General thoughts/questions

[gamer9865]

A few general questions and thoughts I would like to get some feedback:

1. I want to play a huge map and aim for "kill them all" (conquest victory) on Monarch level.
Is it acheievable and does the AI know it is playing for conquest in a huge map?
2. One of my earliest games generated map had lots of mountains. Although a little annoying at first,
I decided it adds a very nice dimension to the game since you have to take control of
strategic mountain passes and you can position your cities in such a way to close your borders.
What is the setting I need to do for that when generating a map? And does the AI know about it?
3. Is it better to use a GP to discover technology or build special building?
4. Do you consider having open border and massing your troops near the other AI cities by intention
and then start a war as cheating? Is there a diplomatic penalty of declaring a war and go attacking the same turn?
5. As a Roman, although Pratoerian are nice (strength of 8), having axeman with %50 against melee is almost equivalent
and is much cheaper. When you think about it, isn't axeman much more powerful than regular swordman when not attacking
mounted/archers? Should I just pump more axeman when attacking a city?

 

[SoxSexSax]

1) Yes, it is achievable. No, the AI will not do well (you will be the only one capable of achieving it). You'll probably need to turn off time on a huge map unless you play with a very small number of opponents.

2) I believe you can change the world type to Rocky, and I should imagine the AI would cope.

3) Depends on the tech, but normally if a great prophet can build a holy shrine I do it, and if I have a great engineer I almost always use him to rush a wonder.

4) No I don't and there is no penalty as far as I know.

5) An unupgraded axeman fighting an unpgraded praet is 7.5 V 8. Praet wins. Praets also stay useful for longer and are far better at taking out longbows in cities (I'm not saying they're great at it, but they're better than axes). Praets stay useful for much longer than axes do, basically they're useful all the way to gunpowder.

 

[viz]

Regarding 4/ if you declare war, your troops will be moved out of the enemy territory so you can't attack from their position in the same turn.

 

[Gherald]

Axes are cheaper than praets.

Agg axes can take shock, which beats them.

Axes have a painful weakness to chariots in warlords.

 

[Sisiutil]

Keep in mind that the Praets predominantly take on Archery units, the AI's favourite city defenders. Without promotions versus an archery unit, Praets have a strength of 8 to Axes' 5. Not only will they win more often, they'll take less damage, which means the pace of your campaign is faster.

In my Praet stacks, I usually just include a Combat I/Shock Axe to counter melee units and a Combat I/Medic I Spear to counter mounted units and heal the wounded. Most of the Praets get City Raider promotions and do the heavy lifting.

 

[gamer9865]

Sea resources provides *lots* of food and 1 or 2 commerce.
They can really boost settler/worker production.
Having a coastal city with two sea food resources or more can really help you pump those workers/settlers not to mention the commerce generated by it. Haven't seen much discussion on that. Thoughts?

 

[Sisiutil]

Sea resources provides *lots* of food and 1 or 2 commerce.
They can really boost settler/worker production.
Having a coastal city with two sea food resources or more can really help you pump those workers/settlers not to mention the commerce generated by it. Haven't seen much discussion on that. Thoughts?

It's always good to have a few coastal cities, of course, preferably with at least one seafood resource in its fat cross.

The problem with water tiles is that they are much less flexible than land, as in real life. Once you put workboats on the seafood and build a lighthouse, you've pretty much done all you can to improve those tiles, and there's no way to make them yeild any hammers unless oil appears there in the late game.

Land tiles, in contrast, can have several different types of improvements. A riverside tile, for example, could be improved with a farm, a cottage, a workshop, or a watermill. The improvements you choose can be selected to have synergy with the buildings in the city, thus supporting its specialization. In addition, for a domination win, land counts, water does not.

This is why, when planning the exact placement of a coastal city, you actually want to maximize the number of workable land tiles in that city's fat cross.

 

[gamer9865]

That I know. However, early in the game, that can be extremely powerful since you can create settlers/workers very fast. Or even just place a city over there just to pump workers.

 

[idle]

A few general questions and thoughts I would like to get some feedback:

2. One of my earliest games generated map had lots of mountains. Although a little annoying at first, I decided it adds a very nice dimension to the game since you have to take control of strategic mountain passes and you can position your cities in such a way to close your borders.
What is the setting I need to do for that when generating a map? And does the AI know about it?

You could try the "Tectonic" map type, http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=149278

This generates an "earthlike" map with massive mountain ranges, and strategic passes.