Leyrann's Early Game Strategy and Q&A thread

[War Master in Training]

Food, food, food. to the 1st ring. Also, I'd like to point out that the lower the level, the harder you can expand early, because 1)it's cheaper 2)barbs give you less trouble.

Ah yes, I forgot about that. I personally find that the two most important things in city placement is resources, mostly food and production, and number of riverside cottage-able tiles.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

 

[Leyrann]

So, is the limiting factor. I don't think "whip every 10T" is great advice, I mean I just stack it if needed and then find a way to deal with stacking, be it slow-building a worker/settler or just whipping more, then giving away -resources to cool off. Note how only sharing -tiles allows such powerful tactics.

Most of my whips in the BC:s are 2-pop, but settlers are very good whips because they can be 3-popped. Again, just find ways to improve the -situation and there are no problems! Claim -resources, connect to other civs for resource trades, run representation or hereditary rule, get a religion or build building(s) that give .

I'll give that strategy a try sometime. Though, I do think I won't make it part of my standard playstyle because of the micro, but that's what varying the difficulty level is for.

Also, I'd like to point out that the lower the level, the harder you can expand early, because 1)it's cheaper

I have been noticing this so much. I've been messing around a little by trying to see how quick I could empire build if I made everything favorable and removed all AIs (that means: Settler difficulty (and therefore workers and settlers from goody huts), Advanced Start, Lakes map script, filling all AI slots so that the map generation places the maximum number of resources, then removing all the AIs on turn 1 so they won't bug me while I expand or take goody huts, barbarians off, plus I've taken a small liberty by relocating Holy City designations through the Worldbuilder to put them in the same city for lategame multiple Shrine + Wall Street shenanigans) and maintenance costs are just so much lower. My 19 cities have a combined maintenance cost of just 55 gpt. Also, I just noticed that inflation seems to not be a thing on Settler difficulty?

Anyway, I did have another question: Am I correct that if you already have a resource connected (e.g. dyes), and don't have an AI to sell additional copies to, it's sometimes better to build a different improvement on the tile that doesn't connect the resource? In the case of dyes, a Plantation gives 4 commerce, while a Town with Free Speech and Replacable Parts gives 7, which would simply be straight 3 commerce more. Or am I missing something? (side note: even if true, I'll probably still build the proper improvement for the sake of cleanness)

Also, that's probably going to be my last question for a while, as Age of Wonders IV is due for release in just a few hours, and I doubt I'll be playing much else for... at least a month, probably.

 

[Snowygerry]

(...)
Anyway, I did have another question: Am I correct that if you already have a resource connected (e.g. dyes), and don't have an AI to sell additional copies to, it's sometimes better to build a different improvement on the tile that doesn't connect the resource? In the case of dyes, a Plantation gives 4 commerce, while a Town with Free Speech and Replacable Parts gives 7, which would simply be straight 3 commerce more. Or am I missing something? (side note: even if true, I'll probably still build the proper improvement for the sake of cleanness)

No that's correct - cottaging or even farming over luxury resources is standard gameplay early game...you can also repurpose the square later.

 

[sampsa]

Though, I do think I won't make it part of my standard playstyle because of the micro, but that's what varying the difficulty level is for.

It's always a bit confusing to hear that people want to play a game like civ4, but don't want to manage their cities.

better to build a different improvement on the tile that doesn't connect the resource? In the case of dyes, a Plantation gives 4 commerce, while a Town with Free Speech and Replacable Parts gives 7, which would simply be straight 3 commerce more. Or am I missing something?

That is correct. Usually you can sell that spare dye for a lot more though.

 

[lymond]

Yeah...I tend to farm riverside sugar, spices, and dyes early as it is a nice yield. I generally don't like cottaging them unless there is a plethora of resources. I just hate to bulldoze them later. However, quite a few advanced players do cottage these early.

 

[Leyrann]

It's always a bit confusing to hear that people want to play a game like civ4, but don't want to manage their cities.

Now now, it's not that I don't want to manage my cities, it's that I don't want to manage them too much.

But Civ 4 also has a bunch of other draws. For me personally, I enjoy the complexity of the tech tree compared to later games, with both AND and OR requirements and the (UI/graphic) capability of having requirements between parts of the tech tree that aren't close together. I also appreciate that the turns feel quicker than in Civ 6 (note: I haven't played 5 ever since I got to know 4 and 6, both of which I picked up around the release of 6, because it's just so bad in comparison to either), in particular in the early game, and there are some boons to stacking units as opposed to 1upt (though I also think there's benefits to 1upt - this one depends on my mood). Also, Civ 6's production cost system still irks me from time to time (tl;dr for those who haven't played it: unit, building and wonder production cost depends on where in the tech/civic tree you unlock it, and only that, without regard for actual strength, and all costs are some 20-30% too high imo).

I'd say that in simple terms, Civ 6 is more appealing in general, but Civ 4 has more depth while also allowing, contradictory as it sounds, for a more casual mindset while playing. (also, Civ 4 AI is definitely much better - I play Civ 6 on Deity without even bothering to optimize, I doubt I'd be able to play Civ 4 like that on a difficulty harder than Prince, maybe Monarch)

Anyway, I did actually have another question: I've noticed that the advisor often puts those "tile of interest" circles on Watermills if I have a Worker selected, and I think I remember it suggesting a road as recommended improvement as well. But as far as I can tell, there's no benefit at all to putting a road or railroad on a Watermill tile. Am I missing something or is it just the advisor bugging out? EDIT: Actually, the tile that made me wonder about this again already has a road on it.

 

[AcaMetis]

I've noticed that the advisor often puts those "tile of interest" circles on Watermills if I have a Worker selected, and I think I remember it suggesting a road as recommended improvement as well. But as far as I can tell, there's no benefit at all to putting a road or railroad on a Watermill tile. Am I missing something or is it just the advisor bugging out? EDIT: Actually, the tile that made me wonder about this again already has a road on it.

The advisor just has...curious ideas, sometimes. From memory the only tile that actually improves, yield-wise, with a road is a Mine getting +1 with a Railroad (not a regular road).

 

[War Master in Training]

I'd say that in simple terms, Civ 6 is more appealing in general, but Civ 4 has more depth while also allowing, contradictory as it sounds, for a more casual mindset while playing. (also, Civ 4 AI is definitely much better - I play Civ 6 on Deity without even bothering to optimize, I doubt I'd be able to play Civ 4 like that on a difficulty harder than Prince, maybe Monarch)

I kinda agree about Civ 5. I tried it, but honestly, the only things I like about it more than Civ 4 is the graphics and using hexagonal tiles. I haven’t tried Civ 6 yet. Maybe I should.

Ps: I think that the railroads also add a to lumber mills. Unless that was removed in BTS without me noticing. I have similar problems with the advisor selecting tiles that are already improved. It seems to think that water mills are bad tile improvements and wants to replace them with farms. Or it’s just a bug because it also often selects tiles with full towns!

 

[AcaMetis]

You are correct. Shows you how often I build a Lumbermill .

 

[War Master in Training]

I have a bad habit of saving forests to build lumber mills later when I probably should be chopping it much earlier . It’s convenient that railroad and replaceable parts are near each other on the tech tree. The +1 makes it a viable strategy for me.

 

[Fippy]

Options / game / no unit action recommendations turns off blue circles, worker suggestions etc.
They are just a distraction, often wrong and can actually tempt newer players into time wasting actions.

 

[War Master in Training]

Options / game / no unit action recommendations turns off blue circles, worker suggestions etc.
They are just a distraction, often wrong and can actually tempt newer players into time wasting actions.

I forgot about that menu. I looked at it once a long time ago and turned off automated workers destroying already-built improvements because that was very annoying. Thank you for reminding me of that menu!

 

[pigswill]

And the most basic rule: play the map.

 

[War Master in Training]

And the most basic rule: play the map.

Good reminder.

Also, I have an actual question now:
Can someone please explain how technology discounts work? I didn’t know that they existed (except AIs being given discounts due to the difficulty level). From what I can tell from reading through old SGs, having other civilizations already having it researched makes it cheaper for you to research it? And also something about getting both of the OR prerequisites even though you only need one?

 

[sampsa]

Can someone please explain how technology discounts work? I didn’t know that they existed (except AIs being given discounts due to the difficulty level). From what I can tell from reading through old SGs, having other civilizations already having it researched makes it cheaper for you to research it? And also something about getting both of the OR prerequisites even though you only need one?

Every pre-requisite (arrows in the tech tree) boosts by 20% towards that tech. Every AI you have met who knows the tech boosts your by 4,25%.

 

[War Master in Training]

Every pre-requisite (arrows in the tech tree) boosts by 20% towards that tech. Every AI you have met who knows the tech boosts your by 4,25%.

Does this include the first prerequisite you need to research it? Or is it just the extra techs?

 

[sampsa]

Every tech. So for example the towards BW is always boosted. For astronomy, never, because no arrow leads to it.

 

[sampsa]

Also, there is an extra hidden 1 per turn. That means that if you have pre-req boosts (usually 20%), the number of shown in the top left corner should optimally end in either a 4 or a 9.