Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[huh?]

3. Is there any resources that are easy to fall in love with but isnt that usefull?

4. does a city have full cap when its working as many tiles as it possible can? and is it very bad to have 2 cities to cloose to each other? and what is the minium distant of tiles that should be between them?

3. Gold. Early on (first or second city), Gold can put a serious dent in the research times for the first few techs.

On a side note, desert tiles are useless until Oil appears. I will try to expand my borders into the desert and hope for the future oil (if your games last that long). If your economy can handle it, a lone city in the desert can cover alot of ground. The same can be said for the tundra tiles.

4. You need a population of 20 to work every single tile (and no specialists). Depending on your play style, your cities may never get that large. It takes a lot of buildings and connected happiness/health resources to get a city that large which doesn't tend to happen until the late game.

So if your city only has a population of 10, then half of the tiles are not being used. Re-arrange the citizens to allow overlapping tiles to be shared. Also, there are some cities (desert, tundra, hilly) that might only be there for resource purposes. If tiles overlap with a "good" city, then sacrifice the resource cities growth/production for the benefit of the good city.

Depending on how much you micro-manage, you can also share food resources between cities to grow the city to your current health/happiness cap. If your city cannot grow, why work that tile?

Lastly, you can reach a point in the game that you have 6-7 tiles that are empty between cities. It might be beneficial to place a city there and let that city work those few tiles.

 

[cjroots]

Just a quick question -

After a while my main city is advanced enough to be able to build a unit in one turn, however I don't want to build a unit every turn because I end up with loads of the same unit, but after every turn a box appears saying 'choose what unit to produce next' or something similar and I have to select something even though I don't want to.

Is there a way of skipping this unit production so I don't end up with 50+ spearmen etc?

 

[IAM]

Just a quick question -

After a while my main city is advanced enough to be able to build a unit in one turn, however I don't want to build a unit every turn because I end up with loads of the same unit, but after every turn a box appears saying 'choose what unit to produce next' or something similar and I have to select something even though I don't want to.

Is there a way of skipping this unit production so I don't end up with 50+ spearmen etc?

You can build buildings or wealth, research etc.

Or better yet go to war and burn some of those units.

 

[Heliac]

On building Wealth, nice thing is all those go directly into , so you have more freedom with your & sliders. If this is a Holy City, you'll be coining it!

 

[cjroots]

You can build buildings or wealth, research etc.

Or better yet go to war and burn some of those units.

Thanks for the suggestion, however I don't have the option to build anything else because I am currently researching something else, so whilst I'm waiting I have to build a load of pointless units and can't go to war because I wouldn't win. It seems odd that you are forced to do produce a unit or building, I can't see why I can't choose not to. It's totally put me off the game.

 

[Sisiutil]

Thanks for the suggestion, however I don't have the option to build anything else because I am currently researching something else, so whilst I'm waiting I have to build a load of pointless units and can't go to war because I wouldn't win. It seems odd that you are forced to do produce a unit or building, I can't see why I can't choose not to. It's totally put me off the game.

So you're at an early point in the game, then, pre-writing (enables building research EDIT: CORRECTION--enabled by Alphabet), pre-music (enables building culture), and pre-currency (enables building wealth)?

That early in the game, there are still some things you can build which will prove useful. Early in the game, units are never useless even if they're weak; you can use them to explore, or to fog-bust so barbarians don't appear near you. Later on, once you have monarchy and run hereditary rule, you can put those units in your cities to raise the happiness cap. And even weak units could be used to steal workers, pillage tiles, and generally be a nuisance and weaken your enemy even if you aren't strong enough to capture any cities.

Speaking of workers.... most players never have enough workers. The only problem is that building them stifles the city's growth, but early in the game it's usually pretty easy to reach the city's happiness cap. You can also build settlers in anticipation of settling city sites later if not sooner. The AI always seems to have a spare settler or two on hand, and it's not such a bad idea.

If a world wonder is available, even if you don't think you have a shot at it, you can build it in one city and get the gold-for-hammers compensation when someone else completes it.

In terms of the big picture, you might want to consider researching writing earlier so you can build research, or changing your early game strategy (try an early rush--you'll be building several units), or perhaps even moving up a level. It's rare for me to not have something to build in my cities; it usually only happens to me if the game goes on a long time, well into the modern era. Though I am starting to leverage the advantages of building wealth more and more.

 

[huh?]

Thanks for the suggestion, however I don't have the option to build anything else because I am currently researching something else, so whilst I'm waiting I have to build a load of pointless units and can't go to war because I wouldn't win. It seems odd that you are forced to do produce a unit or building, I can't see why I can't choose not to. It's totally put me off the game.

Go ahead and crank out the units, even warriors, until they start costing you per unit. Depending on the level you are playing, you are allowed so many "free" units before they start costing you per turn.

Once the units start costing you, go into the city production screen. Move the citizens around to work more food tiles or more cottages. Perhaps make a few of the specialists. By moving them around, you will go from building one unit per turn to taking many more turns to build a unit.

Just remember to re-arrange the citizens once you need to build something different.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Lord Parkin is correct, but I suspect you might have meant different. For instance, a Granary offers +1 health if you have wheat, corn, or rice (I think?). In this case, you'll get +1 for wheat AND corn AND rice, but you'll only get +1 for each even if you have 5 wheat and 3 corn and 7 rice.

Yes. You are addressing the question that I asked. From your answer I gather that in your example the total health, if you had one or more of each of the three resources, would be +3. I had always assumed it was only +1. Thanks. That changes the way I play CIV a bit.

 

[Abegweit]

Yes. You are addressing the question that I asked. From your answer I gather that in your example the total health, if you had one or more of each of the three resources, would be +3. I had always assumed it was only +1. Thanks. That changes the way I play CIV a bit.

I'm not sure you're getting it yet. Yes, the answer is 3 but you also get another 3 in any city with a granary - one additional for each of the resources in question.

In short you get one health for at least one of each resource, as you say. You get a second health in any city with the right building, granary, harbour or whatever as the case may be. Same rules apply to happiness.

 

[kcd_swede]

Thanks for the suggestion, however I don't have the option to build anything else because I am currently researching something else, so whilst I'm waiting I have to build a load of pointless units and can't go to war because I wouldn't win. It seems odd that you are forced to do produce a unit or building, I can't see why I can't choose not to. It's totally put me off the game.

I have been in this situation before, as trying to slowly research Alphabet (to build research) at like 0% research (using Library specialists enabled by writing), nearly going on strike due to maintenance. Build a unit and delete it as soon as it appears, just to keep down maintenance until I can get to Alphabet. Delete all units I can safely delete inorder to get a tiny bit more commerce to help that tech rate! If your unit maintenance is already below the "free maintenance" threshold, build workers/settlers and stockpile them - they usually come in handy.

One other thing to do is to put all your city citizens on tiles that generate max food and commerce, even if it means not working that copper mine (hammers are just being thrown away anyhow, wheras food and commerce is always useful).

The most important thing I've learned, though, is to plan my tech path to avoid such dead-end situations in the first place. That takes a bit of experience, perhaps. Hint: Tech pottery early - before writing.

 

[Silu]

I have been in this situation before, as trying to slowly research Alphabet (to build research) at like 0% research (using Library specialists enabled by writing), nearly going on strike due to maintenance. Build a unit and delete it as soon as it appears, just to keep down maintenance until I can get to Alphabet. Delete all units I can safely delete inorder to get a tiny bit more commerce to help that tech rate! If your unit maintenance is already below the "free maintenance" threshold, build workers/settlers and stockpile them - they usually come in handy.

Rather than building units and deleting them, build them to 99% of completion (start with worker/settler) and then change to building something else. Yes, the hammers invested will decay away if they are left unbuilt for a long time, but it's still a lot better than just throwing them away.

But yeah, as kcd_swede said, such a situation is very unfavorable and one should avoid ending up that way - of course sometimes it can't be avoided.

 

[Yxklyx]

I think it's pretty important to get Alphabet (build research) or Currency (build wealth) at an early stage so that you're not forced to build units you don't want.

 

[kcd_swede]

Rather than building units and deleting them, build them to 99% of completion (start with worker/settler) and then change to building something else. Yes, the hammers invested will decay away if they are left unbuilt for a long time, but it's still a lot better than just throwing them away.

Good idea!

 

[georgjorge]

Another point, if you have cities which take a very short time to build things, you can save a lot of time by setting up a production queue and not having the pop-up asking what to produce next every turn. Just hold down Shift and select something to build, and it will be queued after the current build, so it will start after that one is finished. You can do that as many times as you wish, I usually do queues of 4-5 builds.

 

[6K Man]

3. Is there any resources that are easy to fall in love with but isnt that usefull?

I don't think this was directly answered, so...

It's optimal to have at least one of every resource - but some are better than others.

In particular (YMMV):
Unirrigated Rice is kinda poor as a food resource - 4F.
Sugar is more of a food resource than a commerce resource, and isn't great that way, either.

Pigs, Corn, Wheat are the great food resources. Particularly if the last 2 are irrigated.

Pre-Lighthouses, Clam and Crab are just 4F, making them less desirable than most land based food resources. Fish are 5F, but they are almost always on Ocean tiles, meaning only 1 Commerce.

Be cautious about Incense and Gold when they appear in groups in the desert. My first thought is always "Commerce City" when I find those, but unless you have a lot of food, it's very hard to work multiple desert tiles. Incense is almost invariably on flat desert, meaning no hammers or food, just commerce. It's one of my least favourite resources as a result. Fur suffers the same way that Incense does, but at least there may be some Deer around to feed the Fur harvesters.

Dye and Wine look great in the early game, but later on, you may wish you had cottaged some of them.

Gems are usually better than Gold because they can feed themselves (they tend to appear on Grassland), provided you are capable of chopping away the Jungle.

 

[classebruun]

Nice explenations everyone that replied! most i didnt know, and try to think about that when playing today and yesterday!.

A followup on the flood plains tho, why is it bad to place cities on them? ive seen dester floodplain och flood plain and just simple plains, plains got lesser food i noticed, any other reason?

and if i settle on gold or any other resource, is it basic values then och does it count as an improvment?


and also, if someone can explain how you count or se the different "caps" you talk about. i get confused, is the current cap how many tiles/GP the city can work at the time? and when the city grows another tile/GP to work its a higher cap?

and what do you mean with health cap?

thanks for any awnsers, helps alot!

 

[henrebotha]

What is the name of the mod that adds the three unused trait combinations? If I recall, one of the new leaders is for Japan.

 

[6K Man]

Nice explenations everyone that replied! most i didnt know, and try to think about that when playing today and yesterday!.

A followup on the flood plains tho, why is it bad to place cities on them? ive seen dester floodplain och flood plain and just simple plains, plains got lesser food i noticed, any other reason?

Floodplains are a default 3F 1C tile (3 food, 1 commerce). Putting a city on a floodplain or forest 'removes' the floodplain or forest, leaving the base tile (desert for floodplain, plains/grassland/tundra for forest) behind. So basically, you are turning a 3F tile into a 2F tile by putting a city on it. And as many have said, food is something you don't want to pass up.

and if i settle on gold or any other resource, is it basic values then och does it count as an improvment?

There is a formula for this - IIRC, all cities get a minimum of 2F 1H 1C, modified as follows:
- discount any overlays like forest/floodplain
- if the base tile produces more than 2F without being improved, then the city will get 3F. Ditto if it produces more than 1 H (like a plains hill) or more than 1 C.

Settling on a resource counts as improving the resource for purposes of having access of it for trading, happiness, health, building things/etc, once you have the requisite tech needed to improve that resource (like Masonry for Stone). As noted, settling on a resource does not give you the yield that improving it normally would.

and also, if someone can explain how you count or se the different "caps" you talk about. i get confused, is the current cap how many tiles/GP the city can work at the time? and when the city grows another tile/GP to work its a higher cap?

and what do you mean with health cap?

thanks for any awnsers, helps alot!

Happy cap - how many citizens a city can have before subsequent citizens are unhappy. Unhappy citizens eat food but don't work, making them worse than useless, unless you can whip or draft them away and turn them into something more useful.
Health cap - same thing, except subsequent citizens are unhealthy. Unhealthy citizens aren't as bad as unhappy ones, because 1 unhealthy citizen just reduces the city's food production by one. If the food production is high, a city can have 5 or more unhealthy citizens and still grow (or at least not shrink). Still, avoiding unhealthy citizens is good, just because the city will grow faster and more food allows you to whip more or run more specialists.

 

[classebruun]

Aa ok i think i get it! dont know how to quote properly so if im confusing let me know!

So i should at some point make my city stagnent by using GP? to avoid that? is there a certain point for that or is that a combination of buildings i have in the city that deturmens the right time?

Is there any good late stage guides that you know of? im feeling confident enough on early game for the difficulty im playing. But at the end im allways closing my eyes rushing towards tanks and modern armor, cult or space. i know that wont make it if i go emp+
Maybe some waypoints in thechs that are really cruisall for most directions you go in?

 

[6K Man]

Aa ok i think i get it! dont know how to quote properly so if im confusing let me know!

So i should at some point make my city stagnent by using GP? to avoid that? is there a certain point for that or is that a combination of buildings i have in the city that deturmens the right time?

For happiness - beeline Monarchy, switch to Hereditary rule, and build lots of units. No more unhappiness. Otherwise - acquire or trade for as many happiness resources as you can. Spread a religion, build temples/colosseums, or forges (if you have gold/silver/gems)

For health - health resources, granaries, aqueducts, harbours (if you have the right resources). Try to build cities adjacent to rivers or lakes for the +2 health.

When you can't find a way to increase your happiness any further is when you should consider stagnating a city with a GP or 2. Or whipping away the excess.