Since I know that a lot of you have only played Civ3, I thought it might be a good idea to start talking about Civ4 in a very broad sense.

Background on me: I've owned and played the game since it came out (pre-order, yeah baby) and I absolutely love it. There's a lot about the game I haven't mastered yet, but I like to think I'm decent at least. I've finished 3 PBEM e-mail games (I won all of them!) and I'm currently playing 2 more PBEMs (doing very well in one with 3 other humans, but it's a little rocky in the other one). I've also gone to one LAN party where we played Civ4 all day. I got hammered a couple times, but the game had been out for 4 days at that point, and no one knew what we were doing. We never even really finished a game.

Hopefully some awesome Civ4 super-player will join our team… but until then, I want to offer what little help I can to anyone that has a question about the game.

To start with…

Must Read Civ4 strategy articles:
For tips on what NOT to do… and breaking your Civ3 mind set this is really helpful: Here: (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135764)


Great Basic Strategy Primer: Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=149534)


Everything about terrain, resources, and city placement: Here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144029)

I still haven't fully digested this last article – there's so much nuance I haven't mastered yet. Hopefully in this team game we can get it down!

There's obviously a lot more in CivFanatics strategy section – but these articles have had the biggest effect on my playing, and should be a great place to start for all that are new to Civ4.

I also found this Civ4 leader-picker to be very helpful in getting to know all the different Civs and their leaders: Leader Picker (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/reference/leader_picker.html)

I'll be happy to post screenshots and answer any questions here – so if you want to know anything about Civ4, post here, and I'll draw on my limited knowledge to try to help!

:salute:

Excellent Gen_W :thumbsup: ... this is an excellent thread to ask game mechanics throughout the game !! :D

@ General_W: Have you found a good reference for choosing Civs and early research strategies?

I've printed out the articles you linked above. I hope everyone can make time to read them. We're all going to need to know that stuff. There are clearly some really good players out there on the other teams, and I just hope we can hold our own. :)

I've found Japan to be a good civ. Aggresive and Organised is a good combo, and the 2 free hits that the samurai gets is awesome.

Well, I thought I'd tell all of you before TheDivide tells you...

I've lost my first game of Civ4 :cry:

TheDivide didn’t kill me… we stepped up the difficulty level for the game (to Prince) and I got snuck attacked by the evil Aztecs just before I got my Cho-Ku-Nu’s. I actually managed to fight back after losing a city and then took 2 cities from them… it looked like the war was really swinging my way, and then the Mongols snuck attacked me from behind. My long war had allowed the Mongols to become the strongest Civ on my continent, and I quickly lost 2 more cities – and then I decided I’d really had enough. :lol:

So now we’re playing a new game.
So when I offer any advice here – just keep that in mind ;)

:lol: so you not as good as you said you were... ;)

What does it say about your playing that you got sneak-attacked twice? ;)

So far I haven't heard much discussion of the Philosophical trait here. Am I missing something? Philosophical sounds like it's really versatile and strong throughout all aspects of gameplay and tech level.

Well, I’ve had some time to think about my loss – it’s always a good learning experience to lose. No fun… but good for me.

One thing I’ve learned is, I think, relevant here.

Lesson #1) the Industrious trait (50% bonus to wonder building) is WAY less useful in a game that’s violent. In Civ4, you tend to have way fewer cities… which is nice for micromanaging… and each city has much more personality because you can pay more attention to each city. The downside to this is that in a big war, you need all your cities building units – there’s no easy way to get 1 city to keep doing something like building a wonder. The Industrious trait is only useful when you are at peace and can devote time to wonder building… in wartime, it does nothing to help you. Thus, in games that are likely to see warfare, the industrious trait has definitely gone down in my esteem. Certain traits – like financial, Organized, Creative, and Expansive all help you whether you are at war or peace… and are therefore more versatile and desirable. Philosophical is a great trait – but you need lots of extra food, or a few good wonders to really make it shine. As a trait, Philosophical makes me nervous, cause I’m not really sure how to get the full benefit out of it… would some here like to help me out??
Aggressive is almost like the reverse of Industrious… but, I think, marginally more useful. The unit promotion paths give you access to some devastating abilities that allow weak or even marginal units to totally destroy more advanced units. This is useful on Defense or Offence, but would be pretty useless in a peaceful game.

If we want to play a warmongering game – I must say… having been on the receiving end of a Mongolian Juggernaut… they would be a good choice! Those Keshiks come early in the game, get 2 moves no matter what the terrain is like, and gets a first strike chance. Devastating! Ate my improvements for lunch, then chewed up my cities.

I’m starting to think that maybe Cyrus (Persia) might be a really flexible choice. He’s Creative (+2 culture per city) and expansive (+2 health per city) – bonuses that will help no matter what strategy we pursue. The Persian UU is the Immortal – a nasty little sucker the will really help early warmongering if necessary (30% withdrawal chance and 50% bonus against archers… basically the best city killing unit in the early game)


What does it say about your playing that you got sneak-attacked twice? It means having a common religion is really important to making peace with the computers!! :lol: unfortunately, TheDivide sucked up all the religions, and since he was on a different continent somewhere, my whole continent had NO religion. With no relationship bonuses from religion, there was precious little I could to do to keep the Aztec and Mongol warmongers off my back. (paying regular tributes apparently wasn’t enough)!

so you not as good as you said you were... No! I am a humbled man!
Please don't think I've mastered this game - I obviously have NOT.

:)