Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[AcaMetis]

Am I the only one who thinks worshops are worthless? Like the -1 food is just too much of a penalty which newer ever makes them worth using.

Situational. I'd never argue that turning a 11 plains tile into a 2 plains tile makes it meaningfully better, but it's a way to add production to a city that desperately needs it, and of course when you've got techs/State Property to buff workshops they obviously become a lot better.

 

[elmurcis]

Am I the only one who thinks worshops are worthless? Like the -1 food is just too much of a penalty which newer ever makes them worth using.

Trick is to NOT have -1 food when working workshops

 

[sampsa]

Am I the only one who thinks worshops are worthless?

They start out worthless, but become excellent with state property.

newer ever

newer ewer surely.

 

[lymond]

Moderator Action: I moved posts related to Leyrann's recent discussion topics to a brand spanking new thread in Strategy & Tips here cheers-lymond

 

[NightOnEarth]

Here's a question that repeatedly occured to me in my recent games: what is the right moment to switch from slavery to caste system? (on general considerations)

 

[sampsa]

what is the right moment to switch from slavery to caste system? (on general considerations)

Assuming non-SPI, I run caste+pacifism in golden ages, otherwise slavery. I think once you have all the boosts to workshops they become so good that caste beats slavery.

 

[Samson]

Here's a question that repeatedly occured to me in my recent games: what is the right moment to switch from slavery to caste system? (on general considerations)

For me it is mostly about city size. Whipping is most effective at smaller sizes, tile yield matters more at larger sizes. Exactly where that threshold is is hard to determine, it is a bit of a guess.

 

[NightOnEarth]

I'm sorry, but I have another question regarding city placement (sceenshot). At first it seemed a good idea to place it in between horses, pigs, wheed, spices and clams plus another three floodplains and fresh water, but now I'm doubting. No lighthouse, work boat has to travel around half of the continent protected by e.g. a trireme. What do you pros think?

 

[Samson]

I'm sorry, but I have another question regarding city placement (sceenshot). At first it seemed a good idea to place it in between horses, pigs, wheed, spices and clams plus another three floodplains and fresh water, but now I'm doubting. No lighthouse, work boat has to travel around half of the continent protected by e.g. a trireme. What do you pros think?

I would not do it. It would irritate me too much not being able to fully utilise the water tiles, even if it actually helped the game (which I suspect it would not, but cannot prove).

Settling a city one tile from the coast is an AI move, and the AI has no I

 

[sampsa]

There is nothing wrong with settling one tile from the coast per se, because lighthoused coast (22)is still mediocre. However, when there is seafood the boat needs to get there somehow and an ORG lighthouse is a good building since it's only 30. I hate settling on floodplains, but here I think it's the best play. The land is so rich it can easily support two cities. 2nd one I'd go to a location that shares the pigs. Either on horse or 1S of horse.

 

[sampsa]

An example where I think one off the coast is best:

Spoiler :

The southern cities are both one off the coast. It's important that they both can 1)work a -resource and 2)grow cottages for the capital. You could place them both 1S to gain coastal access, but the point is that you don't really do much with it and you lose the ability to work capital cottages. Lighthouse is not worth building without seafood.

Longer term those cities will whip units, since they don't have a huge number of good tiles.

 

[NightOnEarth]

Yes, looking back, I think two cities would have been better, but when I saw so many resources in one place, I was too greedy (and underthinking). I have indeed shied away from settling on a floodplain. In the aftermath, I'm actually considering founding another helper town with a lighthouse and a workboat, instead of letting one go halfway around the world with an escort from my coastal towns. But no matter, it is now clear to me that both alternatives are suboptimal.

 

[NickGabben]

Two barb related questions:
1. Do barb animals attack human barbs if they run into each other in the wild? Or the other way around?
2. What happens if the barbs capture the city where the Great Wall is? I mean, it's unlikely to ever happen, but let's say the barbs are lurking just outside the borders of said city and the city is captured in a normal war against another civ and the lurking barb beats the red-lined defender? Are all the barbs expelled from their own cities? Or is the city itself immune to the barb attack? (Which - come to think of it - is probably the case, considering the city itself has the Great Wall, just there's no culture around it yet.)

 

[s.bernbaum]

1. When human barbs appear all animal barbs stop appearing and the existing animal ones become human barbs.
2. Since the Great Wall keeps barbs out, they cannot capture that city no matter who owns it at the moment.

 

[NickGabben]

Thank you!

1. Maybe it's because of the raging barb settings, but in one of Sullla's Survivor games (the one where Ragnar famously lost his capital!), there were animal and human barbs at the same time:

2. As I thought then (after some self-convincing)!

 

[Qactus]

I can definitely confirm that Barbs and animals can peacefully coexist:

Funny Screenshots: Part Deux

The max you can get in vanilla Civ:

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[civac]

1. Human and animal barbs are on the same faction. They do not attack each other.
2. The city tile containing The Great Wall is protected by its effect. Barbs are not allowed to enter it and thus can't attack that city even if they are right next to it.

 

[Lennier]

1. When human barbs appear all animal barbs stop appearing and the existing animal ones become human barbs.

This is rather inelegantly stated. The animals don't "become" human barbs. Once the human barbs start appearing, the animals start to disappear. There will be a time where there will be both human barbs and animals running around. As others have stated, they don't attack each other.

 

[sampsa]

The animals don't "become" human barbs.

Exactly, and that actually has some strategic ramifications. Animals do spawn bust, so it's better not to kill them near the point when barb archers start to spawn, unless you can then cover the area with your own unit.

 

[R82]

This is not a question about the game itself, but about the Civfanatics Forums: is there a good place for beginners and intermediate players who want to improve their skills to post games they've played and get feedback? Perhaps the Strategy & Tips Forum? Or is that kind of thing frowned on?