Hello everyone

[Grilled_Trout]

Hello everyone.

I am a relatively new player to Civ4. I started playing a few months ago with a recommendation from a friend. I have been hooked ever since, and I was looking for ways to improve my game. I stumbled upon @Henrik75 and his YouTube channel, and he pointed me to this forum. It looks like we have a great community of people who are very knowledgeable about this game.

In the pure interest of learning to play this game, even though I am not a game streamer or anything, I was looking to stream this game on Twitch with the same alias as this one, and hopefully I may draw interest from knowledgeable people who can maybe provide me with real time advice and critique. That sounds like a lot more fun, communicating with people while learning the game at the same time.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself. And many thanks to @Henrik75 for pointing me to this forum.

Now time to start learning! Thank you all in advance.

 

[sampsa]

Welcome! Make sure to read this https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beginner-help-the-basics.648469/ It's a great start on your journey and despite the name I think it goes well beyond the basics.

 

[Gumbolt]

Not on Twitch but I can watch. I see you are streaming now.

3 cities by 1040 bc is low. None of your capital's food sea resources are improved. These are 4-5 food/ 3 commerce each.

For a financial civ you probably want to be building cottages. Unimproved flood plain in your capital.

New cities should be settled near food.

Not sure why you want barracks now with so few cities and so much spare land.

Probably should be chopping more forest.

What level are you playing at? Why are you not settling the 4th city?

Granaries are the most important build for a city for growth. These should come before barracks/libraries.

City tiles. Run improved food resources, cottages/farms and mines last. Running non food tiles really limits growth.

Tile improvements - Resources, cottages, farms. Roads should be minimal.

I would be whipping settler at size 6 as you can grow quickly on granary.

Light house in cities works well with your traits here. Stop working1f2h and 3h tiles.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Henrik has done co-op sessions before. Perhaps, a one on one private tutorial session, live. That would be interesting.

 

[Gumbolt]

Think Lymond and a few others are on Twitch. Not yet made that venture yet.

Perhaps he should of gone Horse Archers here. Financial is always strong and quite a lot of jungle here. Could of chopped/whipped 10-11 HA.

 

[Grilled_Trout]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. Thanks @sampsa for the helpful link. And special thanks to @Gumbolt who went out of his way to create a Twitch account just to be able to chat with me for multiple hours, providing me with advices. I learned a lot. Really appreciate your time.

My current game as Pacal, despite making many mistakes, is ongoing. I have stayed up all night playing, so I would need some rest, but I will be sure to update on my progress and post a save for further evaluation.

 

[Grilled_Trout]

I finished out the Pacal map offline, and started a new game as Ramses. @Gumbolt, you rock! I apologize for the interruptions incurred as I had to take multiple client phone calls during play, but you were so patient enough to stick through and help me through the game.

I made progress upto 675 BC I believe. I started out on a relatively terrible land, and with @Gumbolt's advice, amassed an army of war chariots and destroyed Hannibal. The map is weird in that I did not meet Mao or Joao until after I captured the last of Hannibal's cities. But my economy is in dire state. It seems as though none of the other 2 guys have metal, as their best units are all chariots. Only 1 iron in the known continent, with at least 1 more rival civ I have not met, due to the fact that I was basically cut off by Hannibal. Weird map.

Anyway, here is the current save as I ended my stream. @Gumbolt thinks I could probably kill off at least 1 more rival with my war chariots, but with the economy in this state, I am not sure if I can continue on my conquest. Also including the initial 4000 BC save as well.

I play with BUFFY mod. Thanks again everyone. It's great to have found this place.

 

[Gumbolt]

AI seem really slow here. I think you could probably take Chinese capital with war chariots. Only protective archers. See what others think as i am far from a deity player.

 

[sampsa]

Since you still have 10 WC:s, I'd use them. You will get conquest gold for taking cities at least. Consider pillaging some tiles.

I would've taken quite a bit better care of the "economy", but that doesn't mean your position is bad. You are just a bit overcommitted to warring at this point.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay so losing 10 gold a turn at 0% science. Situation will get a bit worse when the last captured city comes out of revolt. As this is pretty much a long string of captured cities the distance from capital cost is already 3-4. Ideally needed 10-11 2c cottages by now. extra 12-13 commerce a turn.

The fur resource will help once size 4. Time to stop whipping your first 2 cities and let them grow.

Trade routes. Lack of foreign trade routes is costing 6-7 commerce a turn. A road to China will help here.

The economy is pretty much tanked but we knew that once you pushed for the rush. Chopping 13 forests to build War chariots will do that. The initial land was horrible in terms of expansion. I wonder how a peaceful start might of worked? Hannibal was teching reasonably quickly.

Unit cost is currently 12. Supply costs 2. So if you are not planning further wars deleting units makes a lot of sense.

However China only seems to have archers/Chariots? So why would you stop the warfare here? Not sure if China has any stack but 10-12 WC should take down a weakly defended capital.

You get a 50% bonus on wonders so moving capital is much cheaper for industrious AI. Trouble is Carthage is size 2.

Heliopolis could belatedly start cottages but has a lot of forest left. Chopping into worker can save whipping pop here. When capital gets Light House switch to the 3 food commerce lake.

I would probably cancel mine near capitals. MInes are the worst build here.

Overall this was your first rush and you are pretty much still learning the game. I am guessing this strat will have pushed you out of your comfort zone.

You need to micro cities so you prioritize commerce over hammers but you don't kill off growth. Calendar would be amazing for you right now. Cheaper than currency and you have so many Calendar resources here. Dye are 5 commerce each. Banana will speed up your grassland city growth. Currency will give you 1 extra trade route per city. Tough call.


Maybe going 3rd/4th worker sooner at start after 2 cities would of been better here.

Further review.

You needed more developed cottages by 675bc. This was very possible even with a chariot rush.That is the difference between -10 gold a turn to +9 gold a turn working 10+ cottages. instead of just 4. Heliopolis could of been running a few by now. Maybe better to have let Memphis grow and use 3-4 cottages too. 100% think taking down Carthage was right. Earlier alphabet could of allowed research build. Reality is this is your 3rd or so game on immortal.Managing workers/economy is something you will pick up as you play the game more. Early alphabet could of provided research too. Carthage has good production and you could of traded alphabet.

Your game is still very winnable. I did a run through to 675bc and had 10 or so cottages and was +9 gold at 0% with alphabet. Wiping out Hannibal too a few turns earlier.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay a few spoilers in my save. Capital size 9 and Memphis size 7 as I have not whipped library. Carthage has sooo much food.

Up to 525bc.

Spoiler Updates pasts 525BC. :

I did go on to build fish/clams city later and rushed Chinese capital before he reached HA.Would likely take down gem city too. Was struggling with economy due to long string of cities.

Went alphabet instead of maths. Was crawling a bit to calendar. Losing trade routes to China was big downside to the new war. Happiness too so I need the gems.

225bc. Took the gem city. At one point I was losing 30 gold a turn at 0% science. When the capital moved this shifted 15 gold. When I took peace with China I was able to trade for happiness resources. Almost got GLH in Carthage. if I had researched masonry I would of secured this. 100+ fail gold was nice. Took barb city/
Calender 2 turns and 6 possible dye tiles and 2 spice tiles to improve. Plus the bananas. So things will quickly turn around here. Currency will be good too. JoaII up to 10 cities.

Ai now has feudalism/MC and COl.so still a bit behind. I have calendar. Hanging gardens and MM wonder in production. Settled marble city but could be a mistake. Unlikely to make CS anywhere close to 1ad.

 

[Grilled_Trout]

@Gumbolt

I did not look at the spoilers yet, but thank you for shadowing. I have been super busy and preoccupied with work and other RL stuff, but I hope to continue with this game to the end sometime this week.

Do you suggest I re-attempt for better opening or try to stick it out from where I left off? Not sure which is the better way to go in the interest of learning.

@sampsa

Good to know there is still hope in the ongoing game. I was surprised how much this game punishes you economically. Not like many games where mindless expansion is almost always rewarded.

 

[Gumbolt]

I am up to 860ad

Spoiler Up to 860ad :

Been a slow burn. I declared on China again as their culture was eating up Beijing. I used a mix of WC/catapults and 3-4 elephants. They now have 1 city left. I am up to 18 cities including a barb city.

Korea is teching really quickly and beat me to music/Edu and Great Library. He has Machinery/Guild/engineering and Divine right. He lacks philosophy/lib and nationalism. I double bulbed edu. Bulbed lib and I think I may get 1 more GS from my golden age with 2 others very close. 3 GS so far. Building TM so a further golden age soon.

Korea may have 10 cities but has no stack that I can see and I scouted all his cities. 2-3 defenders per city. I should start spamming cuirs soon. With 18 cities I can build up a stack of 30-40 very quickly. Korea will be first to be attacked.

Be interesting to see how you cope with the speed of Korean research. Ultimately more land is the key to power here. Chinese capital with 4 sea food resources is great for great people. I was running 5 cities under golden age with 5-7 scientists each. Korea spammed it's religion to me.

Will try and finish this tomorrow.