The Great Library

[Skybuck]

The description of The Great Library can be interpreted in many ways:

1. Does it only give two technologies ?
2. Does it only give technologies from the first two other civilization you meet ?
3. Does it only give technologies from the most advanced two civilizations ?

After playing 150+ games I finally understand how The Great Library works:

It only gives a technology if two other civilizations already have it.

There enough said. That one little sentence is much more clear =D

(This means that The Great Library is useless for 1 v 1 players )

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[namliaM]

It gives you the tech if you know 2 civs that know the tech....

That is somewhat different in where if you are playing Archipello, and you cannot seem to leave your Island... You know nobody... You build the Darn thing... and it does not give any techs...

In the end if you do meet some people and they are into future techs by then.... You will get EVERYTHING right into the future techs... but you will still be in a sink whole...

 

[vmxa]

It only gives a technology if two other civilizations already have it.

There enough said. That one little sentence is much more clear =D

(This means that The Great Library is useless for 1 v 1 players )

Skybuck.

Not quite an accurate statement and is misleading. You have to have made contact with at least two Civs that know a tech, before you can gain it from the GL. Further you will gain no new techs after you have learned Education.

At least as long as you have continuous possesion of the GL.

 

[brennan]

A really sneaky strategy used on higher levels, is to build the GL. Give the GL city to the AI just before it would get you Education. Then wait till a good point later on in the game to re-take the city, when the AI gets rails is a good point. Then the GL will gift you nearly a whole Era of techs...

Edit: the sort of strategy only the sneakiest of sneaky, cunnin' Goblins would think of...

 

[Drakan]

Edit: the sort of strategy only the sneakiest of sneaky, cunnin' Goblins would think of...

 

[Masrim]

don't forget the other aspects of the giveaway. Starve or worker settler the city down to size one, sell off all improvements, pillage all territory it controls, find the weakest civ out there, the further away the better, get an RoP, surrond the city so no units get in or out. Also nice if you can bombard the land so the civ will get no use out of it. Then gift. Only trouble is that city flipping back to you.

thats the way I do it anyways, I mean, would do it if I ever played dirty like that.

 

[Dreadnought]

A really sneaky strategy used on higher levels, is to build the GL. Give the GL city to the AI just before it would get you Education. Then wait till a good point later on in the game to re-take the city, when the AI gets rails is a good point. Then the GL will gift you nearly a whole Era of techs...

Edit: the sort of strategy only the sneakiest of sneaky, cunnin' Goblins would think of...

That works? I didn't think it did...

 

[Drakan]

Only trouble is that city flipping back to you.
.

That's not a problem. In my current Sid game The Hague has flipped back to me twice and both times I've rebuffed the rebels. You only accept it if you want.

No need to use artillery either on it's city tiles, you plan to recapture the city later, you want it to be useful. It's bound to expand its borders anyway being a Sid AI, there's no way to stop that. I understand you want it at size one so they won't build any culture-related improvements, but it's bound to happen anyway, IMHO.

 

[brennan]

That works? I didn't think it did...

Oh yeah

So long as you don't have Education, you get all techs known by 2+ other civs as freebies, the turn after you capture/build GL. You could set up a test game with 2 civs who know every tech, and you knowing none, and it would give you everything!

The only catch is that you have to have contact with those other civs.

 

[Masrim]

heh oh yeah I forgot about rebuffing.

I rarely ever do that so I no longer even think about it.

 

[pazza]

or u could just build the gl for culture. most of the times that's what i do.

 

[vmxa]

That is a lot of shields and time for some extra culture at an early point in the game.

 

[Invisible Rhino]

Wouldn't one of the first techs you get after taking it back be Education though?

 

[Tomoyo]

or u could just build the gl for culture. most of the times that's what i do.

Only for 20K, else just build more cities and temples/libraries in those. Much cheaper and gives you more culture.

 

[Pentium]

Wouldn't one of the first techs you get after taking it back be Education though?

You get techs in interturn, but its effect only stops at the beginning of your turn. So you get all the techs.

 

[Invisible Rhino]

Ooooh. Cool.

 

[Jaca]

You get techs in interturn, but its effect only stops at the beginning of your turn. So you get all the techs.

That's funny... I could have sworn it takes another turn. Say, if you get Feudalism and Engineering at that turn, only next turn you could get Invention.

Kind regards,
Jaca

 

[Drakan]

In a game I saw as much as 45 techs pouring in in just one turn (Aggie's space race)

 

[ForbiddenPalace]

GL is the most unique wonder in the game.

 

[bingen]

Forbidden has been checking the back pages .

I like the fact that the GL helps my OCC games (and other variants like always war), but on the whole I think it is bad for the game. On low levels it is quite useless, but on the highest levels it is way too powerful. I hate it that many games at Sid comes down to whether I get the GL or not, my most exciting games are generally the ones I manage to succeed without it.