russia is fine, but you won't found any religions with them
try isabella, you have mysticism from the start + fishing to work coastal/lake tiles
Some noob questions
- Thread starter AnyKeyz
- Start date
russia is fine, but you won't found any religions with them
try isabella, you have mysticism from the start + fishing to work coastal/lake tiles
Just wanted to add a couple quick notes. First off, I certainly agree that NOT automating workers is the best option. You will be better at determining whats best for your cities than the AI, which farms way too much (and even on crappy plains tiles). BUT, if you are like me and find the other parts of the game (production, researching, combat and diplomacy) much more interesting, there is a way to more effectively automate workers (without them screwing everything up).
When you think you have manually improved your cities enough and added enough cottages for long term growth, automate your workers but select under gameplay options "Workers will not change previous improvements" (I don't know if this is the exact wording).
THIS IS CRUCIAL, and anyone who automates workers and doesn't check this box will quickly find that the cottages they built that have spent thousands of years progressing slowly to towns will be built over for farms by the stupid AI. You will watch all your precious science cities become GP farms in only a few turns.
So if you choose to automate workers, you MUST check this box. You just have to remember when things like electricity or guilds/state property come up that certain improvements increase and value and deserve some manual instruction by you.
One more thing that may have been mentioned before but deserves repeating about war. Just know that if you want to war in this game you really should select Epic speed instead of normal. Your biggest advantage in Civ4 over the AI is combat tactics and Epic makes for longer periods where certain troops are still current. In my current game I took over 3 civilizations on my continent all using Jannissarys and trebuchets, but if I'd been playing on Normal speed by the middle of attacking the 2nd civ Rifleman would have popped up and I'd be forced to back off.
When you think you have manually improved your cities enough and added enough cottages for long term growth, automate your workers but select under gameplay options "Workers will not change previous improvements" (I don't know if this is the exact wording).
THIS IS CRUCIAL, and anyone who automates workers and doesn't check this box will quickly find that the cottages they built that have spent thousands of years progressing slowly to towns will be built over for farms by the stupid AI. You will watch all your precious science cities become GP farms in only a few turns.
So if you choose to automate workers, you MUST check this box. You just have to remember when things like electricity or guilds/state property come up that certain improvements increase and value and deserve some manual instruction by you.
One more thing that may have been mentioned before but deserves repeating about war. Just know that if you want to war in this game you really should select Epic speed instead of normal. Your biggest advantage in Civ4 over the AI is combat tactics and Epic makes for longer periods where certain troops are still current. In my current game I took over 3 civilizations on my continent all using Jannissarys and trebuchets, but if I'd been playing on Normal speed by the middle of attacking the 2nd civ Rifleman would have popped up and I'd be forced to back off.
I'm not trying to say that farming is wrong. But you should go into the game thinking about what strategy you'd like to implement, and make sure that you pretty much stay consistent. My point was that without that option selected your workers will change the tiles you've already improved and force you to change your strategy.
Ultimately, you have to get science from somewhere, that we can agree. There are basically two options:
1. Science from cottages (CE - Cottage Economy)
2. Science from Specialists (SE - Specialist Economy)
I usually play for #1, as I find that it can be hard to sustain high levels of science late in the game with Specialists alone, and that when I use a lot of specialists I force myself to stick with Representation the entire game (I think going to Universal Suffrage late for the hammer bonus with towns can be huge for a spaceship build or late war)
But you can still do very well with #2, and there are many players on this forum that are 10 times better than me that can win Immortal level games routinely using primarily specialists and rarely using cottages. I've only won once at Immortal using cottages and it was under miracle circumstances.
Its all a matter of preference. I like the cottage strategy better because A. I think the specialist economy depends too heavily on things like the Pyramids and getting the right Great People to pop certain techs, and B. in the late game with Free Speech and Emancipation the power of Towns can be huge. But again I'm not very good managing specialists.
I'd try the cottage strategy and if it doesn't work well you can always go back to your farms! But if you automate workers make sure they can't build over what you've already built, that's ALWAYS a bad thing!!!
OK I see
I also think I have to learn more about politics. I tend to go with the latest I discover (Representation, Environmentalism and all these politics, doctrins) except facism.
Is there a good tutorial on this website going over all the politics, with their pros and cons ?
Thanks again
I also think I have to learn more about politics. I tend to go with the latest I discover (Representation, Environmentalism and all these politics, doctrins) except facism.
Is there a good tutorial on this website going over all the politics, with their pros and cons ?
Thanks again
By politics do you mean civics? Is that what your version of the game calls civics? If so, I definitely wouldn't go with whatever civic is latest. I am currently in a Monarch game right now where I'm in 1600AD and am still using Slavery - a civic I gained access to about 30 turns into the game. You should scan the War Academy for articles on Synergy and combining different civics to different strategies.
sylvanllewelyn
Perma-newb
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,027
One of the greatest eye-openers in the strategy forums is the food economy, even more extreme than the specialist economy. In that case you would be automating workers...but that's very advanced strategy, not recommanded for a noob (since you call yourself one).
As to cavalry being far off... the whole point of my tech order is so that you're getting it WAY before you should be getting it. Peter's the best for this, for Cossacks, but any philosophical leader will do. Maybe it's overkill for noble, but Cossacks against archers is... fun.
As to cavalry being far off... the whole point of my tech order is so that you're getting it WAY before you should be getting it. Peter's the best for this, for Cossacks, but any philosophical leader will do. Maybe it's overkill for noble, but Cossacks against archers is... fun.
Yes I Meant civics, sorry.
In my yesterday's game (fractal type, definitely my favorite map since people talked about it on the forum, a couple of days ago), I was Gandhi and tried to go for religions. I was on my way to easily win my first Noble game in a while, but in the last 100 turns of the game, three civs declared war on me, right after I built the Appolo wonder. They were happy with me, my army was ranked 4th. Seems like in my ini file, there is Agressive AI that just won't go away.
Anyway, I like the challenge and I feel like I am improving my game each night. Not automating workers, bet a little more on religions and now, trying to find the right civic for my type of game helps me.
Now I have another noob question : Sometimes, one civilisation fall under the power of another civ. In french, they say 'état vassal', which can freely be translated to 'vassal state'
How can I force a civ to become a state of my Civ ?
Once again, many thanks !
In my yesterday's game (fractal type, definitely my favorite map since people talked about it on the forum, a couple of days ago), I was Gandhi and tried to go for religions. I was on my way to easily win my first Noble game in a while, but in the last 100 turns of the game, three civs declared war on me, right after I built the Appolo wonder. They were happy with me, my army was ranked 4th. Seems like in my ini file, there is Agressive AI that just won't go away.
Anyway, I like the challenge and I feel like I am improving my game each night. Not automating workers, bet a little more on religions and now, trying to find the right civic for my type of game helps me.
Now I have another noob question : Sometimes, one civilisation fall under the power of another civ. In french, they say 'état vassal', which can freely be translated to 'vassal state'
How can I force a civ to become a state of my Civ ?
Once again, many thanks !
I don't know about something being wrong with your ini file, but I can tell you it isn't unusual to have a bunch of civs attack you, particularly when you are 4th in power. Keep in mind the AI uses the power rankings to determine whether or not to attack you, and their ability to quickly upgrade their base troops whenever rifling or the infantry tech comes up is great. So they will often have a higher power ranking even if you are very powerful. One recommendation if you are going for a space race victory and have a tech lead is to buddy up with the #1 power guy and keep giving him attractive trades. Open Borders then do a Defensive Pact. That will usually keep other AI's away when they know they'd be declaring war on the #1 guy too.
Also keep in mind that religion is a huge influence on wars (just like in real life), so if you are the only one with your state religion, and you have no intention of declaring war, you may want to switch to whatever's popular just to get people off your back.
BrantleyL1
Warlord
This little paragraph leads to about 3 questions...
(1) Slavery. I am familiar with using slavery to complete things like stonehenge, but you can use it to get axemen?? I guess it's way to early to "draft".
(2) I guess you can chop to hurry axemen along, too??
(2a) when does the chopping bonus kick in? At the end?
(3) Growing cities? Assuming you have a decent location with grassland or river tiles (or better still - floodplains)... What is best to build to promote growth? If you build a cottage does it still produce food? I really do not understand this distinction.
(4) Cottage spamming? This kind of ties into question 3. So, I've got an ideal city - surrounded by grassland. Do I build 100% cottages around it?
That's enought for now.
Murky
Deity
Cash is ok when they have nothing better to trade. It's usually better to accept a resource in return. Health and happiness resources allow your cities to grow bigger so your citizens can work more tiles. More tiles worked means more research, gold, food and production are generated. Growth is good.
Micro-managing your workers is essential during the early game. Later in the game, you can have some be automated. In mp games, with time limits, automation becomes necessary after you have a lot of workers.
The AI values techs way more than gold. Gold is tradeable after Currency. It can help make the deal possible, but it isn't for buying a tech out-right.
I'm not an expert but will offer what advice I can.
There are many strategy guides in the forums and in the war academy. I suggest starting with the beginner guides and working your way up from there.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
I'm about to get stuffed in my latest game, Isabella (random leader) on Prince level, because of a defensive pact. On my continent I had Mao (vassalized him early), Cyrus and Ramesses. Ramesses looked weak and tempting and I was in a defensive pact with Cyrus (points leader), so I declared war but forgot to check the relations screen he was also in a DP with Ramesses, so I was at war with them both. I've just got cannons and he has them too plus lots of cavalry which just pillage my dyes and stuff, and rifling is still about 10 turns off. Not looking too good for me. Moral: Check for defensive pacts before declaring war.
1. The key to slavery early with axeman is A. that axeman are very cheap B. axeman are the best early troop and C. you can focus on farming grasslands and flood plains instead of worrying about working mines. When you have a relatively small city, of about 3 or 4 pop, happiness shouldn't be a concern. So, if you are working good food tiles you should be able to pump out about 2 axeman every 10 turns or so per city at least. This can be huge against the AI that prefers building archers early. Get an axeman with City Raider 1 and you can mow early cities down.
2. You can certainly chop, but unlike slavery trees are a limited resource that should probably be used for buildings.
I know its depressing to use slavery but it is EASILY the best early civic.3. It depends on what your strategy is, but building early farms for your smaller cities and whipping them every 10 turns (when your happiness penalty goes away) can really help you build the axeman and early buildings. Of course you will need a city somewhere, probably your capital, that is getting commerce. So that is where you should build your cottages early and try and grow to the happiness cap.
4. Cottage spamming ties you into a certain strategy. If you commit to cottage spamming all your grasslands you are basically committing to running a CE (cottage economy), which means you will have less specialists and Great people. If you do cottage spam some of your cities, its a good idea to create a GP farm where you focus on food only and try and get as many specialists as you can to get some great people out. Build National Epic here to improve this effect.
Whipping axeman with slavery and cottage spamming are just one of many strategies. But it really can be used effectively on any difficulty level.
Still haven't won a Noble game in a month and a half. This is very strange. I won two of my first 4 Noble games, using a Civ 3 method. Now, I don't win but records score almost higher than the games I won doing space race. I am pretty sure my ini file has changed, despite trying to reset it in any possible ways, but I don't really care.
Last night, I played the spanish. Took me two wars to completely own a huge continent (40% of all occupied ground). The first war was with a bunch of axemen, swordmen and I finished my poor enemy with Conquistadors. But I still manage to loose (space race as always).
These wars brought me way back in the tech tree. I was able to overcome the margin but it was too late. Wars always hurts me. Conquering a city cost more, so I have to lower my % allowed to science.
Which brings me to a lot of new noob questions :
1. How much time do you spend on city micromanagement ? I don't spend any time on it. My cities are automatically doing what the engine suggests (production, economy, science). I do choose which unity I want to build, but that's about it. In Civ 3, I was able to put the citizen on a chosen tile, but can't figure out how to do it in Civ 4
2. Is turning the city production to wealth (free translation of richesse), science or culture is a good thing to do ?
3. In Civ 3, some civics were bad choices for specific civ. (France would not handle monarchy well). Is there such penalties in Civ 4 ?
4. I tend to turn to Communism once discovered. It generates a bunch more of GPT. But my civ starts to slow down a few turns after. What are the downsides of Communism ?
5. In order to be able to be productive to build spaceship pieces, what is mandatory ? Electricity ?
Once again thanks
Last night, I played the spanish. Took me two wars to completely own a huge continent (40% of all occupied ground). The first war was with a bunch of axemen, swordmen and I finished my poor enemy with Conquistadors. But I still manage to loose (space race as always).
These wars brought me way back in the tech tree. I was able to overcome the margin but it was too late. Wars always hurts me. Conquering a city cost more, so I have to lower my % allowed to science.
Which brings me to a lot of new noob questions :
1. How much time do you spend on city micromanagement ? I don't spend any time on it. My cities are automatically doing what the engine suggests (production, economy, science). I do choose which unity I want to build, but that's about it. In Civ 3, I was able to put the citizen on a chosen tile, but can't figure out how to do it in Civ 4
2. Is turning the city production to wealth (free translation of richesse), science or culture is a good thing to do ?
3. In Civ 3, some civics were bad choices for specific civ. (France would not handle monarchy well). Is there such penalties in Civ 4 ?
4. I tend to turn to Communism once discovered. It generates a bunch more of GPT. But my civ starts to slow down a few turns after. What are the downsides of Communism ?
5. In order to be able to be productive to build spaceship pieces, what is mandatory ? Electricity ?
Once again thanks
BrantleyL1
Warlord
I'm still not 100% sure I've got a grasp of this...
Whipping Axemen: Start Building them in a city. Check back in a turn or two and see if you can whip them. It usually says something like "costs x population" and is greyed out if you don't have enough (population). When you have enough, whip and get the axemen. I've used this fairly effectively when a axeman barb was approaching my city. Whip and presto -- good defender... I'm not sure I see how you can get 2 in 10 turns. Aren't you limited to whipping once per 10 turns??
Whipping in general: If I understand this, whipping gets rid of unhappy people, but also causes unhapiness. I'm not sure I see the value of that part of the strategy.
Cottage spamming: Do I build cottages in EVERY (possible) tile near a city?
Value of cottage spamming: I would think this will cause a city to have a lot of commerce. What does a lot of commerce allow me to do? Build buildings faster??
Elkad
Emperor
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2007
- Messages
- 1,057
Whipping troops.
Start axeman
next turn whip.
axe finishes, start building another axe (slow way)
wait 10 turns (so happiness penalty goes away). 2nd axe should finish building, and your city should grow back a size.
start over (start new axe, whip, build 2nd)
You want to adjust food so city takes 10 turns to grow, then for hammers (food is more important).
City stays same size (goes 5, 4, 5, 4), but you get 2 axemen per 10 turns instead of 1.
whipping away unhappy people.
Your city has a happy limit of 7 (example)
let it grow to size 8 (1 angry person)
next turn whip something that takes 2 population
city goes to size6 (and because of whip, happy limit of 6)
10+ turns later it grows back to 7, but whip penalty is gone
Happy buildings. city at 7/7. temple partway done, takes 1 pop to whip. whip, city drops to 6 pop, but happy stays at 7 (-1 for whip, +1 for new temple).
Cottages=commerce. Commerce is gold and science (depending on slider). You want 1 high food tile so city grows. Cottages in all grasslands/floodplains (2 or 3 food). This city will have poor production, so build army in another town. Build science buildings (library, university) or money buildings (market, bank) only. Happy buildings (temple, colleseum) when needed.
Start axeman
next turn whip.
axe finishes, start building another axe (slow way)
wait 10 turns (so happiness penalty goes away). 2nd axe should finish building, and your city should grow back a size.
start over (start new axe, whip, build 2nd)
You want to adjust food so city takes 10 turns to grow, then for hammers (food is more important).
City stays same size (goes 5, 4, 5, 4), but you get 2 axemen per 10 turns instead of 1.
whipping away unhappy people.
Your city has a happy limit of 7 (example)
let it grow to size 8 (1 angry person)
next turn whip something that takes 2 population
city goes to size6 (and because of whip, happy limit of 6)
10+ turns later it grows back to 7, but whip penalty is gone
Happy buildings. city at 7/7. temple partway done, takes 1 pop to whip. whip, city drops to 6 pop, but happy stays at 7 (-1 for whip, +1 for new temple).
Cottages=commerce. Commerce is gold and science (depending on slider). You want 1 high food tile so city grows. Cottages in all grasslands/floodplains (2 or 3 food). This city will have poor production, so build army in another town. Build science buildings (library, university) or money buildings (market, bank) only. Happy buildings (temple, colleseum) when needed.
Jerrymander
Epistemologist
@AnyKeyz:
Beelining (going straight to, and ignoring other technologies) to Alphabet is better than avoiding it. Alphabet allows technology trading. If you have some higher technologies (like Drama and Mathematics) you can trade these for 2, 3, or even 4 of the lesser technologies that you missed when you beelined for Alphabet. Try it, and trade for the lower technologies that the AI has.
(But, don't trade techs like Iron Working or Construction, because they give the AI an equal chance with military)
Beelining (going straight to, and ignoring other technologies) to Alphabet is better than avoiding it. Alphabet allows technology trading. If you have some higher technologies (like Drama and Mathematics) you can trade these for 2, 3, or even 4 of the lesser technologies that you missed when you beelined for Alphabet. Try it, and trade for the lower technologies that the AI has.
(But, don't trade techs like Iron Working or Construction, because they give the AI an equal chance with military)
Further to the above replies ...
All righty then. With 40% of the globe during the Industrial Era on Noble, the game should be yours. What happened past that point?
Some. If you follow the computer’s advice, you’ll end up with a whole heap of 'hybrid' cities ('Jack-of-all-trades but master of none'). One thing that separates the computer from the human is that the human player can better specialise their cities. The City Governor, unless you ‘emphasise commerce’ or ‘emphasise production’ etc. will select generous yielding tiles and cottages, but your city won’t have a defined role. Sisiutil's Guide does a good job at explaining this.
In the city view left-click on the tile that has a citizen working on it to ‘de-select’ that citizen. The citizen will end up as a ‘generic specialist’ on the right side of the screen. Hover over the tile where you want to place the citizen and left-click, and the ‘generic specialist’ will go there.
Generally this is a late-game strategy when you don’t require any more buildings on the roster (e.g. your ‘unit pump’ can only select ‘commerce-oriented’ buildings) and you don’t require more units, but are desperate for a little more research or cash.
It’s not uncommon to use this when going for a Cultural victory to keep some cash in the bank while running the ‘Culture slider’ as high as possible. There are other examples, such as trying to get a particular technology on a turn, and it’s a good way to squeeze the last bit of science out of your empire.
In short, under some circumstances it’s a handy option, but I would suggest that generally there are better things to build.
It’s important to understand how the Civics work, and that certain combinations are effective with certain objectives in mind. Leader traits will impact as outlined;
For example, a ‘Specialist Economy’; an empire that places a lot of emphasis on Specialists and endeavouring to generate plenty of Great People, might benefit from a combination including Representation – The Caste System – Mercantilism – Pacifism. Representation gives your Specialists extra science, The Caste System allows you to be more flexible with the assignment of your Specialists, Mercantilism gives every city a free Specialist, and Pacifism will seed your popping of Great People of which Specialists are a contributor of Great People points. But what if you had a leader with the Philosophical trait that increases the production rate of Great People by 100%? Even better!
Similarly looking at the ‘Cottage Economy’, a combination of Civics including Universal Suffrage – Free Speech – Emancipation could work well. Universal Suffrage gives Towns an extra hammer, Free Speech gives Towns an extra two commerce, and Emancipation increases the speed in which Cottages, Hamlets and Villages grow into Towns. A leader with the Financial trait is already giving an extra commerce to tiles with at least two commerce to begin with, so there’s a booster effect.
Leaders with the Protective or Aggressive traits produce units that begin with ‘free promotions’ – Vassalage and Theocracy each give extra XPs to new units, so working these traits with these leaders provide highly promoted units.
So it’s a case to some extent of better matching leader traits to Civic options.
I assume you’re referring to the State Property civic? It’s a very powerful choice, and one I never ignore.
If your empire is fairly small, and distance maintenance costs are pretty well contained (e.g. you’ve built Versailles and The Forbidden Palace in good spots) your empire still might be better off with the free trade route from Free Market, especially if you’ve got good trade routes already (e.g. coastal cities have Harbors, trading across the water thanks to Astronomy). As mentioned earlier, if conditions especially suit running a Specialist Economy then Mercantilism might be a superior choice.
State Property also gives Workshops and Watermills extra food, so if you’ve built many of these improvements, they become even more productive. VoiceOfUnreason's 'Evaluating Production' item sets this out in more detail.
‘Computers’ allows Laboratories to be constructed, and these provide a bonus to the rate of production of Spaceship parts in addition to the scientific bonus (in newer versions of Civ incl. Warlords).
If you have sufficient population and under the Slavery civic (and your city’s not in revolt), you can whip away. The unhappiness caused as a result of your whipping lasts for 10 turns on ‘Normal’ game speed, but this doesn't mean that you can't whip more frequently.
Whipping is essentially a way of instantly converting food into hammers with the side effect of temporary unhappiness. It’s this ‘instant development’ that allows you to get to your objectives faster and therefore outpace the AI.
What’s the downside of even excessive whipping? A city that’s costing you a little bit to maintain and adding a bit to your overall empire’s running costs. You can’t starve a city out of existence, and eventually it will get back on its feet because whip weariness is only temporary. Moderate whipping is a very workable approach to early game (and in some instances late game) pursuit of your objectives.
No – you need food in order to grow a city’s population so it can work Cottaged tiles. Even on mostly Grassland areas either bonus food resources or a few farms will help you achieve reasonable rates of population growth.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Research faster, upgrade units faster, or run high culture. Your military should be constructed elsewhere. In terms of creating commercial buildings (e.g. Libraries, Markets, etc.) you can usually swap your citizens around from hammer-heavy tiles back to growing cottage tiles for less crucial builds. While over-whipping is not particularly great in commercial cities (as you want a high population to work Cottages so they grow) there may be a trade-off worth considering (e.g. what’s more important – a Library now or two Cottages to be worked for a bit longer?). Universal Suffrage allows a mechanism where commerce through gold converts to hammers.
I hope these replies help clarify rather than confuse the issues!
All righty then. With 40% of the globe during the Industrial Era on Noble, the game should be yours. What happened past that point?
Some. If you follow the computer’s advice, you’ll end up with a whole heap of 'hybrid' cities ('Jack-of-all-trades but master of none'). One thing that separates the computer from the human is that the human player can better specialise their cities. The City Governor, unless you ‘emphasise commerce’ or ‘emphasise production’ etc. will select generous yielding tiles and cottages, but your city won’t have a defined role. Sisiutil's Guide does a good job at explaining this.
In the city view left-click on the tile that has a citizen working on it to ‘de-select’ that citizen. The citizen will end up as a ‘generic specialist’ on the right side of the screen. Hover over the tile where you want to place the citizen and left-click, and the ‘generic specialist’ will go there.
Generally this is a late-game strategy when you don’t require any more buildings on the roster (e.g. your ‘unit pump’ can only select ‘commerce-oriented’ buildings) and you don’t require more units, but are desperate for a little more research or cash.
It’s not uncommon to use this when going for a Cultural victory to keep some cash in the bank while running the ‘Culture slider’ as high as possible. There are other examples, such as trying to get a particular technology on a turn, and it’s a good way to squeeze the last bit of science out of your empire.
In short, under some circumstances it’s a handy option, but I would suggest that generally there are better things to build.
It’s important to understand how the Civics work, and that certain combinations are effective with certain objectives in mind. Leader traits will impact as outlined;
For example, a ‘Specialist Economy’; an empire that places a lot of emphasis on Specialists and endeavouring to generate plenty of Great People, might benefit from a combination including Representation – The Caste System – Mercantilism – Pacifism. Representation gives your Specialists extra science, The Caste System allows you to be more flexible with the assignment of your Specialists, Mercantilism gives every city a free Specialist, and Pacifism will seed your popping of Great People of which Specialists are a contributor of Great People points. But what if you had a leader with the Philosophical trait that increases the production rate of Great People by 100%? Even better!
Similarly looking at the ‘Cottage Economy’, a combination of Civics including Universal Suffrage – Free Speech – Emancipation could work well. Universal Suffrage gives Towns an extra hammer, Free Speech gives Towns an extra two commerce, and Emancipation increases the speed in which Cottages, Hamlets and Villages grow into Towns. A leader with the Financial trait is already giving an extra commerce to tiles with at least two commerce to begin with, so there’s a booster effect.
Leaders with the Protective or Aggressive traits produce units that begin with ‘free promotions’ – Vassalage and Theocracy each give extra XPs to new units, so working these traits with these leaders provide highly promoted units.
So it’s a case to some extent of better matching leader traits to Civic options.
I assume you’re referring to the State Property civic? It’s a very powerful choice, and one I never ignore.
If your empire is fairly small, and distance maintenance costs are pretty well contained (e.g. you’ve built Versailles and The Forbidden Palace in good spots) your empire still might be better off with the free trade route from Free Market, especially if you’ve got good trade routes already (e.g. coastal cities have Harbors, trading across the water thanks to Astronomy). As mentioned earlier, if conditions especially suit running a Specialist Economy then Mercantilism might be a superior choice.
State Property also gives Workshops and Watermills extra food, so if you’ve built many of these improvements, they become even more productive. VoiceOfUnreason's 'Evaluating Production' item sets this out in more detail.
‘Computers’ allows Laboratories to be constructed, and these provide a bonus to the rate of production of Spaceship parts in addition to the scientific bonus (in newer versions of Civ incl. Warlords).
If you have sufficient population and under the Slavery civic (and your city’s not in revolt), you can whip away. The unhappiness caused as a result of your whipping lasts for 10 turns on ‘Normal’ game speed, but this doesn't mean that you can't whip more frequently.
Whipping is essentially a way of instantly converting food into hammers with the side effect of temporary unhappiness. It’s this ‘instant development’ that allows you to get to your objectives faster and therefore outpace the AI.
What’s the downside of even excessive whipping? A city that’s costing you a little bit to maintain and adding a bit to your overall empire’s running costs. You can’t starve a city out of existence, and eventually it will get back on its feet because whip weariness is only temporary. Moderate whipping is a very workable approach to early game (and in some instances late game) pursuit of your objectives.
No – you need food in order to grow a city’s population so it can work Cottaged tiles. Even on mostly Grassland areas either bonus food resources or a few farms will help you achieve reasonable rates of population growth.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Research faster, upgrade units faster, or run high culture. Your military should be constructed elsewhere. In terms of creating commercial buildings (e.g. Libraries, Markets, etc.) you can usually swap your citizens around from hammer-heavy tiles back to growing cottage tiles for less crucial builds. While over-whipping is not particularly great in commercial cities (as you want a high population to work Cottages so they grow) there may be a trade-off worth considering (e.g. what’s more important – a Library now or two Cottages to be worked for a bit longer?). Universal Suffrage allows a mechanism where commerce through gold converts to hammers.
I hope these replies help clarify rather than confuse the issues!
Yay !
Finally won a Noble game ! With a score of 5900, which is my highest.
Started as the Brits, with only four cities stuck in a corner until I reached my special unit. Then I wiped out the nation up to me. I was still way behind in the tech tree, but I managed to build the spacecraft in a close race (thanks for the laboratory advice) even if I was ranked 4th.
I still think I am not playing a normal Noble game and that it's still agressive AI in my ini file, but at least, with a lot of practice and many advices from you, I succeeded. There are a lot of things I still don't quite understand (commerce economy is still a mystery for me, even when I read some detailed FAQS on it).
I will now try to play a Prince game, just for the pleasure of having my *ss kicked.
Finally won a Noble game ! With a score of 5900, which is my highest.
Started as the Brits, with only four cities stuck in a corner until I reached my special unit. Then I wiped out the nation up to me. I was still way behind in the tech tree, but I managed to build the spacecraft in a close race (thanks for the laboratory advice) even if I was ranked 4th.
I still think I am not playing a normal Noble game and that it's still agressive AI in my ini file, but at least, with a lot of practice and many advices from you, I succeeded. There are a lot of things I still don't quite understand (commerce economy is still a mystery for me, even when I read some detailed FAQS on it).
I will now try to play a Prince game, just for the pleasure of having my *ss kicked.
