So I have a few questions about things I am having trouble with. After having not played this game for awhile, I recently got back into it a little. I usually can win, but not dominate, on Noble, and I am looking to move up, but I was hoping for some advice first. So here I have a bunch of questions:
1 About a Cottage Economy vs Specialist Economy. My understanding is that these are the two most common options in developing an economy, I usually use a lot more cottages than specialists, except maybe in 1-2 big cities and where I have the National Park. I have a few questions concerning using lotsa Specialists:
How are you supposed to have enough production in a city with lots of specialists to build a military, and also build the buildings necessary to support specialists?
Assumedly such a city has a lot of people. How do you keep them happy, other than having Representation? Is that civic in itself enough usually?
Under what circumstances do you have Great People join cities as specialists? Do such specialists generate Great People Points?
Doesnt it hurt you efforts when people go to Emancipation? If you cannot be Caste System, how do you, say, make Great Artists with only 2 artists from a theater (and maybe some from a wonder)?
How do you get Great Engineers early, since only the Forge lets you have engineers early on. I ask because they're my fave.
2 About Economic civics. I bascially always use Free Market unless I need to switch to Environmentalism. Under what circumstances do people use State Property and Mercantilism? Also, I never do Slavery, except if other people adopt it so that they will like me more. What is the strategy involving using slavery? It seems so self-defeating, killing all your people...
3 Speaking of State Property, I usually dont build many workshops and watermills, or windmills. I build almost exclusively farms, cottages, mines. It seems overall less efficient to do workshops and windmills, except, say, a city full of hills that needs more food, or a tundra square next to a river. Especially since much of windmill/watermill bonuses come later, after my core cities are pretty fully developed. And then that eliminates a large bonus of State Property, the extra food one. Do a lot of people share this same experience?
4 I never build enough military. Any general guidelines on balancing military and buildings?
5 National Wonders. I usually build them in predictable pairs - Wall Street and Oxford usually go in the city with the most base commerce, National Park and whichever epic is the one that adds hero points (I think National Epic), West Point and the military epic (Heroic?), Ironworks depends,... . This sound good, or is this dumb? Should I build Heroic Epic with Ironworks instead? And what is your strategy regarding Forbidden Palace, I never know when/where to build it, especially since I am not a great military type and so usually dont have far-flung empires.
6 When I automate Workers (I usually do them myself until things are pretty well developed, then automate) they put forts resources inside my borders but outside any one city's radius (especially with mine-able things, like iron, coal, etc.). What is the deal with that, do forts allow you access to a resource?
7 Is there any way to use Bombers on a city that is far away from your cities/cultural borders? I went through some length once to build a fort on neutral ground near some enemy cities, only to find I could not put Bombers there. Carriers wont accept them either.
8 How do you go about capturing cities before Catapults, and what is a good ratio of Catapults to attackers when trying to take a major enemy city?
9 If you do the Oracle, what tech do you usually go for? I Usually get Metal Casting as it is the most expensive available, is there another I should be going for? Same question for Liberalism, if you get it first.
10 Corporations. I am reluctant to spread mine to other cities, lest they get benefits. Should I just get over it? Also, I like Mining Inc, but also Civilized Jewelers, which do people do more, since they compete?
11 Under what circumstances do you use the Drill Promotion? I feel like I rarely use it.
12 When I built the Apostolitic Palace, it never let me try for a religious victory. What are the conditions needed to go for a religious victory? Also, has anyone ever won Diplomatically in a multiplayer game, except maybe by having enough votes to do it himself?
13 Do the University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret do anything if you have Free Religion?
14 How do I get people to like me? It seems the only way to do so is to agree to their incessant demands to stop trading with their enemy, and/or go to war with their enemy. This is especially true since the other civs are almost all friendly with one another, and so even that will piss off everyone.
14 Since I thankfully have no other questions (for now), first thank you for reading/responding, and also I have an answer to a question i saw elsewhere. Someone asked somewhere if guided missiles were any use at all. Once I was the Dutch on an archipelago map, on Noble, and not doing that well, but after making Dikes I had a good amount of production. I ended up with no oil or uranium, and not even any of the ingredients for Standard Ethanol. Someone went to war with me, and I found that the only answer I had for their Destroyers was to use guided missiles on them and then mop up with frigates. They would send out destroyers in pairs, I would hit them with 4-6 missiles (I was making maybe 3-4 a turn) and then send in 2 frigates/ironclads/ships-o'-the-line. I sank something like 6-8 pairs, so 12-16 destroyers, and then used guided missiles, East Indiamen, and Marines (I think) to take a city of theirs that was sufficiently nearby but on a separate island (did it all in one turn to avoid attack). One more island hopping got me to some of their oil, thus saving me. So there, guided missiles saved me once.
1 About a Cottage Economy vs Specialist Economy. My understanding is that these are the two most common options in developing an economy, I usually use a lot more cottages than specialists, except maybe in 1-2 big cities and where I have the National Park. I have a few questions concerning using lotsa Specialists:
How are you supposed to have enough production in a city with lots of specialists to build a military, and also build the buildings necessary to support specialists?
Assumedly such a city has a lot of people. How do you keep them happy, other than having Representation? Is that civic in itself enough usually?
Under what circumstances do you have Great People join cities as specialists? Do such specialists generate Great People Points?
Doesnt it hurt you efforts when people go to Emancipation? If you cannot be Caste System, how do you, say, make Great Artists with only 2 artists from a theater (and maybe some from a wonder)?
How do you get Great Engineers early, since only the Forge lets you have engineers early on. I ask because they're my fave.
2 About Economic civics. I bascially always use Free Market unless I need to switch to Environmentalism. Under what circumstances do people use State Property and Mercantilism? Also, I never do Slavery, except if other people adopt it so that they will like me more. What is the strategy involving using slavery? It seems so self-defeating, killing all your people...
3 Speaking of State Property, I usually dont build many workshops and watermills, or windmills. I build almost exclusively farms, cottages, mines. It seems overall less efficient to do workshops and windmills, except, say, a city full of hills that needs more food, or a tundra square next to a river. Especially since much of windmill/watermill bonuses come later, after my core cities are pretty fully developed. And then that eliminates a large bonus of State Property, the extra food one. Do a lot of people share this same experience?
4 I never build enough military. Any general guidelines on balancing military and buildings?
5 National Wonders. I usually build them in predictable pairs - Wall Street and Oxford usually go in the city with the most base commerce, National Park and whichever epic is the one that adds hero points (I think National Epic), West Point and the military epic (Heroic?), Ironworks depends,... . This sound good, or is this dumb? Should I build Heroic Epic with Ironworks instead? And what is your strategy regarding Forbidden Palace, I never know when/where to build it, especially since I am not a great military type and so usually dont have far-flung empires.
6 When I automate Workers (I usually do them myself until things are pretty well developed, then automate) they put forts resources inside my borders but outside any one city's radius (especially with mine-able things, like iron, coal, etc.). What is the deal with that, do forts allow you access to a resource?
7 Is there any way to use Bombers on a city that is far away from your cities/cultural borders? I went through some length once to build a fort on neutral ground near some enemy cities, only to find I could not put Bombers there. Carriers wont accept them either.
8 How do you go about capturing cities before Catapults, and what is a good ratio of Catapults to attackers when trying to take a major enemy city?
9 If you do the Oracle, what tech do you usually go for? I Usually get Metal Casting as it is the most expensive available, is there another I should be going for? Same question for Liberalism, if you get it first.
10 Corporations. I am reluctant to spread mine to other cities, lest they get benefits. Should I just get over it? Also, I like Mining Inc, but also Civilized Jewelers, which do people do more, since they compete?
11 Under what circumstances do you use the Drill Promotion? I feel like I rarely use it.
12 When I built the Apostolitic Palace, it never let me try for a religious victory. What are the conditions needed to go for a religious victory? Also, has anyone ever won Diplomatically in a multiplayer game, except maybe by having enough votes to do it himself?
13 Do the University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret do anything if you have Free Religion?
14 How do I get people to like me? It seems the only way to do so is to agree to their incessant demands to stop trading with their enemy, and/or go to war with their enemy. This is especially true since the other civs are almost all friendly with one another, and so even that will piss off everyone.
14 Since I thankfully have no other questions (for now), first thank you for reading/responding, and also I have an answer to a question i saw elsewhere. Someone asked somewhere if guided missiles were any use at all. Once I was the Dutch on an archipelago map, on Noble, and not doing that well, but after making Dikes I had a good amount of production. I ended up with no oil or uranium, and not even any of the ingredients for Standard Ethanol. Someone went to war with me, and I found that the only answer I had for their Destroyers was to use guided missiles on them and then mop up with frigates. They would send out destroyers in pairs, I would hit them with 4-6 missiles (I was making maybe 3-4 a turn) and then send in 2 frigates/ironclads/ships-o'-the-line. I sank something like 6-8 pairs, so 12-16 destroyers, and then used guided missiles, East Indiamen, and Marines (I think) to take a city of theirs that was sufficiently nearby but on a separate island (did it all in one turn to avoid attack). One more island hopping got me to some of their oil, thus saving me. So there, guided missiles saved me once.
