actual people, who like to attack all the time with no warning, rather than a bunch of docile AIs, which only attack you on the higher difficulties when you have no hope of keeping on par with them? I suspect building Walls would then become a good idea, and if you've got a Wall, you're 1/3 of the way to building a Castle, so it wouldn't be a terrible idea to go ahead and do that too.

But that's just a guess; I don't have anyone to play against on a reliable basis (truck driver, and not really that interested anyway) so I will probably never know first hand if the above is a good guess or not. YMMV.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

thanks to all for the help.

@ theds, aelf got me thinking on castles and trade routes with his ToA/GL game. i was trying to think how to add the trade routes. although, I dont play slower than normal, I was thinking there's a better player out there that could put castles to really good use. ?

anyway, for my next idiotic question, i'm looking for threads on how to load up the q? in other words, build an axe until one turn remains then switch to a sword until one turn remains then switch to a spear until one one turns remains then switch to to a granary. In effect, you've got an ax, sword and spear due in three turns after the granary. or am I just pyschotic? would such a plan have any real use?

I sort of do this with wonders I know I won't get for the gold. Is that an exploit or okay?

 

[aelf]

Well, if you get Engineering early enough (some time before the tech that obsoletes them, which I can't remember), build castles. In the current Emperor's Challenge, I don't know if that will be the case because I think we are going to prioritise Astronomy. But the good news is castles are beefed up in the upcoming patch.

 

[gdgrimm]

anyway, for my next idiotic question, i'm looking for threads on how to load up the q? in other words, build an axe until one turn remains then switch to a sword until one turn remains then switch to a spear until one one turns remains then switch to to a granary. In effect, you've got an ax, sword and spear due in three turns after the granary. or am I just pyschotic? would such a plan have any real use?

I sort of do this with wonders I know I won't get for the gold. Is that an exploit or okay?

I think the main good reason for loading the queue with military units is that you can pre-build a whole bunch of them in a few cities, shift Civics to something like Vassalage/Theocracy, allow the units to finish (getting all the additional XP from the civics), then swap civics back to something else. It's a technique that can allow you to spend less time in civics that might not be optimal for anything other than finishing military units.

Personally, I feel like it's a bit of an exploit and I don't do it. But too each his own.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

hi all, I thank you all for your responses (which have led me to other threads)

one flaw I've recently identified in my games is my lack of use of GS. I get the synergy of certain wonders, the use of early agression. These choices don't usually lead to the generation of GS in my strange little worlds. i understand city specialization, so that's not it. just that my choices don't generate them.

just looking for general comments on what people do with them and how they use GS in a strategy focused on that.

and to reiterate, others please feel free to post questions here. they can't be any sillier than mine.

 

[cabert]

GS can build an academy, or be settled in your superscience city, or lightbuld high price techs.
Lightbulbing philosophy is a really strong move.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

well, here's a confession. on my monarch wins, i haven't build a superscience city. GS, have been an accident in my games. when one show's up I lightbulb or build an academy.

 

[UncleJJ]

Lightbulbing philosophy is a really strong move.

This statement is too strong. It can be a strong move in the right circumstance but it is probably overated and can be a waste of beakers compared to an academy or a settled GS.

It can be strong for any or all of these reasons:

a) if you want to run Pacifism and have a state religion spread to your cities ready to adopt it. Of course there are 2 other good religious civics.
b) if you want to found Taoism and it has not already been founded.
c) if you want to build Angkor Wat

Otherwise, it is no different from any other technology and there are many other important ones. If philosophy is not an important part of your research strategy why lightbulb it? It can be a waste of beakers, especially since it doesn't use all of the 1500+ beakers a GS is worth. If a tech is lightbulbed that doesn't use all the beakers then there is a loss of research potential and later techs are delayed.

Lightbulbing is useful in games where the player can and does make immediate use of a new technology. Discovering a technology and then not using it has little effect on the game except to make it easier for the AI to research and trade the tech.

 

[aelf]

well, here's a confession. on my monarch wins, i haven't build a superscience city. GS, have been an accident in my games. when one show's up I lightbulb or build an academy.

Here's an easy way to practice: Start a new game, get Writing early, chop a library and run 1 or 2 scientists in that city depending on how much production you need at a particular point. Your first GP will be a GS and he will be the earliest GS in the game.

 

[cabert]

This statement is too strong. It can be a strong move in the right circumstance but it is probably overated and can be a waste of beakers compared to an academy or a settled GS.

It can be strong for any or all of these reasons:

a) if you want to run Pacifism and have a state religion spread to your cities ready to adopt it. Of course there are 2 other good religious civics.
b) if you want to found Taoism and it has not already been founded.
c) if you want to build Angkor Wat

Lightbulbing is useful in games where the player can and does make immediate use of a new technology. Discovering a technology and then not using it has little effect on the game except to make it easier for the AI to research and trade the tech.

philo is on the path to liberalism
that + a religion + pacifism + a good woner to build is really strong IMHO.

 

[King.Bahamot]

I use them to make notes about what I want to do. i.e reminders of where to put cities, set up for the SOD, etc.

Theyre also good for dotmapping.

now for really stupid questions:

1. are medics cumulative? if you have two in a tile, will they heal quicker than if there's just one?
2. are GG cumulative? if u join more that one to a city do you get +4 experience?

dont know of the medics, but the gg is cumulative. I joined a city with 2 of my GGs and got super troops, with vassalge and theocracy

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Here's an easy way to practice: Start a new game, get Writing early, chop a library and run 1 or 2 scientists in that city depending on how much production you need at a particular point. Your first GP will be a GS and he will be the earliest GS in the game.

I'll try this. Thanks.

My problem is my cities are running war and/or other GP points. No need to respond; I'll figure this out.

As a side topic, related to the scientist question, yea or nay on CI in the stonehenge/city? or should I just stop trying it?

 

[aelf]

I'll try this. Thanks.

My problem is my cities are running war and/or other GP points. No need to respond; I'll figure this out.

By the way, acidsatyr makes a good example of this in his Immortal game thread.

 

[King.Bahamot]

and a link to his game http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=190690

 

[BCLG100]

hi all, I thank you all for your responses (which have led me to other threads)

one flaw I've recently identified in my games is my lack of use of GS. I get the synergy of certain wonders, the use of early agression. These choices don't usually lead to the generation of GS in my strange little worlds. i understand city specialization, so that's not it. just that my choices don't generate them.

just looking for general comments on what people do with them and how they use GS in a strategy focused on that.

and to reiterate, others please feel free to post questions here. they can't be any sillier than mine.

If you aim to be producing great people then this shouldnt be through the use of wonders, your GP city normally wont have enough production (farms) to be building these wonders in time and more through the use of specialists, thus you can control what GP you will be getting through assigning different specialists

About the unit queueing thing, i myself dont see this as an insult- if say you have spiralling military support costs it means that if need be you have a defence immediatly ready. Though as someone else has said that it can be exploited for other uses especially as a spiritual civ.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Another probably redundant question since my search skills are lacking...

Scenario: Cyrus on a standard continents map. I have alpha, nobody else does. 3 rivals on my continent. use the immortals to take City 2 from Brennus. Immediately gift it to Victoria. Stop the war with brennus, extort techs. Wait a bit, declare on Vicky, retaking the city, I gifted her. Take another of her cities as well as City 2. Stop the war and extort techs. Gift City 2 to Cathy. Rinse and repeat in a triangular manner. Is this an exploit?

 

[cabert]

Another probably redundant question since my search skills are lacking...

Scenario: Cyrus on a standard continents map. I have alpha, nobody else does. 3 rivals on my continent. use the immortals to take City 2 from Brennus. Immediately gift it to Victoria. Stop the war with brennus, extort techs. Wait a bit, declare on Vicky, retaking the city, I gifted her. Take another of her cities as well as City 2. Stop the war and extort techs. Gift City 2 to Cathy. Rinse and repeat in a triangular manner. Is this an exploit?

this isn't an exploit, this is bad playing
You won't earn any good techs by capturing 1 city anyway.
But you will earn a lot of bad relations.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

this isn't an exploit, this is bad playing
You won't earn any good techs by capturing 1 city anyway.
But you will earn a lot of bad relations.

true, but it was fun. i almost never play as cyrus.