I have had Civ IV for about 2 months. Warlord is too easy. No matter what I do I cannot win on Noble. I have tried Diplomatic, Domination, Space Race. I cannot even get a time victory, Dammit! I hold my own throughout the game but just cannot get over the hump. I have read Sulla's walkthrough numerous times. I just cannot seem to win. :cry: I keep thinking it will all click eventually but it has not.

I seem to be falling in to the same pattern with my current game. I was going to try for a cultural victory but cannot seem to really get the cities going.

Can you take a look and provide any pointers. (Yes I know I have negelected my military in this game). Thanks

I'm certainly not an expert, but it seems to me that you're not making best use of your resources. Beijing is unhappy, yet you've got 3 sugars that you haven't even worked. Also, spare resources can equally gold once astronomy comes along and you can trade across oceans.

You've also got 2 holy cities, but you haven't built their special buildings. And you have no chance of getting a great prophet in Beijing to enable you to do that. With 2 religions founded you should have at least spread them both throughout your empire and got 2 great prophets ASAP, if only for the gold. And you certainly need more gold. There's space for you to expand, but your economy isn't up to it right now. Also I'm not sure why you aren't using hereditary rule (which would solve your unhappiness in Beijing, in the short term at least) and bureaucracy (which would also help your economy).

If you can improve your economy then I would look to take out the Greeks. They've only got 2 cities.

You've built a lot of cottages, but half of them aren't being used. You need your cities to grow, so building granaries would be useful. Of course, you also need to improve happiness if you want bigger cities.

Sorry if I sound overly critical :( I certainly don't mean to. :) The best way to learn is to play and just try out new things. Strategies that work on one level, won't be nearly so effective when you move up. I used to build every wonder I could on noble, but found that I had to be far more choosy on prince. Building wonders meant that my military got neglected and some opportunistic little AI would always come along and kick my butt. :lol:

Good luck! :goodjob: