Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[BrantleyL1]

As the game progresses, it's possible to "convert" a citizen into a specialist. This has always been a kind of grey area to me.

When you convert one, it reduces the # of tiles worked, so you might lose a couple of hammers, coin or food; but gain the benefit of the specialist. Some provide additional hammers or research or some benefit, but I've never exactly understood the the balance here.

So, Ive got a couple of questions here.

Some buildings provide that "can convert x citizens into priest" (for example). Seems like this runs into the balance issue I mentioned.

Certain research items provide a "free specialist in every city". What exactly does that mean to me? Do I have to visit each city and convert (choose) a specialist? OR, does a random one show up in each city? Does this choice/convert affect the # of tiles worked?

 

[sausnebb]

Is it possible to turn off Espionage and Corporations in BtS?

Imho espionage is unnecessary and corporations make you "spread a religion" at a time in the game when there are too many cities and too much other stuff to do..

 

[SwoopTrooper]

Any ideas why my Automated Workers are not building Railroads? I've definitely discovered the Railroads Technology and have an abundance of workers.

 

[Ghpstage]

Some provide additional hammers or research or some benefit, but I've never exactly understood the the balance here.

The yield of science/culture/gold etc from normal specialists is pretty low compared to most tiles, but it is however a specialised output. This means that running Merchants is a very good idea in your Wallstreet city if you are at 100% as cottages won't give any .
The Representation civic changes the strength of specialists a lot, it adds 3 to all specialists you run making them quite competitive with tiles. If you can get the Pyramids to run early Representation then specialists will outperform most non resource tiles by a decent margin for a lot of the game.

The other output from specialists is Great People Points (GPP). This is the main reason you will want to use specialists, learning to manage GPP and use Great People is one of the skills needed to win at higher levels. Each specialist type gives GPP for its own specific Great Person type, so Scientists give Great Scientist GPP etc and the type of GP you receive will be random based on how the GPP types are distributed.
i.e. for your first Great Person (needs 100GPP), if you have 30 Great Prophet points and 70 Great Scientists you have 30% chance to get a Prophet and 70% a Scientist. Citizens do not generate GPP!

Running one of your cities as a specialised GP farm is a very effective strategy.
The site wants a lot of food to allow you to run as many specialists as possible, a couple of hills to mine helps for the buildings it needs as well as any wonders you may get a shot at. This city needs the National Epic and something to give specialist slots, Scientists are the most generally useful so get a Library and maybe run Caste.
The job of this city is purely to create Great People, and you can control the type of Great Person you get quite easily! Scientists are the most generally useful as you can get access to 2 slots early, Caste System lets you have unlimited slots, The Great Library contributes 8 base scientist GPP and GS themselves are very good. But theres nothing to say you can't run loads of Priests or Merchants or a mix of all sorts.

Certain research items provide a "free specialist in every city". What exactly does that mean to me? Do I have to visit each city and convert (choose) a specialist? OR, does a random one show up in each city? Does this choice/convert affect the # of tiles worked?

Gives you a 'free' population that doesn't need feeding and isn't counted as population that you can use as any specialist, the AI will auto assign it to whatever role it thinks is best but you can swap it to any specialists slot you have available.

 

[bestbrian]

Any ideas why my Automated Workers are not building Railroads? I've definitely discovered the Railroads Technology and have an abundance of workers.

No Iron? No coal? Are they programmed to "automate trade routes"?

 

[bestbrian]

Is it possible to turn off Espionage and Corporations in BtS?

Imho espionage is unnecessary and corporations make you "spread a religion" at a time in the game when there are too many cities and too much other stuff to do..

Yes, in Custom Game you have the option to do so. Just be forewarned that the game becomes a bit wonky if you turn off Espionage, as EPs turn into Culture.

 

[CleoSombra]

What does "City Must Work To Become Hamlet" mean over cottage?

 

[Sisiutil]

I wouldn't worry too much about continuing the tutorial. It isn't the greatest, it's meant to just teach you the basics of the interface and the game, and is very basic (and in many ways falls short) in that regard.

You'll learn more by firing up and new game at a low difficulty level and plunging right in. Come back to this forum to get your inevitable questions answered. Read an article in the war academy now and then, especially those that address a part of the game you find mystifying or want to improve upon. Check out some of the posted games to see how others approach the game and employ various strategies. And above all, have fun!

 

[Gwynnja]

What does "City Must Work To Become Hamlet" mean over cottage?

it means that it won't grow without having a citizen assigned to it. look at the city screen and click the cottage and a white circle representing the town citizen working the tile will show up.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

How can I tell my wife we can't go to Scotland as the departure date coincides with the release of Civ V?

 

[Arakhor]

You don't. You go to Scotland, you enjoy the rain and the grisly natives and then you come back and pretend that it has only just been released. You don't mention it to her either

 

[IAM]

How can I tell my wife we can't go to Scotland as the departure date coincides with the release of Civ V?

Civ V will be available in Europe too. It's a shame that you will come down with a cold and be stuck in the hotel room the entire time with your laptop and civ V. Hope you feel better.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

If I came down with a cold and Civ 5 I would find a laptop inserted where it would be rather uncomfortable. I am resigned to not being able to sample it until I get back to Australia around December.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, if you're used to hot weather, going to Scotland in the autumn is the fastest way to catch a cold. Don't forget to have a battered sausage whilst you're there

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Been there a few times around October/ November. To make it worse I am going to Ireland after. Battered sausage- do the Scots cook any other way?


End of hijack of thread.

Resume normal transmissions

 

[dot_eater]

- I usually automate my workers and after my borders are all surrounded by other nations, I eventually get a lot of idle workers (I'm guessing because there's no land left that can be improved). Is there anything I can do with them? i.e. turn them into a military unit or a citizen? Is there any benefit to deleting them?

- Is there anything that you should generally not automate? I usually automate workers and citizens.

- Is there a way to level up your units faster? It seems like I frequently lose fights, even when I would think I have the upper hand (i.e. pikeman vs mounted units or like a more advanced unit vs a more primitive like SAM Infantry vs Rifleman or something).

- What determines how fast a city builds a unit? Some cities build a catapult in 1 turn for example, where others take 3 or more.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

To answer the last question, that is related to the production capacity of the city (the number of hammers it produces). A city working mines and/or iron etc produces a lot more hammers than (say) a city on an island surrounded by just water. That is an extreme example.

With losing your fights, are you taking into account defensive bonuses (such as woods and attacking across water) and the units health and promotions? They can make a lot of difference.

 

[Sisiutil]

- I usually automate my workers and after my borders are all surrounded by other nations, I eventually get a lot of idle workers (I'm guessing because there's no land left that can be improved). Is there anything I can do with them? i.e. turn them into a military unit or a citizen? Is there any benefit to deleting them?

- Is there anything that you should generally not automate? I usually automate workers and citizens.

I seem to be posting a lot about common beginners' mistakes lately, and here's another one: automating workers (and cities, for that matter). It probably doesn't cost you too much at the lowest difficulty levels, but as you move up, you need to micro-manage, there's just no way around it.

Why avoid automating workers (and, for that matter, city management)? Answer: city specialization. Most advanced players determine the best role for a city to play (production, military, commerce, specialists, etc.) and from that determine (a) the tile improvements needed, (b) the builds to prioritize, and (c) the citizen tile assignments for that city to best support its specialization. The AI, if it's controlling your workers, has no concept of this.

As for what to do with idle workers... I find that by the late mid-game, just before you obtain the ability to build railroads, my workers often have less to do. This is a good time to build roads on tiles that don't have them (inside or just outside your territory) to support efficient unit movement; you can also build mines or forts on hill tiles outside of your cities' workable areas, as late game resources (coal, uranium, aluminum) may appear there. I never delete workers because I find them handy to have around, right to the end of the game, to serve as an emergency response team if the AI uses espionage or air units to damage tile improvements (and to respond to random events that damage tile improvements too). And if I'm pursuing a domination or conquest win, it's handy to have the workers available to move into conquered territory and repair or convert it as I see fit. (And no, you can't convert workers to another type of unit.)

 

[FireSummoner]

So I am very new to the civ4 and I am trying to understand the importance of gold. How important is it to save gold and what can you do with it?

 

[Sisiutil]

So I am very new to the civ4 and I am trying to understand the importance of gold. How important is it to save gold and what can you do with it?

Welcome to CFC!

Gold is what is left over from all your commerce (from cottages, resources like gold and wine, specialists like merchants and priests, trade routes, etc.) once it's gone through the "sliders" which control the allocation of commerce to things like research, espionage, culture, and finally, as mentioned, your treasury.

First off, you don't usually want to run a deficit--at least not forever. If you are losing money and have none in the treasury, you will start losing military units--they'll go "on strike" and disband. This presents a prime situation for other civs to attack you.

Going the other way is also problematic. You usually need to direct a considerable amount of your commerce to research in order to stay competitive with the other civilizations in terms of technology. Lagging behind in techs so you're only protected by obsolete units also invites a rump-kicking from the AI.

So you're trying to find a balance between allocating enough of your income to research while also putting aside a little money for a rainy day. If you're playing Beyond the Sword with random events turned on, it's a good idea to always have a little gold in your treasury to deal with unexpected events--good or bad--that may occur and provide you with additional options that can be "bought". Aside from that, you can save up gold to upgrade military units (usually only advisable with units that have a relatively substantial number of promotions). Gold can also be used when you switch into the Universal Suffrage civic to buy completion of builds in your cities. You can also use it to bribe other civilizations to stop trading with a rival, or even go to war with him. Finally, if you're in a race to a tech that grants a prize to the first one to finish researching it (e.g. founding a religion, getting a free great person, or a free tech), you can use the gold in your treasury to fund the research by running the slider at a deficit.