How can you have Cavalry without Horseback Riding?

[Willem]

I've just been checking out a few tech paths and some of them don't make sense. Like that one for instance. Do they just strap themselves on the horse's back and let it run wild across the terrain?

Another one is Industrialism. You can build Tanks and Battleships without knowing anything about Combustion. OK I can see a steam powered Battleship, but a Tank?

[Martinus]

Uhm you can't have cavalry without Horseback Riding.

What you can do is to invent Military Tradition, but unless you have Horseback Riding, you won't be able to build Cavalry units.

Likewise, tanks and battleships require oil, and it is only obtainable with Combustion. Battleships can also be fueled alternatively with fussion power, but for that you need uranium.

You seem to be thinking in the terms of earlier Civilizations - units in Civ4 need more than one technology in many cases.

[Willem]

Ah yes, I see. I'm forgetting about the unit requirements. Never mind.

But I still think that Industrialism should require Combustion. Large modern factories are run on oil these days, not steam. Assembly Line I can see for Steam Power, but not Industrialism. Another one I don't buy is Flight. With the types of planes depicted I think it should also require Assembly Line. Now if those were Sopwith Camels and there was an Advanced Flight I could see it.

[Bill3000]

Battleships can also be fueled alternatively with fussion power

Fission.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Bill3000


Fission.

I keep confusing the two. Blame my humanist education.

[johnmcd]

Modern factories are run on electricity, not oil. All you need is a way to make electricity and steam will do for that. It's hard to imagine a modern factory without oil though I'll grant you...

[Willem]

Originally posted by johnmcd
Modern factories are run on electricity, not oil. All you need is a way to make electricity and steam will do for that. It's hard to imagine a modern factory without oil though I'll grant you...

But they require Oil for heating. And modern factories rely on trucks to get their products to the buyers. A horse and buggy just wouldn't be efficient enough for the sheer volume of goods being produced in a modern factory. Railroad is only good for so much, you need a smaller local system that trucks provide.

[gdgrimm]

I'll help you out with a good example.

You can wage a war with Riflemen without ever having discovered Engineering. That seems a bit far fetched.

[Hauptman]

what about the screenshot in an earlier thread, where with bombers in his cities he is researching alphabet.

Collored buttons work too I guess.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Hauptman
what about the screenshot in an earlier thread, where with bombers in his cities he is researching alphabet.

Collored buttons work too I guess.

Yeah, I got a kick out of that one.

[Blake]

The engineering bit I find funny is you can build Lumbermills without Engineering. Um, yeah?
I don't think it's coupled as tightly with advanced techs as it should be.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Hauptman
what about the screenshot in an earlier thread, where with bombers in his cities he is researching alphabet.

Collored buttons work too I guess.

There was written language before (or without) the alphabet. Ask the chinese!
The alphabet is just the 3rd incarnation of written text.

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by Willem
But they require Oil for heating. And modern factories rely on trucks to get their products to the buyers. A horse and buggy just wouldn't be efficient enough for the sheer volume of goods being produced in a modern factory. Railroad is only good for so much, you need a smaller local system that trucks provide.

Heating can be provided by coal. All early industrial era households were heated with it.
As for local transport, electrical cars were developed in tandem to petrol-fueled ones in that same time. It's only the first buyers preference which let petrol-fueled ones become dominant.

[Willem]

Originally posted by GeoModder


Heating can be provided by coal. All early industrial era households were heated with it.
As for local transport, electrical cars were developed in tandem to petrol-fueled ones in that same time. It's only the first buyers preference which let petrol-fueled ones become dominant.

Electric vehicles still don't have the same amount of horsepower as a diesel, which is what you need if you're transporting tons of goods out of a factory. Take a look at a transport truck someday and ask yourself if electric power has reached the point where it can replace it. I don't think so.

[elrikk]

Originally posted by CyberShy


There was written language before (or without) the alphabet. Ask the chinese!
The alphabet is just the 3rd incarnation of written text.

Isn't it really the first reincarnation of the 'sound' of written text ?

Elrikk ( an old McLuhan fan)