Great Library Question

[Hurricane]

I have found slingshotting useful in deity games, where you very easily fall behind. And slingshoting works even better if you capture the GL. No drawbacks, only benefits.

[sabrewolf]

i don't think it's easy to capture the GL if you're far behind in techs. will catapults and knights you can't really pass that barrier of riflemen or infantry...

[Theseus]

Give me enough Knights...

[Datajack Franit]

Once I captured a greek GL with knights when all my opponents were already building their first tanks

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
But one civ contacting you is enough to spoil this cool plan and turn to dust your hopes to dominate

Definitely. That's why you need to do whatever it takes to gain communcations with all the other Civs at the moment you meet one of them.

As for how far behind you can be and still recover, I was lucky in that the other continent's Civs had just reached the Industrial Age. If they had been much further ahead, I'm not sure any sort of slingshot effect could have helped me. As it was, they had just finished the Middle Age techs (I was even able to rush Adam Smith's with a leader I had available), so my infrastructure wasn't too far behind (Cathedrals, Banks and Universities were the only buildings I lacked). With the money gained through trading my various luxury monopolies and a switch to Democracy, I was easily able to rush the missing buildings in my most important cities while overwhelming my neighbors on my home continent with newly upgraded Cavalry. The war at home brought in a steady supply of leaders, so in the end I was able get ALL of the Industrial and Modern Age wonders.

[Mad Bomber]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
But one civ contacting you is enough to spoil this cool plan and turn to dust your hopes to dominate

Only if you make a trade for education would his be a problem, as the GL becomes obsolete only when you discover it. Also they usually know at least one more civ with the apropriate techs so trade for as many communications as you can on the turn you meet the new civ.

[minke19104]

I thought the wonder becomes obselete if ANY civs found education?

Thats why if somebody has GL I would beeline straight to education to make it obselete right away.

[Stuie]

Not so. It becomes obsolete at the beginning of the turn after the owning player discovers Education.

[Master Zen]

I wasn't aware of this, I always thought the GL went obsolete once any civ discovered Education.

What I used to do (and will still do since I don't like to fall that behind) is take the low road, researching into Invention, Gunpowder, Metallurgy, Military Tradition while the AI goes towards education. I usually get to Mil. Tradition before the AI discovers Education but by then I also have those techs thanks to the GL and end up with a HUGE military advantage since the AI has not yet got the above mentioned techs.

[sabrewolf]

i always go for monotheism and theology first (except if in need of immediate defence). so the completely other route of which you take
cathedrals are very important when cities get bigger and the sistine chapel is one of my favorite wonders of all.

[Master Zen]

I like the sistine chapel too, what I do is start accumulating shields in one non-capital city (building the Palace) so that by the time I get theology thru the GL, I can build the chapel in less than 10 turns.

By going the low road you are also most likely to get Leonardo's Workshop, another must-have IMO.

After getting education I top it off with Magellan's Expedition, one of my favorite wonders and that's pretty much it for the middle ages.

[minke19104]

I just tried it last night. It's true the wonder becomes obselete after the wonder owner discovers education..

Bah.. Next time I'll make sure they do discover education by trading it, ending their free trip down the tech tree early.

[joncnunn]

The other expiring wonders in Civ III work the same way.

(Gift your soon to be oppoenent with the Great Wall Metalurgy to collapse that wall!)

[steven8r]

Just another point about the GL that I found interesting: The civ w/ the GL doesn't learn the new tech until the turn AFTER it is learned.

In one game I was able to out research the civ w/ the GL (at least to some techs) and I was able to sell the tech to them! (If they just would have waited 1 turn they would have gotten it for free via the GL.) Come to think of it, that could have been considered an 'exploit'. Oh well....

[Centauri18]

They ought to add to a Wonder that comes after the GL, like making Leonardo's Workshop have the feature of giving you the same thing that the GL did. Of course, the GL ought to have a higher culture rating, but then so should Leonardo's (so many years later, and we still talk about the guy). Or maybe we could give that feature to the Internet, but by then you'd be caught up with everybody anyway.