Post Short Single Player Tips Here

[Prince David]

Improvements like irrigation and mines are destroyed when you build a city on them. In my experience you can get the bonus food and/or shields if you build on them (eg. town built on iron in hills produced 2 shields), but you'd still miss out on the additional production of improvement or impvt + railroad. I will sometimes build directly on a resource early in the game (NEVER use colonies!), but if I'm heading for a back-up resource, build next to it and develop the tile - the extra food/shields pay off big in the long run.

I am also a huge fan of artillary. Build lots and use them often. I have never lost a war once I have artillary and railroads. Put them in your coastal towns and use them when being bombarded by naval units. If even damaged one pip the AI will withdraw them and give you several turns peace. Damage a transport and delay that invasion!

 

[1337]

Which brings me to my next question. If you have the people in your city work on some iron they can reach, doesn't that exhaust it faster? I have had 1 source of iron ever since i started and it's still there hundreds of turns afterwards. I had another city working on the iron and it was exhausted the next turn. And you can never exhaust horses can you? it hasn't happened to me yet.

 

[taper]

Disappearance of resources is entirely random, except that you can change the probability of a disappeance with the editor. For example, a source of iron has x probability of disappearing this turn, no matter if it's used or not, and oil has y probability. All luxury and bonus resources, along with horses and rubber, never disappear.

 

[dresdor]

Which brings me to my next question. If you have the people in your city work on some iron they can reach, doesn't that exhaust it faster? I have had 1 source of iron ever since i started and it's still there hundreds of turns afterwards. I had another city working on the iron and it was exhausted the next turn. And you can never exhaust horses can you? it hasn't happened to me yet.

I thought that it didn't matter if they were being worked or not...but I had 3 of my 4 sources of uranium (the 3 that were being worked by citizens in 3 seperate cities) dissapear in 3 consecutive turns. It scared the Sh*t out of me, and I pulled the citizen from the last source I had. 100 turns later it was still there.

 

[Prince David]

Thus is the joy of random probability. Nothing I've seen or read on this gives any indication that working a reasource has any affect on the probability of it disappearing. Technically, if you have a road to it and can benifit from it, you're working it. You just got very, very unlucky.

One thing to note is that the number of a particular resource is fairly constant - i.e. if it dissappears there it appears somewhere else. This being the case, the best plan for safe resource control is to command lots of territory!

 

[Prince David]

An' another thing:

Somewhere out there is a table of the chances of a resource disappearing in a given turn. It's relatively low for iron - something like 1/64 or 1/32, and a little bit higher for resources you discover later - like uranium at 1/20 or 1/16. The chance never changes, but since iron is on the map for such a long time it has a relatively good chance of being exhausted by the modern era, even with a low chance, whereas uranium needs a higher chance to mimic the same probabilty.

Unfortunately I don't remember where I saw this table, except not at CFC. Still I'm sure it's here somewhere. If you know or have more time to explore than I do please link it so we can all find it. Thanks.

 

[CommiePlanner]

This tip is for C3C. The bonus tech to the first Civ that researches Philosophy in C3C is a very nice perk. If playing a commercial or seafaring Civilization (starts with alphabet) research writing at 10%. Once writing is complete research Code of Laws at as close to 100% as you can manage with keeping the populace happy. Once this has been obtained research philosophy at the highest possible science rate. After philosophy is researched set science to 0% and chose Republic as the next technology. If you reached philosophy first you have just gained republic very early in the game, and can switch governments to avoid the despotism penalties. Normally the ancient era government techs take many turns to research, as they are some of the more expensive techs in this era. At this point you have 2 third tier ancient age techs and a powerful 4th tier ancient age tech. This research path combined with rapid expansion should set a solid foundation for the rest of your game. Effective trading can often net all the other ancient age techs.

 

[dmanakho]

What are you talking about?! I have a city on gold and it's making like 9 gold or somthing. Building a city on a resource it significantly increases what you get from it. Building on luxuries gives you the luxury. If it ever says "you have ever discovered an new source of (name of resource)" then that means it's inside the city. You can right click on a city and go to the tile info and it will tell you what you are making and what resources are there. I think your problem was that you said you were in a despotism.

Generally it is a terrible idea to build a city on resources.. You only will get a gold bonus but you will lose food and shield bonuses. Building a city on top of iron is a waste for example....

 

[1337]

You don't really need iron in the modern age (except RR) do you? Also, has anyone ever gotten the ironworks small wonder. I've tried to but i never got it. My enemy could have built it because they had coal and iron practically right next to each other. I don't know whether or not they did because it only tells you when they complete large wonders and i didn't want to waste gold finding out. I always tried to take the city but i never could. Just on the offhand, it's pretty good to build fortresses and a defensive unit or 2 on your important resorces so they can't pillage them and you can continue building your good units and kick their *ss.

 

[MikeH]

Actually in my current SP game, I had a choice of two cities in which to build the Iron Works, I did get a flying start though, my first two cities were four turn settler factories and I rapidly out-expanded the AI.

 

[Batho]

Two quick tips here, but they are somewhat cheap.

1. If playing a regicide game, a quick nuke or two to enemy capitals normally kills their king unit.

2. I was playing a game where Japan was marching through my territory to get at Germany and so I directed his units with a wall and eventually boxed them in. He hasn't disbanded them so when the time is right, I have 30 or so samurai just waiting to get pounded and give up some leaders hopefully.

Batho

 

[Batho]

Also, has anyone ever gotten the ironworks small wonder. I've tried to but i never got it.

The ironworks requires iron and coal to be within the 20 square limit of a city. That said, you can place cities strategically so that your chances of coal and iron together occur. For example, early on there is an iron source on some hills with jungle to one side and plains to the other. The jungle is a possible area for coal to appear so you can place your city such that it encompasses the iron and as much of the jungle area as possible.

Batho

 

[1337]

But is ironworks really worth all this planning and not chopping down jungle? I just plop my cities down with no planning and jungle is always the first thing to go.

 

[Batho]

But is ironworks really worth all this planning and not chopping down jungle? I just plop my cities down with no planning and jungle is always the first thing to go.

You can still chop down the jungle, any resources that would appear there will still appear there. At least in C3C. I had a city with iron surrounded by mountains and jungles, cleared all the jungle and irrigated them all, and when I got steam power, coal appeaered in the grasslands, where jungle used to be.

Batho

 

[Prince David]

You don't really need iron in the modern age (except RR) do you?

You may not need it much for strategic purposes, but because of it's large shield bonus iron is always worthwhile!

 

[1337]

I've noticed something in my games, you almost never get both oil and rubber. My enemy will never trade it to me so i can never get tanks or infantry. Every resource you need seems to always be in the deepest part of the enemies territory and never trade it except for some outrageous price that they know you'll never except. something else that bothers me is if you trade a tech or contact to the enemy and wait a turn, they'll simply trade it to all the other enemies and take your profit. That always makes me mad.

 

[EMan]

1337 Reminds me of a Tip: When you trade a tech to an AI, make sure you trade the same tech to ALL the techs IMMEDATELY....then y'all and 1337 will be happy!

 

[Dianthus]

I've noticed something in my games, you almost never get both oil and rubber.

Are you waiting for tanks before attacking? Maybe you need to go to war earlier, say with Knights or Cavalry. The more territory you gain early in the game the higher the chance of having important resources (such as oil/rubber) later in the game when they become visible.

 

[EMan]

Here's a "Fast Finish" game strategy tip for C3C players:

1. Get a map with IVORY in the start position. (Use MapFinder to get you this Map.)

2. Build a couple of warriors for protection and MP duty, then "pre-build" using the Pyramids.

3. Acquire Masonry, Alphabet & Mathematics pronto. (Start with at least one of these techs.)

4. Switch your production to Statue Of Zeus......crank out a free Ancient Cavalry every 5 turns...........WIPE OUT the AIs!

5. Conquest Victory!

 

[Prince David]

I agree totally with Dianthus - territory is the key. Variety is also very important. Do not neglect those marginal terrains - tundra and desert have oil, jungle has rubber. Yes they're a drag in the ancient and middle ages, but very important by industrial and modern. If I don't settle them directly, I always try to enclose them in a ring of territory and settle/develop them later, esp once I have engineering (for forrestation) and/or electricity (for "waterless" irrigation). Tundra and desert can be tolerable earlier if they're coastal and you can support small cities through the increased food production of harbors.