[BTS] Hesha's Random Questions

[krikav]

Thats likely a mistake, yes.
In some ways, one can consider great people points in the same way as one consideres hammers, commerce etc...
A specialist scientist yields 3 beakers and 3 great people points.

The first Great scientists cost 100 great people points, and with this guy you can bulb math for 400 beakers!
Thus those 100 great people points was each worth 4 beakers, and the specialists you hired to gain those points where yielding 3 raw beakers, and then 3*4=12 beakers in great people points.
Specialist yielding 15 beakers in total... Or two goldmines.
Quite insane!!

And bulbing math is really really bad. Better bulb philosophy for 1000+ beakers.

There are diminishing returns on the great people though, but the first half-dozen or so are extremly powerful and should not be ignored!

 

[sampsa]

Yeah, in most games you should bulb at least philo (or astro). 1300 for 34T of not working a tile (say grass cottage, 34*(23:commerce)=68102) is quite a bargain. Second one is doubly more expensive, but still great. Notice how building wonders can prevent you from this, as you might get a worse type of .

 

[6K Man]

No. It's a tactic that at least WastinTime used, based on the mechanic that the number of missionaries is limited like I tried to explain in my last post. It offers a bad 1->1 ratio, so it's not as useful as putting OF to national wonders, but that is not always available.

I’ve never tried the Missionary failgold trick, but wouldn’t the other downside be that you wind up with 3 missionaries? Which aren’t really useful except in unusual situations.

 

[sampsa]

Hmm, why do you think that? If you adopt a religion it's useful to spread it to most if not all of your cities.

 

[6K Man]

I suppose that's true if you're running OR (which you likely are, if you're building missionaries). But if you are failgolding missionaries in multiple cities AND building them in 3 cities, doesn't that imply you already have that religion in most or all of your cities?

I will sometimes gift a missionary to an AI in the hope they'll spread that religion for me, and grow into an ally. But that's just one.

 

[sampsa]

But if you are failgolding missionaries in multiple cities AND building them in 3 cities, doesn't that imply you already have that religion in most or all of your cities?

Indeed. So you need to have a lot of cities, which is why this tactic isn't very useful outside marathon HOF games...

 

[Hesha]

In an attempt to beat IMM I have rolled a semi-iso start (sharing island with Rags of all people!). I've actually managed to build GW, mids and GLH (all in the same city o.O) as Hammurabi (with Stone). There is only a single 3-tile island off the coast (with copper and 2 Fish!), so the GLH probably wasn't all that great in hindsight, but it won't hurt me too much. My question for now is: What do you do, when your first GP is a Spy? I settled him, because a) I was building mids, b) scotland yard doesn't do anything that early in the game, c) I wasn't ready for a GA and d) I didn't feel infiltrating a city would have been any good (ever?)... what would you have done?

 

[sampsa]

Infiltrate, unless he was teching really slowly. 3000 is quite a chunk, almost double of what a scientist bulb offers. With some city gift shenanigans you could rob him clean and he couldn't do anything to prevent it.

 

[Hesha]

So walk that Great Spy over to Rags cap and infiltrate, generating a tonne of espionage points. And then? Will I have to build spies then before I can gain any advantage from my huge espionage lead?

Can I read up on that "city gift shenanigans" somewhere? And what could I rob him clean off? Steal techs?

I did find this thread on "everything about espionage", but it was waaaaaay to complicated, I didn't understand that at all.

 

[sampsa]

Yes, you need spies, lots of them. Mostly to steal techs, but you can steal , too. Check out Krikav's Sumeria NC-game.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-complete-guide-to-espionage.638613/ This thread? You don't need to understand everything, but try to understand the parts about tech stealing mechanics.

 

[krikav]

Espionage is complicated. I only recently started to learn how to utilize it properly.
But you get a looong way by just building spies, moving them to a AI city that is close and stand there and wait for 5 turns.

 

[Harv]

Welcome to the Forums, by the way! I will be reading through this thread over the next few days, looking for new ideas.

I disappeared for a few years, then started playing Civ 4 again and then reading strategy articles in the forum. They explain the math and mechanics very well.

Right now, I am trying to calculate the odds of a fortified Warrior in a city surviving against two Barbarian Warriors who appeared very early in the game.

 

[Hesha]

Can somebody tell me how this was possible?

Spoiler :

I didn't know the AI could ignore the 2-tile-rule!

 

[krikav]

The 2 tile rule does not apply if the tiles are on different landmasses.

 

[Hesha]

Good Golly! that changes everything. I have been placing my cities all wrong then! Thank you.

 

[Harv]

Great question! I learned something today!

 

[Hesha]

What about corporations? Is there any point in building one? I got a GA late in the game and it's the only thing I can really do with him.

The button to found the corporation is greyed out, however. Why is that? Do I need the resource in the BFC? Or just "available"?

EDIT: Ah... it's greyed out because I'm a damned communist. D'oh!

 

[sampsa]

Mining and sushi can be good under some circumstances, others really no. And state property is awesome.

 

[krikav]

Mining and sushi can be good under some circumstances, others really no. And state property is awesome.

What conditions? I can't remember a normal game when I have ever gone for any corporation.
There was a BOTM where you started with mining-inc T0, and that was quite fun and really powerful too.

 

[Hesha]

Just played a really fun map! Lost to Had-cheap-suit (sounds like an Indian chieftain ) culturally (stupid me for not checking the victory conditions advisor), but I thought the map was fantastic, very unique challenge (you'll see why). Don't want to spoil anything, so I won't tell you about it up-front, hope that's okay.