Complete difference than Civ 3

Hi I need your help

I have played a lot Civ 2, Civ 3.

Now I am 27 and I work - I don't have time to read hundreds of pages of guides.

Tell me please is there any "short" advice to my question:

I play as usually - Set first 4 towns, strenght them (build 1 archer, 1 warrior, city walls, then maybe Workers) then between 1000B.C - 100 A.C (I play on the one below Price level, I have polish version I am not sure how to translate this one) I have plenty of barbarian rides. I win all battles and finally get rid of them.
But about 0 A.C I become bankrupt - I have to lower science taxes to 10-30% (having 7 cities at this time). I though OK, I have to less Workers, so during another game I have built many workers and I have built plenty of cottages to get money from fields - did not help - situation the same.
I though maybe I have to many cities but not, competitors have the same amount, discovering Theology when I am still on Monarchy.
And another problem - well OK to lower expensess I got rid few military units but while I have everything built (Libraries, Granaries, Baracks, Obelisks etc.) I had to build next military units or workers - rising the expensess. It is not possible to build nothing...
Do you have any advice?

PS. On Warlord level I have no problems....

on the city screen, look at the maintenance cost of each city - is it higher or lower than the number above it, the commerce the city is making? do you build courthouses to reduce the maintenance? if you hold your mouse pointer over the maintenance, it will show you if the distance from your capital is making the cost higher. also, the higher population of a city, the more it costs. do you ever use slavery to lower the population?

if you are building cottages, are you actually working them in the city screen? otherwise you are not getting that money, and furthermore the cottages won't grow into more valuable towns, villages, etc.

you should never have to delete your units for expenses... something is going wrong in that case. you can post a saved game file and someone will check it out.

Musisz zbudowac kupe Wiosek.

LlamaCat said:

do you build courthouses to reduce the maintenance?

Click to expand...

- I don't have Courthouses yet

LlamaCat said:

do you ever use slavery to lower the population?

Click to expand...

- Yes I do

Well, it can be true, I have built the cottages but I did not use them :/


How to post a file here? Thanks

This is my save

Krose said:

How to post a file here?

Click to expand...

Uploading

Three ways;

(1.) Use the 'Upload' tool on one of the horizontal toolbars at the top of this page, which will allow you to upload your file and provide a URL that you can embed in your post using the tags. (2.) Use the 'Go Advanced...ics.com/showthread.php?t=228117]DarkSchneider ).
[/LIST]This is not an exhaustive list! Although you're reluctant to read huge threads or guides, Sisiutil's Strategy Guide at 28 quick pages may well be worth a browse if you've yet to see it.

Best of luck!

I will check out the save later tonight...

Cottages!!

Thanks, buddies

OK I looked at the save and what are you talking about... your economy is in great shape! You have almost 1,000 gold and are running only 60% science! You should have much less gold and be going 100% science. Why do you need all that gold, it's not doing anything for you.

Also, let's look at just one of your cities: Tiwanaku. You are working 3 farms and only 1 cottage. But this city has 5 happy faces and 7 unhappy, so you are growing too fast anyway, those unhappy workers in red are doing nothing, just a waste. You don't need to grow this city because you don't have enough happy resources yet. You need to be working the cottages to get more money for science. This city only has 8 gold being produced, and with 60% science look at the top left - only 6 for research! It could easily be 3 or 4 times higher than that by now.

And as a result, look at how long it's taking you to get technologies... 20 turns for Metal Casting. Move your science slider to 100% immediately.

Also I would switch your research to Math and go toward Currency. You don't need Metal Casting right now, you need to switch to Organized Religion which will give you the same 25% building bonus as forges. You have a religion and besides, this early in the game Organized Religion is not that expensive.

Finally, look at the screenshot I made of your financial page - your military cost is next to nothing. I can't believe you would need to delete military units.

Actually you need to research Alphabet and start trading for those older techs with your friends. You don't have a single bad diplomatic thing with any of the other leaders. Trade with them. You also need to get Calendar to hook up those spices for more happiness.

You are in really great shape in this game, you have room to expand and grow. Get those cottages working and do not put your science lower than 100% unless you get down to almost nothing in gold.

Finally, I noticed you build a cottage on a grassland hill - that should have a mine for production. I never put cottages on hills. You need those for hammers.

I am curious why you thought you had a bad economy in this game?

Oh bugger, guys, thanks a lot. I have given you a general description, I did not suspect anybody will be interested in such deep analize.
Thanks a lot.

My previous game was worse, this acctually is not so bad. I have such amount of money because I had to, I was on 0 money and 40% of science to not loose money. I have asked my "friends" for money 150 from each (3 of them) so I got 450 and then I could rise science to 60% having only -11 every turn. And then Piramides were built by somebody else and I got plenty of money for canceling them.

I have always managed cities manual, I do not know why I have change this habit in Civ4 and let A.I choose fields for me.

Ouch exacly - the specialist, I completly forgot about them...

this early in the game Organized Religion is not that expensive

Click to expand...

Exacly, thanks for this, I was worring about extra costs but at early stage it costs not much more.

You also need to get Calendar to hook up those spices for more happiness

Click to expand...

It was usefull too.

Thanks , I will try to keep more attention for details.