Policemen and Rally Points

[Grogs]

C3C v1.22

I played an unpatched version of Vanilla for a long time, so there are some concepts in the game I haven't gotten the hang of yet.

First, when do policemen work? I figured out the civil engineers, but the policemen seem almost random. Sometimes they'll reduce corruption/waste and sometimes not.

Secondly, how do rally points work? I tried to set a continental rally point in one of my out of the way cities, but it seemed to work sporadically. For example, I might build 8 settlers on a particular turn and all 8 show up at the rally point, but of my 5 infantry, only 2 show up and the rest appear in their home city. Along with rally points, I should also ask if I set a rally point (not 'continental') will troops from other continents automatically use boats/airports to get there?

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

They allways reduce corruption, but sometimes the city is so spoiled that it changes nothing.
They are a good specialist, if only the governor could be instructed to use them...
I know nothing about rally points, I've never used them

 

[Turner]

Contintental Rally Points should send all units created since the rally point was set to that rally point. Now, and this is the important bit, if you build something other than a unit after setting the rally point, those units will not go to the rally point because as far as that city is concerned, the continental rally point as been reset. You can, of course, set the CRP every turn, but that gets tedious, doesn't it?

 

[thetrooper]

Policemen act on base commerce. And then further affected by city improvements (marketplace/bank/stock exchange). They will also recover shields gone to waste. Shields are further multiplied by improvements.

 

[Rambuchan]

I use both rally points and policemen.

Rally Points - AFAIK - You set them per city. They remain fixed until you change production, which perhaps explains your problem? If you change production then the Rally Point gets cancelled automatically and you must reset. The same applies for the continental version.

Something to watch out for, because the whole city just goes into churning out the same unit and shipping it to the rally point automatically it is often easy to neglect that city when in a big war and there are troops coming out of lots of cities. The whole city kind of automates for war. So check in each time a new improvement becomes possible to build so that your rally point city doesn't fall behind in improvements (assuming you want to build immediately).

But rally points are a great time saver, which eradicate the need to keep giving troops movement orders all the damn time.

Policemen - They do improve corruption marginally but I have noticed two main facts about them:

a) The commerce/science/production you lose from employing the worker off the land to become a policeman is often equal to the benefit you get from the policeman's influence. In other words, you end up with the same commerce/science/production with or without the policeman. BUT the point here is that it is worth using them because you pick up more points for having a specialist. So DO use them. Even though they don't bring any direct benefit for the city they improve your score marginally.

b) If it's science or cash you want out of a corrupt city you are much better off using a scientist or taxman. Try them against each other and you will always get more science or tax out with the appropriate specialist than with the policeman. The policeman's influence always falls a little short. BTW I am a big fan of scientist or taxmen in very distant, very corrupt cities - their benefits count no matter the corruption.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Policemen - They do improve corruption marginally but I have noticed two main facts about them:

a) The commerce/science/production you lose from employing the worker off the land to become a policeman is often equal to the benefit you get from the policeman's influence. In other words, you end up with the same commerce/science/production with or without the policeman. BUT the point here is that it is worth using them because you pick up more points for having a specialist. So DO use them. Even though they don't bring any direct benefit for the city they improve your score marginally.

b) If it's science or cash you want out of a corrupt city you are much better off using a scientist or taxman. Try them against each other and you will always get more science or tax out with the appropriate specialist than with the policeman. The policeman's influence always falls a little short. BTW I am a big fan of scientist or taxmen in very distant, very corrupt cities - their benefits count no matter the corruption.

I disagree on this one. It's rarely useful to change to specialists the citizens that can work tiles (ie your city size is less than the available tiles), except for a city that can't grow without hospital.
But the specialists are powerfull if the city is big and not all citizens work tiles.
However, the city imrovements change things. For exemple, a policeman adding 1 commerce and 1 production in a city with factory and plant results 2 shields and if you have market bank library uni and so on, the commercial gain is even better (depends also on the sliders).
Finally, no civil engineer can help you on wonder/army/unit build, but the policemen can.

 

[Turner]

I'm pretty sure the CE can help with a Wonder build.

 

[thetrooper]

I'm pretty sure the CE can help with a Wonder build.

Correct (10).

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Well it doesnt work with units then...
However, I'll do the test tonight... I think I've had allready the problem.

 

[Rambuchan]

Khan_Asparuh I take it as a given that you don't employ specialists when the land can be worked or growth will be compromised. I am simply saying that there are instances (usually in the 2nd or 3rd ring cities) when employing a policeman will make no difference to commerce/science/production. In this situation it makes sense to have a specialist picking you up points rather than a normal citizen. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

 

[Grogs]

I've been using the Civil Engineers either in very large cities (metropolises)with fairly high waste. If I can add extra shields *and* invoke a WLTKD reducing waste, the CE's should earn their pay, so to speak. They're also very useful in a totally corrupt border city where I need an imrovement, like a library for culture or a harbor. Otherwise, the CE (and police for that matter) seem to be a situational thing. If using a CE or Police would take me from say 48 to 50 spt and I'm building 100 spt units, they're well worth it, but if I'm already at 50 spt, they're pointless. If I really have to have a specialist in that situation, it will be a scientist or taxman.

I see what I've been doing with rally points now. My big cities were really just producing units because they had nothing useful to build, so most of them built Stock Exchanges and thus reset the rally points. I'll just have to reset it every so often, which is still easier than moving units from all over the globe. It's awfully nice when 8 artillery suddenly appear in one town rather than having to hunt them down.

As for the police, everyone is saying (I think) that they're limited to cities that aren't *completely* corrupt. Knowing that will at least keep me from wasting my time checking in every captured city.