black-clicking to find cities

[rah]

I doubt that even though it's allowed in our games, it isn't used all that much. Small worlds with large continents are what we play. This means that usually everyone starts on Cont 1. This means that clicking to outline the coast doesn't work, unless it's an inland sea.

I usually only use it to check to see if a whale is already in use before I plop a city down. Or localizing a city that I know I'm real close to. An occasional time clicking a vast ocean to see if there are any islands that I can use to cross the ocean early. Otherwise, it's really tedious and I don't have time or the desire to do it. Most of the people that I play with state similar things.

[Scouse Gits]

Originally posted by rah
I usually only use it to check to see if a whale is already in use before I plop a city down.

Pardon my stupidity, but how can you do this?

Stu

[rah]

Click on all the squares that can reach the whale. If you find no cities, then it's not being used.

[DrSpike]

Re: black-clicking to find cities

Originally posted by debeest
When you black-click, the map centers itself on your click. But if you click on a city square, the map does not center itself. Thus, if you black-click all over the place, you can locate cities by noting which square you clicked on without the map jumping.

I suppose this could be quite handy in MP, where locating your enemy early is vitally useful.

Debeest mentioned it here.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by rah
Click on all the squares that can reach the whale. If you find no cities, then it's not being used.

Presumably you are assuming that if there is a city in range of a whale that city will be using it? This seems a good assumption for a human opponent, but do the AI always follow it? I seem to remember an example in the Silly Rules game where we managed to grab a whale site that was within range of an AI city - but my memory may be failing.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Cyrion]

rjm, remember that Rah is a MP player, and I guess he now has mostly (if not only) human opponents!

[Bloody Monk]

The only time I think the AI does not take a whale is if there is a fish to be had.

Monk

[Scouse Gits]

Surely a whale can be 'in the black' for one city and not for another

[DrSpike]

The point is that if you uncover the whale but it is possible there is a city in unexplored territory that could be using it, you can use the possibility Debeest mentioned to check whether there is a city in the black.

[ramses II.]

In a special case you can use the "search city"-option - if the city bears a wonder of the world, the map will center at that city, even if you can't see it. But you know where to search it (I like bribing such cities!).

[rah]

Yes, against the AI, food is given priority over other factors in worker selection. So Fish, Pheasants, wheat, etc, will be worked first. Humans will usually take the whale and keep it there so it can't be stolen.

But that raises a question that I've never had answered.
Two cities in range of a whale. THe player that has the whale builds a settler so the workers are redistributed and you zoom to the city as you get the settler build notification to change one worker back to the whale. If player two is in city maint at that time, can he steal the whale in those few seconds that you aren't working it?


And yes SG, I have had cases where I knew there was a city that couldn't be working a whale because it was still in the black. (Usually 2 squares off the coast before they have mapmaking) I will use those whales to build my forward bases for attacking.
But if that's not the case, I won't risk building a city if there's a chance my opponent knows it's there and is using it, unless there are other reasons for building the city there.

[Mercator]

I guess everyone already knows you don't always need black-clicking to find new enemy cities? When a city has irrigation or farmland, the square of the city itself also displays the irrigation/farmland graphic. That also happens with AI cities, with the added bonus that you can see that city-square irrigation/farmland, even if you can't see the city.

[Scouse Gits]

rah - A possible answer to your lost whale quandary - admittedly not always possible - but if you put one worker to Elvis just before the Settler pops it is the elvis that is lost - not the whale.

Stu

[rah]

When we play MP 2x production, irrigation usually doesn't happen till much later in the game.

[Mercator]

Yes, I figured it wasn't nearly as useful. Even in my mediocre single-player games I can only take advantage of that in the end-game (post 1500 at least, I think).