questions

[thanksforfish]

Hi,

Just got the retail version and have a couple of questions.

For me things get very hectic in the end game where everyone has got air units. It seems like a bit of a micromanagement nightmare. I have trouble coordinating ground units and air units and building aa defenses at all my cities etc (and thats before anyone get the ai tech). Does anyone have any tips or do I just need more practice ?

Secondly is there any way to continue a game after you've won like you used to be able to do in civ ?

Thirdly, can you create all your caravans in one city and have them go and find other cities to trade between or do you have to create a caravan in each city's market thats going to trade ?

Finally I'd like to thank BHG for a top game, I havent had this much gaming fun since I first discovered the original civ.

[Carch]

Not sure about your questions 1 and 2--I'm having trouble keeping up in the end game myself. I think Normal speed is a bit fast. I don't think you can continue a game after winning, but you can set up whatever victory conditions you want.

On caravans, though, you can definitely create them anywhere. They will automatically start traveling the trade routes themselves. One tip is to make sure you have the market waypointed near itself before making a caravan. I sometimes see my caravans wandering off into the wilderness because I set wayponts for merchants and forget to put them back.

[Madine]

Hit I to select and cycle through your airbases.

Hold down shift to assign a mission to all planes in the airbase.

Hold down control to assign a bomber to a mission, control shift to assign all bombers.

Hold down alt to assign a fighter, alt shift to assign all fighters.

[albiedamned]

Where did you learn that?

[albiedamned]

This seems to work for planes that are waiting at the base, but not for planes already in the air. In that case, it's like setting additional way points for the airbase's rally point, but it doesn't force all the planes already in the air to go where you want. I have yet to find a good way to do that myself. Anyone?

[Kuciwalker]

I don't think there is a way. I have yet to see an RTS with easy-to-use air units.

[Bridger]

Click on an air unit, hit the "home" key, then tell them where to go.

[albiedamned]

Home key only selects planes currently in the air. It doesn't affect planes sitting at a base refueling or just idle. Plus, it's so hard to select one of those little guys. I just spent 30 minutes playing with ways to control planes. I'm about to start another thread for this.

[Whitra]

Infantry= Armies 1-4
Spies, Special Forces= Armies 5-6
Artillery= Armies 7-8
Cavalry= Armies 9-13
Air Force= Armies 14-15
Navy= Armies 16-18

It helps to set up a system of organization like the one above. I've got it all written down on a piece of paper stuck to my monitor, so I can quickly reference it mid battle.

[albiedamned]

I like to reserve some of the control group hotkeys for military production buildings. In the late game when you have a lot of barracks (for example), pressing K will select a Barracks but it might not be the one you want. Setting up control group hotkeys makes sure you get the one you want. I tend to use the number keys for millitary units, and the F keys for production buildings.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by albiedamned
Where did you learn that? (re Madine's post)

Go through all the tips, it's in there. I ended up writing all the noteworthy ones down* and printed them out.

*On my PDA (with a keyboard), then xfered them to my Mac and printed out in a Word file.

[thanksforfish]

Thanks for all the replies, its reassuring to see that other people find air units challenging to manage. Something else that confuses me about airbases is having to click the airbase to get to the bombers but the helicopters appear above the base.
Anyway I'm definitely going to slow down the game a touch and try and use some of the suggested hotkeys.
Thanks again.