Noob here...with questions.

OK, I have done a few civs now, but haven't gotten real far with any of them. Do you guys start out by getting as many cities as you can from the get go, or do you try to build up your military more first? I am totally sucked in to this game, but it is complex in how you do things. Im playing on the lowest level right now still learning as I just got the game yesterday.

Any tips on how to progress through the game?

Before the mob arrives and starts spewing specific advice, let me say this: There is no 'correct' way to play. Civilization is all about reading the terrain and acting accordingly. So, there is no simply advice to give you - it's all about reacting to the situation. So, in some games you will need to build a large military early. In others, you should maximize your number of cities as soon as possible.

In all likelihood, the only reason you seem to be having problems is you don't have that much experience with the game. I'd suggest you get some more games under your belt to get a 'feel' for the game before asking how to further improve.

That's probably the best advice .
At the beginning it's always confusing. You don't understand half of the things, and for the rest you don't know exactly what to do with. Playing a few more games will help.

But one question:
Have you won or lost your games?

Because if you won, you should move a difficulty level up.
Yes, i know, you said beginner. But that doesn't matter if you won.
You will only learn the stuff, if you see the need for all the specific things. And if you're far ahead of the AI, you can just do random things to win and you will not think about the game mechanis properly.

If you lost, then...more training . That will become better after some time.

Check your demographics (F9) often. You usually don't want your "soldiers" to go far below average. Early on, a military is good for clearing barbarians before they pillage your land and steal your workers. If you find the number of barbarians problematic, I suggest choosing the Honor social policies. Then keep your military mighty, build lots of science, and you can dominate militarily later, conquering the cities you need.

If barbarians aren't giving you too much trouble and if you see good land that isn't near anything claimed, go for Liberty instead of Honor, it has a policy that gives you a free settler and half settler cost in the capital. Rivers are especially critical. A luxury resource and lots of river tiles should be sought after quickly, though it's efficient to wait for the free settler policy before building settlers. After that, expand when feasible, don't let the military lag too much, and build yourself and big, tall empire. The more resource and river tiles worked on, the better.

For starters I recommend playing a relaxing difficulty and finding out what works. Science and culture are pretty key buildings, don't let your military lag on the demographics screen, and you don't want unhappiness over 9.

If you're playing on lower difficulty levels, then you probably don't need to worry about military too much if you're not wanting to go on a conquering spree. Just beware of potential threats. The more crowded you are, the more chance there is of an early DoW.

This doesn't mean you should necessarily rapidly expand, because you don't want to dig yourself into a happiness hole with a whole bunch of undeveloped cities. Striking a balance between expansion and infrastructure (monuments, libraries, workers) is probably best.

Might also suggest checking out the "Sticky" threads at the top of the thread list here. Lots of oft-repeated topics, can learn alot.
In my own recollection, learning Civ games has generally been like an ocean tide coming in - wave comes up the shore (these forums), then pulls back a bit (playing a game), then repeat... but the wave goes higher and retreats less each time. Before I knew it, I knew what I was talking about. Yay!

The correct answer is it is about balance and focusing too much on one aspect will end up with a negative effect.e.g:-
If you focus on science and ignore your military it is likely (getting more so the higher level you play) that you will be attacked and possibly be unable to defend yourself adequetly.

If you focus on your military and conquest you can easily find yourself in large amounts of unhappiness and your empire shutting down through lack of growth and in severe unhappiness lack of production.

Civilization is about making choices, prioritising and adapting. Even if you play the same map/game twice it is highly likely that those two game will end up rather differently.

Some basic concepts though:-
You should always have at least enough military to defend against a potential attack (again more so on higher levels). How big that is depends on your size, borders and possible enemies.

If you think you are likely to be attacked you should probably prioritise more military techs but that means taking a military tech first if you have a choice not focusing totally on military techs.

If you feel quite safe you should probably prioritise science techs first.

Same with happiness and gold.

Try to plan at least a few steps ahead...Is your empire expanding fast? Aim for more happiness in the near future, don't wait until you drop into unhappiness to realise you need to research more happiness buildings.

Explore around you as soon as possible and aim to place cities near any potential resources if possible so you can be as self reliant as possible and also have as many as possible to sell for gold (that last part doesn't really work on lower levels as the AI often has little gold to trade with)

Building a city in a strategic location even if will be a poor city is an important consideration. A well placed city in the right situation can defend your whole empire from almost any size attack with a small number of units in support.

No one is your friend, they are only using you while they find it to their advantage. If you have read any of the forums you will know the AI is a bit psychotic and increasingly so the higher level you play so always expect the unexpected.

The best way to keep other civs happy is not to deal with them, don't denounce them, don't agree to wars they suggest, don't declare friendships. Use them as trading partners for your good and research agreements and nothing else.
On a related note, never totally wipe out a civ or a city state as that will make the rest of the world see you as a warmonger and begin to hate you. If you plan on crushing them always take every city apart from the worst city they have.



At the moemnt your playing o the lower levels where a lot of advice doesn't really matter as you can just roll a dice to make your choices and still win a lot of the time but it's good to start practicing much of the advice you are given or see as you will then progress up the levels faster and they will be less of a shock as you do.