Noob. Where to build Citadels?

[La_Anarquista]

I played the demo for an hour as my first Civ experience ever. Than bought the Civ V bundle (kind of wondering why i didn't just buy civ vi now, the bundle was almost 50$). I have about 3 hours on it. I just got my general and decided to quit and save there. Do they belong on the outskirts? Or right on the capital?

Am I supposed to spend much money on tiles or is that for other stuff? I see the recommendations, which are nice, but is it better to add settlements nearby or to start another settlement a great distance from your original home?

This games really fun. I'd love to try out Endless Legend and the various Age of (Games) titles. I also tried out TW: Shogun 2 and EUIV demo. Civ V has been the most approachable so far.

[KalkiKrosah]

A great general is more useful for their passive use of 15% bonus damage to nearby units. The active's best use is as a "chain use" where you activate several of them one after another on the same turn so as to steal land from an enemy civilization. You can gain access to resources this way without having to declare war on them. It also helps avoid unhappiness generated by captured cities.


Usually whatever a citadel can do a Fort can do just as well (and are more cost efficient too). Put them someplace that is tactically effective. I plop one down next to a unique luxury on the outskirts of my border that I want guarded. Placing one on a hill will help with visibility and defense bonuses but you will miss out on some early game production points by doing this.

If you have a trade route with someone outside your city you can place one somewhere along the trade route trajectory path so as to scout for barbarians and to cover the caravan itself if it stops in a dangerous area. You can also place one on the border of an enemy city about 2 tiles out from the city itself. This can be where you place your siege units. Just make sure that a hill isn't in the way.

[Ultrablockstar]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

Usually whatever a citadel can do a Fort can do just as well (and are more cost efficient too). Put them someplace that is tactically effective. I plop one down next to a unique luxury on the outskirts of my border that I want guarded. Placing one on a hill will help with visibility and defense bonuses but you will miss out on some early game production points by doing this.

Although I agree Forts are more useful, Citadels do have interesting uses aside from stealing land, since they grant +100% combat strength compared to Fort's +50% and deal passive damage to adjacent enemy units.

Also pretty much what this guy said.

[General Malaise]

Yep, I agree with what others have said. quite rare you need one to help with defence.

Best used for bonus, but when you have 2, you may use one to steal a resource or luxury.

[La_Anarquista]

What about a Great Scientist? I just got one. I know their abilities makes them expendable. Is that how I'm supposed to use him? To research things immediately, or is it like the general where i want to keep him around.

[Ultrablockstar]

Originally posted by La_Anarquista:

What about a Great Scientist? I just got one. I know their abilities makes them expendable. Is that how I'm supposed to use him? To research things immediately, or is it like the general where i want to keep him around.

Early game I'd highly recommend using them to build Academies which grants a large amount of science when worked on, later you should likely use them for the tech boost since the amount of science gained from academies become insignificant.

As for the other great people.
You should probably save your Great Engineers for a future project you need to get as soon as possible, but if your city truly lacks production than a Manufactury won't hurt.

You're better off using Great Marchants for envoys to city-states to gain a vast amount of gold either to sustain your treasury if you're loosing gold, therefore buying you time to improve your economy, as well as gain a large amount of influence towards said city0state so choose wisely.

Great Prophets, once you found all your beliefs, depends on your style, using them to spread religion is equally as useful as using them to build holy sites, but it depends on how you're playing the game. (For example Holy Sites can be extremely good tile improvements with the right policies and beliefs)

Great Admirals, similar to Generals, though their ability can be useful if you're in a pinch.

As for the Great Writers, Artists and Musicians, if you're not going culture victory then simply use them for their second ability, and don't build the musician's guild because Musicians are completely useless if you're not going for a culture victory, though their bonus tourism could give you benefits, in that case it depends as well.

[cerberusiv]

Originally posted by La_Anarquista:

What about a Great Scientist? I just got one. I know their abilities makes them expendable. Is that how I'm supposed to use him? To research things immediately, or is it like the general where i want to keep him around.

Depends where you are in the game. If fairly early on and it will noticeably boost your civs science output then use the scientist to create the academy tile improvement (this is definitely the way to go with the early scientist you get as Babylon). Later on it makes more sense to take the one time research boost. I don't see any benefit in hanging on to a scientist, it incurs unit support costs, but other players may have a strategy to do so.