Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[catalin72]

I see in the world builder AI cities without production,is that red circle with a line.It is possible to keep a city without production,waiting for a technology to build a thing example? Or is that red circle waiting the turn to come?

 

[s.bernbaum]

It means production of something finished that turn and the city is now waiting for the next turn to start building something else.

 

[catalin72]

It means production of something finished that turn and the city is now waiting for the next turn to start building something else.

Ok,thank you.I see just one AI with this,in my game Germans.That grey flag is the last in the order of civs?
Edited:I saw too for other AI.

 

[PsychopathicWarmonger]

Not a newbie anymore but I figured I'd ask here anyway.

For upgrades to siege weapons, Why would anyone choose any other upgrade than Ciy Attack or Bombard?
I fought a war recently where I lost something like 3 catapults throughout the whole campaign. Many of those were upgraded with City Attack - some even reached level 4 and even level 5.
Those accounted for maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of my siege weapons, the rest were all upgraded to Collateral Damage with Bombard being the Level 3 upgrade. (Playing as Charismatic is very handy for upgrades )
My odds were always higher fighting with the City Attack Catapults (naturally enough), but when those initial units wear down the defenders, and through their collateral damage, I'm finding I rarely even need the Collateral Damage upgrade at all - or the Combat upgrade, or the First Strike, or the Withdrawal upgrade.

Can someone give me a run-down of how they go about distributing their siege weapons? I read before that it's necessary to bring a lot because you'll be losing a lot but I found I lost hardly any at all, and infact needed more defender units if anything as I was despositing my attack force a little bit in each city as I advanced into my enemy's territory.

 

[Esperr]

Not a newbie anymore but I figured I'd ask here anyway.

For upgrades to siege weapons, Why would anyone choose any other upgrade than Ciy Attack or Bombard?
I fought a war recently where I lost something like 3 catapults throughout the whole campaign. Many of those were upgraded with City Attack - some even reached level 4 and even level 5.
Those accounted for maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of my siege weapons, the rest were all upgraded to Collateral Damage with Bombard being the Level 3 upgrade. (Playing as Charismatic is very handy for upgrades )
My odds were always higher fighting with the City Attack Catapults (naturally enough), but when those initial units wear down the defenders, and through their collateral damage, I'm finding I rarely even need the Collateral Damage upgrade at all - or the Combat upgrade, or the First Strike, or the Withdrawal upgrade.

Can someone give me a run-down of how they go about distributing their siege weapons? I read before that it's necessary to bring a lot because you'll be losing a lot but I found I lost hardly any at all, and infact needed more defender units if anything as I was despositing my attack force a little bit in each city as I advanced into my enemy's territory.

I can't give you an excact ratio but this morning I had a stack of 15 cats and 10 war elephants+some archers to deposit in conquests. That feels about right. Seige weopons definitely make up the bulk of forces thats for sure. i always take city raider as well, I figure the extra damage im doing to the unit im fighting will be worth more then the extra collaterall.

 

[lymond]

Well, seems you've been a bit lucky, but generally you can expect to lose quite a bit of siege. City Attack is the main promo path, but I might eventually throw in some Accuracy (bombard) promos (i do like the keep these guys). Generally though, siege is viewed as disposable.

In rarer cases, I might use Collateral or Drill in the open field (including attacking enemy units at city gates) in sticky situations to soften up a stack..

Sometimes you get lucky and a particular siege unit survives up to CRIII and longer, in which case I add collateral and anything else helpful on offense. I've even plopped a GG on a cat or treb before.

But, again, in general I never really get attached to siege units. Their main purpose is to die.

 

[s.bernbaum]

For upgrades to siege weapons, Why would anyone choose any other upgrade than Ciy Attack or Bombard?
I fought a war recently where I lost something like 3 catapults throughout the whole campaign. Many of those were upgraded with City Attack - some even reached level 4 and even level 5.
Those accounted for maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of my siege weapons, the rest were all upgraded to Collateral Damage with Bombard being the Level 3 upgrade. (Playing as Charismatic is very handy for upgrades )
My odds were always higher fighting with the City Attack Catapults (naturally enough), but when those initial units wear down the defenders, and through their collateral damage, I'm finding I rarely even need the Collateral Damage upgrade at all - or the Combat upgrade, or the First Strike, or the Withdrawal upgrade.

Can someone give me a run-down of how they go about distributing their siege weapons? I read before that it's necessary to bring a lot because you'll be losing a lot but I found I lost hardly any at all, and infact needed more defender units if anything as I was despositing my attack force a little bit in each city as I advanced into my enemy's territory.

I mostly give them City Raider promo. I include enough with Bombard to reduce the city defense to 0% in one turn, with sufficient City Raider units left over to reduce the average city's garrison to the max. Ideally, there are a few more siege than needed, to allow for losses when attacking. Besides that, I like to include one to three siege units with Collateral Damage promos in the stack to deal with any field armies that I may encounter.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Hmm, outdated siege (say cannons in an artillery stack) get bombard since they are still useful in bombarding defenses but I don't really want to toss them at the enemy.

As for other stuff, maybe drill for combat outside of cities? Sometimes you will get attacked and your only hope is to use collaterial damage to destroy the stack, or you are attacking and need to destroy their stack first.

You should probably not promote the thing until you have a reason to do so, in order to adjust properly.

 

[Lennier]

Note that in BtS, siege cannot take combat promos. Outside cities, it's either drill or collateral.

 

[Trout]

Got a quick question about galley-chaining as it is referred to in these forums. Is that only possible with a Mod pack? I can't seem to accomplish it in stock BTS which is what I play. Am I missing something? Or can galley-chaining only be done with K-MOD, BUFFY, or some of the other popular Mod packs? Thanks in advance for the help with this. I see where some of the elite CIVers use galley-chaining for things like accelerating exec spread across the ocean, but I can't figure out how to do it myself.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Got a quick question about galley-chaining as it is referred to in these forums. Is that only possible with a Mod pack? I can't seem to accomplish it in stock BTS which is what I play. Am I missing something? Or can galley-chaining only be done with K-MOD, BUFFY, or some of the other popular Mod packs? Thanks in advance for the help with this. I see where some of the elite CIVers use galley-chaining for things like accelerating exec spread across the ocean, but I can't figure out how to do it myself.

It won't be possible with BUFFY if you can't do it in standard BTS, either. Same goes for BUG (obviously) and BAT, and Better BAT AI.

 

[lymond]

Galley-chaining (or any ship that carries units) requires that the transfer of units takes place on the same sea tile. You cannot offload a unit from ship X onto ship Y if the ships are on adjacent tiles. The ships must be on the SAME tile. So to chain, you must space the ships such that each one can reach the same tile of the next ship that turn, transfer units, then move on to the same tile of the next ship. If done right, with a coupla extra ships in the chain, you can ferry units across large bodies of water each turn.

This feature is vanilla..some consider it an exploit..but hey...it's in the game so I use it.

 

[Trout]

Galley-chaining (or any ship that carries units) requires that the transfer of units takes place on the same sea tile. You cannot offload a unit from ship X onto ship Y if the ships are on adjacent tiles. The ships must be on the SAME tile. So to chain, you must space the ships such that each one can reach the same tile of the next ship that turn, transfer units, then move on to the same tile of the next ship. If done right, with a coupla extra ships in the chain, you can ferry units across large bodies of water each turn.

This feature is vanilla..some consider it an exploit..but hey...it's in the game so I use it.

Thanks mucho Lymond and Smarticus Pantsidae! Appreciate the quick answers

 

[catalin72]

I have a question about BUG(or BUG+BULL) MOD,a feature.More time ago with MOD installed I saw a thing like this:'tech X will increase research of the tech Y',in science tree screen or up,choosing tech to research,when I used the mouse upon the techs line.Using again a MOD,BUG 4.4,I don't see that information,and I don't know too much about techs connections[increase,decrease(?)].I forgot to set a thing in options,or need BUG+BULL?
I downloaded using pages about Buffy MOD.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I have a question about BUG(or BUG+BULL) MOD,a feature.More time ago with MOD installed I saw a thing like this:'tech X will increase research of the tech Y',in science tree screen or up,choosing tech to research,when I used the mouse upon the techs line.Using again a MOD,BUG 4.4,I don't see that information,and I don't know too much about techs connections[increase,decrease(?)].I forgot to set a thing in options,or need BUG+BULL?
I downloaded using pages about Buffy MOD.

To get that functionality, you will need the BUG Mod plus BULL. BUFFY doesn't have those functions, as it doesn't include BULL. You can also use the BAT Mod for those features. BAT is BUG and BULL, plus graphic enhancements, and it does not change anything in the standard game.

To get the most recent versions of BUG and BULL, use the links in my sig.

 

[catalin72]

To get that functionality, you will need the BUG Mod plus BULL. BUFFY doesn't have those functions, as it doesn't include BULL. You can also use the BAT Mod for those features. BAT is BUG and BULL, plus graphic enhancements, and it does not change anything in the standard game.

To get the most recent versions of BUG and BULL, use the links in my sig.

OK,thank you much,will download BAT Mod.

 

[PsychopathicWarmonger]

I know it depends on the game, but what sort of strategy would one adopt when they find themselves without Copper or Horses, and their neighbour(s) having them?
Archers are great for city defense, but Axemen have 5 strength. They win on the field without question.
The early game is so important, it's devastating to let an enemy roll over your farms and mines whilst you can do nothing about it because you have no unit strong enough to meet them.
This is in reference to pre-Classical Era wars. Should one research Iron-Working if they find themselves in this situation? Lacking Copper/Horses and finding that their neighbour has one or both of them?

 

[Samson]

I know it depends on the game, but what sort of strategy would one adopt when they find themselves without Copper or Horses, and their neighbour(s) having them?
Archers are great for city defense, but Axemen have 5 strength. They win on the field without question.
The early game is so important, it's devastating to let an enemy roll over your farms and mines whilst you can do nothing about it because you have no unit strong enough to meet them.
This is in reference to pre-Classical Era wars. Should one research Iron-Working if they find themselves in this situation? Lacking Copper/Horses and finding that their neighbour has one or both of them?

I would say there are basically 3 options:

• As you say, beeline Iron Working. This may or may not work, as you may not have access to iron, but is not that much research and if it works you are sorted.
• Turtle with archers. Protect your cities, let the invaders have the countryside and hope they can be persuaded to make peace. Not great, but you do not need anything else but archers.
• Beeline catapults. These are of course early Classical Era, so not really answering you question, but these are the big levellers, if you can attack with a few of them any unit can mop up the remains of the stack.

 

[6K Man]

I know it depends on the game, but what sort of strategy would one adopt when they find themselves without Copper or Horses, and their neighbour(s) having them?
Archers are great for city defense, but Axemen have 5 strength. They win on the field without question.
The early game is so important, it's devastating to let an enemy roll over your farms and mines whilst you can do nothing about it because you have no unit strong enough to meet them.
This is in reference to pre-Classical Era wars. Should one research Iron-Working if they find themselves in this situation? Lacking Copper/Horses and finding that their neighbour has one or both of them?

Adding to what Samson said:

If you don’t have Copper/Horses, do you have Marble, Stone or Ivory? You can sometimes swap one of those (plus something else) for Copper/Horses (and maybe the guy you swap Stone with will build the Pyramids and you can elepult those later). If you just have vanilla food/luxury resources, I think you’re stuck – I’ve never been able to pry a strategic resource away from an AI without sending back another one, or a ton of cash that you won’t have in the preclassical era.

Religion can be your friend – for example, if all your neighbours are Hindu, adopt it ASAP. If there’s a mix of religions, it’s probably better to pick one (the one the zealots are in) and cross your fingers, as opposed to being unaligned and a potential target for everyone. And of course, there are other diplomatic tricks (gifting a junk city, for example) to get an AI to Pleased.

If you can settle a choke point on a hill, do it. AIs suck at bypassing strongpoints by water.

If you have seafood, you can run a decent specialist economy with food sources that can’t be pillaged by land.

 

[PsychopathicWarmonger]

I think I understand. I find myself often abandoning a game if I find myself lacking strategic resources in the early game.
I need to be more adaptable. It's like I'm decided what sort of strategy I want to play before I've even seen the map.
I'll keep these things in mind though.