Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[s.bernbaum]

Lymond answered all but I have the impression that you are just beginning with CIV and a little clarification may be in order.

Why do combat unit's strength ratings never go up when you give them a +20% strength experience upgrade, even when their starting strength is 5 or more?

The strength that you see for the unit is the base strength. If you point to the unit you will see a box appear to the left of the screen showing all of the bonuses that the unit has. These will be added to the unit strength when it is in combat. (Actually some of them decrease the strength of the opponent but it is simpler to just figure that they increase your unit's strength.)

Also do you need a work boat to work each sea tile to get any resource benefit from them? Or do you get the bonuses whether or not there's a work boat in the tile?

Yes. You need to use the work boat to get the resource benefit.

And what can you do to reduce unhappiness caused by citizens of a town saying "it's too crowded"? Does building cottages help? If not, what can you do to reduce "it's too crowded" unhappiness? Or is that just a placeholder text to cover all kinds of other causes of unhappiness?

You almost never decrease unhappiness. What you do is balance off unhappiness with happiness resources. The goal is to have more happiness than unhappiness, so the net result is a happy city. However, if you use slavery to build something, the decrease in population will decrease the "it's too crowded" unhappiness by the number of population points used, although using slavery adds a slavery unhappiness point. So, in that case you usually want to use more than one population point for the slavery build to end up with less unhappiness (also consider that using the slavery build will make your city smaller, until it grows back).

 

[Dunadd]

Lymond answered all but I have the impression that you are just beginning with CIV and a little clarification may be in order.



The strength that you see for the unit is the base strength. If you point to the unit you will see a box appear to the left of the screen showing all of the bonuses that the unit has. These will be added to the unit strength when it is in combat. (Actually some of them decrease the strength of the opponent but it is simpler to just figure that they increase your unit's strength.)



Yes. You need to use the work boat to get the resource benefit.



You almost never decrease unhappiness. What you do is balance off unhappiness with happiness resources. The goal is to have more happiness than unhappiness, so the net result is a happy city. However, if you use slavery to build something, the decrease in population will decrease the "it's too crowded" unhappiness by the number of population points used, although using slavery adds a slavery unhappiness point. So, in that case you usually want to use more than one population point for the slavery build to end up with less unhappiness (also consider that using the slavery build will make your city smaller, until it grows back).

Thanks for the reply - i appreciate it, but from playing more, it seems work boats have no effect, except for being able to build fishing boats. Once you have the Fishing technology, you can assign citizens to work sea or lake tiles - they look the same as fishing boats do once assigned..

 

[Dunadd]

Do resources that you've developed (e.g a plantation on incense) give benefits only if they're being worked, and in a city's work zone? Or if you have a road to them and roads connecting all cities will they benefit all cities (e.g +1 happiness to all cities from Incense if you've built roads and a plantation on it and have religion as your civic value)?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Once you have the Fishing technology, you can assign citizens to work sea or lake tiles - they look the same as fishing boats do once assigned..

If you hit Ctl + Y you will see the difference, once a workboat creates a fishing boat it adds 2 food to Crabs and Clams and 3 to fish.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Do resources that you've developed (e.g a plantation on incense) give benefits only if they're being worked, and in a city's work zone? Or if you have a road to them and roads connecting all cities will they benefit all cities (e.g +1 happiness to all cities from Incense if you've built roads and a plantation on it and have religion as your civic value)?

I'm not sure what you mean by "religion as your civic value" but yes once resources are improved and connected to your trade network they will give health or happiness etc to your cities in that trade network. Improved tiles that are worked will give commerce, production or food to the city they belong to.

 

[lymond]

Dunadd may be referring to the bonus happy Incense gives to certain religious buildings...like the Cathedrals, etc. Can't recall if that is dependent on being in the religion...I don't think so...and it has nothing to do with civics.

1) An improved resource provides some tile yield bonus to the tile if that tile is worked by the city that owns the tile. (incense is rather a rather poor tile since it is usually found on desert and, therefore, food deficit)

2) An improved resource that is connected by road or river will provide a happy or health bonus to all connected cities....same for strat resources like copper and horses. Extra copies can be traded for other resources or gold per turn. Resources outside a cities Big Fat Cross (BFC), can be connected by a Fort+road, if inside your culture.

 

[Dunadd]

I'm not sure what you mean by "religion as your civic value" but yes once resources are improved and connected to your trade network they will give health or happiness etc to your cities in that trade network. Improved tiles that are worked will give commerce, production or food to the city they belong to.

It's probably because i'm playing the Ashes of Erebus fantasy mod, but I'd have thought the more basic game mechanics would be the same

Thanks to you and to you too Lymond

 

[s.bernbaum]

Thanks for the reply - i appreciate it, but from playing more, it seems work boats have no effect, except for being able to build fishing boats. Once you have the Fishing technology, you can assign citizens to work sea or lake tiles - they look the same as fishing boats do once assigned..

Noble Zarkon answered this. However, I would like to add that you can also use workboats to explore the coast, keeping in mind that if they encounter a barbarian galley, they will be destroyed. If you get them early enough there are no barbarian galleys yet and you can explore quite a bit of coast.

 

[Dunadd]

If a resource says on it something like "+1 Healthy with Camp +1 Healthy wit Hunting Lodge" , will it give you +2 Health if you have both, or still only +1?

 

[Dunadd]

Do road connections between cities that cross rivers not work if you built the road before you had the technology for bridges?

 

[Dunadd]

If you assign more than one worker unit to building the same thing on the same tile, will they do it faster, or just uselessly duplicate each other's work and take the same time as a single worker would?

 

[Nogbadthebad]

If a resource says on it something like "+1 Healthy with Camp +1 Healthy wit Hunting Lodge" , will it give you +2 Health if you have both, or still only +1?

You get +1 health with a farmed corn connected to your city, and +2 health if you also have a granary in that city. Hunting Lodges are not in the base game but I would assume it works the same and you get +2 health the same way.

Do road connections between cities that cross rivers not work if you built the road before you had the technology for bridges?

Road connections between that cross rivers before construction WILL allow trade routes between those cities, and they WILL allow resources to be shared. Before construction the road WILL NOT give you a movement bonus crossing the river (thus crossing a river onto a roaded hill or forest will still cost 2 movement).

If you assign more than one worker unit to building the same thing on the same tile, will they do it faster, or just uselessly duplicate each other's work and take the same time as a single worker would?

Worker turns do add up- so if you are building an improvement that takes 1 worker 10 turns, it will take 2 workers 5 turns.** If you used 3 workers it would take 4 turns but 2 of your 3 workers would be free to do something else- so keep an eye on them if you have stacked them together as worker turns are the most valuable commodity you have in the early game.

** Also be aware that once the improvement is done- remember to get your city to use it immediately. The game will not prompt you to do this, and you may not notice until the next turn when the workers reactivate. You will have to make a note to do this yourself.

 

[Seraiel]

I have a question regarding My next Hall of Fame Writeup featuring a #1 ranking Quattromasters Settler Huge Marathon Incans Espionage Eleven Points Game:

Is there a minimum Culture that a Cultural City needs for the Spy-Mission to work?

Thanks In advance for any correct answer,

Kind regards, Seraiel.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Technically no but I have always found it better to "seed" some culture first.

 

[Seraiel]

THANK YOU @Noble Zarkon

SERAIEL

Technically no but I have always found it better to "seed" some culture first.

 

[Dunadd]

Thanks Nogbad

 

[Dunadd]

If you have a resource with the right thing built on it to get the bonuses, and it's within your cultural borders, but not on a tile a city can work, do you still get the bonuses from it? E.g A sheep resource with a pasture built on it inside your culture's borders, but not on a tile any of your cities can work, would you still get the health bonuses from it for all your cities?

 

[Pangaea]

Yes, you still get the bonuses. Both from the sheep itself, and possible other bonuses from for example a Grocer or Market or whatever (differs by resources). It's the same if a fort is on the resource, which is something the AI loves to do.

It does have to be connected to the capital's trade network to apply empire-wide, but this is usually not a concern once past the early game, as the road network expands (or if it's riverside).

 

[Dunadd]

If you have Open borders with another kingdom will it mean they could move a settler and build a city in what is currently your culture's territory and take some of it over? Or only that they could move through it?

 

[Dunadd]

Thanks Pangaea