Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[_alphaBeta_]

If there's a river on the island (running into the ocean), then you can put the city anywhere adjacent to the river. Otherwise, it does have to be on the coast, I believe. (The only other possibility would be to build 2 cities, one inland and the other on the coast, and connect them with a road---then the iron from city 1 would connect through city 2 to the rest of your civilization.)

You don't need a harbor.

Can't you connect the city via road to the coast? I think the game sees coast tiles, ocean tiles, river tiles and road/railroad tiles as those that can be connected by any means (for trade purposes). Of course coast tiles and ocean tiles require techs to enable that. Not positive though, but I thought I had a good example of this in a previous game.

Sounds like a good world builder experiment (too bad I'm at work).

 

[bobrath]

I think it's like Civ3: if you pop a hut with a scout or by cultural expansion, then you get a random choice from among the good results, while with a military unit you can get any result.

Ok, so unless my scouting path will take me through/near the hut its better of letting the city pop the hut itself. Thanks all for the responses.

 

[haebus]

hi
is there any recorded nd viewable games?

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Do cavalry count as mounted units, gunpowder units, or both. Put another way, do city walls and castles help in defending against cavalry?

 

[DaviddesJ]

Do cavalry count as mounted units, gunpowder units, or both. Put another way, do city walls and castles help in defending against cavalry?

Cavalry are Mounted Units. See the in-game Civilopedia, or the online info page here:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/units/

 

[slickdonkey7]

Super newb question: How do I load a user created map from these forums or a map that I've created using map editor, in a Lan multiplayer game?

 

[slickdonkey7]

Where my civ geeks at? Help!!!!!!!! Please!!

 

[royfurr]

I have looked for this in the Manual, the Strat Guide, the Civilopedia and on this Forum without success. Is it me or is the documentation at times a little ... incomplete in details? ANYWAY if ANYONE can answer this I would be very grateful ...

In a unit display (bottom left) it shows a Levels value and XP (experience Points) value as a x/y value. Now I understand about unit promotions at particular exp. points. But does x = current xp points and y = value needed for next promotions, or y = increase needed for next promotions ie. a 4/5 = a 4 xp unit that needs one more pt. to reach 5 and then a promotion, or 5 more to get promoted. And just what is LEVEL?

I see in some of my current game units a 2/5, and 1/2, and 4/5, and 4/2 ... mostly level 2, some at 1?

Gawd I feel stupid, but no-where can I find LEVEL. There is no way to SEARCH the Civilopedia and the Manual isn't a searchable pdf?

I would really appreciate anyones help. Thank you.

 

[SewerStarFish]

Super newb question: How do I load a user created map from these forums or a map that I've created using map editor, in a Lan multiplayer game?

Place the map file in the "public maps" folder of then start the game and go to custom game and select the map.

 

[SewerStarFish]

Ok, so unless my scouting path will take me through/near the hut its better of letting the city pop the hut itself. Thanks all for the responses.

But you risk an AI scout taking the hut before your expansion.

 

[DaviddesJ]

In a unit display (bottom left) it shows a Levels value and XP (experience Points) value as a x/y value.

The number before the slash is your current XP. The number after the slash is how many you need (total) to achieve the next level. The number before the slash can be equal to or greater than the number after the slash; that means that your unit has accrued enough experience already to reach the next level, but you haven't actually promoted it to that level yet.

Basically, a level-1 unit will always show x/2, a level-2 unit will always show x/5, etc. A level-2 unit that shows 6/5 has enough experience for level 3, but you have to choose a promotion for the unit in order for it to actually gain that level (at which point it will change to 6/10).

 

[Snerk]

Can enemy boats attack my land units stationed in my/friendly coastal cities?

 

[HungryMouse]

Can enemy boats attack my land units stationed in my/friendly coastal cities?

no they can't. Some enemy naval units can bombard your coastal cities reducing their defence bonus, but only if the latter presents, i.e. if it is above zero. as soon as it gets down to zero they cannot bombard your city any longer.

 

[HungryMouse]

Can anybody explain me what CASTE SYSTEM civic is intended for? I have read several articles on the topic but still I don't quite get it. It is said that it enables you to assign unlimited artists, merchants and scientists in your cities, but what is so special about it? Can't I do it without that civic? Am I limited to a certain number of specialists otherwise? I cannot check it right now myself, don't have a game at hand.

Also when should I use this civic and for what purposes? Usually I don't bother to manually assign specialist in my cities, I rarely even go into city info screen, so am I likely to get any bonuses from switching to this civic?

Thanks.

 

[fung3]

Can anybody explain me what CASTE SYSTEM civic is intended for? I have read several articles on the topic but still I don't quite get it. It is said that it enables you to assign unlimited artists, merchants and scientists in your cities, but what is so special about it? Can't I do it without that civic? Am I limited to a certain number of specialists otherwise? I cannot check it right now myself, don't have a game at hand.

Also when should I use this civic and for what purposes? Usually I don't bother to manually assign specialist in my cities, I rarely even go into city info screen, so am I likely to get any bonuses from switching to this civic?

Thanks.

You are limited to the number of specialists that you can assign in your cities. Caste system overrules this and allows you to assign as many specialists as you like.

Otherwise you need certain buildings and wonders that allow specialists to be assigned i.e a forge allows 1 engineer I think.

For caste system to be useful you need high population food rich cities so you can make plenty of specialists (who still need to eat) and have the rest of the city pop produce the food.

Caste System will work synergystically with the leader trait Philosophical, the religious civic Pacifism and certain Wonders like the Parthenon, thus promoting the production of Great Persons. I saw 1 city producing 88 Great Person Points per turn once.

 

[HungryMouse]

2fung3

Thanks for the detailed answer! Helpful information indeed. So for me caste system is not of big use, I don't micromanage a lot.

Also I wonder if many people use Nationhood as a civic. 2 happy faces from the barracks are hardly of critical importance, for example I never really had problems with unhappiness even with few luxuries, and drafting units always seemed to me a measure of last resort. For Nationhood is a legal civic thus being in the same pack as Bureaucracy, Free speech and Vassalage, all of which I consider to be very useful civis to adopt, I really can't see the reasons why I would have liked switching to Nationhood. Any ideas?

 

[Samson]

2fung3

Thanks for the detailed answer! Helpful information indeed. So for me caste system is not of big use, I don't micromanage a lot.

The really big thing for me with caste system is when at war. It allows you to get the second border expansion straight away (by assigning artists when in revolt), giving you more control over the ground and allowing the citizens to work more tiles. Assigning mechants in captured cities could also save you from disbanding units.

Also I wonder if many people use Nationhood as a civic. 2 happy faces from the barracks are hardly of critical importance, for example I never really had problems with unhappiness even with few luxuries, and drafting units always seemed to me a measure of last resort. For Nationhood is a legal civic thus being in the same pack as Bureaucracy, Free speech and Vassalage, all of which I consider to be very useful civis to adopt, I really can't see the reasons why I would have liked switching to Nationhood. Any ideas?

For me the reason to switch to nationhood is like you said, drafting units is a measure of last resort. If you need that measure to prevent the AI capturing cities it is worth more than any other legal civic. I would probably have to be spiritual to be worth switching at such a vital point though.

 

[DaviddesJ]

For me the reason to switch to nationhood is like you said, drafting units is a measure of last resort. If you need that measure to prevent the AI capturing cities it is worth more than any other legal civic. I would probably have to be spiritual to be worth switching at such a vital point though.

It's also possible to use drafting as an offensive strategy, not just a measure of last resort.

 

[HungryMouse]

It's also possible to use drafting as an offensive strategy, not just a measure of last resort.

and what kind of offencive stategy would justify penalties you get when you draft a lot of units (loss of population, unhappy citizens)?

If you counter a weaker enemy you probably won't need to draft units, instead you can produce them. If your rival is strong, will you be able to draft enough units to crush him? I doubt it, and if you will be able, then it means that you have more and better cities than he or you are more technologically advanced (drafting infantry to fight crossbows can be sensible), and this brings us back to the notion that if your enemy is weak you can overproduce him with units.

 

[Samson]

and what kind of offencive stategy would justify penalties you get when you draft a lot of units (loss of population, unhappy citizens)?

Any war has penalties, wether it is lack of infrastructure (cos you are building units) unhappiness (WW) damage (cos of pillaging) or loss of cities. This si just one way of doing it, and if it means you have a shorter war then you could end up with less unhappiness. You can also choose where the unhappines is, perhaps somewhere where it is not a problem (though I think it unlikely that there will no problem with either the unhappiness or loss of population).

If you counter a weaker enemy you probably won't need to draft units, instead you can produce them. If your rival is strong, will you be able to draft enough units to crush him? I doubt it, and if you will be able, then it means that you have more and better cities than he or you are more technologically advanced (drafting infantry to fight crossbows can be sensible), and this brings us back to the notion that if your enemy is weak you can overproduce him with units.

With the proviso that I have never used drafting in offence, I belive you can definatly beat a stronger opponent. The AI is just so bad at war. They tend to have just 3 units in each city other than the capital, so as long as you can kill them you can take cities. You just need enough units to counter there offence, with is not that hard as they are fairly predictable and not tactically clever enough to avoid your units.