Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lord Parkin]

What would be the most important concerns for an intercontinental invasion of another continent whose ultimate goal is a conquest victory? I'm alone to develop on my own continent(decent number of prod cities, lots of cottage cities), and I'd like to keep important considerations in mind before I make contact and eventually wipe out the other nations. Things like how many ships to build, diplomatic moves, etc.

My advice would be simple: focus all-out on economy for now, tech like mad, and hit them as soon as you have a major advantage (for instance, if you manage to have an oil-based army and navy a few turns before they do). A technological advantage, even if only held for a few turns, gives you a massive advantage in the initial assault - and thereby makes the rest of the war a whole lot easier.

Also, if at all possible, go for the top dog first, then take out the next highest ranked guy, and so on. This way you don't end up with a civ that runs away with the lead and claims a space or culture victory ahead of you. At the very least, if you work your way up from the bottom tier civs, you could end up with a very powerful and dangerous rival by the time you get to the last guy.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

My advice would be simple: focus all-out on economy for now, tech like mad, and hit them as soon as you have a major advantage (for instance, if you manage to have an oil-based army and navy a few turns before they do). A technological advantage, even if only held for a few turns, gives you a massive advantage in the initial assault - and thereby makes the rest of the war a whole lot easier.

Also, if at all possible, go for the top dog first, then take out the next highest ranked guy, and so on. This way you don't end up with a civ that runs away with the lead and claims a space or culture victory ahead of you. At the very least, if you work your way up from the bottom tier civs, you could end up with a very powerful and dangerous rival by the time you get to the last guy.

That's what I was thinking. Good to hear a confirmation from another player. Might also be a good idea to get them to fight each other, though giving them techs to encourage it probably isn't that well. Hinduism and Buddhism were found in that distant continent, so that may be a faultline to exploit.

 

[RaineAndrews]

Hi! Is there an easy way to modify the diplomatic penalties and bonuses for spies? Mainly, I want to be able to get diplomatic bonuses when I catch someone's spy in my city, especially if I know which leader sent it. It seems unfair that their spies can come en masse and I am limited by the diplomatic disposition of my neighbor

 

[IAM]

What would be the most important concerns for an intercontinental invasion of another continent whose ultimate goal is a conquest victory? I'm alone to develop on my own continent(decent number of prod cities, lots of cottage cities), and I'd like to keep important considerations in mind before I make contact and eventually wipe out the other nations. Things like how many ships to build, diplomatic moves, etc.

First I would make contact ASAP and scout heavily. Information is the first stage of planning.

If they are a superior force then I would hit them early with galleons and raze important coastal cities. It would be difficult to hold land against a superior enemy across the ocean anyway and this city razing could weaken them allowing you to move ahead.

I agree hit the big one first. Attacking other civs may just cause them to capitulate to the power on their continent anyway.

Once you have gained an advantage strike hard and grab coastal cities on hills that are reasonable close enough to reinforce. I have found my most success when I can use a civ on that continent (open borders with me no open borders with my enemy) as a staging base. Keeping my strategic base AI civ out of the war can be much more beneficial than having them in the conflict. Happy hunting.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Expected AI response. So plenty of garrison troops then. I guess I'll ask questions when I know more. Probably too early to be planning everything.

My first target on another continent is rarely based on size or power of the target. It's not my priority to hit the biggest first or something like that.

My main concern is to avoid an united front of oversees civilisations. So once I start meeting the civilisations on the other continent, I try to become friends with a large group of them and try to get my oversees resources from those friendly civilisations. Then, once I'm ready for war, I'll target a civilisation with whom relations aren't too good or who isn't liked very much by the others. That way, I'll avoid a second war with a third civilisation while I'm waging my oversees conquest of my target.

There's nothing so bad for your war planning than another unexpected war with a civilisation that was supplying you with precious resources and that's doubly true for complicated war efforts like oversees invasions.

Other arguments to target a certain civilisation for me are
-level of resistance (I don't want the first civilisation on another continent to be a tough target),
-quick access to valuable resources which you don't have yet,
-valuable world wonders.

 

[IAM]

Roland Johansen has some good points but my experience has been that a seperate continent with 4 or more civs already has a dominant warmonger by the time I meet them. So, in my experience, my best move has been to weaken the power player. Of course there are exceptions but if you get to galleons first take advantage. Even getting a forward city/base on the continent or nearby island can be great.

 

[Roland Johansen]

IAM has a different game experience than mine, but that could very well be related to the game settings we both use. Civilization games can be very different from eachother and people tend to use very different settings and strategies to tackle those games. One cannot say that one of those strategies is clearly superior to another, it depends on the situation. So just always take what works best for you from the tactics that you read.

What you can take from my post is that the diplomatic strategy that you use once you meet the other continent can be at least as important as the war strategy to obtain final success in the war.

 

[bestbrian]

Strategy for this is usually speed dependent, so keep in mind that I play Marathon. Develop you economy, tech like mad to gain a significant advantage. Astronomy is a an immediate target, Caravels for exploration/contact/circumnavigation bonus, and then Paper for map trades (never trade YOUR maps, btw).

Try to develop some coastal cities with decent production as naval gun pumps; their first task will be to crank out Privateers to blockade AI ports, and to patrol your coasts and kill anything that comes close. There may be civs on smaller landmasses away from the main continent (probably isolated); these should be conquered early to secure the sea lanes, and to gain your military some much needed experience. At this point your interior gun pumps should be cranking out siege and garrisons, your HE city more experienced primary combat troops, and your naval pumps transports and combat ships (if you're using BetterAI you'll need more navy than in base BTS).

Power considerations are nice when considering targets, but more importantly are attainable and easily defended bridgeheads onto the other continent from which you can launch your later assaults. As an education to others, it might not be a bad idea to chronicle this endeavor in the Strategy and Tactics Forum; it'd be pretty neat.

Hope this has been a help. Goodluck.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Don't think too many people would be interested, it's just Vanilla on Noble. Still, thanks for the advice.

Attacking the top dog seems to be a good way to unite all the other civs against me. Guess I'll curry favor with their block and wipe out the smaller ones, establishing their territory as a beachhead. The good news is that the other continent is quite close, so supply lines won't be difficult to maintain.

 

[22bebo]

Hey, is there a good SDK tutorial for BtS? And is there an easy way to fuse BAT with BetterAI?

 

[bakshi]

I have a question about mines. You know how it says there is a chance to discover some material. Is it every turn? And also if you build a mine on something you haven't discovered yet does it still have a chance to uncover something else?

 

[Silu]

I have a question about mines. You know how it says there is a chance to discover some material. Is it every turn? And also if you build a mine on something you haven't discovered yet does it still have a chance to uncover something else?

It's a chance for every turn (sth like 0.004%) for every mine you work (have an active citizen on that tile in some city). Since it's turn based it happens thrice as often on Marathon. Nothing can spawn on a mine tile that has a hidden resource like Aluminum.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Hey, is there a good SDK tutorial for BtS? And is there an easy way to fuse BAT with BetterAI?

xienwolf's An Idiots Guide to Editing the DLL is pretty good I think.

SDK/Python Mod forum
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=271

Merging BAT with Better AI I'm not sure on, but these two threads may be a good place to start...

Merging Better AI with BUG 3.5 - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=296534
(I'm pretty sure that one will do the job.)

Better AI and BUG/BULL merge - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=334040

 

[Churchill's Hat]

Question: How do you create landmark signs without using WorldBuilder? I found it once, forgot where it was, and now I can't find it.

 

[Arakhor]

Alt-S, I think.

 

[asdad]

Whats the best course of action when culture-flipping worthless cities? I often just raze them, but a few times, when the locations have been right, I tried gifting it to a rival of the original civ, to drive their relations down. If I gift it to someone (original civ or otherwise), will I be likely to flip it again soon or is there some mechanic to deter that?

 

[Dolman]

Hey guys, quick question:

I have some large cities with a resource (say deer) towards the outer limits.

The problem is, when I am in the City Screen, it doesn't show my whole empire, so I can't see the deer to start working it!

To be clear: This resource ISwithin my cultural boundaries. I simply can't work the tile.

Thanks

 

[Baldyr]

The problem is, when I am in the City Screen, it doesn't show my whole empire, so I can't see the deer to start working it!

Well, its good that you're using the City Screen. This is why you realize there is a problem to begin with.

The thing is that a city can't work any tiles beyond the 20 that are shown in the City Screen. So the resource would be outside of your city's reach. You can still get the benefit of having the resource, but you're not able to work the tile.

You need to found another city in order to work that resource, but that's a matter of weighing the pros and cons of supporting yet another city.

So it all comes down to city placement.

 

[IAM]

Whats the best course of action when culture-flipping worthless cities? I often just raze them, but a few times, when the locations have been right, I tried gifting it to a rival of the original civ, to drive their relations down. If I gift it to someone (original civ or otherwise), will I be likely to flip it again soon or is there some mechanic to deter that?

The custom game menu has some settings for when you start a game concerning culture. Gifting the city back to the original civ will give you 'you liberated one of our cities' bonus. If you give it to a third party you may increase your negative diplomatic modifiers with that civ because of the close borders.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

If you give it to a third party you may increase your negative diplomatic modifiers with that civ because of the close borders.

But isn't that counteracted by the fair and forthright trade relations?