A newbie migrating from Civ V!

Interesting, thank you for taking your time to help me out! I am still trying to grasp the fact that city screens are one of the most important factors of the game. In Civ V...everything is global so no micro management with individual cities.

 

No micromanagement... that sounds like a dream, but also horrible at the same time. In CIV, the pro's go as far as microing every city every turn, and it's amazing how powerful playing like that is. It's very tedious though. To start with micro, you should turn on the log first, and then jump to every city when it grows to assign the new citizen, then you only need to micro when something important changes, like Bio-Farms, State-Property Workshops or a big project.
That's at least Monarch+ stuff though, 'til Prince, you can do without any micro at all.

 

What is "turn on the log"? I dunno...even at settler difficulty my city still gets razed by barbarians! At this point i focus more on avoiding them or hiding workers from them than worrying about cities lol

 

The log is the small button in the upper left corner.

If you have trouble with Barbs, you need to get stronger units, like Axes i. e.

Research Bronze Working and settle a city near Copper and connect it, then you can build them. They're more than 5 times as strong as Warriors, with them you can easily conquer complete maps on the lower difficulties.

 

Hmmm thanks I gotta look into this, when I was first killed by barbarian Axemen, they pretty much wiped out my entire civ with just one unit. I almost raged quit but I managed to pull off one elephant thing which trumped it.

 

@OP
In civ5, cities will not only defend themselves, but also barbarians can't capture them.
In civ4, you have put units into cities (defenders, like archers) and,
civ4 barbarians are able to capture cities and can either keep them or raze them.

 

Thank you so much Lymond! Very helpful tips there. I always play large maps because i love feeling like a queen reigning over my sprawling empire lol. Usually i put 3 cities up and by a certain time that barbarians start spawning...they come in from random areas and they would destroy my cities in one turn...my units couldn't get there in time (lots of hills). But this is only the second time i played so I'm learning to put military units around the borders.

 

Civ IV can be something of an overwhelming experience if you're not used to it. I found the War Academy in general and this guide in particular to be extremely helpful.


I don't believe that guide has even been updated for BtS, and even if it has a lot of the information there will become obsolete as you get to know the game better, but IMHO it's an excellent, excellent resource that will help a lot in grasping the basics. I know for me it took me from someone who struggled to win on Noble to someone who could fairly easily handle Monarch.

I think what'd I say about this guide is: Use it until you are able to articulate its shortcomings in your own words. That's the point where you know you've outgrown it. Until then, it's a great resource.

 

1) http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Whipping_(Civ4) That fully explains the mechanics of whipping.

Strategically, you whip to avoid growth into unhappiness or unimproved tiles and to convert food into hammers. In the early game you will usually have a low happiness cap and more yield from food specials than you actually need.

Late game you whip to convert stored up population into hammers, and then keep whipping to get high production from small cities well below the happy cap. You want to do this when you get a military tech with a particularly good strength advantage before the target does.

2) Repercussion of more cities is more maintenance, directly (that you can see in the city screen) and indirectly (yearly cost of civics). Repercussions of settling up against your neighbours are a negative diplomatic hit ("Our close borders spark tensions") and a higher chance of being a war target.

3) Open borders are a must, the AI mapping your land means nothing. You dont give in to demands of AIs that are politically isolated or physically can't get to you. I mean, that varies. Sometimes a demand is too outrageous.

4) You should have almost no military, just enough for one garrison unit in each city and perhaps a party for capturing barb cities. Units cost maintenance over a certain number. You rely on not being randomly attacked, sometimes it doesnt work. You only build up an army when you have a window of opportunity, usually with Horse Archers, Elephants and Catapults, Trebuchets and Macemen, Cuirassiers, Cavalry and Airships, Cannons and Riflemen, Infantry, etc.

 

Just to clarify, a "window" is a point in the tech tree where offensive options significantly outpace defensive units.

So, for example, while most early units will struggle against Archers, Horse Archers are generally strong enough to beat them if they aren't too entrenched. Entrenched Archers (e.g. Archers fortified in a walled city on a hill) are probably going to hold off Horse Archers, but Catapults and Elephants (sometimes just called Elepults) can crack that nut easily. Things then kind of slow down for a while, just because Longbowmen are such powerful defensive units. Adding to this is the fact that cities get extra defensive bonus from culture, and the Medieval era is where that starts to kick into high gear - it's not uncommon to see cities provide 110% defense or higher. However, once Cuirassiers come into play, pair them with Trebuchets and you can go on the offensive again.


Generally windows come around any time a new siege weapon comes into play, and/or any time a unit with significantly higher strength pops up (e.g. Infantry)

 

You could also play the tutorial it is actually pretty good it shows you how to hook up different kinds of resources (Fish Wheat, stone & wine) and create your road/trade network.
It only takes a little time and is comprehensive if a little pedantic.