Tips and hints

[Wahazar]

I will publish here some remarks for AU1 players.

First of all, terrain description.
Detailed description of all tiles is here: https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Augment ... k:_terrain

We can roughly divide tiles into following categories:

• water tiles - no significant differences from standard freeciv
• Glacier: limited for land units (only Small Land and Infantry can go here)
• Wet tiles - Swamp, Mangroves - land units movement limited, especially for Mangroves (but Coaster ships can go here). Swamp can be irrigated without water source adjacent.
• Rough terrain (Forest, Taiga, Jungle, Hills, Wooded Hills, Mountains, Volcano) - Dirt Road is required to enable standard shield production (without road -1 penalty), Wheeled Units and Big Land can't enter without Paved Road.
  Mountains, Volcanoes without any road accessible only for Small Land units (Volcanoes are not generated, they appear as Global Warming effect)
• Plain tiles (Plains, Grassland, Tundra, Desert) - road add Trade point, no restriction for land units.

City tile grant extra shield (and if tile can be irrigated, also extra food), if tile penalty doesn't apply (Tribe hut cancel penalty under Tribal gov if Bronze Working s not known).

Tribe, Settlers, Workers, Slaves, Migrants, Builders and Engineers can improve terrain, making:
Dirt Road, Irrigation (require Agricultural Farming and adjacent fresh water - if not Swamp or Oasis), Paved Road (Masonry), Railroad (Railroad), Fort (Carpentry), Fortress (Construction), Water lock (Steam Engine), Farmland (Chemical Synthesis), Oil Platform (on Deep Sea, with Offshore Exploration), Wind Turbine (on irrigated Hills, with Environmentalism).

Builders and Engineers can make Airstrip and Buoys (Radio), Airbase (Radar).

Engineers can make Highways (Automobile).

[Wahazar]

Next topic is managing cities under Tribalism. Each government has some pros and cons.
In case of initial Tribal there are following benefits:

• no need of Palace, same corruption/waste in all cities, only 10% food waste
• the only government with 0 gold upkeep of units (all other pay gold+shields)
• no tile penalty with Tribe Hut
• cheap Tribe unit (25s, 1pop vs Settlers 40s 2 pop) allows fast spreading
• low chance of civil war, x2 incite costs, 25% less unhappiness in conquered cities
• increased chance of aftermath veteran promotion of Infantry or Horse units.
• no unhappiness due to units outside of boundaries.
• rapture growth in celebrating cities with Granary, if player has Pyramids (effect cancelled by Monotheism)

Tribal government has following disadvantages:

• Empire base size 8, empire step 4 - it is hard to handle large Tribal empire (Dunbar number!)\
• No martial law - hard to manage conquered cities
• Max rates 60%
• 25% penalty on gold and science income (with 60% rate, +3 trade surplus is needed to get +1 output)
• Revolution after 3 turns of unrest in any city

Keeping above list in mind, one should consider, further or later, changing Tribal to different government form,
but Palace, required by any centralized system (Despotism, Monarchy etc) need to be constructed before such revolution.

[Wahazar]

Today something about science and initial strategy.

There is bad science output in case for Tribal gov., you need at least city size 2 with workers assigned to ocean tiles to get 1 bulb after deducting corruption and penalty from 5 trade points). Or use science specialists.
Frankly speaking, struggling to make science may not be an optimal initial strategy, making new tribes and expanding is usually more profitable (assuming there is unclaimed land around).

On the other hand, Tribal gov has some limits, for example small empire size and step thus some science progress is needed to overcome it.
Beside of basic science such Stone Knapping (which grant Hunters useful as cheap city guards or reconnaissance units) and Fire Making (Canoe for further exploring), one should consider developing Creative Art, Shamanism, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial and later Mysticism - all these allow improvements which increase luxury or decrease unhappiness - main factor restricting growth of empire before Palace+Despotism (or Monarchy).

Word of warning about Sacred Cairn - this cheap improvement act like Temple without Mysticism while without gold upkeep (and additionally grant +1f on tundra tiles). But there is trap if such cheap improvement is overused - there are no Culture Points from Sacred Cairn, while each Temple accumulate 1 Culture Point each turn. And Library demands 100 Culture Points... it is wise to pay for Temples in big cities while keep Sacred Cairns only in small cities or these in cold biome.

Another important science branch is The Wheel and The Harness: first one allow WaterMill or WindMill - these are important later to decrease food waste in case of centralized govs. The Harness allow unique unit Cart, which is helpful for making wonders, and Chariot (which is really useful only in case of Despotism, which grant veteran range for it), but more impoprtanlty (especially for warmongers), The Harness is prerequisite for Saddle Stirrup tech which enable not only Mounted Archery, but also Stable Barracks (standard Barrack are only for Infantry or Small Land units).

Another word of warning about poisonous techs: Agricultural Farming and Bronze Working.
Agricultural Farming is needed to enable Irrigating flat tiles, but on expense of cheap Tribe unit replaced by Settlers. Tribe hut can still be used to get rid of tile penalty but is obsoleted by City Hall - choose wisely - small city radius without penalty or large city radius with penalty (usually it is good to irrigate some tiles before building City Hall).
Bronze Working is required to get any production from Mines (you can start making Mines with Copper Working, but without any effect from them), but this tech remove all Tribe Huts even from cities without City Hall - and without Pyramids, tile penalty will apply everywhere (except of celebrating cities).
It is possible to pass trough these poisonous techs smoothly making some irrigation/mines in advance.

[Wahazar]

Edit: Great Wonders bug fixed.

Improvements and Small Wonders add Culture Points to the city where they are located.
National Culture is summed over all cities (new owner inherit Culture Point of conquered city).

Great Wonders add Culture Points directly to the overall National Culture (like Achievements do), with some exceptions:
some Great Wonders (Isaac Newton's College, Internet, LHC, Michelangelo's Chapel, Pasteur Institute, Shakespeare's Theatre, Kyoto Fushimi Inari)
give some city Culture Points, not by their own but when related to other improvements.

EDIT: spreadsheet with Culture Points production and requirements is here: https://github.com/Wahazar/augmented2/b ... ulture.xls

[Wahazar]

Some words about land units: they are divided into following classes: Small Land, Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, Big Land and Wheeled Units.

Small Land are small and versatile units: Tribe, Militia, Archers, Snipers, Workers, Builders, Diplomats, Partisans, Alpine Troops etc.
Small Land can enter any land tile. But because these units are small, they can't enter and occupy enemy city.

Any Infantry (Warriors, Phalanx, Legions etc up to Modern Rangers and Super Soldiers) can conquer empty enemy city.
Infantry can't enter Mountains or Mangroves without Dirt Road (but Riflemen and all better defending Infantry can attack units on Mountains, also Coasters on Sea).

Light Cavalry (Mounted Archery, Lancers etc up to ATV Infantry) also can conquer city.
Light Cavalry can't enter Mountains, Mangroves and Glacier without Dirt Road (but can attack units sitting here - but not Ships on Sea)

Heavy Cavalry (Horsemen, Knights, etc up to Mech Inf.) can conquer city as well.
Heavy Cavalry require Dirt Road to enter Mountains, Mangroves, Glacier, Swamp, Wooded Hills. Mounted Inf. and Mech Inf. can attack in-accesible tile.

Big Land are usually bulky caterpillar units like Armor, Engineers, but also Autonomous War Mech. They can conquer city except these with bombarding action (Howitzer).
Big Land require Dirt Road to enter Mountains, Mangroves, Glacier, Swamp, Wooded Hills, Jungle. They can attack units on in-accesible tile, including Ships.
Note, that Workers or Builders needs to prepare Dirt Road, before Engineers can enter such rough terrain.

Wheeled Units (usually Artillery, but also Chariots, Armored Car) can't conquer empty city (but usually are necessary to purge defenders).
Wheeled Units movement is also restricted to Paved Road, except of flat land (Desert, Plains, Grassland, Tundra). Artillery can attack units on in-accesible tile, including Ships.

Comprehensive table for above explanations is available here:
https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Augment ... pack#Units

Following improvements are needed to improve movement or make it possible:
Dirt Road (speed x2)
Paved Road (speed x3, required for Wheeled Units)
Railroad (for Trains, but also 6x speed for Small Land and Merchants)
Highway (speed x6).
There is no Maglev.
River offer speed x2 bonus only to Small Land and Merchants. It is not possible to use River as a road for military units (if not loaded on Raft or Coaster).

EDIT: comprehensive table with units properties is here: https://github.com/Wahazar/augmented2/b ... /units.xls

[Wahazar]

Because current map consists of many long land stripes divided by sea, nautical knowledge might be important here.
Basically there are two classes of vessels (not counting rafts or hovercrafts): Sea ships and Coasters:

• Sea ships can go into Deep Ocean, but can't enter river (however they can use Water Lock).
• Coasters can go along rivers, but can't enter Deep Ocean.

These classes can be divided into following sub-classes, according to their functionality:

• Sea warships (can attack other ships, Frigates and above can bombard land targets, and also can carry Turrets capable to attack),
  Sea transports (can transport land units, but Cavalry and Artillery need to be loaded/unloaded in city),
  Sea merchants (single use, for establishing traderoutes and making wonders),
• Coaster warships (can attack other ships, Monitor and above can bombard land targets, and also can carry Turrets capable to attack),
  Coaster transports (can transport land units, but Heavy Cavalry and Artillery need to be loaded/unloaded in city).

More information available here: https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Augment ... pack#Units