2nd game I've reached the point of when for victory not if.
So...even when I DO take an enemy city, it won't grow until they either agree to cede it to my control or I wipe them out.
As expected (and generally across all civ games, but amplified now), I get the distinct impression come industrial that I've really fubarred the long term planning of everything.
Tech tree I meander through not really knowing what to focus on.
I try to look ahead a bit and get the boosts of both social and research stuff before actually finishing them.Great Generals completely underwhelming.
You did see they (and Great Admirals as well) have a passive effect too? Most of the time its a movement boost, which might be handy in time of war.
Great Relics are far too random IMO. You either get lucky in a goody hut or have to (randomly?) upgrade an apostle to a martyr and then get it killed? (in that case does the item just magically appear in your lands or do you need to go claim it?)
Not something I really understand as well (besides the apostle martyr promotion). If you earned one in whatever way, it appears 'magically' in the appropriate district building or wonder slot. And I think that if you already have an apostle with the martyr promo, and keep it around, the promo is kinda locked until you have taken all the other possible promo's with other apostles. There is this one religion upgrade (forgot if it comes from religion choices or finishing a wonder) that grants the martyr promo to all your apostles.I don't fully understand the religious pressure mechanic.
Neither do I, but the more converted cities of another religion that are near, the more you're in trouble.
A trick I often use is do apostle-to-apostle combat (if my apostles are stronger at least), the killed apostle causes -250 influence of the religion it represents in nearby cities. And +250 influence for the winning apostle. Works as a charm combined with a Guru to heal your apostle(s) before going into 'combat' again.Trade routes...it's confusing why I randomly sometimes have to reassign trade routes. Like the caravan just pops up in the capital and asks for a new trade route, I scroll through the list pick the best one and it says 'repeat'. Yes. REPEAT DAMN YOU, why is this a question? Do I take it these trade routes are then merely out and back with a static number of resources rather than a resource per turn once the route is established? I'd assumed the latter (oh, it'll take 20 turns to establish this route, but hten you get xyz per turn, vs it's take 20 turns to get there and back but then you get xyz)
In Gathering Storm, you pick the route, click 'ok', and its done.
Again, been awhile since I played vanilla.
But in the Gathering Storm expansion, with the map comin' to live so to speak due to volcano's, storms, and global warming one needs to look out where your units and districts are because those are damaging when passing by or erupting.