Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[rogue131]

... I also founded some cities on the new continent and I had been receiving advice popups to grant independence to the new cities on the new continent due to rising maintenance costs. What does this do exactly? I chose 'no' because I didn't know what it truly did.

By granting indepedence, the cities flip to a new civ who is automatically vassalized to you. It has its pros and cons though. I find it takes management of a poor area off my hands, and redistributes maintenance and such. At the same time, I sort of do not like vassals as it takes the fun out of diplomacy, unless the vassal of course grows large enough to break free.

Just a general response here, not really detailed I know.

 

[gps]

Does anybody know where the rest of this chart exists?

I spotted it in one of DMOC's playthroughs and he thinks it may have got deleted when the BTS forum was merged with the other CIV forums.

Should be here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6570

Btw.: I always wondered whether the 'favourite religion' has any real impact. Do leaders really try to go for that specific religion instead of others? Do they switch religion once the favourite one is available? To honest if it weren't printed there I'd hardly notice anything like a favourite religion...

 

[rogue131]

Should be here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6570

Btw.: I always wondered whether the 'favourite religion' has any real impact. Do leaders really try to go for that specific religion instead of others? Do they switch religion once the favourite one is available? To honest if it weren't printed there I'd hardly notice anything like a favourite religion...

 

[bcool]

just out of curiousity what kind of penalties does a civ incur from having a non-state religion present in a theocratic society? I understand in the real world, having say; Christianity in Iran provides for some social issues and perhaps international incidents at times. Does BtS replicate this somehow?

Also, it seems it takes me forever to build large stacks? Advice?

Sisiutil had a good response to this question, but whipping with max overflow hammers is perhaps the most important way to raise an army fast.

Depending on game speed you can often whip a military units with 2 population and get a lot of hammers in overflow the next turn. For example, on normal game speed an axe costs 35 hammers and a whip gives you 30 hammers. So if you have 4 or fewer hammers invested in an axe build then you can whip the axe with 2 population. That will give you the axe next turn and 29 overflow hammers+hammer production of your other tiles to build another axe the following turn.

Whipping units like this can build an army very fast. (you can also whip a barracks with 2 population and produce an axe the next turn, you just have to wait until you have just over 30 hammers left on the barracks build).

Be careful with this because forges, Organized religion and other hammer modifying buildings change the number of hammers you get by whipping.

Maximizing use of the whip is a critical step in taking your game to the next level. This doesn't have to be used just for army creation.

(whipping is more useful early in the game, mid game, drafting is the way to go until you get infantry, then after factories and power plants you are probably much better off building units organically with all those hammer multipliers in effect)

 

[rogue131]

thanks for that , larger armies=easier massacres.

While on the subject, well not really on the subject, but diplo speaking; how can an AI be at Friendly status with me, open to Defensive Pact, but refuse to trade for a World Map?

 

[Sisiutil]

Sisiutil had a good response to this question, but whipping with max overflow hammers is perhaps the most important way to raise an army fast.

Depending on game speed you can often whip a military units with 2 population and get a lot of hammers in overflow the next turn. For example, on normal game speed an axe costs 35 hammers and a whip gives you 30 hammers. So if you have 4 or fewer hammers invested in an axe build then you can whip the axe with 2 population. That will give you the axe next turn and 29 overflow hammers+hammer production of your other tiles to build another axe the following turn.

Whipping units like this can build an army very fast. (you can also whip a barracks with 2 population and produce an axe the next turn, you just have to wait until you have just over 30 hammers left on the barracks build).

Be careful with this because forges, Organized religion and other hammer modifying buildings change the number of hammers you get by whipping.

Maximizing use of the whip is a critical step in taking your game to the next level. This doesn't have to be used just for army creation.

(whipping is more useful early in the game, mid game, drafting is the way to go until you get infantry, then after factories and power plants you are probably much better off building units organically with all those hammer multipliers in effect)

Ah, yes, whipping... don't know how I forgot to mention that...

 

[gps]

While on the subject, well not really on the subject, but diplo speaking; how can an AI be at Friendly status with me, open to Defensive Pact, but refuse to trade for a World Map?

It sometimes feels like friendly AI are reluctant to profit too much from an - what they feel - unfair or uneven deal with a friend. Similar to cautious AI offering deals heavily in their favour. In case of world maps it could be yours is much bigger than theirs. Just recently had the situation where I offered a resource deal to a friend who to my surprise refused. So I asked him what he wanted for his resource - nothing came up! Well, after a second or two of confusion why my trade window was not updated properly - I just accepted the deal...

 

[s.bernbaum]

I'd like to know more about the cultural victory. I played a game as the American civilisation under Roosevelt on warlord difficulty (3rd easiest) using the continental map which contained 2 big continents, with all factions on one continent with quick game speed. I'm certain I had 1 city with legendary culture (50000 culture points or above) and another one getting close. Yet as the game progressed, Gilgamesh won a cultural victory and I've been checking f8 frequently to ensure that I secured a points victory and it never hinted that Gilgamesh was about to get a cultural victory. Who can help explain this? I was doing so well in getting about 2/3 of all the projects in the game thanks to the organised trait, getting heaps of culture, and then suddenly Gilgamesh wins. Could this be linked to religion, especially founding the earlier ones? On a slightly unrelated note, could I still claim a points victory in that game anyway?

The culture victory status on the Victory screen is usually a pretty good indicator. Unfortunately, it does have one "gotcha" that occasionally crops up. It does not show the AI that is closest to culture victory. It shows the AI that has the best culture city. Usually this is the same but not always. For example, AI #1 has a city already at 50,000 and its next best two cities are around 30,000. That is the one you will see on the screen and figure that you are well ahead. Meanwhile, AI #2 has three cities at 49,000 plus. AI #2 does not show on that screen and will suddenly blind side you. You should also keep an eye on the graphs. If an AI there has the far best culture graph and it is not the one that is on the victory screen, you had better have a look at its cities with a unit scouting it, either by open borders or send a spy.

As to the high score question. Sure, you can claim bragging rights or consider yourself the winner but the game will not give you a victory after the AI has gotten one. Same goes for you trying to win a second victory type after winning a first one. You can keep playing for personal satisfaction in both cases but the game will only log the first victory that was won by whoever.

 

[chegel]

Btw.: I always wondered whether the 'favourite religion' has any real impact. Do leaders really try to go for that specific religion instead of others? Do they switch religion once the favourite one is available? To honest if it weren't printed there I'd hardly notice anything like a favourite religion...

I think it is just the religion the AI will take after getting a tech that founds one when choose religions is turned on in a custom game.

 

[Core Imposter]

Where do I go to get all the scoop on scoring?

 

[Core Imposter]

Here I find domination in the pedia and 75% of pop and area and on the victory screen only 29% pop and 51% area plus I have to factor in vassal somehow and do water tiles count the same as land?

 

[pixiejmcc]

Where do I go to get all the scoop on scoring?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

 

[pixiejmcc]

Here I find domination in the pedia and 75% of pop and area and on the victory screen only 29% pop and 51% area plus I have to factor in vassal somehow and do water tiles count the same as land?

My understanding is that 50% of vassal pop and land counts towards your totals. Hopefully someone will confirm that or chastise me for spreading fallacies. I don't know whether water tiles count or only count partially...

 

[pixiejmcc]

Should be here...

So it is. Thank you kindly

 

[s.bernbaum]

pixiejmcc is correct in that 50% of vassals' land and population count towards the domination victory. Water tiles do not count.

The reason that the percentage needed shown on the victory screen differs from the one in the civilopedia is that the percentage varies depending on map size and number of starting leaders. (It may also be affected by difficulty level but I don't know if that is so or not.) At any rate, the number used in the civilopedia is for a particular map size and number of players (how many AI if playing single player). The authors of the article neglected to mention that, along with not specifying which map size and how many AIs they were referring to. The civilopedia has quite a number of articles where it uses an example without saying that it is an example,leading to the conclusion that it is always as stated, when it is not.

 

[God-Emperor]

My understanding is that 50% of vassal pop and land counts towards your totals. Hopefully someone will confirm that or chastise me for spreading fallacies. I don't know whether water tiles count or only count partially...

Water plots don't count at all. It is percentage of land.

The victory screen already factors in the contribution from vassals. If the percentages it reports hit the target values it reports, which tend to shift around a bit, you will win if you have not disabled Domination when starting that game.

 

[sendos]

The culture victory status on the Victory screen is usually a pretty good indicator. Unfortunately, it does have one "gotcha" that occasionally crops up. It does not show the AI that is closest to culture victory. It shows the AI that has the best culture city. Usually this is the same but not always. For example, AI #1 has a city already at 50,000 and its next best two cities are around 30,000. That is the one you will see on the screen and figure that you are well ahead. Meanwhile, AI #2 has three cities at 49,000 plus. AI #2 does not show on that screen and will suddenly blind side you. You should also keep an eye on the graphs. If an AI there has the far best culture graph and it is not the one that is on the victory screen, you had better have a look at its cities with a unit scouting it, either by open borders or send a spy.

As to the high score question. Sure, you can claim bragging rights or consider yourself the winner but the game will not give you a victory after the AI has gotten one. Same goes for you trying to win a second victory type after winning a first one. You can keep playing for personal satisfaction in both cases but the game will only log the first victory that was won by whoever.

Ok, thanks. That was my best game in 3rd easiest ever. I never usually play the game and I would have to thank others who suggested providing gifts and at times bowing down to threats. The game layout is so different to Alpha Centauri but it still maintains the strategy to some degree.

 

[rogue131]

It sometimes feels like friendly AI are reluctant to profit too much from an - what they feel - unfair or uneven deal with a friend. Similar to cautious AI offering deals heavily in their favour. In case of world maps it could be yours is much bigger than theirs. Just recently had the situation where I offered a resource deal to a friend who to my surprise refused. So I asked him what he wanted for his resource - nothing came up! Well, after a second or two of confusion why my trade window was not updated properly - I just accepted the deal...

I just find that strange. I mean wouldn't the AI want my world map if it reveals more?

 

[rogue131]

real quickly, does anyone know where I can find a good strategy article on building a commercial empire. Basically $ oriented! I know financial victory is not an option, but I it would be fun to try a commercial empire.

 

[MrKlew]

I'm fighting a war with Boudica on a noble level game. Monty declared the war and asked me to join. She's now down to two island outposts and it seems all the AIs are smelling blood and dogpiling on. My guess is as soon as the initial 10 turns are over she vassals to someone. Being her nearest neighbor and in possession of her capital I'm guessing I've got a decent shot at getting her to vassal. My question is, if she vassals to me will I automatically be at war with Monty and the rest of the world or will they make peace too?