Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Sisiutil]

Those are voluntary vassals, once the deal expires they can cancel it.

Not necessarily. Provided you keep your relations with that vassal on the up-and-up, you should be able to retain them as a vassal for some time--especially if they came to you with the vassal offer rather than the other way around.

 

[damke]

can somebody explain how does preserve forest work?(with and without national park) Do they have to be in BFD tiles and if yes do they have workable? And is there any difference between AI leaders? I mean maybe some of them are more likely to start a war when the others? (if yes please name few and are they any good at it?)

 

[salty mud]

Preserving a forest gives your nearest city a happiness bonus. +1 per forest reserve.

And yes, there are BIG differences between AI leaders. Compare Montezuma and Gandhi, for instance. With Monty, you are guaranteed a war. There isn't really another way around it, unless you cripple his ability to make war, he will make war. Gandhi on the other hand, is a bit feeble. He barely even attempts to win; he's happy just spreading Buddhism around his cities. It's not just warmongering that the AI differ on though. There's differences in how they share techs, how they perceive other nations, likelihood of open borders, how severe different religion penalties will be... part of the fun is learning all this for yourself! Another example is Tokugawa; good luck getting this guy to open his borders! Mansa Musa will do all he can to lead in the tech race, so you'll have a tough time following him, unless you really give the AI some good deals to make them part with techs.

 

[damke]

Preserving a forest gives your nearest city a happiness bonus. +1 per forest reserve.

thanks for the reply but what I asked for was: do they have to be in BFD tiles(to get happiness and specialist(with park) and if yes do they have workable?
And is Monty any good at war? I mean is he going to send his entire army to vanquish me or few soldiers at most?

 

[theatricalGhost]

Hey guys, sorry to bother you but I have some problems competing with my friends online. We are all pretty new to the game, but got some basic understanding of the mechanics nontheless. My specific problem is: I can't get enough hammers in my capital late game. While being ahead most of the game, when reaching the industrial age I'm stuck with like 100 hammers while my co-players got up to 440. I even took germany last game for the UB, but it didn't help at all. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong - got an assembly plant, industrial park, coal plant and three engineers.

Please help me! Thanks.

 

[salty mud]

thanks for the reply but what I asked for was: do they have to be in BFD tiles(to get happiness and specialist(with park) and if yes do they have workable?
And is Monty any good at war? I mean is he going to send his entire army to vanquish me or few soldiers at most?

I don't think they have to be worked but I'd assume they have to be in the BFC, so if you are wanting forest preserves save some in your BFC. As far Monty, yes, he will build large armies and the AI do have a certain level of intelligence when ot comes to war. Expect them to sneakily pick off undefended cities, . I've ended numerous games early because Montezuma has arrived with a massive stack.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I don't think they have to be worked but I'd assume they have to be in the BFC, so if you are wanting forest preserves save some in your BFC. As far Monty, yes, he will build large armies and the AI do have a certain level of intelligence when ot comes to war. Expect them to sneakily pick off undefended cities, . I've ended numerous games early because Montezuma has arrived with a massive stack.

In addition to this:

- As I recall, forest preserves overlapped between the BFC's of two or more cities will give benefits to both cities, regardless of which one officially "owns" the tile at any given time. (For those who don't already know, you can switch tiles between cities with overlapping BFC's by going into the city screen and clicking on the greyed out tiles as desired.)

- Monty can be a pain, but at least he has some predictability... which you can plan for if you know he's near. Also, he tends to focus pretty much all-out on war at the expense of his economy, so in most games he'll start to fall behind in technology and become a non-threat to you by the mid-game (providing you're keeping up in research). There are occasionally exceptions where he'll consume a lot of territory and remain a threat right through the game, but as a rule of thumb Monty tends to be very potent in the early game and a bit of a pushover later on.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Hey guys, sorry to bother you but I have some problems competing with my friends online. We are all pretty new to the game, but got some basic understanding of the mechanics nontheless. My specific problem is: I can't get enough hammers in my capital late game. While being ahead most of the game, when reaching the industrial age I'm stuck with like 100 hammers while my co-players got up to 440. I even took germany last game for the UB, but it didn't help at all. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong - got an assembly plant, industrial park, coal plant and three engineers.

Please help me! Thanks.

If you can attach a screenshot of your city in another post, that'd be the quickest way of seeing what's wrong (if anything). Without any other knowledge, my guess is that perhaps you simply built your city in a hammer-light area. It happens in some games - not all starts are equal, and occasionally you can get a bung one. If you've got quite a lot of coast around a city (or not many hills, or both) then it's not going to have as much production potential as other cities that are inland with lots of hills (and food). However, sometimes there are other bonuses which make up for the lack of production - high food or commerce, a strategic high ground, or a nice resource.

Assuming geography isn't the problem (and there's no way of knowing without more info from you - hence the screenshot suggestion )... have you build Forges and Levees in addition to Assembly Plants and Coal Plants? Have you railroaded your mines and quarries? Have you built plenty of mines, workshops, and other tile improvements boosting hammers? Other possibilities are that your opponents are in Golden Ages and you're not... or that they have Iron Works and you don't... or that they're building things (cathedrals, wonders, spaceship parts) which temporarily gain large production bonuses from certain resources. 440 hammers certainly sounds way too much for the raw yield of any normal city, so your opponents are probably making use of some or all of these bonuses.

 

[GGracchus]

Hey guys, sorry to bother you but I have some problems competing with my friends online. We are all pretty new to the game, but got some basic understanding of the mechanics nontheless. My specific problem is: I can't get enough hammers in my capital late game. While being ahead most of the game, when reaching the industrial age I'm stuck with like 100 hammers while my co-players got up to 440. I even took germany last game for the UB, but it didn't help at all. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong - got an assembly plant, industrial park, coal plant and three engineers.

Please help me! Thanks.

Have you build ironworks in your capital? That might boost your hammers up(that's the only reasonable way to get 440 hammers in the cap). Also, try going into State Property and workshopping every possible tile(i.e not a resource), that should boost your production. I agree with Lord Parkin on the possible causes of how they have 440 hammers.

 

[theatricalGhost]

If you've got quite a lot of coast around a city (or not many hills, or both) then it's not going to have as much production potential as other cities that are inland with lots of hills (and food).

That could very well be it. I had coastal capitals in the last few games. I will try getting a slightly better starting position in the next game (maybe this evening) - if the problem still arises I will post a screenshot afterwards.

Other possibilities are that your opponents are in Golden Ages and you're not... or that they have Iron Works and you don't... or that they're building things (cathedrals, wonders, spaceship parts) which temporarily gain large production bonuses from certain resources. 440 hammers certainly sounds way too much for the raw yield of any normal city, so your opponents are probably making use of some or all of these bonuses.

Yes, I agree. 440 just looked ridiculously much.

Have you build ironworks in your capital? That might boost your hammers up(that's the only reasonable way to get 440 hammers in the cap). Also, try going into State Property and workshopping every possible tile(i.e not a resource), that should boost your production. I agree with Lord Parkin on the possible causes of how they have 440 hammers.

In the last game I didn't have ironworks yet. If the problem arises again with a hammer rich starting position I will definately try State Property/Workshop spam. What would be a good hammer output at around 1900? Just to get a feeling of how well I'm doing.

 

[damke]

- Monty can be a pain, but at least he has some predictability... which you can plan for if you know he's near. Also, he tends to focus pretty much all-out on war at the expense of his economy, so in most games he'll start to fall behind in technology and become a non-threat to you by the mid-game (providing you're keeping up in research). There are occasionally exceptions where he'll consume a lot of territory and remain a threat right through the game, but as a rule of thumb Monty tends to be very potent in the early game and a bit of a pushover later on.

I see. But maybe there is an AI who is a warmonger but quite solid at end-game as well?

 

[salty mud]

As far as my experience goes, Shaka is a more "thoughtful" warmonger. He won't eradicate people for fun; he'll at least think about it first. Not quite as bad as Monty, anyway.

 

[Sisiutil]

That could very well be it. I had coastal capitals in the last few games. I will try getting a slightly better starting position in the next game (maybe this evening) - if the problem still arises I will post a screenshot afterwards.

I usually prefer a coastal start for my capital, provided it has far more land tiles than water tiles. Being coastal will provide the capital with better trade routes, and I tend to emphasize commerce in my capital more than production. Why? Bureaucracy will boost the commerce output for a good long while. Granted, it boosts production too; however, because your capital city is your first city, it will also have your earliest cottages, meaning they should be near maturity when you're running Bureaucracy, unlike newer cities with newer cottages. It will also likely have a larger population than newer cities, meaning more cottage tiles can be worked. Finally, because Bureaucracy boosts both commerce and production, your capital's builds will have to be divided between buildings that enhance both types of yields (forge, market, university, grocer, factory, etc.). A pure production city can just focus on production-enhancing builds.

To have a super-production (Ironworks) city, select a site with sufficient food and several riverside tiles, and preferably NO water tiles whatsoever--so a completely in-land city. That way you can take advantage of things like watermills, levees, and hydro plants.

For more information on building a riverside ironworks city, see the link in my sig to my Intermediate tactics guide.

 

[bestbrian]

thanks for the reply but what I asked for was: do they have to be in BFD tiles(to get happiness and specialist(with park) and if yes do they have workable?
And is Monty any good at war? I mean is he going to send his entire army to vanquish me or few soldiers at most?

Your questions have been answered, but I want to thank you for the smile. BFC = Big Fat Cross. BFD is something else.

 

[salty mud]

Bidirection forwarding detection?

 

[bestbrian]

Bidirection forwarding detection?

You've got to think like a New Yorker. Where other folks use commas, we use profanity.

 

[Ansive]

Hammers per turn can be misleading...

Due to golden ages, special modifiers (like resources, industrial, academies, drydock) and overflow.
62 base + 8 specialists


Military city
36 base + 9 specialists + 2 religion


This city has better production than the one before, but not when it comes to military units.
46 base + 4 religion

 

[damke]

Is there any use for building nuclear plant then I already got hydro one? And does hydro plant remove the disadvantages of coal plant? Is it possible to set a rally point for newly created units?

 

[Ansive]

No, Yes, Yes (shift right click)

 

[Jwitti]

no, no, I don't think so