Little questions & answers thread

[MutilationWave]

Even if you can’t support the specialists with happiness in one age, you likely will later, and growth is so slow in cities it’s usually worth adding specialists every time so that you’re buildings in the next age are at full strength.

I'm really struggling with the optimum time to start slotting specialists rather than rural tiles. I always want more production and end up falling farther behind in tech and civics. At least until mid-late exploration when the ball gets rolling and crushes everyone. This can't be optimal though. I'm in love with moar hammers. Any advice?

 

[Siptah]

+1

I always find it difficult to when to go for specialists in antiquity, too. Usually, I want the hammers for wonders or to get some of the future golden academies/amphitheaters down. In many games, I hardly place specialists in antiquity. I see how in the very early game, a few extra science per turn can snowball (more codices = more science, more science = more yields in general on all buildings and improvements), but somehow, I could never really commit to that.

 

[stealth_nsk]

+1

I always find it difficult to when to go for specialists in antiquity, too. Usually, I want the hammers for wonders or to get some of the future golden academies/amphitheaters down. In many games, I hardly place specialists in antiquity. I see how in the very early game, a few extra science per turn can snowball (more codices = more science, more science = more yields in general on all buildings and improvements), but somehow, I could never really commit to that.

Sometime in antiquity I hit the situation where there's nothing reasonable to build. Things like Amphitheaters or food buildings usually look like a waste of production and there are no wonders to build, since on immortal AI is quite good at building them. Around this time I found specialists a viable investment.

For exploration, science legacy path generally pushes my hand, so in any city which taken enough land, I try to focus on specialists.

 

[UWHabs]

My problem with slotting specialists in antiquity is that they get bonuses based on adjacencies, but then the adjacencies go away for those buildings, so I know on transition those specialists are going to be under-whelming until I can rebuild over those tiles. Plus, I find in antiquity I often have resources planned in the 3rd rings, so it often takes everything I can to get and work those tiles.

Exploration I tend to go for specialists early, since I need to at least guarantee my 5 tiles, so I know I'll max out some of those spots.

But I find I'm really not trying to optimize, and just take everything in a very "what looks good right now" thing. Does any tile speak to me, maybe it just looks nice? If I've felt my growth is slow, I might pop a fishing boat. Or if there's a nice 4 production tile, I'll go for that. Worst case I basically need them all anyways, so I don't worry too much.

 

[StargazingDog]

Even if you can’t support the specialists with happiness in one age, you likely will later, and growth is so slow in cities it’s usually worth adding specialists every time so that you’re buildings in the next age are at full strength.

For some reason it didn’t fully hit me until my most recent game that the specialists are there forever. I now frequently place specialists on districts I know will be powerful in the following age.

 

[Serenya]

For some reason it didn’t fully hit me until my most recent game that the specialists are there forever. I now frequently place specialists on districts I know will be powerful in the following age.

What happens though when a city reverts to a town? It seems to me that specialists stick around in modern, but not in exploration - or at least it's really very inconsistent!

 

[UWHabs]

I know some things in specialists are inconsistent - there was something with how specialists transitioned between the ages that was slightly messed up, I know leading up to some of the patches. I do think there some cases where the specialist might vanish between the ages. Just because I place them expecting them to stick around it wouldn't surprise me if they went poof between the eras.

 

[Isca Dumnoniorum]

I assumed when being asked to grow my town/city immediately after an age transition, that was me being asked to reallocate expired specialists. Some settlements seem to get three or four growth events to allocate and others just one (maybe others none). Do we know what that might be instead?

 

[Serenya]

I assumed when being asked to grow my town/city immediately after an age transition, that was me being asked to reallocate expired specialists. Some settlements seem to get three or four growth events to allocate and others just one (maybe others none). Do we know what that might be instead?

I assumed the same, except in a few cases I was pretty certain I grew considerably less than the # of specialists that had been there. Next time I'm going to screenshot at the last and first turns of the age flip to see if I can figure it out (of course, when I did that for military units it proved to be the time it worked correctly, so...)

 

[sixty4half]

There is a Exp Age civ that gives +1 Specialist (i can't remember which one right now). There is no Mod Age civ with the same ability so when you transition you lose a Specialist slot. Any tiles at max Spec must be relocated.

 

[CoconutTank]

There is a Exp Age civ that gives +1 Specialist (i can't remember which one right now). There is no Mod Age civ with the same ability so when you transition you lose a Specialist slot. Any tiles at max Spec must be relocated.

I think that's Majapahit, based on the description from the game guide:

Majapahit Civilization | Civilization VII

Learn more about the Majapahit civilization in Sid Meier's Civilization VII!

civilization.2k.com

Negara: All Cities except the Capital have an increased Specialist Limit. After the Exploration Age, the Specialist Limit increase goes away, and the Specialists become inactive until you increase the Specialist Limit.

 

[Disgustipated]

So on age transition the thing about treasure fleet golden age legacy bonus regarding keeping all cities as cities is darkened out and I can't select it. Anyone know why this is? I did actually complete the economic legacy path.

 

[MutilationWave]

So on age transition the thing about treasure fleet golden age legacy bonus regarding keeping all cities as cities is darkened out and I can't select it. Anyone know why this is? I did actually complete the economic legacy path.

Did you select a different golden age or perhaps two economic attribute points? Clear all your selections and see if you can select it first.

 

[sixty4half]

So on age transition the thing about treasure fleet golden age legacy bonus regarding keeping all cities as cities is darkened out and I can't select it. Anyone know why this is? I did actually complete the economic legacy path.

Sounds like you spent the Econ points on something else? Maybe the 2 point bonus for gold per trade route in previous age. Maybe you also bought a Econ Attribute point, or used the 1 wildcard point on something else.

With 3 econ points and 1 wildcard you should be able to buy both 2 point econ cards.


The other possibility is you already bought a Gold Age card. You can only pick one gold age card, even if you get Gold Age on all 4 legacies.


FYI, That golden age is a trap unless you have a lot of horses and dyes to offset the unhappiness in all those cities.

Edit: MutilationWave beat me by writing a smaller post.... that sniper ;D

 

[MutilationWave]

Sounds like you spent the Econ points on something else? Maybe the 2 point bonus for gold per trade route in previous age. Maybe you also bought a Econ Attribute point, or used the 1 wildcard point on something else.

With 3 econ points and 1 wildcard you should be able to buy both 2 point econ cards.


The other possibility is you already bought a Gold Age card. You can only pick one gold age card, even if you get Gold Age on all 4 legacies.


FYI, That golden age is a trap unless you have a lot of horses and dyes to offset the unhappiness in all those cities.

Edit: MutilationWave beat me by writing a smaller post.... that sniper ;D

I disagree that it's a trap. Sure it is a rough start to modern, but modern is the easiest age by far. I took it on my all cities run (I did have two towns) when I was over the limit I had already increased in every way I could.

Like you said happiness resources and make sure you've got 3000 gold saved and high gold income on age transition and you'll be ok. Build traders immediately to get more resources and have influence saved up as well to --construct additional pylons-- I mean buy more trade slots. You'll probably go negative for a while in gold but the amount you save makes up for it in my opinion.

 

[Disgustipated]

The other possibility is you already bought a Gold Age card. You can only pick one gold age card, even if you get Gold Age on all 4 legacies.

It was probably this. I did not realize this.

 

[sixty4half]

Do you normally get Exp Age civ Narrative Events in the Mod Age? I don't remember seeing any, maybe 1 a game or something when I was pursuing culture victory. I've gotten several events for French Imperial Shawnee where I have to decide if the Shawnee will move forward with the times or hold on to old traditions. Could just be a Shawnee thing?

 

[uppi]

Do you normally get Exp Age civ Narrative Events in the Mod Age? I don't remember seeing any, maybe 1 a game or something when I was pursuing culture victory. I've gotten several events for French Imperial Shawnee where I have to decide if the Shawnee will move forward with the times or hold on to old traditions. Could just be a Shawnee thing?

These are modern events which have a requirement that you were a certain civ in an earlier age. There are about 15 of those

 

[Taefin]

What happens though when a city reverts to a town? It seems to me that specialists stick around in modern, but not in exploration - or at least it's really very inconsistent!

I’ll have to pay more attention to this next game. I played Carthage last game, so all specialists were in capital and they stuck around. Like you, I see them sticking around EXP->MOD.

What gets me is that captured settlements seem to lose all specialists.

I agree that 4-5 production is the main thing that will make me second guess placing a specialist. Following others advice to avoid fishing boats like the plague has helped ensure I usually get all production improvements by the time specialists come out, or that I have food improvements to build over to liberate specialists soon enough after.

 

[MutilationWave]

I’ll have to pay more attention to this next game. I played Carthage last game, so all specialists were in capital and they stuck around. Like you, I see them sticking around EXP->MOD.

What gets me is that captured settlements seem to lose all specialists.

I agree that 4-5 production is the main thing that will make me second guess placing a specialist. Following others advice to avoid fishing boats like the plague has helped ensure I usually get all production improvements by the time specialists come out, or that I have food improvements to build over to liberate specialists soon enough after.

I hadn't heard the fishing boat advice but I was kinda realizing that on my own on my current exploration play. I'm slowly getting better at recognizing good city vs town spots, and I'm going to be better next game.

Here's something I didn't see mentioned yet- if you're going for monasteries from science CS bonus (and you should be) you really need to watch where you place your buildings early because you can't place a monastery next to an urban district. Also Bulgaria's hidden fortress UI is great!