the spiral minaret (not completing it intentionally)

[axident]

If you plan on conquering 60 percent(or all) of the world, having the other guy be mollifed with your religion really helps - until you want to pound him into submission.

By that time, more than likely he will have built a temple and monestary and maybe even a mandir for you... Which makes it an extra bonus on an already sweet victory.

You can't capture monasteries, temples, and cathedrals/mandirs/etc. unless they are diplomatically given to you or culturally annexed.

 

[ZenOps]

I'm still using the regular Civ4 (no Warlords or BTS or mods)

I thought the only thing that could destroy buildings was a nuke (Although I almost never get that far - to actually have or need to use one or have one used on me) Maybe in a late start they are certain building restrictions, or maybe it was one of the patches. Other than that random building destruction that is.

With fewer units defending the city, I'm assuming there is much less building damage as well (not sure if this is true or not, especially for the original Civ4)

Even if you manage to capture the city in one turn (or even the same turn) after declaring war? I could have sworn I did it before. The religion for sure at least stays with the city. Hmm, now that I think about it maybe it was changed, because it was far too powerful to have any of the religious buildings surviving...

Yeah your right, Culture bombing a city might be what I'm thinking of. The buildings stay intact and they usually give you one or two of their defending units.

OT: I really wish that the culture slider could be put to like 5% (instead of 10% increments.) A lot of times on the border cities, if I've built the Sistine, I know I will always keep up to or beat the AI in controlling the borders. With a 5% culture, I'm pretty sure I'll always slowly eat away their land at an even pace, and greatly increase the chance of a culture bomb working later especially if I have their cities sandwiched between. IE: I don't always build closest to my palace, I like to spread out so that I *can* culture bomb later to get at least one free city later in the game (especially with the one free artist that I usually get)

 

[weregamer]

Even in Vanilla, all culture-producing buildings (except wonders) are always included in what gets lost when you capture a city. There is a random chance for any building except a wonder or culture-producing one to lose it too.

Next time you are about to capture a well-developed city, go into Worldbuilder and look at what's in it, then see what's there when you capture it. You might cry.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

OT: I really wish that the culture slider could be put to like 5% (instead of 10% increments.) A lot of times on the border cities, if I've built the Sistine, I know I will always keep up to or beat the AI in controlling the borders. With a 5% culture, I'm pretty sure I'll always slowly eat away their land at an even pace, and greatly increase the chance of a culture bomb working later especially if I have their cities sandwiched between. IE: I don't always build closest to my palace, I like to spread out so that I *can* culture bomb later to get at least one free city later in the game (especially with the one free artist that I usually get)

You can adjust the slider increment in the XML somewhere, I can't remember where exactly though.

 

[axident]

Even in Vanilla, all culture-producing buildings (except wonders) are always included in what gets lost when you capture a city. There is a random chance for any building except a wonder or culture-producing one to lose it too.

Next time you are about to capture a well-developed city, go into Worldbuilder and look at what's in it, then see what's there when you capture it. You might cry.

There are a few exceptions but they are all UBs I think (Granary/Terraces for instance).

 

[Airefuego]

Building wealth is one gold per hammer, with no commerce benefits. Same as what you get for failed builds. Trading the money back for hammers later, in unit upgrades or rush builds, costs 3 gold per hammer. So don't see it as being very powerful at all. Building research also negates bonuses.

I think if you're building wealth or research, something is wrong. Better to have cottages in place of those mines and get bonuses for both research and wealth. Getting paid for a wonder is a nice consolation prize but not terribly efficient.

ok that puts it in perspective a bit. Thanks.

So - I think the return from a failed wonder should be less than from building wealth. After all - building wealth is "directed" and so should be more efficient in money-making terms than reaping cash from a failed wonder, which is really only salvage.

And I agree, building wealth or research is not a strong move... but it has its uses. For example the super science city has nothing to do for two turns before Observatories appear. You are better off putting in a couple of turns of Research than building a small fraction of something you don't need in that city. (yes the city is all cottages, but it will still have a few shields from plains and the city center etc)

Or if you are in a race for Liberalism and you really really want it.

 

[Tennyson]

I've built research to try and win a tech race, but yeah, I don't do it often. I often build a defensive unit, or part of one, when I'm waiting for research to make a new building available.

 

[Tecibbar]

You can use the same trick on national wonders too. When I finish global theater, I got around 2000 in cash from all my other cities half finishing it.