Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[serttech2003]

quick question. with playing with raging barbs. if I don't explore (CoTM is an isolated start) will the barbs spawn?

IE Can I explore by settling CxxxC? Maybe an opening build of warrior x2 (MP), settler-warroir (MP) and then a granary be possible?

Never mind...doesn't work, Barbs still spawn. Thought I read somewhere that Barbs only spawn in areas that have been explored but not settler.

 

[tjs282]

Thought I read somewhere that Barbs only spawn in areas that have been explored but not settler.

Not quite -- Barb-huts can spawn only on uncovered tiles which are not currently visible to any (of your) units or towns (i.e. hidden by the 'fog of war'). So by placing a few Warriors on strategic Hills/Mountains around your cities -- or sacrificing Workers/Slaves to build Outposts, in C3C -- you can expand your visibility range quite substantially, and therefore reduce the number of tiles where Barb-huts can spawn.

That said, depending on difficulty level, you might actually want to keep a few invisible tiles on the map, so that you can 'farm' Barb-villages, because (at least up to Emp, possibly DG) it's easier to get victories/ promotions vs. Barb-units than vs. AICiv-units. That way, your early mil-units can quickly get promoted to Vet without having to build any Barracks first, and/or Elite if they're fast-units (i.e. M≥2). Elite fast-units apparently have better retreat-odds than Regs and Vets, so getting your Horsemen to Elite increases their survival chances both on attack and defence against M=1 foot-units. If you farm the Barbs, then when it's time to fight the AICivs, you'll more likely have better-trained forces than they do (Raxes do not appear to be priority-builds, at least for non-MIL AICivs), and you'll have more Elite units with which to generate MGLs.

Also, if a Goody-hut is popped by your initial Settler, you will never get Barb-units from it. For subsequent Settlers, I'm not so sure... I think you don't get Barb-units if you found a town directly adjacent to a Hut, only gold/ maps/ techs -- but don't quote me on that!

 

[justanick]

Not quite -- Barb-huts can spawn only on uncovered tiles which are not currently visible to any (of your) units or towns (i.e. hidden by the 'fog of war').

This is only true for military units. Send out workers or settler unprotected and new barbs might spawn directly next to them.

Elite fast-units apparently have better retreat-odds than Regs and Vets,

Well, the values can be read out from the editor. 34%, 50%, 58% and 66% are the retreat-odds.

 

[tjs282]

This is only true for military units. Send out workers or settler unprotected and new barbs might spawn directly next to them.

Thanks for pointing that out!

Well, the values can be read out from the editor. 34%, 50%, 58% and 66% are the retreat-odds.

You're absolutely right -- but without keeping detailed records of units deployed vs. units retreated/lost, the average player (and I include myself in that category--see above!) probably won't notice any major differences in 'no. of units which retreated based on reg/vet/elite status' during actual gameplay.

It may well be different at DG+, when you're likely to be fighting many more battles per turn during wars -- but once someone is competent at that level, I would argue that he is no longer an 'average' player...

 

[Lord AJ]

What exactly is war happiness? I looked around a bit and know that it's caused when an opponent declares on me or when they lose a unit in my territory (?) but does it give me some actual happiness or simply a lack of war weariness?

 

[justanick]

War happyness is caused by a civilization declaring war on you, unless this is causes by a military allliance. I am not sure how MPP counts.

Each war happiness is worth 1 happy face for each 4 citizens in a city. Multipible war happinesses are calculated seperatly and are added up after the rounding has occured. So 4 times war happiness means you get 12 happy faces at size 12 to 15, 8 happy faces at size 8 to 11, 4 happy faces at size 4 to 7 an nothing below size 4.

 

[Lord AJ]

War happyness is caused by a civilization declaring war on you, unless this is causes by a military allliance. I am not sure how MPP counts.

Each war happiness is worth 1 happy face for each 4 citizens in a city. Multipible war happinesses are calculated seperatly and are added up after the rounding has occured. So 4 times war happiness means you get 12 happy faces at size 12 to 15, 8 happy faces at size 8 to 11, 4 happy faces at size 4 to 7 an nothing below size 4.

Now this can be great help if we have no luxes but iron and horses.
Thanks for the info. [emoji106]

 

[justanick]

The problem is that AI is lesss likely to declare war on you when you are strong. If you already have strong military you may not get the desired DoW. While you are still in the process of building up your military you may however get the DoW.

 

[Lord AJ]

The problem is that AI is lesss likely to declare war on you when you are strong. If you already have strong military you may not get the desired DoW. While you are still in the process of building up your military you may however get the DoW.

Yes you're right. But in my experience, at Emperor and above the ai almost always declares war when made furious and then asked to leave. This is true even if my military advisor shows me to be stronger than the AI so I think this should be achievable, at least in the early game where happiness is needed a lot and when peace comes quickly.

 

[Lanzelot]

I am not sure how MPP counts.

No war happiness from wars triggered by MPPs and MAs.

 

[Lord AJ]

In a tech race game, is it normal to be loosing the 4 turn tech pace on entering a new Era (eg the first couple of researches taking 5 turns or so) . Also, is it advisable to keep ones ga for the IA and pass through the MA without ga?
For example in a recent game I did slow research upto printing press and education and chose not to use my ga at this time. Was my decision correct or should I have triggered the ga here itself?

 

[justanick]

In a tech race game, is it normal to be loosing the 4 turn tech pace on entering a new Era (eg the first couple of researches taking 5 turns or so) .

It is a common thing, but calling it normal does not seem quite right to me. At higher setting getting the times up to 6 turns and more is not unusual. Also the modern age techs are rather expensive.

Also, is it advisable to keep ones ga for the IA and pass through the MA without ga?

Imo it can. That way the total effect of the GA is maximized, especially for commerce this might be relevant. The "problem" is that usually you need the GA earlier or avoiding it is impossible or only achievable at unreasonable prices.

For example in a recent game I did slow research upto printing press and education and chose not to use my ga at this time. Was my decision correct or should I have triggered the ga here itself?

It is hard to say in general. But usually the early MA is a good point in time for the GA. The cities are sufficiently big and and the amount of cities is sufficiently high aswell.

Keeping the GA till the industrial age is really only an option when you are slow enough in research that wonders are not a danger to trigger the GA by accident, military is also secondary and you are still strong enough to not need the GA. This combination is rare.

Playing England on a huge archipelago with 80% water starting without any enemy reachable prior to navigation or magnetism might be such a case. Then starting the GA at the beginning of the industrial age might be an option. This needs to be adapted to the need for workers for railraods. You do want railroads fast, but you donnot want to waste the GA on small cities. Also you might be tempted to wait for the GA till your cities are in full utilization of hospitals. There might be some though choices to make.

 

[Lanzelot]

In my experience the answer is: if you can manage 4-turn research in the middle ages without GA, then keep it for later. If not, start it now! But I also think it is quite impossible to reach 4-turn research at the begining of the middle ages, unless you are playing Warlord and/or have a great start positions with 5 cows and 6 luxuries... In almost every "real world example" when playing a research game, I start the GA in the early middle age in order to get universities and Copernicus as quickly as possible, while at the same time expanding as fast as possible to be ready to set up science farms in the early industrial age.

 

[walletta]

In the list of things you can do with cities, there is something like this: 'set as rally point'. What does it mean?

 

[justanick]

Newly built units are set to automatically move to that location. I never used it.

 

[tjs282]

In the list of things you can do with cities, there is something like this: 'set as rally point'. What does it mean?

I've never used the 'Set rally point' option either, but I have used the 'Continental rally point' (CRP) option during the late game, to dump units into a coastal city for shipping overseas.

Spoiler :

I guess you could also use it to collect up units for airlifting out, if you've turned a bunch of Slaves into Airfields. But my games so far (all on ≤Standard-size maps at ≤Emp) are usually all but over (victory or loss is within sight) by the point that airlifting becomes practical/ necessary. (Flight will usually have got me into the Modern Age, in which case I'm going for Space [Yay! Space!], rather than Dom/Conq.)

But as with all the automated functions in Civ3, CRPs have drawbacks. All new units will end up at the CRP, including Settlers and Workers -- and newly-built boats will also all try to sail to a coastal-city CRP. That's why I'll only use it when I have a complete rail-net (i.e. all cities connected by rail, not necessarily all tiles railed) -- that way, I don't waste MP, and so I can still move the 'odd-man-out' units (back) to where I wanted them.

I think the simple 'Set rally point' option is supposed to work for specific cities, so all the unit-output from that one city goes to a certain place. But since those RPs aren't marked on the map, setting the same RP(s) for several (sets of) cities isn't particularly easy. And again, if you use an RP(s) before Rails, you have to remember to clear it/them as soon as it's/they've served its/their purpose(s), or you end up wasting your units' MP with automated GoTo moves.

 

[walletta]

Thanks (again!) Justanick and tis282. It seems like a solution to a problem I didn't know I had.

 

[Lanzelot]

But as with all the automated functions in Civ3, CRPs have drawbacks. All new units will end up at the CRP, including Settlers and Workers

Oh yeah... I used it once (someone had just explained to me how it works...), at a time when I was mass-building units to fight at the front, and settlers to fill in the gaps in the backyard... You can guess what happened... Never used it since...

 

[agonistes]

Not quite -- Barb-huts can spawn only on uncovered tiles which are not currently visible to any (of your) units or towns (i.e. hidden by the 'fog of war'). So by placing a few Warriors on strategic Hills/Mountains around your cities -- or sacrificing Workers/Slaves to build Outposts, in C3C -- you can expand your visibility range quite substantially, and therefore reduce the number of tiles where Barb-huts can spawn.

I believe that barb huts can spawn on tiles that are *not* covered by the fog of war. I think it is only visibility that matters.

 

[tjs282]

I believe that barb huts can spawn on tiles that are *not* covered by the fog of war. I think it is only visibility that matters.

Are you using FoW to refer to tiles which are blacked-out (completely unknown)? Because I always understood it rather to refer to those tiles which have been explored/ exposed at some point, but which are not currently visible to my (or for Barb-spawning purposes, any other Civ's) units -- i.e. the tiles which are slightly greyed-out (in the unmodded base-game).

Also, does anyone know if Barb-huts can spring up on tiles which have had improvements applied to them, e.g. if you've built a 3-4 tile road from an unpopped town to a Lux-colony, but one of those roaded tiles is fogged (according to my above definition), can a Barb-camp spawn on that tile? I don't remember ever having seen that happen myself, but my Civ3 experience is still relatively limited (and I don't generally build colonies, or improve tiles that aren't currently workable). If so, does the road/improvement get removed by the hut's appearance?