Some basic gameplay questions

[sjudubbel]

Hi!

I consider myself a pretty decent player. I usually beat all AI on prince difficulty. However, I havn't played for all that long and I seem to have missed some basic gameplay elements. And I also have some questions which would help improve my game. Please answer if you have the time.

1. What do the symbols, in the city screen, of a money bag or a loaf of bread mean? Which amount of food/commerce do they equal?

2. Can you have use for several of the same kind of luxury trade item? I mean, is it better to have 3 sources of fur than 1 source of fur for any other reason except trading it with other civs? Or do you only get the positive effects from one of the same kind, and therefore making a very good idea to trade away the surplus?
The AI will often give me just 4 gold per turn for one of my excess luxury items, could it generally be worth that?

3. How can I view the combat odds before commencing battle? Is that possible? Or at least view the odds for a longer period of time than it just swooshing by during the actual battle?

4. How important is it to manage your workers manually and not assigning them to auto mode?
I understand it is recommended to use them manually, but how important is this really since it seems to take quite some time sometimes. I am also a bit unsure what is recommended to build with them. I guess builind cottages in the beginning to have them grow later is wise? All depending on the terrain and strategy of course.

5. Could it often be worth to keep without any state religion during the entire game, just to aviod seriously annoying all the AI-players?

[ColdPhoenix]

1. The big symbols mean 5 of the little eg an anvil = 5 hammers.
2. There's no use for additional resources beyond the first of a type unless you have a corporation that uses that resource.
3. You can see the odds by hovering the mouse over the unit in question when the unit is set to "go to". If you decide not to move you can cancel.
4. All depends on how much time you want to spend. The early turns are most important so I manage them myself then and slowly start automating them as the game progresses.
5. I wouldn't recommend it as you miss all the bonuses that having a state religion provides.

[snoopy369]

1. The money bag/bread loaf/anvil are 5 of their respective resource.

2. You can use several of a resource only with corporations. Otherwise you should trade them, as you get only one happiness or whatever from any given resource type.

3. If you right click on the target and hold (but don't let go), in the mid left hand area it should show you the battle odds. It might show you before you right click, even, I forget.

4. In general, you should manage your workers manually. Only late in the game is auto a good idea. You should build what is appropriate for any given city; each city should have a specialization, whether that is making hammers (->wonders/units), commerce, specialists, etc. A city with commerce should have cottages and windmills; a city with hammers should have enough food to use all of its hammer tiles, and then commerce thereafter; a specialist (GP) city should have as much food as possible to support without unhappy people.

5. Yes, I do this often. If you don't need the happiness, or don't want to piss off a particularly dangerous AI or group of AIs, it's quite intelligent to stay without a state religion; and if you can get Free Religion early (through the wonder), even better. That said, it can also be a good idea to get a state religion early on in order to piss off an AI (and get it to attack you, then creaming its attack stack with a bunch of catapults, and then moving in and taking its defenseless cities).

[Solomwi]

1. Five. Also, an anvil equals five hammers.

2. You only get positive effects from one instance of each resource until corporations come around, though as you mentioned, trading is a good use for redundant resources. If I trade my 2nd wheat for your 2nd corn, I've essentially gotten a health bonus from both my wheat resources. 4 gpt may be right for the resource in your situation, or the AI may be willing to pay far more, but only have 4 gpt available to pay you. It's up to you to decide whether you're willing to part with the resource for that. Note that a corporation will make use of as many instances of the same resource as it can.

3. Hold the mouse button over the enemy as if you're going to attack, but don't release it to actually make your unit move. The odds should remain displayed in the bottom left. If you decide not to attack, just move the cursor back over your unit and release.

4. Very important. The AI does silly things with workers, and even when it's making reasonable moves, they may not fit with your plans. It can't read your mind to know that you want a commerce city here or production city there. As for what to build, that's entirely dependent on your situation.

5. I guess it could, though usually a better approach is to carefully choose which civs to annoy and which to align yourself with. You can't be friends with everybody, and it's a shame to miss out on the benefits of a state religion by trying to be.

[Krill]

5. I guess it could, though usually a better approach is to carefully choose which civs to annoy and which to align yourself with. You can't be friends with everybody, and it's a shame to miss out on the benefits of a state religion by trying to be.

No, but you can be enemies with them all.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by Krill

5. I guess it could, though usually a better approach is to carefully choose which civs to annoy and which to align yourself with. You can't be friends with everybody, and it's a shame to miss out on the benefits of a state religion by trying to be.

No, but you can be enemies with them all.

Which is usually how I play. At least eventually.

[Blaupanzer]

Even religious friends will attack. Especially if "aggressive AI" is on. The happiness/building advantages of religion are too valuable to miss from the Classical to the Renaissance. So not everyone is your friend! It's not a popularity contest, it's a competition to be the best. This is especially so if you turn off the diplomatic victory to avoid the exploits available thru the AP and the UN. No matter what the game designers say, the leading civilization on earth will not be determined by a vote of national representatives.

[Theben]

Re: Some basic gameplay questions

Originally posted by sjudubbel
The AI will often give me just 4 gold per turn for one of my excess luxury items, could it generally be worth that?

When in the diplomacy screen, it'll list the amount of gold/turn the AI is producing. He won't trade more than that for anything. What you should do is check back after 10+ turns have gone by and see if he has more $$ available. If he does, cancel your agreement and then offer it to him again. Almost always they will accept a new agreement at a higher price. Just be sure he doesn't have a new resource of that type or you won't be able to trade it back, let him get around to cancelling it on his own time!

4. How important is it to manage your workers manually and not assigning them to auto mode?

I never automate, even late game, unless building railroads. To cut down on time group them together in 2 or 3 and have them combine work on a task.

I am also a bit unsure what is recommended to build with them. I guess builind cottages in the beginning to have them grow later is wise? All depending on the terrain and strategy of course.

Unless I have flood plains I rarely build cottages early. Early on I try to get Writing and libraries and (hopefully) the Pyramids for Representation. Then I can have 1-2 scientists per city with +15 per city... this will require some farms as well as health/happy bonuses so try to get those as well. Only around midgame do I start building cottages, and then only in 'commerce' cities. I probably should convert more tiles to cottages but I often wait too long.

Could it often be worth to keep without any state religion during the entire game, just to aviod seriously annoying all the AI-players?

While you might consider switching later in the game, early on you should press for Org Religion at the very least, which means you need a state religion. It's better to either adopt one of your close, powerful neighbors or get a home-grown one and build missionaries and send those to your neighbors and convert them. Then not only do you have a state rel, but you have diplomatic bonuses with your nearby civs. Don't worry about a civ on the other side of the planet declaring war on you... that's just another opportunity to get on the good side of your neighbors by convincing them to declare war on that civ (or you declare war when they ask, no need to send troops!).

[Baldyr]

5. I wouldn't recommend it as you miss all the bonuses that having a state religion provides.

Yeah, another bonus is - you get a bonus in cities with State Religion.

I did however notice something new playing the RFC Mod (well, I was testing my hardware really), but I don't know if this applies to all BTS games: You get a bonus for EVERY religion present i a city as long as you don't have a State Religion. Bug or Feature, you tell me...

That meant that I didn't choose a state religion before I needed to switch to a more advanced Religious Civic (like Organized Religion for buildings or Pacifism for Great People.) Also, I built a Monastery belonging to my largest religion in order to spread that religion to all cities before choosing it as my state religion. In the mean time I didn't have to do anything to get my cities to produce culture, which helped out a lot.

[Diadem]

One more thing about automated workers, in addition to what others said.

If you do automate workers, make sure you select "automated workers leave old improvements" in the game options. Otherwise you will cry if you discover, 10 turns after putting them on automation, that they've farmed over all your towns

Another good idea may be "automated workers leave forests". It's not that you don't want to cut forests, you certainly want to, but not all of them, and it's important to select the right ones for cutting.

I usually automate a few workers later in the game. I set them on 'build traderoute'. They will only upgrade resources and build roads/railroads then. Very useful. Saves me a lot of time, and they won't interfere with my plans for tile improvements.

[Blaupanzer]

Originally posted by Baldyr
I did however notice something new playing the RFC Mod (well, I was testing my hardware really), but I don't know if this applies to all BTS games: You get a bonus for EVERY religion present i a city as long as you don't have a State Religion. Bug or Feature, you tell me...

It's a feature. In Free Religion, you get one happy face and one point of culture for each religion in the city.

[Baldyr]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer


It's a feature. In Free Religion, you get one happy face and one point of culture for each religion in the city.

No, no... This is during Paganism (or whatever he default religious Civic is called). Does this only apply to RFC or to BTS in general?

(I'm not sure if it actually was one per religion, or one period in cities with at least one religion.)

[Diadem]

It's normal. If you do not have a state religion you get 1 culture for every religion. If you do have a state religion you only get culture for your state religion.

[Blaupanzer]

Having a state religion matters for happy faces and for building enhancement in organized religion. As noted, for these purposes "Free Religion" is treated as a religion for part of the happy faces.