Beginner Questions

[CivilZ]

Im overwhelmed from playing both Civilization V and reading the forums with all the player recommendations and such not to mention the guides within the game. Here are a bunch of questions through trial and error from experience.

How effective would be splitting all cities into individual production for each resource? What resource would be best focused upon for your capital city?

I'm somewhat confused about how each tile works as I often found that I would constantly run out of certain resources like food when I was actively assembling military units and settlers.

Each new citizen can work a select tile however does utilizing the caravan option negate the specific reesource until the route is completed? Will the Limit Growth option result in no new citizens being created? How big of a population seems adequate for larger maps where you can amass multiple cities?

What buildings and technologies are priority over others if looking to balance all factors? Obviously both Gold and Food are needed for cities to grow in citizens and to expand borders however what does Tourism offer? How and when should I focus on Science? Religion might not be as important in Domination Maps yet where could it be used for Victory?

Warmongering is what initially got me to play Civilization and I find the AI during the earlier stages to be lackluster even with extra Barbarians. Has anyone posted a guide that details what particular military units are strongest and weakest against? Strength and Movement would play into the equation for better accuracy.

If allied with a particular city-state with a strategic resource that you desire, how many turns are required before you recieve those resources through allied friendship?

I've noticed during one match that another player built a city on a single tile in the middle of the ocean. My initial reaction was that it could be an effective defense when compared to building a Fort or Stronghold? Could such a strategy be useful on large maps with both continents and smaller islands to combat Domination? How many Forts per city are ideal without limiting production of valuable resources?

I'm still very estatic about Civilization V and overwhelmed with the amount of options and choices. While I know that I must play through a few games to gain a feel for all situations; I am eager to join Multi-Player and see how well I match up.

Lastly which terrains or maps are considered the easiest to most difficult? Are duels more challenging once you get to Diety/Immortal levels?

 

[tiamats4esgares]

How effective would be splitting all cities into individual production for each resource? What resource would be best focused upon for your capital city?

This sort of strategy can be effective, depending on your victory type.

-You should have one city focused on Production that generates Great Engineers
-You should have one city focused on Science (and Food) that generates Great Scientists (should be near a Mountain)
-You should have one city focused on Gold that does NOT generate Great People (as Great Merchants are bad)

If you're going for a cultural victory, you should also have at least one city focused on each of the Great Artist types, but it can overlap with the cities above if you have less than 6 cities.

If NOT going for a cultural victory, you could still focus on Great Artists/Musicians/Writers if you want to, but it's less important as they're less beneficial to you. Even so, Great Writers may still be needed to combat enemy cultural victories. Great Artists are never bad, but Great Musicians are almost worthless to you.

As far as which one should be your capital? Probably production, though it depends on your civ. You shouldn't waste time resetting the game and/or turns moving around the map to find a Mountain to settle by and it is probably not a good idea early game anyway. Likewise, you don't want your first city to be the Gold one, because Great Merchants are bad. If not going for Cultural victory, the Gold one should be your 3rd city, unless you can't find a Mountain to put your 2nd city near when you are ready to build it.

Also, you don't HAVE to play this way, but it's useful for min/maxxing, especially on harder difficulties and Science victories.

I'm somewhat confused about how each tile works as I often found that I would constantly run out of certain resources like food when I was actively assembling military units and settlers.

What do you mean run out of food? You mean, your city stops growing completely or slows down? The city completely stops growth temporarily when creating a Settler, but as soon as it's done things return to normal. No other unit affects growth in this way.

Any time you hover over a tile, it shows the yields it gives, usually Gold, Production (hammers), or Food (apples), but sometimes also Culture, Science, or Faith. If you see Food, it means that if a city works that tile, it gives Food. Go into the city overview screen, and click on the top right where it lets you place your citizens. If they are not working food, you can change that.

One of the main reasons a city slows down growth is happiness. When your yellow smiley face turns into a red frowny face, it means your people are unhappy, and will only grow at 1/4 the normal rate. To increase happiness, you need things like Luxury Resources, Circuses, and Coliseums. City size decreases happiness.

Each new citizen can work a select tile however does utilizing the caravan option negate the specific reesource until the route is completed? Will the Limit Growth option result in no new citizens being created? How big of a population seems adequate for larger maps where you can amass multiple cities?

All a Caravan does is create gold, science, production, and/or food out of thin air. If you have one of your cities give food to another city, that city doesn't LOSE food too, you just GAIN that much.

"Limit Growth" is something I've used little to none (because all you have to do to stop growth is micro-manage, or to slow down tell them focus on Production/Gold/Etc. but not Food) but I believe it stops the town from growing altogether, as your workers will take just enough Food to sustain its current size, but not grow.

Population is limited only by your happiness and your city's resources. As long as you have the happiness to support it, continue to grow. Try not to let happiness fall below 0 though, because doing so causes your military to be weakened, cities to produce slower, and if it goes low enough, they will "rebel" and barbarian-like units sprout up around your cities. Not fun! (Very late in the game, cities can even flip to a civilization with much higher Tourism than you have Culture. In addition to keeping your happiness up, also make sure to focus somewhat on culture.)

As far as the number of cities you should have, this all depends on your civilization and your planned victory condition, but most peaceful games you will be better off with less cities (3 to 6 is ideal). The reason for this is that both your Beaker cost for Science and your Culture cost for Social Policies goes up significantly when you have a lot of cities. Generally speaking, a city should not be built unless it can easily sustain itself both Scientifically and Culturally (unless you have good reason to completely negate one or both of these).

What buildings and technologies are priority over others if looking to balance all factors? Obviously both Gold and Food are needed for cities to grow in citizens and to expand borders however what does Tourism offer? How and when should I focus on Science? Religion might not be as important in Domination Maps yet where could it be used for Victory?

Food, as you pointed out, is very important; probably THE single most important thing. Without growth, your cities won't have the people to work the tiles. In addition, population also gives you Science, and most Science buildings also scale with population. The next most important thing is Science, as you will fall behind other civs if you don't focus on it. Then I'd prioritize Production over Gold, but it's all personal preference. Both are necessary for the advancement of your cities and civilization. Next most important is culture, generally speaking, though it's a bit more important early game when you're just getting started.

Tourism is used for Cultural victory. If you're not trying to get a Cultural victory, you don't need to worry about tourism whatsoever.

You are correct that religion is generally not that important. Late game, you will have more faith than you know what to do with. If you like playing the "faith game", you can focus on it a bit more, but it's totally unnecessary, especially for Domination. It's also not very useful for Diplomacy or Science victories.

Religion is most important for Cultural victories. Religious buildings can give both Tourism and Great Work slots, and there's even entire strategies built around spamming cities to get more of these buildings and winning the Cultural victory. Even if you're not playing it that way, you still need to pay attention to religion. Your Tourism per turn is increased vs. civilizations with the same religion as you, so you want to make sure that you have the same religion as the civilization(s) with the highest Culture. The best way to do this is to let them spread their religion to you, but it's not always that easy, and spreading yours to them could work just as well.

Warmongering is what initially got me to play Civilization and I find the AI during the earlier stages to be lackluster even with extra Barbarians. Has anyone posted a guide that details what particular military units are strongest and weakest against? Strength and Movement would play into the equation for better accuracy.

Pikemen, Spearmen, and the like are good against horses, other than that, ranged beats about everything. Oh, and Keshiks are the best. (Seriously, though, if you like Warmongering, please play The Mongols, you are missing out on a LOT If you don't.)

If allied with a particular city-state with a strategic resource that you desire, how many turns are required before you recieve those resources through allied friendship?

One. However, you have to be their one and only ALLY (blue, you can see all around their city, has your icon next to them in diplomacy menu) and they have to already have worked the tile with their Worker, and not be using it themselves.

I've noticed during one match that another player built a city on a single tile in the middle of the ocean. My initial reaction was that it could be an effective defense when compared to building a Fort or Stronghold? Could such a strategy be useful on large maps with both continents and smaller islands to combat Domination? How many Forts per city are ideal without limiting production of valuable resources?

Just like land, the ocean has resources too. If it were near Whales, Fish, Crabs, Pearls, etc., it's not such a bad idea, however it's pretty bad otherwise. It's not "an effective defense" because Domination requires you to keep your ORIGINAL CAPITAL. If it's not your ORIGINAL CAPITAL, there's no point in holding on to it so dearly. Plus, if you were down to just one city anyway, chances are you're going to lose.

If you are referring by "Fort" to the tile improvements that Workers make.......it's generally a good idea to have exactly zero of them per city. Yeah....kinda not the best to just place defenses in random tiles when your units move around so much and you need to work that tile. Only exception would be extremely good chokepoints on a huge landmass...or civs that benefit from them. Still, not the best of ideas.

Lastly which terrains or maps are considered the easiest to most difficult? Are duels more challenging once you get to Diety/Immortal levels?

Generally speaking, Pangaeas are the best for Domination unless you are playing some kind of Naval civ (like England), and Archipelago is easiest for peaceful games. Vice versa being the hardest for each. Continents is somewhere in between for both, but I don't play on it because it's lame. lol As far as "terrain" goes, I never mess with Advanced options too much, I think of it as cheesing.

Duel maps are the easiest, you only have to worry about 1 other civ, lol. The more civs there are, the harder it is.

However....the easiest win I ever had was on a Duel Map, Diety level.......but I kinda cheated.

 

[DeftlyPlayed]

Want Some Room To Grow. Just a little over 200 hrs in so still got a lot to learn.

I recall one of my first games, maybe THE first game, I played as Russia but do not remember which map I went with or its size. In this game there were not a lot of CSs or other Empires near me, I had room to expand without ticking off other nations.

Since this game every game I play I am finding myself, relatively speaking I guess, closely surrounded by other nations. Very early in the game I am making enemies and ticking folks off when I send out a settler and open up a new city. I get the hey you are expanding into land I consider to be mine speech. I've been trying a bunch of different game set ups to get back to that same feeling of having some room to grow as I had in that one game.

Asking for game set ups that avoid this, that will have me starting out in a decently large area without neighbors close by. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Equilin]

Want Some Room To Grow. Just a little over 200 hrs in so still got a lot to learn.

I recall one of my first games, maybe THE first game, I played as Russia but do not remember which map I went with or its size. In this game there were not a lot of CSs or other Empires near me, I had room to expand without ticking off other nations.

Since this game every game I play I am finding myself, relatively speaking I guess, closely surrounded by other nations. Very early in the game I am making enemies and ticking folks off when I send out a settler and open up a new city. I get the hey you are expanding into land I consider to be mine speech. I've been trying a bunch of different game set ups to get back to that same feeling of having some room to grow as I had in that one game.

Asking for game set ups that avoid this, that will have me starting out in a decently large area without neighbors close by. Thanks for your suggestions.

Increase the map size and/or reduce the number of civs/city-states should be the surefire way to increase room for expansion

 

[DeftlyPlayed]

Increase the map size and/or reduce the number of civs/city-states should be the surefire way to increase room for expansion

OK. I will look at that. I remember seeing in game set up how many CSs and Empires will be in the game but it went right past me that I could adjust that number. I will look at that next time I am on. Have to figure out how to adjust the number. Thanks.

 

[Equilin]

OK. I will look at that. I remember seeing in game set up how many CSs and Empires will be in the game but it went right past me that I could adjust that number. I will look at that next time I am on. Have to figure out how to adjust the number. Thanks.

When you choose "Set up game" and enters the setup screen, there'll be a button saying "advanced setup", which lets you adjust the game further to your liking.
btw i see you are from places close to me. wanna play multiplayer together? lol