Hi to all CIV IV players.

After beating c3c on demigod and finding deity not to my liking (had to be ultra warlike) i finally got hold of CIV IV. So far i like it, as ive played c3c lots i started on Noble, on an archipello map (my fave on c3c).

I think im in a playable position, but im drifting a bit aimlessly atm, the wealth of tech options is kind of confusing and i could do with advise where to go from here. I have read the manual and some of the guides: but they are quite technical.


Thoughts: I seem to have food/production problems. I think i should have farmed everywhere i had fresh water, leaving cottages to unirragatable land?.

Im pretty poorly defended: Plan is to churn out 5-6 axemen as i dont think london can grab great library.

The island is tiny, i need to expand right?. Ive read loads of cities less important for civ iv though?.


I think city placement is poor, i missed a clam and possibly more.

There is fresh water grass 3 tiles below london which would solve food problems, it cant use it but i thought it would be able to according to the manual??.

I was building theatres for the globe and to allow specialists. At what size do you use specialists generally and do you focus on one super-city for Great people? they seem a good long-term help as part of a city.


Any advise on where to go from here (i favour builders styles) would be massively appreciated, or advice on what i should have done regarding land use/city placement. I view my first game more as a training game than anything and could go back to the start if ive made too much of a hash of it all.

Anyway cheers all.

Steve

Without looking at the save: Farm whereever you can since you won't be able to do it anywhere else except for tiles adjacent to fresh water. No chaining irrigation. Also, build that granary. It's the only way you get to speed up city growth.

You also definitely want to space your cities farther apart in Civ4. Quality is better than quantity. Roads no long provide commerce so you don't need to spam them everywhere.

As to specialists: In Civ4 it is better to specialize your cities somewhat. You should build at least one city in mostly grass with irrigation that will serve as your specialist producer. If you build it early enough, it can crank out settlers. Specialists should be built when you are approaching the happiness threshold.

You don't have a huge amount of farmable land, so I'd make the most of what you have. You won't be able to make use of a lot of cottaged plains without some counterbalancing food from somewhere. If you have a lot of grassland then it's often worth building cottages on it rather than farming it, even if you can at this stage, but this map tends more towards plains. it would also be worth you building a better road network, since some of your resources are still unconnected.

Your city placement seems fairly good to me, no major mistakes. You're well ahead of the AI, so you're expanding at a fair rate, and you still have at least one potential city site to the north of your island. Might be worth looking for somewhere else to colonize soon though. It would be perfectly possible to win a builder style game from your current city base though.

Theatres are good for some early culture, but artists and culture are significantly weaker on an archipelago map since it's much harder to flip any cities. The Globe theatre is of negligible value at this stage of the game, as your largest city is happy anyway. Mathematically it is better to spread great person production over two or three cities, but in practice you will find it easier to go for one super GP city. This also get's you your great people earlier, when they have more effect, and makes the national epic more effective. This super city should combine high production for wonders with high food to run many specialists. Basically mine all the hills and farm anything else, keeping cottages for a minimum for that one city, and let the others take up the slack on commerce.

Without looking at the save: Farm whereever you can since you won't be able to do it anywhere else except for tiles adjacent to fresh water. No chaining irrigation. Also, build that granary. It's the only way you get to speed up city growth.

You also definitely want to space your cities farther apart in Civ4. Quality is better than quantity. Roads no long provide commerce so you don't need to spam them everywhere.

As to specialists: In Civ4 it is better to specialize your cities somewhat. You should build at least one city in mostly grass with irrigation that will serve as your specialist producer. If you build it early enough, it can crank out settlers. Specialists should be built when you are approaching the happiness threshold.

Pretty sure you can chain irrigate once you get to civil service tech. you can also build farms that are outside of your 'fat cross' but still in your culture region in order to set up such a chain.

-Kyrinthic

Yes, you can eventually chain irrigate, just not at the start. By then, I usually have a bunch of cottages or other improvements that I don't want to ruin by ruining irrigation. Eventually you can farm those isolated squares (with Biology?) so I usually wait til then.

Even with Biology (that allows irrigation of any square), you get one extra food if the square has access (direct or chain) to fresh water. That means it is better to plan ahead - just leave a "route" for fresh water for your future farms (you dont need to create cottages in ALL squares).

Thanks for the advice, i upped the food a bit which helped.

According to score im winning but ive no idea why it says that as im pretty small. Still havent worked out a way to victory.

I was considering space but not sure i have the manufacturing base.

Culture..not enough cathedrals early i think.

Is the only answer from this position to go warlike?.

Seems a great game, but its very hard atm to set goals and im just dealing with city problems rather than going for any win atm.

Cheers again btw. Appreciate the help a lot, hopefully ill be the one helping new players in a few weeks. Certainly playing far too much lol.

Thanks for the advice, i upped the food a bit which helped.

According to score im winning but ive no idea why it says that as im pretty small. Still havent worked out a way to victory.

I was considering space but not sure i have the manufacturing base.

Culture..not enough cathedrals early i think.

Is the only answer from this position to go warlike?.

Seems a great game, but its very hard atm to set goals and im just dealing with city problems rather than going for any win atm.

Cheers again btw. Appreciate the help a lot, hopefully ill be the one helping new players in a few weeks. Certainly playing far too much lol.

You can push for the UN, grease a few palms with technology and try to aim for a diplomatic victory. or you can try to ramp up culture, but thats usually hard to do at this stage of things if you didnt plan for it a lot earlier. Domination or conquest are the clear easier choices tho in the situation you describe, since if you are small and in first, you probably have a solid tech lead I assume?

-Kyrinthic

You may not have a great production base, but you're so far ahead in technology that I don't think you'll have any problems winning a space race. You're near enough to the equator to build the space elevator, which will help. Diplomatic you'd have a reasonable chance at, though it's a bit late to start thinking about cultural. With your tech lead warfare is also going to be an easy option. You may not have that much land, but you have as much as or more than any other individual AI, and you also make better use of what you have than they will.

cheers guys, production good thanks to three gorges, racing at 90% science to space.

Not sure if i should build UN to stop mao dong it and trying to become leader.

Of course if someone else builds it that freezes him out, if only i could gift it... hmm i have a cunning plan :lol:

Well space victory in 1960..game has been enjoyable and addictive

but endgame has the same problem as civ 3, kind of tedious, maybee upping difficulty will help or making it a domination only win.