Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[TruePurple]

If you rush a protection, the first turn costs twice as much as consecutive turns. If you chop some production into a city, does that nullify that double cost?

Do privateers only generate gold when blockading cities of nations you aren't at war with?

 

[AcaMetis]

On chopping: No. Chopping only adds hammers to a city's production output for that turn, and to avoid the dry whipping/rush-buying penalty you have to actually invest hammers into a build. As far as I recall only a Great Engineer is able to invest production the same turn it's used, but anything that you're likely to rush with a GE is something you're not going to be whipping/rush-buying to completion afterwards.

No clue on privateers.

 

[crullerdonut]

What does white star on name bar of Philadelphia signify?

Are more city structures preserved if you flip a city rather than conquer it? I forget, when a city flips from culture, do you have a chance to destroy the city instead?

Is there a way to destroy a city other than when you first take a enemy city?

The white star signifies a city with a Forbidden Palace and/or Versailles.

 

[crullerdonut]

Do privateers only generate gold when blockading cities of nations you aren't at war with?

Yes, they do. I advise putting at least two Privateers on a stack while doing that, though; otherwise, they'll easily get picked off by Frigates.
IIRC, the way this works is that if you're blockading an enemy city using a Privateer, you still can get a trade route to that city. The blockaded civilization still has to use that city for the usual trade-route optimization , but the difference is that the they normally would receive from the city's trade route income gets converted to and sent to you.

 

[lymond]

Pretty sure war or not does not matter with blockade gold. Privies are considered neutral and are not recognized as your unit by war target or others.

 

[ArchGhost]

1) Can researching Alphabet make it more likely that an AI attacks you? That is, could the AI become more likely to attack you if they can, now, see that you have a tech that they want, in the hope of forcing you to hand it over during eventual peace negotiations?

Yes, though in a roundabout way. If either you or an AI have Alpha they can make requests for help (relations Pleased or higher) or demands for tribute (Cautious or lower), rebuffing those will drive diplomacy down with them, making war more likely in the greater picture. AIs can plot or even outright declare war immediately over a refused demand. So you could say, yeah, if none of the other AIs have Alpha and you also never tech it, they can never demand any techs from you. Sort of like avoiding stockpiling large amounts of gold for too many turns to avoid demands for it.

This scenario is so narrow (and not really a good idea!) though it's hardly a bump up in their likelihood to attack you, it is just one of many factors. The two most important factors are always diplomatic relationship (if an AI can't declare via attitude, you are 100% safe outside you pulling them in via Defensive Pact by attacking their pact-mate, doesn't happen often) and standing peace treaties (which are --normally -- unable to be violated). Other things like power, land target status, being on different landmasses, etc can influence likelihood to be attacked one way or another but are less important in the big picture. Diplomacy is important boys and girls!

4) This one is pretty obscure: when the game decides which AI civs and leaders you play against, does it first decide on civs, and then on leaders, or on leaders from the start? That is, are civs with two or three leaders more likely to be chosen, or are individual leaders from civs with two or three leaders less likely to be chosen?

Single leader civs seem to be more heavily weighted. I can't remember the last time I played a French or American leader in the last 50 random games or so, but PLENTY of Monty/Charlemagne/Giggles going on in there. One time I rolled Charlemagne 3 times in the same sitting of rerolling maps.

 

[R82]

Thank you, too, ArchGhost!

Has anyone else noticed an apparent bug where the two happy faces from Barracks under Nationhood get counted twice, so that you effectively get four happy faces that way?

 

[6K Man]

Pretty sure war or not does not matter with blockade gold. Privies are considered neutral and are not recognized as your unit by war target or others.

IIRC you can't collect gold with privateer blockades of an AI you are at war with. It's been a while since that scenario came up, though, so I may be forgetting.

 

[Pangaea]

Have a situation I wonder about.

Am waging war on Lincoln together with Mansa. Just took his capital Washington. Same turn Mansa signed a peace treaty with Lincoln (10 turns). Very same turn he finished Feudalism, and I traded for it. Hadn't intended to try to peace vassal him, but had maybe changed my mind because Darius has had Feudalism for a while and would be the natural next target. Due to the Mansa-Lincoln peace treaty, Mansa says it's not possible to join the war on our side when I hover over the Vassal state option. Does that mean he would be willing to peace vassal to me if the war ended? Or does that text simply go before "We're doing fine on our own"?

It would lead to worse relations with others, but if Mansa is willing to peace vassal, I could cease fire the war and sign him up.

However, if all this works, will it then be possible to re-declare on Lincoln, or will the peace deal that Mansa has muck it up, and I'll then take on the 10 turn peace treaty as well?

Another option is to first continue the war and kill off Lincoln. But that also gives Mansa plenty of time to upgrade all those skirmishers to longbows, which may mean I don't have the power any more to peace vassal him.

 

[AcaMetis]

If possible I'd say save the game and try stuff out, reloading afterwards once you know what your options are and deciding what to do from there. If you're talking about a HOF game than, well...that'd be a really difficult situation to test .

 

[elitetroops]

Due to the Mansa-Lincoln peace treaty, Mansa says it's not possible to join the war on our side when I hover over the Vassal state option. Does that mean he would be willing to peace vassal to me if the war ended? Or does that text simply go before "We're doing fine on our own"?

That seems to be the first denial type it checks for, it's returned before any power rating checks.

Tested the peace treaty thing. If you vassal him his peace treaties are no longer in effect and you should be able to re-declare on Lincoln.

 

[Pangaea]

That seems to be the first denial type it checks for, it's returned before any power rating checks.

Tested the peace treaty thing. If you vassal him his peace treaties are no longer in effect and you should be able to re-declare on Lincoln.

Thanks. Since this was a HoF map, I couldn't test it. Ended up continuing the war because this wasn't a sure thing. Once it was done (only two more cities), Mansa said we had become too powerful. Is it the population that triggers that? We 'only' had ~40% land of 62% (for domination), so I wouldn't think that should trigger his resistance. Population was already above the dom limit, however, so that may have done it.

Found this pretty unusual btw. Not sure I've even seen it before.

Spoiler :

A triple holy city. He already has a shrine there and just got another GProphet, so... well....

It's with Choose Religions on (I find it fun as they tend to come out differently), and the Islamic shrine is almost 50%. Two others are nothing really, but another shrine there is still nice. No wonder he techs well!

 

[Trout]

Unless this is something from BUG, you should be able to just hover over the Trade Routes to see if there is an additional +50% bonus coming from harbors. The way that Harbors are supposed to work is that they add +50% bonus to in general. Customs Houses are the ones which work only on Foreign . Contrary to some reports, in the current patch at least, Customs Houses work on all Foreign , NOT only on intercontinental foreign .

I am answering kind of late but thanks. I play BTS in-modded and the hovering did show the Trade Route 50% bonus. I guess it is just often the case that the math calculation does not result in any additional commerce even when a Harbor is constructed.

 

[6K Man]

Japan has defensive pacts with Maya and Native America. Of the three nations, Japan is the strongest, followed by the Native Americans, with Pacal being weakest.

If I attack the Mayans, I think the effect will be to trigger the DP they have with Japan, resulting in Japan declaring war on me. This DoW by Japan will cancel their defensive pact with Native America.

Or is my attack on the Mayans considered an attack on Japan too by the DP mechanism, meaning that I will be at war with all 3 of them?

 

[s.bernbaum]

Japan has defensive pacts with Maya and Native America. Of the three nations, Japan is the strongest, followed by the Native Americans, with Pacal being weakest.

If I attack the Mayans, I think the effect will be to trigger the DP they have with Japan, resulting in Japan declaring war on me. This DoW by Japan will cancel their defensive pact with Native America.

Or is my attack on the Mayans considered an attack on Japan too by the DP mechanism, meaning that I will be at war with all 3 of them?

The first option, which I have bolded, is the correct one. This assumes that the Native Americans do not also have a DP with Pacal.

 

[6K Man]

They don't. Thanks, @s.bernbaum

Time to die, Toku

 

[R82]

Is there any quick guide anywhere to which buildings get destroyed when a city is conquered and which are preserved?

 

[elitetroops]

Quick rule of thumb is that military buildings (barracks, walls..) and buildings that produce culture are destroyed, the rest have a chance to survive. UBs that produce culture can survive if the building they replace doesn't produce culture. Might be some other exceptions to these rules, but they cover most buildings.

 

[R82]

Quick rule of thumb is that military buildings (barracks, walls..) and buildings that produce culture are destroyed, the rest have a chance to survive. UBs that produce culture can survive if the building they replace doesn't produce culture. Might be some other exceptions to these rules, but they cover most buildings.

Ah, thank you. At the moment, I usually play as Huayna Capac, and I've noticed that sometimes, a city I've conquered starts producing culture pretty much right away, although it has no religion and my culture slider is at zero, because the previous owner built a Granary that got turned into a Terrace when I took over.

 

[Lennier]

Yes, that's one of the Inca's advantages. The granary in the city you just conquered is a non-culture producing building, and has a chance of surviving conquest. Then becomes a terrace and starts producing culture.