Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lord Parkin]

I'm watching my flat mate play . He currently has 42 unhappiness due to war weariness which seems extreme . Has anyone had much worse?

In one city or across his whole empire? Across an empire that's quite common (especially on larger maps). In a single city that's pretty extreme... would have to be some quite exceptional circumstances to get 42 unhappiness there.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Yeah single city . He has the culture slider up 100% and still has happiness issues

 

[MaxWar]

lol, that happened to me once. I was in a endless war against Monty and he had the statue of Zeus. I had between 35-45 war weariness in every single cities. Only way i could "deal with it" was with a combination of hereditary rule and cultural spending.

I eventually switched to Nationhood and police state and drafted a gigantic stack out of my empire, then spearheaded the city with statue of Zeus and razed it.

 

[Jwitti]

Sounds like you

 

[Akbarthegreat]

In my cathy game, I was conquering Ragnar, and he had Charlemagne as his vassal, on an island. Charlie had only two cities, but his capital had the SoZ. So the WW in my cities was 15-20, crippling my whole empire.

 

[Jwitti]

Solution: Kill everybody before they get aesthetics!

 

[JimOttoFan]

What do you do with a great spy?

 

[Sisiutil]

What do you do with a great spy?

Lots of things!

1. Great Spies can move through foreign territory completely undetected and without risk of discovery, unlike regular spies. You can use one to explore areas of the map that are hidden from you (like that fusspot Tokugawa's mysterious land).
2. An infiltration mission will give you thousands of espionage points (EPs) versus one other civ. The most typical (though not the only) use of those EPs is to steal technologies you don't have from a more advanced rival.
3. Alternatively, you can settle a GSpy for 12 EPs per turn. In the early game, when no other sources of EPs besides the capital and jacking up the espionage slider (NOT recommended) are available, this is huge. You should find yourself with enough EPs versus your neighbours to know what they're researching very early in the game, which is valuable as it helps you guide your own research (pursue techs the AI doesn't have and aren't researching for trade; avoid wasting research on "first to" prize techs if the AI will beat you to it; etc.). This is a use best employed on a map where you have several nearby civs (as opposed to only one civ you plan to eliminate ASAP).
4. Later in the game, you can use the GSpy to build Scotland Yard in a specialist city. Run spy specialists there and build all the EP producing and multiplying buildings to max out the EPs gleaned from that city.
5. You can use a GSpy for a golden age, but for most of the game this is a waste. I'd only use a GSpy for this in the late game, and even then I'd hesitate and consider my options carefully.

There may be other uses I haven't thought of, but those are the main ones.

 

[Michkov]

How exactly do first strikes work?

 

[Jwitti]

The unit with first strikes gets a chance to damage the opposing unit before normal combat begins, so, it's pretty much free damage, so the enemy is easier to kill

 

[Vaidd]

How exactly do first strikes work?

Jwitti's reply is a good approximation. If you want more detail (and you may well not want it), read on...

All combat in Civ IV is conducted in rounds. The attacker and defender each have a chance to win each round, and if they do, they'll deal a little damage to their opponent. The chance to win and the damage are based on the units' relative strength. This continues until one unit is dead (usually).

If one unit has first strikes, or has more first strikes than its opponent, then for the first x rounds, where x is the number of first strikes, that unit won't take damage. For instance, an archer with one first strike is defending against an axeman with no first strikes. If the archer wins the first round, he damages the axeman as you would expect. But if he loses the first round, he'll take no damage. After the first round, the loser always takes damage.

If the archer had Drill I (+1 first strike, for a total of two), then he wouldn't risk any damage for the first two rounds, but then he'd be vulnerable after that.

For full, excruciating details, see Combat Explained in the War Academy.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Do I whip to much if I have 500+ turns till whip anger goes away on normal speed?

 

[Jwitti]

Maybe
Wow wow wow...

 

[MaxWar]

Screenie please?

 

[Sisiutil]

Screenie please?

Yeah, this I'd love to see too...

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Lemme see if I can find the save file. It was kind of old.

Alright well I couldn't find the 500 one, it was old. But I found a more recent one that was a not bad time but no where near as fast as the other.
The save and picture are of a game where I had close to 40 happiness in cities and still was on the verge of going unhappy due to every city averaging 100+ turns of whip anger. It was a solid game for me. I think I might have another game with absolutely stupid amounts of draft anger too.

 

[Michkov]

Jwitti's reply is a good approximation. If you want more detail (and you may well not want it), read on...

All combat in Civ IV is conducted in rounds. The attacker and defender each have a chance to win each round, and if they do, they'll deal a little damage to their opponent. The chance to win and the damage are based on the units' relative strength. This continues until one unit is dead (usually).

If one unit has first strikes, or has more first strikes than its opponent, then for the first x rounds, where x is the number of first strikes, that unit won't take damage. For instance, an archer with one first strike is defending against an axeman with no first strikes. If the archer wins the first round, he damages the axeman as you would expect. But if he loses the first round, he'll take no damage. After the first round, the loser always takes damage.

If the archer had Drill I (+1 first strike, for a total of two), then he wouldn't risk any damage for the first two rounds, but then he'd be vulnerable after that.

For full, excruciating details, see Combat Explained in the War Academy.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Vaidd

 

[JimOttoFan]

Does founding and growing a corporation help your civ much? I had Aluminum Co. In my first BTS game and it seemed like it could have helped my science.
(I am glad for this newbie thread, because some of my questions even embarrass me, I have so little experience and knowledge about this game.)

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

It depends on the Corp, and how many of the resources you have for the Corp. But over all State Property is usually better for a large empire.

 

[Jwitti]

Different corporations help your civ in different ways. All of them have benefits, most of which are worthwhile, but if you don't watch your finances it could tank your economy.
The way corp maintenance works is it adds extra in the city that has the HQ but increases the maintenance per turn in ALL the cites that have the corp. So you need to build the HQ with banks and markets and grocers and Wall street to maximize income and courthouses in all the cities with the corp to reduce the maintenance fees,.