I have Civilization IV and the newest patch, but no expansions. So no coorporations, etc.
I remember many months or years ago to visit this forum for help at getting from Difficulty 4 (the normal) to 5 (a little AI biased). I had to improve in areas such as founding and spreading religions (to earn more gold), NOT expanding rapidly (due to it being expensive. I was told and I could feel), using houses more etc.
Now I feel Im locked into that difficulty and want to move on to the 6th grade, Monarch.
I used to play my games in normal mode, and I did a lot to expand and claim all the good spots before the AI did. That ended being ouchy expensive! I was told that a small handful of good cities was enough and better than too many bad ones (as that ruins economy, then research etc).
Lately I have begun playing the epic time frame, since I always felt each era pass by too fast to take advantage of the units in it. Marathon feels too long, a lot of Enter pressing. Be aware of this, when you comment with any advice or mindplay you might have to offer
Let me make some bullet points with each of my incertancies and questions:
1) Just in my last game, I started building a worker as the first thing, instead of barracks, another warrior, a settler or whatever. This was to make my town grow in size, before I stopped its growth, as I thought it would mean the worker would be built that much faster.
But it only changed from 23 to 18 turns or so, and in the long run, I guess I need the worker to improve the citys surroundings.
So I think Ill start with a worker from now on!
2) Religion founding, even if hinduism and buddhism gets taken by others first? Is that my primary goal, or is it possible to survive without? I sometimes find it hard to get, if I dont have that tech I need to build them. Then Im far behind already!
3) I wont earn anything from founding religions, before I get a religious great people to build that thing in the birth town of that religion, true?
4) I dont use the function to go into a city and assign the population to tasks or speciality (science, priests, taxmen or whatever they are). How important is this? And doesnt it take away a population to farm the area around the city? Isnt that a large sacrifice, or when is that a good option? I would like to learn how to speculate in this.
Neither do I touch what lands are farmed, I let the AI do that automatically, as I am afraid to forget it, if I focus on something special for a period of time. But is the AI very inefficient at this? Should I do more myself and what and why?
4A) The most specialised of my cities, are some that gets the different national or world wonders which increase culture, research, gold points or whatever. I pick those with maximum base value of each and then the percentage boost goes to that town, since that seems most benificial.
But what I do not have, is a town for military always. Though when I get the wonder that produces military 100% faster, I do let that town make more units than the others, naturally. But that I only get later in the game.
Should I focus more on getting a town for workers / settlers, for military, for gold farming, for general culture boost, for ? And if yes, then how do I do this? What are the optimal conditions for each town (surrounded by what grass, how many hills, water or?).
5) Number of cities is important, but what number? I dont expand if I have around zero or negative income, as I know I will earn less with a new city and that hurts my research. Is this faulty? Have I forgotten about the strengths of a money farm, or a normal town with enough huts? When can a new town support its own cost, so I dont have to worry about it having a negative effect?
The extra research points and the chance to use it for wonders, building military or whatever could surely be useful, and I find myself falling behind in research (unless I focus completely on that) and rating, even in the 5th difficulty. Is this normal or due to only 3-4 or 5 towns or something else?
6) In the topic Me, you and Monarch at the Strategi and Tips Civ IV forum, Beengalas seems to have expanded quite fast and at page two of that topic, his research rate is at 30%, luxury at 0% and tax at 70%, I presume. Wouw. Do you think that is a temporary risk or is that normal? I try to keep it at 70-90% whenever possible, not below. Then I feel something is wrong.
Is this because I am not building that many towns, so 80% of 3 cities research output is less than 30% of 5-7 cities, or whatever he has?
7) Wonders. I feel it very, very hard to make this without losing in the long run. It took my capital 108 turns for the Pyramids and I lost the race for it with 8 turns left. Gave me 600 gp but a lot of time wasted with just building that.
What are my priorities here? I need one or two cities going first and/or 2 workers per city before any wonders, or? I know you can ultra-rush them, but for a normal game where I dont want to sacrifice everything to get it, when is the right time to get my first?
8) Workers are important, Ive learned lately. Getting too few, too late seemed to be a rule of thumb to me. What buildorder is normal or a good idea, when you have to think of a balance between the following:
Workers, Settlers, Defense, Exploring, Buildings (More culture, research, better exp for new units), Wonders etc? And how is the buildorder of new cities, the first couple you build?
9) Beligning when talking about techs, what is that? Is there more than one path to some techs, or is there always the same way and the same techs required to get it? Heard mention of this in another topic, got curious.
10) Slavery and other civics. I never whip things done, as that is cruel and also makes the population mad at me (true?). Maybe I should? If they get mad, how long will it last?
I know this is a big pile of questions, but I had a boring lecture and I've rediscovered my passion for Civ IV, after some time away I'd love to further optimize my play and be able to compete at Monarch succesfully.
I remember many months or years ago to visit this forum for help at getting from Difficulty 4 (the normal) to 5 (a little AI biased). I had to improve in areas such as founding and spreading religions (to earn more gold), NOT expanding rapidly (due to it being expensive. I was told and I could feel), using houses more etc.
Now I feel Im locked into that difficulty and want to move on to the 6th grade, Monarch.
I used to play my games in normal mode, and I did a lot to expand and claim all the good spots before the AI did. That ended being ouchy expensive! I was told that a small handful of good cities was enough and better than too many bad ones (as that ruins economy, then research etc).
Lately I have begun playing the epic time frame, since I always felt each era pass by too fast to take advantage of the units in it. Marathon feels too long, a lot of Enter pressing. Be aware of this, when you comment with any advice or mindplay you might have to offer
Let me make some bullet points with each of my incertancies and questions:
1) Just in my last game, I started building a worker as the first thing, instead of barracks, another warrior, a settler or whatever. This was to make my town grow in size, before I stopped its growth, as I thought it would mean the worker would be built that much faster.
But it only changed from 23 to 18 turns or so, and in the long run, I guess I need the worker to improve the citys surroundings.
So I think Ill start with a worker from now on!
2) Religion founding, even if hinduism and buddhism gets taken by others first? Is that my primary goal, or is it possible to survive without? I sometimes find it hard to get, if I dont have that tech I need to build them. Then Im far behind already!
3) I wont earn anything from founding religions, before I get a religious great people to build that thing in the birth town of that religion, true?
4) I dont use the function to go into a city and assign the population to tasks or speciality (science, priests, taxmen or whatever they are). How important is this? And doesnt it take away a population to farm the area around the city? Isnt that a large sacrifice, or when is that a good option? I would like to learn how to speculate in this.
Neither do I touch what lands are farmed, I let the AI do that automatically, as I am afraid to forget it, if I focus on something special for a period of time. But is the AI very inefficient at this? Should I do more myself and what and why?
4A) The most specialised of my cities, are some that gets the different national or world wonders which increase culture, research, gold points or whatever. I pick those with maximum base value of each and then the percentage boost goes to that town, since that seems most benificial.
But what I do not have, is a town for military always. Though when I get the wonder that produces military 100% faster, I do let that town make more units than the others, naturally. But that I only get later in the game.
Should I focus more on getting a town for workers / settlers, for military, for gold farming, for general culture boost, for ? And if yes, then how do I do this? What are the optimal conditions for each town (surrounded by what grass, how many hills, water or?).
5) Number of cities is important, but what number? I dont expand if I have around zero or negative income, as I know I will earn less with a new city and that hurts my research. Is this faulty? Have I forgotten about the strengths of a money farm, or a normal town with enough huts? When can a new town support its own cost, so I dont have to worry about it having a negative effect?
The extra research points and the chance to use it for wonders, building military or whatever could surely be useful, and I find myself falling behind in research (unless I focus completely on that) and rating, even in the 5th difficulty. Is this normal or due to only 3-4 or 5 towns or something else?
6) In the topic Me, you and Monarch at the Strategi and Tips Civ IV forum, Beengalas seems to have expanded quite fast and at page two of that topic, his research rate is at 30%, luxury at 0% and tax at 70%, I presume. Wouw. Do you think that is a temporary risk or is that normal? I try to keep it at 70-90% whenever possible, not below. Then I feel something is wrong.
Is this because I am not building that many towns, so 80% of 3 cities research output is less than 30% of 5-7 cities, or whatever he has?
7) Wonders. I feel it very, very hard to make this without losing in the long run. It took my capital 108 turns for the Pyramids and I lost the race for it with 8 turns left. Gave me 600 gp but a lot of time wasted with just building that.
What are my priorities here? I need one or two cities going first and/or 2 workers per city before any wonders, or? I know you can ultra-rush them, but for a normal game where I dont want to sacrifice everything to get it, when is the right time to get my first?
8) Workers are important, Ive learned lately. Getting too few, too late seemed to be a rule of thumb to me. What buildorder is normal or a good idea, when you have to think of a balance between the following:
Workers, Settlers, Defense, Exploring, Buildings (More culture, research, better exp for new units), Wonders etc? And how is the buildorder of new cities, the first couple you build?
9) Beligning when talking about techs, what is that? Is there more than one path to some techs, or is there always the same way and the same techs required to get it? Heard mention of this in another topic, got curious.
10) Slavery and other civics. I never whip things done, as that is cruel and also makes the population mad at me (true?). Maybe I should? If they get mad, how long will it last?
I know this is a big pile of questions, but I had a boring lecture and I've rediscovered my passion for Civ IV, after some time away I'd love to further optimize my play and be able to compete at Monarch succesfully.