Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[LordValuna]

perhaps you discovered & mined uranium
uranium can be used for naval units but not the others u mentioned

 

[DMOC]

When attacking with siege, do you feel that it's better to attack with your siege until all your other units have 90%+ odds, or attacking until your best units have about 70% odds to save more siege at the potential cost of city raider 3 melee units?

 

[dalamb]

Those naval units require oil or uranium; the land units require oil specifically. You can check the Civilopedia in-game to discover what resources each unit requires -- which can also be handy to know when you go to war, so you know where to pillage the enemy to reduce their military abilities.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

When attacking with siege, do you feel that it's better to attack with your siege until all your other units have 90%+ odds, or attacking until your best units have about 70% odds to save more siege at the potential cost of city raider 3 melee units?

Depends on how much siege I have. If I have a lot, then I'll drop defenses and attack with all I can. If I only have a few, I'll use them to drop defenses and suicide only one or two.

 

[Ghpstage]

My own nooby questions:

1. Workers do have maintenance costs?
Yes

2. Is there a way to see how one civilization feels towards another by just looking at the flow chart thing (not asking them) ?
Yes, on the Foreign Advisor screen where you see all the leaderheads and relations toward you, simply click on an AI leader to find out what everyone else thinks of them.

3. City Specialization: what's the best specialization for a coastal city? Isn't there a tech or a wonder that will give those sea tiles hammers?
When it comes to hammers in coast cities oftentimes Slavery is your best bet, it lets you turn those seafood tiles into a production source. If you have the Beyond The Sword expansion the Maoi Statues national wonder adds 1 to a cities water tiles, and the Dutch Unique Building does the same (and more) in any city.
For general coast specialization, coastal cities can fill any role IF the tiles they have allow it. Specialization itself should be based on what your empire needs and what the cities tiles allow. Also, ocean tiles suck for working and coast tiles aren't particularly good either.

4. What exactly do the blue circles for workers indicate? I always took it to mean, "this is the tile the nearest city wants improvements in", but when I checked the city screen, more often than not no one's working that tile at all.
Its the AI suggestions, its best to ignore them
Whether the tile is currently being worked is irrelevant, the govenor will select the highest yield tiles, all that matters is you have (or will soon) the population to work it

5. Conquering the Holy City: where's the special shrine? Do I have to rebuild it? Is it possible to wipe out a religion?
Wiping a religion out can be done by razing every single city it exists in.
The Shrine is a wonder, after a Prophet has been used to build it, it can only be destroyed by razing the city it is in. Capturing the city lets you take it.

Shrines give +1 commerce commerce for every city that practices that religion.

Shrines give Gold NOT commerce

 

[Beamed]

Shrines give +1 commerce commerce for every city that practices that religion.

Isn't it +1 ?

EDIT: Emu'd

 

[Roland Johansen]

When attacking with siege, do you feel that it's better to attack with your siege until all your other units have 90%+ odds, or attacking until your best units have about 70% odds to save more siege at the potential cost of city raider 3 melee units?

If I have enough siege, then I will attack with siege until I can attack no more (all opposing units are below the maxdamage threshold of the siege units). I typically make sure that I have enough. Depending on the odds, I'll use my best siege units or my weakest.

If you haven't build enough siege to do this (you won't against a large SOD) then it isn't the odds against the top defender that matter. If my leading siege units has 60% odds against the best defender and the leading melee unit 80% odds and the rest of the defenders are much weaker, then it's probably a good idea to use the melee unit (as the expected value of losses is lower). Siege units are primarily useful to increase the odds against the entire stack. If I can increase my odds against 8 units from 80% to 90% by using a single siege unit attack, then that's a very well used siege unit. Usually, there are however one or a few tough defenders and lots of weaklings after the first few siege attacks. Then you just want to get rid of the tough defenders as cost efficiently as possible as the attacks against the weaklings will probably have zero cost.

The reason that I use siege units to attack until they can't attack anymore is because the last siege units get almost free experience against the extremely weakened defenders and because well promoted siege units have amongst the best odds against city defenders.

 

[Silv Something]

Shrines give Gold NOT commerce

Whoops. Sorry. I always get them mixed up. Just to clarify, isn't commerce commerce the stuff that gets turned into science science, espionage, espionage, culture culture and then gold gold? And gold gold can be spent on rushing with certain civics and on other leaders?

 

[Ghpstage]

Whoops. Sorry. I always get them mixed up. Just to clarify, isn't commerce commerce the stuff that gets turned into science science, espionage, espionage, culture culture and then gold gold? And gold gold can be spent on rushing with certain civics and on other leaders?

Yep, commerce is what gets run into sliders, and ngold you can trade, rushbuy with Universal Suffrage or use to pay city/unit mainteance

 

[bestbrian]

Hello All,
I've noticed that in games in which I reach late stages without having any oil resources that suddenly I can build naval units which require oil, but not tanks or fighters. Can anyone tell me why, please? When this happens, I am sure I haven't traded to receive oil.

Thanks,
Mike

Uranium?

 

[Musketeer935]

wow most pages like ever in a thread, i wouldnt call myslef a civ noob, just mostly a civfanatics noob lol. but anyway, i couldnt figure out how to upload a custom avatar?

(idk if this is the right place to put this question)

 

[Silv Something]

You could have put that post in the forum FAQ thread, but it doesn't really matter.
To post a custom avatar, click "My Account" on the link bar below the CFC logo. Then scroll down and click on "Edit Avatar" on the left-hand side control panel. Here, just follow the instructions to change your avatar.

Note: Your avatar must not exceed 70 by 70 pixels OR 4 kb. You must have been a member for 30 days and have 30 post to have an off-site avatar. There is no limit to the on-site civish avatars that you can choose from.

 

[Musketeer935]

You could have put that post in the forum FAQ thread, but it doesn't really matter.
To post a custom avatar, click "My Account" on the link bar below the CFC logo. Then scroll down and click on "Edit Avatar" on the left-hand side control panel. Here, just follow the instructions to change your avatar.

Note: Your avatar must not exceed 70 by 70 pixels OR 4 kb. You must have been a member for 30 days and have 30 post to have an off-site avatar. There is no limit to the on-site civish avatars that you can choose from.

? that doesnt make sense. the only thing it says about custom avatars there is to go to the forum rule page. there, it only said that i needed 30 days and 30 posts witch i do.

oops nevermind i got it.

 

[Silv Something]

Also, when you have something to add to your post, just click the "edit post" button in the lower left-hand corner of that post.

Then you can add your reason if you want.

 

[RoadHazard]

They say it's good to confess one's inadequacies. If so, I'm about to be a saint. ;-)

1. What's the correlation between Culture levels and city radius? Does the city radius always grow in lockstep with the culture level? For instance, will my boundaries always grow from 5x5 to 7x7 when I advance from "fledgling" level to "developing" level?

2. Regardless of city radius, you can never deploy workers to more than a 5x5 area (the "fat cross") around the city center, right?

3. Is there any benefit to killing/destroying unused units?

4. How does a Granary help growth? I see that they add +1 health to Corn, Rice, and Wheat (when those are available) but what's this about storing 50% of surplus food production?

5. How and why do trade routes between cities generate +1 coin/turn? Is this automatic or does it depend on what the cities are trading?

6. Does a city's culture ever decline? (Apart from being sacked, I mean.)

7. My manual says in several places that cities get the benefit of improved resources (i.e., a Pasture for Horses, a Mine for Coal, etc.) if that resource is within the city's radius OR if it's connected by a road. I think that's wrong. From what I can tell, improved resources MUST be connected via road (or waterway) even if they're already inside the city. For example, my city gets no benefit from a Farm placed on a Corn field even though the Farm tile is right next to the city center tile. Once I build a road -- voila! -- I get +1 health and a pop-up window congratulating me on my achievement. Is the manual incorrect or am I missing something?

 

[Sisiutil]

They say it's good to confess one's inadequacies. If so, I'm about to be a saint. ;-)

Provide evidence of two miracles and I'll put in a good word for you.

1. What's the correlation between Culture levels and city radius? Does the city radius always grow in lockstep with the culture level? For instance, will my boundaries always grow from 5x5 to 7x7 when I advance from "fledgling" level to "developing" level?

Yes, that's how it works.

2. Regardless of city radius, you can never deploy workers to more than a 5x5 area (the "fat cross") around the city center, right?

I take it you mean "citizens", not "workers". Workers are units that you can and should move outside the Big Fat Cross (BFC) to lay down roads, hook up resources, chop forests, etc. Citizens are assigned to work specific tiles within the 5x5 BFC only.

3. Is there any benefit to killing/destroying unused units?

Yep, you save on maintenance costs. All units have maintenance costs assigned to them; delete a few as an experiment and watch your available gold per turn go up.

4. How does a Granary help growth? I see that they add +1 health to Corn, Rice, and Wheat (when those are available) but what's this about storing 50% of surplus food production?

When the city grows to its next population level, without a granary, all the food in the food bar is consumed; with a granary, only 50% of the food in the food bar is consumed. This means that to grow to the next population level, you only have to add 1/2 the amount of food that you'd need without a granary. So your city grows faster.

5. How and why do trade routes between cities generate +1 coin/turn? Is this automatic or does it depend on what the cities are trading?

Trade routes are automatically calculated and can generate a lot more than just one commerce per turn. Trade routes with foreign cities are more lucrative than domestic trade routes, and intercontinental trade routes are more lucrative still. Whatever goods you're trading with the foreign civ has nothing to do with it, but you do need an open borders agreement and a route to the civ in question. My beginner's guide (link in my sig) has a more detailed explanation of trade routes, if you're interested.

6. Does a city's culture ever decline? (Apart from being sacked, I mean.)

Nope.

7. My manual says in several places that cities get the benefit of improved resources (i.e., a Pasture for Horses, a Mine for Coal, etc.) if that resource is within the city's radius OR if it's connected by a road. I think that's wrong. From what I can tell, improved resources MUST be connected via road (or waterway) even if they're already inside the city. For example, my city gets no benefit from a Farm placed on a Corn field even though the Farm tile is right next to the city center tile. Once I build a road -- voila! -- I get +1 health and a pop-up window congratulating me on my achievement. Is the manual incorrect or am I missing something?

The manual is incorrect, or at least misleading. The only time you don't need a road is if the resource is next to a river tile, and that river is also next to a city tile somewhere. Generally, though, it's always a good idea to put roads on resource tiles; it makes it easier for your units to move to them and protect them from pillagers, and for your workers to get to them if the improvement is wiped out by a pillager or a random event.

 

[Roland Johansen]

They say it's good to confess one's inadequacies. If so, I'm about to be a saint. ;-)

1. What's the correlation between Culture levels and city radius? Does the city radius always grow in lockstep with the culture level? For instance, will my boundaries always grow from 5x5 to 7x7 when I advance from "fledgling" level to "developing" level?

It's actually not a 5x5 of a 7x7 area as some of the corner areas are left out as the culture radius grows so that it looks a bit more circular. (the culture area grows 1 step more distant from the centre tile per culture level and diagonal distance is counted as 1.5)

At normal game speed, the culture levels are 0, 10, 100, 500, 5000, 50000, each increasing the borders 1 step further from the centre tile and increasing the cultural defence bonus. When 2 borders of competing civilisations meet, then the city with the largest amount of culture on a tile will control it. This is controlled by tile culture which is related to but not exactly the same as city culture. It's a fairly complicated formula that you might want to look at some time in the future when you want to learn the details of that mechanic.

2. Regardless of city radius, you can never deploy workers to more than a 5x5 area (the "fat cross") around the city center, right?

Right.

3. Is there any benefit to killing/destroying unused units?

Less maintenance.
The first couple of units are free of maintenance (and this number increases with the number of citizens that your civilisation has). After that number, each unit costs maintenance. Check the financial advisor (F2).
You might want to upgrade some of your units and use them later on to defend cities or take enemy cities. Upgrading can be expensive though so some players elect to only upgrade their most experienced units.

4. How does a Granary help growth? I see that they add +1 health to Corn, Rice, and Wheat (when those are available) but what's this about storing 50% of surplus food production?

From the moment that construction of a granary is finished, a granary starts (invisibly) filling with food until it holds half the currently needed amount of food to grow to the next city size. This occurs at the same rate as your food box gathers food (and it doesn't cost food). This food is released into the next food box when the city grows filling it almost halfway. Thus growth of your city is almost doubled. If you build a granary just before the city grows, then it doesn't contain half the food box upon city growth.
It's usually wise to build a granary as one of the first buildings in a city so as to profit from the increased growth rate as soon as possible.

5. How and why do trade routes between cities generate +1 coin/turn? Is this automatic or does it depend on what the cities are trading?

Hmm, 'what the cities are trading'??? Your cities aren't trading anything and it isn't related to the trading of resources by your civilisation.

It is related to the distance of the other city, the size of the other city and the presence of some trade increasing buildings in your city. Furthermore, trade routes with foreign cities and intercontinental trade routes (since the expansion pack BTS) are far more profitable than those with your own cities.

There is a strategy article that holds the exact bonuses for each of these factors and in BTS, you can see the various bonuses when you hold the mouse over the trade values.

Trade routes are created automatically between the most profitable cities by the game engine. The number of trade routes are determined by technology (you start with 1), civics and buildings.

You can only get a trade route with a city when you know a path (road, river, coastal area, ocean) to the city. Some of these routes only become available with certain technologies (river, coastal, ocean) which is noted in the tech tree.

6. Does a city's culture ever decline? (Apart from being sacked, I mean.)

No. Although, your culture is separate from foreign culture and you can't capture this foreign culture when you capture a city.

7. My manual says in several places that cities get the benefit of improved resources (i.e., a Pasture for Horses, a Mine for Coal, etc.) if that resource is within the city's radius OR if it's connected by a road. I think that's wrong. From what I can tell, improved resources MUST be connected via road (or waterway) even if they're already inside the city. For example, my city gets no benefit from a Farm placed on a Corn field even though the Farm tile is right next to the city center tile. Once I build a road -- voila! -- I get +1 health and a pop-up window congratulating me on my achievement. Is the manual incorrect or am I missing something?

The manual is incorrect. Don't trust the manual too much. As with all manuals, it was written before the game was finalised and thus can't have incorporated last minute changes. And with such a complicated game as civilization IV, there are bound to be mistakes.


Edit: I see that I cross posted with Sisiutil and according to this statement:

Provide evidence of two miracles and I'll put in a good word for you.

he has better connections than I do.

 

[Psimon]

1. If I secure two sites containing a needed resource for wonder building - say, stone for Stonehenge - is the build time even quicker if I found only one deposit?

2. When Ivory becomes obsolete, should I rework the camps into more useful improvements?

3. I find the Domestic Advisor very useful for a quick glance at what all my cities or doing. However, double clicking on the city's name gets me nowhere. What I want to do is to immedately go to that city. Even better, go to it and open up the city management screen. How?

4. Is the U.N. completely disabled in a custom game not allowing diplomatic wins? Just finished one and the U.N. never appeared, I tried to see if I could build it (forbidding nukes would have been nice, I was going for a cultural victory), but, no, I couldn't build it, either (and I had the prereqs, pretty sure).

5. Does your own SDI prevent you from launching nukes? I seem to have a lot of problems getting them to work. I know the sites I aimed at weren't protected by SDI, and I tried near, far, nothing, couldn't get even one to fire.

 

[Altran]

Hi; sorry if this was already asked: can I turn the enemy's last city by culture? It has taken MUCH time and wonders to flip their cities to my cultural borders, but there's always the last city from each rival civilization to claim. Well, is it possible?
Thanks.

 

[Roland Johansen]

1. If I secure two sites containing a needed resource for wonder building - say, stone for Stonehenge - is the build time even quicker if I found only one deposit?

No.

2. When Ivory becomes obsolete, should I rework the camps into more useful improvements?

Camps are a poor late game improvement and without the resource, there is little reason not to consider a better improvement.

3. I find the Domestic Advisor very useful for a quick glance at what all my cities or doing. However, double clicking on the city's name gets me nowhere. What I want to do is to immedately go to that city. Even better, go to it and open up the city management screen. How?

Click on the button before the city name.

4. Is the U.N. completely disabled in a custom game not allowing diplomatic wins? Just finished one and the U.N. never appeared, I tried to see if I could build it (forbidding nukes would have been nice, I was going for a cultural victory), but, no, I couldn't build it, either (and I had the prereqs, pretty sure).

Sadly, yes. It is completely disabled in a game without diplomatic wins. This is also true for the Apostolic Palace in the expansion pack BTS.

5. Does your own SDI prevent you from launching nukes? I seem to have a lot of problems getting them to work. I know the sites I aimed at weren't protected by SDI, and I tried near, far, nothing, couldn't get even one to fire.

You own SDI isn't related to your issues. Maybe you're targeting an area that also contains some of your own troops or friendly troops. This can even be an invisible spy (although I vaguely recall that the issue of invisible foreign spies blocking nuking was fixed in some patch, maybe BTS-only patch?). Anyway, you're forbidden to target friendly troops.

Hi; sorry if this was already asked: can I turn the enemy's last city by culture? It has taken MUCH time and wonders to flip their cities to my cultural borders, but there's always the last city from each rival civilization to claim. Well, is it possible?
Thanks.

It is possible.
There is one major prerequisite for a cultural flip: you must control more than 50% of the culture of the centre city tile and that can be tough for a city that has been under the AI's control for such a long time and might be distant from your major cultural centres.

The odds of flipping go up when next to this major prerequisite, you also control several of the tiles immediately adjacent to the centre city tile and when you control significantly more than 50% of the centre city tile. If you have a different state religion than the owner than it helps to spread it to its city. However, military troops in the city (yours or theirs) will suppress any revolt when enough troops are present. This requires a significant number of troops (depending on the cultural pressure) but if the AI places more than 10 units in the city, then this might stop all flipping attempts.

When you have a spy in the city (in vanilla civ4 or warlords) or high espionage points against the civilisation (in BTS), then you can inspect the city to see the odds of a cultural flip. It's shown when you hover the mouse over the culture bar in the city.

Welcome to civfanatics, Altran!

Note that this thread is for asking questions, even questions that have been asked before.