Let's Play: Deity BC Space: Strategies from a 10 year veteran

[Lennier]

"Play Time 481:42:22".

There were times when I forgot to close the game and went to bed, or just left it open during a break, etc.
so that's a little exaggerated.

What an appropriate forum name.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Quick bump for this ancient 6 year thread.
WastinTime's 90AD Space Win on Deity is the greatest Civ 4 achievement of all time , so I don't consider this a necro.


I've been toying around trying to challenge this thing for a few months since I have Mapfinder and a very new computer to run it on Huge Maps.
Mapfinder running on the advanced start that give Satellites tech shows almost every map seems to max out around 50 per turn for Mining Inc. resources, but WastinTime got 57?

I thought it was an open question if the 50% more land tiles and forests could be utilized fast enough to get 800BC Mining Inc. and then race to the end any faster than the original masterpiece.
After countless attempts, I realized WT had a pretty flawless grand strategy with the wonderbread.
The Player Log is a great reference.

CivFanatics - Civilization IV Hall of Fame

Roll a high food and high commerce capital. (Golds are great, gems can work too if there are enough of them)
Try to pop a tech from a hut. (Mining, Wheel, and Masonry are all good)

Tech the good stuff like Currency and Math, then go for the top and bottom of the tech tree while waiting for the Friendly AI (put spy points on them to see their research, and gift them tech as needed)
Hopefully they will tech things like Monotheism, Monarchy, Code of Laws, Calendar, Construction, Horseback Riding, and bulb Philosophy/Theology while the player goes for Guilds.

Use Quechuas to grab a lot of coastal cities at the start to grow while all the inland cities whip settlers, chop for wonder gold, and create armies.
There are not nearly enough workers in the universe to cottage anywhere, so golden age coastal moneybags of 5 each + wonderbread fail are the goal for big tech speed.

If there are too many hilltop cities, reroll the map. (Advanced combat odds reveals unpromoted Q's have like a 70% chance to do some damage to hilltop archers, so soften them up for City Raider III Q's with sacrifices)
Threaten AI cities with aggressive AI turned on to steal workers.
Hope an AI techs Alphabet and will trade it for Math, Bronze Working, Masonry, Pottery etc.

The start is maddening trying to steal workers, chop forests into Q's and Stonehenge fail gold in multiple cities, do a major push in 2 directions, and choke a 3rd AI of metal and horses to save for later.


I'm not sure I have too much to contribute.
Perhaps in the midgame, get Theology from a Friendly AI and chop Hagia Sophia for 50% faster workers.
This allows for Steel 1st instead of Replaceable Parts -> Steam Power 1st.
Cannons (upgraded Trebs not too expensive) and an earlier start on Ironworks is not too bad. Plenty to conquer on Huge map.

Gifting an AI that has Open Borders a few Scouts and them attacking them over and over with Catapults to grind XP and Great General Points is hard to perform to any great extent.
The AI usually is quickly almost dead, their cities have motherland anger, and other AI want to kill the weakling too.
Catapults grinding up to City Raider III or Barrage III also are not on the frontline capturing cities.

Getting a 4 Galley at the start with 10xp is very useful as recommended by WT
A pair of 17xp upgraded Q's to Axes with City Raider III, Combat I, and Cover can really land killing blows in fights if they can motor around enemy coastal territory with 4


On Huge map, it seems the AI need 5 cities to reliably form a colony. (A cultural civ like the Dutch will NOT form a colony with only 5 cities )
I've tried to make an assembly line for forming new colonies every single turn to push the domination limit up quickly to 76%.

Spoiler :

Spoiler Long post about forcing AI to create colonies every turn :

Here in the above screenshot, Kumbi Saleh, Gao, and Chartres all have Mali culture while Marsin has Ottoman culture.
Every time I conquer them they go into a 3 turn revolt.

First I conquer an AI down to between 1 and 3 cities on the mainland and cease fire for the 1st time.

Then I gift them an island city, DOW them again, and then take everything on the mainland.
Cease fire a 2nd time.

Then I gift them 5 cities on the mainland.
1 where I want the new AI to live for a moment, Marsin, and then Gao since it is within 10 tiles of the last 2 cities.
With 4 cities the AI won't just take any city, but they take Kumbi Saleh and Chartres as long as they have Gao.

The next turn, the 5 mainland cities form a new AI colony
I Dow the pair of AI, wipe out the master from their island, and conquer back my 4 favorite cities.
Cease fire a 3rd time.

Then I gift the new AI the island city, a few of my 4 favorite cities, and DOW to take everything back on the mainland.
Cease fire a 4th time.


A brand new 1-city AI on an island with low war weariness is the perfect thing I need to make lots of new colonies fast.

The new thing I'm trying is to have 4AI doing this.
As long as they are backwards and spawn 2 Warriors in each new colony city (no Civil Service + Machinery I think), I can rotate them since they usually take 2 turns to talk peace with some capture gift cities.
1 AI is always forming a new colony with 5 shiny new cities on the mainland.
2nd AI with a new vassal is being conquered down to 1 city on the mainland and won't talk.
3rd is at war again as their vassal got a new island city and is being removed from the mainland.
4th AI is needed to form a new colony with 5 cities as the 1-city island Master+Vassal still won't talk.

So 5 gift cities, 4 more cities on the mainland to hold the new colony AI for 1 turn, and 1 new island city somewhere each turn to put them.
2 turns to form the new AI, and 2 turns to get them both on an island somewhere, so 4 AI on a rotation making new colonies.

Eventually, I can give the master AI with a few colonies my 4 favorite cities, capitulate them, and all their vassals are free.
Then all those free vassals can also take my 4 favorite cities, lose them for 40 war success, and also capitulate to me.
16 Garbage AI cities on islands somewhere, all my vassals, with the 17th and last AI free while I get 76% dom limit.

I could also kill all the AI off except one when the Dom Limit gets to 76%, but I think I need the +1 free happiness that each vassal gives.

Anyway, just keep bashing those 2 Warriors in each new colony city with Knights. (Combat I, Medic I, March to heal while moving at 10xp

I'm putting fail gold into Hermitage and Taj right now, but I remain uncertain.
Still finishing farm chains and the last of the Calender resources even though money will cease to matter when STRIKE starts.
Finally putting down the needed mines and workshops, but progress is slow since I keep chopping forests like a nutcase to get Mining Inc. faster.

Don't have the free golden age event.

I already made a small mistake running 1 Scientist instead of 1 Merchant in most of my cities for 30 turns.
I couldn't figure out how WastinTime had such a small -gpt, but then I finally realized my mistake.

Also stopped growing an island city at Size 13 for a few turns and wondered where the +3 trade route in all my cities was, but this thread straightened me out. (Size 14 island for +3 in all cities. Size 18 for +4 I think, but hard to achieve before STRIKE kills trade route value)

A Great Merchant is going to be used to bulb a lot of Economics like WT did, but I got a free Great Prophet from an event.
I wonder if I can use the free Great Merchant from Economics to bulb a bunch of Corporation too?
I'll have to check if I can squeeze it in and just produce a Great Merchant as needed right before Sushi, but I doubt it since I need 4 Great Scientists to bulb most of Scientific Method and Biology.


So ya, just trying to copy WastinTime and use the huge map for +1 turn better is the plan.
It is unreal teching so fast.
Feels like blatant copying though.
Civ 4 a fun game.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Awesome stuff, amazing the fun we are still having with Civ IV!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Kait, what are the main differences you see with your new system? I’m still running now Hewlett-Packard notebook from 2010…

 

[Kaitzilla]

Kait, what are the main differences you see with your new system? I’m still running now Hewlett-Packard notebook from 2010…

Civ 4 seems only modestly faster on a top-tier computer compared to an older one.
Not sure why.

The main difference is Mapfinder.
It slows down hard past 150 maps on Huge, but with the new computer sometimes it can go all night generating maps as I sleep.
Or the game crashes or freezes.

I was hoping for a huge improvement, but it didn't happen.
At least it seems that way to me.

Old computer was an early generation i5, new is Ryzen 7.

**Edit**
Right, Civ 4 has memory issues.

How to play civ 4 on windows 10

Hello I wanted to start playing a little civ 4 again. Last time I played was a couple of years ago. But this time when I try to play the game it just won't launch. I did install it but I had some troubles installing it as well. Is there any way to play civ 4 on Windows 10?

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[LowtherCastle]

Civ 4 seems only modestly faster on a top-tier computer compared to an older one.
Not sure why.

The main difference is Mapfinder.
It slows down hard past 150 maps on Huge, but with the new computer sometimes it can go all night generating maps as I sleep.
Or the game crashes or freezes.

I was hoping for a huge improvement, but it didn't happen.
At least it seems that way to me.

Old computer was an early generation i5, new is Ryzen 7.

**Edit**
Right, Civ 4 has memory issues.

How to play civ 4 on windows 10

Hello I wanted to start playing a little civ 4 again. Last time I played was a couple of years ago. But this time when I try to play the game it just won't launch. I did install it but I had some troubles installing it as well. Is there any way to play civ 4 on Windows 10?

forums.civfanatics.com

Wow. Thx for that link. I might try that on a longer game.

 

[WastinTime]

around 50 per turn for Mining Inc. resources, but WastinTime got 57

So, your maps get more raw resources, but because it's Huge, you get less hammers, rt?
Between that and the increase beakers per tech on Huge, travel distance, etc. it's hard to imagine that lower distance maint. on Huge makes up for all that. I'm sure I'm forgetting other Large vs Huge pros/cons.
Good Luck!

 

[Kaitzilla]

So, your maps get more raw resources, but because it's Huge, you get less hammers, rt?
Between that and the increase beakers per tech on Huge, travel distance, etc. it's hard to imagine that lower distance maint. on Huge makes up for all that. I'm sure I'm forgetting other Large vs Huge pros/cons.
Good Luck!

Thanks!

Ya, techs are a bit more expensive and the travel distance is a real pain on Huge maps.
The number of turns stays the same.


In the back of my head I feel like perhaps I can just spread Mining Inc. mainly on the huge continent at 5 per turn instead of having to go to the island that maxes out at 2.5 spreads per turn. (unless they are large islands, roaded, and running slavery)
But how to spread at more than 2.5 on land while in Caste so much?
Use Slavery more and spawn less great people at the end?
Get Cristo and constantly switch to have 100% Slavery and 50% Caste?


Large is 0.75 per resource and Huge is 0.5 per resource.

I ran a bunch of tests to see what gave the most Mining Inc. resources, and Big and Small is king of course.

10 Large Maps with max opponents (temperate, low seas, tiny islands mixed in) gave:

Spoiler :

1) 61 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal, 12 Coppers, 21 Iron, 8 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.75 = 45.75 per turn max
2) 64 Mining Inc. resources (13 Coal, 14 Coppers, 21 Iron, 11 Gold, 5 Silver) x 0.75 = 48 per turn max
3) 64 Mining Inc. resources (13 Coal, 13 Coppers, 21 Iron, 11 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.75 = 48 per turn max
4) 62 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal, 12 Coppers, 21 Iron, 10 Gold, 5 Silver) x 0.75 = 46.5 per turn max
5) 67 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal, 14 Coppers, 23 Iron, 11 Gold, 5 Silver) x 0.75 = 50.25 per turn max
6) 64 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal, 13 Coppers, 21 Iron, 11 Gold, 5 Silver) x 0.75 = 48 per turn max
7) 60 Mining Inc. resources (13 Coal,13 Coppers, 20 Iron, 8 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.75 = 45 per turn max
8) 61 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal,14 Coppers, 21 Iron, 7 Gold, 5 Silver) x 0.75 = 45.75 per turn max
9) 67 Mining Inc. resources (14 Coal, 14 Coppers, 22 Iron, 11 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.75 = 50.25 per turn max
10) 62 Mining Inc. resources (13 Coal, 14 Coppers, 22 Iron, 7 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.75 = 46.5 per turn max

The 90AD record game had 16 Coal, 14 Copper, 24 Iron, 13 Gold, and 9 Silver by Turn 359 which is 76 resources.

10 Huge Maps with max opponents (temperate, low seas, tiny islands mixed in) gave:

Spoiler :

1) 92 Mining Inc. resources (19 Coal, 20 Coppers, 32 Iron, 12 Gold, 9 Silver) x 0.5 = 46 per turn max
2) 92 Mining Inc. resources (18 Coal, 20 Coppers, 33 Iron, 13 Gold, 8 Silver) x 0.5 = 46 per turn max
3) 91 Mining Inc. resources (20 Coal, 22 Coppers, 30 Iron, 10 Gold, 9 Silver) x 0.5 = 45.5 per turn max
4) 92 Mining Inc. resources (19 Coal, 21 Coppers, 33 Iron, 12 Gold, 7 Silver) x 0.5 = 46 per turn max
5) 95 Mining Inc. resources (20 Coal, 21 Coppers, 31 Iron, 15 Gold, 8 Silver) x 0.5 = 47.5 per turn max
6) 93 Mining Inc. resources (20 Coal, 21 Coppers, 30 Iron, 15 Gold, 7 Silver) x 0.5 = 46.5 per turn max
7) 91 Mining Inc. resources (19 Coal, 21 Coppers, 30 Iron, 13 Gold, 8 Silver) x 0.5 = 45.5 per turn max
8) 95 Mining Inc. resources (20 Coal, 22 Coppers, 33 Iron, 12 Gold, 8 Silver) x 0.5 = 47.5 per turn max
9) 92 Mining Inc. resources (19 Coal, 22 Coppers, 31 Iron, 14 Gold, 6 Silver) x 0.5 = 46 per turn max
10) 86 Mining Inc. resources (19 Coal, 19 Coppers, 30 Iron, 10 Gold, 8 Silver) x 0.5 = 43 per turn max

A few more resources should pop during the game from Marathon and 1 in 10,000 chance each turn from mines I think.
Some random events gives a copper or silver spawn too possibly.

I figure 50 per turn is roughly the maximum unless the luck is good or I missed a map setting somewhere that juices things up.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Civ 4 seems only modestly faster on a top-tier computer compared to an older one.
Not sure why.

Not coded to take advantage of fancy new features, doesn't know there's more memory available etc etc.

 

[Abegweit]

Not coded to take advantage of fancy new features, doesn't know there's more memory available etc etc.

Yeah. To be more precise, modern computers are only slightly faster than those of 20 years ago. The difference is that today's computers are much more compact and cheaper. They also have far more memory, multiple cores and infinitely superior graphics. Today's machines can do four to eight things at once on multiple cores.

Civ IV only uses one of those cores. That's all there was at the time. That's the main reason. Also, as I recall, it won't use more than 512MB of memory due to some OS restriction of the time. Today the limit is 3GB. More memory would be useful for very large maps.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Yeah. To be more precise, modern computers are only slightly faster than those of 20 years ago. The difference is that today's computers are much more compact and cheaper. They also have far more memory, multiple cores and infinitely superior graphics. Today's machines can do four to eight things at once on multiple cores.

Civ IV only uses one of those cores. That's all there was at the time. That's the main reason. Also, as I recall, it won't use more than 512MB of memory due to some OS restriction of the time. Today the limit is 3GB. More memory would be useful for very large maps.

I guess that explains why I can still use my HP Pavilion notebook from 2010 for CIV. My only real problem is larger Maps. .

 

[Kaitzilla]

It is so difficult to plan around Mining Inc., Kremlin, STRIKE, Sushi, and Assembly Line even though I know the ideal order thanks to WT.

I was inching my way forward, but Germany peace vassaled to Washington and now I'm at war with the most powerful AI civ left that can actually hurt me.
His chariot could have scuttled my undefended city full of chops for Kremlin, but he captured a worker instead that I dumped by boat to road to Carthage.
SO CLOSE to infinite disaster @_@

Spoiler :

Will find out how much he can hurt me in the next 6 or 7 turns.
Neeed lots of drafting.
Might spend 400 to upgrade a unit to Machine Gun.
Washington's main army is 4W1S of Marseilles, while my main armies are to his west near Frederick's captured capital.
I'll try to defend in the east and attack Washington's west while ignoring Germany's last few cities for a while.

Spoiler :

Some civs with vassals will capitulate with 40 war success like Gandhi and Ramesses, but Saladin won't for some reason.
I'll just kill his whole civ off I think and free his 3 vassals directly.

Spoiler :

Kind of stuck trying to figure out how to pay for executive spread during STRIKE.
Some combination of overflow gold and embezzling gold with AI to steal back a piece at a time.
Need more wonderbread.

Went ahead and got free Railroad on T263. (870BC)
Don't really need Q's for strike bait if I can make a bunch of Scouts and Workboats.

Huge map continues to feel like it's a bit too big.

Islands with coal or iron I think I'll control directly.
Any with copper or silver can be one of my vassals that I trade for later since the price is so high.

Only the first demand is guaranteed?
Don't want a war deep into Strike.

 

[jnebbe]

I've always wanted to try a huge marathon game like this cause I like playing with corps but then I decide against it cause I only play normal speed and I can't be bothered learning how marathon works lol, is it that much different from normal?

Moderator Action: Post edited to remove unclear wording as we have many non-native speakers hear --NZ.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I can't be bothered learning how marathon works lol, is it that much different from normal

I love marathon, obviously the pace is much slower (tech rates, buildings etc) but as the movement rules are unchanged you have a bigger window for using troops etc.

 

[LowtherCastle]

It is so difficult to plan around Mining Inc., Kremlin, STRIKE, Sushi, and Assembly Line even though I know the ideal order thanks to WT.

I was inching my way forward, but Germany peace vassaled to Washington and now I'm at war with the most powerful AI civ left that can actually hurt me.
His chariot could have scuttled my undefended city full of chops for Kremlin, but he captured a worker instead that I dumped by boat to road to Carthage.
SO CLOSE to infinite disaster @_@

Spoiler :

Will find out how much he can hurt me in the next 6 or 7 turns.
Neeed lots of drafting.
Might spend 400 to upgrade a unit to Machine Gun.
Washington's main army is 4W1S of Marseilles, while my main armies are to his west near Frederick's captured capital.
I'll try to defend in the east and attack Washington's west while ignoring Germany's last few cities for a while.

Spoiler :

Some civs with vassals will capitulate with 40 war success like Gandhi and Ramesses, but Saladin won't for some reason.
I'll just kill his whole civ off I think and free his 3 vassals directly.

Spoiler :

Kind of stuck trying to figure out how to pay for executive spread during STRIKE.
Some combination of overflow gold and embezzling gold with AI to steal back a piece at a time.
Need more wonderbread.

Went ahead and got free Railroad on T263. (870BC)
Don't really need Q's for strike bait if I can make a bunch of Scouts and Workboats.

Huge map continues to feel like it's a bit too big.

Islands with coal or iron I think I'll control directly.
Any with copper or silver can be one of my vassals that I trade for later since the price is so high.

Only the first demand is guaranteed?
Don't want a war deep into Strike.

Is there anyway to expedite a cease-fire with Washington?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Is there anyway to expedite a cease-fire with Washington?

Unfortunately not.

Washington has a moderate iRefuseToTalkWarThreshold = 8, so the only way for a relatively fast cease fire is a huge amount of positive war success with very small losses.
Even worse, since he DOW'd me the turn length before he will talk is doubled.
At least 1 turn of war has already passed due to turn order.


The empire is doing well preparing for Mining Inc. on Turn 267.
Should do Bureau T266 and Slavery T271. (So I've only got 2 more turns of drafting )
The capital which was moved to a more central spot many turns ago with fresh forests has 4 set aside.
1 chop each turn should make 4 Executives with 75% production bonus.
My Great Scientist bulb is up to 9700 and I hope I can reach exactly half of Biology with 10500 eventually.

Spoiler :

I'm pausing the colony creation cycle to free up lots of Knights to defend against Washington/Mansa and hopefully get a good counter attack in.
Also pausing the far eastern attack on Hannibal I think.

Mansa in particular really wants his capital back, and I don't have good defenses down there.
Most of my fleet will be destroyed and a few of my Knights.
Mansa is protected by a perfectly placed mountain, so any attack or reinforcements must come over the water.

Spoiler :

My main advantage vs. Washington is he has no Engineering for 3 on his roads, nor Knights.
The sudden DOW means he is just as flat-footed as I am.

Spoiler :

Really wanted to capture 2 Carthage cities so I could gift him a spy city and steal Compass. Will see.
I don't think my resource collection is going as well as WastinTime.
I've got to collect 50% more of the darn things to get the same hammers.

 

[NickGabben]

"You are the worst enemy of Ramesses II, Saladin, Gandhi, Montezuma, Napoleon, Frederick, Hannibal, Brennus, Sitting Bull, Mansa Musa, Joao II, Justinian I, Washington."

 

[Kaitzilla]

Kind of stuck trying to figure out how to pay for executive spread during STRIKE.
Some combination of overflow gold and embezzling gold with AI to steal back a piece at a time.
Need more wonderbread.

I've been pondering the best way to do this all week.
If I really want to take full advantage of the huge map giant main continent's ability to spread 5 Mining Inc. and later 5 Sushi for a long time (it can fit a lot of cities), I really need a reliable way to generate 250 and later 500 each turn while in STRIKE.

The information is valid and is supported by testing and XML-inspection, although it depends upon one's definition of the words "Cultural Building." Let's come up with a better term, that of "Buildings which cannot be Captured."

Shorter answer: Unless you have some City Culture in the City in which Moai Statues exist, which you get from ending a turn when owning a City in which you are earning Culture in the City, or from a Spy's Spread Culture Mission, you will have a 0% chance of retaining Moai Statues upon City capture. If you have enough City Culture in the captured City relative to the current owner of the City to be able to capture the City with 0 turns of City Revolt, you will keep Moai Statues (assuming that you don't have Moai Statues in another City). Otherwise, it's a dice roll chance of keeping Moai Statues upon City capture out of the percentage of the amount City Culture that you have in the City relative to the amount of City Culture that the current owner has in the City.

Longer answer:
Buildings which cannot be Captured:
A] Monument (assuming that you do not own Stonehenge, in which case it's not actually the Building surviving but a free fake Building appearing which will disappear upon losing Stonehenge or upon obsoleting Stonehenge)
B] Library
C] University
D] Theatre
E] Temple
F] Monastery
G] Cathedral

Note that this list includes Unique Buildings of the same type. Since a Monument cannot be captured, the Egyptian Obelisk, the Ethiopian Stele, and the Native American Totem Pole also cannot be captured.

All other Buildings have the potential to be captured.

Note that you can verify this info for yourself by looking in the XML:
{Civ 4 Installation}\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\BuildingsCIV4BuildingInfos.xml
In that file, a value of:
<bNeverCapture>1</bNeverCapture>
means that a Building cannot be captured. However, these Buildings will still survive a Culture Flip and will survive when a City is gifted. I assume that these Buildings will also survive when a City is assigned via The Apostolic Palace, but I don't have much experience with that case, so I cannot say with 100% certainty.


As for other types of Buildings, the percentage chance of a Building being captured is the combination of the <iConquestProb> value (found in the same XML file) and your City Culture percentage for the City, which, from what I can tell, only matters as the percentage of the amount of City Culture that you have in the City relative to the amount of City Culture that the current owner of the City has in the City, ignoring City Culture from other past owners of the City.

Culture is a bit tricky as there are both City Culture and plot Culture.

From my understanding of the two:
A] City Culture comes from you owning the City at the end of a turn and the City gaining Culture at the end of your turn
B] Plot Culture also accumulates when you earn City Culture, but it generally accumulates at a greater rate, since you get a bonus 20 plot Culture in the City Centre square at the end of each turn for every amount of Cultural Border expansions that your City has undergone. I.e. If you have a Monument and a Palace and are making 3 City Culture per turn, but your Cultural Borders have expanded twice due to you reaching 100 Culture on Normal Game Speed, you'll earn 3 City Culture and 3 + 2 * 20 = 3 + 40 = 43 plot Culture
C] In the Beyond the Sword expansion, a Great Artist Culture Bomb (aka a Great Work) that was bombed from another nearby City will not increase the City Culture of Cities within range of the Culture Bomb (although it will obviously increase the City Culture in the City in which you performed the Culture Bomb, as it's City Culture that is used for the Legendary City level that we attempt to achieve in 3 Cities in a Cultural Victory). Put another way: A Culture Bomb in BtS will not help you to reduce the amount of City Revolt upon City capture of nearby AI Cities that were affected by the Culture Bomb. This fact means that Culture Bombing in BtS does not help to increase the odds of capturing Buildings in nearby AI Cities. Although I haven't tested to be certain, I think that this behaviour was a change from Warlords and Vanilla, since Culture Bombs were much more powerful there, likely because Culture Bombs there affected both plot Culture and City Culture
D] In BtS, a Spy's Spread Culture Mission will affect City Culture (I'm not sure whether or not it also affects plot Culture). This fact means that the Spread Culture Mission is BtS' (likely, but not confirmed with testing) answer to the Vanilla/Warlords Culture Bomb, in that it will reduce the amount of City Revolt upon City capture
E] What we see when hovering our mouse over top of a City in the main game view and when looking at the City Nationality bar at the bottom left of the City screen is plot Culture
F] Below the City Nationality bar is a Culture bar, which indicates your City Culture in the City
G] Only the current owner of the City has their City Culture shown in the City screen, so you'll have to perform the math yourself in order to figure out the percentage of City Culture that you own in a given City, since the game doesn't display this information


Some general rules:
i. World Wonders have <iConquestProb>100</iConquestProb>, so they will survive a City Revolt
ii. Great-People-built Buildings, such as Academies, Holy Shrines, and Military Academies, have <iConquestProb>100</iConquestProb>, so they will survive a City Revolt
iii. Many Buildings have a <iConquestProb>0</iConquestProb> value, including Moai Statues, which means that if the City goes into City Revolt upon capture and you have no City Culture in the City, that Building will get destroyed
iv. Some Buildings have a value greater than 0 but less than 100, such as Granaries and Terraces with <iConquestProb>66</iConquestProb>, so if the City goes into City Revolt, the Building has a chance to survive
v. If the City does not go into City Revolt when the City gets captured, due to your Cultural dominance in terms of City Culture (plot Culture does not matter), all Buildings which are NOT in the "Buildings which cannot be Captured" list are eligible to survive
vi. If the City does go into City Revolt when a City gets captured, the percentage of the Building surviving can be greater than its <iConquestProb> value (up to a maximum of 100) if you have some City Culture in the City. The greater the amount of your City Culture in the City relative to the amount of the City Culture belonging to the current owner of the City (i.e. the current owner just before you captured the City), the greater the chance that Buildings with an <iConquestProb> below 100 will have of surviving. From my understanding, you'll be able to push Granaries/Terraces up to a 100% chance of survive, and other Buildings with a <iConquestProb> value of 0 will have a chance to survive based on a dice roll relative to your City Culture percentage (not plot Culture percentage) in the City


In testing, I have seen some interesting things:
a) Captured World Wonders that you did not build do not produce Culture for your Civ, which most of us know and makes sense, since the conqueror didn't actually erect the World Wonder. That's not the interesting part, but is the basis for why some other items are interesting
b) Most captured National Wonders that you did not build do produce Culture if they survive through the capturing of the City, but Moai Statues built by another player does not produce Culture for you, perhaps due to it being added in the Warlords expansion by a different programmer than were the original National Wonders. If you built Moai Statues and recapture it, you will get its Culture. Other than the Moai Statues exception, think of it as the National Wonder switching its national identity, but a World Wonder retaining its original national identity
c) Captured National Wonders that you did not build which retain their Culture (examples include the Heroic Epic, the National Epic, and the Globe Theatre) will retain their "doubled Culture" value if they have existed for 1000 years
d) Captured Castles that you did not build retain their +1 Culture
e) National Wonders can be captured regardless of whether you meet the pre-requisites for building those National Wonders. For example, I was able to capture the Globe Theatre with 0 Theatres in my empire, and the normal pre-requisite is 4 Theatres for Duel maps, then scaled up for map size, and set to 1 for a One-City Challenge game

I feel like this post by Dhoomstriker is the key.

Hermitage, National Epic, and Heroic Epic are all National Wonders with <iConquestProb>0</iConquestProb>
I can build/chop/whip them complete in a newly conquered small city. (Have to gift away a big city that contains National Epic or Heroic Epic to construct them in another city)

I also have a lot of 1-population civs that were generated as colonies after I eliminate their master.
I give them a runt city that contains Hermitage.
They have no Code of Laws, no Music, no way to generate in their city. I give them a capital with a few population with an oddball religion like Confucianism.
They hold my Hermitage city that I built some in for 1 turn while I build Hermitage again in my capital with Levee, Mining Inc., Bureau, Ironworks, and Marble.
Then I conquer the Hermitage city back and hold it for 1 turn to cash in.

I'm thinking have my capital build Hermitage, then National Epic, and just keep switching back and forth cashing in on wonderbread every other turn.
Heck, it can even be 1 chop in a newly captured city generating 225

Just need 2 AI to abuse with cease fires every 2 turns.

....wait, unlike Hermitage, the National Epic (and Heroic Epic) generates +4 per turn when gifted away.
There is an escalating chance each time I capture the city back with National Epic that it will be destroyed if the AI builds any in the city.

Do I dare make a city with 1000's of culture into a toy to constantly be recaptured with +4 more enemy in it each time with a 99.9% chance to keep the National Epic, 99.8%, 99.7%?

If I capture a city back and the National Wonder is gone, the entire scheme collapses
Ugh. The Super Medic attacking scenario, I've lost a few over the years at 99.9%.


So Hermitage is complete in a trash city.
I gift the city away plus a few more to an AI, then DOW, take back the war success cities, and let the AI hold Hermitage for 1 turn.
Build Hermitage in capital or chop it elsewhere.
2nd turn, I take back Hermitage.
3rd turn, I get fail from Hermitage, sign Cease fire and do it all over again. Fail comes 3rd turn, 5th turn, 7th turn, etc.

Again, this scheme falls apart if the AI manages to build a single in the city somehow and the National Wonder gets destroyed.

 

[WastinTime]

I assume you've read my writeup on this specific topic under 'End game Strike Strategy'? Maybe you haven't reviewed it lately . Seems my conclusion was 2 over-whipped workboats produce 320 gpt. Covering 5 spreads per turn.
here's a link to the full post
Here's the relevant section...

But wait! How can you spread corps without money?

Trade tech for gold? yea, but No
The size 1 population AI civs I left alive are likely at 0 trade gold even if they have money in the bank. So this may work for the game you have planned, but not my game.

Wait to start STRIKE until after corp spreads are done? yea, but No
I'll probably wait til Mining is spread (need to do math again), but if I can get 100 seafood, expenses are going to be through the roof once sushi starts going around.

I'll need something like 300gpt (update: exactly 250gpt) to spread 5 corps per turn.
Fortunately, there is not just one, but at least four ways to get money:

1. Wonder Bread. failgold still comes in after your bank acct was debited -20,000 (or whatever) and reset to 0.

2. Whipping extra execs. aka Exec failgold.
Note, you can't just put OF hammers into an exec to get failgold because any attempt to do that means you're not completing the full 5 execs per turn. The only way to do #2 is whipping them from 0h.

2b. Technically missionary failgold is an option, but not in my game. I'm not running OrgRel. (update: circumstances allowed me to run OrgRel after all. I'll use this method some.)

3. Whipping small units. Like a 59/60 workboat. After factory/power, if you whip that, you get +180h. With say, 50 organic hammers, you be putting 59+180+50 = 289h* in.
That results in a workboat + 60h overflow + 169
And do we have a use for that workboat. Yes! I like the sound of this option.
* note: even more with Kremlin added. Whips are 270!

4. Hot Tip
You'll never generate exactly the amt of gold you need that turn (without being/going insane). Give any extra to the 1-city AI you left scattered around the resource-less ice islands. They won't have anything to spend it on. They're like little banks. To make a withdrawl:
Steal gold from the AI using your passive EPs (from Palace and some AI built courthouses--possibly spy specialists but those take away from )
When playing 'normal' (non-strike) and having 100 courthouses, this idea worked well, but I don't have the EPs to steal 300 gpt if I skip courthouses. Depending on when I start strike, it might make sense for the first 50 cities to have a ch. If mining inc alone means that a 360h courthouse gives back 50gpt, then it only takes ~7 turns to pay for itself.

So what will I do this game?
I'm just figuring that out now while I'm typing this. Seems like a mistake to be running slavery instead of caste (scientists and +1 workshops), so that goes against my favorite, #3, whip workboats.

exec failgold means slavery the whole time. All the gold is flushed each turn

Wonder Bread needs slavery, but only for a brief time. Then you have to go several turns storing it in a wonder, then build that wonder. Now you have a huge bomb that needs to be spent this turn or hidden from the IRS in foreign 'banks'.
So Wonder Bread isn't quite obsolete. Doing this and stealing money back looks like the only way to stay in caste most of the time.

But I really like the workboats. Of course!
Just like I save whip overflows to be put into wonder failgold, I can save over-whipped workboats. Then build research and only produce 2 workboats per turn for ~320 per turn. I think that's it. One drawback is that I need the workboats earlier and they need to travel before I get my sushi resources. I'll either have to slowly gather the final seafood or just build workboats and burn them.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I assume you've read my writeup on this specific topic under 'End game Strike Strategy'? Maybe you haven't reviewed it lately . Seems my conclusion was 2 over-whipped workboats produce 320 gpt. Covering 5 spreads per turn.
here's a link to the full post
Here's the relevant section...

Thanks for the reminder.
I was mainly worrying about the start of STRIKE (Mining Inc. + 8 turns I think) and when the coal plants come online (Mining Inc. + 23 turns)
I've never really done a full blown STRIKE economy before, I just recall it has to be very carefully managed if slavery windows are limited.

A great many of my coastal cities have weak natural production.
And I forgot overflow gold keeps the modifiers.

I'll get working towards 59/60 workboats, whip them, and store them.
Mining Inc. can boost the gold payout even if it arrived many turns later ya.

Coal power whipped workboat pairs certainly solve the STRIKE gold problem.


I bulbed almost 10k into 14k Sci. Method.
I didn't want to bulb the last 4k, so I took another turn to get Communism.
Hedging my bets in case the 3 huts I can reach don't give me Astronomy, which I can almost entirely bulb.

My Washington is dying nicely, Germany is almost dead, Mansa lost his army, and Hannibal is going to lose his capital soon. At war with all the remaining civs.

Spoiler :

Yes, I was praying real hard for the 95% Great Scientist.
Not as hard as the 87% Great Engineer though.

Next gpp question is whether my next 100% Great Merchant bulbs 7k? of Assembly Line, or do I save it for final golden age.
Would hate to spend it and then get a 2nd Great Prophet with 8% odds.