Pillaging roads?

[Dis]

Originally posted by Harrier UK


You are right - it does not have many main roads. It does not have any Motorways either. Although some are near its' borders.

You can get to London (Capitol) in under 2 hours. But if you try to go to the Midlands or tothe North of the country, the roads are so unbelievably bad.

Example:

Drive London to Blackpool [northwest England] - (4 or 5 hours) if keeping to speed limits {nearly all motorway}.

London to Norwich [Norfolk] - (2 or 3 hours) {some motorway outside of Norfolk}.

Norwich to Blackpool - (7 or 8 hours) {mostly on minor roads until reaching the Midlands of England}.

Sounds reasonable except:

Norwich is 120 miles [approx] North East Of London and Blackpool is 250 miles [approx] North West of London.

So with a proper road system, as in the rest of England Norwich Blackpool should take (3 or 4 hours) not (7 or 8).

Sounds daft but, it is nearly quicker to drive over 100 miles in the wrong direction to join the Motorway system - in order to get to the north of England from Norfolk.

oh, and I was talking about the wrong Norfolk. I feel stupid. I guess I'll give it to you guys, since that was the first city named Norfolk, but it still isn't home to the world's largest navy base.

But sometimes american roads aren't much better, especially in the east. Many towns were formed not with the purpose of the quickest route, but their access to certain things (especially rivers). So you often find yourself driving Northwest (along the river) to get to the major North-South route (which would be interstate 95)

[sparkyal]

As for Norfolk (in the USA) it has quite a road system. the main highway is 64, based off of that highway there are the following: 264, 464, 564, 664, and even a 164 (but it is a route). Each one of them has a major connection with either a military instalation or port facilities. Additionaly there are no less then 5 tunnels in the area. All these are minimum 4 lanes. now, bear in mimd the pop size, in all 6 cities there (Norfolk, VA Beach, Hampton, Newport News, Chesappeake (I can't spell), Suffolk, there are only 1.2 million people. I haven't even spoken of the 4 or 5 major routes. I also lived in DC which had nothing on Norfolk in terms of roads. anyway, that's my opinion.

Back to the topic, roads rock!

sparky

[Harrier UK]

Originally posted by Dis


oh, and I was talking about the wrong Norfolk. I feel stupid. I guess I'll give it to you guys, since that was the first city named Norfolk, but it still isn't home to the world's largest navy base.

But sometimes american roads aren't much better, especially in the east. Many towns were formed not with the purpose of the quickest route, but their access to certain things (especially rivers). So you often find yourself driving Northwest (along the river) to get to the major North-South route (which would be interstate 95)

My mistake. I saw your USA flag avitar. I then assumed you had been based at one of the American Air Bases we have arround here.

[Dis]

nope, only air bases I've been to was in Sicily (and only for a couple of weeks). And that would be of the naval air base variety.

but that is off topic. . As air bases don't need roads . Okay they do, but you get my point.

[MasterDave]

Having lots of roads on all tiles is your best defense against invaders. With roads, your troops move two or three or ten times as fast as your enemies.

Also, I have no problem automating most of my wokers once my main resources have been developed and linked, and all forests that I wish to chop have been chopped. I will usually automate them once all critical tasks are done- with the do not overwrite improvements and do not chop down forests boxed checked. They do a fine job, only occasionally blundering too close to enemy soldiers and getting capped.

On multiplayer games automating workers after a certain point is a must, either to make the turn timer and/or show courtesy to the other players who should not have to wait as I futz around on non-essential tasks.

[Nohbody8]

Originally posted by MasterDave
Having lots of roads on all tiles is your best defense against invaders. With roads, your troops move two or three or ten times as fast as your enemies.

I realize that. However, in my experience, invaders only go after cities or resources. Since I build roads on every tile (except worthless desert tiles) in every city and connect all my resources via roads, the only other roads I need would be to connect my cities. I don't need to be able to get to that far-flung grassland tile that isn't worked by any city. If the enemy wants to occupy that tile that does not mean a thing while I ravage their cities, that's their prerogative. In other words, I only need to care about the enemy when they are within striking distance from my roads and not before because they are not posing a threat.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Nohbody8


I realize that. However, in my experience, invaders only go after cities or resources. Since I build roads on every tile (except worthless desert tiles) in every city and connect all my resources via roads, the only other roads I need would be to connect my cities. I don't need to be able to get to that far-flung grassland tile that isn't worked by any city. If the enemy wants to occupy that tile that does not mean a thing while I ravage their cities, that's their prerogative. In other words, I only need to care about the enemy when they are within striking distance from my roads and not before because they are not posing a threat.

Nonetheless, it can sometimes be useful to hit small groups of enemy units as soon as they wander into your terratory. Lots of times, the AI sends out lots of little groups of pillagers, or they have a large stack laying siege to one of your cities and have reinforcements slipping in small groups that will join the big stack if you don't kill them first. There are times when it's stratigically adventagous to kill the enemy units earlier. Especally if you're dealing with fast units; if you can't hit his knights until he's gotten to your resources or towns, it's already too late to prevent damamge.

[padillah]

Originally posted by Blake
Also when you actually look at a map of a real world country you'll see there are really roads everywhere, going in all directions. Only mountain ranges break up the web of roads.

Um, take a look at a map of the state of Kansas. There are no roads in that state at all. One highway goes from KC to Topeka and out, another goes from KC to Witchita and out. The rest are streets.

It's the flatest place I've ever been in my life. But GREAT people. I loved it there (lived there for a year).

Tom P.

[MasterDave]

Originally posted by Nohbody8


I realize that. However, in my experience, invaders only go after cities or resources. Since I build roads on every tile (except worthless desert tiles) in every city and connect all my resources via roads, the only other roads I need would be to connect my cities. I don't need to be able to get to that far-flung grassland tile that isn't worked by any city. If the enemy wants to occupy that tile that does not mean a thing while I ravage their cities, that's their prerogative. In other words, I only need to care about the enemy when they are within striking distance from my roads and not before because they are not posing a threat.

Since I mostly just play Civ4 multiplayer lately, I tend to think and post in terms of playing against humans. However, being able to move quickly to any land tile of your empire is worthwhile. For example, you may not be working that far-flung grassland tile you mention, but it may be a great place for your cavalry or cannons to destroy an invading stack before they reach forests or mines that they are seeking to pillage. Without roads being built to get you in and out of that tile quickly you may miss a prime chance to kill off invaders while they are out in the open...

Of course building roads everywhere is usually one of my last priorities after all resources are developed and forests are chopped and there is a minimal road network connecting my cities....

[Dis]

Originally posted by Yosho


Nonetheless, it can sometimes be useful to hit small groups of enemy units as soon as they wander into your terratory. Lots of times, the AI sends out lots of little groups of pillagers, or they have a large stack laying siege to one of your cities and have reinforcements slipping in small groups that will join the big stack if you don't kill them first. There are times when it's stratigically adventagous to kill the enemy units earlier. Especally if you're dealing with fast units; if you can't hit his knights until he's gotten to your resources or towns, it's already too late to prevent damamge.

I realized this my last game playing china on the Earth map against the Mongols. Damn Keshiks.

And it's also a good idea to hit them on those flatland tiles before they can get onto better defensive terrain (though this doesn't apply to Keshiks).

Although it wasn't that relavent this game, as it was still early, and I simply did not have time to get roads up that fast anyways.

I struggle at the Earth map alot, but I still prefer it.

[Dis]

Originally posted by padillah


Um, take a look at a map of the state of Kansas. There are no roads in that state at all. One highway goes from KC to Topeka and out, another goes from KC to Witchita and out. The rest are streets.

It's the flatest place I've ever been in my life. But GREAT people. I loved it there (lived there for a year).

Tom P.

that's because there isn't **** in Kansas. . No offense, there isn't **** in my state either. The roads connect the major cities to the rest of the country. That's about it. Or the roads provide a way to get accross country (either north-south or east-west)

But in Civ terms, the entire state of Kansas may represent 1 tile (on small maps at least). And so you could say that Kansas does indeed have a road on it.

[Nohbody8]

Originally posted by MasterDave
For example, you may not be working that far-flung grassland tile you mention, but it may be a great place for your cavalry or cannons to destroy an invading stack before they reach forests or mines that they are seeking to pillage. Without roads being built to get you in and out of that tile quickly you may miss a prime chance to kill off invaders while they are out in the open...

In my experience, my culture has pushed back the border so that enemies waste a few turns on their own former roads before they threaten any thing of value to my empire. I don't mind the road spam on the borders so much because it can be useful. I just would like the option to get rid of all the unnecessary roads once those border towns become part of my interior.