Beyond the Sword Review by Solver

[fed1943]

I have not BtS yet; reading everything I can find about.

About that corporations thing, please:

Do you think possible to play a "corporation game" v. a "non-
corporation game" (like CE economy v. SE economy) or corporations
must be played like GPfarm in a CE economy?

Best regards,

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Blake


You'd be surprised.

I tested many of the systems to death in figuring out how they worked so I could write and tune the AI. This is particularly true of the later era stuff...

Well I don't have the game so am not in a place to argue.

But from the posts it would seem useful if you could explain how the poison water thing is balanced.

[player1]

Well, it IS balanced on normal difficulty. Result on average no more then 1-3 population drop.

[DrSpike]

Yes, but presumably Blake would not have tested his AI on just one setting exclusively.

[Ijuin]

Here is a possible solution to the corporate drain problem: Add a building--call it the Corporate Branch or something--that will reduce corporation maintenance costs for that city by 50% for corporations owned by you and 25% for corporations owned by foreigners. The building would be available some time in the Industrial Age with an advance that comes after Corporation (Industrialism, maybe?). Much like Courthouses, you would have to build it in any city that you want to reap the maintenance-reduction benefits.

[meriadoc]

I just wanted to take a minute to express my thanks toward Solver for his wonderful in-depth review. No other review that I've read up until this point has been this detailed, and I am even more eager to get my hands upon the game.

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by DrSpike


Well I don't have the game so am not in a place to argue.

But from the posts it would seem useful if you could explain how the poison water thing is balanced.

Its balance is okay on epic too. I wish the other missions were a bit better.

On marathon it is indeed broken.

[Kwagle]

Originally posted by Flhaus
Great review. I only wish that [Firaxis] would put that sort of detail in their manuals. It would help a noob like myself to be more proficient in the game.

The truly sad thing is that the publisher gave the contract for the (official) Strategy Guide to BradyGames. When Civ II came out, the strategy guide was written by Prima, and was extremely detailed and well worth the price.

BradyGames seems to be staffed by the stupidest people on the planet, and produces strategy guides that are basically the same as the included documentation but with the useful parts removed.

Gah.

~ Kiran

[DrSpike]

Sounds pretty much like the Prima guide to me as well. Those guides are awful - we used to post particularly amusing sections from the Civ3 one when it was released.

[Stumple]

Being a long time, though only occasional player, of Civ, I have over the years collected most of the versions & manuals. I've spent far more time reading the reviews, guides etc on here than I've ever given to the manuals, though they do come in useful for shelf filling. The only bit of the Civ III I ever glanced at was the "Exclusive" Sid Meier interview on p200. The BradyGames manual for Civ IV has a nice enough cover. I tend to find I pick up the manuals being sold cheap when I get a Civ or Expansion , then I put it on the shelf cos it's out of date due to patches.

The reviews & info on here are far superior & constantly updated so, whoever is writing them, thanks. I've just got BtS for £14+ from a Supermarket. Loaded first time, no hassles at all.Only played one game so far & acquired my usual win standard Dan Quayle?). The new expansion seems to play ok from what I can see but will have to try & find the time to get back into playing again to look further into issues about the game raised here.

Good review & well worth the read, more than once, for all thinking of getting BtS.

[jkp1187]

Originally posted by realpolitic

Hmm, and to magnify that, build granaries in anticipation of the increased yield. If one of these cities has plenty of mines, it might turn it into a wonder building city, too!

Quite so. I went into corporations expecting to make money, and was disappointed. When I changed my perspective (i.e., that they would provide a desired resource to me FOR A FEE,) I enjoyed them more.

I still don't know if the inflationary effects toward the end make them "worth it" -- that will no doubt become apparent as time goes on -- but, on the other hand, I used them quite successfully in a recent game (as did Frederick, unfortunately, who went on to win a culture victory, just as I was gearing up to launch my spaceship. OH well.)

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by realpolitic


I don't understand the advantage here. If you're going to defeat the stack, you'll have to knock out the most powerful unit anyhow. If there's a more advanced stack that the mounted unit is catching up with, yes it does slow up the attack slightly. If you don't want to lose your most powerful unit because the probably of winning is too low, if you have a big enough stack, attack with weaker, obsolete units first, so that when you attack, your strongest will survive.

It means that you can throw elephants into battle at a stack and not have to worry if there are spears or pikes about. The Ballista Elephant therefore remains a powerful unit in the Mediaeval Age where is can attack a stack of Knights, Pikes, Maces and pick out and defeat the most expensive units leaving the melee units at the mercy of your other units.

Hmm, and to magnify that, build granaries in anticipation of the increased yield.

Yes but 2000 years in anticipation. Granaries are the most important build for almost every city.

[jkp1187]

Originally posted by couerdelion


It means that you can throw elephants into battle at a stack and not have to worry if there are spears or pikes about. The Ballista Elephant therefore remains a powerful unit in the Mediaeval Age where is can attack a stack of Knights, Pikes, Maces and pick out and defeat the most expensive units leaving the melee units at the mercy of your other units.

And throwing a mess of obsolete units into battle, most of which will just get killed, can give you a mess of extra war weariness that you may not be equipped to handle.

[Nelis]

BtS without Warlords ?

Hello,

I have a little question (I didn't found the answer on the web), if you install BtS without having Warlords, will you get the Warlords content included (new civs, units, uniques building, ...) or not ? I know I will not get the Warlords scenarios but that's not a problem if the other contents is there.

In other words, if I don't have any extension for Civ IV does it have a sense to buy Warlords and BtS if only contents and features matters for you, and not especially the scenarios ?

Thanks

[yin26]

No need to buy Warlords, as the only thing you will be missing is the scenarios.