Builders Dilemna: The Industrial Age

[SofaKing]

I tend to be a builder and have been able to dominate the games I have played as an isolationist. Granted, I have only played Chieftan and Warlord (tonight I'll give Regent a shot). However, I run into a problem in the middle of the Industrial age. There are no real city improvements to build. It is all just military units. Once, I build up an ample defense, I have nothing to build except more units which don't really use. This strikes me as rather inefficient. Do any of you know the "wealth" formula? Is it more productive than creating units to disband the later for the mineral bump?

[ChrisShaffer]

It's 8 shields = 1 coin in the early game, and 4 shields = 1 coin in the later game -- there's a tech that changes it from 8 to 4, not sure which one. It is definitely 4 = 1 by the industrial age. I agree with you, as a builder there's not a lot to be done in the industrial age. Switch to wealth and pump the tech to go modern.

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, I have noticed this too when I have had a lot of cities in the industrial age just idling...

[Gaius Marius]

DP

[Gaius Marius]

This comes, I think, from the greater likelyhood of being at peace, and also the cap on 4/turns/advance - in other words, you can't discover something once every turn and give yourself more improvements to build. Once I have economics, cities with factories produce a respectable amount of wealth, allowing me to stockpile gold for things like buying improvements in newer cities or bribing/spying on other civs. (or whatever).

Also, building workers helps, as you can always add them back in later.

Keep in mind also the units that can be upgraded - Galleons, defensive units, and artillery all can go up to modern units. Stockpile them in a city for an instant-upgrade army once you get the tech.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by ChrisShaffer
It's 8 shields = 1 coin in the early game, and 4 shields = 1 coin in the later game -- there's a tech that changes it from 8 to 4, not sure which one. It is definitely 4 = 1 by the industrial age. I agree with you, as a builder there's not a lot to be done in the industrial age. Switch to wealth and pump the tech to go modern.

The switch happens with economics, which, strangely enough isn't a prerequisite for the Industrial age. It is quite possible to skip it and have your factories procucing at 8:1. Maybe not the best idea.

[morb]

its the perfect time to goto war!

[ChrisShaffer]

Originally posted by morb
its the perfect time to goto war!

Um, morb, didn't you read the subject line?

Builders Dillema...

[Ray K]

Re: Builders Dilemna: The Industrial Age

Originally posted by SofaKing
I tend to be a builder and have been able to dominate the games I have played as an isolationist. Granted, I have only played Chieftan and Warlord (tonight I'll give Regent a shot). However, I run into a problem in the middle of the Industrial age. There are no real city improvements to build. It is all just military units. Once, I build up an ample defense, I have nothing to build except more units which don't really use. This strikes me as rather inefficient. Do any of you know the "wealth" formula? Is it more productive than creating units to disband the later for the mineral bump?

There is a very simple way to never run out of improvements to build: play SimCity.

Also, building units can be more productive than wealth. The key is to not disband them into shields in your cities, but to use them to disband them for shields in your opponent's cities. It's much more efficient, but it's not documented clearly in the manual.

Here's how you do it. First, build the units that you want to disband in your opponent's cities. One thing I've learned through trial and error is that the units with higher attack ratings are better at disbanding this way.

Unlike disbanding in your own city, there is a chance of failure in your opponent's cities, so you need to build several high-offense units, maybe 5-6. Then move them to the city you want to disband them in.

Many times when you approach the enemy city, a dialog will pop up and ask you to move the units away. This is normal: say "no". Then sometimes your military advisor will tell you that this will declare war. This is a typographical error that will probably be fixed in a patch. I can't believe the testers didn't catch this! When it says "Do you want to declare war", it should really say "Do you want to attempt to disband your units", and the option "Yes. They are scum" should really say "Yes, I want to disband". Click on this option.

Then attempt to move your units into the cities. Any enemy units already in the city will resist this intrusion, since they are wanting to disband first. If you have built any units like catapults, cannons, or artillery, you can use the 'B' option (for dis'B'and) to expedite the disband of the enemy units in the city. Then it should be easier for you to move your units into the city.

Once your units are successfully in the enemy city, they go into 'perpetual disband' mode. This means that the units automatically disband into shields and then reappear every turn, even if you take them out of the city! This is great! You will know that the 'perpetual disband' mode is triggered when a dialog pops up saying "You have captured the city". Another set of confusing typos. It should say "Do you want to go into perpetual disband mode?". The option that says "Install a governor" should really say "yes", and the other option "Raze the city" should really say "no". Usually you want to select "yes", because there is a bug in the program that removes the city if you select "no".

One final important note: to keep the enemy city in "perpetual disband" mode (a good thing), you need to make sure the enemy units don't re-enter the city to disband. Trial and error has shown that high defensive units are best at this.

If you keep disbanding your units in the enemy cities like this, you will win much more quickly. I have sent a request in to Firaxis to document this feature more clearly.

[CB2034]

ok...
is it just me or did RAY K make absolutely no sense

[kalishatra]

that was hilarious

[belarivo]

:rotflol:

It's true - it works. Why, just last night, I went into perpetual disband mode all over the persian empire. There seems to be a bug, though - the AI leader gets furious. I'm sure it will be addressed in the patch...

[zapperio]

Great post R Kay!

[Special_K]

Originally posted by CB2034
ok...
is it just me or did RAY K make absolutely no sense

It was a joke, he is describing attacking cities w/ units which as absolutely halarious btw.