Settler stopped my troop train!

Scouse Gits · May 18, 2000, 01:07

When a city has been bribed, you often inherit a settler that is pre-worked. In an effort to turn a grassland road square to rail I hopefully pressed “R”. No luck – still road. No problem I thought, as I had about eight engineers railroading in the vicinity ahead of the conquest-hungry cavalry. An engineer was brought to the spot in question – no change. As a grassland square can always be converted from road to rail with double engineers – another one was summoned. Still no railway! Another four engineers later, I was still looking at the same brown road! Next turn, the settler was removed, and a further engineer made the square rail.

If a settler has first contact with a terrain square – do the subsequent engineers work a settler’s pace?

Or was my bribed settler a double agent sabotaging the tracks between Kells and Swansea!

SG (2)

catullus · May 18, 2000, 02:49

Conventional wisdom says that only the first two people employed do any real work. Adding more won't do you any good.

Looks like you confirmed that this rule holds true for Civ2, too.

C.

Tom DeMille · May 18, 2000, 08:06

I bet if you were to have reselected the settler and stopped its railroading work right away, you would have been able to create the railroad with the engineer that same turn.

Scouse Gits · May 18, 2000, 18:59

Thanks Xin - I didn't know about the limit of two engineers.

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SG (2)

Sortub · May 18, 2000, 19:16

Xin-

Does this rule apply to laborers and labor brigades in "Red Front" as well? If so, it would be a great boon to know about the next time I liberate Mother Russia.

These threads are just terrific to garner new knowledge.

Thanks

Xin Yu · May 18, 2000, 19:28

I don't know. Should work. The following is what I posted before:

1 turn transformation of terrian: engineer #1 starts transforming the land, then engineer #2. Before engineer #3 begins, click on the square then click on engineer #1 so the "O" on its shield disappears. Now #3 can start transforming. Similarly, dismiss #2 from the job before #4 start working, and so on.
When you have too many engineers on the same square, it is not possible to activate, say the 10th, unit. You can first move an engineer to a city and assign it the home city (the city must supports less than 8 units), then go to work. When you try to dismiss him from the job, open the city window and call him "back to home city", that will do the trick.
The sequence is very important. If you dismiss #2 instead of #1 it won't work.

Xin Yu · May 19, 2000, 00:24

SG (2): Only 2 can work at the same time, so only your settler and the first engineer did the job (which was just a little short from accomplishing it). If you click on the settler (so he finishes his part) then let the 2nd engineer work on the RR, then the 2nd engineer's job will be counted and the RR should be finished the same turn. Strangely clicking on the 1st engineer doesn't work.

I have posted twice on this forum about how to use 20 engineers to transform terrain in one turn. If you want to know the details please dig it out.

Scouse Gits · May 19, 2000, 06:16

Xin - I continue to be amazed by your wisdom at this game - can you find opponents at MP or have they all been beaten into submission?

I'm sorry - on re-reading the above sounds rather sarcastic - I assure you I mean every word literally.

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

Ming · May 19, 2000, 09:40

Xin has no problem finding people to kill at MP when he wants to play... Thank God he doesn't play as much as he used to. In our current game, he got off to a slow start, but now, its into the AD period, and he is just romping and stomping...

I still chuckle when I read his method for transforming a square in one turn. It does work, but I just can't imagin how he figured it out. Did he try 1,000's of combinations until he found one that worked?

As always Xin, you continue to add to our knowledge of the game... thanks!

Smash · May 19, 2000, 14:04

Ya really!

I can't imagine any in game situation where he would have "accidently" discovered this.

To steal a quote

I dont think Xin plays a game I am familiar with

Xin Yu · May 19, 2000, 15:49

I remember that once I put three engineers on a forest to irrigate (?) it and it instantly became plain. Since there were only 3 units I tried all combinations to repeat the effect and finally succeeded. Then I tried it for other operations such as transforming terrain.

Now I think that the original effect probably was not due to my accidently clicked on the first engineer. I saw from scenario design hints that if you move or sentry all other types of units before let the engineers do their jobs, then after the first square they worked on (still only the first two counts on this square), any squares afterwards ALL engineers' jobs will be counted. The only restriction is that you cannot use mouse, you must wait for the engineers to be automatically activated by the game. I have never tried that though.

Tom DeMille · May 19, 2000, 16:12

Ah, for the old civ1 days when we had the settler cheat. Simpler times...