Interesting Screenshots

[choxorn]

He at least implied it by saying he'd seen the AI mobilize.

That does look like a GA, though- all the tiles have +1 shield and +1 gold. I'm not sure how the Sumerians didn't get a GA until the Industrial Age, though.

 

[darski]

He at least implied it by saying he'd seen the AI mobilize.

I can't agree with that. Have you ever seen the AI mobilize? If you say that you have then you would seem to be asserting that in every instance of C3C they are mobilized by your own reasoning. He is just saying: I have seen this before but I have never seen that.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I think it is, because there are also commerce bonuses on all the tiles.

On second thought, it could be mobilization if the Sumerians have the Collossus in Ur -- it is a coastal city after all.

 

[Bartleby]

I assumed they were mobilised from the extra shields (I hadn't noticed the commerce) and just because it was late in the game (and they've been in plenty of wars). It turns out they do have the Colossus in Ur.

edit:

another mildly interesting thing from the same game:

If only I'd pressed enter one second sooner!

 

[Cyc]

A couple of interesting screenshots. I'm playing the Mayans on a Huge Pangaea with 7 opponents at Emperor level. Have been flipping back and forth beween 1st and 2nd place with the Celts. Built the Theory of Evolution and took Atomic Theory and Electronics as my freebies, to start Hoover Dam. The Mongrels Mongols, out of the blue, demanded Atomic Theory. Me, playing on a laptop without a mouse, accidently accepted their demand and gave them AT. No worries, I thought. I can make up for the mistake, as I had a slight pre-build going. About 7 (i think) turns later, the Mogols started to build Hoover Dam. I had an Embassy with them and traded Territory Maps, so I investigated the city that they had building it (Tabriz). At that time, I had 19 turns left to complete Hoover Dam. They claim they could complete it n 18, of course, 1 turn before me. But the city screen for Tabriz shows 19 shields in the city tiles, while their accounting below says 38. How can they do this?

And mine...

 

[Bartleby]

Presumably they have a factory and power plant in Tabriz.

 

[NightKnight]

ive never seen three volcanoes together

Spoiler :

 

[Cyc]

Presumably they have a factory and power plant in Tabriz.

Yup. They did. I figured the shields would show on the tiles.

 

[scratchthepitch]

Tabriz

37 shields
12 pop, growth in 9999 turns.
HD in 18 turns.

Palenque

33 shields
12 pop, growth in 9999 turns.
HD in 19 turns.

Hmmmm....it would be nice to be able to use a few more of those mined tiles, instead of being limited to 12 pop cities....

 

[Cyc]

I had to get the ToE built and if I had waited to build a Hospital before HD, I would have lost it for sure. All of the other possible Wonder builders were building Hospitals. It is just the way it worked out. But, you're right.

 

[Bowsling]

You could have prebuilt it.

 

[Cyc]

Had I not accidently pressed a little too hard on the touchpad as I slid the cursor across the screen and clicked on the wrong reply, the thought of pre-building a Wonder the AI had no chance of threatening me with would not come up. But you're right, I could have pre-built, it just because.

 

[Bartleby]

So what happened in the end?

 

[Lanzelot]

Anyone noticed? The Mongols are running 30% lux... So the AI does use the lux slider quite ok, doesn't it?!

Regarding the problem on how to still beat them to Hoover's: I once used the following trick in a similar situation, when I was about to lose the race for an important wonder by just 2 turns: I gifted them Monarchy. Surely enough the following turn they revolted (even though they were already in Republic...) They got 4 turns anarchy -- after which they chose Republic as their new government...
Of course, those 4 turns anarchy were enough for me to pocket the wonder...

Anyway, I think this is quite predictable: many times when the AI gets a new government tech, it first revolts and only afterwards asks itself the question of whether it actually needs a new government... (Perhaps this is also influenced by the preferred/shunned governments of each civ?! Might be an interesting field of future research.)

So if you manage to research Communism/Facism in the remaining 18 turns, you could gift it to the Mongols... Chances are you'll still get your Hoover Dam. You can increase these chances by involving them into a couple of wars: it is well known that the AI shuns Democracy and loves Facism, when things get rough.

So a plan of action might look like

1. get Facism asap
2. gift it to the Mongols
3. if they don't revolt next turn, declare war
4. and sign as many alliances against them as possible

(If they already know Facism, steps 3 & 4 may already give you good chances that the revolt.)

 

[Lanzelot]

By the way: with 3000+ gold on the bank account, you could've cash-rushed a Hospital and/or a Factory before starting on Hoovers!?! The 1 turn lost would easily have been made up for by the increased production. (With factory, Palenque would make approx. 45spt, with Hospital and 6 workers joined it could make an additional 14 spt for a total 45spt (even more, if some of the mined grasslands in the picture are BGs).
Of course the question is, whether you already had the necessary tech(s) at that point of time.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Anyone noticed? The Mongols are running 30% lux... So the AI does use the lux slider quite ok, doesn't it?!

Regarding the problem on how to still beat them to Hoover's: I once used the following trick in a similar situation, when I was about to lose the race for an important wonder by just 2 turns: I gifted them Monarchy.

Yeah, plunge them into anarchy. Very nice idea. But I think there are still other possibilities:

- You could try to trigger WLTKD. That would give you maybe one more shield which could be enough to be on par with the Mongols with respect to turns. If so, you would get it.

- You could simply now switch to a factory and complete it. Then rush a coal plant after disbanding a bunch of Muskets or so. That would give you approximately twice as many shields as you have now. You might be able to achieve a built time of 13 or 14 turns. 800 / 61 (?) = 13.1.

- Or switch to another city altogether. A city that has a hospital already and to which you then add Factory and Coal Plant.

 

[Cyc]

All good ideas.

So what happened in the end?

I went back again and investigated Tabriz about 4-5 turns before they started building the HD (see above). All the screens up to the point they started building looked like this ~

Not happy with what I found or my mistake, I played a few turns anyway. The Celts declared on me (can't remember if I refused their demand or they wouldn't leave my territory) and they brought in the Mongols and the Ottoman. A LOT of my 60 cities started to crash and burn after a bit, especially when the Celts took my Incense and Dyes. So I quit without saving and went back to 1385 (before my mistake).

One of the main reasons the game unfolded like it did, was I had been at war with India, who had War Elephants and Cavs. I asked for peace when they got their Infantry. I had taken two of their cities without losing any, but knew i need about 4,000g to upgrade my Muskets. As you can see, I only had 3,300g and that was twindling. As soon as I got peace, Sanitation and the ToE came in. Next turn came the mistake, so I was really between a rock and a hard place. I switched Palenque to Hoover and Cavs to Hospitals where appropriate. Then I headed for Replacement Parts. I was paying about 100g in Unit costs and was still weak to everyone. Money was tight, 2 of my luxs were on the Celtic border, One was on the Mogol border, and 1 was on the Indian border. I guess my first mistake was declaring on India, that slowed my progress.

But in the 1385 save I reloaded, it all happened again with the Celts and their endless Infantry and Cavs. When they brought in the Ottoman, I lost my lux import with them. So then I was out three luxs, and the Mogols were trying to take the fourth with their massive SODs. I bailed on that game too.

But thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

 

[tao]

All good ideas.

But thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

On Palenque:
You checked the 7 "unused" mined grasslands and none of them was a bonus grass, correct?
You might have switched to mobilization, giving one extra shield each square.

General remarks:
Having warriors in industrial times is a terrible waste of money. You should use outdated units to rush important builds.
Having units in non-frontier cities is a terrible waste of resources. Either use them for fighting, or for guarding borders, or disband them for rushing important builds.

 

[Cyc]

On Palenque:
You checked the 7 "unused" mined grasslands and none of them was a bonus grass, correct?

Doble-checked.

You might have switched to mobilization, giving one extra shield each square.

I had just gotten out of a War and had switched to Hospitals. Mobilization doesn't help with that Wonder, if I remember correctly, even if I could have switched. Well I guess I could have switched to Mobilization after the Celts declared on me. But HD doesn't get the bonus anyway.

General remarks:
Having warriors in industrial times is a terrible waste of money. You should use outdated units to rush important builds.
Having units in non-frontier cities is a terrible waste of resources. Either use them for fighting, or for guarding borders, or disband them for rushing important builds.

You're right on both counts. The only reason I was keeping those units around was because I was weak and didn't want to appear weaker.

 

[ignas]

Sign ROP with Mongols and irrigate all tiles that Tabriz is using.