few questions on the gameplay/mechanics... rather newbie ones.

[Illusion13]

Does the Sun Tzu work like how its intended to? Cause I think units built under it still promote or something, and you can still build barracks when its around. Or am I completely missing the point?

There's that super growth strategy guide on this site. It says to get caravans from all cities to your capital. I dont know how this would work as things not demanded would yield rather poorly...

About air warefare, for say, bombers... Can you realistically only attack a target 4 spaces away from an airbase? Cause otherwise they'll almost always crash or something... But that doesnt give room to much freedom of usage...

 

[Banach]

Yes, Sun Tzu's works as advertised. New ground units are vet's, and any units that win combat automatically get vet status. You can still build barracks, of course, but there's little point to doing so, as all you gain is increased costs every turn. I suppose if you were bored you could build and sell them for money, this isn't an unused strategy among experts in odd situations.

IIRC, the super growth strategy wants you to get caravans to your capital because it's easier to celebrate the capital, and then the boost from trade routes makes the other cities celebrate easier. Also, if you have Colossus in your capital, it's a huge trade route increase. In landing games I often pursue trade routes with the SSC just because of the Colossus. Of course, as you said, the route increase must be balanced against the diminished delivery bonus.

Bombers crash on the second turn, so they can attack something 8 moves away, then return to a base or city on the next turn. Of course fighters don't have that luxury. Advanced players typically slaughter with Veteran Stealth fighters, which can crush the computer in short order due to the ability to attack multiple times in a turn. My personal strategy to sweep through an empire in heavy terrain (where engineers can't provide one-turn wars) - crush defenders with vet stealth fighter, paratrooper drops in, fighter moves into city, repeat next turn. Of course this means the war might last a few turns, but not too long. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Illusion13]

Still dont get why you would move ALL into the capital though... Isnt the max trade route like 3?

And... I guess the good doesnt have to be demanded for you to establish a trade route?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Demanded goods get double payout at the point of delivery. After that the value of the route depends on the amount of trade arrows generated at each end modified by a few other factors but it does not depend on demand. If you trade with a huge well developed city you get better trade routes. Sometimes that is worth the cost, so the trade off pays.
Here is the trade off:
City A trades with City B whose demand matches and does not already have 3 trade routes: you get a payout and two trade routes, one in A, one in B.
City A trades with the captial. You get half a payout you would have gotten had the goods been demanded but since the capital maybe way bigger than city B, this may still be a bigger payout than you would get trading with B.
You get one trade route at A. Since the capital is much larger than B, this one route maybe worth more than the two you would get in the other alternative.

 

[Peaster]

Yes, Sun Tzu's works as advertised. New ground units are vet's, and any units that win combat automatically get vet status. You can still build barracks, of course, but there's little point to doing so, as all you gain is increased costs every turn. I suppose if you were bored you could build and sell them for money, this isn't an unused strategy among experts in odd situations.

I agree, but might add that wounded units which rest one turn in a city with barracks are completely healed. I don't think that justifies building them (after Sun Tzu). But I often delay selling barracks near the war front, in case they are needed as hospitals.

If you build barracks (or temples/etc) and instantly sell them, you are getting only one gold per shield, which is not usually wise. But sometimes a city is so far from the action, its production is pretty worthless anyway.