Vel's Strategy Thread, Volume II

[DeepO]

try hitting F4. 4th tab.

DeepO

[Jaybe]

I can F4 while in diplo discussion with someone?!! Oh, JOY!!! -- and thanx!

EDIT: While the F4 does not work, clicking the 4th icon in upper right corner of the screen DOES work (I've always used the F-keys).

[Velociryx]

Well, I think my problem was not so much that I went with a barracks before troops (a thing I commonly do...I would rather wait a bit and have well trained troops from the outset)...that's a pretty typical move for me, with the caveat being that I most always make for Bronze first, so if trouble arises, I can chop rush the barracks and at least one defender....the big issue in this case was that I changed my beeline when I found myself food-poor (which was, IMO, the right call), but hand-in-hand with that was the requirement that I pay more immediate-term attention to defense. Had I done so....even nominally, I think I woulda survived the first onslaught and been able to get up and running.

As it was....no dice.

Ah well....plenty of time for another game.

-=Vel=-

[sabrewolf]

vel: what i sometimes to to get barracks out first, but still be ready for defence: build a unit until one turn before he's finished. then push barracks in the queue before the unit.

the net time of all builds is the same while you always have the choice to end the unit immediately.

a possible downside of this method is that if you cannot build an archer like that if that's what the first unit must be.
in that case (eg as mansa musa rush), start barracks while researching archery. when you've got it, switch builds to archers. then switch back again a turn before he's finished.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
vel: what i sometimes to to get barracks out first, but still be ready for defence: build a unit until one turn before he's finished. then push barracks in the queue before the unit.

the net time of all builds is the same while you always have the choice to end the unit immediately.

a possible downside of this method is that if you cannot build an archer like that if that's what the first unit must be.
in that case (eg as mansa musa rush), start barracks while researching archery. when you've got it, switch builds to archers. then switch back again a turn before he's finished.

Yeah, I've done the same in some games as well. With early archery, it's an excellent tactic.

DeepO

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Jaybe
I can F4 while in diplo discussion with someone?!! Oh, JOY!!! -- and thanx!

EDIT: While the F4 does not work, clicking the 4th icon in upper right corner of the screen DOES work (I've always used the F-keys).

F4 doesn't work? It does for me... then again, we're not on the same version, so this might have been corrected.

DeepO

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by DeepO
F4 doesn't work? It does for me... then again, we're not on the same version, so this might have been corrected.

While I am using 1.09, I am also using a couple mods (proper score graph 1.7, random events, real fort), which might possibly have side effects. But we assuredly have different computers! And who knows, perhaps it will work in the future, where conditions are slightly different.

[Riotamus]

Originally posted by DeepO

They're truncations. Sadly, this is one of the areas where MM still can give quite a bonus if you want to go for the tedium: by MMing so you have at least truncations as possible, you will be the most efficient possible.

This is one of the few areas where the current game is worse than Civ 3: in there, whatever you would lose by e.g. the slider was distributed over the other coices. (production was different). Not so in CIV. But perhaps we'll get there one day

DeepO

Speaking of MM, how about this option: run a 0-research turn followed by as many 100-research turns as possible before you run out of money? This way the number of losses due to roundings should be reduced by a factor of (roughly) research_rate/(100-research_rate) (thus, almost ten-fold for research rate 90%), plus you are likely to have some upgrade or rushbuy money should you need it urgently. As a downside, you'll be behind by one turn right after the 0-research turn (even though you'll always catch up eventually)

[Velociryx]

I had not thought of that, but technically speaking, it should be more efficient (for exactly the same reasons as a specialized city approach) from a beakers generated standpoint, and worth the extra couple minutes effort, especially if you're playing close to the bone.

-=Vel=-

[DeepO]

Riotamus, running 100% or nothing is indeed one way to do something about roundings, however don't expect too much. There is one other reason why you want to do this, though.

If you're reasearching a tech someone else has, your beakers will be worth more. That is, after your total of beakers for the empire is calculated, some bonus is given to that total for known techs.

This is similar to civ3, where the price of techs went down... only this time, your gain goes up instead of the price going down. This is done to make the teching more smoothly, but you can use this principle: If you know you're researching a tech that will be known to more civs when you end research than when you started, it will alsways be a good thing to go 0% tech first, 100% tech last. This way, you will gain more of a bonus, relatively speaking.

And to have the last consequence mentioned too: if you're building libs which will complete during the tech you should go 0% tech first, 100% later (more bonus from the libs), while the opposite is also true: build markets everywhere, and you're better of going 100% tech first, 0% tech later. Well, if you can, of course, but it's never a bad idea to have some cash laying around.

This is especially true for building Copernicus and Wall street.

DeepO

[Arrian]

Oxford, DeepO, Oxford. Gotta make the transition from CivIII to CivIV

-Arrian

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Arrian
Oxford, DeepO, Oxford. Gotta make the transition from CivIII to CivIV

-Arrian

erhm... right... sorry about that. At least I call those blue things hammers now

DeepO

[Cort Haus]

I've got a question for ye pop-rushers. I keep reading how brilliant it is to be able to grow above your happy cap and then pop-rush down, but all this does for me when I try it is to make an unhappy-at-size-six city into an unhappy-at-size-five city. Yuk!! OK, in ten turns they cheer up but that's 10 turns lost for that pop point.

Also, I like to grow my population and hire specialists when possible. Can pop-rushers hire specialists in 'normal' cities? I mean normal, rather than these fantasy GP pumps I've never had the terrain for. 2 food specials & flood plains are a lot rarer than nuclear meltdowns in my games.

In the early game a few specialists can really go a long way, while the GPs are cheap, and I'm not convinced that early pop-rushing is better than early specialists, for my playstyle.

-Cort, still waiting for the definitive guide to slaughtering one's own citizens.

[Arrian]

I suppose the only way to do what you were hoping to do would be to use the poprush on a temple or other happiness building.

-Arrian

[Velociryx]

CH, the goal, when pop-rushing, is to play as though your happy cap is -1 from what it really is. If you GROW to happy cap (or beyond), then you want to use the pop rush to sacrifice down to happy cap -1 (so that when you execute it, your net result is a happy city that will take more than ten turns to grow). A bit of MM involved, to be sure, but easy enough to execute.

Also, I agree with you about cheaply gotten GP's. Nothing that says you can't have the best of both worlds tho....pop and chop a library, assign two scientists, grab yourself a couple of G-men, and you're set...

-=Vel=-