Condensed tips for beginners?

[Pangaea]

No, by checking those boxes they will generally behave themselves. But they may "improve" unimproved tiles in ways you don't want.

Indeed. I see they are being pretty stupid about it. They keep building forts on top of aluminium, oil and uranium resources. On what planet is that a good idea? Building forts in the middle of my empire, when I control the whole of Eurasia, isn't particularly wise either. Slightly amusing though.

A shame this feature isn't done more intelligently, cause it's a real drag to manually order them around when the game is in the bag and you have 50 of the fekkers. Or much earlier for that matter.

 

[Sisiutil]

Indeed. I see they are being pretty stupid about it. They keep building forts on top of aluminium, oil and uranium resources. On what planet is that a good idea? Building forts in the middle of my empire, when I control the whole of Eurasia, isn't particularly wise either. Slightly amusing though.

A shame this feature isn't done more intelligently, cause it's a real drag to manually order them around when the game is in the bag and you have 50 of the fekkers. Or much earlier for that matter.

For some reason automated workers build forts on top of resources that are within your cultural boundaries but outside the workable area of any city. While a fort will provide access to a resource (it's a common trick to build forts on top of mid/late game resources that are revealed before they can be used, such as oil and uranium), it takes longer to build a fort that to build the corresponding improvement, and forts could be used by an invading army. One more reason to not automate workers.

 

[kcd_swede]

Any advice on when and how to best automate workers?

It often gets very boring to build stuff manually after a while, but I haven't so far dared to fully automate workers. Though I tend to put a lot of them on trade network at some point, for example when I get access to railways. But are there any good ways to let them manage the cities themselves? I know there are some options for the governor, but haven't touched those - apart from the odd whip. Are they safe to use?

Make sure you go to the "options" and check "automated workers do not build over existing improvements" and "automated workers do not chop forests". Otherwise you might be very disappointed with the results.... as all your mature cottages get farmed over.

(My late game workers are usually automated until I need them to do something useful).

 

[kcd_swede]

For some reason automated workers build forts on top of resources that are within your cultural boundaries but outside the workable area of any city. While a fort will provide access to a resource (it's a common trick to build forts on top of mid/late game resources that are revealed before they can be used, such as oil and uranium), it takes longer to build a fort that to build the corresponding improvement, and forts could be used by an invading army. One more reason to not automate workers.

The advantage of forts is that the AI spies and military do not prioritize pillaging them. You build a well on your oil, it will have to be rebuilt every other turn. You build a fort on it, its forever, baby.

 

[Pangaea]

Oh. That translates to another reason to play with spying off tbh. I will try a proper game with it though, and see how it works out. But if the AI ends up screwing me over time and time again, I'll go back to not using it.

 

[Stephanovitch3]

I have some very good advice here i dont know whether its been said but get longbowmen asap and have them with thr drill bonuses ( sounds stupid i know but ive just had a game where barbs had destroyed 2 out of the 5 civs before 1000 AD) and i dropped off my troops on a island due to barb galleys everywhere and i built the city and left the city to be and (note this)

My lone longbowman took on...
6 axemen
3 swords
2 archers
2 warriors
oh and btw they were attacking from a hill

the chichen itza i built may have helped in this but drill is much better than city defense if combined with certain elements
I will probably update how my siege from barbs went... lets hope the number generator doesnt go against me

(EDIT: I continued the game ... they couldnt hold against a stack of 4 swords too well :/ ah well it was worth it

 

[Aless133]

oh and btw they were attacking from a hill

I think it doesn't matters. Terrain can give only defense bonus (and attack penalty for crossing river).

 

[Laurwin]

uhh, I kind of got a brain fart now, I wanna check active quests (from random events). I'd just like to see the progress towards the goal and that type of thing, is it even possible though?

 

[Ghpstage]

uhh, I kind of got a brain fart now, I wanna check active quests (from random events). I'd just like to see the progress towards the goal and that type of thing, is it even possible though?

You can find the active quest goals in the log which can be opened by presing alt + tab, it'll be under the quest tab. Your progress can be found by looking at the stats screen (F9?) i.e. to see how many Harbours and Triremses you have built.

 

[Sisiutil]

Just came across this in a game: if you are pursuing the "Greed Quest" (where you must go to war and capture a military resource--usually one you don't have at the time the quest is assigned), the civ you are capturing the resource from must still exist when you gain control of the tile. Otherwise, you lose the quest.

I got the quest to go to war against Joao of Portugal and capture a horse tile just outside his capital. I captured a city with the tile in its BFC but Lisbon's culture kept control of the horses. I then captured Lisbon (his last city), snagged the tile--and was told on the next turn that I'd failed the quest, which was strange because I'd violated none of the other conditions (300 turns going by, the nearest city being destroyed, another civ capturing the tile first). I reloaded an autosave and, on a hunch, used Worldbuilder to give Joao another city besides Lisbon. This time when I took Lisbon I won the quest.

Strange but true. I guess you're supposed to have your opponent around to laugh in his face and dance around going "nyah-nyah-nuh-nyah-nyah" or something.

 

[Bloodstone]

Is there a guide/article somewhere that discusses the best advisable placements of National Wonders? Thinking something like the "City Spec." articles that maybe give a general outline of what two wonders are best placed together, and maximized based on city spec.

Thanks

 

[Silv Something]

Is there a guide/article somewhere that discusses the best advisable placements of National Wonders? Thinking something like the "City Spec." articles that maybe give a general outline of what two wonders are best placed together, and maximized based on city spec.

Thanks

The national wonders can be found here and Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners is here.

You can look in the War Academy for more information.

 

[Bloodstone]

The national wonders can be found here and Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners is here.

You can look in the War Academy for more information.

Thanks for the help.

 

[nfw]

Is there a way to let a specific unit defend instead of letting the computer pick?

What kind of advantages does the AI get at prince?

 

[Ghpstage]

Is there a way to let a specific unit defend instead of letting the computer pick?

You can't pick when the battle is about to start if thats what you mean, the game picks what it thinks is the best defender (its right in the vast majority of cases). You can however, indirectly decide what units will defend by putting counter units in your stack and picking counter promotions i.e. Shock Crossbows will defend against Macemen long before Swords do.

What kind of advantages does the AI get at prince?

Are you playing BTS? I'm going to assume yes for my answer but it is different on Vanilla or Warlords.
A very slight cost reduction and you get several small penalties (compared to noble) as you lose some bonus against barbs, research costs are higher and maintenance costs more.
In all honesty Prince isn't much more difficult than noble. It will punish problems that are common at noble, such as lack of expansion, lack of workers and chaotic building/research patterns more, but if you get the basics you will walk over it in no time.

 

[nfw]

You can't pick when the battle is about to start if thats what you mean, the game picks what it thinks is the best defender (its right in the vast majority of cases). You can hoewever, indirectly decide what units will defend by putting counter units in your stack and picking counter promotions i.e. Shock Crossbows will defend against Macemen long before Swords do.

How very annoying, on a flat square my panzer is defending against infantries instead of my infantries. Even more irritating, they keep losing.

So the AI doesn't get a combat bonus? 9 infantries just attacked my panzers, and they won 8 times though according to the combat log they all had 20-30% odds. Yes BTS.

 

[Sisiutil]

What kind of advantages does the AI get at prince?

Not too much: compared to noble, their costs go down from 1.00 to 0.95.

 

[Ghpstage]

How very annoying, on a flat square my panzer is defending against infantries instead of my infantries. Even more irritating, they keep losing.

So the AI doesn't get a combat bonus? 9 infantries just attacked my panzers, and they won 8 times though according to the combat log they all had 20-30% odds. Yes BTS.

They never get combat bonuses, not even at Deity. Panzers have better odds defending against Infantry as they are stronger, but it just sounds like you had a nasty streak of bad luck.

 

[Ataxerxes]

How very annoying, on a flat square my panzer is defending against infantries instead of my infantries. Even more irritating, they keep losing.

So the AI doesn't get a combat bonus? 9 infantries just attacked my panzers, and they won 8 times though according to the combat log they all had 20-30% odds. Yes BTS.

If you're defending on forests, the infantry will be defending. But actually, with Panzers or tanks, you want to be the one attacking if at all possible after inflicting some collateral damage. Do you have planes?

Otherwise, as Ghpstage said, you just had bad luck. 20-Str Infantry vs 28-Str Panzer is usually a loss, but sometimes the RNG gods hate you.

 

[Yxklyx]

I have some very good advice here i dont know whether its been said but get longbowmen asap and have them with thr drill bonuses ( sounds stupid i know but ive just had a game where barbs had destroyed 2 out of the 5 civs before 1000 AD) and i dropped off my troops on a island due to barb galleys everywhere and i built the city and left the city to be and (note this)

My lone longbowman took on...
6 axemen
3 swords
2 archers
2 warriors
oh and btw they were attacking from a hill

the chichen itza i built may have helped in this but drill is much better than city defense if combined with certain elements
I will probably update how my siege from barbs went... lets hope the number generator doesnt go against me

(EDIT: I continued the game ... they couldnt hold against a stack of 4 swords too well :/ ah well it was worth it

The main factor here is First Strike. If a unit with First Strikes is somewhat stronger than the other unit (not sure how much stronger) there's a very good chance that it won't take ANY damage in the battle - so that Longbow could take out even more units than what you sent. I don't know the specifics of the combat system and First Strikes.