Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lanzelot]

but at one point I was doing well enough that I just upgraded them & forgot about it.

But as long as you didn't yet have the GA, you should always be able do build new ones! Even in the 4th age...

Also keep an eye on any wonder that triggers the GA and beeline for it, before the AI gets it. For example the Internet triggers a GA for everyone, who still didn't have one!
Or specifically for the Celts, who need one agricultural and one religious wonder, any combination of Cure for Cancer/Universal Sufferage/Hoover Dam + a religious one would do it. So for example you could try and capture an AI city with a religious wonder (Zeus, Oracle, Knights Templar, Pyramids, Artemis, J.S.Bach's Cathedral or Sistine Chapel) and then beeline for Universal Sufferage or Hoover in the 3rd age, or for Cure for Cancer in the 4th age.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

But as long as you didn't yet have the GA, you should always be able do build new ones! Even in the 4th age...

I realized that later on, but by then I didn't care.

Also keep an eye on any wonder that triggers the GA and beeline for it, before the AI gets it. For example the Internet triggers a GA for everyone, who still didn't have one!
Or specifically for the Celts, who need one agricultural and one religious wonder, any combination of Cure for Cancer/Universal Sufferage/Hoover Dam + a religious one would do it. So for example you could try and capture an AI city with a religious wonder (Zeus, Oracle, Knights Templar, Pyramids, Artemis, J.S.Bach's Cathedral or Sistine Chapel) and then beeline for Universal Sufferage or Hoover in the 3rd age, or for Cure for Cancer in the 4th age.

Hoover's didn't do it for me. I was going to head for the Internet when I was previously planning on the Spaceship, but then when the resources never materialized for me I switched to a UN victory and once that became possible I abandoned the idea altogether. I'll keep those in mind for the future, though.

Interestingly ... I was about to lose out on Hoover's by 1 turn, when I kept a close eye on the AI (Arabia I think) and successfully sabotaged its production with 1 turn to go, and then I got it myself.

 

[Lanzelot]

Hoover's didn't do it for me.

You need to capture a religious wonder first. (GA is triggered only when you build a wonder, not when you capture one, even though the captured ones count towards your GA!)

I was about to lose out on Hoover's by 1 turn, when I kept a close eye on the AI (Arabia I think) and successfully sabotaged its production with 1 turn to go, and then I got it myself.

Sabotage has a chance (33%? 50%?) of failing, and once failed, it won't work for the next three turns or so, therefore better try it ahead of time so that you have several chances. Another trick that always works for me: if you still have a technology with a government (Communism, Fascism, etc.) that the AI does not yet have, gift (or still better: sell...) it to them. They will immediately revolt, get 3-6 turns of anarchy, and you can snatch the wonder from under their nose...

(Well, it doesn't work that well on SID, where the AI only gets one turn of anarchy, or if the competing AI is religious, when they have a guaranteed anarchy of 2 turns, but in your case, when it was the matter of just a single turn, it would still have worked...)

 

[justanick]

I wonder if there are situations where it actually makes sense to wait for the GA till the modern age.

You could capture wonders that meet you traits and then build any wonder to check if you have wonders that meet your traits.

 

[justanick]

Well, it doesn't work that well on SID, where the AI only gets one turn of anarchy

I really need to emphasize that the one turn of anarchy at Sid is actually zero. So choosing an religious opponent increases the anarchy duration by 2 turns. The value you can read and change in the editor overshoots by 1, because the value of 0 is reserved for no reduction in maximum anarchy duration.

Schwierigkeitsgrad (Civ3) – CivWiki

civ-wiki.de

 

[Spoonwood]

I wonder if there are situations where it actually makes sense to wait for the GA till the modern age.

You could capture wonders that meet you traits and then build any wonder to check if you have wonders that meet your traits.

There might be. Archphoenix's small Deity spaceship game, which if I recall correctly, has the record for Deity spaceship launch of 920 AD!, it got based on AI research. I don't think he went to war in that game. Staying out of war might be beneficial on upper levels thus, provided that the AIs can do research, and your focus consists of research. Tech cost, unlike lower levels where taking lots of territory can easily end up beneficial, can still end up high. I don't recall ever doing 4 turn research in the late industrial age or in the modern era on Deity or Sid... especially not if playing for spaceship or diplomatic. So, potentially, yes, a modern age golden age could make more sense than a late ancient age or medieval golden age in some cases. I recall some of my Deity games had an industrial golden age also. Maybe that was optimal, but it wasn't bad. And a standard timed golden age apparently isn't necessarily more impactful than other considerations.

 

[Aabraxan]

If the AI captures my workers, do they remain on my "payroll" for unit support? Conversely, if I capture the AI's workers as slaves, do they remain on its payroll?

 

[tjs282]

No, to both questions (actually, the same question!).

You'll only start paying maintenance on your (excess) Workers if you manage to recapture them back before the AI disbands them, or adds them to one of its cities (which in turn seems to depend on whether or not it can get its prisoners across its own borders on the same turn as it captured them).

 

[Aabraxan]

Thanks, @tjs282

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I wonder if there are situations where it actually makes sense to wait for the GA till the modern age.

On my latest game - Mayans/Emperor/Pangaea/Large Map - I actually got a SGL & used it to complete ToE, then got Hoover's to kick off the GA at that point. There was no losing at that point, and I easily pulled off a UN victory. I had had to buy Fission for an outrageous price (had a lot of Scientific Civs in the opposition), over 17K gold, but it got me the UN build. (And again, bribery worked, just enough to win more than half the votes.)

Question about UN victories: when I build the UN, the next turn it offers the opportunity for a vote. If the AI gets it first, does it do that automatically also, or is it a roll of the dice?

 

[tjs282]

The AI 'decides' to hold the vote only if it 'knows' it can win, based on its current diplomatic relations.

That's why it's almost always preferable to beeline Fission and (pre)build the UN yourself if possible. And if that's not possible, then you need to do everything in your power to (1) determine which of your rivals is most likely to build it (in the Espionage screen, using a diplomat to investigate a city is usually quite cheap), and then (2) ensure that (a majority of) the other leaders become and/or stay Furious with that Civ, before they finish it.

 

[templar_x]

Or specifically for the Celts, who need one agricultural and one religious wonder, any combination of Cure for Cancer/Universal Sufferage/Hoover Dam + a religious one would do it. ...

"SUFFERage"
today´s political options in election times really give you that feeling!
t_x

 

[Spoonwood]

"SUFFERage"
today´s political options in election times really give you that feeling!
t_x

I like to call it Universal Suffering.

To quote one protestor who apparently had no idea of the difference between "suffering" and "suffrage" a while back,

"everybody suffers."