why doesn't my military advisor show other civ's units?

farkas · February 18, 2002, 18:56

Maybe this has been ansvered already but my manual on page 138 clearly says "In addition, you Military advisor can investigate your rivals through the embassy an get a complete list of their forces.", but mine won't. I do have the embassy but my Military Advisor never shows anything except my own forces on the left half of the screen.

Another question, regarding strategic resources this time: while negotiating with other leaders in the diplomacy screen, the "strategic rescources" tab never even appears, though the "luxury resources" tab does, so it can't really depend on faulty or incomplete trade routes.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Salvor · February 18, 2002, 19:06

You need to plant a spy before you can see the exact makeup of the enemy's military forces in the advisor screen. If all you have is an embassy, the best you can do is see their government type and a vague weak/average/strong comparison to your own forces.

Strategic resources show up in the trade window as simply "Resources". Luxury resources appear as "Luxuries". You can only trade if the other civ doesn't have them but has the tech to know about them. If you don't have any resources he/she needs, nothing will appear on the screen.

Andy · February 18, 2002, 20:31

Additionally you need to have your spy scout troop locations or something like that in order to get the actual locations of their troops. Once you have your spy do this change the view of your opponant's army to city.

farkas · February 18, 2002, 20:32

thanks a lot, mate

farkas · February 21, 2002, 11:20

Well, here's something strange now. Without the help of a spy I'm not able to see other civ's units, but I'm able to see some units (workers) some civs have captured, but then again I'm not able to see the units they've lost to others. Concrete example: I can see the workers the Zulus have captured from some extinct civ (I think it was the babylonians); I'm able to see my cannons lost to the french in my half of the screen but I'm not able to see the cannons the french have have captured from me.
Is there some logical explanation for this? Is the advisor intended to work like this or is it some sort of bug?
Can anyone help?

Thanks

davidttm · February 21, 2002, 20:34

With the relatively high cost of espionage, this makes the Military Advisor screen all but useless to players like me who can't seem to generate the big bucks.

I just thought the whole page was a broken feature until I figured out that you have to spy. I mean, the guy can't even see enemy units that I can find by scrolling around the board.

How about having Military Guy actually "advise" you, for instance "Lets spend gold to spy on the stinking German units".

Like many of the other advisors what he usually says is "Spend more money on my stuff." While it may be realistic to have everyone yammering at you pointlessly, it is not that fun or helpul.