Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Chicken Pizza]

Sounds like you haven't played higher levels much.

I play anything up to Deity. I actually posted a decent game at https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/give-me-a-game-please.557204/ many years ago.

 

[ShadowKraz42]

Is there, somewhere accessible, a guide or tutorial on the various controls in the screens for setting up a new game? I've been looking, but no avail. I mean, I understand the Water/Land, Climate, and Age controls, but no idea what the actual difference is between the ages of the world, aside from the math. Also, what does 'seed' do? I'm not looking for someone to explain these things individually, I'm looking for guide or tutorial to talk me through and explain. Gracias mi amigos.

 

[justanick]

The help funktion of the editor might be closest to what you are looking for. Another source might simply be the manual.

 

[jarred!]

Another source might simply be the manual.

This was my suggestion if you bought the disc version of the game, my manual goes through game setup. But, the settings could easily be explained by a poster here, too.

 

[tjs282]

Is there, somewhere accessible, a guide or tutorial on the various controls in the screens for setting up a new game? I've been looking, but no avail.

Not on Civfanatics, as far as I know.

I mean, I understand the Water/Land, Climate, and Age controls, but no idea what the actual difference is between the ages of the world, aside from the math.

I'd refer you to this answer that I posted recently in another thread:

(Randomly chosen [and BTW is there any way to find out exactly what kind of map and land-water ratio it is?--hitting F8 doesn't give that info])

There's no in-game function that will give you that info, although once you've explored enough of the map you can probably make a good guess: Landform should be pretty obvious, as should %water. The Humidity, Temperature and Age settings are trickier, because the effects of these tend to interact more, but the extremes are easy to spot.

Dry = little/scattered vegetation (i.e. Forests/Jungles)
Cold = more Tundra (extends further from north/ south of the map), less Desert
3 billion years = large, continuous areas of Hills/Mountains

Wet = more vegetation (and rivers?)
Warm = less Tundra, more Desert (and Jungle?)
5 billion years = Hills/Mountains (very) rare/scattered

Also, what does 'seed' do?

In the context of map generation, it allows you to replay the same landform, or import it into the Editor. By entering a known map-seed into the Editor, along with the same world-size and geographical settings, you can get the Editor to produce the same map as in your randomly generated game.

You can also enter any string of characters into the seed box yourself, and get a "custom" random map built based on that seed.

I'm not looking for someone to explain these things individually, I'm looking for guide or tutorial to talk me through and explain.

Individual explanations are the best I can offer, sorry.

 

[Takhisis]

ages of the world

It changes how mountainous the world is.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I thought I was going to try some different setting to see how much world age affected the prescence of jungle and marsh...

...with a scouting civilization obviously, to be able to check out the land quickly. It probably wouldn't have made me more enlightened in the end...

...but at the first try I got a game where four other civilizations started directly next to me. Five of us in the same spot.

Is this a bug or did it have something to do with the settings? I tried in vain to replicate it with the same seed and settings, but interestingly by changing some of the setting I sometimes got starts with two or three other adjacent AI.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I seem to have problems with expansion playing the Byzantines on Monarch (Standard/Archipelago/60%). I'm doing ok scientifically (one or two tied with me, the rest horribly behind - and, thanks to me, broke), and only one military problem (damn Aztecs keep attacking every time I try to focus on science and infrastructure), but while I have fairly tight city placement, I generally have trouble grabbing territory before someone else does. Is this normal above Regent? (I moved up to Monarch months ago, but haven't been playing much lately & just got back to it, so my Monarch-level experience is still limited.)

 

[justanick]

Is this normal above Regent?

I would say it is normal above Emperor, but is suppose it applies earlier, too.

but while I have fairly tight city placement, I generally have trouble grabbing territory before someone else does.

Fairly tight is open to interpretation. Could you supply a screenshot?

You need to keep in mind that using more settlers per territory means that you grab less territory with settlers. Within some limitations this can be offset by building more settlers.

and only one military problem (damn Aztecs keep attacking every time I try to focus on science and infrastructure)

The Aztecs are rather agressive. Maybe you should take the intiative. When at war with them make military alliances with everyone else to whipe out the Aztecs.

 

[Takhisis]

playing the Byzantines (…) I generally have trouble grabbing territory before someone else does.

They are Seafaring and Scientific. Any Agricultural civs will definitely be getting ahead of you, and Industrious ones as well.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

You need to keep in mind that using more settlers per territory means that you grab less territory with settlers. Within some limitations this can be offset by building more settlers.

I considered that, and will start changing my strategy on that with my next game.

The Aztecs are rather agressive. Maybe you should take the intiative. When at war with them make military alliances with everyone else to whipe out the Aztecs.

It's too early for military alliances - still in early-mid Middle Ages - but I'm getting sufficiently tired of them that I think I'll go on the offensive anyway just to get them to leave me alone. Or wipe them out, depending on how I feel after I win a little ... their Horsemen are surprisingly strong against my MIs (and Pikes), so I'm starting to build as many Knights as I can for a nice assault.

They are Seafaring and Scientific. Any Agricultural civs will definitely be getting ahead of you, and Industrious ones as well.

Yes, I realize now I hadn't thought of that. My AI opponents are Aztecs/Celts/Incas (all Agri.); China/Egypt (Indus.); Mayans (both). Only Japan - nowhere near me on the map - is neither, and is the only one I've overtaken score-wise.

So anyway ... looks like an offensive war w/ Aztecs before worrying about more Libraries and some Universities.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

Fairly tight is open to interpretation. Could you supply a screenshot?

Ok, not very tight, but my white dots on the lower-left display seem to show a tighter pattern than the AI tends to have.

 

[justanick]

It's too early for military alliances - still in early-mid Middle Ages -

You can form military alliances in the ancient age.

Once you have established an embassy with a second civilization you can agree with this second civilization to form a military alliance against a third civilization.

So establish embassies. It really is worth it.

At higher difficulty settings it becomes more likely for AI to establish embassies on its own budget which can safe you a few bucks. But waiting for it is not without risk.

Ok, not very tight, but my white dots on the lower-left display seem to show a tighter pattern than the AI tends to have.

That seems about average for most human players. There is no (substantial) need to change that.

What you really need to change is your attitude towards city size and the aqueducts required to reach it. Reaching city size and having all used tiles being properly improved should have a much higher priority than almost anything else.

The aqueduct should be one of the first buildings a town gets. The other buildings can wait till after reaching city size. Image how your economic output and unit supports would look like if you had prioritized reaching city size.

After you have construction (or even reached the middle age) aqueducts should wait no longer than necassary. They should finish one turn before size 7 would be reached. Pay for rushing a courthouse for 80 shields in the queue, switch back to aqueduct and let the aqueduct finish about 3 turns later. This will most likely require you to turn off research for about a dozen turns. But still this will on balance increase you scientific output in the long run.

Image you could research at 80% with a much larger population. At below city size the 2 gtp per university can hardly pay off. You really need city size for buildings to make a dent economically. This is similarly true for metropolis size at much a later date and luckily to a lesser degree. But city size does matter.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

You can form military alliances in the ancient age.

Once you have established an embassy with a second civilization you can agree with this second civilization to form a military alliance against a third civilization.

So establish embassies. It really is worth it.

Ah, did not realize that was available. I have often waited to establish embassies just because of cost early on. Knowing MAs are available that early changes things a bit for me.

What you really need to change is your attitude towards city size and the aqueducts required to reach it. Reaching city size and having all used tiles being properly improved should have a much higher priority than almost anything else.

Got it, though I think in my current situation I may need to focus on military production for the moment, and then aqueducts, else I might not have many towns left to build in. But it sounds like 'Ducts should take priority over Unis.

Pay for rushing a courthouse for 80 shields in the queue, switch back to aqueduct and let the aqueduct finish about 3 turns later.

Is this cheaper than cash-rushing the 'Duct itself, or is there another reason to do it this way?

 

[Takhisis]

It's one sentence earlier:

They should finish one turn before size 7 would be reached.

I.e. that way you pay less money AND at the same time you don't spend some upkeep on a building that is not effective yet.

 

[justanick]

Is this cheaper than cash-rushing the 'Duct itself, or is there another reason to do it this way?

Well, if you cash-rush the aqueduct directly, then you waste the regular production of the turn. So cash-rushing something slightly cheaper is the smart move.

Got it, though I think in my current situation I may need to focus on military production for the moment, and then aqueducts, else I might not have many towns left to build in.

While this logic seems sound at first, it is less clear if you account how reaching city size effects your net output of shields and commerce. Still you would need to delay war by a few turns. Say you gain 4 shields per aqueduct and further 40 shields by cash-rushing, then it takes 15 turns to make up for the remaining 60 shields, but only a few turns to reach the same total military as you need to count in the total production, not just the increase of it.

Also keep in mind that with 16 cities(and the town of Brusa) your empire would be quite strong already. There is no immidiate need for war. I might proceed as follows:

1. Adrianople switches to knight. No universties for now.
2. All towns(except Brusa) without an aqueduct switch to aqueduct.
3. Build a few more workers, to get numbers up to 28 to 32. Ancyra might build workers before the aqueduct due to low size.
4. Cash-rush the aqueducts as is sensible.

5. Reorganize the military. Disband all warriors. That should have occured long ago. Get rid of units that are too weak to warrant unit support. This includes 3/3 spearmen and at later dates other 3/3 units, but only after your military strenght enables you to do so safely.

6. Build up your military to 8 4/4 pikes, 8 or more 4/4 MedInfs and a reasonable amount of 4/4 knights. Decide whether you want to go heavy on knights or whether you rather use trebuchets to support slow MedInfs. Decide on a numbers of units you want first and then decide in which order to build them. You want to build pikes and MedInfs first as they give you the most battle value per shield in the eyes of the AI and thus deters it. The knights are more expensive and can wait a little longer. The trebuchets will be valueable, but they will push you over unit support. So as long as you get them to the front in time, building them last can make sense. Given the unfriendly terrain trebuchets may not be a viable options for offensives, but knights will also be slown down. In the end waiting for cavalry could be the smart move. The later implies to build some knights, mainly as safekeeper of shields with low unit support per shield. Upgrade to cavalry once sensible.

7. Continue building universities etc.. Donnot expand the military beyond reason.

Waiting for AI to clears its jungle tiles may be the smart move. For a sucessfull offensive you want to have a strong military in order to not end the offensive too early. But to just deter AI from attacking you a much smaller military will suffice. Consult F3 to check if the military adviser considers your military to be superior to the Aztecs.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I'm getting sufficiently tired of them that I think I'll go on the offensive anyway just to get them to leave me alone. Or wipe them out, depending on how I feel after I win a little ... their Horsemen are surprisingly strong against my MIs (and Pikes), so I'm starting to build as many Knights as I can for a nice assault.

When a horseman attacks a medieval infantry, it's 2 vs 2 in power. When a medieval infantry attacks a horseman it's 4 vs 1, and even if it retreats with 1 HP (50% chance) you won't see it for a while.

Make your enemy come in at a specific tile, and don't place units there. Wait for them to "land" and slaughter them. The last attacker should be a knight, so it can go back to safety in it's second turn.

A hit with a trebuchet is also effective.

This is of course much more simple when you have larger borders, at least two squares out instead of one, and isn't surrounded in all directions (I hate that).

You can plan ahead for this while settling and expanding. Building a temple as a first building when your religious, or even better a library when you're scientific, can be a good investment.

Possibly after builing a worker first.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I generally have trouble grabbing territory before someone else does. Is this normal above Regent?

I'm currently playing a demigod game where my scouting warrior found a nearby choke point towards the Americans, that could be blocked off with only two units, so I urgently built and sent another warrior there. No settler parties coming through

When your strategic starting map position is not that nice, it can be worth taking the risk to kill a settler/warrior spotted by your warrior, for a 50/50 chance to destroy 40 food and 40 shields for your opponent and get 2 slaves yourself.

Extra food for the capital, and the next settled town, is of vital importance etc etc... Irrigate everything that can give you more than two food. The worker should be finished with it by the time you've sent out curraghs/scouts/warriors and/or protected yourself.

Even if you don't have forests for the shield part (building a settler needs both) after reaching size three quickly, the extreme case is when surrounded by flood plains, you can whip-rush to trade 20 shields for 20 food and 1 gpt x 20.

 

[Takhisis]

Make your enemy come in at a specific tile, and don't place units there. Wait for them to "land" and slaughter them. The last attacker should be a knight, so it can go back to safety in it's second turn.

If you can build Knights (70 shields) then you might consider building Mediæval Infantry-Pikeman pairs for 60 shields each. (if you're Greek and you get Hoplites for 20 shields and you don't do it you deserve death and, worse, defeat)
Doubled the HP. Also doubled the upkeep costs, but if you're just far ahead enough to sell techs to the AI you shouldn't have to worry about that.

 

[justanick]

If you can build Knights (70 shields) then you might consider building Mediæval Infantry-Pikeman pairs for 60 shields each.

Last time i checked 30 and 40 still add up to 70.