Civics in Focus Part III: Labor

Slavery

Required Tech: Bronze Working
Effect: Can sacrifice population to finish production in a city
Use: Main means of production till Modern age

Slavery is the most efficient way to produce till you either have a fully developed cottage economy running Universal Suffrage or workshops with State Property and Caste System. That is because with granaries growing your city and slaving that pop gives more hammers, then working mines with that pop during the same time.
Till then running Slavery on the Labor civic branch is the standard, everything else the exception that needs a good reason.
Efficient usage of Slavery is one of the major aspects of micromanagement in civ multiplayer. Due to its complexity I can not fully elaborate on it here, but I will try to name a few basics.
Direct slaving (without producing beforehand) is inefficient (50% higher cost).
You have to prevent unhappiness from stacking up too much, so try to slave as much pop as possible when slaving.
Try to generate overflow by slaving shortly before you would have to sacrifice one pop less  in order to do so and finish another project with that overflow. A city that is designed for slaving units should grow each turn. Small cities grow faster, bigger cities can work cottages/extra hammers. Which size you need depends on the food available.

National Wonders #1: Flop 3

This is the first edition of a four-part series about National Wonders which is supposed to describe the scenarios in which those play a role. As usual when evaluating a building, unit etc. in civ it´s vital to not only look at effects and abilities, but as well at costs, required technologies and most importantly the overall context: In what situation in what kind of game will the building/unit/etc. help me achieve a certain goal? The more situations and different kinds of scenarios there are, the better is the examined object.

There are 14 National Wonders. The series will consists of the following four parts:

I. Flop 3
II. Top 3
III. Good. Basic. Not Game Breaking.
IV. Specific. Key for some scenarios.

We start with the worst three National Wonders. Worst means, that they are the ones that get build the least if at all in civ multiplayer (and most probably in single player as well). I myself have never built any of those three nor seen them been built in any game.

Mt. Rushmore

-25% War in all cities
+1 Great Artist point
+4
Cost: 500 normal, 335 quick speed (Double Production Speed w/ Stone)

First of all most multiplayer games are played with “always war”. The unhappiness resulting from war and especially from a war as the aggressor (the one declaring war and fighting outside own borders) is heavily reduced. There are extremely few situations where war weariness plays any role. Only one I can come up with from the top of my head is a 5v5 Ironman game with hundreds of units potentially clashing and Statue of Zeus having been built – not exactly the average game. It´s a little different with diplomacy games, where war has to be declared first. There if you get into a war that lasts longer than you´d wish for, Mount Rushmore is basically a must-build. Still this is a pretty specific situation in an already specific game type.

Single Player Funkiness

This one is not a text about strategy or competetive civing, but about single player setups that are solely designed for a fun and somewhat different game then usual. When looking at certain civs, their UUs and UBs or certain maps, there are some combinations that might not necessarily be “the  best” overall, but provide a different then usual gaming experience in a specific setup. Here are some of those, all tested and approved

Portuguese Waterworld

map: Archipelago
sea level: High
starting era: Ancient
leader/civ: Huayna Capac of Portugal (unrestricted leader)
rest: optional

Game Plan: Build up “normally”, try to get Great Lighthouse, but especially Colossus. Get your empire going, go for Education for University of Oxford and either bulb Economics with Liberalism or a Great Merchant in order to build your UB, the Feitoria. Take a couple of Golden Ages once you got Feitorias. Avoid Astronomy for as long as you can . The cheat variant involves giving yourself Economics from the start with the help of the World Builder . Of course you can take any other FIN leader, just get Colossus – it´s more fun having Great Lighthouse as well though.

If all works out, you won´t be making more GNP then you´d be making on a land based maps with 10-12 cities, but you will be making much more than you´d making usually on an Archipelago setup and the output display on sea tiles will look different then ever before . Maximum focus on sea tiles instead of setting up a cottage economy over the course of the entire game is the difference to a usual game here. You don´thave to grow your commerce tiles (cottages), just get a Feitoria in there.

In this setup a city with Moai statues can look like this during Golden Ages (click to enlarge):
That´s two base , +1 each from FIN, Colossus,  Feitoria and Golden Age, next to one base from Moai and an additional +1 from Golden Age. Would be fun to have the Dutch Dike in there as well

Good UB – Bad UB #9: Unique Buildings in civilization multiplayer

There are no just good or just bad unique buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in a game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Apothecary

Unique building for Persia; Replaces Grocer
+2
+1 from Banana, Spices, Sugar, and Wine
+25%
Can turn 2 citizens into Merchants

Garden

Unique building for Babylon; Replaces Colosseum
+1
+2
+1 per 20% rate

Both the Apothecary and the Garden provide an additional +2 , one being a Colosseum, the other a Grocer. The only use for Colloseums/Grocers is in longer games like Ironman and even there those two are very low priority and mostly get only build in a few cities if at all. Health on the other hand isn´t too hard to come by, especially in longer games where you expand vastly (or lose).

Good

Dike

Unique building for the Dutch; Replaces Levee
+1 on the city’s river and water tiles
Can only be built in a coastal or riverside city

The Dike is is a levee that additionally provides water tiles with 1 hammer. Also you can build it into any coast city, not just cities next to a river. not just the  It´s a great building that finds its uses on many different settings. Any setup that involves Space Race and water can make good use of it. With Golden Age you can have tiles that otherwise wouldn´t be doing any production give you 2 hammers per turn. On maps like Archipelago or Islands the production coming from dikes can be a big portion of the overall production of an empire, giving the Dutch player a significant advantage over a non-Dutch in the later parts of the game, be that for Space Race or for producing units.

For Good UB – Bad UB part #1 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #2 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #3 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #4 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #5 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #6 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #7 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #8 click here

Civics in Focus Part II: Legal

Vassalage

Required Tech: Feudalism
Effect: New units receive +2 Experience Points
Use: For 2 promos (3 with agg) on not-mounted units in Ancient and Classical Teamers. For tripple promoted mounted units in Medieval, Renaissance and Industrial Era Teamers. For tripple promoted German Tanks in Modern Era Teamers. For additional Promo in Ironman/ffa.

As you can see Vassalage can be used in almost every setup. However it is only used by the whole team in Ancient and Classical, because later on you have to choose between Bureaucracy and Vassalage on the Legal branch, while you have Theocracy available. So for getting 5EP on your units, you will rather use Theocracy. In Ironman/ffa this is different, because you do not necessarily have a religion to use Theocracy. In this case you will need to use Vassalage for the additional promotion.
In Medieval Teamers you could theoretically use Vassalage for another promo on melee units, but for economy and tech path reasons this isn´t used in any of the currently common strategies.
In the midgame eras you can build tripple promoted mounted units, if you either are Charismatic or Mongols and use both Vassalage and Theocracy. Since in those eras there is a focus on mounted units (Knights, Curassiers, Cavalry) and the third promotion provides you with formation (+25% against mounted units) this gives your units a significant advantage. The same can be done for all units with Pentagon and Chm as soon as it becomes available.

Challenge #2: “Montezuma´s Revenge

This is the second fastmoves challenge, continuing the theme laid out in fastmoves challenge #1. This time it´s about all-out war. The scenario simulates a potential situation in a 5v5 ancient game on Team_Battleground. You got an aggressive leader and decided on not rushing or going for a common 4cities-granaries-monuments-barracks buildup, but attacking with a bigger stack before Construction is researched or even player´s build up completely. Your plan is to get as many units (axes/spears only, being representative for 23 hammers of production each) as possible till turn 50 with the total disregard for the long-term consequences on your empire.

Civics in Focus I: Government

Hereditary Rule

Required Tech: Monarchy
Effect: +1 per military unit stationed in a city
Use: For happiness till other civics are available in all game formats.

Hereditary Rule is the only civic you have available for a long time (till you get constitution) and is usually only used in that time-frame. The other government civics that get available later on, are a lot stronger, so you switch to them.
How to use Hereditary Rule is pretty obvious. Put as many units in your cities as you need. If you have to build military anyway, use that, otherwise get warriors. You can even deliberately not connect a city to resources, so you can build warriors in that city, while you have better units available in other cities. This way Hereditary Rule basically provides you with unlimited happiness at the cost of having to produce the units and having to pay maintenance for them.

Fastmoves Challenge #1: The Video Solution

It´s been two weeks since the release of Fastmoves Challenge #1. The goal circled around building up research as fast as possible. An overall of 73 people sent in 91 saves. Based on the best result of each player, an average of 59,4 turns was needed to achieve the goals. The clearly best result from non-fastmoves staff came from MissLadyLuck, who managed turn 41, the same turn shown in the “How to do it”-Video. The next best sent in result was turn 45 by MookieNJ (and some others from clan [NBK] I think). MLL’s approach was different to some degree then the one shown in the video. He didn´t build any cottages, didn´t even research Pottery – it can be calculated from the beginning though that in order to reach 100 beakers you don´t have to necessarily have cottages. His way would be bad if the game continued past the goals of the challenge, but that of course wasn´t a condition. The solution presented by Shizanu is different, closer to a real game – though both planted spots that wouldn´t be optimal for a longer game in order to save a turn or two short-term. MissLadyLuck switched to Caste System together with Bureaucracy when getting Civil Service in order to work two merchants to keep his research level at 100%. Shizanu had somewhat more overall commerce and didn´t require the – in a normal game – at this point rather unusual switch to Caste System instead of Slavery. The key to the challenge was the capital and getting an academy into it while oracling Civil Service – not much difference there between MLL´s save and the solution shown in the video.

Here is MissLadyLuck’s turn 41 screenshot – congrats to you for the by far best result, well done!

Thanks to everyone for the interest and for the saves you sent in!
jobe

*UPDATE* (11th Jan 10)

Due to some E-Mail weirdness I didn´t receive Monster´s very nice attempt, also achieving all goals in 41 turns. I like his buildup the most because all cities are planted in a way that  would be fine for a longer game – of course you cannot hold the “weird” way Shizanu and MLL planted against them since that was not part of the challenge in any way. What´s most interesting is that Monster did the Oracle not in his capital. Overall the attempt is pretty similar to Shizanu´s, especially the key elements.

Here the final screenshot – Great effort Monster!

Fastmoves Challenge #1: How to do it (by Shizanu)

Approach

The first question when facing such challenge with more than one aim is, what are the limiting factors. Often just one goal is the real problem, while other goals can be done on the way. With this challenge it is pretty obvious, that getting the tech is the real problem, while having to expand is just a nuisance, since you can of course expand to 4 cities a lot faster, then the final 41 turns. While even without extra goals you wont be much faster with the tech. If this isn´t obvious, just play the challenge like you would play usually with a few alternations and you should notice soon. Otherwise you will find out in the process of optimizing.

The next problem I had to solve now, is how to get those 100 tech fastest. Because we were allowed to oracle any technology, civil service and a high pop cap with academy was the way to go. The multiple effect of bureaucracy and science building was just to strong, turning 1 commerce into 1*1,5*1,75 = 2,625 science (ignoring the very low maintenance costs). Especially with that gold around.
To get the 100% you needed exactly a capital with population 7 working the gold and at least 3 commerce on all the other tiles and the other cities with pop 2,1,1 all working 3 commerce tiles. Very comfortable about that is, the free availability of 3 commerce tiles with all that water around.

So in general, I had to figure out a way of getting an academy, bureaucracy, pop7 in cap fastest, with still getting the workers and settlers.

Worker first vs. Work Boat first.

I played several tries with work boat first, which is the typical choice on such setup, till I tried worker first. In the end I prefered getting the additional worker turn and slightly more food from my build order compared to more tech from workboat-worker-worker. Anyway I believe turn 41 is also possible with work boat first, not absolutely sure though.

As I said, research is the problem. So I focused on that, even putting the first chops into the library, so I could start working scientists earlier and grow to pop6 before making the first settler. Only this lets me get all the necessary techs fast enough. The tech path in general should be pretty obvious. Fast math is very important of course, so you get enough hammers from chopping forests. Rest is plainly researching everything that is necessary, but nothing more. Still maybe I should explain my unusual first techs: Since I went worker first, that worker needed to be able to do something at all times, so I needed wheel first to build a road on the way to the corn. That road is needed to have a connection between the second city and the capital later on to get the ivory. Then I obviously need mining for the goldmine. Now I went writing before Bronze Working. This is very important, so you can start building the library while growing your cap. Only this way you can get the library fast enough.

Worker Movement

The rest of the challenge is all about finding the perfect worker micro. Having Bronze Working so late, resulted in my building unusually many roads early. Anyway those three roads are all needed in the end, so it’s not a waste of worker moves. The rest is a matter of chopping forest in the right order. First I get two chops to get the library. Now I have to time the chops simultaneously to get the settler in one turn. Thus I chop the forest in the south by building one of the cottages I need later on. This also saves me a worker turn, because first chopping and then building a cottage costs six worker turns, while directly building a cottage costs five.
Rest are the small things, like timing the fourth worker with connecting marble and researching priesthood, so i can build Oracle. Or chopping the right forest on the second city, so I can move the fourth worker directly into a forest there (another reason why I need the road I build in the beginning).

Comparison to a “normal” game

The big difference of course is, that you cannot oracle civil service in usual games. However the basic approach on an Equal_Islands extra resources game is the same, just you would be researching Civil Service by hand. In a real game, you would have to work some more cottages instead of sea tiles, get Monarchy before Civil Service and start growing your capital more and of course have a worker/settler balance, that enables you to get your new cities going faster (and of course plant those cities more decently for a longer game!). Anyway the basic principles of the challenge: Focus on tech and focus on a super cap are the same.

The Video

tech path
1. Wheel 2. Mining 3. Pottery 4. Writing 5. Bronze Working 6. Mathematics 7. Masonry 8. Hunting 9. Mysticism 10. Meditation 11. Priesthood 12. Code of Laws 13. oracle: Civil Service

build order in capital
1. worker 2. work boat 3. worker 4. library for 2 turns 5. worker 6. library finished 7. work boat to grow 8. settler with 3 chops 9. worker 10. work boat 11. Oracle

Good UB – Bad UB #8: Unique Buildings in civilization multiplayer

There are no just good or just bad unique buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in a game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Dun

Unique building for Celts; Replaces Walls
+50% defense (except vs. gunpowder-based units)
-50% damage from bombard (except from Gunpowder units)
Required to build Castle
Free Guerilla I promotion for land units

The Dun are walls that additionally provide land units with a Guerilla I promotion. At first look this sounds pretty interesting, but there are aspects about it that limit the uses for this building a lot. The first is the fact that you are already Celtics, having a Guerilla I promotion on your Swordsman anyway – meaning the only other units in an ancient game where the promotion makes sense and is applicable is the archer. Since the Dun requires Masonry to be researched (which is in most ancient games very low priority) AND has to be build first, your double-hill archer come pretty late to do any damage with their additional ability in the early parts of the game, where this could still be possible. So for sending out early archers the cost of getting two buildings (barracks, Dun) and a low-priority technology is too high to make that effective. You´ll rather be sending out Swords anyway – and not build the Dun and not research Masonry very early.

CTON / ffa / Ironman: When NOT to attack

I often see unexperienced ffa players (especially those coming from teamers and duels) attacking people without any use, so here are some guidelines on when NOT to attack (being turned around also answering when to attack).

To decide whether to attack in duels and teamers is pretty easy: You do so, if it will hurt your opponent more than yourself. However in any kind of ffa style games, the third-party is added to the equation, namely all the other players in the game. Now the question is not, whether it will hurt your opponent more, not even whether you can kill him or kill him fast. The question is if you gain an advantage for yourself from that attack for the overall game.

Obviously this influences how experienced players play in order to not get attacked, which is close to always a way, that would surely get you killed in duels.  So when you see someone not having much army next to you, so you could kill him some cities, that doesn´t mean you should do so. Because then you are in a war, that costs ressources, while those players who are not involved, happily outtech you.  Actually you can close to always kill someone if you really want to, but rarer attacking someone makes sense.

There are some basic rules you should check before attacking someone. Of course there are exceptions, but as a general guideline they work very well: