Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

I usually aim for massive empires and play on Marathon level. A game would take me a month if I micromanaged that much, so I prefer to let the computer do it.

I also play on Marathon (and on huge maps) and aim for massive empires and I do a lot of micro. A typical game does take a month but since I enjoy the play, why not? It seems to me that a single involved game is more fun than numerous quick ones in the same time period. Of course, opinions may vary. :)
 
It will be a coastal city. Diagonal tiles work just as well as adjacent tiles.

Diagonally works just as well as vertically and horizontally for chaining farms. :)
As long as we're on the subject and clearing up any confusion, diagonal is always ="adjacent" in Civ. I mention this because some late-game buildings and wonders (Levee, Hydro Plant, Three Gorges Dam) require the city to be adjacent to a river to be able to build them.
Generally the fastest way to build a wonder is to build it in a city surrounded by a lot of forests. Get plenty of Workers chopping away, and you'll have the wonder out in no time. If you're particularly organized, you can even make sure your forests are ready on the exact turn you get a tech that enables a wonder, and build the wonder in 1 turn. I built the Great Library this way in a multiplayer game I'm currently involved in. ;)
Good advice. Other things that can help:
  • Mathematics: Possessing knowledge of Mathematics substantially increases the hammer yield from chopping--by 50%.
  • Organized Religion: Running OR with your state religion present in the city building the wonder yields a +25% hammer boosts--including whips and chops!
  • Forge: Though they're available too late for some of the early wonders, forges provide an additional +25% hammer boost, and once again for whips and chops too.
  • Whipping: The slavery civic allows you to turn food (population) into hammers. There are some good articles in the War Academy on how to optimize use of the whip.
  • Resources: Most wonders are accelerated by possessing a specific resource: stone, marble, ivory, gold, copper, iron, etc. If you're going after a certain wonder, explore the map and see if you can claim the resource that accelerates it.

Note that many of these combine; for example, chopping when you are have Math, are running OR, have the state religion in the wonder-building city along with a forge and the accelerating resource will boost the hammer yield from the chop by 150%. So... rather than chopping all nearby forests in a panic to get the wonder done, consider your sitch; if you can adopt or spread your state religion, change civics to OR, research or trade for Math soon, and/or if you're about to acquire the accelerating resource, hold off on chopping until the key components are in place, especially if you're early in the wonder build.
 
Generally the fastest way to build a wonder is to build it in a city surrounded by a lot of forests. Get plenty of Workers chopping away, and you'll have the wonder out in no time. If you're particularly organized, you can even make sure your forests are ready on the exact turn you get a tech that enables a wonder, and build the wonder in 1 turn. I built the Great Library this way in a multiplayer game I'm currently involved in. ;)


lolwut?
 
I also play on Marathon (and on huge maps) and aim for massive empires and I do a lot of micro. A typical game does take a month but since I enjoy the play, why not? It seems to me that a single involved game is more fun than numerous quick ones in the same time period. Of course, opinions may vary. :)

I've found that the more I learn on this site, the more I micromanage. :)

I've just now been able to move up to Noble. I'm thinking about posting a game save here and get some input on how to get out of 4th place. I can't seem to make any headway and I'm always getting attacked because everyone's mad at me.
 
It's true. Check out the spoiler at the bottom of this post. (Spoiler for players in Realms Beyond Pitboss 7.) That one was even done pre-Maths, which I wouldn't usually do... I had a slow start though, and in multiplayer certain wonders are extremely competitive - so I had to go for broke or risk losing it to other players. :)
 
It's true. Check out the spoiler at the bottom of this post. (Spoiler for players in Realms Beyond Pitboss 7.) That one was even done pre-Maths, which I wouldn't usually do... I had a slow start though, and in multiplayer certain wonders are extremely competitive - so I had to go for broke or risk losing it to other players. :)

Ok, you're going to have to talk to me like I'm 6 years old. I still don't understand how you have so many hammers.
 
Ok, you're going to have to talk to me like I'm 6 years old. I still don't understand how you have so many hammers.
Basically a bunch of bonuses. There were 6 forest chops at 20 hammers apiece, plus one forest chop worth 10 hammers (further away), plus the 10 hammers per turn produced in the city. That makes:

6*20 + 1*10 + 10 = 140 hammers

Then I had Marble (+100%) and an Industrious civ (+50%). So that's a +150% bonus to the 140 hammers, or 1.5*140 = 210 bonus hammers. Then:

140 hammers (originally) + 210 hammers (from Marble + Industrious) = 350 hammers

That got the Great Library in 1 turn. :)
 
Ok, I get it now. :) Thank you for your patience. I guess a mistake I've been making is not chopping down all the forests around a city.

So is the bonus for chopping automatically applied to the city even if I'm not working those tiles?
 
Ok, I get it now. :) Thank you for your patience. I guess a mistake I've been making is not chopping down all the forests around a city.
Yeah... as a general rule, it's worth cutting down forests earlier rather than later. A bonus in the present tends to be more valuable than a bonus in the future. :)

So is the bonus for chopping automatically applied to the city even if I'm not working those tiles?
You could be referring to one of two things here, so I'll deal with both.

When you chop down a forest, the hammers are automatically transferred to the nearest city's production. (If city radii overlap, the city which currently has the forest tile in its radius gets the extra hammers.) You do not have to have a citizen working the tile that formerly had the forest.

Regarding bonuses from e.g. Marble, you only have to have the resource connected to one city, and do not have to be working the tile to get continued access to the resource. The +100% production bonus from Marble will apply to the relevant buildings and wonder regardless of whether the tile itself is being worked - just as long as it has a quarry and a road connecting it to your empire. :)
 
Wow. I'm learning so much about this game. Thank you very much.

If city radii overlap, how is it determined which city gets the benefit?
 
Wow. I'm learning so much about this game. Thank you very much.
No worries. :)

If city radii overlap, how is it determined which city gets the benefit?
When you go into the city screen, you can see if the overlapped tile is a part of that city's radius by whether it is greyed out or not. If it is greyed out, you can click on the greyed out tile and switch it to be a part of that city. If you want to switch it back, go into the other city screen and click on the greyed out tile there.

So basically you can determine which cities have access to which tiles when they overlap... you can even switch them every turn if you really want. Often in the higher levels and in multiplayer, players will make use of this in the early game to have more compact empires which share resources - because that way it's easier to defend. You can also do tricks like growing cottages using multiple overlapping tiles around a city, and then switching those cottages to the central city when it grows large enough. (Works well with the capital, since it can get the Bureaucracy bonus to apply to those cottages later... or with your planned Oxford University city, for the +100% beakers later.)

I feel like I should PayPal you like $10 or something...
:lol: I'm just here to help others enjoy the game, along with the rest of the veteran folks here at Civfanatics. (And I don't have Paypal anyway. :p )
 
Ok, this is probably a dumb question. If I have a city with 7 :food: and 4 of the pieces of bread with the bite out of it ( :blush: don't know the terminology), will that grow faster than a city with 31 and 30? In short, does a city grow faster the more surplus it has and is it dependant on it's current size?

Also, I've never messed around with assigning city specialists because I didn't understand it. If I have a city with 4 food surplus, I can assign say 3 scientists and I will still have a surplus but with increased :science: ?

Man, I can't wait to get home to play (at work now). I'll probably only get 4 hours of sleep today before I have to be back here.
 
Ok, this is probably a dumb question. If I have a city with 7 :food: and 4 of the pieces of bread with the bite out of it ( :blush: don't know the terminology), will that grow faster than a city with 31 and 30? In short, does a city grow faster the more surplus it has and is it dependant on it's current size?

Sounds like the city has become unhealthy so there are four workers who can't work. Built some health-raising buildings to rectify it.

The more extra food a city has, the faster it grows. With much extra food they grow very fast when they are small, particularly with a granary. When you go into the teen sizes it will still take some time as they need to collect more food to grow, but they will naturally grow faster with more food surplus than less.

Also, I've never messed around with assigning city specialists because I didn't understand it. If I have a city with 4 food surplus, I can assign say 3 scientists and I will still have a surplus but with increased :science: ?

Man, I can't wait to get home to play (at work now). I'll probably only get 4 hours of sleep today before I have to be back here.

If you have 4 food surplus you can assign two specialists and the city will be stagnant - because each citizen needs two food, whether he works or not. That's why it's so important to found cities with access to food resources. The city grows faster and with great food access you can have more specialists there.

Running a specialist economy is harder than a cottage economy though. I just tried it in a recent game and got rammed up the beehive :( But I did other mistakes which contributed to a collapsed economy too. Maintenance cost can eat you alive, even at Noble difficulty.

But regarding happiness and health, where happiness is a tougher challenge early-game: Typically when you see your city is about to grow above its happiness cap, it's a good time to whip some citizens, produce a worker or settler (if it fits), or change to more production oriented tiles so you stagnate growth.
 
Ok, another one.

When looking at the screen to tell my worker what to do, on "Build a Cottage", it says -1 Hammer, +1 Commerce, but underneath it says +90 Hammers in my city. It's a forested grassland. What does the -1 Hammer refer to versus the +90?
 
Ok, another one.

When looking at the screen to tell my worker what to do, on "Build a Cottage", it says -1 Hammer, +1 Commerce, but underneath it says +90 Hammers in my city. It's a forested grassland. What does the -1 Hammer refer to versus the +90?
It means the forest tile, previously providing 2 food and 1 hammer, will become a 2 food and 1 commerce tile after the cottage is built (removing the forest, revealing the flat grassland underneath). Of course, the cottage will grow, and you'll get the hammer bonus from chopping the forest - so it's all very much in your interests. :)
 
It means the forest tile, previously providing 2 food and 1 hammer, will become a 2 food and 1 commerce tile after the cottage is built (removing the forest, revealing the flat grassland underneath). Of course, the cottage will grow, and you'll get the hammer bonus from chopping the forest - so it's all very much in your interests. :)

But what is the +90?

Another question. I have a city with 21 population and all the food they could possibly eat, but they are :yuck: due to overpopulation. Is this when I hit the avoid growth button? I've never used it before.
 
The +90 :hammers: from building a cottage on a forested grassland is the result of removing the forest. This is referred to as "chopping" by many here at civfanatics. It is a one-time bonus. Usually the number is not quite so high, so I suspect you have :hammers:-increasing modifiers such as buildings such as forges or factories, civics such as organized religion, or leader traits such as Creative, where leaders have double production speed of theatres (at least in vanilla).

I've never used the avoid growth button, and I'm not sure how many others, have, but there are other things you can do with the excess food.

First thing I would do is make sure all the buildings that give :health:, such as aqueduct, grocer, etc, have been built.

Then I would see if there is an advantage to continue growing the city even when lots of the food is going to be wasted on the :yuck:. Otherwise, maybe using the surplus food to run lots of specialists would work while keeping the city stagnant. (Obviously there are some specialists if you have 21 pop because there are only 20 workable tiles.)

Never underestimate the power of the whip (or the draft). Even with a few more :mad: from the whip there will still be a higher total happiness because there will be less :mad: from overpopulation. It will, of course, also remove a few :yuck: from overpopulation.

If there are overlapping BFCs with the city in question, you can try giving a few of the tiles to some other overlapping cities.

This article may be helpful on ways to get more health.
 
The +90 from building a cottage on a forested grassland is the result of removing the forest. This is referred to as "chopping" by many here at civfanatics. It is a one-time bonus. Usually the number is not quite so high, so I suspect you have -increasing modifiers such as buildings such as forges or factories, civics such as organized religion, or leader traits such as Creative, where leaders have double production speed of theatres (at least in vanilla).

Correct unless playing Marathon with Mathematics already researched. In that case all chops in the BFC are +90 :hammer:.
 
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