Condensed tips for beginners?

When another civ is using free religion, the upside is that you don't get a "heathen religion" penalty when you're still running a state religion. The downside is that you don't get a "care for our brothers and sisters of the faith" bonus to relations either.

Once those are gone, a good relation can be maintained by gifting gold/techs/resources. If no military aid is possible, you can try keeping your friends friendly by refusing to trade with their enemies -- this includes closing your borders to their rivals. Of course, this will give you a negative to relations for those civs instead.
 
Don't try to please every other civ. Pick the 2 or 3 that can help you the most, and be their friends. Don't be friends with their enemies.
 
I have a few newbie questions.

1. Units & Healing: I have some "red cross" units for healing within a stack. Clearly the red cross unit helps in healing the main "hit poits" of the individual stack units. But does the red cross unit also heal the "XP" promotion points of the stack units? Or do the XP points take forever to heal? I've got a couple of stacks in captured cities, each with a unit with a red cross promotion, but the XP points don't look like they are healing too quickly. And I want to got back to war, preferably at full strength. :)

2. Irrigation: I know you need Civil Service to expand irrigation past the riparian land. But do you need an unbroken chain of irrigation? Here's my scenario: I extended irrigation to a far city which was kind of hemmed in by mountains, but it did have a "pass." The pass consisted of silk, which needs a planation to harvest, but I need irrigation past the silk for the city located past the pass. So I irrigated silk, irrigated the tile past silk, came back and put in a plantation for silk production, but now the far city isn't getting the irrigation tile benefit, nor is irrigation possible past the irrigated tile in adjoining tiles. Am I missing something? Or do I have to reirrigate silk, thus giving up silk until the Mongols are dealt with? :D

3. Fishing boats: I know you need them to harvest the sea bonuses. But does the sea bonus have to be in the city's fat cross? Or does the bonus just have to be within the civ's territory? Within the fat cross, right?

4. Religion: I am trying to come to grips with religion -- not sure yet how it really works. My question is: If a city has your civ's state religion in it, as well as a foreign religion, does it make sense to build, say, the foreign religion's temple (for the culture push against a neighboring civ), or is that just plain counter-productive to the temple you've already built for your state religion?
 
1. XP points are not related to healing. At least, not that I know of. XP points are earned whle fighting, and wehn you reach the next level, can be used to give your units promotions. That being said, when spend XP to level up, a wounded unit will gain back extra health when you choose a promotion.

2. You need to maintain the irrigated chain in order for the farms to be irrigated. Sorry about your silk...

3. Work/fishing boats can improve sea-tiles that are not in your fat-cross. You will get the health/trade bonus for that resource, but you will NOT get the food bonus.

4. Religion can be tricky, but the best case scenario is to have multiple religions in every city, and build temples for happy and culture, monasteries for science where appropriate, and cathedrals/mosques/etc. for culture bonuses if you're looking for a large boost. Having more that one religion does not work against your state religion, and will even allow you to change religions as needed. Also, multiple religions mean more bonuses if you implement the free religion civic.

Edit -- I see that you're new here. Welcome to the forums!
 
Thanks, s.

War: Time for my military to get back to fighting. :goodjob:

Fishing Boats: Interesting. Ok, another question then. Can I put a fishing boat on sea bonus that are outside of my civ's borders? If so, what if another civ takes in that fishing boat within their borders? I assume I lose the sea benefit in that case.

Religion: So you want lots of faiths. Hmmm. Sorry now I disbanded my Toaist priest. Ok, is it important to go out to my cities that are not a member of my state faith -- send a priest to establish the state faith in those cities that are not currently members the "true way," but which are members of other faiths acquired from the heathen gods? Are they less likely to . . . I don't know? . . . flip, maybe?

I'm actually not new, but this handle is new. Long story -- will post on sagas board.
 
XOVERX said:
Can I put a fishing boat on sea bonus that are outside of my civ's borders?

Ok, is it important to go out to my cities that are not a member of my state faith -- send a priest to establish the state faith in those cities that are not currently members the "true way," but which are members of other faiths acquired from the heathen gods? Are they less likely to . . . I don't know? . . . flip, maybe?

You can't work any tile, sea or land, that is not within your borders. You could move the work boat to the tile, but the game won't let you turn it into a fishing boat unless the tile is within your borders. This is the same as if you move a worker onto a land tile in neutral territory. You can use the worker to build a road, but not any improvements such as a farm, cottage, etc. because the tile isn't inside your borders.

It is always a good idea to spread your state religion to every one of your cities. Several of the civics have effects based upon religion. For example, if you are using the Organized Religion civic, every city with the state religion gets a 25% bonus to building production. If you found a religion, whether or not it is your state religion, you want to spread it to as many rival cities as possible for line of sight intel.

Cultural flipping is based upon a city's culture. Religious buildings produce culture and can only be produced in cities that have a religion in them. Simply having a religion - even your state religion - in a city won't influence the likelihood of flipping, but it will give you the ability to build culture-producing religious buildings, which will contribute to the city's culture.

Edit: It seems I was wrong about religion not affecting flipping. See post #168 of this thread.
 
Whoa! A 25% production increase just for having the state religion? Thanks, TT.

I've got a couple of cities that can crank out priests in 3 or 4 turns -- and I've been building priests and sending them forth to convert the empire, benevolent ruler that I am :king: -- even thought I've not really known why. So 25% production increase is some good bull.

Ok, what is "line of sight" with the religions of other civs mean? I'm taking it that I want as many religions in my capitol as I can get, with a beeline for a particular religion to the civ that has that particular religion. And why do I want that to do that again?

Fishing boats: The early "work boats" won't go into the ocean. What do I research to turn them into "better" work boats that will go troll those ocean depths? Or how do I coax them into the ocean depths?

Forests: I've read somewhere on the board that health comes from multiples of 2 forests in the fat cross. Is it a good idea to leave to forests when possible for later cultivation as lumbermills for the health? Assuming, of course, that the city has the otherwise available terrain to support a large population. Or is it best to raze those suckers for the production bump?

Forests II: I'm noticing that, unlike Civ3, when you clearcut a forest, you do not waste shields if you miscalulate the cut with the number of turns of the thing produced. Apparently the "overcut" can be used on the next thing produced. I am correct about this, aren't I?
 
Work Boats 2: I've looked in Civpedia and all I need to turn work boats into fishing boats is fishing, which, of course, I researched long time ago. I know you've got to change the work boat to fishing boat on water. But how?

Thanks.
 
You have to move the work boat so that it sits directly over the resource you want to collect. Where there is something available, the unit actions menu (bottom centre) will show an extra action icon, typically highlighted in blue (same things as happens for workers when they move onto resource tile). Click on the icon, and you should be set.

On forests and health: two forests in the fat cross equal one extra health. So if you plan to cut some trees and leave others, leave them in multiple of twos. At higher difficulties, forests can be your best friend health-wise, when the human player doesn't get as high a health bonus as at the earlier levels.
For a production bump, try clearing some of the forests just outside the fat cross. You won't get quite as many hammers from them, but the long term health-benefits, coupled with lumbermills later, should make up for that slight loss.

As for production loss/overcutting, it is possible to lose some hammers. While overcut is directed toward the next item in the build queue, if that item can be built by the city production alone (forest hammers excluded), then the forest hammers will NOT rollover the the following turn. At least, that is how I understand it.
 
XOVERX said:
Ok, what is "line of sight" with the religions of other civs mean? I'm taking it that I want as many religions in my capitol as I can get, with a beeline for a particular religion to the civ that has that particular religion. And why do I want that to do that again?

Fishing boats: The early "work boats" won't go into the ocean. What do I research to turn them into "better" work boats that will go troll those ocean depths? Or how do I coax them into the ocean depths?

"Line of sight" means that if you own the holy city of a religion, you get to see (clear of fog of war) units and land area around the center city squares of EVERY foreign city with that religion in it. Can be very useful for planning/anticipating attacks, or just to watch mayhem when those cities are at war.

Work boats cannot go onto ocean tiles that are not in your friendly (includes right of passage) cultural borders. That means that if you want to plant a whaling boat on a tile, you have to extend your cultural border over it so you can move the workboat there.

A work boat is a work boat, but you have to have certain technology to use it. Fishing gets you the work boat, along with fishing boat ability for fish, clam and crab, and optics gets you whaling boat ability.
 
I've noticed that the LOS for religion only works if it's your state religion.
 
Thanks for the replies. New Questions.

SMOKE: When my cities get too big early in the game the smoke rises from them. If I'm having a science crunch -- nothing to build to make them happier -- then the only way to make the unhappiness go away is to lose population. Am I just wrong in making them settle down by losing pop? Will the cities revolt if I don't and start tearing down improvements? Do I just let it smoke until I research something that helps?

For example, I built the Hanging Gardens which added 1 pop. But all these cities got pissed when they hit pop 6. I had just come out of a prolonged war annihilating Frederick so my science in the early game suffered, and I am behind -- trying to get the cities and finances rebalanced. Are these smoke cities going to self-destruct, like in Civ3, or will they get over it in Civ4 and not tear down their new libraries?

I think what happened is I expanded too quickly. I must have 20 cities. Plus 4 from Frederick. After a long war. So I'm stuck on an island continent, and I've got this bad feeling I'm way behind the research curve. We'll see. But I do have a lot of cities with well-worked land if I can get back in the research curve. Plus, I am willing to do a little fighting if I can upgrade my growing fleet of gallies.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: How do you adjust these victory conditions?
 
XOVERX said:
Thanks for the replies. New Questions.

SMOKE: When my cities get too big early in the game the smoke rises from them. If I'm having a science crunch -- nothing to build to make them happier -- then the only way to make the unhappiness go away is to lose population. Am I just wrong in making them settle down by losing pop? Will the cities revolt if I don't and start tearing down improvements? Do I just let it smoke until I research something that helps?

For example, I built the Hanging Gardens which added 1 pop. But all these cities got pissed when they hit pop 6. I had just come out of a prolonged war annihilating Frederick so my science in the early game suffered, and I am behind -- trying to get the cities and finances rebalanced. Are these smoke cities going to self-destruct, like in Civ3, or will they get over it in Civ4 and not tear down their new libraries?

I think what happened is I expanded too quickly. I must have 20 cities. Plus 4 from Frederick. After a long war. So I'm stuck on an island continent, and I've got this bad feeling I'm way behind the research curve. We'll see. But I do have a lot of cities with well-worked land if I can get back in the research curve. Plus, I am willing to do a little fighting if I can upgrade my growing fleet of gallies.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: How do you adjust these victory conditions?


Smoke: your citizens are upset. You can build happiness buildings, but you can also give them some happiness resources, like gems, or gold or fur or ... . You can trade for them with other civs.

20 cities?! :eek: That's probably a few too many. Build some cottages to make $ to help your science rate. Be sure the city is working the tile the cottage is on, otherwise, it won't do you any good.

You need to buy upgrades to your gallies, I think they upgrade to galeons. It'll cost you $150 a piece, provided you've got the $ and the techs to build galeons.

You can't adjust victory conditions in game. You've got to do that when your're setting up your map and selecting your civ.
 
Thanks, Fetch.

Yea, I've got 26 cities. The finances in Civ4 ain't what it used to be, that's for sure. I can't afford 26 cities, but I thought it would be a good idea to destroy Fredrick early on, seeing on how I read everywhere as to the need to deal with the civ one time or another. So I built all these cities, and yea, cottage spam is doing it's thing, no doubt, but it takes time.

I'd build coliseums, etc, if I had the tech. Hadn't gotten a religion either, so no temples. I've only got incense and spices on the continent, and navy techs are to be researched.

So what do you think. If I let the cities burn now, will they tear down that which I've already got done. Until I can get to some happiness techs? Making scientists can stagnate the growth, but scientists are like the old clowns -- my cities aren't laughing.

And when you start the game, I don't see an option to choose victory conditions. Am I blind? (Or just dumb?)
 
XOVERX said:
So what do you think. If I let the cities burn now, will they tear down that which I've already got done. Until I can get to some happiness techs?

I've never experienced any real negative effects from unhappiness in growing cities. Happiness limits are just a growth limit on a city -- it won't grow until the citizens are happy again. I think the actual game effect is that in an unhappy city, each citizen requires three food to feed instead of two.

What you want to watch out for is having your economy tank. If you reach zero money with a negative cash flow and you can't reduce the science slider further to compensate then your people really get upset. I've never had this happen, but from other posts I gather that units start disbanding, buildings get torn down, etc.

XOVERX said:
And when you start the game, I don't see an option to choose victory conditions. Am I blind?

If you choose "Custom Game" you can tweak the options to the exact style of game you want, including victory conditions.
 
Vizzini said:
Perm Alliance isn't something you can negotiate tho - it's set up at the beginning of the game. (e.g, teams )
That's not true at all. Just check 'allow permanent alliances' when you start the game and after you have a mutual defense pact with someone you can build up your relations with them to the point they will be willing to accept a permanent alliance. It's not enabled by default for solo games, so you have to check the option before you start.
 
XOVERX said:
Thanks, Fetch.

Yea, I've got 26 cities. The finances in Civ4 ain't what it used to be, that's for sure. I can't afford 26 cities, but I thought it would be a good idea to destroy Fredrick early on, seeing on how I read everywhere as to the need to deal with the civ one time or another. So I built all these cities, and yea, cottage spam is doing it's thing, no doubt, but it takes time.

I'd build coliseums, etc, if I had the tech. Hadn't gotten a religion either, so no temples. I've only got incense and spices on the continent, and navy techs are to be researched.

So what do you think. If I let the cities burn now, will they tear down that which I've already got done. Until I can get to some happiness techs? Making scientists can stagnate the growth, but scientists are like the old clowns -- my cities aren't laughing.

And when you start the game, I don't see an option to choose victory conditions. Am I blind? (Or just dumb?)

So let me make sure I'm following you. You're plaing continents, and you killed off Freddie who was on you cont. with you? you took over his cities, and now have 26. What year is it? A war that long should have taken you into AD, I'd think. What techs DO you have? If you're alone, and you've got nobody to trade with, then research compass, (astronomy?) or whatever you need to go sailing and meet a nice civ that will trade with you. That'll help your tech and economy too, if you are good at it.
 
Hi,

I'm confused about collateral damage. I've seen the AI damage six of my units defending a city. When I have a catapult outside a city the only option I seem to get is to wipe out the cities defence percentage. Once I have knocked the defences down to 0% I don't know how to use the collateral damage option. Can anyone help?:confused:
 
Spoony said:
Hi,

I'm confused about collateral damage. I've seen the AI damage six of my units defending a city. When I have a catapult outside a city the only option I seem to get is to wipe out the cities defence percentage. Once I have knocked the defences down to 0% I don't know how to use the collateral damage option. Can anyone help?:confused:


Just attack the city with the catapult as if you were attacking with a regular unit. It will attack, mostly likely lose, but still cause CD to the units in the stack.
 
Also new to game here, thnx for all the tips. Especially the catapults and artillery work good for me :)

One question: how important (is it important) to assign city's with different tasks or specialize them into one part of the game? One for military, etc.

Same question for getting specialists, is it important to specialize one city on engineers, profets, starts and what is the best way to do that.

Spoony? rtcw Spoony?
 
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