civ 4 to BTS questions

[Zero]

ok I havent played civ in a looooong time... I played a bit of 4, used to play 3 quite alot.

Turns out my friend's friends all play BTS and now Im interested in getting my game back in shape so I can get ready for MP with them.

any tip for someone whos been out of the game for while since civ4 (more like 3)? alot of the things i remember are probably outdated by patches and expansion now.

IIRC

- slavery was overpowered. there was some math on slavery here but i forget the details. all i remember was that its was very benefical to use slavery. Has this mechanic been changed in anyway?

- didnt the english have overpowered riflemen? IIRC their strength was more than normal ones. It seems like thats been changed.

- religious civs were good in civ 3. ergo spirtual = good? seems like w/ civics you'd want to be switching things around more often than before.

-and couple more quation ill think of later.

[snoopy369]

Slavery is still powerful; however, events can occur (slave revolts and such) that weaken it so long as you're in slavery. Also, some of the other civics in that run were strengthened (caste system, at least).

The english still have redcoats, that's a normal UU. I don't believe that's been changed, though it's been a long time since Vanilla.

Spiritual is not really that great anymore, because you now get anarchy-free changes in Golden Ages, which now can be started with 1 GP at first (1,2,3 instead of 2,3,4).

Biggest changes:
* Catapults/etc. can't kill units now - only take down to a set % of HP, then they retreat.
* Chopping forest gives 20 hammers until Mathematics, then 30.
* New leader types - Imperial and Charismatic. The former gives cheaper settlers, the latter gives faster promotions (25% cheaper xp-wise) and +1 happy face.
* Great Generals - lead units, giving them free upgrades and 20xp, or +2xp to builder city

[Garth Vader]

Redcoats were nerfed.

Another big change from vanilla:
- Each civ gets a unique building.

[Virulent]

Originally posted by snoopy369
The english still have redcoats, that's a normal UU. I don't believe that's been changed, though it's been a long time since Vanilla.

Redcoats were nerfed a fair amount from Vanilla->Warlords and were kept that way in BtS. Although they weren't nerfed as bad as Cossacks were (I still maintain Cossacks were nerfed too much).

Spiritual is not really that great anymore, because you now get anarchy-free changes in Golden Ages, which now can be started with 1 GP at first (1,2,3 instead of 2,3,4).

Also you can build the new Christo Renditor wonder which more or less acts like the Spiritual trait although that doesn't come up until fairly late in the game (Radio IIRC).

[Zero]

Originally posted by snoopy369

Spiritual is not really that great anymore, because you now get anarchy-free changes in Golden Ages, which now can be started with 1 GP at first (1,2,3 instead of 2,3,4).

so long as ur in GA there is no anarchy? wow, so it basically gives u the spi trait....

Biggest changes:
* Catapults/etc. can't kill units now - only take down to a set % of HP, then they retreat.

sounds like they went back to civ3-esque catapults.

* Chopping forest gives 20 hammers until Mathematics, then 30.

so what does this mean? should i be saving those forest until mathematics or is there situation where i should be cutting them down anyway to rush certain wonders? more explanation on how this plays out would be appreciated.

[rah]

Spiritual doesn't always start with myst., so an early religion is not an automatic.

[Vampgelus]

Stupid off-topic question :

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly ?

[Zero]

yes IIRC, IIRC is if i remember correctly. :-p

oh and CS sling shot. Is that still viable? and is it in MP?
what traits in your opinion is a good combo?

[snoopy369]

CS slingshot was nerfed, by adding in a requirement (Math? I forget.) Usually you now CoL slingshot, or Feudalism, or something else.

[Virulent]

Originally posted by snoopy369
CS slingshot was nerfed, by adding in a requirement (Math? I forget.) Usually you now CoL slingshot, or Feudalism, or something else.

I've tried doing a Theology slingshot in order to grab Christianity and get a head start on the AP a few times but that probably wouldn't work out too well in a MP game.

[snoopy369]

No sane MP game would include the AP as an option

(Well, competitive MP, as opposed to 'for fun' MP or 'diplogame' or other games with non-'win fast in a balanced game' purposes)

[Willem]

Originally posted by Zero

so what does this mean? should i be saving those forest until mathematics or is there situation where i should be cutting them down anyway to rush certain wonders? more explanation on how this plays out would be appreciated.

You can still chop early if you want, though you get your best yield later. But it's no longer a good idea to chop down everything. There's a new improvement for Forests and Jungles called Preserves that's available with Scientific Method. Each one will make 1 citizen in your city happy and they speed up the regeneration of Forests/Jungles in nearby squares. There's also a National Park national wonder that will give you a free specialist for each Preserve in the city. Combined with the health bonus you get from Forests, it's now a good idea to leave a few of them standing. Though I still think Jungles aren't worth keeping.

[Bkeela]

One thing that took me by surprise is tech trading or any other trades now puts you in a ten turn peace treaty. So exploiting a civ before invasion is nerfed.

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by Bkeela
One thing that took me by surprise is tech trading or any other trades now puts you in a ten turn peace treaty. So exploiting a civ before invasion is nerfed.

Trades donot cause a peace treaty... Demands do.

I used to demand all their $$ before a declaration of war, now I cant... So It's a good improvement. But if you offer them a useless tech for all thier $$ you can still declare the same turn.

[Krill]

Originally posted by snoopy369
No sane MP game would include the AP as an option

(Well, competitive MP, as opposed to 'for fun' MP or 'diplogame' or other games with non-'win fast in a balanced game' purposes)

Finally, I got Snoopy brainwashed