Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

@dwest: Green faces? Sounds like a civ4 question to me. I'm no civ4 expert but you could connect/trade for more health resources (fish, wheat, bananas, etc), build health boosting improvements ('ducts, grocers, hospitals), make sure that you avoid flood plains and jungles without having sufficient health resources and consider Environmentalism. You could also avoid improvements like forges and factories but you might be better off putting up with the poor health.

 

Has a mod been created that eliminates all randomness in combat?

 

That is not possible given the design of the game. The problem with eliminating all randomness from combat is that combat itself is random. There are far too many variables for combat to be totally predictable. Just read some military history, and that will be readily apparent. It is possible to design games where the combat result is totallly predictable. They tend not to be a lot of fun to play.

You always have things like Stonewall Jackson being shot by his own side, the lucky torpedo hit that crippled the Bismarck, the fog at Lutzen which resulted in Gustavus Adolphus riding into the Imperial cavalry and getting killed, the arrow in the eyehole of Harald Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, Alexander and Julius Ceasar both surviving an incredible number of battles, the Confederate panic at Missionary Ridge, those type of incidents are always occuring, making combat an always chancy thing.

 

If you have a unit within an Ai's borders and they demand its removal and you refuse/X out of the negotiation and they declare, do you get war happiness? Do you get a ROP violation rep hit for starting the turn in their borders? Is there a way to exploit this? I hear about folks convincing the AI to declare war on them by outrageous demands , but they just get furious with me and don't declare.

 

If you refuse to move your troops, you're declaring war so you don't get war happiness. There has been discussion recently as to whether this leads to loss of RoP reputation. I'm inclined to believe (but haven't tested) that if they ask you to leave and you attack anyway, then you'r rep will be OK but if they demand you leave and you refuse, then your rep will be tarnished.

If they have troops in your borders, if they are furious enough they will declare war when you give them the boot order. You can make sure they're furious enough by repeatedly demanding laods of stuff.

 

Something interesting happened to me the other day. the Mayans sent 2 settlers and their escorts into my territory to get to the other side (insert 'rim shot' here). I used that excuse to start a war but I seemed to get War Happiness which surprised me. Was the fact that they were on my land enough excuse for war? I didn't ask them to leave at all - just whacked 'em.

 

If Ai(landlocked) has units in my territory (alot of 'em) and every time I say them 'leave or declare' they leave, that for ~10 turn already.

Then one turn I set up a friendly 'welcome party'(40 trebs and 12 knights) and declare, while Ai units are on my land. Will this brake my reputation? Is it counted RoP rape (no RoP has been signed).

 

@darski: were you at war with them before and if so, did they instigate it that time?

@Morthern Wolf: no. They were on your land. You are perfectly entitled to declare when they are encroaching upon your territory. You could only be accused of RoP rape if you had units in their lands.

 

No I was not at war with them. I used the incident to start the war.

 

Had you ever been at war with them? If they declared war on you earlier and you still had war happiness when you made peace, then if you go back to war the war happiness resumes.

 

You can't declare on them - ask them to leave or declare. You only get war happiness if they declare on you.

 

My question was about the fact that my people were deliriously happy when I just whacked the settler pairs (I did declare before the whackage .

Granted they only had 5 cities and they were quickly removed from the map so that might be why my people were fine with a declared war in Republic

 

Sorry - I misread your initial post .

As Bartleby mentioned, you could have war happiness from a previous war against them. Other possibilities - you were trading away your only source of a luxury and declaring broke the trade route so you had your luxury back. Or the battle started your Golden Age and the extra income through the luxury slider gained happy faces .

 

Remember, Darski, that a DoW, by itself, does not give you war weariness. There is a list of things that do cause weariness, but just being at war does not.

To review, the biggest cause of weariness by far is losing one of your cities to the enemy. Other significant causes are: being attacked (even if you win), and attacking and losing. Minor causes are: losing a worker or settler, having your improvement bombed or pillaged, or having a unit bombarded to redline.

Notably absent from this list is attacking the enemy and winning. As long as you are the agressor, and you win consistently, you will never get significant weariness.

However, you never get actual war happiness unless the other guy declares on you. That can happen if you tell them to go and they refuse. But the way you described it, you should have gotten the "Are you sure?" message when you first whacked a settler, and then you chose the "Yes, they are scum!" answer. In that case, you don't get war happiness. If you didn't get that dialogue, then you were already at war somehow.

 

You do get a war weariness point for being in enemy's territory. Off the top of my head, it's something like:
* being in enemy's territory (at the end of the turn): 1 point (the amount of units doesn't matter).
* getting a unit attacked: 2 points (more units is more points).
* losing a unit in battle: 2 points (more units is more points).
* losing a city: 16 points (more cities is more points).
And I believe that each turn that none of these events take place a point gets substracted again. If you don't need to have units in enemy territory, it's better not to have them in there at all, because it does add to your war weariness count. The counting just goes very slowly, and it'll take some time before You'll notice it.
Please beware that I gave the above list from memory, so it's probably not 100%.

 

Yes, that's right. I forgot to include that one. The main thread discussing this in the War Academy is here.

 

Thanks for providing that link, Anaxagoras! I was actually too lazy to look that up myself. What I posted earlier was just what I have in the back of my mind when I'm playing. It serves Ok for that. Mayby I'll once be capable of remembering Oystein's article in better detail.

 

I guess Bartleby made the point I was trying to make but with greater clarity...

 

I had never been at war with them in that game.

 

One thing that needs to be mentioned about ROP Rape. If you wipe out the AI before they meet any other AI, then your rep will remain pure since no one was alive to rat you out