Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ok, I've re-read the Settler factory article (which was very well written by the way) and I possibly understand it a little better now. The only questions I have on this are:

- When adopting this method of creating settlers, do they only use this city to create them?
- Do they generally go through the early stages of the game only creating settlers with this city - ie do they not improve the city in any way other than granary?
- How often should I be producing a settler unit? I seem to be throwing one out every four/five turns and often seems like I'm still one of the slower-growing Civs
- If I'm creating Settlers this often, it also means that I have to be creating a defensive unit to send out with them surely? This means that basically two cities are bogged down constantly with creating units for new cities. Is this right?
 
I think the answers to your questions are partially dependent upon the game situation but here goes anyway...
When adopting this method of creating settlers, do they only use this city to create them?
No. With a food rich core and plenty of land to settle, a second settler factory would not be out of the question and even in normal situations I would still build settlers from other towns.
Do they generally go through the early stages of the game only creating settlers with this city - ie do they not improve the city in any way other than granary?
No need to build anything else so why bother? As long as you can keep the citizens happy (2MPs plus maybe 2 luxes and/or the use of the entertainment slider) what else do you want? The only exception I can think of is if you have sufficient sheilds for a four turn warrior/settler factory in which case you may want a rax in there as well.
How often should I be producing a settler unit? I seem to be throwing one out every four/five turns and often seems like I'm still one of the slower-growing Civs
As many as you can get out. With a settler factory pumping one out every four turns, your other towns should be able to help increase that. If you have enough room, the more towns that you build, the more settlers you can pump out.
If I'm creating Settlers this often, it also means that I have to be creating a defensive unit to send out with them surely? This means that basically two cities are bogged down constantly with creating units for new cities. Is this right?
If you have high barb activity then it may be wise to create an escort. If barbs are off then I rarely bother. I wouldn't look at it as being 'bogged down' though. Your future success depends upon your ability to expand quickly so these towns will be your most important ones. In the early game I rarely build much more than settlers, workers, the odd granary and the occasional warrior. If the AI is close and is limiting my room for expansion, I may be more militaristic from the start, get some early rax builds going and look to 'liberate' a few towns .
 
Ok, I've re-read the Settler factory article (which was very well written by the way) and I possibly understand it a little better now. The only questions I have on this are:

- When adopting this method of creating settlers, do they only use this city to create them?
- Do they generally go through the early stages of the game only creating settlers with this city - ie do they not improve the city in any way other than granary?
- How often should I be producing a settler unit? I seem to be throwing one out every four/five turns and often seems like I'm still one of the slower-growing Civs
- If I'm creating Settlers this often, it also means that I have to be creating a defensive unit to send out with them surely? This means that basically two cities are bogged down constantly with creating units for new cities. Is this right?


This is pretty much the idea. Expand into as much land as possible. Given a large enough starting area with no other civs around, you may be able to set up 2 or 3 settler factories if you have the proper food bonus tiles handy.

Look at it this way. With a settler being created every 4 turns, you could easily designate each new city as a different factory. Archer factory, worker factory, spearman factory, etc. Again, it all depends on the situation. Sometimes you might be able to plop down a new city and leave it undefended until you build something to defend it, sometimes you may have to send an escort with your settler like the AI does. Its just something you'll get a better feel for with more playing time.

One other note. On emperor level and above, you're probabaly not going to have the luxury of building Temples and such early in the game. Once the AI civs get established and start building offensive units, they're going to be looking for somebodies butt to kick. If you're fiddling about building temples and the like instead of an army, its probably going to be yours.
 
If the AI is close and is limiting my room for expansion, I may be more militaristic from the start, get some early rax builds going and look to 'liberate' a few towns .

This is really good advice here. I wouldn't consider my style as being a warmonger, but I do like to play what the board gives me, so to speak. If I'm in a tight space, like on small or tiny map, or even a large continents or pangea with 80% water and close neighbors, thats telling me play for a domination victory. If you can swallow 2 or 3 of your neighbors by the early medievil age, the rest should be easy.
 
Look at it this way. With a settler being created every 4 turns, you could easily designate each new city as a different factory. Archer factory, worker factory, spearman factory, etc. Again, it all depends on the situation. Sometimes you might be able to plop down a new city and leave it undefended until you build something to defend it, sometimes you may have to send an escort with your settler like the AI does. Its just something you'll get a better feel for with more playing time.

Except that there is little need for spearman. The AI fears offensive power, if you build only offensive units, the AI is less likely to attack. and if war does break out, just attack the AI units on your turn, and the defensive value of your units will rarely be tested.

I rarely defend my towns, I just defend my borders.

And I don't escort my settlers either. I move my units ahead of the settlers.
If a barb shows up and kills the "scout" the settler will still be alive, and has time to move back.
 
Except that there is little need for spearman. The AI fears offensive power, if you build only offensive units, the AI is less likely to attack. and if war does break out, just attack the AI units on your turn, and the defensive value of your units will rarely be tested.

I rarely defend my towns, I just defend my borders.

And I don't escort my settlers either. I move my units ahead of the settlers.
If a barb shows up and kills the "scout" the settler will still be alive, and has time to move back.

This is true. As I've alluded to my play style in my previous post, If I'm going militaristic, I won't build spearmen, they serve no purpose. But if I'm going to play a less aggressive power broker\puppet master type of a game and go for a spaceship victory, I'll build them. I like their upgrade chain.
 
MAS said:
I rarely defend my towns, I just defend my borders.

And I don't escort my settlers either. I move my units ahead of the settlers.
If a barb shows up and kills the "scout" the settler will still be alive, and has time to move back.
Wow, that's exactly how I do! I guess I'm a better player than I thought! :D

(just kidding, of course I'm not as good as MAS)
 
Is it possible to get rid of the last foreigner in a captured city?

I have a plan and would like to know how harebrained it is. I have some captured cities. I have heard that starvation takes out specialists first. I was thinking about starving the city to size 1, joining a native worker, switching the foreigner to a specialist, and starving it to size 1 again. Can I get rid of the foreign population this way?
 
Is it possible to get rid of the last foreigner in a captured city?

I have a plan and would like to know how harebrained it is. I have some captured cities. I have heard that starvation takes out specialists first. I was thinking about starving the city to size 1, joining a native worker, switching the foreigner to a specialist, and starving it to size 1 again. Can I get rid of the foreign population this way?
I don't think that this will work, though I may be wrong. I am pretty sure that you get a reputation hit if you kill a foreign citizen by starvation though, so think twice about the plan. I believe that the easiest way to get rid of the foreign influence is to raze the city in the first place, then found one of your own.
 
You don't get a rep hit for killing other citizens...quite... You do if you raze a city that has foreigners (if you raze a city that has only your nationality in it, that's fine) or if you abandon a city with any foreigners in it. Starving doesn't count.

On the other hand, I have heard, and observation seems to corroborate this, that whenever there is starvation, or when a settler/worker is created, it's your nationality that gets knocked off. I have never heard that specialists go first, and highly doubt that it is so. Try it though, it sounds interesting. I'd like to know if that would work.
 
Frankly, I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if it worked. I sort of figure that if it worked, I would have heard about it somewhere on this board. I heard during a discussion of starving captured cities that specialists get knocked off first. Not that I can point to the thread . . . Maybe that only applies when you've got 100% foreigners. Anyway, I will test this in my current solo game and will let you know if it works.
 
If I can get rid of all foreigners, shouldn't that help flip risk?

Yes, but is that worth the effort? It depends on the exact circumstances, but it may very well be an option to just settle with a flip chance and recapture any city that flips.

Well, just a thought! :)
 
Usually, you can put one cheap, non-zero-offensive land unit, like a warrior, in a city for each foreign citizen present. (The utility programs MapStat or CivAssist II will tell you how many you need to prevent a flip.)

And, eventually, the foreign citizens will "convert" to your nationality.....and so you won't need a military presence any more.

P.s. My experience has shown it's VERY difficult to get rid of foreign citizens!....usually natives starve first. :)
 
"Eventually" takes too long 99% of the time. ;)

If the city had both of those wonders, you're right to be cautious, because the culture in that city must have been pretty high. I don't think it would be worth the effort though. I would just starve it down to size 1, then put in a bunch of native workers, and make as many citizens as possible happy. If your citizens outnumber theirs and the city is in order (or better yet, having celebrations), the city is very likely to remain in your hands.
 
P.s. My experience has shown it's VERY difficult to get rid of foreign citizens!....usually natives starve first. :)
I'm pretty sure you should say always instead of usually (edit: apparently I was wrong). I think the same is true for workers/settlers.

As for killing specialists, you can't tell the occupation of the dead citizen, since they're all reallocated.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom