A piece of advice....

Best Civilization in Civ IV?

  • Rome

    Votes: 6 28.6%
  • Greece

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • England

    Votes: 9 42.9%
  • India

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • America

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • Egypt

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • Russia

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • Germany

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • Persia

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • France

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • Spain

    Votes: 1 4.8%

  • Total voters
    21

Frigkas

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
Messages
46

Hello fellows first time poster here.I am playing Civ IV since 2005 , the date that game officially released.I am playing in Chieftain difficulty level and some of you may laugh , but i dont shame to tell that i'm not a pro - player.So i came to the right place i think for a piece of advice.:lol:Firstly i'd like to mention that i've read multiple guides in order to meliorate my Civ - skills but without any decent progress.All of these guides was from this site of course.So i want to ask you 1.How to improve in city specialization , how many cities must i found in order to win. 2.Which are the best leader traits?For instance Spiritual is a good trait...others?? and finally 3.Must i prefer Wonders OR Specialists in order to have a decent happiness , economy and health??

P.S My apologies for the extent of this thread but i wanted to make a little intro as i am a fresh member to this Community.Thank you for your time....:):):)
 
Welcome to CFC!!!
You are now an official member of newbie club.;)

1) Numbers of founded cities don't counts. As long as there's a suitable land to settle and doesn't cripple your economy. Others to be considered still. I settle atleast 6 to 10 cities early (cities on the new world doesn't count.)

2)Financial and Spiritual are the top 2 strongest traits for me.

3)Specialists are a must. And wonder spamming is bad especially if you're playing on higher difficulties. One Wonder that's very popular is TheGreatLibrary. Research is very crucial in every game.

Everything in moderation they say.
 
Yeap i've read of city specialization types , like Commerce (Money or Science) , Production , Great Person Farm and Military.As of specialists you are right.I think that 10 cities are too many aren't they??I usually go for 5 - 6.

P.S Thank you very much for your time....:thumbsup:
 
Number of cities depends on what victory you are pursuing, map size, and how fast you expand. If done right, you can't have too many. When properly developed and located, each new city will more than make up for what it costs. For example, I am currently playing a game on a huge map, normal speed, Prince level. At the moment, I have 24 cities. ( I do have to admit that I only built 15 of those. The other 9 used to belong to a recently deceased neighbor. :mischief:)
 
Yep, there's absolutely no finite number of cites you should have. The only case where there is a optimal number of cities - standard settings - is 9 cities for a Culture victory.

Otherwise, expand as much as you possible can within your means. Ideally you want at least 6 cites by 1AD, but can certainly have more. On higher levels it is common to start small so that you can research fast and then break out. Once your economy is solid then there is no limit to expanding/conquering. Land is power in this game and certainly more land is great for Space wins and Diplo, and well...it is required for Domination.

The key thing for newer or less successful players to learn is what is meant by a solid economy. This really can only be achieved by practicing and watching/learning from more experienced players. A solid economy is often not what these players think it is.
 
You are right.Personally i start with having 5 - 6 cities and then declaring war i add more cities to my civilization.As of a solid economy if i have a negative income , i usually low the science percentage from 100 to 90..and then build many of cottages...By the way thank you all for the answers.There are very helpful...:):)
 
You are right.Personally i start with having 5 - 6 cities and then declaring war i add more cities to my civilization.As of a solid economy if i have a negative income , i usually low the science percentage from 100 to 90..and then build many of cottages...By the way thank you all for the answers.There are very helpful...:):)

That's an indicator of two problems right there.
The first is not using binary research: playing some turns at 100% gold and then 100% science. The game truncates (rounds down) 1 commerce essentially anytime your slider is not 100% one or the other. This only really makes a difference at the start, when losing a commerce per turn is a big deal relative to your total commerce.

The second, and much more important, is exactly what the poster above you was talking about; people not knowing what a healthy economy actually is. 100% Science with no negative income is not a good thing; it is in fact a bad thing. It means you are not expanding anywhere near hard enough. You can often make more beakers per turn on an empire that can only afford 60% of its commerce on beakers (science)
than an empire that can have 100% science and be breaking-even/making gold per turn. Even if you lose a few beakers per turn expanding, rather than gaining, you still have way more space, and way more hammers and food per turn.
 
Traius speaks the truth.

Understanding economy in the game is probably the single most important thing that hinders struggling players from advancing in the game. Next would probably be Great People production/usage and Diplo.

I will add to the binary that is more than just the commerce truncate, but the ability to accumulate gold during times of expansion, put in place commerce modifiers like Libraries and ascertain the AIs tech choices so that you can tech smartly. All of that becomes increasingly important as you move up difficulty levels since the maintenance increases significantly and tech paths most become more focused.

An interesting exercise, Frig, is to notice the affect on your beakers per turn (BPTs) as you expand, connect trade routes, build libraries and run specialists.
 
Long answer to question 2, which are the best traits, and further info on what is the best civilization:
When trying to decide who to might be the best, it's important to note what varies between the civilizations: UU, UB, Starting techs, and leader traits.
Let's start with the traits.
Generally, the best traits are typically viewed to be:
Financial (tie for #1) or Philosophical (the other tied for #1).
Organized (the higher the difficulty, the more gold per turn this saves. Also, up to a 50% reduction in build time for Courthouses, Lighthouses and Factories. Due to factory and lighthouse bonuses, is also more powerful on watery maps, where hammers are harder to come by, lighthouses are stronger, and the game is more likely to go until factories)
Industrious (adds to wonders and/or wonder fail gold, and reduces the build time of the second best building, the Forge, in the game by 50%. More powerful on low-hammer maps, like watery maps or ice age maps)
Some people have a major love for spiritual and expansive, but I personally put them as tied at #5, behind any of the ones listed above.

The following leaders have 2 traits composed only of the top 4 traits. 1 "point" will be given for having one of the traits tied for #1. We will also put an asterisk beside anyone with Organized, which notes that it is worth +0.5 if the difficulty is monarch+:
Darius of Persia FIN/ORG 1 point*
Elizabeth of England FIN/PHI 2 points
Franklin Roosevelt of America IND/ORG. 0 points*
Frederick of Germany PHI/ORG 1 point*
Huayna Capac of Inca FIN/IND 1 point

So we have our 5 best leaders. If we pick unrestricted leaders, having one of these people as our leader will probably improve us. If we are not playing unrestricted leaders, then each of these leaders is tied to a specific civilization, with its own UU, UB and starting techs.

So next let's do starting techs. The best starting tech is usually considered to be mining, as it allows you to build mines right away (which are often just as useful as any other improvement for getting settlers and workers out of your first city) AND lets you go straight for bronze working, which allows units (axemen and spearmen), a resource to be revealed (copper), trees to be chopped down, and, most importantly, allows slavery, the most powerful single civic in the game (State Property is a close second, and State property and Caste is actually better than slavery, but that wouldn't be a single civic ;) ). If you cherry-pick starts, then you often look for gems or gold. Either way, you'll need mining. It also allows access to masonry, useful for the Great Lighthouse (a top tier wonder).

The next best tech is much more open for debate.
One thing I can conclusively say, is that Hunting as a starting tech is bad. It is the cheapest of all the starting techs, so you are getting the fewest beakers, and it turns your starting warrior into a starting scout, who can't be used to police your cities (and also, a woodman 2 warrior is often just as fast or faster at exploring). Also, having both spearmen (which require hunting) as well as axemen means you can't build warriors any more, which are a super-cheap way to police core cities (cities away from your borders)

If we want an early religion (which actually isn't that great, but it should mean your starting diplomacy is easier, as you are 1 of the 2 most common religions on most maps, and is important for cultural victories), we want Mysticism. That way our first tech is the religion we want to found. Mysticism can also speed up the Oracle, but this really seems to have less effect than a Gold tile or having-the-right-resources-nearby-so-your-workers-are-always-busy-without-wasting-turns (I'm no master of the intricacies of the Oracle Wonder though).

Whether or not agriculture, or fishing is best depends on your terrain, but usually it is one of those 2 for the number 2 spot, so we can get some food early. Fishing also allows access to early sailing, which can help connect cities without roads (very useful on watery maps to get early trade routes).

So we usually want:
#1 Mining and 1 of Fishing, agriculture
#2 Mining and Mysticism (we want to start an early religion).

Out of our top leaders, we give 1.5 points for mining, 1 point for agriculture or fishing, 0.5 points for mysticism, and -0.5 points for hunting:
Elizabeth of England (Mining, Fishing) Only Elizabeth gets the full 2.5 points.
Darius of Persia: Hunting and Agriculture. 0.5 Points.
Franklin Roosevelt of America: Fishing and agriculture. 2 points
Frederick of Germany: Hunting and Mining. 1 Point
Huayna of the Incas: Agriculture and mysticism. 1.5 Points

Total so far:
Elizabeth: 4.5 points
Huayna: 2.5 Points
Franklin Roosevelt: 2 points*
Frederick: 2 Points*
Darius 1.5*

Next we look at UU's.
They are scored as follows:
Era they appear: +1 points if your UU is ancient age, +0.5 if it is classical, 0 if it is medieval, -0.5 if it renaissance, -1 if it is industrial, -1.5 if it is modern. Obviously, this assumes an ancient age start. If you started later, these numbers would completely change. Having praetorian's as your UU would be a bad thing if you started in the modern age where prateorian's are long obsolete ;)
Additional Strength given (really subjective, I won't lie): -0.5 to +1.5. Yes, some UU's are crappier than their normal counterparts.
Additional bonus if the unit is very common or strong on it own: up to +1

Darius: Immortals+1 for age, +1 for strength, +0 for base unit being common-ish, but weak, with a reasonable, but certainly not long window
Elizabeth: (BTS! In vanilla, the Redcoats are uber-powerful, but in BTS they have been very notably weakened!): -0.5 for era, +0.5 for additional strength, +0.5 for strength and commonality of base unit. +0.5 total.
Franklin Roosevelt: Navy Seals-1.5 for era, +0.5 for bonus strength, + 0 for base unit being okay. -1 total.
Frederick: Panzer-1.5 for era, +0 for additional strength (just bring an anti-tank infantry!), +0.5 for strength and commonality of the base unit. -1 total.
Huayna Capac: Quechua+1.5 for era. +0.75 for strength, but +1.25 strength if the difficulty is monarch+ and the AI starts with archers; again, will be denoted by an asterisk. -0.5 for the fact that the base unit is the weakest unit in the game, with the shortest effective window. +2 total.

Running total:
Elizabeth: 5 points
Huayna: 4.5 Points*
Darius 3.5 points*
Franklin Roosevelt: 1 point*
Frederick: 1 Point*

Lastly, we look at the UB's. I use the same criteria as the UU's essentially.
Era they appear: +1 points if your UB is ancient age, +0.5 if it is classical, 0 if it is medieval, -0.5 if it renaissance, -1 if it is industrial, -1.5 if it is modern.
Additional Strength given (really subjective, I won't lie): 0 to +1.5. Minimum of 0 instead of negative, as there are no UB's that are worse than their counterparts.
Additional bonus if the building is very common or strong on it own: up to +0.5

Darius: Apothecary. Era: 0. +0.75 for building strength. It's main purpose is health, and it gives even more health. +0.5 for commonality and strength of the base building. +1.25
Elizabeth: Stock Exchange. Era: -0.5. Additional strength, +0.75. +0.25 for strength of base building. +0.5 total.
Franklin Roosevelt: Mall -1.5 for era, +1.25 for bonus strength, -0.25 for building being okay, but basically completely skip-able, even when you have access to it. -0.5
Frederick: Assembly Plant-1.5 for era, 0 for additional strength (just cheaper if you have coal, which is already copied by anyone with Organized), +0.5 for strength and commonality of the base unit. -1. total.
strength-wise, but not commonly used. -1 total.
Huayna Capac: Terrace+1.5 for era. +0.75 for strength (allows you to completely skip monuments in all your cities). +1 for the fact that the base building is the most common building in the game, necessary in every city worth settling. +3.25 total.

Final Total
Huayna: 7.75 Points *
Elizabeth: 5.5 points
Darius 4.75 points *
Franklin Roosevelt: 0.5 points *
Frederick: -0.25 Points *
* denotes adding +0.5 when playing monarch plus. For Huayna, this is from his UU finding its ideal target and being able to rush more easily than ever. For the others, it is from organized saving more gold on higher difficulties.

Which leaves Huayna Capac of the Incans as the best of the standard-rules leader-and-civilzation combos, and Elizabeth of England and Darius of Persia as the second and third respectively. If you are playing with Unrestricted Leaders, Elizabeth and Darius are the two top leaders for just about any civilization, with Huayna and Frederick close behind.
 
You are right.Personally i start with having 5 - 6 cities and then declaring war i add more cities to my civilization.As of a solid economy if i have a negative income , i usually low the science percentage from 100 to 90..and then build many of cottages...By the way thank you all for the answers.There are very helpful...:):)

That's an indicator of two problems right there.

Or he/she is light years ahead of any of the posters on this board, the economy being always well funded. :p Half joking aside, the OP's strategy may be appropriate at his/her level of play.

Binary research is a non-critical concept for anybody Monarch and below.
 
Don't underestimate Creative - it's maybe not as good as Fin or Phi, but is still a top tier trait.

Normally it's pretty much essential to build your early cities with a food resource (and any other resource you are trying to claim) in the first ring. Otherwise, even if you have mysticism, it takes far too long to build a monument and wait for the borders to expand, during which time the city will be very weak and a drain on resources. This means you will often build cities that will be worse in the long term in order to gain an early advantage.

If you are Cre, you have much more freedom in city placement because your borders will expand after 5 turns allowing you access to all resources in the BFC almost immediately.

Also don't forget The Wheel as a strong starting tech. It doesn't immediately allow any resources to be improved but is important for allowing roads to be built to your second city and also it's nice to have a headstart towards pottery for cottages and granaries.
 
Top Bottom