Basic Questions

[spikethedee]

Hi there,

After a few problems getting registered, I'm finally able to post on the forum. so I've got a few questions to ask:

I've read quite a few posts about the importance of early expansion, getting new cities producing different things etc. Then, on another forum, about starting bonuses, people saying that the Mongols "barbarians join us" bonus is a terrible one. How is that possible? Doesn't it give you cities for a couple of battles with a warrior, rather than producing settlers, guarding them, moving them etc?

Is there any way to predict/make an educated guess what kind of great person you'll get? Is it influenced by how much science/gold/culture etc you're producing or totally random?

Is the choice of technologies you get for discovering Atlantis random? Will it be from the possible technologies that you could research at that point? Does it give you a certain number of technologies, or a certain number of research points' worth of technologies (ie will it always give you 3, or could it give you 5 low scoring ones or just 1 high scoring one)

Usually you get unit upgrades for winning 3 and 6 battles or defeating a superior unit or an upgraded unit. Is there a limit to the number of upgrades a unit can have? If it wins enough battles, could it get all the upgrades and a great general?

On the XBox, I won with the English as my 16th Civilization and I've got all the achievements for the individual civilizations, but not the "winning with all civilizations" award, any idea why not?

Sorry about all the questions in one thread, but I've been looking at the boards, not being able to post for a wee while and I've had loads of questions to ask!

Thanks for reading,

Spike

[HydroDragon]

I've read quite a few posts about the importance of early expansion, getting new cities producing different things etc. Then, on another forum, about starting bonuses, people saying that the Mongols "barbarians join us" bonus is a terrible one. How is that possible? Doesn't it give you cities for a couple of battles with a warrior, rather than producing settlers, guarding them, moving them etc?

The bonus isn't bad in a long game, it's just that you lose out on the rewards that normally come from defeating barbarians. Gold/Galleys are much more important early on, and you'll often find yourself starved for gold and unable to produce units to attack or defend with. Not to mention that the cities are only 1 population, and there's no guarantee that they're in a good place. You could even end up with no grasslands which means it'll take 10 turns to grow, ouch.

Is there any way to predict/make an educated guess what kind of great person you'll get? Is it influenced by how much science/gold/culture etc you're producing or totally random?

Apparently it's based on the techs you've researched. There have been a few thread discussing this. In my opinion it's far from reliable though so don't base your strategy around it.

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...-guy-is-faster...

Is the choice of technologies you get for discovering Atlantis random? Will it be from the possible technologies that you could research at that point? Does it give you a certain number of technologies, or a certain number of research points' worth of technologies (ie will it always give you 3, or could it give you 5 low scoring ones or just 1 high scoring one)

I think it gives the 3 lowest-beaker techs you haven't researched. Which is why people try to tech through the small techs first in order to get good ones if they see Atlantis. For example, if you've teched Horseback riding, Bronze Working and Pottery you'll probably get Iron Working, Masonry and Alphabet from it.

Usually you get unit upgrades for winning 3 and 6 battles or defeating a superior unit or an upgraded unit. Is there a limit to the number of upgrades a unit can have? If it wins enough battles, could it get all the upgrades and a great general?

You can have all upgrades on a unit, there's no limit. Keep in mind that when you form an army, it'll take on the experience points of the unit with highest experience. For example, if you have a warrior who's won three battles (veteran), a warrior who's won no battles and a warrior who's won a single battle. Form the army and it'll be veteran with one experience point because that's what the highest unit had. (The veteran warrior had three but it 'spent' them when it became veteran).

On the XBox, I won with the English as my 16th Civilization and I've got all the achievements for the individual civilizations, but not the "winning with all civilizations" award, any idea why not?

Are you sure it's not 'defeat all civilizations'? If not, I don't know.

[spikethedee]

Thanks for that, a couple of others came to mind too.

When you have the option to found a city, the squares surrounding it will be a mixture of hill, sea, desert etc. However, when you found the city, it only sets up the city on a few of these squares. Is it possible to work out which ones it will use, and it is important to have a certain mixture of different terrains?

You often get a message telling you that you are generating X of culture for a population of Y and you citizens are now disgusting/uncivilized etc. Does this make any practical difference to the game?

Can a fighter or bomber discover an artifact or make contact with a friendly village?

If you're making a Wonder that someone else build first, am I right in thinking that you don't "lose" however many hammers you've spent building it so far? If you've got 100 for example, can you then swap them for 10 legions or 5 horsemen?

If someone at war with you offers to leave you alone for a Geat Person and you agree (not that I ever have), do you lose one of the 20 steps to Cultural victory you've accumulated? Is there ever any advantage to giving up a Great Person?

Thanks again,

Spike

[elthrasher]

I've read quite a few posts about the importance of early expansion, getting new cities producing different things etc. Then, on another forum, about starting bonuses, people saying that the Mongols "barbarians join us" bonus is a terrible one. How is that possible? Doesn't it give you cities for a couple of battles with a warrior, rather than producing settlers, guarding them, moving them etc?

Yup. That's certainly why I like the Mongols. You can have a very powerful start.

Here are some reasons people don't like this bonus:

• You get it in lieu of a gold reward
• You miss out on the barbarians showing you part of the map thing
• Barb towns are not infrequently in bad positions
• Barb towns are always on top of special resources which you won't be able to take advantage of because the town is in the way and they never have special resources adjacent because you never have two adjacent special resources.
• Barb towns can be challenging to defend, especially in multiplayer.

Is the choice of technologies you get for discovering Atlantis random?

You just get the three cheapest techs you are capable of researching.

If it wins enough battles, could it get all the upgrades and a great general?

Yup.

On the XBox, I won with the English as my 16th Civilization and I've got all the achievements for the individual civilizations, but not the "winning with all civilizations" award, any idea why not?

This a bug some people get. I can't remember the fix, as I haven't experienced it myself. You might have to replay the victory with a certain civ or you might have to delete your achievements and start over. I'm not sure.

When you have the option to found a city, the squares surrounding it will be a mixture of hill, sea, desert etc. However, when you found the city, it only sets up the city on a few of these squares. Is it possible to work out which ones it will use, and it is important to have a certain mixture of different terrains?

You always have access to the 8 tiles around your city representing ne, n, nw, w, sw, s, se, e. If you get a courthouse, then you have access to 20 tiles around your city. To get to 20 tiles, you go 2 tiles in every direction except the diagonal.

You often get a message telling you that you are generating X of culture for a population of Y and you citizens are now disgusting/uncivilized etc. Does this make any practical difference to the game?

If you are civilized your culture will expand beyond the tiles you are working. That gives you a little tactical advantage as enemies can't heal in that culture and you'll be able to see them. Also, Great Artists can only be used to flip the cities of civilizations that have the same or lower culture level. So if you are uncivilized and I am disgusting (I usually am), I can't flip your city.

Can a fighter or bomber discover an artifact or make contact with a friendly village?

Yeah, I think so.

If you're making a Wonder that someone else build first, am I right in thinking that you don't "lose" however many hammers you've spent building it so far? If you've got 100 for example, can you then swap them for 10 legions or 5 horsemen?

Exactly correct. But you can also do this even if you don't lose out on the wonder. You may see references to "banking" hammers. This is what we're talking about. Often in the early game I will bank hammers on Stonehenge while I research some tech.

If someone at war with you offers to leave you alone for a Geat Person and you agree (not that I ever have), do you lose one of the 20 steps to Cultural victory you've accumulated? Is there ever any advantage to giving up a Great Person?

Yeah, you lose the milestone if you lose the GP. I guess the advantage is that you don't get killed by the AI, but that shouldn't be happening anyway. If you are getting bullied by the AI, you haven't expanded enough. Once you expand and become powerful, the AI will just cower in its few cities and never cause you any trouble at all. I know, real fun, right? That's why we mostly focus on multiplayer here. The AI just isn't a threat.

[spikethedee]

You always have access to the 8 tiles around your city representing ne, n, nw, w, sw, s, se, e. If you get a courthouse, then you have access to 20 tiles around your city. To get to 20 tiles, you go 2 tiles in every direction except the diagonal.

AAAh, so the fact that only 3 or 4 squares turn to your colour, doesn't mean that they are the only squares being used by the city?

[elthrasher]

AAAh, so the fact that only 3 or 4 squares turn to your colour, doesn't mean that they are the only squares being used by the city?

Oh, I see what you're talking about. You have access to work the 8 tiles around your city. By default, your city workers will be allocated like this: food, production, trade, food, production, trade, etc. Sometimes you'll see some variation when you have a better tile. In any case, balanced is the worst possible configuration for a city. Cities should devote themselves to one task, complete the task, then move on to another task. This becomes less important later in the game when you have more cities and they are larger, but is critically important in the early game.

If you start a game as, say, Russia, your first city will begin at 2 population and the default will be one food, one production. This is a terrible way to start the game. You need to go to custom configuration and put both of your workers on trees. You can also accomplish this by going into the city screen and pressing down on the left (I think, but try right) thumbstick. In any case, a 2 pop city should almost always go all production, all science or all food. Putting a single worker on production is too slow in the early game.

This is one of the most critical steps in moving from deity being challenging to deity being too easy.

[spikethedee]

If you start a game as, say, Russia, your first city will begin at 2 population and the default will be one food, one production. This is a terrible way to start the game. You need to go to custom configuration and put both of your workers on trees. You can also accomplish this by going into the city screen and pressing down on the left (I think, but try right) thumbstick. In any case, a 2 pop city should almost always go all production, all science or all food. Putting a single worker on production is too slow in the early game.

This is one of the most critical steps in moving from deity being challenging to deity being too easy.

Yes!!!! That appears to be very helpful - I tried to do this in the GOTW and it seemed to make things easier. Just to double check, all I did was change the production thing from "balanced" to "production" - is that all I need to do, or do I have to go further with the "custom" option and move certain workers to certain tiles??

Thanks for the tip, though, it really seems to help.

Cheers,

Spike

[HydroDragon]

Custom. Always custom. Why let the A.I make sub-optimal decisions for you?

[elthrasher]

Yeah, always go custom for very small cities (3 pop and under). Larger cities can start going balanced or using one of the presets. I use the production preset in the mid game a lot, though I frequently check to make sure the city is arranged to my liking.

[Zefelius]

Yes!!!! Just to double check, all I did was change the production thing from "balanced" to "production" - is that all I need to do, or do I have to go further with the "custom" option and move certain workers to certain tiles??

Production may not be sufficient because even when you choose it (or science, or grass, etc.) the game will select a tile which is not what you needed. Kind of odd, when you think about it, but there you have it. So go to custom whereby you can select each and every tile individually. Later in the game, however, I've learned that if I select science or gold (or whatever) that I will get more science or gold from large cities than if I try to select each tile separately.

[spikethedee]

A couple more questions came to mind yesterday:

If you've got a truce with someone for 10 turns (after bullying them into giving you a nice tech!!) is there any way to break it, or do you have to sit on his border massing your troops until the dove disappears?

When you discover a forest/grassland/desert etc, do you have to land on a specific space, or just anywhere on it? I've had a couple of games where I have crossed a river, but didn't seem to get to name it until I got to the mouth of it. Is there a marker or something that lets you know what you get gold for? I've wasted quite a few turns moving over every space of what I thought was a grand forest, and got nothing for it!!

Is there any pattern to where you get your bonus units? I was playing the GOTW and captured Moscow, and all my bonus units for discovering combustion, gunpowder etc, appeared there, rather than "my" capital.

Loads of people talk about "walk-ins". Am I getting it right in thinking this means being able to take another city without a fight (ie, and "empty city")? If so, how common is it, as I can only ever remember taking one city without a fight, when it was built right next to mt Horsemen. I've read a few posts where strategies seem to be based at least in part on getting walk-ins in the early game. Am I missing something, or is there an easy way to get them?

Thanks again for all you help,

[JackHall2003]

A couple more questions came to mind yesterday:

If you've got a truce with someone for 10 turns (after bullying them into giving you a nice tech!!) is there any way to break it, or do you have to sit on his border massing your troops until the dove disappears?

You have to wait the ten turns.

When you discover a forest/grassland/desert etc, do you have to land on a specific space, or just anywhere on it? I've had a couple of games where I have crossed a river, but didn't seem to get to name it until I got to the mouth of it. Is there a marker or something that lets you know what you get gold for? I've wasted quite a few turns moving over every space of what I thought was a grand forest, and got nothing for it!!

The more you play, you will get a better idea of what tiles can be named, patterns of forest / desert etc, although saying that, I've played hundreds of games and still cannot reliably get it right. Maybe someone else knows better.

Is there any pattern to where you get your bonus units? I was playing the GOTW and captured Moscow, and all my bonus units for discovering combustion, gunpowder etc, appeared there, rather than "my" capital.

Thanks again for all you help,

This thread will go some way to giving you an idea how it works - http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/sho...-should-appear

[spikethedee]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I did edit my last post, so people might have missed one of the questions as between editing it, the above answer was put in, so here goes:

Loads of people talk about "walk-ins". Am I getting it right in thinking this means being able to take another city without a fight (ie, and "empty city")? If so, how common is it, as I can only ever remember taking one city without a fight, when it was built right next to mt Horsemen. I've read a few posts where strategies seem to be based at least in part on getting walk-ins in the early game. Am I missing something, or is there an easy way to get them?

Hopefully this'll be the last dumb question (I hope!)

Thanks again.

[elthrasher]

Walk-ins are very common if you move your settler. Not too common if you settle in place. I get walk-ins all the time. Move settler. Get gold. Settle by AI. There's a thread about how to do this.

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...Abusing-the-AI

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...asis-on-H2H%29

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...Settler-Moving

[Legatus]

If you see 3 of the same type of terrain, there is a good chance 1 will be a naming tile.

You'd also be surpised how many are on small islands.

[asmodeios]

Walk-ins are very common if you move your settler. Not too common if you settle in place. I get walk-ins all the time. Move settler. Get gold. Settle by AI. There's a thread about how to do this.

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...Abusing-the-AI

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...asis-on-H2H%29

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...Settler-Moving

You can get walk-ins fairly common from settling in place.

The trick is to keep your first 2 warriors moving past the barbs close to you. If I decide to build 3 or 4 warriors and have barbs fairly close my first 2 warriors will keep moving past the barbs instead of taking time on those barbs they get an AI city. You can do this and get an AI in about 1/2 your games consistently imo and not only that but also end up with more barbs as well.