Quick Questions and Answers

Beautiful. Thanks Qoma and Cicerosaurus! (And sorry for not mentioning I have G&K.)

Btw, I typed up question 3 a bit too soon. Just about an hour ago I killed an Arabian spy. His army size is nearly 300K less than mine, and he could care less what level my spy was, considering he's a Special Agent. So, army and spy level don't matter to the AI, it seems.
 
Sugarkills said:
Overall what is better for production in a city, mines or lumbermills? If I have a choice between settling a city near alot of forest or hills, which is better?
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Well, a mined hill with no resource will give you 3 hammers but will end up producing 4 hammers once Chemistry is discovered. A lumber mill only gives you 2 hammers and then 3 once you get Scientific Theory (which comes quite a bit later than Chemistry). However, since a forest also gives you 1 food, you should take that into consideration when building your city. I personally prefer a bit of food with my production. After all, you'll need citizens to work the land, and you won't have those citizens without some food.

That said, I like to choose a spot with a few of each, although if I had to choose one over the other, I'd go for more hills, so long as there is ample food to be had too, of course. If there isn't, sometimes I'll farm a hill to have both food and production, but that is a rarity. BEST-case scenario for production is a lot of forested hills; this can help wonderfully in the early game since building a mine there will chop the forest down and add a decent chunk of hammers to your current production item.

But, again, you'll need to weigh your own city needs when deciding between a mined hill with 4 hammers and a milled forest with 1 food and three hammers.
 
Zaldrizes said:
Beautiful. Thanks Qoma and Cicerosaurus! (And sorry for not mentioning I have G&K.)

Btw, I typed up question 3 a bit too soon. Just about an hour ago I killed an Arabian spy. His army size is nearly 300K less than mine, and he could care less what level my spy was, considering he's a Special Agent. So, army and spy level don't matter to the AI, it seems.
Click to expand...

The only way I know there is a spy in an enemy city is my spy gets killed trying to steal a tech. I've seen no evidence of an AI having more info than I get, in this regard.

OTOH, I've seen enemy spies from the same civ REPEATEDLY get snuffed trying to steal a tech from my capital. Since it's always possible I might MOVE my spy (to an enemy capital or to a CS), ....
 
With spies it is possible to use some reverse thinking (you're probably aware of this but just in case). If Pedro tells you his spies have information that Attila is plotting against you, you can see (or even estimate) that he has only one spy so he is not guarding his city - well, that is an invitation. Similarly if he is rigging elections can he have all his cities covered?

Of course, they can move spies around and you can outsmart yourself, but it can give a lead.
 
Cicerosaurus said:
With spies it is possible to use some reverse thinking (you're probably aware of this but just in case). If Pedro tells you his spies have information that Attila is plotting against you, you can see (or even estimate) that he has only one spy so he is not guarding his city - well, that is an invitation. Similarly if he is rigging elections can he have all his cities covered?

Of course, they can move spies around and you can outsmart yourself, but it can give a lead.
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Holy OCD-fest, Batman! I think my already excessively obsessive and deliberative nature could certainly make this a double-edged blade. And no, I actually didn't think of this reverse thinking at all, but I'm still early in the Espionage game. Definitely solid to keep in mind, so thanks! :)

Jaybe: "OTOH, I've seen enemy spies from the same civ REPEATEDLY get snuffed trying to steal a tech from my capital. Since it's always possible I might MOVE my spy (to an enemy capital or to a CS), ...." (still dunno how to multi-quote)

I love how deeply you guys think about this. I sometimes get too absorbed in the broad "story" I create in my head for the game I'm in, that I forget to observe such nuances.
 
One other strategy that has worked for me a few times although it depends on set circumstances.

Hiawatha was out teching me but had already killed spy. I had a spy in his capital and noticed that he was rigging elections in CS's. Within 5 turns of stealing the tech I splashed out some cash and bought off his CS's. His reaction was (I think) to immediately place his spies in the CS's to rig the election and left his capital unprotected.

Of course you need the money and the spy there.
 
There seems to be some pooh-poohing of how much asking a civ to stop spying matters, and how it relates to army size. I have had many instances where I have caught an ally's spy, asked him to stop, and he clearly has, going so far as to share intrigue with me a few turns later. The question is really more about the diplomacy system though, rather than espionage. If a civ values your friendship or doesn't want to risk a war with you, he'll both agree to your demand to stop spying AND actually follow through. If he'd rather not go to war right now but doesn't really care what you think of him, he'll say he'll stop but keep spying anyway. And if he's itching for a fight he'll tell you to piss off. These attitudes are very much under the hood with a lot to do with the programmed personality of a given leader. They're not entirely reflected by the friendly/guarded/etc diplomatic state but they are there and can be manipulated with practice.
 
clearbeard said:
There seems to be some pooh-poohing of how much asking a civ to stop spying matters, and how it relates to army size. I have had many instances where I have caught an ally's spy, asked him to stop, and he clearly has, going so far as to share intrigue with me a few turns later. The question is really more about the diplomacy system though, rather than espionage. If a civ values your friendship or doesn't want to risk a war with you, he'll both agree to your demand to stop spying AND actually follow through. If he'd rather not go to war right now but doesn't really care what you think of him, he'll say he'll stop but keep spying anyway. And if he's itching for a fight he'll tell you to piss off. These attitudes are very much under the hood with a lot to do with the programmed personality of a given leader. They're not entirely reflected by the friendly/guarded/etc diplomatic state but they are there and can be manipulated with practice.
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Harald Bluetooth was caught spying on me, he was well behind having lost his capital to an AI early on. So I forgave him, at which point he turned and wandered to the back of his ship after tossing his helm off the side of his ship. I don't really know what that meant but it did make me :rotfl:
 
Qoma said:
So, Diplomat "schmoozing": once your diplomats are schmoozing, do you have to do anything further to get those civs to vote your way in the world congress, etc? Or is it just assumed that they'll be on your side now?
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You will have an extra option in the trade screen "World Council" where you can trade votes. However it seems to only be for their core votes (not CS votes).
 
what is the best map for an indonesian playthrough? I assume archipelago or large islands, although with archipelago you cant use your candi....
 
Does setting the game to "Quick" speed diminish the effectiveness of large cities?

When production times are often (on Quick speed) only 1-4 turns in cities with 10+ pop, don't you need MANY more :c5citizen: citizens to shave off an extra turn? Compare with "Normal" speed, where any extra :c5citizen: citizen can shave a 15 turn building to a 14 turns. Don't you hit a ceiling of sorts where at (whatever amount of :c5production: hammers) you won't be able to get production to go faster, and thus the diminishing returns of having more :c5citizen: citizens is exaggerated by the faster game speed? A city can only grow/produce so fast before it's better to just have another city, am I right? It seems that the faster the game speed the more diluted the effect of having huge cities.
 
What does it mean "tall empire"?
What is the difference between "tall empire" to "wide empire" ?
 
Vathris said:
Does setting the game to "Quick" speed diminish the effectiveness of large cities?

When production times are often (on Quick speed) only 1-4 turns in cities with 10+ pop, don't you need MANY more :c5citizen: citizens to shave off an extra turn? Compare with "Normal" speed, where any extra :c5citizen: citizen can shave a 15 turn building to a 14 turns. Don't you hit a ceiling of sorts where at (whatever amount of :c5production: hammers) you won't be able to get production to go faster, and thus the diminishing returns of having more :c5citizen: citizens is exaggerated by the faster game speed? A city can only grow/produce so fast before it's better to just have another city, am I right? It seems that the faster the game speed the more diluted the effect of having huge cities.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that excess hammers carry over to your next project. If absolutely everything you build only takes one turn then you've hit your diminishing returns point, but until then more hammers will always help.
 
Is it possible to use Gunboat diplomacy on other civs (I don't mean autocracie's tenet). Set a huge army on the borders and demand large sums from AI?

Could I move my units using airlift ability to friendly city with airport if you have open borders?

And more general: I build 4-5 cities and have AI all over the place. I still have lots of land and other stuff. Is it normal if I don't have any need for wars and basically could live without any conflicts for the whole game? I started playing on king and emperor, but still the same. Higher difficulties are just cheating in my opinion. This happens rarely, but sometimes I feel I do something wrong...
 
Yes, you can. At the main Setup screen, click on Advanced Setup. At the top left is your chosen leader, with a tiny Edit link. If you click that, you can change your leader's name, your civilization's long and short name (e.g. Portuguese Empire and Portugal), and your civilization's adjective (e.g., "Portuguese").
 
Japan's Zero fighter gets a bonus against other Fighters. How exactly does this work? I'm assuming it means they do more damage when intercepting enemy fighters; does it also help when they get intercepted?
 
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