Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[cjamblues]

You are quite right. I should know by now that I always remember this incorrectly and I should look it up first.


(or be vague!)

Thanks again, you were quite right. And it is apparently 11 turns interval.
I reloaded, attacked the UN city one turn earlier, got my election and won as planned. Now I know how it works with election intervals. It was an interesting challenge this time since Babylon was by far the largest civ, and alone on the largest continent long before I could get to him. But he had left a crack open on the coast where I put a settler just one turn before he would have closed it and used that as a bridgehead for attacking his UN city in the centre of the country. I had to use ROP abuse to do it but I had my alliances and voters in place before that and until then a smearless reputation whereas he was hated by most everybody.
I dont know how else to win a game like that, when a civ twice the size of everybody else shows up on another continent when you get your first world map.
Do you?

 

[Tone]

@cjamblues: It's really difficult to know exactly what happened and what to advise. However if they just showed up when you traded world maps I suggest that you use suicide galleys on continents maps to get contacts earlier than you did. (i.e. don't wait for Astro/Navigation before sending those galleys out into the sea. You'll lose some but once one gets across it will be worth its weight in gold.) The more contacts that you have, the cheaper it can be to research/buy techs and you may even get situations where you can buy from one civ and sell onto another at a monopoly price.

Once you have all contacts you can keep track of any runaway civs. If neccessary declare war on the most powerful and dogpile them with alliances. They will spend the majority their cash and shields on units rather than city improvements which will stunt their growth in the long term.

 

[cjamblues]

@cjamblues: It's really difficult to know exactly what happened and what to advise. However if they just showed up when you traded world maps I suggest that you use suicide galleys on continents maps to get contacts earlier than you did. (i.e. don't wait for Astro/Navigation before sending those galleys out into the sea. You'll lose some but once one gets across it will be worth its weight in gold.) The more contacts that you have, the cheaper it can be to research/buy techs and you may even get situations where you can buy from one civ and sell onto another at a monopoly price.

Once you have all contacts you can keep track of any runaway civs. If neccessary declare war on the most powerful and dogpile them with alliances. They will spend the majority their cash and shields on units rather than city improvements which will stunt their growth in the long term.

hi,
suicide galleys is an idea to try. I assumed I would loose them all but your experience that som will get through, is something I must try.
The problem in Emperor and above is of course that you are so pressed on every frontier that dogpiling one opponent with assult and alliances will make you weak towards another. In this game I was in fact weaker than 2-3 other civs until very late in the game and one of them, Inca, attacked me repeatedly. I think I am getting pretty good at worker management and using specialized citizens to reduce the effect of corruption but the AI bonuses are hard to compete with.

 

[Tone]

The problem in Emperor and above is of course that you are so pressed on every frontier that dogpiling one opponent with assult and alliances will make you weak towards another.

If your 'victim' is on the same continent, ally every other civ on the continent against them and if you are not too strong, fight a passive war whilst the rest grind themselves into the ground. If the AI is on another continent, they will only send token forces to fight you so just let your allies overseas do the real fighting. You are right that being in a war will make you appear weaker, which is all the more reason not to commit forces until you are able to deal a convincing blow IMO. In all cases the extra options that more contacts give you puts you in a strong financial position to negotiate (and renegotiate) alliances.

In this game I was in fact weaker than 2-3 other civs until very late in the game and one of them, Inca, attacked me repeatedly.

It seems that the Inca often attack me too. Nice for War Fever though!

 

[cjamblues]

If your 'victim' is on the same continent, ally every other civ on the continent against them and if you are not too strong, fight a passive war whilst the rest grind themselves into the ground. If the AI is on another continent, they will only send token forces to fight you so just let your allies overseas do the real fighting. You are right that being in a war will make you appear weaker, which is all the more reason not to commit forces until you are able to deal a convincing blow IMO. In all cases the extra options that more contacts give you puts you in a strong financial position to negotiate (and renegotiate) alliances.

It seems that the Inca often attack me too. Nice for War Fever though!

hi,
thanks for your advice, I have more or less learned the same through my games. But this time, there was no strong ally for me on Babylons continent, there was one who was wiped out early by Babylon himself, afterwhich he was alone to grow rapidly. My alliance with this third party just caused Babylon to destroy him even quicker and I would have had to send strong forces to defend him, making myself too weak towards Inca on my own continent.
I really could not find any way to compete squarely with Babylon in this game, I tried several variations of the same game. The only one I could make work was the surprise attack on his UN city. (But that was quite fun too).

I must try your suicide galley suggestion next time, maybe that could help getting the necessary contacts sooner. How many galleys would I typically need to get one through?

 

[EMan]

.... I must try your suicide galley suggestion next time, maybe that could help getting the necessary contacts sooner. How many galleys would I typically need to get one through?

(Suicide) Galleys have a 50% chance of sinking in sea/ocean tiles (less if Seafaring civ), so you do the math.

 

[Tone]

I must try your suicide galley suggestion next time, maybe that could help getting the necessary contacts sooner. How many galleys would I typically need to get one through?

Oh, they're not mine. As much as I'd love to take the credit, it's a standard technique used by many players to swing the odds back in their favour.

Galley success depends upon whether you are seafaring and just how lucky you get with the RNG. I'd like to suggest this post by scoutsout though.

 

[smoke jaguar]

how do i get the advanced build tools to show up? I can't remember?

 

[Aabraxan]

Look in the preferences menu.

 

[firepeoplebb]

I've downloaded the new GoTM but I can't figure out how to open it to play it.

 

[EMan]

Suggest going to the GOTM Forum. (They will help you in a NY second.)

 

[firepeoplebb]

Thanks EMan. I was looking ini on one of the military stratagy forum thread where someone needed help and one of the people said to stop automating the workers. What I don't understand is why not automate your workers. Also if its bad to automate your workers how do you work with them?

 

[EMan]

People don't automate workers because the program does not do intelligent things with the workers!..........Try it, you'll see.

So, what you do is tell the workers what to do manually. For example, put the worker on a grassland tile and click the button that tells him to, say, mine it..........In the early game, you can build a road, mine, chop a forest etc.

 

[vmxa]

Automated workers will wandering war zones at times. They will mine or irrigate, when they should not. They will waste time by moving over the same tiles that are not roaded.

They will work less than optimal tiles, such as mining a hill while a plains needs irrigation and work on tiles that cannot be worked now or ever and on and on.

 

[MAS]

What I don't understand is why not automate your workers. Also if its bad to automate your workers how do you work with them?

Read: Crackers guide to opening moves!

And note the small table of content on the left side, this guide is more than one page.

 

[firepeoplebb]

Well I'll try to be come unaddicted of putting workers in automate. But i've never seen the automate put a mine on a flood plain. Also I was wondering if you set the city governor to "emphasize" food would that affect how the workers work the land or is only the governor placing the people in certain squares and making certain improvements?

 

[Norton II]

Well I'll try to be come unaddicted of putting workers in automate. But i've never seen the automate put a mine on a flood plain.

That's because flood plains can't be mined.

Also I was wondering if you set the city governor to "emphasize" food would that affect how the workers work the land or is only the governor placing the people in certain squares and making certain improvements?

It only determines what tiles the governor assigns citizens to (in that case, the tiles that produce the most food). Worker automation is separate from city automation.

 

[Ansar]

When you raze a noticable quantity of AI cities (ex. 6), will other AI's, that know both you - the human player and the AI you're at war with, be more mad with you (like, in attitude) ?

 

[Norton II]

When you raze a noticable quantity of AI cities (ex. 6), will other AI's, that know both you - the human player and the AI you're at war with, be more mad with you (like, in attitude) ?

Yes, unless they're at war with that civ as well, in which case their attitude toward you improves until the war is over. From Bamspeedy's article on AI attitude:

+1 if you raze the city of another AI. +12 if you raze a city of that civ. Other civs don't add any more penalties than the standard +1 if the city had contained any Great wonders. It doesn't look like the victim adds more than the +12 permanent penalty either, but there may be a temporary penalty.

-1 to -3 for each enemy unit (of common enemies) you destroy and tiles you pillage, -7 for razing an enemy city, but all of this is temporary - AFTER the war or the civ is destroyed, you will get the +1 penalty for each razed city added back on, plus the +1 penalty for declaring war (even if you had joined the alliance).

 

[setew2]

How do you make cities in the desert grow larger than size 2? How do you make production better?