Newbie with second batch of questions

[NFIH]

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with answers to my questions in my first thread. I've played some more (always Settler level) and now have another batch of questions.

1. How does the game determine exactly in which of my cities my religion is founded? It seems to be random. Is there some way to control it?

2. When I build a road from city A to city B, does that road have to go all the way to city B's tile or can I tell the worker to build only up to an existing road that is already connecting to city B?

3. I'm having a problem with starvation/stagnation by the mid-game. The issue doesn't seem to be about increasing bonuses for food production or working tiles (because I've pretty much built on all of them), but that the population itself is larger than the potential food production for that city. But there's no way to stop population increase except to build settlers or workers, which I don't need either. How do I manage this?

4. Barbarians. I've done a search and read various threads about them, but I'm finding that even on Settler (easiest difficulty) with standard barbarian settings there are too many of them. They just keep coming and coming and it's quite tedious. I've tried getting rid of the fog of war by posting sentries, as I've read about here but that hasn't worked. In fact, I can see that the barbarians spawn in plain view of my cities--in the middle of my territory where I have de facto continuous borders. Is this normal? (I fear I'm going to have to turn off barbarians completely, which would be a shame.)

[Solver]

1. No way to control it. It's a function with a large random factor, if you wish, I can post the code, I did in some other thread here...

2. The latter. If you have a B-C road, and connect a road from A with the B-C road, then you get a A-B-C connection.

3. You stop the population increase by turning citizens into specialists. When you see you don't want your city to grow, just make a specialist. Also, the governor has a toggle button for "No Growth" which will automatically manage the citizens in such a way as to not allow growth.

4. Barbarians can not spawn inside your cultural borders. However, there's one lement that is the key in dealing with them. Specifically, Barbarians are stupid. They always attack. Even with suicidal odds. So take an Archer, find a hill, or a forested hill, somewhere near the edge of your borders. Fortify the archer there, and every barbarian unit that sees him will attack and lose.

[NFIH]

Originally posted by Solver
1. No way to control it. It's a function with a large random factor, if you wish, I can post the code, I did in some other thread here...

Won't be necessary, thanks. Just wanted to be sure there isn't something I can do about it.

2. The latter. If you have a B-C road, and connect a road from A with the B-C road, then you get a A-B-C connection.

You've saved me a few mouse clicks! By the way, do you find the "route" button for building roads takes routes more circuitous than necessary? I'm starting to think I need to manually build the roads so they go in more direct lines. ...

3. You stop the population increase by turning citizens into specialists. When you see you don't want your city to grow, just make a specialist. Also, the governor has a toggle button for "No Growth" which will automatically manage the citizens in such a way as to not allow growth.

Hmm, I was wondering about this. Believe it or not, I have never built a specialist. Never seemed to have enough extra population to do it.

EDIT: Oops, just had another quick look at the manual and it says specialists still consume two food each. So am I really "saving" any food expense (that is avoiding starvation) given that I'll still need someone working the land to create the two food?

4. Barbarians can not spawn inside your cultural borders.

But they CAN spawn in those spaces between your cities. That seems to be my problem. Maybe I'm not building my cities close enough to each other? (I've been trying to claim space by spreading out my cities.)

However, there's one lement that is the key in dealing with them. Specifically, Barbarians are stupid. They always attack. Even with suicidal odds. So take an Archer, find a hill, or a forested hill, somewhere near the edge of your borders. Fortify the archer there, and every barbarian unit that sees him will attack and lose.

Yeah, I've tried this but its effectiveness is spotty at best so far. Often the barbs just go right around my sentries and attack an improvement or my city. Grrr.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by NFIH
But they CAN spawn in those spaces between your cities. That seems to be my problem. Maybe I'm not building my cities close enough to each other? (I've been trying to claim space by spreading out my cities.)

You'll find that the AI is quite good at putting cities in any gap you leave.

Barbarians will only spawn in the fog of war, so if you have a big gap between cities you can always leave a unit or two in the fog of war areas so they don't spawn.

I find that in the early years I probably leave more than half my units outside the cities guarding against barbarians as solver suggested and stopping them spawning or defending key resources/workers. You can always move them to attack barbarians if necessary, or bring units out of the city.

[padillah]

Originally posted by Solver

3. You stop the population increase by turning citizens into specialists. When you see you don't want your city to grow, just make a specialist. Also, the governor has a toggle button for "No Growth" which will automatically manage the citizens in such a way as to not allow growth.

Unless I'm mistaken he's asking the opposite, now that I've gotten over-populated is there anyway to make that stop.

I don't think so. Other than Slave Rushing something or letting the "offending" pop point starve.

One good thing, except for loosing pop starvation doesn't do anything bad.

You could also look at whether all your citizens are happy and working. If you've got an unhappy citizen he won't work and won't produce food.

Tom P.

[Solver]

About Barbarians: they only go around your units if they don't see them. Or sometimes if they want to pillage. Which is why defending your pastures / resource mines is a good idea.

You'll definitely want to start exploring specialists. They're powerful. A fully-specialist economy is a special thing altogether. But basically, a city of size n works n+1 squares around it, including the city square itself (that's where the extra one comes from). If you add a specialist, you're working one square less. Thus, you may stop generating excess food, and thus stop your city from growing .

[NFIH]

Originally posted by MikeH


You'll find that the AI is quite good at putting cities in any gap you leave.

They don't seem to do this on Settler level, so that's OK.

Barbarians will only spawn in the fog of war, so if you have a big gap between cities you can always leave a unit or two in the fog of war areas so they don't spawn.

But this is what I'm saying: barbs are spawning in clear areas in plain view of my cities right before my eyes. There is no fog of war anywhere near me, yet I press "end turn" and a barb pops up right in the middle of my territory.

I find that in the early years I probably leave more than half my units outside the cities guarding against barbarians as solver suggested and stopping them spawning or defending key resources/workers. You can always move them to attack barbarians if necessary, or bring units out of the city.

What about guarding against the barb improvement raids? It's a real pain trying to chase them around as they hop from tile to tile taking out farms, mines, etc. Is there a particular strategy I should be using to counter this?

[NFIH]

Originally posted by padillah


Unless I'm mistaken he's asking the opposite, now that I've gotten over-populated is there anyway to make that stop.

I don't think so. Other than Slave Rushing something or letting the "offending" pop point starve.

One good thing, except for loosing pop starvation doesn't do anything bad.

Oh, OK, I feel a bit better now. That big red "STARVATION" graphic is quite unsettling. I assumed something awful was happening besides losing a pop point.

This is actually a "good" way to cut down the pop.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by NFIH
But this is what I'm saying: barbs are spawning in clear areas in plain view of my cities right before my eyes. There is no fog of war anywhere near me, yet I press "end turn" and a barb pops up right in the middle of my territory.

"Fog of war" areas include land which you have already explored, but has gone dim because you don't have a unit/city that can see it.

Does that sound like it?

They shouldn't be able to spawn in areas where you have a unit or city with line of site.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by NFIH
What about guarding against the barb improvement raids? It's a real pain trying to chase them around as they hop from tile to tile taking out farms, mines, etc. Is there a particular strategy I should be using to counter this?

Sorry, missed this bit.

If you build roads around your improvements (which you want to do anyway to link resources to your cities) your units should be able to move a lot faster than theirs because they don't get the movement bonus for roads inside your territory. .

[padillah]

@NFIH: Don't worry, I've never been clear on what the "Fog Of War" was exactly.

I think there's a difference between the dim gray areas that you have explored but aren't in line of sight, and the Black parts you have not explored yet.

So, technically, there's three levels of "sight".

Tom P.

[alva]

Yup, that's how it works.

Black: unexplored
Grey: Fog of war
Normal colors: real line of sight.

[padillah]

Do barbs spawn in the black as well?

Tom P.

[proviisori]

I would think so... there is barbarian cities there.

[NFIH]

Originally posted by MikeH


"Fog of war" areas include land which you have already explored, but has gone dim because you don't have a unit/city that can see it.

Does that sound like it?

They shouldn't be able to spawn in areas where you have a unit or city with line of site.

Nope. I really do mean they're spawning in plain view right next to my cities--no fog of war or dim areas anywhere nearby. I actually see them pop up because they keep coming from about the exact same spot. It's quite strange.