Newbie Questions: Ask here and get answers!

[Thunderfall]

Originally posted by Bose
mr.ed, completly with you. Last night i approached Babylon with about about 20 Vet Riders and 5 Elites. I knew Sistein was there so they'd have a dillion spearmen. They had about 8... and you guessed it... everytime i went in with an elite it lost, everytime a Vet went at it it won. Do the math on that one!

Luck, luck, it was all luck!

Seriously, it was pure bad luck and nothing else. The random number generator is pretty weird sometimes.

 

[Hygro]

@Bose

A city that can build the sistene chapel is probably a larger city (i.e. size 7-12) coupled with various factors such as terrain, fortification, rivers, and the great wall, those spearmen could have a quite high defense. With that information, and the fact that most people attack with their strongest units first, you may have lost those 5 Elites, but hurt 5 spearmen. Then, the remaining 3 unhurt spearmen lost to 3 of your veterans (who lose however much life). Then the remaining 5 wounded are attacked by your healthy veteran riders, and you win.

Thats a probable scenario. Now here's a more probable one: The random number generater is really REALLY weird.

Edit: Seems I was picking up on thunderfall's thoughts as we both emphasised the weird random number generator's weirdness at the same time.

 

[JMK]

To : Drewshark
I am not sure if you can find a specific thread about this subject, but should you read a few succession game. You will with no doubt find answers to your question. At least you will see how other players start their game according to the original characteristics of the played Civ.
I learned quite a lot by reading these threads.

 

[anarres]

drewshark,

I searched the forums manually and with the search function. I can not find any threads relating to starting strategies for each civ, based on traits.

There are many arguments about which traits are best, and most people seem to rate industrious and religous as two of the best. Commercial, Militaty seem about average, scientific is often shunned, and Expansionist is loved by some and hated by others (Expansionist is also very dependant on the map type for usefulness - larger map and pangea make it useful, smaller maps and islands make it worthless).

Ultimately, there have been discussions about different traits, but they tend to be spread out and turn up in dofferent threads. If you want, start a new thread about starting strategies based on traits. If you post a link here I will come nad add to it

 

[Goofy]

QUESTION:

How to get spy to another civilization without a war.

I have several cases when i tried to get a spy to another civilization to see where they are in space race. Normally I can get one in but on other civilizations tehy are always caught. After second attempt they declare war.

Is there any way to improve the possibility to plant spyes?

I'm playing 1.29 vanilla CIV3 and with Monarch or emperor level.

Goofy

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Goofy: you need to be lucky. If you plant a spy, that may fail and the other civ may declare war. no other way to do it.

 

[Stapel]

I have the same problem.

My solution: safe and try.

Never try twice to spy one civ in one turn: won't work....

One civ per turn seems to help too (SEEMS?)....

 

[anarres]

Originally posted by Stapel
My solution: safe and try.

A lot of people here try to use the motto 'what the AI doesn't know about, neither do I'. It is the concept of playing civ on a more even playing field. Lots of people avoid the classic exploits such as reloading to change random events, army unloading, AI ping-pong (and a million others).

No-one with any self respect would tell you how to play, and you should feel free to reload, but be aware that you are side-stepping the deliberatly planned gameplay.

On the original subject of spying on the spacerace, cutting off a civ's uranium or aluminium is often a good way to hamper them. So is getting MPPs with some civs and then declaring war on others. Human ability to manage a war and build a spaceship is a billion times better than the AI's, so you can often get the world in to a war, massively slowing down the AI science rate and spaceship production.

 

[Padma]

@Goofy: the only way to do it is to try, using the 'Safe' level of expenditure. It isn't always successful, and war is about guaranteed if you try twice on the same civ in one turn.

Actually, some players use this as a tactic to provoke a war when they are ready for one. But it is still subject to the RNG. For a hilarious example, check out Charis' Celtic Christmas, a story about a 5CC he played. Especially look at Part 16 - the Age of Pindleton, where he tried to provoke a war by planting a spy, and taking other egregious espionage actions, and failed miserably! The RNG kept giving him Success!!

 

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by Padma
@Goofy: the only way to do it is to try, using the 'Safe' level of expenditure. It isn't always successful, and war is about guaranteed if you try twice on the same civ in one turn.

True for espionage missions, but you can't select that when planting the spy.

 

[Padma]

My bad, Hurricane.

My games rarely last until espionage. Either I've already won, or I'm just a smear on the bottom of (insert leader name)'s shoe.

 

[heikeott]

Sorry about the dual posting, but hoping the question HERE will get answered by some of you who regularly troll (or is that supposed to be patrol? ) this newbie thread. Thanks!

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

heike: as I said in the other thread: save and exit, restart, load. That should help (it did for me).

 

[anarres]

Killer - is there a bug in the city governors then?

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

anarres: the same stuff as with earlier patches: for me, many options, be it preferences or governour, will not work at all or only with reload.

 

[anarres]

I got a newbie question:

What determines the length of anarchy when changing governments?

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

anarres: I think there was a good thread on this once, but the title wasn't descriptive. I'll see if I can find it.

What I remember: there is the minimum depending on level. There is a factor that makes it go up for number of towns.
There is a random influence.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

anarres: by Bamspeedy: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=504700#post504700

and read on.... Evincar sums it up well: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=511217#post511217


btw: has anyone seen him lately?

 

[anarres]

Killer - can this info get in the FAQ please. I know no-one has an exact formula, but it is still useful!

I wonder where Evincar got his info from...

...I have PM'd him to find out

Edit: Evincar last online at 04:28 PM Oct 28, 2002

Maybe Bamspeedy will know...

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

I thought baout adding htis, but as we have no hard data and as noone will start abandoning cities to shorten anarchy I decided against it for the time being..... Maybe if we find some more stuff out.