Newbie Questions - ask here and get answers!

[Bamspeedy]

hbdragon88 - you must mean not to build warriors. Spearman upgrade all the way to mech infantry. Warriors only upgrade to swordsman.

Building catapults and spearman early on for later upgrades may make sense. It depends if you want to be devoting your shields for that purpose that early in the game. Sure, they cost less to produce, but your civ also has few shields to spare! And, like you mentioned about upkeep costs. Depending on what level you play you could use that gold to set science high and get a tech lead, so you wouldn't be too pressed for having a massive updated army right away.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Dran
Would you say it was a good tactic to build a lot of catapults and spearmen early in the game when they are cheap cost in shields, with a view to upgrading them progessively later ?

If you have nothing better to do. If the units are vets, then it's OK I guess. I prefer to build cannons, rather than catapults. Spearmen are OK since you need defenders at any phase in the game.

The obvious drawback is the maintenance cost while they are idle.
I would want to use them in a war but this would necessitate building numbers of more attacking units as well, increasing even further the maintenance cost.

Ditto. Unless I'm sure of war in the immediate future, will skip on building any offensive units and concentrate on settlers and spearmen.

I suppose if you planned to get Leo's this would be a good strategy but you can never be sure of getting that.

Leo or no Leo, I'll still upgrade my units, rather than build replacement units. Find getting the gold easier than getting the shields to do it.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

hbdragon: Spearmen upgrade all the way to Mech Inf. - it is Warriors that only go to Swordsmen.

Catapults in sufficient numbers are very good for defence - making a four HP attacker a three HP attacker is a very good idea. Try them a little, and remember: in despotism upkeep is not so muchz of a problem!

 

[hbdragon88]

Yeah, I just remembered. One time - funny story - I fortifed two Spearman for four thousand years. That was when I had roads. When I brought them back into a city, I upgraded them.

Another question: do forts work? I built two forts in prep. for a war near the border of the civ I went to war to. In the manual it says it will take "free shots" at passing enemy units but an enemy unit attacked and destroyed it! I'm running v1.29f patch

 

[Shaitan]

hbdragon88 - Units inside the fort may be able to take shots at passing troops. The fort itself is helpless if unmanned.

 

[Dran]

OK - you're in the initial stages of the game and have got 2 or 3 cities.
You've got a few warriors out scouting the surrounding terrain, and you haven't met any neighbours yet.
One of your warriors finds a patch of spices, say, or a really good spot for a city (like a natural chokepoint to stop the AI discovering territory you can get to).
Only problem is there would be room for perhaps a couple of other cities between your current empire and the one you really want.

Do you :-

A) Expand your empire in that direction for 2 or 3 cities until you get there, or

B) Build a city there ASAP and then fill in the intervening space later, or

C) In the case of a luxury, build a longish road and colony and wait for your empire to expand to that location ?

 

[WillJ]

Dran:
I think a good expanding strategy is often to found cities farther away first, then come back in towards your civ. If you do this right you can block your opponents' expansion and grab more territory for yourself. And if a "far out" location is good, then I think it's almost a definite answer.

 

[Lord Togg]

I have a question about the double your pleasure... does the caravan unit work like the camel from previous games because i tried putting in ai cities and it would not go. I also tried to use it in a city building a wonder but it did not seem to help.

 

[BrianL03]

Problem that I'm having. I load up the Earth (Huge) map that came with the game, try to play, but whenever I start, I always start up right next to a barbarian encampment, no matter my civ or how many there are.

Okay, I've checked the starting location properties in Edit, but the starting location isn't set for anyone at all. I'm playing Romans on Warlord (for some reason, I'm not able to even compete on a higher scale ^_^;; ), and loading the Earth (Huge) map that came with the game. I always start out just a few squares NW of the present day site of Buenos Aires (sp?), and from the looks of the map, there isn't a starting location there. I've tried playing it with both 7 enemies and 15, but to no avail... always the same spot.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Not sure this should be posted here, but need to help a fellow DyP player.......

Lord Togg -

With 0.86 of that mod, the caravan was changed to a 0 pop unit that could only build colonies. In earlier versions it was a buildable leader that you (or AI) could build to rush wonders/improvements. The problem was that the AI loved to build these so much that they would neglect building other infrastructure making the AI way too easy to beat. They would have an 8 shield city with no improvements building a 700 shield unit so it can rush a 400 shield wonder . The merchant and Freight are buildable leaders and can be built later on in the game, and hopefully by that time the AI would have better infrastructure in place.

 

[Bamspeedy]

BrianL03 - If no player starting locations are set, then they are supposedly placed randomly anywhere on the map. I would just set a starting location for player 1 (make it the human player) where you want to start. You can set where the others start if you want or leave it on random. I believe there is a post in the FAQ thread on how to place starting locations. Or you can check out the User created maps forum to find some other world maps, some of which has correct starting locations.

P.S. Some of those maps are actually mods and changes the rules, so read up on them carefully before installing them.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by Shaitan
hbdragon88 - Units inside the fort may be able to take shots at passing troops. The fort itself is helpless if unmanned.

I did have a unit. But it wasn't fortified - I don't think. It has to be fortified?

 

[syong]

Newbie Question:.........

Where is the 'capital city icon' ? The icon where I need to click on so I can build embassies?

Really blurr on that one. =p

 

[Bamspeedy]

Syong - The star right next to the name of your capital on the main map screen.

 

[WillJ]

In the editor, some UU's upgrade to other UU's, which obviously that civ can't build. For example, the Rider upgrades to the Samurai, and the Samurai upgrades to the War Elephant. Why in the world is this?

In case it matters, I have patch 1.29f.

 

[Bamspeedy]

This is my guess/theory on that, kinda hard to explain, but hopefully you'll understand what I mean......

It's because there is only one slot to put for each unit to upgrade to. The computer reads that unit is upgrading to a Rider. If the civ can't build Rider it goes to the next upgrade which would be Samarai. If the civ can't build samarai, it goes to war Elephant. If the civ can't build war elephant it defaults to knight. Sort of like a process of elimination. Because for horseman they don't have 4 slots to put in there that horseman upgrades to samarai, war elephant, rider, and knight depending on the civ that is playing. Without this, I don't think you would be able to make custom UU's upgradable (or other units upgrade to this). Just a guess, haven't really tried adding a new UU.

 

[nooneagain]

newbie questions:
1. can't a city get the irrigation benefit?

i am a despot. i built a city in a grass square w/ cattle and river. the city produces 3 food, which is what you would expect when the square does not have irrigation. i tried to irrigate the square before building the city. no go either.

2. i am playing without any patches at the moment. i have my workers cleared a forest. i didn't get the 10 shields. where did my shields go??? is this a bug that is fix by one of the patches?

 

[Mad Bomber]

Nooneagain:


In despot any tile that would ordinarily produce 3 or more of food or shields would produce one less. So if a cattle square would ordinarily produce 3 food it would be reduced by one to two and if you irrigated you would get the one food back for a total of three food. If you get out of despo it should give you four w/ irrigation. In this case the tile is irrigated you are just seeing the effectos of despotism. (a city sqare will automatically be worked to its full potential)

A cleared forest will only return shields if the forest is inside a city limit and you are not producing wonders or the palace. Because these cannot be rushed by any means other than a leader any cleared forests or disbanded units while building Wonders will give you no shields.

 

[nooneagain]

no, it's a cattle grass square, so that's 2 food, cattle adds 2, and irrigation adds 1, so that's 5 max. take away one for despot should leave the city with 4. in fact, the particular location has 3 grass squares next to each other with river next to all 3. 2 have cattle. i can build my city in the simple grass, and irrigate the cattle grass and see the 4 foods. but if i build my city in the cattle grass, the city only produce 3 foods.

 

[Mad Bomber]

Do the city variants produce the same amount of shields? it may show as a mine function instead. If that's not the case then you may try irrigating a tile next to the city (thats how it was in civ 2) if neither of these work then I am at a loss for what is going on there, but I don't typically build on resources if I can help it.