Old World Quick Questions and answers (and FAQ)

[nolegskitten]

I don't think there is a penalty to giving all your cities to the one family, however you do get a bonus for founding a city seat for a new family (e.g. artisan families get a worker, I think). So I guess giving all your cities to one family means you miss out on that.

Yes, I didn't mention that but you're right, there's a large opportunity cost on not founding a family seat. Family bonuses are strong and come with valuable perks, but Family seats usually have great bonuses as well.

 

[steveg700]

In regards to only settling cities from one family, bear in mind you'd run out of governors for your cities, and then any units produced could only have generals from that family, so you'd run out of those as well. It just ain't good.

 

[Taefin]

Last night I returned to Old World after a few months ago playing part way through 4-5 games of Beta.

One thing I’ve always wondered is if anyone’s making effective use of militia on higher(st) difficulty levels. It seems to me that a heavy growth city might do well to pump out some militia before/during a war to serve as meat shields, probably using them on the flanks to prevent true military units from getting swarmed and killed. And sometimes you do have that 1-3 damage left to kill a unit that an extra militia might offer.

However they are very weak and do take a respectable amount of growth to produce earlier on when they are more comparable to unprompted military units.

Excited to hear everyone’s thoughts!

 

[nolegskitten]

you usually make militia either where you have high growth cities (so later in most cases) and you can get a few through events when attacked. They're not strong units, but numbers are somewhat effective, specially at maintaining a cohesive front line between your dedicated combat units and making use of ZoC. Later on they upgrade to conscripts which are keep them relevant, specially as they ZOC mounted units like spearmen do.
So pushing a few more militias out when Manor is coming closer (the tech unlocking militia) can be quite good.

 

[steveg700]

It certainly seems that weak units can wolfpack superior units. I can't just run a few cataphracts and swordsmen into a primitive-rated city rife with chariots, axemen, and archers, and then expect to have your run of the place. the AI uses focused fir and units will start to vanish quickly.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

Well, guys, I followed all your suggestions, but No Joy. I could not get any of my units to move, even though there were Orders available, no one was sleeping, and no Auto-Move. I would Right-Click on a Unit and drag to an adjacent hex, but the Unit would not move. The only option the game gave me for Workers was to build a Road. Am getting frustrated. I have the Mac version.

 

[steveg700]

Well, you don't actually right-click and drag in Windows. You left-click and right-cluck the spot you want to move to.

 

[Taefin]

Ah well, definitely used my event militia to draw some AI fire. But seems the real challenge is having enough orders to field the extra militia. I got a Roman city above 60 training when axemen, chariots and bows are still relevant, so mostly just pumping those out and marching them to the front. It’s possible their best role may be more defensive as was mentioned above where outnumbering a superior invade can be quite effective.

On another note, I’m curious to hear how folks are finding the feasibility of rushing strongholds. Seems that skipping one of the techs in that path (like in favor of getting axes/spears/bows) can really delay things. Yet, if you get them early enough, you can rush culture and have the second tier units pretty early, admittedly pretty expensive without the right infrastructure. Definitely placing my wonders in the martial city.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

Well, you don't actually right-click and drag in Windows. You left-click and right-cluck the spot you want to move to.

I tried that, too. Workers will do things in their hex (farm, build road), but no unit will move. I have also tried holding down various keys, to no effect. But when I hold down the <Alt> key and left-click, a rosette appears that lets me put an order in the destination hex. Don't know what the orders mean, and nothing happens beyond putting an icon in the hex.

Could you define "right-cluck"?

 

[Dale]

I tried that, too. Workers will do things in their hex (farm, build road), but no unit will move. I have also tried holding down various keys, to no effect. But when I hold down the <Alt> key and left-click, a rosette appears that lets me put an order in the destination hex. Don't know what the orders mean, and nothing happens beyond putting an icon in the hex.

Could you define "right-cluck"?

Hi Kevin. You left click on a unit to select it. On the left side above the leader portrait you'll see the unit action panel. Bottom right of that panel is a number of white dots. The white dots represent moves left, the red dots represent how many moves you will use to reach the tile your mouse is pointing at. If you have no moves left it says "Fatigued" instead. If you have white dots left you right click on the tile you want to move to. So moving is left click unit right click tile.

This shows a fatigued unit, ie: no more moves left.

One exception though! Your first settler does not follow these rules. Your first settler is bound to the urban area you start on. So left click your settler, right click an urban tile (they should highlight green the ones you can found your capital on) and then found the capital.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

Thanks, Dale. I have tried what you said, using all combinations of clicking, but still No Joy. Am guessing it is a Mac bug. I have submitted a Bug Report:

I am using a Mac w/ the current verion of the OS (Big Sur 11.5).

1. I cannot get any unit on the map to move anywhere. They will do things in the hex they are in (found city, build Road, clear forest, and farm), but refuse to move. This is w/ Workers, Scouts, and military units. I have tried all the combinations of Right- and Left-clicking on the units and destination hexes. The Orders show this is ok to do, but No Joy. No unit is sleeping or fatigued, and no auto moves setup. I have also tried clicking using various keyboard combinations (Alt, Control, Shift, & Command) and nothing happens.

2. The amount of Orders it takes seems dependent on the number of Orders available each turn. For example, if I want to move to a hex when I have 7-Orders, it takes 6-orders, but the farther away I move, the less orders it takes to move there. But when I have 17-Orders available in a new turn, to goto that same 6-Order hex now takes 16-Orders.

 

[Ita Bear]

Occasionally I get events from foreign empires for trade deals. I'm not sure if or how I can initiate these myself; is there a way I can propose trading science for iron, for example?


Also, @Dale noticed a small text error. (Perhaps pedantic, but I am an English teacher. Should read "built," not "build." I'll attach the image in a spoiler.

Spoiler :

Kind regards,
Ita Bear

 

[steveg700]

Occasionally I get events from foreign empires for trade deals. I'm not sure if or how I can initiate these myself; is there a way I can propose trading science for iron, for example?

So presumably the AI civ's aren't getting the same influx of events that players do, so there's a lack of parity to some extent. AI civ's get to make demands and offer deals that we the players can't initiate, at least not with their ease. But I guess it washes out if we get positive events that they don't. But I don't know that AI civ's get to have council members of their own, or perform actions like influencing or tutoring or gifting luxuries.

An ambassador can initiate a trade mission at the cost of civics, at the cost of some influence. It is usually a bad deal that frequently is not worth taking, which makes it not worth the costs of the civics in the first place, but your ambassador does get some XP they wouldn't otherwise.

Likewise, you can ask an AI civ to declare war on another civ, BUT unlike such demands they can place on you, you can only do so with civ's with you are currently friendly.

 

[steveg700]

Have a question about promotions. I keep taking the Tracker promotion (+3 vision) because it says it "leads to Swift" (+1 move), but it doesn't seem to actually mean I can promote the unit to Swift next. Swift does not show up as a promotion. So is taking Tracker just making it possible for Swift to randomly show up in the promotion list?

 

[Taefin]

Have a question about promotions. I keep taking the Tracker promotion (+3 vision) because it says it "leads to Swift" (+1 move), but it doesn't seem to actually mean I can promote the unit to Swift next. Swift does not show up as a promotion. So is taking Tracker just making it possible for Swift to randomly show up in the promotion list?

I can confirm from my last game that you are correct, it opens up the opportunity for swift to appear, but I found it ~50% whether it came up immediately. A swift chariot with my leader as general really helped rack up the 10 kills by general ambition!

Another question of mine: Are there any downsides to appointing an heir. Just finished my first game since release, on Able (3rd from highest) and it was a tremendous help toward winning an ambition victory to appoint as heir my youngest available adult successor. There is a 4 pt legitimacy penalty, but having the time to build up to 15-20 skill point leaders with tons of legitimacy of their own seems to more than make up for it.

Admittedly my default heirs had picked up weaknesses and soured to me, on top of becoming pretty old, so perhaps I just haven’t learned to develop competent middle-age heirs yet.

Does anyone know if appointing a new heir has any family happiness consequences? I didn’t look very closely but I lost hundreds of happiness when my “the Great” leader died.

 

[Dale]

2. The amount of Orders it takes seems dependent on the number of Orders available each turn. For example, if I want to move to a hex when I have 7-Orders, it takes 6-orders, but the farther away I move, the less orders it takes to move there. But when I have 17-Orders available in a new turn, to goto that same 6-Order hex now takes 16-Orders.

That's showing "Orders Remaining". In options you can swap it to show "Orders Cost".

 

[Dale]

Occasionally I get events from foreign empires for trade deals. I'm not sure if or how I can initiate these myself; is there a way I can propose trading science for iron, for example?

Your ambassador can perform a trade mission, but you don't get to choose what resources are in the trade agreement. When the mission ends (2 turns I think) you'll get a few options.

Also, @Dale noticed a small text error. (Perhaps pedantic, but I am an English teacher. Should read "built," not "build." I'll attach the image in a spoiler.

Thanks, fix done.

 

[Dale]

So presumably the AI civ's aren't getting the same influx of events that players do, so there's a lack of parity to some extent. AI civ's get to make demands and offer deals that we the players can't initiate, at least not with their ease. But I guess it washes out if we get positive events that they don't. But I don't know that AI civ's get to have council members of their own, or perform actions like influencing or tutoring or gifting luxuries.

An ambassador can initiate a trade mission at the cost of civics, at the cost of some influence. It is usually a bad deal that frequently is not worth taking, which makes it not worth the costs of the civics in the first place, but your ambassador does get some XP they wouldn't otherwise.

Likewise, you can ask an AI civ to declare war on another civ, BUT unlike such demands they can place on you, you can only do so with civ's with you are currently friendly.

This is going to be hard to explain I think.

So you know those trade deals the AI sends you? They're actually a player event, not an AI mission.

There's conditions (like needing the resources etc) but end of the day since the AI doesn't do events it's actually a player event.

 

[Dale]

Have a question about promotions. I keep taking the Tracker promotion (+3 vision) because it says it "leads to Swift" (+1 move), but it doesn't seem to actually mean I can promote the unit to Swift next. Swift does not show up as a promotion. So is taking Tracker just making it possible for Swift to randomly show up in the promotion list?

Correct. It just opens the path to it, doesn't guarantee it'll appear.

 

[Dale]

I can confirm from my last game that you are correct, it opens up the opportunity for swift to appear, but I found it ~50% whether it came up immediately. A swift chariot with my leader as general really helped rack up the 10 kills by general ambition!

Another question of mine: Are there any downsides to appointing an heir. Just finished my first game since release, on Able (3rd from highest) and it was a tremendous help toward winning an ambition victory to appoint as heir my youngest available adult successor. There is a 4 pt legitimacy penalty, but having the time to build up to 15-20 skill point leaders with tons of legitimacy of their own seems to more than make up for it.

Admittedly my default heirs had picked up weaknesses and soured to me, on top of becoming pretty old, so perhaps I just haven’t learned to develop competent middle-age heirs yet.

Does anyone know if appointing a new heir has any family happiness consequences? I didn’t look very closely but I lost hundreds of happiness when my “the Great” leader died.

You will end up with some characters pissed off because you "passed over them", which can lead to opinion issues depending on their roles. IE: if the passed over heirs are head of a family or religion, that family/religion will suddenly hate you. But aside from the legit hit there isn't a direct consequence. It's all about the potential opinion problems.