Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Bloodstone]

There's a launch when the spaceship is completed and the victory comes 11 turns later (at normal speed). If you launch the spaceship before Alexander does and have all the parts built, he can't beat you unless he invades you. In this case, after launch you just have to defend yourself or not have anybody attack you. I usually give in to most tech and other demands at this point. If he launches first kill him.

When you get BTS, you can also use espionage to sabotage his parts (and he can do the same to you).

Sweet, exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Ataxerxes. He's on another continent and I'm currently at War with him, but I've got a pretty strong Navy that has been keeping him busy back at home, so my capitol is in pretty good shape, unless Saladin gets a bug up his behind and wants to come crashing in, but I'm pretty sure I got him licked at home too.
Thanks

 

[Darth Fred]

What's the deal with HOF games and the Inca? Which is to say, why is "Must not play as Incas" a requirement?
F

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

What's the deal with HOF games and the Inca? Which is to say, why is "Must not play as Incas" a requirement?
F

Quecha Rush, maybe.

 

[Psyringe]

What's the deal with HOF games and the Inca? Which is to say, why is "Must not play as Incas" a requirement?

I don't play HOF games, but it's probably to preserve variability. Most players agree that Huayna Capac has the strongest combination of traits and uniques, he's always leading the respective polls. In a competitive environment like HOF, this would put Incan players at an advantage. Non-Incan players would then feel forced to play as Huayna (although they'd perhaps prefer not to) if they want to stay competitive with their scores. In the end, this reduces the fun for everybody, since Civ4 has much more to offer than just Incas. Thus there's more variability and more fun if you restrict an apparently overpowered selection.

 

[tdy99]

Is there a way to remove a unit from an active group without unselecting the group itself? Like for example, you are moving all 10 axemen in a city out of the city but want to leave just one behind, so you ctrl + click, is there a way to remove 1 from the group so yo can move them without having to move each unit individally?

 

[Darth Fred]

Is there a way to remove a unit from an active group without unselecting the group itself? Like for example, you are moving all 10 axemen in a city out of the city but want to leave just one behind, so you ctrl + click, is there a way to remove 1 from the group so yo can move them without having to move each unit individally?

I usually just pull one out, take the group I want to out of the city, then move the first one back.
F

 

[Darth Fred]

I don't play HOF games, but it's probably to preserve variability. Most players agree that Huayna Capac has the strongest combination of traits and uniques, he's always leading the respective polls. In a competitive environment like HOF, this would put Incan players at an advantage. Non-Incan players would then feel forced to play as Huayna (although they'd perhaps prefer not to) if they want to stay competitive with their scores. In the end, this reduces the fun for everybody, since Civ4 has much more to offer than just Incas. Thus there's more variability and more fun if you restrict an apparently overpowered selection.

Oddly enough. I've never played him. I'll keep that in mind.

F

 

[kcd_swede]

Quick follow up question. I'm playing the final years of my Warlords game. I'm a handful of turns from completing the last spaceship parts, and Alexander is neck and neck/right behind me. Does completing the last part give the Auto win for space race in Warlords, or is there an actual launch followed by reaching Alpha Centari?

I kind of got the drift that there was a launch involved somewhere but was thinking it may only be in BtS? I'm finishing this one and then moving onto my newly purchased BtS game, but your guidance on this would be appreciated. Just trying to figure out if I can beat them to it, I may not have to Nuke anybody's capitol to try and get the win. Thanks

NO! you got an incorrect answer from Ataxerxes, who perhaps misunderstood your question. In the Warlords expansion pack, the victory condition is Space Race: complete all the parts and you win.

In BtS expansion pack, the victory condition is changed to Space Colonization -- for Space Colonization, you not only must complete enough parts to launch it, but wait for it to arrive at Alpha Centuri as well. Note, you can play BtS on warlord difficulty level, so that might be the source of the confusion. But space victory condition is different only in the BtS expansion pack (regardless of difficulty level).

 

[kcd_swede]

I don't play HOF games, but it's probably to preserve variability. Most players agree that Huayna Capac has the strongest combination of traits and uniques, he's always leading the respective polls. In a competitive environment like HOF, this would put Incan players at an advantage. Non-Incan players would then feel forced to play as Huayna (although they'd perhaps prefer not to) if they want to stay competitive with their scores. In the end, this reduces the fun for everybody, since Civ4 has much more to offer than just Incas. Thus there's more variability and more fun if you restrict an apparently overpowered selection.

Again, not entirely clear from the question... Inca is NOT forbidden from the HoF tables. And you will see Inca submissions at the top of many of the categories because as you say it is a very powerful combination of traits, plus the Quecha rush actually works best at Monarch and higher difficulty levels where the AI start with archery and archers and never figure out that a warrior works better against a quecha than an archer does.

Inca is therefore forbidden from most of the sub-competitions run by the HoF... namely the Elite Quattromasters, the Challenger Series, and the Gauntlets. Its quite OK for any other purpose in the HoF.

 

[Darth Fred]

Again, not entirely clear from the question... Inca is NOT forbidden from the HoF tables. And you will see Inca submissions at the top of many of the categories because as you say it is a very powerful combination of traits, plus the Quecha rush actually works best at Monarch and higher difficulty levels where the AI start with archery and archers and never figure out that a warrior works better against a quecha than an archer does.

Inca is therefore forbidden from most of the sub-competitions run by the HoF... namely the Elite Quattromasters, the Challenger Series, and the Gauntlets. Its quite OK for any other purpose in the HoF.

Sorry if I wasn't clear and thank you for the clarification. I'm still relatively new to these sorts of games for submissions, so all the ones I've seen, which apparently isn't enough, disallow the Incas and I was just curious.
F

 

[Psyringe]

Is there a way to remove a unit from an active group without unselecting the group itself? Like for example, you are moving all 10 axemen in a city out of the city but want to leave just one behind, so you ctrl + click, is there a way to remove 1 from the group so yo can move them without having to move each unit individally?

While the group is selected, shift-click on the unit you want to leave behind.

 

[Bloodstone]

NO! you got an incorrect answer from Ataxerxes, who perhaps misunderstood your question. In the Warlords expansion pack, the victory condition is Space Race: complete all the parts and you win.

In BtS expansion pack, the victory condition is changed to Space Colonization -- for Space Colonization, you not only must complete enough parts to launch it, but wait for it to arrive at Alpha Centuri as well. Note, you can play BtS on warlord difficulty level, so that might be the source of the confusion. But space victory condition is different only in the BtS expansion pack (regardless of difficulty level).

Thank you kcd. I wasn't clear enough in that original question, and since I normally play on Noble I wasn't even thinking about there being a "warlord" level in difficulty. Appreciate the heads up from both of you!

 

[Torrello]

I don't play HOF games, but it's probably to preserve variability. Most players agree that Huayna Capac has the strongest combination of traits and uniques, he's always leading the respective polls. In a competitive environment like HOF, this would put Incan players at an advantage. Non-Incan players would then feel forced to play as Huayna (although they'd perhaps prefer not to) if they want to stay competitive with their scores. In the end, this reduces the fun for everybody, since Civ4 has much more to offer than just Incas. Thus there's more variability and more fun if you restrict an apparently overpowered selection.

Conversely, why is Saladin (post bts) considered so rubbish? Sulla's c4 review used him, but bts nerfed his traits.

 

[Opies]

I just bought civ 3 about 4 or 5 months ago, and I've made my way to emperor difficulty on it, so I've just recently switched over to give civ 4 BTS a try. I do have some things I need cleared up because it is quite a bit different from civ 3!

1. Do units cost upkeep? In civ 3, you were allowed a certain amount of units, then they cost lots of upkeep, can you have unlimited in civ 4? Thus far it seems that way

2. Is there any kind of happyness slider? Doesn't seem to be one

3. Is there corruption? From what I can tell maintenance is the new corruption, instead of corrupt cities you have cities with high maintenance and courthouse lowers it, just like it lowered corruption in civ 3. In relation to this, how much maintenance to buildings cost? And how is city maintenance calculated

4. what exactly does open borders do? I realize it makes people like you more, as well as lets them wander through your land. What other effects does it have?

5. How the F do you kill longbowmen fortified in a hill city? Damn seriously. I need like 12 catapults and 15 units to sacrifice to kill a few longbowmen. I brought a stack of every unit available to me, and all of them had < 6% chance of winning.

6. How is the health bonus for forests calculated?

 

[Derakon]

1) You get a certain amount of free units (varies with civics / difficulty -- this is what the "free units" in the Vassalage civic refers to) and then after that each unit costs upkeep. Units also cost supply if they aren't within your cultural borders, so think twice before stationing your army in no-man's land. You can check your unit costs from the financial advisor (money icon in the upper-right)

2) Some buildings give happiness based on the culture slider (theatre, colosseum), but otherwise no, there is no happiness slider.

3) There is no corruption, no. Maintenance normally depends on your total number of cities, how far the city is from your capital, and your difficulty level. I think there's an additional penalty if the city is transcontinental. You can use the State Property civic to nullify the distance penalty, or build the Forbidden Palace to serve as a second capital for maintenance calculations.

3b) Buildings do not cost maintenance.

4) Open Borders is required for civs to trade with you, and gives diplomatic bonuses over time.

5) War in the longbowman era is by far the hardest, as defense massively outpowers offense during that period. Remember to use your siege first to bombard (bring down walls/cultural defenses) and then as suicide attacks to cause collateral damage. Then use your normal units. Knights would be a decent counter to longbowmen (high base strength + immunity to first strikes) but the tech required to get them is a significant detour from the techs most players are researching during this timeframe.

6) IIRC you get something like +.4 per forest in your city's BFC (big fat cross, the 17 tiles within a chess-style knight's move of the city). The actual number may well be higher. Obviously chopping down the forest loses you the health bonus; it also loses you 1 from the tile. You can build a lumbermill or a forest preserve once you've unlocked the requisite techs; these give +1:hammers and +1 respectively without losing you the forest's base or the bonus.

 

[Ansive]

Derakon beat me to it... but I'll still post it for the kicks.


Yeah, Civ 4 changed quite a few mechanics

1. I believe F2 is the financial adviser. You get a number of units at no cost depending of the difficulty level. Then you also get a number of free units depending on your total population points. Everything that goes over that value costs money. 1 gold per unit, but the cost is further reduced by the difficulty level. The vassalage civic gives you a few extra free units (but costs more civic upkeep). The pacifism religious civic also incurs an extra cost for you military units (population and difficulty levels again influence those values).
Most of these values still stand in BTS
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158130

2. The happiness slider is now the culture slider. I believe you need to research drama to unlock that. You get 1 happy face in every city for every 10% (of you total commerce). It also converts that 10% into culture for each city. Some buildings like Theaters and Colosseums increase the number of happy faces the slider provides. 20% culture gives you 2 faces. If you have the two buildings I mentioned in a city you will get 2 + 2 + 1 happy faces.

3. Corruption is gone! No shields, ahem, hammers are wasted. Maintenance costs you gold. Buildings do not increase the maintenance of a city, only its distance from a palace, and the total number of cities... there are also corporations and colonies / vassals that might add to your maintenance.

4. Open borders allows you and the person you sign it with free access to each others territory. You can send missionaries to spread a religion and you can settle after his land. In Civ 4 if you enter a Civs territory without having Open Borders you declare war. Coastlines can also be blocked to your galleys unless you have open borders.
Open borders also generates commerce for both of you since cities now have trade routes. A trade route with another civ's city yields more that a domestic one (coastal cities generate a lot more commerce through trade routes)

5. To kill a longbowman on a hill city you will need strong city raiders and preferably siege units. The longbowman will have a defense of 6 + 25% city + 25% hill + 25% fortification + 0-100% city culture / walls / castle. Add to all that city defender promotions and you get a really, really high number.
Bring trebuchets or catapults and use them to bombard away the city defense. Then send the siege units in first to damage the defenders (they damage multiple units). Since siege units cannot kill units in BTS you will also need an escort to finish the job. I recommend Macemen, Knights or Swordsmen (if you poor) for the job. Give them city raider promotion if possible and always check the combat odds.

6. Each forest in the fat cross of a city gives 0.5 health. So if you have an odd number feel free to chop. Flood plains lower health by 0.4 and jungles by 0.25 for each tile. Always round down.

 

[Ansive]

Did something change in BTS? I see some civs being 'friendly' (green) with only +6 total modifier. While I have +10 with someone yet they are only 'pleased' (blue) (all positive modifiers).

 

[Opies]

thanks for the replies. That helps a lot! In my current game I just got knights... So I probably went the wrong way down the tech tree haha... I have no idea the best routes to go for tech.

 

[Paw]

6) IIRC you get something like +.4 per forest in your city's BFC (big fat cross, the 17 tiles within a chess-style knight's move of the city). The actual number may well be higher. Obviously chopping down the forest loses you the health bonus; it also loses you 1 from the tile. You can build a lumbermill or a forest preserve once you've unlocked the requisite techs; these give +1:hammers and +1 respectively without losing you the forest's base or the bonus.

Just to add on to the lumbermill...if you build a railroad through a lumberyard you get another additional +1

 

[kcd_swede]

Did something change in BTS? I see some civs being 'friendly' (green) with only +6 total modifier. While I have +10 with someone yet they are only 'pleased' (blue) (all positive modifiers).

Each leader has a different personality, and there are hidden fixed modifiers plus hidden random modifiers that affect attitude (that don't show on the +/- diplo screen). The leaders in BtS have different personalities (in most cases, I think) from the same leader in Vanilla.

Its the attitude (not the number) that matters for diplo. You can often tell what those modifiers are by watching the threshold when they change attitude.

I've seen an AI at war with another AI while being 'pleased' with that AI at +1, while at peace and 'annoyed' with me at +4! Its as irrational as real life.