Apolyton Civ4 PREVIEW (By Solver) - Part 2 online

[Harovan]

Watermills? Productive/specialist cities on floodplains? Sounds very nice!

[Solver]

Civ4: everything is a decision, and a tradeoff. You can ignore watermills, have even MORE food, a ton of specialists but lower production. You can go farms/watermills, giving you decent production but not quite as many specialists. Or, you can use Watermills and also the State Property civic.

State Property is something you guys will have to experience - one of the most interesting civics in the game, period.

[sabrewolf]

speaking of civics: do we have a nice overview somewhere?

THIS is outdated

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Solver
Everything depends on terrain, your choices, etc.

A city located in the middle of floodplains is a GREAT specialist farm. Farm the floodplains, your city supports a number of specialists, excellent. You can, later, put some Watermills around that city for productvity. Or, use Priests/Engineer specialists which give shields, too.

Food bonuses... Civil Service tech lets you build Farms where you previously couldn't, and with Biology, your farms become more productive for food, likely indeed giving you support for extra specialists if you want that.

That sounds like an Amsterdam in the making (in fact reminds me of "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson I am reading right now). Very nice.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
speaking of civics: do we have a nice overview somewhere?

THIS is outdated

quoting myself: CFC has a pretty decent overview http://civfanatics.com/civ4/info/#Civics

[Aks K]

Originally posted by Solver State Property is something you guys will have to experience - one of the most interesting civics in the game, period.

Uhh, plz reveal something about State Property! How does it compare to the other economic civics? Is it worth as a late choise if you compare it to ecology? Does it give a tile bonus?

Originally posted by sabrewolf
quoting myself: CFC has a pretty decent overview http://civfanatics.com/civ4/info/#Civics

Thx and to Xmudder and Civrules

Aks K

[kolpo]

Just thought about something related to state property: if state property gives extra food, wouldn't that create a gigantic famine when you leave state property? In case your empire has very little food buffer(no unused farms or stuff like that).

Thought after the collapse of the USSR had Russia to import gigantic amounts of foreign food, so it is not unrealistic. It could represent the gigantic shock that a sudden change from state property to free market creates.

[Solver]

State Property gives you two bonuses. One is maintenance reduction, and another is a great food bonus that depends, however, on your tile improvements, so you have to have the right improvements to make the most out of this civic.

If you have prepapred for it specifically, or specifically want to run a State Propery strat late in the game, it's very interesting.

[ajbera]

Didn't millions upon millions of people starve in the USSR when Stalin tried to collectivize the farms? Just asking...

[Aks K]

Originally posted by Solver
State Property gives you two bonuses. One is maintenance reduction, and another is a great food bonus that depends, however, on your tile improvements, so you have to have the right improvements to make the most out of this civic.

If you have prepapred for it specifically, or specifically want to run a State Propery strat late in the game, it's very interesting.

Thx for the quick reply . So I am guessing +1 (or +2?) food for windmills and perhaps also watermills. Bonus to farms would be to powerful - I think. Am I totally off here ?

Aks K

[Solver]

It's along those lines.

[Aks K]

Originally posted by Solver
It's along those lines.

Compared to the other economic civics it must not be that powerfull. If it is +1 food for windmills wouldn't it be rather weak? - I mean balanced.

Can one build windmills on flat terrain? Does RR improve the output of windmills?

EDIT:
@sabrewolf: I like your signature

Aks K

[kolpo]

Originally posted by Aks K

Compared to the other economic civics it must not be that powerfull. If it is +1 food for windmills wouldn't it be rather weak? - I mean balanced.

Can one build windmills on flat terrain? Does RR improve the output of windmills?

EDIT:
@sabrewolf: I like your signature

Aks K

Yes but I think that the great thing about this is that windmills/watermills also give other bonuses. Being able to have an improvment that for example gives BOTH good food and good hammers is very powerfull. You no longer need to build farms to compensate the lack of food on those improvements.

State property seems me the most radical economic civic, it can both be the most powerfull and the most weak depending on your situation and improvements.

[Aks K]

Originally posted by kolpo


Yes but I think that the great thing about this is that windmills/watermills also give other bonuses. Being able to have an improvment that for example gives BOTH good food and good hammers is very powerfull. You no longer need to build farms to compensate the lack of food on those improvements.

State property seems me the most radical economic civic, it can both be the most powerfull and the most weak depending on your situation and improvements.

Indeed. I think that +1 food to watermills might be too powerful. If State Property gives a +1 food to windmills of cause. If you have a large empire it can really save you day.

@Solver: Was I encouraging you to violate your NDA agreement? Sry if I was.
Sooo... I have another question for you : You were talking about stone and marble in your article. Roughly how common are these resources?

Aks K

[Solver]

Stone and Marble are less common than other resources. You should not assume that you're going to have one of those close to you in every game.