Quick Answers

[Queenie]

I am presently having a great game as Zulu. I've been playing Civ for a few months now, and I've had a good look round the forum, but could do with some precise and quick answers for my present game:

1) I have finally successfully planted a spy, but I'm not sure what happens now... How do I conduct other espionage missions, like Steal Plans etc?

2) Are armies worth anything other than enabling the Heroic Epic (very useful, I can see, for a militaristic race)? They seem totally useless, taking up loads of transport space and only being able to attack once; am I missing something?

3) When you mobilise, what buildings count as "military" and "peacetime". For example, will I still be able to build police stations? Hospitals is another that is a little ambiguous.

On a more general level, can anyone point me in the right direction for advice about playing the "harder" races, especially England (Elizabeth is my hero!). I can generally win at regency level with the Iriquois, Eygyptians, Zulus etc, but get nowhere with Americans, English, Germans etc. Maybe I just give up too early?

Cheers
Lizzy

 

[wildWolverine]

The answer to your first question depends on what version you're playing.

The answer to your second question is YES!!! (at least I think so -- a lot of great players don't use them...) Armies can be incredibly useful. The manner in which their benefits exhibit themselves vary through the ages. An army of Knights can take a fortified elite pikeman on a mountain without losing anyone (even if they do take a lot of damage). While three individual knights could probably do the same thing, you'd probably lose at least one, more likely two. As the game advances, armies can be great for defense and offense. It has been my experience that the AI avoids confronting armies when possible, but that may not have any firm basis in fact.

Edit: in conquests, armies have blitz capability...

 

[a4phantom]

Queenie, playing vanilla civ or PTW, I did the same thing - use the first leader to build an army so I could build heroic epic, then use the later leaders to rush armies. Armies were fairly useless in Civ3 and PTW, because of their long healing times. As wildwolf says, however, they are good seige weapons for attacking highly fortified spots like big cities. But then you would need several turns to heal that army.

However, in Conquests they are excellent because they heal faster. Besides, Military Great Leaders can't build wonders so you might as well make armies! I suggest using fast units, because the army has blitz and moves as fast as the slowest unit +1. So if you use cavalry, you get four attacks whereas if you use mideval infantry you commit three units and only get two attacks. Sipahi (Turkish cav, 8/3/3) armies are nearly unstoppable in the mideval and early industrial ages.

 

[de Genenus]

Queenie,

In order to get access to all the espionage missions, you need to have the Intelligence Agency built in one of your cities.
Once it's completed, a little pentagon will appear next to the city's name ( like the star next to your capital city's name) and by double-clicking on it you'll be able to conduct the full range of missions: stealing technologies, plans, etc...
Oddly enough, it seems impossible to conduct any espionnage mission against a country you're at war with. Can anybody confirm this ?

 

[Turner]

Only if you don't have a spy planted in that civ.

Good news is, if you don't have a spy planted, you can still plant one even if you're at war with that civ. Then you can do espionage missions.

 

[de Genenus]

You're right indeed.
I remember now that my spy was caught. That's the reason I couldn't conduct any espionage mission anymore. I had no guy in the place anymore !
Logical.

 

[Turner]

Remember to give it a few turns before trying again. Once you get caught, you'll keep getting caught for the next four or five turns.

 

[de Genenus]

Good to know !

Since you're here, I have a little question... I see all these nice units created by participants of the CFC. It is possible to integrate them in the game so that they act like original units ?
If your answer is yes, then I might have 2 other questions:
How do you do that ?
Does it work with a Mac ?
TIA

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by de Genenus
Good to know !

Since you're here, I have a little question... I see all these nice units created by participants of the CFC. It is possible to integrate them in the game so that they act like original units ?
If your answer is yes, then I might have 2 other questions:
How do you do that ?
Does it work with a Mac ?
TIA

You may want to have a look to the Creation & Customiziation Forum, where a lot of manuals, units and so on are available.

 

[de Genenus]

I'll surely have a look.
Thanks, Bello.

 

[Queenie]

Thanks for the advice about armies. I've got the military academy now, so can play around.

When you mobilise, what buildings count as "military" and "peacetime". For example, will I still be able to build police stations? Hospitals is another that is a little ambiguous.

OK, I've finally mobilised! So, no hospitals, police stations etc. But how on earth do you avoid conquered cities flipping if you can't build cultural buidings???

I know I could work this kind of thing on my own; slowly! but I'm on that cusp between regent and monarchy levels atm and want to speed things up a bit.

Cheers

 

[lbhhh]

Originally posted by Queenie

OK, I've finally mobilised! So, no hospitals, police stations etc. But how on earth do you avoid conquered cities flipping if you can't build cultural buidings???

Cheers

One solution is to make peace and demobilize rush some culture buildings then remobilize and attack again.

Or it may be better to simply not mobilize in the first place. I only mobilize when things get desperate.

Lastly, if you want to stay mobilized and at war, you could bring along settlers with your attack force. When you capture an ennemy city just raze it and build your own one on its ruins.

 

[Queenie]

Originally posted by lbhhh
Or it may be better to simply not mobilize in the first place. I only mobilize when things get desperate.

I think I would go for this option. Thanks. I'm just into the Modern Age now - surely it wouldn't be worth settling new cities?

 

[lbhhh]

Originally posted by Queenie

I think I would go for this option. Thanks. I'm just into the Modern Age now - surely it wouldn't be worth settling new cities?

It depends. Of course those newly founded cities aren't very productive. Their main value is that they won't flip, taking part of your army with them.Lose a big stack of Modern armors to a culture flip just once and you'll be convinced.When the risk of flipping is high it is sometimes better to raze and rebuild. If you have a superior culture and have enough units to garrison in your newly conquered cities, then by all means, keep them.

 

[blackhalo15]

When I'm using the editor, how can I make units be able to attack more than once per turn?

 

[Turner]

In the units, there is a box on the lower left side that has the attributes. Press and hold Ctrl, and select Blitz. This will keep the other options on, and turn blitz on too. And you'll need to make sure the unit has more than one movement point.

 

[blackhalo15]

Thanks Turner, I preciate it.

 

[andvruss]

I was messing with the ediotr and noticed that a luxury, stragegic resource or a normal tile cant produce more than 25 spt, 25 fpt, and 25 commerce per turn. Is there anyway that could be changed?

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by andvruss
I was messing with the ediotr and noticed that a luxury, stragegic resource or a normal tile cant produce more than 25 spt, 25 fpt, and 25 commerce per turn. Is there anyway that could be changed?

Minimums and maximums that are in the editor are hard capped, they're programmed limits.

 

[de Genenus]

Hi everyone !

I have two little questions:

1) What's the meaning of the "yellow sun" appearing in the upper-left corner of the unit info window ?

2) I got a second leader but I can't upload any unit in order to create an army ( I had no problem with the first one).

TIA