Several questions

[Grotius]

This is my first post here, so forgive me if I've chosen the wrong section of the board. Several of my questions do relate to strategy, but some are also about general gameplay. Here goes:

1. Are the effects of Solar Plants cumulative with those of Hydro Plants (and the Hoover Dam)? If not, is it wisest simply to build the Hydro plant (or, ideally, the Dam) and be done with it?

2. What precisely do the stats for an army mean? I've played 2-3 complete games now (on Warlord), and I've only created one leader, who I used to create a wonder. So I've never made an army, and I don't understand why the army's stats aren't simply the sum (or average) of the army's constituent units.

3. I know that Republicans and Democrats <g> take a war-weariness hit if they end a turn with a unit in enemy territory. So I assume it is OK to transit enemy territory? To bombard it without entering it? To bomb it with bombers?

4. Why build the marine? I can transport tanks just as easily, it seems.

5. Why build frigates or ironclads? They seem to go obsolete fast, and they don't upgrade.

6. What to do if you DON'T build the UN? Seize it by force, or try to suck up to the AI civs? In my current game, I sucked up to the AI periodically, granting each civ a small cash gift. Most were polite to me. The first vote was still 1-1-1 with 3 abstentions. If I do that poorly with all that ingratiating behavior, imagine how I'd do if I were being nasty! Anyway, do most of you make a big push for the UN wonder? Conquer it? Ingratiate? Disable UN victory?

7. What precisely are the rules for Cultural victory? The Civ-pedia is a bit ambiguous. I *think* it says you win by either: (1) creating a city with 20K culture, or (2) creating a civ with 100K culture AND doubling the Culture of the next-closest civ. My precise question: does the "double Culture" requirement apply to the city-culture win as well? If not, the city-culture win would seem to be quite a bit easier, and might suggest that one should place all your Wonders in one city.

Thanks.

 

[mmmBEER]

I'll take a stab at some of these:

1) It is my understanding that different power plants replace the effects of the previous one.

2) The army is given the health of the sum of it's components, but attack is determined by the unit attacking (same thing for defense).

4) Ever tried to attack a city on a single square island? You can't until you get marines. Likewise, if enemy units occupy all the shoreline squares, you need marines.

6) Just don't play with diplomatic victory

 

[Ironstone]

On the UN question:

I read on another thread here somewhere that you can still win the vote even if you didn't build the UN.

I tried staying in with everyone with little regular gifts of 1 gold etc but it wasn't enough, even when I did build the UN.

The tip was though, that the most powerful factor is Mutual Protection Pacts (the poster said he checked a save game and found that his successful opponent had a few of them going).

So I tried establishing a bunch of them just before the vote and sure enough it worked a treat and I won.

Of course this might require a bit of cheesy manipulation in practise as you might not gte much warning if the AI is going to call a vote (??). And it could be a bit disastrous if you made a bunch of pacts, lost the vote, and then had to honour all the pacts! So maybe, practise, reload, practise, and then play it straight once you get the knack of it.... or maybe not!

 

[Sarcastro]

Here's another UN question: are there any requirements to build it? I ask because in a recent game I got the necessary advance and then it simply didn't appear in my production choices. I'm pretty sure that I still had Diplo Victory on, as I know you can't build it if it's off. So are there any other requirements, or did I just not remember turning that victory off?

 

[Luca Brasi]

6) Here's the easiest way to get a dipolmatic victory: the turn before the UN is built, figure out who else will be in the voting. Then, bribe the people who will vote. If they have a MPP with the other guy, give them an MPP as well. If they have a RofP, give them a RofP. And give them some luxuries too. I've turned 1:4 juries into 4:1 ones. Of course, if the vote doesn't go your way, then you'll be stuck with a bad situation... But you can always reload. It seems that only AI's current opinion of you matters, and not your history.

You only need fission to build the UN.

7) The biggest culture I ever had for a city is 10K, and I've won by culture numerous times. Nothing like having library/temple/univ/cathedral/colosseum in every city plus 75% of wonders.