Phantom Roads and Railroads

[rah]

Very Good Sampson. Based on some MP games I've played, I'm willing to bet that a couple of poeple in particular knew about this but never shared it. This information will be quite helpful. Thanks.

[Straybow]

In hindsight this can be gleaned from the GL data and discussions from earlier in the year.

[samson]

Rah - You're very welcome.

[La Fayette]

rah
If you call him sampson, shall we call you raph?

samson
I feel like saying 'thank you'.
Many of us knew more or less precisely that a complete road or RR wasn't required, but you are the one who just explained that a 'station city' was required to make the bonus OK.
From now on, anyone can make use of it, because you made it so simple (of course it is an exploit, but I guess we can use it unless we agree to forbid it).

[Straybow]

Building a city in a sub-optimal location close to your SCC isn't necessarily a good thing, and it may only work for one trade route anyway. But if you can build at a choke point between you and rival civs, you've got it made.

[samson]

Building a city in a sub-optimal location close to your SCC isn't necessarily a good thing, and it may only work for one trade route anyway. But if you can build at a choke point between you and rival civs, you've got it made.

The closer a station is to the SSC, the more trade route paths will run through it; the farther away it is, the fewer. In the example I posted two stations near Washington would be sufficient to cover routes to all foreign cities on the continent.

As for chokepoints ... all trade route paths to cities beyond the chokepoint will share a common path from the SSC to the chokepoint. Which means that a station built closer to the SSC on the path leading to the chokepoint would service the same cities as a chokepoint city itself.

Since the point of this tactic is to minimize the length of road/railroad that needs to be built and defended, closer is better. This is not, however, the only criterion for city site selection. If a site exists at a greater distance but will serve other purposes then, by all means, use that.

[rah]

Originally posted by La Fayette
rah
If you call him sampson, shall we call you raph?

a slip of the kyes. my apologies.

I tried it this weekend in a couple of MP games. I wouldn't call it a game breaker but it proved to be quite beneficial. (ferrets did the happy dance)

Thanks again, samson.

Ricph

[debeest]

Ah, nice point, Straybow. This could significantly enhance the value of the chokepoint city.

[rah]

I would think that if you build 4 cities (straight out) close to your big trade city and road them, that most of the cities on the map would be able to benefit. (That is how I've taken advantage of this feature in MP games on small maps and it has been quite beneficial.

[-Jrabbit]

Samson, you are a Golden God.
Thanx from one still learning the trade game...

[Grigor]

[*not just a bump*]

This seems like it should be a Great library entry, particularly with all this early landing intensive trading strategy going around.

[La Fayette]

Great Library

IIRC only Ming and the SGs have the key to the main entrance... and they seem to have lost it

[Scouse Gits]

Re: Great Library

Originally posted by La Fayette
IIRC only Ming and the SGs have the key to the main entrance... and they seem to have lost it

No - only Ming and some other Mods can unlock the GL

-------------------

SG(2)

[La Fayette]

Ming!

Ming, please!


The key


(a picture of Ming... after he's given the key)

[Elok]

Hmmm...how, precisely, does the AI determine the optimal goto route? Does it work based on distance alone, or does it take terrain into account? In my experience, GOTOed units will indeed zigzag to avoid mountains, so I'm wondering:
Could you engineer a forest in the middle of the trade route to screw the opposition out of a lot of cash? It'd be a lot of effort to go to just to shift a route, but could it be done? Mostly I'm asking as a matter of curiosity.