Useless Minutiae

[malekithe]

I was thinking over the last 10-11 months of Civ 4 and its aspects that I've never made use of in a real game. I decided I'd compile a quick list of all the things I could think of off the top of my head that I've never done in Civ 4. If anybody's actually done something on this list (and would do it again ), I'd be interested to hear about the circumstances. Also, if anyone wants to add their own additional things they believe rarely, if ever, fit into a game, please feel free. I will note that, in warlords, this list has already grown shorter (I've actually built a castle in warlords, though I don't know if I'd do it again...)

• Built a Castle
• Built Chichen Itza
• Built a Cathedral in a non-cultural game
• Built the Muslim shrine
• Built a Bomb Shelter
• Built a Hydro Plant
• Built SDI
• Benefitted from Environmentalism's bonus happiness from Jungle
• Benefitted from Theocracy's lack of religious spread
• Run Serfdom
• Built more than 3 Ironclads in a single game
• Actually used a Machine Gun in combat
• Taken an Amphibious promotion
• Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion
• Built a Fort
• Built a Workshop prior to Guilds (or more than about half a dozen without State Property)
• Built an Offshore Platform (because you needed oil)
• Scrubbed Fallout

 

[babypacman]

- I build Chichen Itza because I have builder syndrome. I build it when/because I can.

-Built a Cathedral in a diplomatic game to beat back the culture of an AI's capital that abutted the fringe of my empire.

- Built the Muslim shrine because poor GP management led to excess GPs

- I was forced to be environmentalist once by UN-leading izzy

- I benefited from Theocracy via the extra experience my new troops got from lack of religious spread. The close mindedness seemed to imbue them with a special fervor.

- My machine gun was attacked once or twice

 

[RobertTheBruce]

I"ve never used a spy to reveal an enemy's plans. (Maybe this is more useful in MP)

I've never given an unit the charge (anti-siege) promotion

I have build cathedrals for +2 happiness in large cities or culture wars to take resource tiles. (Ghandi is a very annoying neighbor.)

Only benefited by Theocracy's lack of religion spread once. Diplomatic win and no negatives for not switching religion since Isabella and Saladin couldn't ask. Finally went Free Religion and got Saladin's vote.

 

[malekithe]

I've never given an unit the charge (anti-siege) promotion

Ah, I meant to include that one too.

 

[Meatbuster]

• Built a Cathedral in a non-cultural game
• Built SDI
• Run Serfdom
• Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion
• Built an Offshore Platform (because you needed oil)

1. I used Cathedrals recently to steal Oil, Iron and eventually a key city from the Vikings... in a Space Race game off an abandoned attempt at domination.
2. I build SDI right after Manhattan Project is built (in Warlords). I am usually the one that builds Manhattan Project anyway.
3. The Independence Day SG is about to run Serfdom!
4. Commando promotion in single player sucks because the AI has enough defenders in all cities. In Multiplayer, I have used 3-5 commando horse troops and they've taken lightly-defended inner cities OK, who underestimates the Mongols' UB now huh!!!
5. I have done this twice (I had no oil in another losing Space Race game, for example)

 

[Rast]

Built a Castle

Culture games. Every little bit helps.

Built Chichen Itza

Nope

Built a Cathedral in a non-cultural game

Once, in a newly conquered city in a location under a lot of cultural pressure from a 3rd civ I didn't plan on fighting anytime soon.

Built the Muslim shrine

Culture games. Being the first to divine right is pretty easy and once a city starting spitting out great prophets it's usually pretty tough to get them to stop

Built a Bomb Shelter

Nope

Built a Hydro Plant

In cities that can build them that have health problems.

Built SDI

Once.. not since I graduated from Noble though.

Benefitted from Environmentalism's bonus happiness from Jungle

I've run Civ 4's most unpopular civic a couple of times but never for the reason.. jungles are long gone by the time I can run it.

Benefitted from Theocracy's lack of religious spread

This is actually the reason I've never, ever run Theocracy. Lack of religion spread really kills a lot of Free Religion's benefits, as well as not being able to build other religion's temples.

Run Serfdom

I run if I'm short on workers, or, more commonly, afraid to risk many of them close to a front line in a big war.

Built more than 3 Ironclads in a single game

Marathon. They're better fishing boat defenders than Frigates and they stay viable for a while on the longest game speed.

Actually used a Machine Gun in combat

Again, marathon. Hardly ever actually used them in combat but they do a great job keeping the AI away from my border towns. Having a town get pillaged on Marathon when I'm running Universal Suffrage really, really blows.

Taken an Amphibious promotion

Nope

Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion

Nope

Built a Fort

Once in a blue moon there'll be a chokepoint that a fort is worthwhile on, and they're decent in OCC games for border defense.. but.. that's about it.

Built a Workshop prior to Guilds (or more than about half a dozen without State Property)

Actually I do like to build workshops on plains if a city has enough food to work them and no place to mine - the good old crappy plains city with a BF tile or two is a prime canidate. Engineer specialists can kick out more hammers but you can only have one before factories and after that even only three.

Built an Offshore Platform (because you needed oil)

Nope

Scrubbed Fallout

Nope, thank goodness. Pollution cleanup was a pain in the neck in Civ 3 - even though fallout only occurs from a nuclear strike it still goes away by itself after a while.

 

[Pinstar]

I've never used SAMs in any single player game. I've built 'em but never used 'em.

Never used a Trireme to take out anything other than another trireme.

I've never used GP to key off a 2nd golden age (or 3rd if I built the taj mahal)

I've never gifted a unit to another civ, nor have another civ gift me a unit


I've never adapted Islam as my state religion (I have nothing against Islam, it my empire is just seeded with another religion en'masse by the time I get it).

I've never gotten another civ that wasn't my vassal to vote for me in a diplomatic win.

I've never gotten a time victory or defeat in a game with space race enabled.

I've never found any need to ask another civ to convert their civics.

I've never traded for or away whales.

 

[Meatbuster]

"I've never found any need to ask another civ to convert their civics..."

I've bribed someone to get into free religion, breaking their defensive pact with someone else. Right before i attacked them.

I've also bribed someone into Organized Religion (get them out of Theocracy) so I can flood them with missionaries.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

I've built castles in a marathon game when I had a huge army, had expanded to much and was about 80 turns away from code of laws at 10% science, I had stone so built the castles in all my coastal cities and capital, the extra trade route helped me shave about 15 turns off.

I've built Chichen Itza in a 23 civ world map(warlords) as Loius, boy did I have a lot of wonders in my 0CC, managed to flip Berlin

Scrubbed Fallout

never even built a nuke.

Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion

In warlords i had tanks coming off the Assembly line with enough XP to give them enough promotions to reach commando, wreaked havoc on my enemies when combined with bombers. Bomb defenses, bomb defenders, move in commando tanks.

 

[aelf]

If you've built Sankore and Spiral Minaret, Cathedrals actually provide 2 beakers and 2 gold each. Might be worth the investment before Scientific Method obsoletes all your monasteries and cause your religious economy to take a hit. At least they can soften the blow by 1/3.

I think the no non-state religion spread in Theocracy is actually meant to be a penalty. Maybe the developers thought that getting +2 xp for your units at medium upkeep is too much on its own but putting it at high upkeep would make it significantly less popular.

 

[malekithe]

I think the no non-state religion spread in Theocracy is actually meant to be a penalty. Maybe the developers thought that getting +2 xp for your units at medium upkeep is too much on its own but putting it at high upkeep would make it significantly less popular.

I'm not certain about that. Vassalage is high upkeep, yes, but that is offset by the extra free units you get. I always thought the supposed drawback to theocracy was the same as most other religious civics; you have to adopt and spread a state religion to get any use out of them. Most of the time I've adopted Theocracy, I really didn't care much about religious diversity; I cared more about pummeling everyone else. If the lack of religious spread is not supposed to be a "bonus" for theocracy, I can't see how it could be anything but strictly inferior to Vassalage (expect that vassalage precludes bureacracy, etc.).

 

[Khan Quest]

[*]Taken an Amphibious promotion

Playing Russia, I had a bunch of Cossacks promotable and my continent conquered. I gave some amphibious to get a foothold on another continent. It helped a little.

[*]Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion

I gave the commando promotion to three infantry. I placed them in captured cities on enemy borders. I didn't have tanks yet and as I built up an invasion force, I used them to polish off enemy stacks in their boundry next to my cities, using the extra move to re-enter my city.

The rest of the stuff on your list?...no.

 

[Wlauzon]

I was thinking over the last 10-11 months of Civ 4 and its aspects that I've never made use of in a real game. I decided I'd compile a quick list of all the things I could think of off the top of my head that I've never done in Civ 4. If anybody's actually done something on this list (and would do it again ), I'd be interested to hear about the circumstances.

• Built the Muslim shrine
• Built a Hydro Plant
• Run Serfdom
• Built an Offshore Platform (because you needed oil)

I usually play Asoka, he is religion happy, so I usually go nuts on anything that will give me more shrines and stuff.

If you have no coal, you build hydro...

I run serfdom occasionally while "in between" more useful things.

If you have no oil on land, you build platforms.

As far as all the rest never have, or maybe only once and won't bother again.

I occasionally build a few ironclads, only because they have one advantage - since they won't go far from shore, they are good for setting on auto for patrolling coasts.

 

[cabert]

[*]Built a Castle

never did for defensive purposes, but like rast said, in a culture game, every little bit helps.
I actually even built a few on border cities when I had stone, because of the culture (no religions in those city at the beginning of the build)

[*]Built Chichen Itza

Did it, won't do it again...

[*]Built a Cathedral in a non-cultural game

I did. In fact I do it a lot.
3 main reasons :
- happiness when you have incense
- culture when you need to defend your borders/ attack another's borders
- gold from spiral minaret

[*]Built the Muslim shrine

happened in a cultural game
what could I do with this prophet?

[*]Built a Bomb Shelter

I didn't, but try desert war scenario and you'll see what it's good for.

[*]Built a Hydro Plant

I rarely go for factories, so 3 gorges dam is really useless. I build a power plant in the few cities that have a factory. And I hate coal plants.

[*]Built SDI
[*]Benefitted from Environmentalism's bonus happiness from Jungle
[*]Benefitted from Theocracy's lack of religious spread
[*]Run Serfdom
[*]Built more than 3 Ironclads in a single game

3 ironclads is a lot, that's true
in vanilla games i never had more than one
In warlords I had a near to pangea shuffle map : stalin was on a very close island.
Ironclads can bombard cities very efficiently

[*]Actually used a Machine Gun in combat

really? try this : a stack of cannons and cavalries. One machine gun as stack defender. With enough drill promotions, he will never fall to any gunpowder counterattack (read rifles).
I do this quite often.
+ machine guns are good to prevent any effective counterattack.

[*]Taken an Amphibious promotion

I'm sure I did, but it's very situational and can't remember details.
Something to do with a massive frigates/gallions filled with cannons and grenadiers force against coastal cities.

[*]Given more than one unit in a single game the Commando promotion

I did!
2 examples in 2 turns each :
1) Second turn, your main force takes the city, which got (a lot ?) of reinforcements from the next not quite border city. Culture of city 2 overwhelms city 1. You send your 3 commando cavs to take and raze city 2. 3 units is often enough, but it's very situationnal.

2) First move, your main force comes close to an enemy border city. Amongst the stack you have a few (3 is cool) commando cavs.
Second move : you bomb defense, and see reinforcements coming. you won't be able to take the city in this turn. Your commandos kill the reinforcements on their way. When I say reinforcements, it could be a cannon/catapult...

[*]Built a Fort
[*]Built a Workshop prior to Guilds (or more than about half a dozen without State Property)
[*]Built an Offshore Platform (because you needed oil)
[*]Scrubbed Fallout

never did those (workshops are very rare in my games!)

I can see a few other things I never did.
- Switching to islam (no one ever asked me, and i never had more than half my cities with it)
- Switching to police state (there is one tech needed i just never research)
- Playing duel maps (i love tech trade)
- using spies for anything else than spying (even in desert war scenario)
- upgrading a scout
- building a nuke (I gifted me one through WB to see how it works, and that's it)

I can see all those (except upgrading a scout ) having some kind of sense, but I just don't do them.

 

[Beamup]

Run Serfdom

Routinely. When I'm Spiritual, I prefer swapping back and forth between Slavery and Serfdom to staying in Slavery all the time. I can whip just as much, and get a net 25% worker speed bonus.

Built a Fort

Done this one too. I wanted to see what it looked like.

Built a Workshop prior to Guilds (or more than about half a dozen without State Property)

Yep. Via the move-build-cancel-move again approach - it just so happened that enough workers finished their turn on a tile where I wanted a Workshop eventually to finish it.

 

[voek]

[*]Built a Castle
very rare, for the trade route in warlords (in colosus city for example)

[*]Built a Cathedral in a non-cultural game
Yes, for culture pressing
Yes, for hapiness
Yes, for beaker/gold from Sankore and Spiral

[*]Taken an Amphibious promotion
Yes, in a advanced intercontinental invasion, attack from boats is much safer.

[*]Built a Fort
Yes, because I am bored.

 

[RFHolloway]

Another vote for using amphibious!

duel map, one civ on each island, was greece (so agressive) and had barracks + theocracy took combat 2 and amphibious as the optional promotions and attacked the city direct. There were lots of troups on the island and no protected landing sites, and I didn't have enough boats for a mass landing, and healing on boats was appealing.

 

[UncleJJ]

A cathedral of your state religion can be a good building in a late game SE going for Domination. It is a great early choice to whip into a high food city (think of 7 floodplain farms post Biology) as it gives +3 happiness, +50% culture and the ability to work 2 priests which with Angkor Wat are the best specialists available... it gives everything that city needs and allows the horrendous surplus food to be used efficiently.

A hydro plant is a great option in a SE as well. The 2 unhealthiness from the coal plant can be a serious problem and limit city size making it worth waiting for better technology.

 

[br_casino]

I've never changed the Tech being researched by a vassle. In fact, I can't remember if I've ever changed what I'm researching.

 

[gdgrimm]

Castle -- I've done it (and would consider it again) when I had Stone, a Protective civ (Warlords), and many trading partners.

Cathedral -- I almost always build some of these. They go into border cities to win the Culture Border wars.

Muslim Shrine -- did it once. I was a medium size continent with 5 other Civs. All other religions had been founded off continent. So I beelined Islam, converted all the cities on the continent (mostly without building missionaries), and made the Shrine as a cash cow. Under the same circumstances, I'd definitely do it again.

Hydro Plant -- Almost always. After building a factory, the river cities wait until Plastics to get their electricity.

Serfdom -- Occassionly. Great when doing a Classical/Medieval era, peaceful expansion into jungle heavy terrain. Of course, Hagia Sophia and Slavery are even better, but that's not always a great option.