what would you like to build in this city?

[saw]

Nothing...but I dont know how?
---
I have a few citys buit for troop development, but during periods of low troop development id like to "pause" using those citys, however the pop-up menu kinda demands a choice.

do I have any options?
Thanks in advance
Saw

[Diadem]

Why would you want to do that? There's really no such thing as too many units. Sure maintenance can be a killer, but in that case you should've gone to war long ago

If you don't want units, build buildings. Even a troop-specialist city benefits - a bit - from a library or marketplace. So if it's a choice between nothing or those, build those. Or start a wonder that you can't finish anyway, for the money.

Finally, later in the game, you can obviously build wealth, science of culture. But I assume you're talking about early game when those aren't avaible yet?

Anyway, there is a trick to forcing cities to idle. If you put on the 'minimize popups' option, the choice isn't forced on you until the very end of the turn. So you can end your turn before giving a city new orders. But really, there's not much point.

[snoopy369]

Granary
Library
Courthouse
Marketplace
Bank
University
Temple(s)
etc.

But yes, there are never too many units.

[Krill]

um...where's the pic?

[Boracks]

IMHO, if you haven't reached the stage where you can switch to research or wealth, then you should still be building units. If you can, I'd go with research unless your economy needs you to go with wealth. Like, to support more units.

[Theben]

If nothing else, you could probably use some workers. Or build settlers now for placement overseas later when Astronomy becomes available. Never go idle.

[Blaupanzer]

If you have Writing, you can go to research. (Prior to Writing, build MORE units.) Once you have Construction, build catapults if nothing else seems critical. You will use up a lot of catapults in war -- and there will be wars. Keep up the seige units throughout the game, at least until Combustion and Flight. Wealth and culture will also be alternatives at Currency and Drama. Don't do those with very narrow exceptions, build more seige units, if nothing else.

[Supr49er]

Build units, units, units.

Welcome to Apolyton saw.

[The Priest]

Maybe this wasn't saw's situation, but I have certainly been in situations where this is a real problem.

Early game, with a successful military expansion. Tech is still fairly primative, perhaps particularly because of a military focus e.g. bronze, archery etc. Therefore you don't have the tech to build many buildings.

Meanwhile your military success has given you more cities and hence a collapsing economy. OK, you think, no problem we can bounce along at 10% science for a bit, while the cottages etc. come on line, and when they do, I will still have a massive empire.

But what do you build? More troops adds to maintenance costs and so weakens the ecomony more. More war means more conquest, leading to more costs, so that is counter productive. But you can't build buildings because you don't have the tech, and you can't get the tech at the moment because you are only researching at 10%, and of coruse this is before you have the techs to allow you to divert production into something else. Even building settlers/workers isn't a good idea because, after whipping during your war, you desparately want the cities to grow to give you teh income to get yourself out of the mess.

I guess the answer is conquest and raising, it just seems such a waste to me.

Maybe this is a wierd situation, but I have been in it in a number of games owing to early military successes. I always now try to keep in mind what buildings can i build when choosing which techs to research. But i recongise the problem of not having anything to build.

[Blaupanzer]

Priest, you are letting your military get ahead of your civ's short-term ability to handle the long-term goals. Just as you don't build every city you can in the early game, don't take every city you can either. Be selective. You can make peace. You don't have to take cities and burn them because you can't afford to keep them. Just don't take them, YET.

[The Priest]

What, and let the heathen continue to pollute the world by their very existance? Never!

(The truth is that I am always reluctant to half conquer a neighbouring Civ. I know, I know, prune them is the good way forward, but I just don't like the 'we want to rejoin our motherland' unhappiness, the revolts, the culture wars etc. Once a Civ is down i just want to elimiate it completely, so that their people forget they were ever not parts of my civilization. And it stops the weak bit that is left being absorbed by another civ, or, later on, being vassilised.)

[saw]

basically I just was not playing right...lol
I am just now learning what the fat cross is, and trying to figure out how to "score it"

I was playing from a warcraft/aoe perspective getting many citys built so I could get faster troop development...rather than developing production correctly so I could get faster troop development.

anyway thanks for the help

[Diadem]

I guess the answer is conquest and raising, it just seems such a waste to me.

Yet that is the answer. Not only does it get rid of unwanted units, it also gains you lots of gold from the cities you capture, and weakens your neighbours.

If you don't want to raze, you can just weaken and pillage, I guess. But there's really no problem in razing. Just don't raze cities with wonders in them.

And perhaps be a bit more selective in what you conquer in the first place.

I agree with you that leaving civs half-alive can be very problematic. I too prefer a clean kill. But that doesn't mean I need to conquer every last city. I keep the ones with wonders, I keep very well placed cities, and the rest dies (well, if my economy is very good I might keep everything. But that's usually only lategame).

Killing a city and replacing it sometime later is often not a bad idea. Saving you 50 turns (on normal) of maintenance is certainly worth a settler.


If all else fails, you can always delete units. That's not even a complete waste. Delete older units, and replace with newer ones.

Finally you can slow down the production speed of cities with your tile selection. Work sea tiles instead of mines, for example. Replacing production with commerce is sometimes a good idea.

[eris]

An actual answer to the original question is to build units and then delete them. It is a waste of hammers; it is sacriligous to not want more unts; but what else can you do?

However, as people have pointed out, the real answer beyond the question is to not let yourself get in such a predicament. I know. I have been there. That is how and why I came up with my answer.

[MoonWolf]

I think this will be only valid in a very spesific situation. If can't afford more units, don't have tech to build anything (not even science or wealth) and won't get a tech for a looong time, I would actually quit the game as a "lessons learnt" and tried again. Unless you are really die hard though...

Or, you can start a defensive war to collect Great General points. Don't attack, but use your units to defend in bottlenecks etc.

[Blaupanzer]

If in the very strange but apparently possible situation of building units to delete them, modify that a bit by building the most up-to date units, then delete to oldest most obsolete units. Again, even at marathon speed, seems unlikely that every city would have every building available to it prior to your reaching writing. After the libraries, if no other building remains for a city and your unit numbers have your costs equal to your income, then build beakers.