Condensed tips for beginners?

[Öjevind Lång]

I take issue with this answer--or with the game, really.

I had an enemy city surrounded on all sides by my borders and when I checked the cities resoucres, they were still getting all benefits from the mother state.

With no open borders, how was this possible? That city should have been crumbling, it's happy and healthy way down, but it wasn't. This particular city was landlocked, so trade routes overseas was not an option.

Did the city have an airport? I don't know for sure, but couldn't that affect matters?

 

[Gudinsdiv]

No, this was before air units. I had vassals in on surrounding it. I went in with spies and took out the cities improvements. To no avail. This small city, isolated, was still getting all the health and happy benefits from it's mother country.

I have been wondering if it was bcause of a river--because I can't remember exactly now the terrain. It must have been something, right?

But then the game does have these little quirks.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

No, this was before air units. I had vassals in on surrounding it. I went in with spies and took out the cities improvements. To no avail. This small city, isolated, was still getting all the health and happy benefits from it's mother country.

I have been wondering if it was bcause of a river--because I can't remember exactly now the terrain. It must have been something, right?

But then the game does have these little quirks.

It does sound like a river connection to me.

 

[mrjacksplat]

The "enemy" can only use your roads to access resources if you have an open borders agreement. If there's no OB (and if you're at war, there definitely is not), then the answer is no.

How about the railroad question...I'll try to be clearer....
I virtually covered my civilization with railways. I did so so I could defend my Civ at lightning speed. My Southern most Cities defenders can travel to my Northern most city in ONE turn !!!! After doing this I thought "Hey, If I can travel that far in ONE turn, WHAT ABOUT MY ENEMIES ENTERING MY CIVILIZATION ????? Can THEYuse my railways like I do?

 

[mystyfly]

If you define "enemy" as the civ at war with you, no, they can not use your roads or railroads (YOUR roads/RRs being those in your cultural territory), unless they have the "commando" promotion like all spies have.

 

[henrebotha]

How about the railroad question...I'll try to be clearer....
I virtually covered my civilization with railways. I did so so I could defend my Civ at lightning speed. My Southern most Cities defenders can travel to my Northern most city in ONE turn !!!! After doing this I thought "Hey, If I can travel that far in ONE turn, WHAT ABOUT MY ENEMIES ENTERING MY CIVILIZATION ????? Can THEYuse my railways like I do?

If you define "enemy" as the civ at war with you, no, they can not use your roads or railroads (YOUR roads/RRs being those in your cultural territory), unless they have the "commando" promotion like all spies have.

Note that the Commando promotion takes a hell of a lot of XP to get to. In all the games I've played, I think I got a unit to Commando once. (But then, I'm playing Vanilla and XP is a hell of a lot harder to come by than in Warlords/BtS.)

 

[Shurdus]

IN BtS too commando is not something that is easely obtained. Even if you can get there (charismatic leader and GG maybe? - the option to have that one unit get the commando promotion while the rest of your stack does not is not at all appealing. Commando is a good promotion in theory, but you will want other promo's most of the time.

If you can crank out a lot if highly promoted units using civic combo's and buildings/settled GG's that add XP to units so that commando is either readily available or available after one combat however... Hello blitz stack!

 

[Pluton]

Instead of Commando, you can use the Woodsman II or Guerilla II promotion, which will give you double movement in forests/hills.
This speeds up movement in enemy terrain a little bit, is easier to get AND has also combat advantages..

 

[popejubal]

If you can crank out a lot if highly promoted units using civic combo's and buildings/settled GG's that add XP to units so that commando is either readily available or available after one combat however... Hello blitz stack!

Even then, you're probably better off with other promotions unless you're attacking someone fairly backwards.

If I take Combat IV and Commando, I could have taken Combat III/Pinch/March for my units instead. I think I'd be better off with that under most circumstances. Once I get to Tanks, though, I'll grab Commando if I can. Being able to zip in to an empire with a bunch of units, destroy anything worthwhile and still gather my forces into a stack of doom is very appealing.

In any event, even with a Charismatic and Aggressive leader, I'd be unlikely to get commando anyway. I'd much rather have two units with 3 promotions (10XP) instead of 1 unit with 4 promotions (17XP). I also don't want to miss out on the 100% production bonus for troops that Heroic Epic gives while I'm putting a zillion hammers into West Point, so my settled Great Generals will first go to the Heroic Epic city and the extra 4XP from West Point will go to some other city that has spare time/hammers to build that Wonder.

 

[Fancy Will]

I finally finished reading all 62 pages of this thread!

Special thanks to: Sisiutil, Mystyfly, Juju, CCrunner, and others! Your Guides, in-depth answers and patience made this thread informative, fun and an overall good read!!!

I play Vanilla and in my first two games I attempted a “beach-landing” style war with a neighbor on another continent. Both times the take-over of the rival Civ failed. I was able to do a lot of damage, captured a few cities, razed a few but, eventually the rate of reinforcements I was able to provide vs. the amount they could build/whip/rush would over-take me and I would be left with nothing to show for the raping/pillaging I had done.

So here are my questions…

1: Are inter-continental invasions ever a good idea? Would the funds be better spent on the Space Race or attacking a Brother of Faith on the same continent?

2: How do you go about invading another Continent?

3: Are there any good guides/threads about over-sea invasions that you know of?

Thanks Again!

 

[Ghpstage]

I finally finished reading all 62 pages of this thread!

Special thanks to: Sisiutil, Mystyfly, Juju, CCrunner, and others! Your Guides, in-depth answers and patience made this thread informative, fun and an overall good read!!!

I play Vanilla and in my first two games I attempted a “beach-landing” style war with a neighbor on another continent. Both times the take-over of the rival Civ failed. I was able to do a lot of damage, captured a few cities, razed a few but, eventually the rate of reinforcements I was able to provide vs. the amount they could build/whip/rush would over-take me and I would be left with nothing to show for the raping/pillaging I had done.

So here are my questions…

1: Are inter-continental invasions ever a good idea? Would the funds be better spent on the Space Race or attacking a Brother of Faith on the same continent?

2: How do you go about invading another Continent?

3: Are there any good guides/threads about over-sea invasions that you know of?

Thanks Again!

1) Sometimes they are required to prevent an AI from winning . Other times they're just plain old fun . Clearing your own continent is something I usually find easier. There are occasions however, where my neighbour has been even harder to kill than people on the other side of the world.

2) With really, really large armies in a lot of boats, don't stop building more units and reinforcing the invasion. The earliest era its really possible in is the Renaissance, during this period with just galleons it can be very difficult to get enough troops to the front to fight. A few frigates or ships of the line help a lot with breaking down cultural defenses. Try to hit the most productive enemy cities first, this is usually the capital (look for cities with many hills nearby, and cities with big populations). Hitting multiple cities on the first turn of invasion can totally cripple an AI don't be afraid to raze a few either, maintenance on overseas continence can build up fast!

Once you have flight it becomes incredibly easy, just rushbuy an airport in the first city you capture. You can only fly 1 unit per turn out of a city with an airport, but you can fly as many units into a city with an airport as you have other cities with airports .
Theres also the option to use fighters on carriers, these things are awesome. In fact the AI is so bad at stopping them I would argue they're overpowered in human hands. Use them in groups so you can have a lot of fighters hitting the same region, they work best if you use warships to break culture defenses, then attack the units in the city with your fighters to soften them up for your assault troops, also recon missions to find the enemy stack will help immensly. They're also kinda silly cos you can fly fighters into the carrier from anywhere in the world

3) Don't know of any unfortunately

 

[Pluton]

You can also use the fighters to destroy the roads leading to the city to prevent quick reinforcements from other cities.

If the other continent is no more than 5 squares away from your continent, you can build a fort at your site and use paratroopers to jump over there and ship only the other units which can not paradrop.

 

[Ghpstage]

You can also use the fighters to destroy the roads leading to the city to prevent quick reinforcements from other cities.

Roads can't be targeted in BTS 3.17... at least for me
I do seem to remember being able to kill them before though, Vanilla? More likely Civ 3 I expect.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

If you run a state religion, build a monastery of that faith in just about every city. They generate extra hammers.

 

[oyzar]

If you run a state religion, build a monastery of that faith in just about every city. They generate extra hammers.

Only if AP is in that religion.

 

[henrebotha]

1) Sometimes they are required to prevent an AI from winning . Other times they're just plain old fun . Clearing your own continent is something I usually find easier. There are occasions however, where my neighbour has been even harder to kill than people on the other side of the world.

2) With really, really large armies in a lot of boats, don't stop building more units and reinforcing the invasion. The earliest era its really possible in is the Renaissance, during this period with just galleons it can be very difficult to get enough troops to the front to fight. A few frigates or ships of the line help a lot with breaking down cultural defenses. Try to hit the most productive enemy cities first, this is usually the capital (look for cities with many hills nearby, and cities with big populations). Hitting multiple cities on the first turn of invasion can totally cripple an AI don't be afraid to raze a few either, maintenance on overseas continence can build up fast!

Once you have flight it becomes incredibly easy, just rushbuy an airport in the first city you capture. You can only fly 1 unit per turn out of a city with an airport, but you can fly as many units into a city with an airport as you have other cities with airports .

Theres also the option to use fighters on carriers, these things are awesome. In fact the AI is so bad at stopping them I would argue they're overpowered in human hands. Use them in groups so you can have a lot of fighters hitting the same region, they work best if you use warships to break culture defenses, then attack the units in the city with your fighters to soften them up for your assault troops, also recon missions to find the enemy stack will help immensly. They're also kinda silly cos you can fly fighters into the carrier from anywhere in the world

3) Don't know of any unfortunately

This (the bold bit) is not true for my game (Vanilla 1.74). Believe me when I say I've tried - I adore the use of Airports for intercontinental invasion. However, even if you can only move one unit to a city per turn, it's still incredibly useful because you can fly in a garrison unit on the turn you capture the city, and thereafter one SoD reinforcement every turn until your stack has healed. Plus, the extra trade route from the Airport can only help your struggling economy.

 

[Ghpstage]

This (the bold bit) is not true for my game (Vanilla 1.74). Believe me when I say I've tried - I adore the use of Airports for intercontinental invasion. However, even if you can only move one unit to a city per turn, it's still incredibly useful because you can fly in a garrison unit on the turn you capture the city, and thereafter one SoD reinforcement every turn until your stack has healed. Plus, the extra trade route from the Airport can only help your struggling economy.

you can fly as many units into a city with an airport as you have other cities with airports

Bolded the important bit
You can only fly 1 unit into a city with no airport, even one in anarchy! (this I never actually knew ). But once the recieving city has an airport, there is no limit to the number it can recieve. I just tried it on Vanilla and it works.

 

[JTMacc99]

Does anyone have any guidelines for going for a normal Diplomacy Victory?

In my current game (on Noble), there are 8 civs counting my own. I have nearly 20% of the population from an earlier war against Stalin (he has only one city on a single one tile island right now); grabbed all of his cities. I am friendly with 2 of the civs, and 2 others are pleased with me (one of those civs is a vassal of one of my friendlies). 4 of the civs hate me, one being Stalin (only has a single size 8 city). What are my chances for getting a diplo victory? How many civs need to be at friendly? Should I wipe out Stalin and another civ before going for it?

I realize this game is probably long done with for you, but I'll chime in anyway on the general question. Getting a diplomatic victory when you are a relatively small nation is not easy. As much as it seems like other civs love you, many times they love another AI even more. You have to be extremely friendly with everybody to pull it off, not to mention, you need to actually have enough population to actually get yourself in charge of the elections.

Most of my diplomatic victories are basically a quicker route to the domination victory. In other words, I probably annihilated 2-3 other civs, control 50% of the world's population but only 40% of the land. From that point, I settle on building the UN, and possibly concentrating my armed forces on strategic attacks of the remaining civs core (captial) cities. A quick strike to the heart often leads to a capitulation, which in turn will either surpass the land requirement or almost certainly net me the number of votes I need for the UN vote.

In your game, you would certainly need to kill off Stalin (always good policy, IMO) and probably at least one of the other haters as well. See if you can get one of the pleased or friendlies to join in the war with you, which might get you a brothers-in-arms diplomatic bonus. Also, you would need to make sure that your "friends" are also friends with you military targets. That will put a dent in your relations and reduce your chances of them voting for you as world leader. (In other words, see the first thing I said about using your military to secure enough population of your own to win the election.)

By the way, that diplomatic bonus you get from fighting along side of another nation is my favorite way to deal with Shaka until I'm ready for him. He's gonna attack somebody early in the game, and as long as it isn't you, he's almost certainly going to ask you to join him in battle. This is often one of the best phony wars you can ever fight. As Shaka sends wave after wave of troops at the other poor bastard, you do nothing and rack up huge diplomatic bonuses with him. Keeps his psycho ass out of your back-yard for centuries. If you're really lucky, he'll spread himself thin and then you can swoop in to his core cities when you grab a technological advantage like Cannons. After you relieve him of his good cities, you can either chase him around the world and finish him off, or you can make him a vassal and use him as an attack dog. Even with only a few cities, he's still quite useful to have on your side during a war.

 

[henrebotha]

Bolded the important bit
You can only fly 1 unit into a city with no airport, even one in anarchy! (this I never actually knew ). But once the recieving city has an airport, there is no limit to the number it can recieve. I just tried it on Vanilla and it works.

:O

Holy intercontinental invasion Batman!

 

[Lafortezza]

Quick question that doesn't really deserve a new thread:

Liberalism is reached at 980AD by Justinian.

Details:
Monarch
Fractal (Pangaea), 7 civs, standard settings otherwise.
Justinian and Mehmed are Buddhist, everyone else (Ragnar, Augustus, Lincoln, me as Pascal) is Hindu. Lots of shared borders.
Justinian has nearly all the Holy Cities apart from Hindu and built Oracle and Henge for Prophets.

How out of the ordinary is this?

I usually am ok getting to Lib by 1200AD at Monarch, was v surprised to see it go @ 980AD, especially given map settings/religions.