Well, I'm playing my first full Civilization IV game right now. Could somebody give me some general tips and take a look at the game below? This game is much different than Civ III...

Also, I have a few general questions...

1) What are the general rules for building cities on resources?
2) What's the easiest way to keep people happy and my cities healthy?
3) What is birth rate? It's mentioned a lot (+100% birth rate, etc) and I couldn't find it in a quick glance through Civilopedia.

So, if somebody could answer these questions and take a look at my game, tell me anything I'm doing wrong, what I should do differently, etc, that would be great. I'll take it as tips to improve my gameplay. I believe it's the second difficulty level up (whatever it's called...)

Thanks in advance!

You have a couple of elephant tiles that are incorrectly developed. One with irrigation and another with a cottage. You should build camps there and irrigate/cottage elsewhere.
I would have an open borders with America, and be building up some units to go wipe out India. Check out that area SW of America, if he's not going to settle it you should.
I would start researching optics asap so you can build a caravel and find the other civilizations. You will want to trade with them.
Speaking about building caravels... I notice you only have 1 port city. You should try and build a few more cities on the coast. Especially as you have financial, sea squares get you 2 food and 3 commerce.
If youre not wiping out india very soon, you need to build some culture in Bombay, else it may flip.

1) if its a food resource you get +1food, if its a commerce resource +1commerce etc. in general.

2) Aquiring resources.

3) I think you refer to Great People Birthrate here ? Philosophical will give you mor Great People during the game (not twice as much as one might think).

Don't build directly on resources. If you do, you won't be able to develop them, and realize their full potential. You'll also notice that the AI doesn't recommend building on top of them, but putting resources in your immediate cultural control upon city creation.

Don't build directly on resources

Ehm to build on resources you can only use far into the future (e.g. sugar,wine at the beginning) is sometimes a good move.

Ehm to build on resources you can only use far into the future (e.g. sugar,wine at the beginning) is sometimes a good move.

With respect, I disagree. There's still no reason to actually build on the resource, as opposed to building near it. Then, in the future, you can still develop it. You can't develop whatever you build upon.

Getting a small bonus asap is in many cases better than getting a bigger bonus later.
The reason for this is that the small bonus multiplies over time, e.g. i have a financial civ and build first city on wine, i get bonus commerce from the resource + the extra 1gold from the financial bonus which will give me a huge research boost at start. Since i have better research i will get important techs earlier and this again puts me further ahead etc.

Hmm, hadn't thought of doing that. So basically, any resource that'll give at least 2 gpt is worth starting on, to get you 3 bonus commerce? Neat idea.

Thanks for the tips.

Oh, and in response to Vladesch, I just got out of a war with India and took 2 of their cities (notice the Indian names) and destroyed another (a pile of ruins near the top). It was sort of my "experimental war" to get more comfortable with war. It definitely requires a much more balanced force now. In Civ III you could just send a huge stack of swordsman, now if you do that you're almost sure to fail.

Oh, right, and the birth rate is for great people! I believe I knew that at one point when I was reading up on the game and I guess I forgot.

With respect, I disagree. There's still no reason to actually build on the resource, as opposed to building near it.
Sure there is. If nothing else, the tile location may be such that settling on that spot is significantly stronger than neighboring tiles (in terms of other resources acquired, strategic/defensive location, etc.). Also, I could imagine some early game wonder races that might benefit from settling on top of stone or marble. That way you save the time of building a quarry. And stone/marble in particular tend to occupy crappy tiles that you might not work even with a quarry (stone/desert/quarry = 3 hammers - woohoo!). Settling on them gets you a hammer bonus in the city tile and occupies a tile that might otherwise be marginal at best for citizens to work.

I agree that settling on a resource is generally a bad play. But there are always exceptions to the rule in Civ.

Another exception is to make sure you capture that iron patch (you know, the only one for 8000 miles). The computer is notorious for plopping a city down 2 tiles from you just to grab a resource. Even settling adjacent to the iron doesn't guarantee it will be in your culture. With such an important resource, it is sometimes nice to force the computer to actually take your city in order to cut off your supply.

Oh, yeah, and I have a couple more questions.

1) Are the blue circles the AI suggests when you have the settler selected actually good places to settle?

2) When is generally the best time to build your first city?

3) I've heard that specialists are much more important and useful than in Civ 3. Just how useful are they in this one?

I plan on reading through the War Academy soon, but I don't have time at the moment.

Again, thanks in advance!

1) Are the blue circles the AI suggests when you have the settler selected actually good places to settle?
Sometimes. I'll sometimes rethink my plans after looking at the blue circle, but not always. The AI seems to evaluate city sites based entirely on food and resources. Those are certainly very important, but sometimes a city's location with respect to your other cities or its strategic position against a rival is more important. Also, the AI has a bad habit of suggesting sites one off a coast or one away from fresh water, both of which are usually bad moves. The one time I give the blue circle more weight is with the capital - the AI appears to suggest the site based on what it knows to be waiting in the fog. Several times I've moved one off the blue circle for my capital and found that I missed a useful resource that I couldn't initially see.
2) When is generally the best time to build your first city?
The first turn. Absolutely no later than the second turn.
3) I've heard that specialists are much more important and useful than in Civ 3. Just how useful are they in this one?
Extremely useful. But that's a pretty huge topic. Try to get some Great People to see how they work in order to start understanding the implications - specialists are a big part of that. Also, the Representation civic has a lot of impact here, along with various other civics or wonders that affect specialists.

I decided to try a game on Monarch with the Inca, and restarted twice to find a place with a luxury resource I could settle on. I got two spices along a river, and gave it a shot. By settling on one and working the other tile, I got SIX commerce pts compared to the usual one. I was able to get all THREE early religions (on MONARCH!) even though Isabella was around. With some luck was able to settle a 2nd city next to Marble as well. Got Stonehedge and Oracle (which founded Code of Laws) and my first great prophet will discover Theology. Five religions and counting, with THREE in my capital. Easy enough to do on Noble or lower, but I've never even dreamed of trying on Monarch. Yes, I only have two cities still, but my research is going at an insane clip. By the time I get all my shrines up I'll be even better.

Glad I gave this a shot. It takes a lucky start and a financial civ to be worthwhile, but another tactic to add to the book.

Well, thanks for more tips.

I played a little bit more. I'm deciding...should I attack India? America? Keep improving my cities?

Play the tutorial. That was a good introduction.

Read the succesion games under stories & tales.

Read the various strategy posts.

I did play the tutorial. Most of it.

I am reading the strategy articles. I am reading through the forums.

Also, the AI has a bad habit of suggesting sites one off a coast or one away from fresh water, both of which are usually bad moves.

I have noticed this too. I don't know the algorithm the game uses to figure out best place for a town, but the blue circle thing is often just plain wrong! Maybe it assumes your town will never grow past size 1 or 2?

I often think the game tries to screw you over by suggesting the worst positions to build the city. That way half your tiles are un-workable no matter how big you are because you have an ocean on one side and no possible way in hell to link to it!! arghhhhh

1) Are the blue circles the AI suggests when you have the settler selected actually good places to settle?

As mentioned, those locations are not "the best" locations. The AI seems to place you at a distance of 4 from your capitol. that is 2 diagonal and 1 straight out.


2) When is generally the best time to build your first city?

I build a worker after all the tiles that yield 3 food unimproved are being worked. This takes a little while but I build warriors in the mean time. Once I get a worker out, I build more warriors until my city is as big as it can get without having any workers that refuse not to work. This is around 5~7 city size.

3) I've heard that specialists are much more important and useful than in Civ 3. Just how useful are they in this one?

Specialists help you keep a consistent city size and have those cities useful. That is happiness is determined by city size and if all your cities are size 19 ... you can have the same happiness improvements in all without unhappy workers.

As mentioned, those locations are not "the best" locations. The AI seems to place you at a distance of 4 from your capitol. that is 2 diagonal and 1 straight out.

I have seen times where it has wanted me to move 20 paces away from my capitol lol. Another thing that bugs me, is often it will keep begging and insisting I should make a new settler... despite there is no friggen spot where a new town really should be built. To to further rub it in me, sometimes i built the settler just to see where the blue circle will be so it stops whining, and the circle doesnt show up anywhere!

Grrrrrr.

I turned off Sid's tips and the in game help the 2nd day I had the game. ;) Since the AI is using the same sillyness that the advisors give you, it makes it understandable why the AI must have bonuses at higher levels to compete.

2) When is generally the best time to build your first city?

The AI (on Prince, anyway) seems to start placing its second cities shortly after 2500 BC. So, if you want to 'keep up with the joneses'.. try to get that first settler out around 2500 BC.
First city, just place it where your settler lands, unless there is another spot within one move that is *obviously* better. The spot where your settler stands seems to always be a very good city site (3+ resources, little if any desert or peak, and often a horse, copper or iron waiting to be discovered).

"I build a worker after all the tiles that yield 3 food unimproved are being worked."

If you do the math, you'll see that this is suboptimal, especially if you're counting on choprushing your first settler. Those 3 food unimproved tiles only give you one more food/hammer per turn toward your first worker (the extra citizen takes two food to support itelf)> Compare to the 5 food the tile could produce if improved.

Basicially, non-improved tiles are barely worth the extra citizen they require to work. Get those workers on the job ASAP.