Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Avelon]

I misunderstood the context of 'loser' then, and took the 'you have confessed' part as a subtle insult. Apologies to vmxa.

Lord Emsworth: We've all spent a little gold rush-building an important unit or building before. =) Money is there to be spent...your income suffers if you have to keep all of your happiness improvements around, but just think of the commerce you can get, working every tiles in a radius! Not to mention you could transform a few of the Elvii you get after all the tiles are filled into extortionis...err, taxmen. >_>
The number of unhappy citizens stops increasing after a while, so if you have enough improvements, troops, Elvii, or whatever else to keep your cities rolling with all tiles being worked, you can just start making taxmen out of every population increase.

It's kind of an investment, the way I see it.

 

[Ansar]

Can you switch to Communism, build the Secret Police HQ, and switch back to Repubic and the Secret Police HQ still works?

 

[Ansar]

Right, it should have been.

Did the Dutch have contact with America? That's one case where you can trash your rep with one civ, but still have it good with another. They don't have contact, so they can't trade notes on what happened.

And what AT said.

Dutch didnt have contact with America when it happened, but later they met America...

It was actually worth it, because the Arabs were in that war for about a whole age...

 

[Turner]

Can you switch to Communism, build the Secret Police HQ, and switch back to Repubic and the Secret Police HQ still works?

Nope. Government specific buildings only work while you're in that government. Now, I think you can build it, switch to republic and keep it. Then when you go back to communism it'll work again. RnR has government specific buildings and wonders, but once I get to that point I generally don't change govs.

Dutch didnt have contact with America when it happened, but later they met America...

It was actually worth it, because the Arabs were in that war for about a whole age...

That's why you could do GPT, because the Dutch didn't know about it. Had you killed one or the other off, you wouldn't have had a problem. But once the Dutch met America, your rep would have been trashed.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Lord Emsworth: We've all spent a little gold rush-building an important unit or building before. =)

Cash-rushing is pretty much besides the point of maintenance cost.

Money is there to be spent...your income suffers if you have to keep all of your happiness improvements around, but just think of the commerce you can get, working every tiles in a radius!

The underlying question was whether you work every available tile in a certain radius around your capital by a higher number of cities (size12) or a lower number of metros (size13+). So, the point of now being able to work every tile is moot too, I fear.

Not to mention you could transform a few of the Elvii you get after all the tiles are filled into extortionis...err, taxmen. >_>
The number of unhappy citizens stops increasing after a while, so if you have enough improvements, troops, Elvii, or whatever else to keep your cities rolling with all tiles being worked, you can just start making taxmen out of every population increase.

It's kind of an investment, the way I see it.

Every new citizen working tiles will start out unhappy (after the first, second etc depending on your level). So, if you use cities to work all your tiles you will have to provide happyness for 12 laborers. If you work all your available tiles by full-size metros you have to provide happyness for 20 laborers. Of course there are multiple options to do that (if you are a republic):

• The lux-slider. If you use it, it will convert a certain percentage of the commerce that the city makes into happy faces. Working more tiles means more commerce, which in turn might give you more happy faces. So, a metro working more tiles will also get more happyness from the lux-slider set at the same percentage than a city does. This more only goes so far however.
• Luxes (in combination with markets) and certain happyness wonders (J.S. Bach's). They will give a set amount of happy/content faces to every settlement connected to your trade-network or on the same continent respectively regardless of size. So, unlike the lux-slider a metro will not benefit more from them than a city does.
• Happyness improvements and clowns. They will give a set amount of content/happy faces for every city that has them. The advantage is that they can be placed individually and this is what makes them very interesting for a mixed empire with size 12 cities and metros. The downside of improvements is that you have to build them first and that you have to pay upkeep. The downside of clowns is that you are either (1) not working available tiles which means you'll lose food, shields, and commerce, or (2) - if you are oversizing (more citizens than available tiles) your city/metro - a trade-off of one shield for every additional food needed. So, in this latter case of oversizing, if you want to use three clowns, you will have to replace three mines on RR-ed flat terrain by irrigations for an overall loss of six shields. The lost shields may or may not be an issue.

 

[Ansar]

I play with CxxxC and CxxC. I get metro's ,but thats because I use AGR civs. Though if you have strict CxxC, how do the cities get lots of shields from 9 tiles?

 

[azzaman333]

I play with CxxxC and CxxC. I get metro's ,but thats because I use AGR civs. Though if you have strict CxxC, how do the cities get lots of shields from 9 tiles?

It's almost impossible to play strict CxxC, and i see no reason why anyone would want to tbh. You have to adapt the city placement to the surroundings.

"Stealing" tiles from neighbouring cities is the way you can, since the further out you go, the less tiles they need (a few irrigated grassland and they make 3-9 beakers per turn for you)

 

[vmxa]

It is pretty much manditory for AWE or better to play CxxC, strictly. Now of course you will have a few places that has to be altered. You can drop that requirement after you have the game under control and are going for domination and not conquest.

It is quite wise at DG or better as well, but you can win without it, if you know what you are doing. As long as the AI does not come for you early, then you best have CxxC.

As to shields, how many do you need, is 67 netting 60 enough for you? Are 2 turn cavs good enough for you? They are for me. I just pulled up the last turn I played and see these tiles 3,2,3,3,1,2,2,2,2,4,4,5,4 = 37. That is 12 tiles and the CC. A factory and a hydro and you have a net of 60. Two turn tanks are a breeze with more shields than you need.

This is not a super city. It has 4 hills, one with a bonus. It has 3 BG's. It is a good city, but you have seen better.

30 plus shield cities are common. No need for a metro as you are never going to make Modern Armor or even Mechs.

 

[Keroro]

Until recently I always played regent, and I was always very careful to keep my cities CxxxxC, to make sure they didn't overlap radii. Now that I've started using CxxC at the beginning of games I have found that I can beat the game on Emperor. It really makes a hell of a difference.

Plus, no one has mentioned that with CxxC with roads your normal troops are able to make it from one city to another in one turn, which makes organising a defence much easier in the early game (especially if you don't have horses).

 

[Turner]

Actually, yeah, the point of getting units from one city to the next in one turn was made.

Edit: Here.

One-turn troop movement makes all the difference in many cases.

 

[Keroro]

My apologies to Avelon.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I pretty much never do that, btw - convert cities to metros. There are several disadvantages to doing it - for one thing, it's a pain in the ass.

What I do do sometimes is set up my first ring so it can go CxxxC by having a couple of cities that are easy to disband - that way, in a space race game or a 20K game, I can build 5 hospitals and get the benefits of metros + be able to build battlefield medicine + reduce the corruption of my 2nd ring of cities (because they are of higher rank)

But I would almost never expand much beyond the 1st ring. and usually, I can't be bothered.

 

[vmxa]

Plus, no one has mentioned that with CxxC with roads your normal troops are able to make it from one city to another in one turn, which makes organising a defence much easier in the early game (especially if you don't have horses).

That was the implications of this statement:
"It is quite wise at DG or better as well, but you can win without it, if you know what you are doing. As long as the AI does not come for you early, then you best have CxxC."

 

[Avelon]

I tend to play Japan. That may explain some things about why I don't mind more distance between cities. =P

So like everything else, it just comes down to preference, I guess. I'm a bit OCD and it eats me alive to see overlapping tiles. I'm also the sort who will locate luxuries/strategic resources outside my influence and then calculate where my nearest city to that resource will be when I expand that far - then I'll go build a city there, roads, and fill in the gap. =P

 

[vmxa]

So like everything else, it just comes down to preference, I guess.

I do not agree it comes down to preferences as that implies that you can choose either with the same results. I do not think you can choose to play 21 tile placement in all levels and all maps and win.

I am not even sure you can do it and come out as well as those that do not. You can choose it and win at most levels and most settings. How many settings and levels is a function of how well you understand the game.

Preference is valid for choice of color for your shirt, not quite valid for your choice of car, if you intend to enter a drag race for instance.

 

[Ansar]

Is CxxxC considered OCP?

 

[Turner]

No. OCP (Aside from creating RoboCop) is when you maximize the tiles that are used for each city without any overlap. Or minimal overlap. CxxxC would have quite a bit more than minimal overlap.

 

[big azz]

Ive only just started using pc's, just got right into civ3. Am i in the right forum to find out how to play the game properly?

Port Power for premiers...ok maybe next year

Is it possible to change the mandatory retirement date of 2050?

 

[Avelon]

big azz: Please refrain from posting several times at once. If you have more than one question, just post them all at once. If you think of another question right after you post, you can just edit your post (with the button in the lower right of your message) right quick and include your other question.

You're in the right forum. This thread is for quick questions like how many units can a despot city support without hurting income.
It is possible to change that date with one of the expansions... I believe Conquests?

vmxa: Would you rather have 3 size-7 cities with 3 defending units each? Or would you prefer to have 1 size-21 city with 10 defending units? Let's just assume you can magick either one of these choices out of thin air and have it right now this turn.

Preference comes into play when you choose what kind of game you want. You wanna own the world before gunpowder? Rock on, go right ahead. You wanna bust things up with modern armour instead? Rock on, go right ahead.

 

[Civinator]

When I loose a Small Wonder, can I build it again, or is it gone forever ?