Total Newbie here - Run for your lives!

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Selling my workers to an AI hurts our relations?

I recall reading somewhere in the manual (which is filled with lies I know) that if you have captured workers and sell them back to their civ, it'd help relations to improve. If that's true, I wonder what will happen if I was to sell a captured worker to some other civ... sort like a slave trade

Basically, just HAVING slaves of any AI civs hurts the relationship... so getting rid of them via either joining them, selling them back, or YES , gifting them to another civ, will help. To be honest, though, I don't pay too much attention to it... if I have like one or two slaves from a specific AI civ, and I want something special from them, than maybe then I'll address it. That's about it though.

[Theseus]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Also I do not make radar towers or any other worker derived structures. If I need them, I have done something wrong.

Why do you say that, v? Outposts have value, in special applications, certainly. And I find Radar Towers to be, well, not indispensable, but of such value that it is sorta silly not to avail oneself... that's like saying you will not build Walls for a chokepoint city, just 'cause you don't like Walls.

[Solomwi]

I've found the rare use for an outpost, but will go nuts building airfields once I get flight. I wouldn't say I need them, since they're in the middle of dozens or hundreds of empty cities that would serve just as well as bases. I just prefer them, and have the spare workers. I don't, however, think I've ever built a radar tower.

[Theseus]

Radar towers are part of my standard offensive tactics in the late game... assuming they are available, why the heck would anyone do without? I mean, on defense, sure, back upt your chokepoints and landings and whatnot, but when you've got dozens or hundreds of excess Workers, why NOT plant them just before an attack, or just after capturing a key position?

I've been doing this as a matter of course for a looong time.

[Solomwi]

I guess I've just never played with them enough to answer the question of whether they help or not when offensive forces attack in enemy territory, but within the RT's range. I'm sure they do and agree with your logic of "why not?", but just haven't done it.

The more I think about it, it seems AI city placement would make the chance for it to be useful fairly rare after that first turn or two when all the border cities fall. It does make good sense for the opening stages, though. I tend to rely heavily on air power and, where possible, artillery/RA at that point in the game to achieve my unit on unit advantage (not to say it's an either/or proposition), so I guess my results have always been good enough to keep me from thinking about it.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Theseus


Why do you say that, v? Outposts have value, in special applications, certainly. And I find Radar Towers to be, well, not indispensable, but of such value that it is sorta silly not to avail oneself... that's like saying you will not build Walls for a chokepoint city, just 'cause you don't like Walls.

[Theseus]

No dice, v. I agree there are better things to research... trade for it then. And going back to meta-game thoughts (not discussed much lately), that is what client states are for!

[vmxa1]

T it is because they are an optional tech that I won't have, unless I get it in a trade.

I will hopefully have rails up by then and be able to pound any invaders, As you know the AI does not invade worth a crap, even at Sid.

I have been at war with all civs in my game and though they have at least 500 troops and some civs have twice that, they send no more than 5 fleets at any one time. Those do not come in a coordinated manor, so I can deal with them at my lesiure.

Zoom artie over if they land, bomb them on the way in, you name it.

The times, I could stand to have towers is when I invade. I can't get one up then, until I no longer need one.

As to outpost, when they are available, I cannot spare workers for them.

Anyway the question was on buying workers late in the game and I still say it is immaterial. Buy them if you like, I have not tested it, but I would bet the gold is more usefult to the AI than the worker anyway.

Maybe at emperor or lower, the AI does not need gold, but at Sid it is alway broke and if they get money from me, it goes to support or upgrade troops. This I do not need.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Theseus
No dice, v. I agree there are better things to research... trade for it then. And going back to meta-game thoughts (not discussed much lately), that is what client states are for!

You won't have any client state at Sid. They have no money and you cannot scare them.

I can't trade for tech after industrial age, even if I have one they don't, they want more than it is worth.

Anyway I am trying to slow the tech pace down, so I do not want techs to be trade or sold. The top dogs do not sell or trade techs around much after late industrial. This is because the lower civs have no cash, nothing to offer.

You can often see a civ without Printing Press while you are building Hoovers. It is all haves and have nots. They all have troops, but only the top ones have tech.

[Theseus]

Well, sure, you have been playing at a very advanced level for a while now, so non-necessary techs get skipped over entirely.

I guess I am saying that if Adv Flight is part of one's game, prolly through trade, then Radar Towers make sense. I agree... in 99% of cases, I would not research Adv Flight to do so, but if I have the chance I will use Radar Towers wherever appropriate.

[vmxa1]

Hey maybe I will fire up a few in your honor. I just traded recycling to the Russians for Adv Flight. I figured I would make them (hopefully) spend shields to build some.

They have so many tiles covered with pollution (no gold to support workers), I wonder how they feed those metros with many tiles not workable.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by vmxa1
They have so many tiles covered with pollution (no gold to support workers), I wonder how they feed those metros with many tiles not workable.

Simple: they overirrigate from day one in anticipation of the day when their metros have to survive on six tiles apiece.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by Barinthus

One annoying feature for me is whenever someone asks to speak with me and I'm like 'Oh sure, bring them on in,' and they want to negiotate - there doesn't seem to be a way to look at the map or consult with advisors. I hope I'm mistaken? I cannot be arsed to remember every single city and their location in other nations also I don't often remember their color. Such as this time Carthage called upon me and asked for an alliance against Inca. I couldn't recall Inca's color and I was planning to declare war on some purple-colored civ. I turn down the offer and turned out that the purple civ was Inca after all! .

I'll usually remember what civ is what, but with cities it's not always in my memory, so I often will just cancel negotiations, look, and then reload the turn. Assuming no attacking has happened, it's not like I'm reloading to influence any outcomes. Of course this can only go for SP, but then I've never yet been approached by the AI in a MP game.

[joncnunn]

On the why would I have the tech for Radar Towers when going for the space race:

I've moded my own game to make all techs in every era required for advancement, including Advanced Flight, so I wouldn't be entering the modern era before 1850.

[vmxa1]

Hi jincnunn, I cannot address modded games. I no reference points, I play straight out of the box, not even a graphics mod.

Well I did play one AU game with the AU mod, but I played it as if the mod did not exist.