Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[vmxa]

If I have AC's, its very bad news for my neighbors. Too me they are the best unit in AA. Leader generating machines. Swords with 2 moves and wait, 6HP when elite!!! I often use themon redlined cavs. I only need one roll in 6.

 

[Meteor Man]

they're very powerful units if you don't have iron, which is what happened to me. Just stack them all up, then attack the target city in numbers. they are just like fast swordsmen with an extra hitpoint.

 

[Whythat]

i think my problem is that I don't use them fast enough. I stack 'em up but the tech leaves them behind and I still haven't had a war. I thought they would be useful against swords and spears but they folded like cheap funeral parlour chairs.

They are also very useful for fast building temples/workers in conquered cities after they become obsolete.

 

[darski]

I had to do a Timerover here. I'm not modding a lot, but I felt I had to mod the way overpowered Statue of Zeus. So I got rid of the extra hitpoint and made it into a small wonder. Making it into a small wonder is actually fun; it makes it worth trying to track a civ that has Ivory and trade for it.

I like this idea. But then everyone in the game could have the AC's. to be honest, I like it just for the keeping away aspect for the other Civs.

I was using it against swords and spears. I have a pic of the AC at 1hp with a static retreat with not a single hp off the spear in the city.

Like I said, I should have been using them against the Mongols a thousand years ago..

 

[funfsinn14]

okay im not a noob im just digusted that i cant load my armys on boats and i cant even load great leaders on boats, what gives? am i missing something here?

 

[darski]

Well could you maybe define "boats"?

If you want to load an army into a galley, you can only have one functioning unit in it. The army is *one* unit and then the cav in the army is the 2nd unit for the galley.

For a caravel, you can have 2 units in the army to transport.

MGL's can go on boats. How are you trying to do it now?

 

[btfx]

GLs are normal units, you should be able to load them just fine onto transports (assuming the transport has a free slot). Armies require one slot for each unit in the army + a slot for the army itself (or the army leader, or whatever that dude is called). So for a regular army, you need a galleon or better, for post-pentagon 4-unit armies you need a transport. If you're playing archipelago try to get your first army into battle right away, so you can have a "victorious army" (required for one or two army-related small wonders).

edit: Ack! x-post with darski ¬.¬

edit: In case you're not sure, to load a unit (or army) onto a boat either position both into a city, select the unit/army and press L, or position the unit/army adjacent to the transport (on a water tile) and move the unit onto the transport.

 

[timerover51]

I had to do a Timerover here. I'm not modding a lot, but I felt I had to mod the way overpowered Statue of Zeus. So I got rid of the extra hitpoint and made it into a small wonder. Making it into a small wonder is actually fun; it makes it worth trying to track a civ that has Ivory and trade for it.

Hmmm, does this mean that I have become synonymous with modding anything and everything in sight? At least from the context, it does not appear to be meant in a derogatory or pejorative sense, so I shall consider it a sign of reaching Iconic status, or more accurately, the Large Pain-in-the-Neck (or other appropriate location on one's anatomy) status.

I have gotten rid of the extra hit point on the Ancient Cavalry, but turning it into a Small Wonder so that every civ might have a chance at it? Horror of horrors, as my unsanctioned upgrade for the Ancient Cavalry goes Ancient Cavalry>Knight>Cavalry>Tank>Modern Armor. It would never do to give the AI all of those free goodies, that eventually could be used on me.

 

[Blanchflower]

Yes I know what A/D/M stands for, the value of the military units. For example, the warrior as 1/1/1 which means its attack strength is 1, Defense 1 and movement 1. But there are some units which show a bracket beside their attack points. For example the warlord unit from the Vandal Civilization 3 Conquest. Its points are 8 (12) /3 / 1 (I can't remember the exact value for its defense and movement points. What does the number in the bracket means? Hope someone can clear this up for me!

Thanks!

 

[Tone]

there are some units which show a bracket beside their attack points....What does the number in the bracket means?

It's to show that this unit can provide a defensive freeshot. (defensive bombardment is what I think it's called.) If this unit is in a stack that gets attacked, then it will get a defensive shot against the attacker before the fight begins, which might result in the attacker losing a hitpoint. Each unit only gets one defensive shot per turn and only if it is not the unit that is defending the tile in that particular attack. This is also available to artillery units.

 

[Meteor Man]

Also, Armies cannot be airlifted because only one unit can be airlifted at a time.

What's the point of micromanaging? I play all the time on Chieftan level and can't seem to go past warlord because i don't micromanage, and I would like to find out how.

 

[Aabraxan]

The point of micromanaging is to optimize food, gold and shields in your cities. If a city hits size 12 without a hospital or Shakespeare's, there's no point in having it produce 28 food if you can pull in a couple of extra uncorrupted shields or gold.

Look through some of the high-level games in Stories & Tales, as well as Succession Games. Also, search through Succession Games for "Training Day Games" or "TDGs." There's a lot of good discussion in those. At one time, I started one called "Aabra01: Training for Mid-level Micromanagers" that might prove useful. CommandoBob also ran one (CBob01, an AWM, I think), and Whomp has also run a couple, I think (entitled something like "The Tom Tom club builds a party lounge,", IIRC).

 

[vmxa]

Simple MM would be to check each turn for happiness issue using F1 or a tool. A little more MM would be to check towns after growth to see if everyone is working the best tiles for what you want to accomplish.

IOW if food, you are working the best food tiles. Another level could be to watch for production over runs.

You could also use a tile with a bonus, such as a cow, where you give it to one town for a time and then to another for a time.

Worker management is level that you should do as well, but the degree is up to you. Mainly true to get the priority jobs done first and try to minimize movement by workers. One thing you see done wrong is to have workers mining mountains early in the game.

Workers improving tiles that are not going to be worked for some time. Moving to spots and then moving back and things like that.

 

[Blanchflower]

It's to show that this unit can provide a defensive freeshot. (defensive bombardment is what I think it's called.) If this unit is in a stack that gets attacked, then it will get a defensive shot against the attacker before the fight begins, which might result in the attacker losing a hitpoint. Each unit only gets one defensive shot per turn and only if it is not the unit that is defending the tile in that particular attack. This is also available to artillery units.

Thanks for the reply! But what if you are the one doing the attacking or if the enemy unit just passes by, do you still get this defensive freeshot (which is marked in brackets) or does the Attack point ONLY count for these types of units?

 

[Aabraxan]

The defensive freeshot is triggered if any of the units on the same tile is attacked. IOW, if you put an archer (which has a defensive freeshot) in with a stack of swords and spears, the archer will get a freeshot if the stack is attacked. The best defender in the stack will then defend against the attack.

 

[darski]

Can anyone tell me where you can find the world seed for a map you are playing?

I can't seem to find it in CA2 or mapstat but I am not sure where to look anyway.

 

[Bartleby]

Mapstat doesn't tell you. It's somewhere in the World Map tab of CA2; right click and properties, or something like that maybe. I never use the World map tab because it reveals the map on my computer.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

I've also seen micromanaging refer to avoiding shield and gold overruns. For example if you're producing a unit that requires 30 shields in a city that produces 7 shields per turn you can anticipate wasting 3 shields. A good micromanager would shift tiles worked, use specialists, use forest chops or chose to build it elsewhere to avoid the wasted shields. [Note- I am not a good micromanager]
I do try to avoid wasting gold in my tech research- if I'm at 90% research and have 1 or 2 turns till I get the tech, I turn down my research spending and/or switch scientists to tax collectors to get the tech on the same turn but with less money spent.

edit-oops, lots of cross posting, this is getting back to the question on mm'ing

 

[vmxa]

SeedBeast will give you the number.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Another worker micromanaging consideration is how you combine workers. I learned on the boards to consider the turns to complete a worker task when assigning which and how many workers. (More experienced players, please correct me if I'm off on this).

For example, if it takes 3 turns to rail a tile after replacable parts, it takes 2 workers 2 turns (not 1 1/2 turns!) with wasted worker time. It'd be wiser to use a worker and a slave to complete in 2 turns or 3 workers to complete in 1.