Issues that came up in midgame

[Andiri]

I've been playing as Caesar for a day or so, load of fun. I'm now in the early Industrial age. I've had a few questions nagging me that I'd like to know if someone can address.

1. What are armies good for? As far as I can tell, they are merely a combined unit. The unit isn't any more powerful, takes up just as much space in a transport (boy, is *that* a pain), can't be upgraded ... and for what? As far as I can tell, it's a single unit with the same number of hit points as the original 3 units had, the attack strength of only one, etc. You're trading 3 attacks for one!

2. Does Communism work at all? I just went Communist, and corruption remains just about the same as under a Kingdom. Places that are far from the Palace are still completely corrupt, places near the palace aren't as bad.

3. Do courthouses do anything? They certainly don't halve corruption or waste. What do they do, specifically?

4. Why is the sound track much worse than in Civ2? Okay, I'm not really expecting an answer to that one.

 

[bulletsponge]

1 One difference is if you have 3 units and you attack another unit, your strongest unit of the 3 will attack until almost dead, then the next will come in and finish em off...And if you use a Great leader to make an army, its supposedly suppose to have a greater effect... but if you dont like em, dont use em...

2...sorry..cant answer....

3...Courthoused do wonders for me...Im in monarchy and corruption seems like it just about dissappeared...what government are you in...?...and do those cites connect by road to your capitol...i think that plays a part as to how much corruption...and if you on a different continent, i dunno, corruption will always take part there...

The Civlopedia says Courthouses decrease(no % specified) corruption and increase resistance to propoganda...

 

[Andiri]

"your strongest unit of the 3 will attack until almost dead, then the next will come in and finish em off ..."

Well, yes. Exactly the same thing happens if you send three fast units out against a slow one. I guess the only advantage might be if you're making a slow army.

I haven't noticed any effect of using leaders. Is there such a thing as a "great" leader, or are they all the same?

Courts, I find, do just about nothing, in either monarchy or communism. I have cities in which the all shields but one go to waste -- building a court makes no difference.

 

[RobKid]

Using an army is similar to using a single unit with triple hitpoints. For example, if you're attacking a foritified pikeman in a city with 3 swordsmen, you're using a 3 attack against 6 defense. You'll lose 2/3 of the rounds. If everyone's elite, you'll lose two of your swordsmen on average before the pikeman's dead. And that's only if he's got just one pikeman. If he's got two elite pikemen, after your first swordsman dies (leaving a pikeman with 2-3 hps) your second swordsman will attack the other pikeman, leaving it in the same situation when your swordsman dies. If you're lucky, your third swordsman will take out one of the pikemen, leaving it with (likely) 1 hp left, easy fodder on his next turn. Final tally: you trade three swordsmen for one pikeman. Not a good tradeoff.

Now change your three swordsmen to an army. You attack. Once the first swordsman in the army is down to 1 hp, he'll have likely taken the first pikeman down to three. Now your next swordsman jumps in to replace the first, still attacking the same pikeman. He'll also likely get reduced to 1 hp on average, but he'll leave the pikeman with only 1 hp on average as well. Now the third swordsman jumps into the fray again attacking the same pikeman. He'll finish it off, and you've lost no units. Your army is weakened, yes, but then again you were attacking against the odds and didn't lose anyone, while he lost a pikeman. If you precede this with a nice round of catapult bombardment, you could be in a great position to finish off his other defender the next turn and march right in.

One main thing I think you're missing is that each of those three attacks you mention would possibly be against a different unit. Your three units are not ganging up on anyone, while the army's three units are.

Now, I don't think that's worthless....

 

[Andiri]

If the army is the only force you have there, then it will be in no shape to "finish off his other defender next turn". Remember, the army is no stronger than 3 units, and has exactly the same number of hit points as 3 units. So it will be as badly damaged, after the fact, as an attack with 3 units.

The advantage of armies is that if any of the units survives, they all do. This is useless when a fast unit attacks a slow one, but it could be useful on attacks among like-speed units. Because I was using knight (and then cavalry) armies, I didn't see this advantage, but I certainly saw the disadvantage in not being able to upgrade the knights.

It's still not much of an advantage, though, and probably not worth the inability to upgrade, the logistical nightmares associated with transport (I wound up having a knight army sit for decades until I had researched and produced galleons), etc. Plus, it appears that only militaristic civs have much of a chance of ever producing them. Interesting idea, lousy execution.

If anyone can tell me what I'm missing with courthouses and Communism, I'd appreciate it.

 

[CoolLizy]

I thought the music was well done.

 

[Dearmad]

I LOVE the music/sound so much MORE than CivII!! I actually let the music play through the entire game- shut it off first day in Civ2!

In fact the entire atmosphere of this game is more fun/tactile/tangible- I feel like little armies are moving around rather than abstract "ubits"- the firsttime I saw my marines spray gunfire into another army was just great! I love the way infantry runs around, huffing it over hills and such!

And the way most units take up their Fortified position is so... SATISFYING! I love the click of a musket- or the growl of the warriors, or the setting in position sounds of a cannon or artillery! This game is SO dang polished in presentation! They only need to work out a few bugs...

My only caveat with sound: the sfx of the Caraval is LOUD and GRATING! I looked for the file to modify it but all the sfx files seem to be hardcoded into the game exe somehow... or in some other form I can't find hidden away- GRRR!

 

[Johnny Tsunami]

Originally posted by Dearmad

My only caveat with sound: the sfx of the Caraval is LOUD and GRATING!

I agree -- scared the hell out of me the first I heard it...

 

[bulletsponge]

Originally posted by Andiri


Courts, I find, do just about nothing, in either monarchy or communism. I have cities in which the all shields but one go to waste -- building a court makes no difference.

Hmm...there must be some sorta glitch somewhere or you're doing something wrong...I had horrible corruption in my outlaying cities, i then decided that i would need courthouses, cuz i wasnt building them before, so i went to work, and just about all the corruption was gone, it seems its creaping back up, but nothing much more than maybe 20%...and Im in monarchy...

My current game, I right now only have about 12% corruption rate...

 

[Dearmad]

Well I FOUND the WAVS for the units in the ART folder at last... and fixed that damned Caraval sound... MUCH better now...

 

[Peteus]

Don't worry Andri, you're not alone - I'm in Democracy, and a lot of my cities with courthouses still have 50% corruption!! Quite annoying, actually.
One of my rivals has a large city I'm coveting (a source of rubber - I have none!) So I investigated it, and despite being in a democracy, and not that far from his capitol, has about 95% corruption!!
The folks who say they have no corruption problems are probably playing on small maps?

 

[Dearmad]

Don't forget it ALSO has to do with the NUMBER of cities you have under some governments...

 

[CurtSibling]

Surely there's a corruption level you can change with the editor for each of the Govs?