Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners

I do it occasionally. If you have an unirrigated rice, then it's only really worth +1 food anyway, so +1 food in your city center is just as good as +1 food next to it (before Civil Service). Similarly, sometimes I'll settle on bananas to get the +1 food right away, before Calendar. These can make sense if that's the only way to get the placement that you want and get other resources into your fat cross.

That's why I said "almost never". ;) It's unusual to find a rice, corn, or wheat tile that can't be irrigated thanks to CS, but it does happen. Even so, Biology will later boost that rice tile by 1 Food, and if you can irrigate it, it's +3 food from the farm. That's substantial.
 
Actually, a farmed rice is +1, period. The rest stays the same whether it's Rice or a Plains. Rice sucks ^^
Gotta hate those unirrigated Rice + Incense + Dye starts ;)
 
If you settle next to the unirrigated rice, then you get 2f from the city center, and 4f from the farmed rice, for a total of 6. If you settle on the unirrigated rice, then you get 3f from the city center, and you can work an ordinary farm for 3f, for a total of 6. It's the same either way.

Sure, after Civil Service, you're better off if your city isn't on the rice. But if you're talking about an early city, that's a long time in the future. It makes way more difference how productive your city is early on, than what it might eventually do.
 
You can't have an unirrigated farm before Biology (that's not on a resource).

Bh
 
Bhruic said:
You can't have an unirrigated farm before Biology (that's not on a resource).

It's rare, but it can happen if something breaks the chain of farms from freshwater. I can recall a very irritating game where I lost a crucial tile supplying fresh water to a chain of farms to AI culture expansion, and they unhelpfully stuck a workshop on the one adjacent to the water. Unirrigated farms don't do anything pre-biology of course.
 
Thanks for the amazing guide Sisiutil. I am one of the many new civ4 players that come here looking for a few quick tips in how to play successfully.


I found your guide to cover a lot of information, almost too much at times!! it felt like i was being saturated with information. But that has more to do with how massive this game is!!


Having never played a civ game before, I found myself lost on somethings, but mostly you explained things well. Thanks for the excellent guide, but as a first time civ player, I feel I needed to read something else before this guide.
 
Hi,

I'm new to Civ4 and would like to study some strategies before I get into it.

How can I download Sisiutil's strategy guide. The version I see here is December 2006, but I think there must be a more recent one.

Where do I get access? :confused:
 
I found your guide to cover a lot of information, almost too much at times!! it felt like i was being saturated with information. But that has more to do with how massive this game is!!


Having never played a civ game before, I found myself lost on somethings, but mostly you explained things well. Thanks for the excellent guide, but as a first time civ player, I feel I needed to read something else before this guide.
The guide is intended, I think, not for absolute beginners, but for those who have gotten used to the basic mechanics of the game and are interested in learning basic strategies.

For the mechanics, I would suggest vanilla Civ's tutorial for the absolute basics, then look around for Sulla's walkthrough.
Hi,

I'm new to Civ4 and would like to study some strategies before I get into it.

How can I download Sisiutil's strategy guide. The version I see here is December 2006, but I think there must be a more recent one.

Where do I get access? :confused:

That is the most recent version. I'll be working on one that incorporates Beyond the Sword tips, once I play some more BtS games (especially BtS ALC games) and get a better handle on the expansion pack's new features.
 
Even though it's almost a year old, the strategy guide is still immensely helpful in its current form. There's very little that's changed as far as basic strategy is concerned...at least as far as I can tell.

By the way Sisiutil, if you're going to update the guide can you add an intro to specialist economy? Or would that not fall under beginner strategy?
 
I'll be working on one that incorporates Beyond the Sword tips, once I play some more BtS games (especially BtS ALC games) and get a better handle on the expansion pack's new features.

I am waiting patiently.
 
Even though it's almost a year old, the strategy guide is still immensely helpful in its current form. There's very little that's changed as far as basic strategy is concerned...at least as far as I can tell.

By the way Sisiutil, if you're going to update the guide can you add an intro to specialist economy? Or would that not fall under beginner strategy?
As Cyrus pointed out above, I am (slowly) working on updating the guide. However, you're correct, I don't consider the SE to be a beginner's strategy, so don't look for me to include it in the guide. You can get by with the much easier cottage economy on Noble, Prince, Monarch, and even Emperor sometimes.
 
Nearly a year in the making... and it's here! Version 3.0 of the guide! Check the first page, first post.

(It says something about the complexity of a game when a so-called "Beginner's Guide" weighs in at nearly FORTY pages, doesn't it? Or maybe it says something about me, like how I never know when to shut up.)

So what's new?
  • The Wonders section has been revamped.
  • Three new sections with (mostly) Beyond the Sword content have been added: Espionage, Corporations, and Random Events.
  • Other BtS tips and information have been added.
  • General corrections and clarifications of existing content.
In addition, I took out the dot-mapping section, since I don't really consider that a "beginner's" technique. However, I added a brief section--very brief--on the Cottage and Specialist Economies, despite earlier statements that I wouldn't. My thinking there was to make the CE, a definite beginner's strategy, clearer by way of contrast. It should also serve as an entry point for beginners into discussions over the two economic strategies. I know a lot of beginners follow the ALCs, which are currently played at emperor level, and where CE/SE discussions are common; hopefully the guide will now provide beginners with an entry point for those and other discussions on the topic.

As always, let me know what you think, and I'll revise the guide accordingly.
 
Or maybe it says something about me, like how I never know when to shut up.

Don't say that Sisiutil, that's one of the reason people like your work I'm sure :rolleyes:

On topic, great work; I don't really need it anymore (but the first version was especially usefull), but I noted the following points (all in order in which I saw them):

- Most important ressources: in luxury, you should add gems (better than silver, and more easily found), and why not Ivory or fur (all of them provide happiness boosts, which are most welcome).

- About Bronze Working: I discovered with time that sometimes I research BW not because I want to chop forests, but because I HAVE to if I want to improve tiles (especially mines)

- In "managing maintenance": "researching economy techs" could be said (writing, pottery, currency, CoL); even if you talk about the buildings, some people forget to research the techs :rolleyes:

- In Happiness: environmentalism gives happiness for forest and jungles only pre-BTS

- Specialists: all what you said does not apply for basic citizens; perhaps add a line about them?

- About the national park: cutting coal is important for IW and coal plant only, so is ok if you have a river (for hydro plant)

- About production city: you forgot the awesome levee :crazyeye:

- About GP farm: National park does not care about jungle, just about forest preserves

- About war: I discovered the hard way that after a though fight, you sometimes have not enough units to have a good power, so you should continue to build units until you're safe; what do you think of adding this tip?

- About West Point: lvl 6 unit is required for Warlords and BTS, not just Warlords; or perhaps you should say at the beginning that everything which is said for warlords is true for BTS unless stated otherwise.

- Four siege units with accuracy to remove defense: not true in BTS

- War Weariness: Mention of the Statue of Zeus?

- Stonehenge: Bad for creative ok, but very good for charismatic, should mention that

- Early game culture: having a state religion is good; having no state religion is sometimes better, since in this case EVERY religion gives culture

- Great merchants: it's Wall Street city, not commerce city

- Warlords unit: adding that even if the lvl 6 unit dies, you can still build WP? Or perhaps in the WP section? Not sure it's worthwhile but I noted it

- Diplomacy: 3 ways of getting along with someone else, not 2; you forgot sharing a favorite civic (even if it's temporary; but it's more or less temporary than sharing a religion)

- Diplomacy victory: impossible to vote yourself the winner since BTS 3.13, unless you have vassals

Which makes me think: nothing about vassals?

And that's all for this time; sorry to give you more work :D
 
Thanks for your feedback, I'll incorporate most of your suggestions in the next revision.

I think you're right, I should develop a Vassals section too. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
:worship: Thankyou for the updated guide, you're a legend:D

I'm still a bit puzzled about corporations though, I don't get why it's sometimes a bad idea to spread them to your rivals. Surely the extra gold you receive from having extra branches mitigates any gain in productivity etc that the AI civs have? And they pay the maintenance don't they? So the way I see it (as a permanoob) you gain the gold and they get expensive hammers/food/culture. Rush buying is one of my favourite things:crazyeye:
 
:worship: Thankyou for the updated guide, you're a legend:D

I'm still a bit puzzled about corporations though, I don't get why it's sometimes a bad idea to spread them to your rivals. Surely the extra gold you receive from having extra branches mitigates any gain in productivity etc that the AI civs have? And they pay the maintenance don't they? So the way I see it (as a permanoob) you gain the gold and they get expensive hammers/food/culture. Rush buying is one of my favourite things:crazyeye:
I usually foresee several potential problems with spreading certain corporations to rivals.
  • Mining Inc, Creative Constructions: You give a rival the hammer boost they need to beat to to certain wonders, or to the space ship.
  • Creative Constructions, Sid's Sushi Co, Civilized Jewelers: All of these boost culture; if they are spread to a rival city on your borders, you could wind up losing tiles or even a city.
  • Standard Ethanol, Aluminum Inc.: You could wind up giving a rival the resource he lacks (oil or aluminum, respectively) to win the game or at least make your life more complicated.
Also remember that by spreading any corporation to another civ that has a surplus of the resources used by the corporation, you will make that civ less likely to trade those surplus resources to you, thus reducing the effectiveness of the corporation within your cities.

Probably the least harmful corporations to spread are Cereal Mills and, after that, Sid's Sushi. The benefit of the extra food your rivals get is balanced out by the maintenance costs. In the case of Sid's Sushi, which is one of my favourite corporations, I usually just spread it to civs with whom I don't share borders.

As with everything in this very complex game, every move you make must be carefully considered, rather than just a knee-jerk reaction.
 
Nice update, I read through the whole article pretty quickly, just skimming and taking note of big headlines.

Thought the sidenote on the different economies was a helpful addition. The general introduction and concepts of them will definitely help the new player.


A suggestion for the next revision is military promotions. As a new player myself, I didn't know exactly what to do apart from the General medic.

I recently gave Cleverhandles tank warfare article a read and put it into practice in my current war campaign, and was really suprised at how much more efficient it was !!

Keep up the good work man, this guide is a big help for the new players discovering this great game.
 
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