Hi
I'm new to the forums although i've abeen playing civ4 for a while (drifting in and out)

In the past I have automated scouting and worker actions, not really understanding the microeconomy or how to exploit different aspects of the game e.g. when to exploit slavery, how to make a successful gp farm, how to make a successful specialist city (gold/ production).

So now I have done the first stages of one of my games, hoping more experienced players can give me feedback/ slate me/ what they'd have done/ what I do right even.

Heres what i went for
-Player Frederick. Philosophical will help me see the full benefits of a successful gp farm and creative, er I don't know why I guess I just hate losing 15 turns of every cities production to create and obelisk. In retrospect a lazy decision
-epic speed although i'm normally on normal
-lakes because of more interesting terrain (?) That will help see what type of terrain i'll need for each city

Ok here goes

1)-I aim for a good gp farm and gold/ production cities in the ratio 1:2 respectively
-Berlin thoughts- not good diversity of resources, hills and forests could make a good production city
-I start with hunting/ mining and go for animal husbandry/ ariculture/ pottery. I get wheel form barb village
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2)- Berlin starts with 2 workers then 2 warriors to give it time to grow (does population feed into hammers?)
-bronze working to reveal copper
-i think this would be a good next location due to horses (military) and gold. However i usually adjust this to where the blue ring tells my settler where to go.
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3)-I do a settler followed by 2 workers
- No copper nearby :(
- I think this would be gp farm location. I followed to food counter when i clicked the toggle yield display icon
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4)-I build hamburg here due to the blue ring when the settler got there (how much should I listen to that) and I'm thinking a production city due to forests and hills. I let it do military units to let it grow.
-My workers are exploiting the natural resources i have techs for, cottages, mines and a few ( 3 or 4 farms) around Berlin and 1 works its way up to connect it with Hamburg.
-I get mysticism with insight to getting oracle via med/priesthood
-the big map shows where i've scouted and possible city placements
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5)-workers chopping forests near capital help quick settler. gp farm set up here (blue ring recommendation). Archers done to let it grow. Windmills will work the hills in the future
- workers have almost connected Hamburg and Berlin
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So now I have 2 production cities and a gp farm, whether they'll be decent or not is something else. Location of commerce city?

Also the 'yield display' shows 2 commerce on lake tiles. If I put on city next to the lake would it automatically get the benefit of these? What could fishing do to help?

A boring read, I know but i'd appreciate any form of help. Cheers guys.

sorry about the last 3 pictures, I did say i was new to the forums, i'll try to sort it out...

4)-I build hamburg here due to the blue ring when the settler got there (how much should I listen to that) and I'm thinking a production city due to forests and hills. I let it do military units to let it grow.
-My workers are exploiting the natural resources i have techs for, cottages, mines and a few ( 3 or 4 farms) around Berlin and 1 works its way up to connect it with Hamburg.
-I get mysticism with insight to getting oracle via med/priesthood
-the big map shows where i've scouted and possible city placements
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5)-workers chopping forests near capital help quick settler. gp farm set up here (blue ring recommendation). Archers done to let it grow. Windmills will work the hills in the future
- workers have almost connected Hamburg and berlin
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So now I have 2 production cities and a gp farm, whether they'll be decent or not is something else. Location of commerce city?

Also the 'yield display' shows 2 commerce on lake tiles. If I put on city next to the lake would it automatically get the benefit of these? What could fishing do to help?

A boring read, I know but i'd appreciate any form of help cheers guys.

You might as well put workers back on automate, because you are not hooking up resources fast enough.

The important thing is build 1.5 workers per city.

A few notes:

WORKERS! Hamburg will be a great city but until those horsies and other resources are hooked up its really underperforming. Also, why is Hamburg still building a archer? You have 2 garrison units there already.

Munich: ....WAY TOO MUCH DESERT! That site 1E of the grassland hill would've been SOOO much better.

BTW, about commerce, the only way you can really generate a LOT of commerce is through cottages or gems/gold/silver. Specialists don't count cause they skip that entire commerce thing and go directly into beakers or gold ect ect. Anyways, you would have to work those lake tiles to get the 2 commerce, but I suggest getting IW and going south to carve out a decent commerce city in the banana-gems-phant spot.

4)-I build hamburg here due to the blue ring when the settler got there (how much should I listen to that).

honestly in general you shouldn't let the blue rings alter your thought process other than considering that square incase u didn't for some reason. The computer very often chooses mind numbingly bad placements.

edit: also this is unautomated workers? you should be focusing more on improvements and less on building roads in every square (looking at 4th screenshot)

I have only been playing for about a month but am on Prince difficulty now and doing well. So here are a couple of quick tips I noticed.

First of all your city choice locations are not ideal imo, or at least are not where I would have gone.

I would have put Berlin 1 spot South to pick up the 2nd cow, the amount of plains you have around the city will most likely make food an issue. Hence the second food resource will be a welcome addition. As to what to use the city for it is not really 'ideal' for anything, I would probably end up going for a production city, you have 5 mountains and some rivers which should be enough to put out reasonable production.

Now for your 2nd and 3rd cities you decided to settle to the east. Personally the first thing that jumped out at me while looking at the whole map was the limited amount of grassland (ie good locations for commerce/GP cities). There is a band of grassland in line with the ivory. I would have put my 2nd and 3rd cities there asap, the last thing you need is the AIs to take that all up while you are populating the deserts out to the east. Putting 2-3 cities across this band will accomplish a number of things. Number one you get access to Ivory and Horses (even copper if you feel game to border right by the orange civ), while also having a few food resources around. Also you may be able to effectively block the orange civ down south, meaning you can settle the areas around Berlin with few issues.

Anyway I'll probably get ripped to shreds for this, but I'm just trying to help.

workers workers workers ... i know since i'm myself prone to lacking them ...

i'd expand hard to the south since theres better land downthere (land west, north and east are So-so at best) ... IW is a priority to bulldoze the Jungle ...

Munich should have been placed 2n where it could have been a decent short/mid term commence city with 5 Flood plains and a gold mine

Thanks all great help.

I'll do a bit more tomorrow and let my cities emerge a bit more and spread south

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On noble difficulty, never research archery. It's a waste of time.

The only time you should research archery is if:

-You're playing deity and have a good amount of land near you and no strategic resource in your capital after your second technology.
-You're playing immortal and have a lot of land near you and no strategic resource nearby after your third technology.
-You're playing emperor and have a LOT of land near you and no strategic resource nearby after your third technology.
-You're playing monarch and have a TREMENDOUS amount of land near you AND have raging barbarians enabled and no strategic resource nearby after your third technology.

DMOC, I'm going to start using your rules about researching archery for early defense.

But you said:
On noble difficulty, never research archery. It's a waste of time. (I added the bold)

You need it for LBs, X-Bows and HAs, don't you?

DMOC, I'm going to start using your rules about researching archery for early defense.

But you said:


You need it for LBs, X-Bows and HAs, don't you?

If you insist on building these units, trade for archery. DMOC said not to research it. Btw, some will probably argue with me, but there are many games where I never get archery. The units are situational at best and leaving it out helps stave off WFYABTA.

Maybe I should have been more clear - I meant, never research this early for defense. If you plan on using Horse Archers for offense, then by all means research archery.

Don't trade for archery, it's a cheap tech and will count for WFYABTA. When I get archery in my games, it's usually before 2000 BC or the modern era.

I'm not really understanding the desert placement? also don't worry to much about units. One is more then enough on that level AI.

DMOC, I'm going to start using your rules about researching archery for early defense.

But you said:


You need it for LBs, X-Bows and HAs, don't you?

Yeah, I agree with the teacher... that was a bad call.

I always get archery (sometime in the mid-Mideval era) because I'm always being harrassed by enemy troops and/or barbarians.

Well, I just posted that because my play style relies on either early rush or expansion, then teching to Liberalism during the Medieval era, and then warring afterwards. :)

ok next 3 stages.

6)-I get writing (library and open borders)/ Iron working (iron and remove jungle)/ metal casting from the oracle (it was just most beakers worth)/ monarchy (wine)/ machinery (windmills/ watermills)
- at one stage i declared war on mansa musa when asked by alexander. I want alexander as an ally more than MM and could easily hold him off. good strategy?
-I put cologne here after destroying a barb village. I see walata, where I want to put my next village. Damn i've been miles too slow so i prepare for war
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7)- I get alphabet (to tech trade)/ code of laws (option of caste system/ courthouses). I then backdate techs like fishing, masonry and polytheism until i can get construction for cats.
- I bolster my soldier rank from 7 to 2, behind alexander
-I discover and adopt taoism. Ideally i'd have got buddhism as thats what everyone else has but nvm. Sure enough isabella and louis end open borders
- i stick frankfurt here. I was too slow to expand and put it here to reduce maintenane costs, occupy some sea/lake and 2 natural reources near. My other though was the amber boxed off area (chickens 3 squares east of it)
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8)-I get construction (cats)/ calender (er)/ currency (aim to increase city commerce and get me operating at 100pc :science: again)
- I move my army to walata, guared by 2 spears (yeah ok noble is tame). Ill take that then move it east to have a crack at another city in MMs empire
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As a side thought:

gold/ production cities in the ratio 1:2 respectively
I'd go the other way with this. You need many fewer production cities than economic cities unless you plan on blitzing every Civ right from the start.

the 'amber box' in 7 didn't come off but would have been in the ne inbetween the iron and crab

sorry about the views btw. Is there any way i can make them better by doing something on this site or just zooming out?

Step 1: Press PRINTSCREEN
Step 2: http://photobucket.com
Step 3: Click "UPLOAD IMAGE" and go to the appropriate files (My computer -> etc etc etc -> Beyond the Sword -> Screenshots)
Step 4: Copy image URL with image tags and around the image
Step 5: Paste here