Squatting on another civ's spawn area

[Zifnab]

I tried a game with the Maya, founding my capitol south a few squares from its usual place (so I could mine the jungle hills), and my second city where the Aztecs build their capitol. After meeting my first two goals, I started expanding north into more of mexico, and into louisiana, and switched my capitol to my second city. Eventually, I sent a few units exploring north and south america to gather huts, and to be in place for meeting the inca.

When the Aztecs spawned, they moved north and built a city about 3 tiles away from my capitol, so after gathering a few seige units and some crossbowmen I crushed them fairly quickly. The Inca also became my vassals.

The game seemed to be going pretty good, and I was having to problems with stability, so I decided to keep expanding, which in the end was my downfall. I built a city at Vancouver, Washington, and another one tile to the west of the southern Lake Michigan tile. Didn't have much problems with stability for a while, but eventually my economic stability crashed, about half of the other catagories were not very good either, and just 2 turns before the Americans spawn, and five turns after my capitol swiched again to washington, the proud Mayan nation collapsed.

I was able to get up to about third in score just before the collapse. I think when I have time, I am going to try this again, except no Vancouver city, and an earlier focus on the economy.

 

[chococid]

Moving your capital hurts stability AFAIK.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Yes, I think moving palace once is probably the max. Building lots of jails and courthouses will help too. (That's why I've been campaigning for Rhye to relax the penalty if the palace was built by choice, and including Intelligence agencies and Security bureaus for stability.)

 

[coko]

If I have time this weekend I will look further into the code for you.

Zifnab: Moving capital a few times will almost always kill you! My technique for when my stab is poor is to pick on the weakest civ and kill them, nothing like killing people to take your people's mind off things! Just don't lose a lot of units. Then hopefully vassal them.

 

[Zifnab]

If I have time this weekend I will look further into the code for you.

Zifnab: Moving capital a few times will almost always kill you! My technique for when my stab is poor is to pick on the weakest civ and kill them, nothing like killing people to take your people's mind off things! Just don't lose a lot of units. Then hopefully vassal them.

I know it reduces stability, as I have moved the palace before, but only once during a game. I was a bit unprepared for the devastating blow to stability that moving it twice causes. Maybe I'll try to kill off the aztecs next time without moving the capitol, or even easier, stay away from the American spawn area.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I usually vassalize the Aztecs (they are in awe of my tech), and they provide good happy faces so I don't have to build as much military or ball courts.

 

[Rhye]

Linus is entitled to his opinion, but if the inner block is used in only one place, putting it inline with a paragraph comment will read better sometimes. It partly depends how well the reader's tool supports browsing a larger number of functions.

There might be a wee bit much indentation in the quoted block, but it's the eight space indent size that's truly barbaric.

the whole original civ python files are indented that way, I just followed what Firaxis did...
Keeping indentation in python is compulsory anyway, because there are no brackets to keep track of the blocks

 

[chococid]

the whole original civ python files are indented that way, I just followed what Firaxis did...
Keeping indentation in python is compulsory anyway, because there are no brackets to keep track of the blocks

Linus's ideas regarding indentation are basically that you shouldn't have to nest that much. If you're nesting 4 or 5 levels deep, you should be making it a separate function. *shrug*

I agree though, it's the 8 space indent size that makes it look really terrible. I'm a 4-space guy myself.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Had a lucky spawn with the Greek galley west of start. Sent settler to the hill E of Neapolis (couldn't get to Rome on time) and founded capital there. Went on the Greek blizzrd rampage and conquered Babylon, Egypt and the independent/barb cities, in that order. Open borders with Rome and they'll sit at the heel of Italy doing nothing (although later they did conquer Melpum and declared war on me, but by then they have lost all their settlers and I've already built the great wall).

Currently on track to build EVERY (and I mean EVERY) wonder, maybe at the expense of missing the Parthenon, although I'm going to go back to getting Aesthetics earlier to see if I can do it. Also, I may have to delay getting Calendar so I can build the Statue of Zeus first (free monument from Pyramids)

 

[blizzrd]

Went on the Greek blizzrd rampage and conquered Babylon, Egypt and the independent/barb cities, in that order.

I like. Not really pacifist behaviour though...

Also, I may have to delay getting Calendar so I can build the Statue of Zeus first (free monument from Pyramids)

I recall having this problem when I was building Statue of Zeus myself. Eventually traded for Calendar on the turn that the Statue was built. But I got very lucky and had the Pyramids pre-built in that game by Babylon.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I like. Not really pacifist behaviour though...

From the free dictionary:
2. pacify - fight violence and try to establish peace in (a location); "The U.N. troops are working to pacify Bosnia"

E.g. from my squatting exploits:
since the Germans were wiped out by the French, there was no war for a millenium in Europe (840-1700).
Since France was Spain's vassal, there was no French blood on our hands, and we got our Dutch lands fair and square. (England's a different matter...)
Since the Romans remained small, they couldn't declare war on Greece or anybody else for that matter.

I like early wars to prevent later wars, unless I have overwhelming power like in late game with the Germans. Hence pacify.

 

[blizzrd]

I like early wars to prevent later wars, unless I have overwhelming power like in late game with the Germans. Hence pacify.

You're a lot like the kid in the playground who when asked why he belted another kid replies:

"I hit him back first!"

I think you should just admit it, you're just as much of a warmonger as the rest of us. Else we're all pacifists/warmongers and there isn't really any difference.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Having been told that he can't just peacefully settle in lands that belong to him in the previous age, Ragnar decided to muster his feeble people and kill the Anglo-Saxons before they can found a city.

First capture Inverness with the loss of 1 axemen.
All cities build catapults with vassalage, except for Inverness which should just build wealth.
Promote archers to longbowmen.
When the English appear, catapult them to death and make sure at least 1 boat has a unit to capture Inverness when it does flip to them.

Then it's world domination...
(Too bad Pericles is now stuck with Greece and have to deal with the Romans)

 

[AnotherPacifist]

If you found Roma and have no other cities until they spawn, then it will not flip to the Romans who then found Emona Julia (i.e. in the future German flip zone which doesn't bode well for their stability if you conquer Mediolanum). Greece is much more formidable now (with an extra archer to start) but you have 3 extra spearmen, so feel free to sacrifice more mercenaries now instead of keeping them in your cities for happiness.

 

[scratzin]

civs will always find a place to spawn.
capitals never flip

Might be beatin' a dead horse here , but I managed to flip Amsterdam while playing as the Germans. I was playing on monarch, and by building some wonders, a cathedral and a national gallery in Hamborg, I was able to flip Amsterdam. Soon after that the Dutch collapsed, the only had a few cities left in SA, which went to the Portugese.

 

[monolith94]

Squatting on the romans as the greeks doesn't work, really - not enough time to build up military power before the romans come. Going north and squatting on the german lands seems to work better. Nicer land, too.

When I wrote this post, it was way back when the Greeks had no boat to carry their starting settler to Rome. What I had done was literally move my starting greek settler over land to Italy. Ha! If I still had civ, what I'd like to try doing would be to use the Greek starting boat to found Chalkedon as their capital.

 

[BurnEmDown]

Which was done several times on some of the challenges which were more popular about 2 months ago (fastest UHV and all that).

 

[killerkebab]

civs will always find a place to spawn.
capitals never flip

Here I assume we define "capital" as the first city we spawn, rather than the city which contains the palace.

As Romans I had Rome as my capital, then around 300AD I changed my capital to Samarobriva (Amiens) to see what would happen when France spawned. 750AD came and France demanded Amiens, Toulouse and Brest, even though Amiens was my capital

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Rhye has changed it so that capitals can flip now, unless you only have 1 city (see the post above about Hannibal and Rome). Sigh, the good ole days of squatting.

 

[Arkaeyn]

Rhye has changed it so that capitals can flip now, unless you only have 1 city (see the post above about Hannibal and Rome). Sigh, the good ole days of squatting.

Awww...I'm sure you can find something new to exploit!