Condensed tips for beginners?

Thanks alot for all the answers, I've been reading them. I've started a normal or large fractal game and tried some different stuff now. I started on mid-size continent and was able to take down the lucky irish (iron, stone and ivory at fat circle of capital!) with a horde of axes. Then I was attacked by southern neighbors but managed to push him back and take a city or two (I'm trying to capture his last 3 cities now, he keeps getting a city of mine with a big stack though).. anyway! I normally just try to get all resources and use the slider to get more research. This time, I put the slider down and used some specialists.. and tinkered a bit with improvements/worked tiles.. works great! I am behind everyone but my target in tech, but i got to learn something:)

So here I am with another question. I never seem to be able to get someone to be my vassal or trade the "capitulate" thing. For example, I have around 10? cities now and my target is Charlmagne. He has 3 cities left (I razed 1 and captured 2 of his cities, including his iron and his horse borders a captured city so it's razed. he has ivory but no copper. I guess he's trading resources since he keeps making soldiers though). I have more and better soldiers, I have better culture and better in tech. But vassal (in peace) or capitulate (in war) always says "We are fine on our own" in trade window. Should I treat him good to make him accept it? Becouse if i hammer him more he'll be gone. Well thats my ambition but I'd like to learn about vassalage. *posts reply and heads to guides*

PS: As for guides, I go to "War Academy" section under Civ4 on main page and occasionaly check forum threads. Anywhere else I should be aware of?
 
If he has a "We're doing fine on our own", then I would try and raze/capture one more of his cities and see. Usually that means that they still have enough units that the AI thinks it can win. I think there was a thread, fairly recently that said their power level has to be like 1/2 of the average of all the other AI's. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's a newer thread. I would just start slowly killing some of his wondering units and maybe one city and check back every turn to see if he'll capitulate. The annoying thing comes in where he'll capitulate, but to another AI. That's happened to me, and it was VERY annoying. If that happens, then the master AI will DoW you.
 
Ouch, that would be very bad since the very likely candidate is the other nation on our continent. He did have a big stack, I'll see how he does after that stacks is gone :)

Speaking of stacks, when you see a stack of 3 swordsmen, 2 elephants and 4 catapults, what do you do? Especially against cities that you captured (so you hadnt time to build walls or culture or supply it with units since its not as close to your cities as in your own borders.
 
themaelstorm said:
Ouch, that would be very bad since the very likely candidate is the other nation on our continent. He did have a big stack, I'll see how he does after that stacks is gone :)

Speaking of stacks, when you see a stack of 3 swordsmen, 2 elephants and 4 catapults, what do you do? Especially against cities that you captured (so you hadnt time to build walls or culture or supply it with units since its not as close to your cities as in your own borders.
Click to expand...

Well, I definitely am not the expert, but usually when I march my stack through enemy territory, I'll leave it in a city for 1-2 turns just to heal up. Then I'll leave 3 or so defenders there. I think if you're worried about any stacks coming and taking the cities back, then before you march into territory, add about 50% more units to your stack. Make sure you bring in archers or LB or Machine Guns to leave behind in the cities that you do take for a good garrison. Personally, I've never had a problem beating any enemy SoD's with mine as I'm moving through them. Keep in mind that this is advice is based off of chieftain/warlord level.
 
themaelstorm said:
Speaking of stacks, when you see a stack of 3 swordsmen, 2 elephants and 4 catapults, what do you do? Especially against cities that you captured (so you hadnt time to build walls or culture or supply it with units since its not as close to your cities as in your own borders.
Click to expand...

Well, ideally, you should not have been surprised by that stack! :p

Before the war, you should know what units your enemy has, what units he can build (his resources and techs), where his main army is positioned and what and how many defenders his cities have.

If you know this, you can better plan your war!

You can then either kill his main stack in one of the first cities you attack, using the advantage of your siege weapons and city raiders, or you can delay the war by some turns to train more units that can kill the stack in a defensive war, in this case Axemen and Spearmen, and maybe Horse Archers. This defensive stack of course has to move with your attacking army ...
 
Just a quick question on improvements. Are tiles only allowed one improvement, any and all possible improvements, or something in between? I've so far only automated my workers so I really am new to the whole improvement aspect. Can I for example have a road, farm and cottage on a single tile all at once? Thanks!
 
how does collateral damage work? Does it do absolute damage or relative damage? For example, when an artillery cause collateral damage on anti-tanks, does it cause the same damage to infantry, or simply does a percentage damage (dont take drill2 to drill 4 into account)?

Also, if the ai has a stack of 20 units of different strengths, which one get chosen first as target of collateral damage?
 
randomwords said:
Just a quick question on improvements. Are tiles only allowed one improvement, any and all possible improvements, or something in between? I've so far only automated my workers so I really am new to the whole improvement aspect. Can I for example have a road, farm and cottage on a single tile all at once? Thanks!
Click to expand...

You cannot have a farm and cottage on a tile at the same time, but you may have a road with any improvement. You can also convert from one to another later (e.g., convert a mine to a windmill or a cottage to a farm). There are strategic reasons for doing such conversions sometimes based on which yields you need most.:)
 
Hello everybody. This is my first post.

I want to ask something about tech tree. I'd better explain with an example. To research animal husbandry, we need to have agriculture or hunting. Does having both of them make difference in needed science breakers for animal husbandry? If having both of them makes animal husbandry cheaper, how can i calculate this formula? Thanks.
 
Ramesses-Rules said:
The cost is fixed. Using scientists, libraries, etc. just helps you research faster, but the cost is always the same.
Click to expand...
No, that's not true. The number of beakers required varies. The more prerequisite techs you have, the cheaper the subsequent tech will be. So to answer the OP (welcome to CFC, by the way), yes, having both hunting and agriculture will make animal husbandry faster to research.

Techs also become a little cheaper with each civ that already has the tech. I don't know the formula for these research discounts, though, sorry.
 
Sisiutil said:
No, that's not true. The number of beakers required varies. The more prerequisite techs you have, the cheaper the subsequent tech will be. So to answer the OP (welcome to CFC, by the way), yes, having both hunting and agriculture will make animal husbandry faster to research.

Techs also become a little cheaper with each civ that already has the tech. I don't know the formula for these research discounts, though, sorry.
Click to expand...

I am looking at my chart right now. It says, for example, that Code of Laws costs 350. What does the 350 represent? Is that the cost only if I am the first person to research it? Does it not cost 350 if I come to it through Priesthood the same as through Writing?
 
tech cost varies from :
- level you play
- map size you play (yes it does!)
- number of known(? not sure here) other teams who know it (it's a 3% "discount" for each as far as I know)
- number of "or" (I mean not compulsory) prereqs you have. There is an article with the complete explanation, but I can't remember which one. The "discount" is bigger. either 10 or 25%.

Note that the word discount is wrong (as often maths are in civ) because it's counted as free beakers, and not really as reduction of the cost.
So if you're researching Code of laws at noble level, normal size, you're facing a cost of 350 beakers.
Each beaker you put in get increased by the sum of the modifiers from knowing currency+priesthood or from AIs already knowing it.
 
Ramesses-Rules said:
I am looking at my chart right now. It says, for example, that Code of Laws costs 350. What does the 350 represent? Is that the cost only if I am the first person to research it? Does it not cost 350 if I come to it through Priesthood the same as through Writing?
Click to expand...

350 is just a base value, and very seldom the actual value needed is anywhere near this. It's subject to modifiers from difficulty level and map size, Normal map size multiplies research costs by 1.3 for example. On top of this, you get free bonuses from a lot of things as pointed above. AFAIK non-compulsory prerequisites also give the +20% so you always have at least that bonus.
 
Thanks for the replies. I decided to test it with ramesses(starts with agriculture) on noble difficulty, standard map, epic speed. I just settled the capital and started to build a worker. I kept working the same tile in bfc. So my bpt was 9 always.

First i researched animal husbandry. It took 17 turns. And hunting was still 8 turns away. Then i loaded game from start again. I researched hunting first in 8 turns. Then researched animal husbandry and it took 14 turns this time. bpt was 9 always.

So it means researching non-compulsory prerequisites make difference in cost of a technology.
 
Silu said:
350 is just a base value, and very seldom the actual value needed is anywhere near this. It's subject to modifiers from difficulty level and map size, Normal map size multiplies research costs by 1.3 for example. On top of this, you get free bonuses from a lot of things as pointed above. AFAIK non-compulsory prerequisites also give the +20% so you always have at least that bonus.
Click to expand...

So the cost figures in the charts should be used only to compare the relative costs of techs, not their actual costs. None of this is in the manual. I have played thousands of hours, and didn't know this.
 
Ramesses-Rules said:
So the cost figures in the charts should be used only to compare the relative costs of techs, not their actual costs. None of this is in the manual. I have played thousands of hours, and didn't know this.
Click to expand...

Yep. I also forgot the most obvious research cost multiplier; game speed. 0.67x, 1.0x, 1.5x, 3.0x respectively.
 
Is anyone allowed to post one of those games? I wanted to post one, and get tips and junk. Thanks.
 
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