Quick Answers (formerly Newbie Questions)

[Bamspeedy]

back to the farmer/worker gambit.....

Now that I think about it, there is another gambit which some may refer to as a worker's or farmers gambit.

Build workers in the high corrupt cities and have them join into your core cities. Your core cities are the high-production cities, so they have the shields, they just need the food/population, which you can get from the workers joined into the city. Your core cities very quickly gain back the population that was drained from them when they built settlers, and you still have those big cities for producing military or bringing in commerce. This, of course isn't done very early in the game, as your first several cities will have low corruption.

I haven't tried that, and not really interested in doing that, either. It's certainly powerful, but tedious and feels exploitive to me.

 

[DaviddesJ]

I thought building workers in small peripheral cities, and joining them into large core cities, is just "basic strategy". Particularly if you're building a second core around your Forbidden Palace, it just takes a long time to grow them organically on their own, even if you build a granary (which is expensive compared to just 10 shields/citizen to turn them into workers and transfer them from where they are generated to where they are needed).

For example, a coastal city with a harbor may have a lot of 2f spaces, but nothing better. So it can support a large population once it gets there, but it can't grow quickly (and also it doesn't generate shields well, so it's expensive to build a granary there). Just shipping in workers is the easiest approach.

I think it's roughly a tossup whether you join your own workers, or join foreign slaves from civs you've defeated. The foreign slaves are less productive, but they don't have the 1gpt cost. Usually I'd rather join foreign slaves, but not if there's any risk of a flip.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy


I haven't tried that, and not really interested in doing that, either. It's certainly powerful, but tedious and feels exploitive to me.

Bamspeedy, as an ex-milker of score, I find that statement hard to believe but if so, then you missed out on part of the milking process. It's really fundamental to racking up the score and speeding up the core build. Even taking workers from more corrupt to less corrupt cities can be very productive cause you can usually build up a few of your cities more than others, so pump them up.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Honestly, CB, I never did that. If I built a worker, he would stay working until all the workers got done improving all the land, then I would have a mass migration of the workers back to the cities.

For doing a palace jump, then yes, joining workers is pretty much essential, but I don't do palace jumping, either (I wait for a leader to rush FP).

 

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
Honestly, CB, I never did that. If I built a worker, he would stay working until all the workers got done improving all the land, then I would have a mass migration of the workers back to the cities.

Well, what does it mean to improve "all the land"? You can get to the point where all of the tiles you're working are improved. But there are more tiles you could be working productively, if you had more citizens in your core cities. This is the point at which a certain amount of merging back into the core cities makes sense, while you are simultaneously improving the tiles that those citizens are now able to work. It's a gradual reduction in the workforce, along with a continued improvement of the land, rather than just one or the other.

And it still makes sense to keep pumping workers out of peripheral cities, even while you're absorbing workers into core cities, because those peripheral cities are much better at generating workers/settlers than anything else.

 

[pdescobar]

Does the SDI small wonder give a chance at intercepting all nuclear missiles or only ICBMs? (It just mentions the latter in the 'pedia.)

If it can intercept both, is it 75% for both as well? (Don't know what else it would be, but I like to be thorough...)

 

[Bamspeedy]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ


Well, what does it mean to improve "all the land"? You can get to the point where all of the tiles you're working are improved. But there are more tiles you could be working productively, if you had more citizens in your core cities. This is the point at which a certain amount of merging back into the core cities makes sense, while you are simultaneously improving the tiles that those citizens are now able to work. It's a gradual reduction in the workforce, along with a continued improvement of the land, rather than just one or the other.

And it still makes sense to keep pumping workers out of peripheral cities, even while you're absorbing workers into core cities, because those peripheral cities are much better at generating workers/settlers than anything else.

By 'Improving all the land' means I was milking the game to 2050AD, and thus every tile eventually would need to be improved. I was doing an ICS build, so it doesn't take long for every tile to be worked.
I would want all the terrain irrigated/railroaded, as quickly as possible. All the cities would eventually need a marketplace (and some of them an aqueduct).

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Bamspeedy, I understand what your saying but once you get past the settler flood stage piling workers into cities that produce happy citizens increases score quicker than improving tiles, granted, some balancing needs to occur. Any city, less than 95% corrupt, that needs improvements to attain the desired size and happiness for the milking run or can help increase your science production to propel you to steam are prime candidates for pumping up.

 

[Moonsinger]

CB, I love your bee (your avatar).

I usually join worker to the city after I build the mass transit. Basically, I stockpile a lot of workers and settlers and try to keep most of my cities around size 13. Once the mass transit is built, I will instantly bump that number up to the max. Overall, I don't think I lose too many points by doing that. What do you guys think?

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Moonsinger, that's usually what I do too on a milk run, you lose to many potential points if you let pollution cause too much global warming. Every tile that degrades costs you another possible specialist, however, I do suspect that the trick is to produce just a bit of global warming to push the scoring envelope.

I fill cities up to maximum of happy citizens first before topping the large cites with specialists, these large cities normally have lots of specialists that are not nearly as valuable as the happy citizens. Hitting the maximum happy citizens as early as possible in the game yields some good scores. The specialists, do add alot to the score but percentage wise those happy citizens hopefully almost as many as tiles needed for domination before 1400AD are the key to big scores..

 

[Bamspeedy]

pdescobar-just to let you know we aren't ignoring your question.......

It's been like a year and a half since I've used nukes (don't think I have ever in my life used a tactical), but I would guess that tactical nukes do not get intercepted by the SDI small wonder.

Perhaps somebody else can verify this...

 

[barron of ideas]

Why the emphasis on happy citizens? I certainly want everyone out working on a tile productively (maybe one scientist is ok if I am trying for a 40 turn research project) but why should I care if they are happy or merely content? As long as they are working productively (shields, gold, commerce being made from the tile they work) contributing to the glory and success of my empire Bhwaaaa!

High score? Why? Win early, that is the ticket. Don't give those rivals gold for luxuries so people can waste them being "happy". That gold will come back as upgraded warriors (swordsmen) or worse to attack you. Or provide the enemy a way to pay for defenses as well as researching technologies you will be tempted to pay for. It can be a viscious circle, where you stay poor and small. Fall too far behind, and when they dogpile you, you fold like a cheap card table. All so your people can be "happy". I have been told this we love the king day can do great things for my empire. I don't know, it has only been achieved here by accident.

Milkers, looking for high score...what if you are lactose intollerant?

 

[jeffelammar]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
but I would guess that tactical nukes do not get intercepted by the SDI small wonder.

I can't verify myself, but I read in a thread a couple days ago that SDI does protect against tac nukes.

I believe the reasoning is that even a tac nuke is a launched and interceptable rocket.

*shrug*

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by barron of ideas


Milkers, looking for high score...what if you are lactose intollerant?

Then you simply end the game before 1400AD, any decent milked game can be won handily before 1400AD and I do mean any!

As for your comments about happy people, the best managers can provide for all needs not just some needs. Having loads happy citizens implies that you have secured all 8 luxuries, usually through conquest, don't assume that drinking milk is for sissies.

 

[Bamspeedy]

barron- We are talking about 'milking' the game. The AI is already dead, and we are just ringing up the score. Happy people are great for score, but yes, we need money for other things (research/rushing things) instead of devoting it all to luxury tax.

On larger maps you can very easily get a higher score by *not* winning early. Winning early is best for score if playing tiny-small maps, so play those maps if you are lactose intollerant .

 

[barron of ideas]

Some of my best friends are sissies. I am, truth be told. There are not a lot of extremely brave people who spend a lot of time gaming. We get vicariously some of the high that people who take physical risks don't need from gaming.

Of course I may be wrong about that too. After all, I am a sissy.

And while milk is not my favorite beverage, ice cream and other milk based products form a part of my balanced diet. (wipes white moosetashe off mouth.)

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Ahh, just raising your post count, that's cool.

 

[pdescobar]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
It's been like a year and a half since I've used nukes (don't think I have ever in my life used a tactical), but I would guess that tactical nukes do not get intercepted by the SDI small wonder.

Originally posted by jeffelammar
I can't verify myself, but I read in a thread a couple days ago that SDI does protect against tac nukes.

Thanks for the replies. I've only ever used nukes like twice myself, but I would like the DyP SDI entry to be as accurate as possible, so I guess I'll just have to run a test to see which it is.

EDIT: Looks like whoever posted what jeff read was correct. 7/10 of my tacticals were stopped by an enemy SDI, which is good enough for me to assume it works the same for both types.

 

[hbdragon88]

Well, tac nukes go all the way up and come plunging down, so yeah, SDI would intercept nukes. Like anyone who has seen "The Iron Giant", they would know that tac nukes go up in space to hit their target.

 

[WillJ]

What do the unit sort buttons in PTW do? I never heard an explanation of them, and when I tried clicking them it didn't seem to do anything.