The Luxury Slider

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I'm slated to play Japan as my next game, and I'm going to give this early luxury slider strat a shot. I'll try to post some "example" updates. I can't figure out how to capture screenshots though... I have no "PrntScrn" button my weird keyboard!

[Arrian]

Yahweh,

If you right-click on the screen with your mouse, you might be able to copy it.

-Arrian

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Alrighty... I'm also excited to maybe be using CHARIOTS in this game! If I start near horsies, that is. I'll definitely make use the lux slider, maybe accept a core area with no luxuries and work on conquering some later, and I'll try to post some shots.

[Jon Shafer]

The luxury slider is my best friend.

Well, besides 5/10 shield cities, Immortals and the Industrious trait.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Konquest02
I don't like Colosseums. They are too expensive to maintain. 2 gpt is pricey for 2 happy faces...
--Kon--

Ha! You never played Civ1, I guess. FOUR gpt for colosseum upkeep. I don't think I ever built one. 2 is OK - same rate as a temple, but not as good value as a cathedral.

Colosseums are good for early river cities (esp flood plains), culture-bombing and factory pre-builds.

[Cort Haus]

I never touched the lux-slider until reading a recent Emp/Deity tips thread on this forum that explained how granaries & the lux slider can give you the pop levels you need to compete better at that level.

Like many, I'm learning the value of larger cities. In previous Civ versions you couldn't get gold income from every square, expecially high production-tiles. This mean't that increasing city size tended to not boost cash & research as much as in Civ 3. Add in the lack of luxury tiles, and you got players keeping cities small because disorder was a hassle. In Civ3, all tiles can give gold, so city size affects income and research.

I for one have been slow to grasp this difference. At first I thought "great, I don't need the lux slider at all - in Civ 1/2 it was always on 20-30% in republic, but now I just hook up these lux tiles and trade for more later".

That was then. Now I see the lux slider as a strong tool to boost early city growth, and to get the gold and shields rolling in. Once my Civ is up-and-running it's not used much except to manage WW or get WLTK for weedy cities. In the late game I don't grow them very large unless I need more income.

A short answer to Vulture's question 'why?' is that used wisely, you can get more back from using the slider than you put in - especially if that means enabling size 7 cities for commercial civs.

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Yahweh Sabaoth
To meander slightly back to the thread topic, who here has played a game through to completion in an empire that had NO indigent luxuries? (i.e., you had to trade for any luxuries).

It seems insane, but is possible. I don't think I've ever done it.

Well, I did it several times. My first game won on Emperor with the French, for instance. I was on a big island, all alone, no luxuries and I won a Space Race. The slider was from the Middle Ages on at approx. 30% and still managed to finish with abot 15'000 gold.

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Arrian








Nooooooooooooooooo.....

*Arrian flees in terror*

-Arrian

must... have... happy... people. must... see... fireworks... people... must... love... me...

Of course, on top of that we could play the Perfect Peacenik game (you go to war once and you lose the game) ...

Hey Arrian, wait, no please, don't... I was just joking...

[Agathon]

I only use it in the very early game on higher levels for the reasons Arrian gave earlier. I suppose I should try it later on to get the people to love me, but I've never really used that and still manage to win.

[Mountain Sage]

YS,

Silly question (coming from a computer expert like me ): when you want to post a poll, do you just indicate the number of options and fill one line per option in the 'message', and the server does the rest, or is there some other black magic involved?

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Well, I've only done it once before, but I wouldn't say there's any black magic... just figure out how many options you want, hit "ok", then put each option in a line, and then hit "submit". That's how I did it before, I believe...

[Mountain Sage]

Thanks,

It worked.