Gameplay Discoveries

Sometimes, i am not sure if it works or coincidence, but i put spies at different "waypoints" and bottlenecks in my territory.

I catch a lot of spies and almost NEVER have problems with enemy espionage.

Another one: This is one of the most educational threads ive seen that deserves a sticky
 
Oh yeah. If you have your spy in your cultural borders, every time an enemy spy goes into the square your spy is on there is a fairly high chance that spy will get caught.
 
you cannot have CR gunpowder-based units without getting them by upgrades, so delay acquiring grenadiers or rifles until you have built enough CR3 macemen to last you the game.

Similiar to Machnieguns. Never build a machinegun direct if you can get grenadiers. Get a grenadier first then promote it with City defender/gurella/woodsman promontions then upgrade it into a machinegun of doom.

The quest-based bonuses for units continue for all units you make of that type in the future, for example the art of defense will give all of your future macemen/pikemen city defender1 for free as well! (then you can upgrade em into machineguns later on :p )
 
I just learned that some late-game cities can be LOTS of fun if you send them in with a Sushi Exec. Quick food and culture... awesome.

-- SJN
 
The A.I. are evil, and stupid. Really, really evil, and really, really, really, really , really stupid.
 
If you see a huge stack of air units (fighters, bombers, guided missiles, airships) hiding in a fort, do a pillaging (with a fighter, bomber, guided missile) run to destroy the fort and watch all the air units crash.
 
to quickly get air superiority order your fighter to bomb an improvement near enemy units and there is a very high chance that you will shoot the enemy unit down
 
keep asking around 500 gold to spare from friendly civs and most of the time you'll get it
 
^^ You should wait between asking for gifts. There's a chance every turn that the AI forgets that gift (~2%). If it remembers it, you won't get anything and a counter gets reset. That counter increases every turn and determines how much gold you get.

There's no difference between begging from friendly and pleased civs.

Also, if the AI accepts, you'll get a peace treaty.
 
If you can GG a ship, has anyone tried to GG a privateer? Leadership promotion vs. hapless AI caravel spawn = night of fun for me.

Yes, GG privateers are great. Build one as soon as you get the tech, and use it to attack every caravelle and galleon around. After it gets promoted enough, it will even take down frigates. You can often get about 200 XP with it, then upgrade it to a very powerful GG destroyer when it's no longer useful as a privateer.

(I play marathon games. That strategy may not work on shorter games.)
 
Yes, GG privateers are great. Build one as soon as you get the tech, and use it to attack every caravelle and galleon around. After it gets promoted enough, it will even take down frigates. You can often get about 200 XP with it, then upgrade it to a very powerful GG destroyer when it's no longer useful as a privateer.

(I play marathon games. That strategy may not work on shorter games.)
It works on Epic pretty good. Medic I, II, III + March + Blitz + Nav I & II + Flank I & II + Tactics makes a really mean ship. Can't kill Battleships late-game, but it and hit-and-run them nicely. Next turn it's almost healed to half again!
 
Pillaging every single road connecting a city, which there's no river and its a land city, would probably starve and practically destroy the city in a way to punish your enemy.
 
If you see a huge enemy stack at your borders ready to invade you the next turn, make a demand for 10 gold. They will most likely accept because it's such a small amount, and you get a 10 turn peace treaty to scramble and build up defenses.
 
I learned not to make demands when I have my SoD just outside enemy borders. :lol:
 
you can demand huge amount of gold from enemy vassals and most of the time they'll give it to you and they can't do crap against you since they're just a vassal.
 
As a follow up to my use of Sushi for newly constructed cities, let me also add that any corp guy in newly captured city is also pretty slick. The extra culture really helps keep the borders from being overrun. I don't think I ever appreciated the culture aspect of corporations until my most recent game.
 
As a follow up to my use of Sushi for newly constructed cities, let me also add that any corp guy in newly captured city is also pretty slick. The extra culture really helps keep the borders from being overrun. I don't think I ever appreciated the culture aspect of corporations until my most recent game.

Same here, but with culture in general. Before I only considered culture as a way to get the entire FC faster. In my last game I landed Marble and Stone, and once I got Asthetics, I thought "why not". By end-game three of my rival's cities were mine, and I never had to go to war with him!
 
This is kind of a negative discovery, but it's easy to be "Tricked" into thinking a city is coastal when it's just on a big lake.

In my last Civ IV game on Earth map, I had a city in modern day turkey that was a production power-house. I built my ironworks there thinking I could use it for building ships. Unfortunately, on the Earth Map, the Black Sea is actually a big lake... no ships (or lighthouse) for me.

-- SJN
 
Top Bottom