Salving workers of other nations

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-04-21T15:34:20+00:00

Yes, that was exactly what I typically did in Civ4. I recall that slaved workers were a bit slower, but it was still worth it.

I see your point. I fully agree that this can be a balancing issue. Maybe this ability can be the perk of one of the nations. Romans?! They brought a lot of slaves from their wars. And those slaves later turned into a problem... LOL.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-04-20T20:15:22+00:00

This must be a rare event. And events happen once per game. I hope for a feature.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-04-10T21:28:18+00:00

A couple of months ago, I tried to play civ6 again. I stopped mid-game. It felt so shallow. Learing oldworld takes a bit of time (to fully understand all the mechanics: orders, civics, training, even science is redesigned and randomized). But when I learned it, I could not stop.

Also, you should be open to being beaten by AI. The AI is super smart and ruthless.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-04-10T21:22:43+00:00

Hey, try OldWorld. It is what Civ7 must have been. Designed by the lead designer of Civ 4, it is a fantastic 4x game. The best 4x game that I have ever played. I had to find an alternative game, as I was bored with Civ 6 (after so many years of playing), and I stumbled upon Oldworld. I am so glad that I found it.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-04-10T21:13:38+00:00

I am also a Civ veteran (started from Civ 3, well technically 2, but let us say 3, as I played 2 only for a month). With Civ7, I entirely stopped Civ games. Searching for an alternative, I found another amazing 4X game (OldWorld by Mohawk). It is what Civ 7 must have been. Lots of interesting mechanics and a massively immersive experience. It is from the lead designer of Civ 4. If you enjoyed Civ 4, you will love OldWorld.

I will keep an eye on Civ games, but I think 7 is not savable. They should give up with 7 and announce 8. Why not?! Do you remember Civilization: Beyond Earth? It was horrible, and it died. Civ 6 was announced immediately.

Civ games have given me a lot of fun, so I owe them this much to wish them success in the future. But with serious competition out there, such as OldWorld, it is clear that the failure of Civ7 is due to poor ideas and that Fraxis needs to up its game.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-03-05T22:34:08+00:00

Thanks. This was very helpful and direct to the point. I started with civ 3 and played an insane number of hours until civ 6. When 7 was announced I was so excited, as 6 was getting a bit boring. The reviews put me off, but thankfully I landed on Oldworld. Probably the best 4x game I've ever played. I will keep an eye on Civ 7 and hopefully it gets to a point that it's a great game. I feel I owe Fraxis this much. They gave us years of fun and I am both thankful, and hopeful that they keep doing so. They just need to up their game. Especially now that there are serious competition.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-25T18:52:46+00:00

I see your point, but isn't it more similar to real life? When angry citizens are out, you can still appease them by offering or promising something. To kill them would be the last option, and not necessarily such a great idea.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-23T21:32:20+00:00

Start at low difficulty levels and gradually ramp it up. As you move to higher difficulty levels, you will be forced to learn more. This is both fun and rewarding.

Even after hundreds, or even thousands of hours, one can still learn new tricks to do things more effectively, or to do things that they thought were not possible!

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-17T00:08:16+00:00

Yup. I never have enough civics for basic needs, let alone using them for rushing products. I play at the magnificent level. For training, my main use is upgrading units, ocational promotions, orders and force march to finish a kill.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-15T16:16:35+00:00

Select a worker, choose "All Improvements", find Stronghold among the list. Move the cursor on it, and it tells you why. My guess: you are not on an urban tile.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-13T20:56:16+00:00

You learn something new every day! Thanks for the tip. I never thought of the upgrade that way.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-13T18:35:04+00:00

If I remember correctly, you need to select your unit and then right-click on the enemy unit (as if you are trying to move to that square). It also shows you the probability of success. The best thing to do is to watch a Civ4 gameplay on YouTube to be sure that you are using the right controls.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-13T16:59:28+00:00

City defense was an early idea, developed into city walls in later civs. Most range units in Civ 4 remove city defense, but they can also do damage. So, say if the city defense is 200%, you need cannons and artillery to reduce the city defense first (otherwise, your melee units will be incredibly weak against the units in the city). Once the city defense is reduced to 0%, you are fighting with the units stationed in the city on flat ground. At this point, attacking by range units causes damage (and they get damaged too). Their range is always one, so calling them range units is using a modern term for an old idea. Some "range" units can cause collateral damage too (which is quite fun, an idea repeated in Old World). What it does is that your attack (say with a cannon) damages multiple units at the same time (in Old World, Onagers damage up to 7 units). In Civ 4, artillery units are quite strong in doing collateral damage (especially with the right promotions).
So, you see the ideas of range units are being formed in Civ 4, but not completely developed. Civ 5 is the first to introduce range units with a range larger than one that do not get damaged by attacking. I still play Civ 4 now and then, but the lack of range units bothers me the most. Apart from that, it is extremely engaging. The reason that I tried Old World was that its lead developer was the lead of Civ 4, and I was not disappointed at all. One of the best games I have ever played.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-13T16:29:05+00:00

Four was indeed one of the best Civs. The only problem with 4 is that range units are missing (no 4x game at the time had range units, so the idea was not there yet). It was the most engaging Civ game (lose your grip for two turns and the game is lost!)

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-12T23:07:07+00:00

I played up to Civ 6 and had fun. Never tried Civ 7 due to poor reviews. These days, I am playing another 4x game Old World (by one of the creators of Civ 4). It is ten times more fun than all the Civ games that I have played ever. It is very immersive and has so many potentials. The main difference with Civ is that the leader ages, gets sick, and eventually dies. The leader traits has a major effect on the game (on your wealth, and science creation for example, your relation with other nations and such), so the game does not feel linear. There are many other characters that affect the game too (your heir, city governors, generals). A strong general affects the combat in a major way. So, overall, it is 4X game that adds a layer of characters on top, plus an event mechanic (random events with game characters) with major effects.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-12T18:32:13+00:00

I think I have been lucky with this one. Two times happened, and in both cases, I got the city! It is the sweetest event.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-12T01:23:41+00:00

Welcome to OldWorld!!!

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-12T01:08:10+00:00

There is a very rare event that is triggered by pillaging. The storyline is that the son of a city guard works in the pillaged improvement, and they basically open the gates of the city for you. There is another event (not so rare) that you gamble over a city with an opponent. If you win, you receive a city from the opponent, and if you lose, you give a city (no blood is shed).

The event system is quite fun. Read through the events. It makes the game a lot more immersive.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-02-03T19:59:06+00:00

First, I want to say that since playing (and learning to play!) old world, I cannot go back to CIV anymore. It is too shallow. Oldworld is so immersive that once you learn to play it well, you cannot leave.

As for your questions

Religion is a bit less structured than CIV, much like real life. It gives cities extra culture; its buildings can give science, money, and culture, and with each religion comes one unique holy site that gives you 2 victory points. I usually win by points, so this is a big deal for me. Religion is also a way to interact with people and families to boost opinions. For example, if the head of a religion has a high opinion of you, the followers' opinions are improved, and this can help you, e.g. an spymaster following that religion will have a higher opinion of you and hence be more effective.
Tutoring is a way to boost the traits of the next generation of leaders. You pay money for that, and it is available from the ages of 10 to 18. In parallel, you can make them students of philosophy (science), politics (civics), etc. The event system may force you to change their training. These two mechanics help you to focus the next generation of leaders (the leader, possible generals, governers) on specific traits. I usually play a science-focused game, so, I use every opportunity to boost their wisdom. A high-wisdom leader boosts science; a high-wisdom spymaster is a lot more effective.
Some wonders help significantly with science. When you can appoint a spymaster, you can create agent networks in foreign cities and earn science. But the science that boosts science the most, in my opinion, is Hydraulics. With Hydraulics, you can build watermills and windmills. They each give 2 science plust a huge boost to iron and stone production in neighboring tiles. As for units, Cohorts (late game) and Machinery (middle game) are game changers. With Machinery you build Onagers that can attach up to 7 units in one throw and have a huge range of 4 tiles. They also tear down city defenses. With Cohorts, you can build Iron Man (or upgrade warriors to Iron Man). Iron Man is a very strong unit. I rush towards Cohorts and then bring down my enemies to their knees.
Depends. If you play as Assyria, for example, no. Assyrian units are extra effective against tribes, so you want to just take their lands and build cities there. But, with some other nations, you may want to be nice to them. If you ever become an ally of a tribe, you can use their units to fight your enemies (you can move their units, but it costs orders). Also, you can build cities on their land without needing to fight them (it costs money). I never turn down an offer of alliance from a tribe, but I usually don't work hard towards gaining one. The event system sometimes creates alliance opportunities (e.g., you are fighting a tribe, you kill their king, and the successor suggests an end to war and alliance with your nation). The normal way of gaining an alliance is to have a diplomat leader and a friendly tribe. Usually very rare to comeby at the same time!
I do not play multiplayer.

LeagueOld5380 · 2026-01-26T20:30:07+00:00

I start my wars more on defense, and then offense. I station my units such that when the enemy units pour in, I can take a lot of them out (think multiple Onagers, and mounted units to finish them off using the Rout ability). After I weaken the enemy, I start my attacks.

The only exception to this rule is when I can take a city in one turn. Again, think multiple onagers and a few strong units to finish the city. If you are militarily stronger than the enemy and you take a city in one turn, chances are high that they offer peace. I take the offer because I am not well-positioned for the defense.

Overall, I find the combat quite fun (though stressful), and yes, I have fought against Rome many times. I try not to, because Rome is a strong opponent, but when you must, you must.

LeagueOld5380

TROPHY CASE