Hey everyone,

Like most of you I have played civ IV for a while now and i am slowly getting to play at higher levels. I have especially learned a lot from the ALC and now from a lot of other player who frequently post there games (some even on youtube:)).
However I feel I am sort of stuck into the game. Currently im playing at emperor and I nearly always end up doing the following (fractal, standard, random leader, normal speed):
- Research the necessary worker tech, tech to writing get specialist for GS.
- Get me a good piece of land usually I end up with around 10 cities including fillers while im teching my way to lib.
- 9 out of 10 times I am first to lib and I take chemistry or steel for free, if I fail I tech to steel anyways.
- Then I hammer the guy (lady) closest to me and then pursue a victory of choice. Usually quitting earlier then the victory screen due to lack of computer power.

Well it depends on the start isolated or not etc, but in 90% of my games I play like this. But I feel I might do something wrong. For example hardly ever war before cannons or rifles. Is it a flaw in my game not to war before that time. Or is it almost always useless to spend hammers on military because of the slow pace you can take cities and the low kill/death ratio of your troops.

Even though it is often the same I still enjoy the game, since I’m still not winning 90% of my emperor games. But it is becoming more and more sort of standard play, which makes to harder to keep attention and I tend to play sloppier.

So basically want I would like to know is if everyone is using the same strategy over and over again or is it just me?

Or is it almost always useless to spend hammers on military because of the slow pace you can take cities and the low kill/death ratio of your troops.

Yes, early wars are expensive. But doubling the size of your empire is very much worth it.

After emperor I started to find that wars in the classical/medieval period to be dangerous, in that it's hard for me to do them cost-effectively. However, on epic or marathon I have no problems even on immortal, so it's somewhat speed dependent.

The important thing about whether earlier or later war is optimal is your land and neighbors. The worse/smaller your land is, the more pressing conquest becomes. Conveniently, this frequently implies that someone is close enough to attack.

Also, if you're getting tired of the renaissance war, there's always later wars to be tried in addition to earlier ones! Infantry/arty is my favorite period, but even later than that can be good times too and the AI is definitely not good in those time periods.

I honostly feel like you do. I am playing Immortal, and trying to win all of my games now so I might step to deity one day.
I do play epic, what I strongly suggest most people should do, since it just opens more options.
You are not getting any advantages out of it, but it helps you wage war more reliably without aeons going by in a blink of an eye.

Lately I am trying hard to get different strategies to work. The thing with higher difficulties really is the way you describe it, and the way we play it is the most effective and less risk involved strategy. Also going for any early religion is out of the question since the AI will beat you at it 99% of the time.

A strategy you might try out, and I am working on is getting an early great merchant, bulb currency and start a GM farm. Then go bulbing with GM's, which opens a different tech line, which creates a different game.
GM's offer you early guilds, and early medieval units, with which you can wage war then.
The thing is, its a very hard strategy to pull off and reliant on solely Temple of Artemis.
Another thing you can try is a Prophet economy, but that is very leader and start dependant.

If you are very focused on it, even at higher difficulties getting Oracle is possible, but only if you solely focus on getting it, and if you got the right Leader. If you can figure out a strategy that works with slingshotting a certain tech and a hero combination go for it!

Good luck trying it out!

So basically want I would like to know is if everyone is using the same strategy over and over again or is it just me?
Yes, I generally want to play the same way and shoot for a domination victory sometime between 1750 and 1950. Steel is the key to most of my games as well, and as long as I don't have to go to war before cannons, I prefer not to. If it's cannons versus longbows, then I'm sure I did the right thing.

However, I manage to keep it lively and interesting for me by NOT playing the same map settings over and over again. There are a couple of map options (which I think I got with the BUG mod) that can really mix it up for me. As much as I really want to run a cottage economy, sometimes I end up with land that simply will not cooperate. This alone makes me do things differently. If I suddenly need to run a bunch of specialists to power the economy, or maybe consider state property as a superior option in a game, it really mixes up the way I actually get to my desired cannons->domination victory.

Also helpful with messing with the map settings, I sometimes find myself missing a critical resource or two. You know what will mess up your goal of steel=victory? No iron.

I play the HoF gauntlet games usually so that keeps things fresh for me.

@fluxx
Well those are some nice suggestions though it will be hard to get those knights before longbows are in place. I might go play on epic, but epic is a whole different game as normal. Problem is time is limited and i really forget what is going on in a game when i have to stop playing. And normal is just faster. (no quick is to fast for me:))

@JTMACC99
yes i discoverd that the hardway, having researched steel and being unable to make cannons i noticed they need iron. I lost the game :)

@ParadigmShifter
I cant seem to get the bugmod working with the HOF games. And the bugmod really helps me playing less sloppy due to reminders.

@TMIT
My computer can only handle small armies, even in the cannons/rifles time it takes me a lot of time moving selecting upgrading my unites.

Futher yes i know you can shuffle with the maps but i first like to have the game under control with standard settings before switching and eventhough everything is the same it is still enjoyeble, just need to quite playing once in a while.

but im happy im not the only person who feels like doing lots of the same play.

The strat you described seems like pretty much the safe bet on most maps. Only when faces with some irregularities - like spawning close to Shaka or not having much room to expand will you ever need to change the plans.

That is not to say that you can still very much change the plans. See if you can avoid wars. You could try to go culture if you want. You can always mix things up a bit by choosing another map script. I fail to see why it is so important to get things down on 'normal' settings first because some of the things you learn on those settings will work'because of those settings.

In the end the most important thing is to keep having fun. If you find yourself bored with the game then you could mix things up or stop playing for a while. If you are still having fun then there is nothing wrong with doing the same thing all the time.

@fluxx
Well those are some nice suggestions though it will be hard to get those knights before longbows are in place. I might go play on epic, but epic is a whole different game as normal. Problem is time is limited and i really forget what is going on in a game when i have to stop playing. And normal is just faster. (no quick is to fast for me:))


Knights run over Longbows pretty much, especially in big numbers.

Key is having them before they got pikemen, which is doable, also dont do rush the AI who got phants in their posession