Some great questions, guys. I wish I had thought through every contingency in advance, but hey, the last Epic I sponsored was like nine months ago or something insane like that, so you've got to expect a wee bit of rust.
OK, here we go:
QUESTION: Must we research optional sea-related techs, or can we trade for them?
ANSWER: If the AI already knows the tech, you can trade for them if you like. If you do not trade for the tech immediately, you must begin research on it. You can trade at any time or continue researching. What you cannot do is sit around sandbagging, waiting for the AIs to spread the tech around and the cost to drop. So one way or another, your business is to obtain these techs quickly, not sit around lollygagging.
QUESTION: The one (spice) city can *only* be founded peacefully, and not captured, correct?
ANSWER: Correct. If you can nab a spice by settling somewhere inland, you may do so. You are not to obtain spices via aggression unless there are no opponents left in the game except for spice owners.
QUESTION: If we manage to own (a spice) city, are we allowed to garrison it properly if it's more than four tiles away from the coast?
ANSWER: As much garrison as you like, but they must stay within your borders. You can move units back and forth from the spice city to your coastal holdings at any time, but no attacking along the way, and take direct routes, no wandering.
QUESTION: If we can not declare war on our spice supplier, how is Conquest victory possible?
ANSWER: Eliminate all civs except your spice trading partner first. If there are multiple civs who own spices, you only need one trading partner. (If you are buying spices from Civ A, and Civ B also owns some, you ARE allowed to fight with Civ B, raze their cities, then settle your own city on a spice source, at which point you can drop the spice purchase deal, assuming you can HOLD ON TO your new spice city!
NOTE: if your spice trading partner declares war on you for any reason, this is NOT an excuse to go burn down his spice cities and replace them with your own.
Seek peace and a renewal of your supply at the first chance. Or, if there is a second civ with spices available to purchase, you can "switch trading partners", in which case the first civ then becomes a legitimate target while the second civ is your new "protected trading partner."
QUESTION: If we get a warrior out of a hut inland, should we disband it immediately? Or just move it home?
ANSWER: Move it directly toward the coast. (Advance to the coast, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars.
)
QUESTION: In case we get a village from a hut which is not on the coast, what should we do with it?
ANSWER: If you pop a settler, move it to a legal costal spot. If you pop a city on that spot, you may keep it, but you may not improve its tiles with irrigation, mining, or vegetation chops (roads and all other worker actions are OK), and you have to roll your eyes at your poor inland brethren who live there and generally treat them with long-suffering condescension.
They are the black sheep of the family. :wub:
- Sirian
That's cool because Portugal is one of those of civs which are unappealing to me, and I doubt I'll ever play as them on my own. Like, I've never played as the Zulu in my 10-year Civ history !!!