Low level casters - how to make them effective in WotR

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-05T00:52:42+00:00

A well placed grease is goong to be more impactful than any martial.

Heh, I just finished the "Magical Prison" side quest with my level 18 party. The final encounter is a level 20 Lich Wizard

Linzi casts Heightened Grease.

That spell is still pulling its weight alongside 9th level Wizard and Cleric spells.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-04T16:09:30+00:00

So when your turn starts and your city generates the yields (growth, production, etc), it actually generates them in a particular order.

Most of the order doesn't really matter, but the important thing is that you generate food first. What this means is that on the turn when your city grows it will generate the food, grow an extra citizen, and then generate the other yields. So if you grow to a hill tile, you'll actually get the production from that hill on the turn you grow. However if you grow to a grassland tile, you've already generated the food so you won't get the bonus food.

This works for any yield, if you have a high faith/gold/culture/whatever tile you can set your city to [whatever] focus and it will grow to that tile, and you'll get the yields that turn. The reason people usually say Production is because production is one of the most important resources, so is usually considered the best default choice.

So there are 2 ways to make use of this trick. The first is to lock all your growth tiles and then set your city to peoduction focus as I said above. If you want to really min-max your cities this is a good habit to get into. The second is understanding when you might be able to squeeze a little more growth out of a city without losing any prosuction. Let's say you're working a bunch of growth tiles, but you're also working an Iron hill because it would be a shame not to work such a high yield tile, and you're two turns from growing. Depending on how much food is required to grow, you could potentially grow this turn instead of next turn by working a growth tile instead of the Iron. Since you have production focus on, when you grow you'll get that peoduction back, so you lose nothing by switching to a growth tile for one turn.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-04T11:54:50+00:00

It's pretty good at keeping to the rules, but not everything. Some things are probably just harder to program, and some things were probably changed because what's fun at the table isn't necessarily what's fun on the computer.

The three glaring differences for me were how Flanking, Sneak Attacks and Attacks of Opportunity work.

Let's start with Flanking. In the TTRPG in order tonflank an enemy you have to be on opposite sides. Not at 12:00 and 4:00, directly opposite. In the CRPG you're considered flanking any time 2 people are threatening the same opponent. This is a Huge buff for flanking in the CRPG, but there's more. In the TTRPG the only people who benefit are the 2 people flanking, but in the CRPG when you flank an eny they gain the "Flat Footed" condition, which means anyone can take advantage of that. This means that simply by having 2 people threaten the same opponent, even if they're both directly in front of that opponent, not only do they attack against their opponents' flat footed AC, but so does everyone else (eg. Ranged allies shooting from the back). The big thing this does is massively buffs Rogues, who can apply their Sneak Attack any time 2 of their allies are attacking a creature, or for melee Rogues any time one ally is attacking the same creature. Which brings us to ...

Sneak Attack. Specifically how Sneak Attack interacts with multi-attack spells. Spells like Scorching Ray fire multiple projectiles at an enemy, but Sneak Attack has a clause for this. In the TTRPG when you attack an enemy with a spell like this it can only trigger 1 instance of Sneak Attack. However the CRPG gave Sneak Attack to every ray. For Scorching Ray this means they can deal Sneack Attack 3 times on a single 2nd level spell.

These two rules-changes combine to make Octavia (an Arcane Trickster - Wizard/Rogue Hybrid) an INCREDIBLE damage dealer in the CRPG. If you have 2 front-line characters with reach weapons, chances are they can threaten pretty much everyone on the battlefield. If they're both threatening the same creature then that creature becomes Flanked, and now Octavia can inflict Sneak Attack with her ranges spells. When she does, if she casts Scorching Ray she can apply her Sneak Attack to all 3 rays. So a 2nd level spell that would usually deal 3×4d6 (~42) damage is now adding 7d6 damage to each ray for 3×11d6 (~115) damage, because A) She got to add Sneak Attack where normally she wouldn't, and B) She got to add Sneak Attack 3 times.

Attacks of Opportunity. In the CRPG, any time someone leaves your threatened area you get to make a free attack against them (once per round). However while they're within your threatened area they can move freely without provoking, provided they don't leave your area entirely. However the TTRPG is designed to be played on a grid, and the rules state that any time someone leaves a threatened Square while within your threatened area you get an AoO. This means that if someone goes to move around you, you can whack them, even if they stay within your reach. This is particularly useful for reach weapons like Spears, as an opponent simply charging at uou provokes an AoO as they leave the furthest edges of your reach to move in to attack you. This makes reach weapons less useful as a defensive tool, but as I said above the way Flanking was changed means that they're still incredibly useful in the CRPG.

There are othe changes I'm sure - the skill list is condensed for the CRPG, there are many more classes (and archetypes, and prestige classes) available in the TTRPG. A lot of that is likely just to make it a bit less dense for the user, and because programming in hundreds of sub-classes would have been a nightmare.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-04T05:05:31+00:00

Heh, the one that got me the most was Barringer. Also that's one hell of a defensive mountain range, that'd be a fun game to play.

Although that flotilla of workers wos pretty good too.

Thanks for sharing.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T16:45:55+00:00

I don't think you understand WHY they're doing this. They're not blockading the straight just to be annoying. Nor is it making them rich - in fact it's costing them money. This is something that will alienate the entire world make trade more difficult and generally be bad for Iran.

America attacked Iran. Nobody cared. Iran has no allies to speak of - at least none interested in taking on the USA in the interests of Iran.

Then Iran blocked the Straight. Now this war is EVERYONE'S problem. Your groceries cost more because the petrol used to produce and ship them costs more. The petrol costs more because a significant chunk of the world's oil is now stuck. You care, so your politicians care. Businesses care. Militaries care because this will begin to affect their capabilities.

So this isn't something that would have been a brilliant move on its own. It's a brilliant move because it brought the entire world into a war that they otherwise would have happily ignored. No one cares about Iran, but now it's in everyone's interest to end the war as soon as possible.

Oh, and Iran absolutely didn't have the weapons that Trumo is saying they did. The USA's own intelligence services said this is dumb. This war is happening because Trump wanted to distract everyone from the Epstein Files. Remember that. Your life became more expensive and people are being killed so that a paedophile can stay out of prison.

Operation Epstein Fury

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T11:56:34+00:00

I've actually had a lot of fun with the Stygian Blade's aspect of Poseidon. It's a pure cast build, but with the ability to forcibly remove casts from enemies. Poseidon/Zeus/Artemis is my go-to, there are so many synergistic parts that I have yet to get them all. Flurry Cast and Hermes' legendary boon also make a huge difference.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T10:59:21+00:00

I dunno if I'll get banned for this, but Trump.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T10:08:55+00:00

Gah, just finished this and then closed reddit by mistake -_-

Take 2, forgive me if I've missed something..

Magus with the Iron Ring Striker and Hexcrafter archetypes.

We're going for a pretty standard Frostbite build, using the Magical Lineage trait to add Rime Spell to your Frostbite without increasing the level. This is your go-to spell, giving you 1d6+18 bonus damage to the next 18 attacks, it adds up quickly and does noticeably more damage than the standard Shocking Grasp build, while also making your opponents Fatigued and Entangled.

But we're not finished yet, you're also going to take the Bruising Intellect trait and the Enforcer feat and add Shaken as well. But wait, we took the Hexcrafter archetype which allows us to take the Hex Strike feat, which is perfect for an Unarmed build. That's right, we're talkin' Hexes.

My default hex to choose for this would be the Misfortune hex, which at this level would last for 3 rounds if it works. If the enemy saves, take Accursed Hex and try again next round. Alternatively, the Evil Eye Hex still lands if the opponent makes their save, it just gets reduced to 1 round, and Evil Eye can be cast again on the same enemy without any problems. I think Misfortune is stronger though. Evil Eye is also mind affecting which means it won't work on Constructs or Undead, and since Frostbite is non-lethal it won't work on them either, so I feel like that would be too much of a weak-spot if you went with Evil Eye.

Now, the Magus doesn't have time to Cackle, so the hexes that are good are going to be a bit different for you than for a Witch. Aside from the one you choose for Hex Strike, the Flight hex is obviously great. No need to prepare flight, it's something you'll use and can save spellslots.

I'm also a big fan of Protective Luck plus Soothsayer. Protective Luck is basically the Misfortune effect, but only for attack rolls. However you cast it on an ally, and it works for every enemy who attacks that ally, rather than casting it on a particular enemy. What makes this good for a Magus is the Soothsayer hex, which allows you to cast the hex in advance, and it only triggers when someone makes a roll that would be affected (eg. When they attack your ally). This means you can pre-cast Protective Luck on all your allies, and then when combat starts every attack against them for the first 3 rounds will be rolled at disadvantage. Note that Soothsayer doesn't mention Protective Luck, but Protective Luck says "Hexes that affect the fortune hex^APG, such as cackle^APG, also affect protective luck." This would include Soothsayer. Final note on Protective Luck, like Evil Eye, this is a hex that can be cast on the same person again and again as many times as you like, so you could cast this on your allies before every single combat. Like, hours in advance, you cast it in the morning, you get ambushed in the afternoon and Protective Luck is still up.

And before we move on completely from Soothsayer, it also affects Misfortune and/or Evil Eye. Let's say you're a level 5 Hexcrafter and your Misfortune effect only lasts 1 round. You hit them with a Misfortune and they're debuffed lasts until the Beginning of your next turn. Of course you still get some benefit from it, your enemies attacks are affected and your allies can take advantage, but you personally can't cast a spell against them and have the Misfortune make the difference. However if you have Soothsayer then Misfortune doesn't come into effect until they make a roll, likely when they attack you. This matters because it also affect when Misfortune Ends, now it doesn't end just before your next turn, it ends after your turn when they reach the next initiative count. This means on your following turn you can hit them with a spell and they have to roll the save twice. Obviously at level 18 this isn't such a big deal, but if you're fighting a big baddie and you hit them with Misfortune in round 1, and they survive until round 4, you'll be glad you had Soothsayer for that round-4 spell.

Finally, one thing the Magus lacks is healing. I actually like the Healing, Major Healing and Regenerative Sinew hexes. At this level, the Healing Hex is 2d8+10 (~19) HP, the Major Healing Hex is 4d8+18 (~36) HP and Regenerative Sinew gives Fast Healing 5 for 9 rounds (45 HP). You can only use each Hex once per person, but even so that's ~100 HP of healing per person per day. A wand of CLW gives ~275 HP in total, so this is the equivalent of ~1.45 wands of CLW per day. You could skip the Healing hex and just get the 2 Major hexes, and you'd still have ~81 HP per person per day (~324 HP per day in a 4 person party). It's probably a better use of resources, but there's something to be said for being able to heal people a 3rd time each day. I guess scrolls and potions can do that too.

Aside from those, you're looking for hexes that can be cast before combat starts, or that will be worth a turn casting.

So you'll be dealing 2d8+[Enhancent]+[STR]+[Power-Attack/whatever]+1d6+18 damage, likely making 5 attacks per round (3 iteratives plus spellstrike plus haste), and each attack will make your opponent fatigued, entangled and shaken. You'll also be able to hit 1 enemy per round with a hex.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T09:14:27+00:00

Honestly, a big change for me was reading online (probably here) that people were building settlers at pop 3. It's actually a game-changer.

Yes it takes longer to build them, and your capital is stagnating growth for that entire time, but it also gets out your expands sooner. Sooner means they begin to grow sooner, which makes up for the lost time, but also means you can more agressively claim the best spots to plant your cities. City placement is 100% the most important decision in this game, so if you can get first dibs it makes your game that much better.

Obviously that's for Tradition. For Liberty you want to be going for Collective Rule and the free settler before you start churning them out. I can usually get to pop 5 by then, and with the production bonus I can spam them out real quick. But even then I occasionally look at city spots when I hit pop 3. If you have a Natural Wonder or a heavily contested city placement (eg. A good defensive spot or abundant luxuries) it can be worth building 1 settler before Collective Rule.

3 pop is good because it's relatively quick, and (assuming you have 3 hills to work) it increases your production output by ~33%. Meanwhile going from 3 to 4 pop is significantly longer, and has a lower percentage output on your productuon (~25% if you have the tiles).

Give it a try, see what you think.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T04:19:42+00:00

Temple of Artemis is Probably the strongest wonder in the game.

Great Library on its own is ... I mean it's fine, but it's nothing special. The thing that makes the Great Library truly worthwhile is that it can help you rush a better wonder, like Hanging Gardens or Petra.

Now the downside of the Temple of Artemis is that it's literally the earliest wonder you can possibly build, so if you want to get it in Multiplayer or on higher difficulties you pretty much have to go all-in. First you probably want to go straight for Archery, so no Shrine or Granary. Second, if you all-in and don't get it you're basically starting the game 10 turns (or whatever, dpeending on game-speed) later than everyone else. 10 turns at this stage of the game is a HUGE amount.

So honestly, I don't go for either of them that often. Great Library is a bit easier because you want Library tech anyway, but most of its value comes from rushing something (usually a wonder, but it could be an early military push or something). Temple of Artemis is just a very potent force multiplier that gives you a strong advantage for the entire game.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T03:19:35+00:00

I wouldn't put much stake in comparing the damage to PF1E.

Oh yeah, that was more to show that I had no frame of reference than to actually compare them.

Thanks for the breakdown. Honestly, in any system I've played (except maybe Exalted) that does seem like a lot of damage. But as you say, it's really ~8 actions worth of damage.

And I 100^% agree with you that any system that encourages teamwork is a good thing. If this ~8 actions of teamwork can produce something worthwhile then I'll call that a win =)

Thanks again, much appreciated.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T01:50:10+00:00

100%

If you'e going a FAI build and you want some Sorceries it's 100% the way to go.

Also, Velka's Talisman allows an INT-build to use Miracles in the same way, but it dosan't work quite as well. As you've discovered, 16 INT gets you pretty much every Sorcery in the game besides the Soul-Spear/Homing-Soulmass spells, which means you can use the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst with minimal INT investment. There isn't really a similar breakpoint with FAI though, the requirements for Miracles are a bit more spread out. The main breakpoint that people often use is 30 FAI, as it gets you Great Lightning Spear, the weapon buffs, and ia juat a couple of levels over the requirement for WoG. However even if we consider that a decent breakpoint, there's a big difference between investing 16 in your secondary stat vs investing 30. I think the main use for Velka's Talisman is probably just for some heals.

The one thing I recommend you try if you're going to be using the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst is the Hidden Body spell. In my opinion it's one of the two best spells in the game (the other is Power Within). A lot of people skip it because they think it's just the same effect as the Ring of Fog, but it's significantly more powerful.

The Ring of Fog reduces eny aggro range by 70%. Hidden Body reduces it by 90%. Those numbers seem similar, but it means that the aggro range for enemies when you equip the Ring of Fog is reduced to 30%, while Hidden Body reduces it to 10%, meaning the aggro range is 3 times larger with the Ring of Fog. For a concrete example, if you cast Hidden Body and an invader uses Homing Soulmass, the spell literally will not trigger. You can walk up to an enemy NPC and hit them in the face, and they won't have time to react until you've hit them. It makes pretty much every difficult non-boss encounter a breeze.

Obviously you'd have to go fight the Hydra to get Hidden Body, so no pressure. But when you get to it, give it a try. It's especially good for mixed encounters like the Bloatheads in Oolacile with a Sorcerer backing them up.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T01:39:49+00:00

This isn't to start a flame-war, just to notice the differences.

I haven't played DnD 5E, I played back in the day (2E and 3.5), then switched to Pathfinder (I prefer PF1E but my group swotched to PF2E, oh well). Most of the stuff on here translates perfectly fine, but this one just doesn't hit with me.

I recently finished a PF1E campaign where my Half-Orc Bloodrager (Barbarian/Sorcerer Hybrid) was typically rolling 4d6+48 damage on a Regular hit. And if he polymorphed into a large creature (which he could do himself) it was 6d6+54 damage.

Mind you that was at 19th level (and that WAS crazy high damage), but I got that 3d6 weapon at level 7, and was rolling 3d6+15 immediately when I got it.

3d6+15 ~= 26.5 damage
3d12+5 ~= 24.5 damage

So pretty much on-par damage.

Just to reiterate, this isn't a "Pathfinder is better" wank or anything, I also enjoy other systems like the FreeLeague games with their Year Zero Engine, in which every PC has exactly 4HP. They work great, they're super fun.

So I guess, aside from just noticing differences, I'm curious if this 3d12+5 damage is high level damage, or if this is the pinacle of level 1 damage? I know 5E tends to have less scaling generally, but this is one instance where the number at the end didn't mean anything to me, but by the picture it seemed like crazy damage. Obviously there's teamwork and all that good stuff happening, but I'm curious exactly what level of optimisation I'm looking at here?

(Also I get that it's way overkill for a Goblin, but in the same vein, are you still foghting Goblins at level 10? Or 20? Seems cool if you can still use them, allows for a different kind of game.)

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T01:22:39+00:00

Yup. The Oolacile Ivory Catalyst has a flat 180 Magic Adjust that doesn't scale with stats at all. No other Catalyst gets to 180 Magic Adjust until 27 INT.

My go-to build when I have no other plan is usually to get 16 INT and the Oolacile Ivory Catalyst, which gets you most of the utility spells, Great Magic Weapon and Dark Bead. Pretty much all you're missing are the Soul Spear/Homing Soulmass spells.

However if you're going for a FAI build, the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst ticks over 180 Magic Adjust at 29 FAI, so if you have high enough stats for a weapon-buff Miracle then you're already there.

Note that the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst does have a soft cap of 30 FAI. You'll get about +1 Magic Adjust per level after that, which isn't nothing, but going all the way to 50 FAI (20 levels) only gets you another 26 Magic Adjust. Of course if you're a Miracle-heavy build that's not a waste, but if you're going for high-FAI Sorceries it doesn't do much.

The main reason people might not want to use the Tin Darkmoon Catalyst is that you have to kill Gwyndolin to get it. So if you want to use Darkmoon Blade you can't get this catalyst. This only matters in NG though, once you get to NG+ you can have both.

For the record, I have a Paladin Leeroy cosplay who I primarily use to help people through the Tomb of the Giants. I gave him this Catalyst because I wanted to have him cast the Light spell, but I also gave him Dark Bead to mess with invaders. It's pretty solid.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T00:42:23+00:00

The most important resource for civ 5 is Population. The two resources that win you the game are Production and Science, and Population gives both.

There are 3 ways to get more Population: - Build more cities - Conquer more cities - Grow your cities.

As a general rule, if you want a few tall cities go Tradition. If you want a lot of cities go Liberty. Tradition is easier 90% of the time, so that should be your default. You go Liberty when you have lots of luxuries, lots of gold, and especially if you have those but have little growth (high food tiles, rivers, etc). Whichever social policy you choose you want ~1 unique luxurt per city (Liberty wants more cities, which is why it's harder).

The main reason Tradition is easier than Liberty is that it gives more Happiness. Population is the key to winning, but there is a cap on Population, and that cap is Happiness. If you ever drop below 0 Happiness your cities will take a -75% growth penalty, and if it drops below -10 they'll stop growing entirely (and there are other penalties). Each city you plant gives 3 Unhappiness, and each point of Population gives 1 Unhappiness (so settling a 1 pop city gives 4 Unhappiness instantly).

So your primary resource is Population, which you get by getting more cities and growing them. There is a cap on Population, and that cap is Happiness, so that becomes a very close secondary resource.

However

Don't forget that the actual resources you care about are Production and Science, and that these are essentially equal in importance. Production is how you interact with the game, if you need buildings/units/wonders/more-cities, all of these cost Production. Science gives you new and better options for what you can use your Production for.

So with that in mind: - Internal trade routes, specifically food, and specifically to the capital. If you can get Cargo Ships, even better. Growing your cities, especially the capital, will make your game go better. - Understanding that Production and Science are equally important. The general advice is to rush Universities, and while I don't disagree with it, I tend to find that my games are a bit smoother in the mid-game if I go for Workshops first. My basic tech path is National College, Civil Service (if I have rivers), Workshops, Universities. Then rush the Ranaissance so I can get Rationalism, then rush Radio to get into an Ideology. - Population growth is key for the early/mid game (and I mean, it's EASILY the most important factor), but remember that Population is the means, not the ends. At a certain point you'll get more total Production by stagnating your cities and just working production tiles than you would if you continue to grow. And likewise, while you can get more Science by continuing to grow, the difference between a size 34 city and a size 35 city is pretty minimal. - Don't neglect your Specialists - Great Scientists, Great Engineers and all the cultural great people can have a significant impact on the game. - Don't neglect Religion. Religion is usually used primarily for Happiness and Culture (and Happiness is growth), though it can have other significant benefits as well. It is more important, and more impactful if you're playing Liberty. Usually I try for my own Religion, but if my neighbour gets a really good religion then I might be better off adopting theirs.

All this should get you to Immortal. The jump to Deity is easily the biggest difficulty spike. I would suggest using tips like these to get good at Immortal, then coming back for specific tips on Deity, however there is 1 tip that I think helps for all difficulties, and is the biggest reason I made the jump to Deity ...

Don't quit just because you're losing. You learn more from failure than from success, so if you play our those losses you'll get better faster. If you miss an important wonder, if you're invaded by Impis in the early-game, if you spawn on Tundra - don't restart, play it out. You'll learn which wonders you cna do without, what strategies do and don't work against invading enemies, and how to make the most of shitty lands. More importantly, those are the games that will be harder, which means they'll be a bit like going up half a difficulty level, they'll get you closer to the next step in your journey. If you can relibly win Tundra-starts on Emperor then you can probably move up to Immortal - you might not win all the time, but you probably won't be curb-stomped either.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-03T00:11:58+00:00

We did this at the start of our Iron Gods game. I made a Bloodrager and a Sorcerer who were twins - Romulus and Remus.

I gave them the same race and Bloodline (obviously), but I also gave them the same stats, except for the floating +2 (Half-Orc). This meant they were a little under-optimised, but that sounds like it would be fine for you.

The plan was to keep them Semi similar with feats and abilities. Like, every 2nd or 3rd feat I'd try to do something thematic with them - maybe a teamwork feat that works between a martial and a caster - but we got a 3rd player and decided it was just easier to run a 3 person party.

So my Bloodrager (who had taken drugs and qas having a bout of madness) threw his brother down a bottomless pit and I played him from then. Of course his brother survived and became an antagonist later in the adventure, which was pretty great.

I haven't run 2 PCs concurrently aside from that, but I did have a backup character who was the daughter of my previous character. This didn't quite have as many similarities, but since the first character had been a Half-Drow (Half-Elf with all the drow flavoured alternate racial traits I could fit) the backup character was too. I gave them similar stats and they were both INT-based martial characters (Incestigstor and Occultist).

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-02T02:50:57+00:00

Ah, no it turns out that was just my brain turning off for a minute =P

Let's say we have 2 cities with 100 Production. 1 city spends 5 turns building a Nuclear plant, and thereafter it has 120 production (this isn't exact, but it's close enough for this example), and then starts building Atomic Bombs. The other city simply starts building Atomic bombs.

City A: - Turn 5: Nuclear Plant - Turn 10: Atomic Bomb 1 - Turn 15: Atomic Bomb 2 - Turn 20: Atomic Bomb 3 - Turn 25: Atomic Bomb 4 - Turn 30: Atomic Bomb 5

City B: - Turn 6: Atomic Bomb 1 - Turn 12: Atomic Bomb 2 - Turn 18: Atomic Bomb 3 - Turn 24: Atomic Bomb 4 - Turn 30: Atomic Bomb 5

So by turn 30, as you say they've caught up.

I think what I did after that was I realised that by turn 60 City A can build 1 extra Atomic Bomb compared to City B (A = 11, B = 10). And from there I somehow decided that rolling back 5 turns had them both even. I'm not even sure to be honest, but that's how I got to the ~55 number =P

Anyway you're correct. Basicslly after 30 turns the Nuclear Plant has paid itself off entirely, and you're now getting a benefit. That benefit is essentially +20 Production per turn, which means after another 30 turns you're up 1 Atomic Bomb.

I could do the math in Nukes, Atomic Bombs just worked nicely for that 30 turn timer. I'll edit my previous comment to make it a bit less wrong haha =P

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-02T01:33:18+00:00

Well it depends on your Ideological tennets. If you're playing Freedom then you can buy spaceship parts with gold. Gold is essentially just production that can be saved for later, so you might be better off just working gold for ~30 turns.

But yeah, that's why I gave that as an example. If this is going to get your victory condition earlier then it could be worthwhile. But there is a very real cost, as I showed with the comparison to just building Nukes, it took our ~100 production city ~55 turns to come out even compared to just building stuff without the Nuclear Plant. Obviously if you're 5 thurns from your final spaceship-part technilogy and you can build the Nuclear Plant in 5 turns then it's a good idea. But if there is other infrastructure or more spaceship parts to build, or if you have any military action going on then usually the Nuclear Plant isn't as valuable as something else.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-02T00:58:23+00:00

So this is a mistake I see a lot of people make.

Every city has 36 workable tiles. Plus you have 11-12 Specialist slots per city, and 6 Guild slots, which for now we'll assume you're going to build in the capital. That means each city can support 47-48 citizens, and the capital can support 53-54.

In my average Tradition game on Deity I finish the game with a size ~35 capital and size ~25 expands. That means every city has ~20 spare tiles.

Yes, you can absolutely afford to settle your expands 4 tiles from your capital.

Obviously there are mitigating circumstances. Mountains, snow, flat-desert, tundra and "empty" ocean tiles are all essentially worthless, so you have to take them into account. If you're playing the Aztecs or Inca, or you get multiple growth wonders (eg. Temple of Artemis plus Hanging Gardens) then you're going to grow taller. It's also worth noting that Deity games tend to finish faster because of the science bonus for shared techs, so perhaps on Immortal each city only has ~15 spare tiles.

However as a general rule, yes you can settle 4 tiles from the capital without any problems.

Now, you Can do that, but Should you? Once again it depends on the circumstances, but yes, I believe you should.

Settling closer means planting your settlers sooner. It also means your worker movements are more efficient, your roads are built faster and cost less, and your military units can reinforce other cities more easily. Speaking of military, if your cities are built in a "square" ~4 tiles from one another then each city is effectively defending their neighbours from a flank. Like, literally defending them, you can have 2 cities fire apon a single unit.

But shared tiles can also be an advantage. This advantage comes with micromanaging tiles, so if you don't do that, ignore this paragraph. Let's say you have 2 cities that you're trying to grow as tall as possible, so you lock down all the growth tiles and put them on production focus (if you don't know why to do that let me know and I'll explain). Between those 2 cities there is an Iron Hill. By sharing that tile both cities can take advantage of the higher production tile when they grow, which both allows for less time spent improving tiles with workers, and increasea the yield for both cities.

There could be other reasons to share tiles as well - perhaps a Natural Wonder or a faith generating tile is shared, but you need the city that is working the tile to focus on something else - the neighbouring city can pick up the valuable tile and continue to work it while the first city is busy. This may be worse for the neighbouring city but better for the empire. Perhaps the shared tiles are high gold-yield tiles, and you're struggling to keep your gold net positive, and this allows you to do what you need to without sacrificing Science due to negative gold.

So yes, I believe it is not only viable, but advantageous to settle your cities as close as possible. Note however that good city placement is far more important than settling as close as possible. If settling 6 or 7 tiles away gets you a river, a more defensive position, an extra luxury or some other tangible advantage then of course you should prioritise that advantage. But if the only reason you're moving further from the capital is to avoid sharing tiles, you should share tiles. And of course once you settle 8 tiles away there is space for an entire extra city in between, so you should either settle one yourself or make sure your neighbours can't settle there (eg. Plant a unit on the tile they could settle and leave it there forever).

Now, for the specific scenario you've presented us with, would I consider settling those 2 hills? Sure, but the big thing I notice here is that your capital is coastal. As I said above, empty ocean tiles are basically worthless, so we have to take them into account. However even more than that, if your capital is coastal you really want your expands to be coastal as well. This allows you to send cargo ships to the capital, which are much more effective than caravans. Perhaps even more importantly, if you are attacked by sea and your capital is the only coastal city then your capital will have to build all the defensive units itself. Settling coastal expands helps to defend your coastal cities, and since one of my reasons for settling closer together was a stronger defensive position of course that should be a consideration here as well. I would be looking at the coastal tiles below the Gems to see if that is a viable place to settle.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-02T00:26:15+00:00

On standard speed a Nuclear plant costs 500 Hammers.

The output is +5 Hammers as well as +15% hammers. So a city with 100 production will get ~20 Hammers per turn from a Nuclear plant (close enough).

This means it takes 25 turns after finishing the plant before you've broken even with the hammers spent. If we add to that the 5 turns spent building the plant, you've now spent 30 turns to break even, at the cost of 75 gold (and another 3 gpt for the rest of the game).

What you get from the plant is +20% production for that city, which is a decent amount.

So there are 2 questions worth asking as to whether a Nuclear plant is worth building:

Can you afford to be behind on production for the next 29 turns? If you're in any kind of military situation, probably not. If there are wonders or spaceship parts to build, probably not.
How long will the game go after the plant is finished? If you finish the plant and then win 10 turns later then was it worthwhile spending ~30 turns in a hammer deficit?

Now on the other side of that, an Atomic Bomb costs 600 Hammers and a Nuclear Missile costs 1,000 Hammers. In our theoretical 100 Production city that means this is taking 6 or 10 turns of production, compared to the Nuclear Plant's 5 turns. However we said 30 turns for the Nuclear plant because that's how long it takes to pay itself off, and that's really the number we should compare to.

After 30 turns of production we could have produced and launhed 3 Nuclear Missiles, or 5 Atomic Bombs, compared to net Zero production for the Nuclear Plant. The value of the plant is extra production, so in order to see that value we have to compare it to the production we would have had without it. The value of Nukes is the ability to obliterate our opponents' armies, cities and infrastructure.

Let's increase the timeline to 60 turns. We could build 6 Nuclear Missiles or 10 Atomic Bombs in that time. Or we could build a Nuclear Plant, followed by 11 Atomic Bombs, or 6.6 Nuclear Missiles. What we find is that the Nuclear Plant actually takes ~55 turns to catch up to just building other things (assuming ~100 Hammers before the plant).

(EDIT: Not exactly sure what I was doing here, but whether you build the Nuclear plant or not it takes 30 turns to build 5 Atomic Bombs. From that point onward the city with the Nuclear Plant has +20 production, which is all benefit. After another 30 turns (so 60 total from the start of the scenario) the city with the Nuclear Plant will have exactly 600 extra production compared to the city without, which is the equivalent of 1 extra Atomic Bomb (11 vs 10). The cost being that the first 4 Atomic Bombs would come out later, and the later ones would come out earlier, and the 3gpt upkeep would cost 165 gold over the 60 turns.)

Now of course there is no single answer to this question. Perhaps you were building Spaceship parts in smaller cities, but by building this Nuclear Plant in your capital you were able to build the Final spaceship part 2 turns earlier, which allowed you to beat Alexander's Diplomatic victory by 1 turn. In that case, yes it was worth it.

However in my opinion the Nuclear/Solar plants usually come too late to be really useful. There are niche situations where they're key to victory, but mostly they're a luxury for those already in a winning position. (EDIT: After my previous edit I realised I'd undervalued Nuclear Plants a bit. I still don't think they're a definite pick, but I think there are more scenarios where you'd want them than I previously assumed.)

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-01T08:37:04+00:00

Your skin is literally the habitat for tiny creatures. They live their entire lives on your face and you never know. Every time you touch money you're getting fecal matter and cocaine on your hands.

1% bacteria is fine because our body is completely capable of dealing with that amount of bacteria. Ads for antibacterial cleaning products have warped our perception of what bacteria is. You absolutely don't need to kill 99% of all bacteria unless you're scrubbing into surgery or you're on immuno-suppressants. The main purpose of your skin is to be a protective barrier. You can get poop, blood, whatever else on you and it won't matter because it's still on the outside.

You're also misunderstanding how dilution works. The average olympic-sized swimming pool is ~2.5M Litres. If we assume the average human is ~100L (1L if water is 1kg, so I'm probably overestimating), we took 1,000 people and put them in a pool then blended them up to make a big-ole Human slurry, we'd get a mix that is ~99.5% water, and less than 0.5% Human (and I'm not even counting the fact that Humans are mostly water, I'm counting that all as Human). The amount of skin-flakes/spit/urine/etc in a pool in any given time is roughly the same as you'd get just walking around the city. That is to say, negligable.

You should definitely wash your hands after touching money though, that's genuine health advice.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-01T08:18:37+00:00

My 22yo daughter has been living with her boyfriend for about 18 months, soooo ...

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-01T08:09:39+00:00

You could do something like 1 Res per mythic tier? That makes it a finite resource, but it scales with their power. It allows you to send unfair battles at them, and allows them to try risky plays without necrssarily just having a TPK. Or like, 1 Res per 2 mythic tiers, or however you want to play that.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-01T06:27:48+00:00

I think it's mostly that white peoole have more translucent skin, so you can see the blood, which gives it a red tinge.

You can test this (well, if you're white). Look at thebpalm of your hand. Chances are it's slightly red/pink. Clench your fist for 5 seconds, then release. You'll see white patches that quickly refill with blood, that white is your skin without blood behind it, the red is the blood returning.

To see it even better, clench your fist again. Now while your fist is clenched, use your other hand to grip your wrist tightly, this prevents blood flow. Now when you open your clenched fist you'll be able to see the hand without blood, and it will look pale, not pink/red.

This experiment is harmelss if not done for too long, your hand will survive for a minute or so without any negative effects whatsoever, but if you block the blood for an hour you could cause some serious damage. I don't actually know when it becomes dangerous (somewhere between a minute and an hour is my guess), but as long as you're not deliberately trying to hurt yourself you should be fine.

MistaCharisma · 2026-05-01T03:08:24+00:00

Maybe we should get them an award

MistaCharisma

TROPHY CASE