Anyone want to help a newb?

[caravarela]

I have been playing Civ for awhile, but I'm not very "good" at it, lol. I guess I just don't play enough. Now I'm starting to get really into it. I win every time on Chieftan, either by time-spacerace-or-diplomatic. Now I am trying to win on Warlord, and I'm having a tough time. I start out way ahead in score, but get declared war on a lot and it hurts.

Any tips? How many cities should you have? I always make A LOT and I wonder if that's one of my problems. I also wonder how many units you really should have?

Thanks for any advice you can offer!! Even tips on which leaders are best would help!

 

[Verge]

Posting a savegame is the best way for any of us to help you, otherwise you're going to get relatively ambiguous advice. If you haven't already, check out the War Academy section, accessible from the front page. There are a number of very helpful beginning guides. Browsing this forum will also allow you to garner new ideas and tips.

As for how many cities/units you should have, it obviously varies from game to game. The best answer I can give is that you shouldn't build more cities/units than your economy can healthily sustain. In the beginning, settle a handful of cities in the best available locations, then fill in the less optimal land with additional cities once your economy can handle it.

 

[xanadux]

Try not building more cities than the requirement for the national wonders ... 5 on a small map, 6 on a standard map.

As for units, build enough, more than enough, and offensive units, not defensive units. If your opponent invades, attack them, don't wait for them to pillage your tiles and attack your cities.

On Warlord level, 1 good commerce city plus 1 or 2 production cities is all you need to win. Don't found more than 5 or 6 cities unless they contribute strongly to your empire. When you take over AI cities, raze the crappy ones, keep only the best.

My advice isn't ideal strategy, but probably an improvement on what you are doing, and in this short post, should help.

 

[Andvare]

If the AI is DOW'ing you alot, then you don't have enough units. Positive difference in power rating = DOW.
When you drop below 60% tech, then you should start cutting back on city building, and start on courthouses. Also, the "only do anything that you have a reason for doing" if a good working philosophy.
Read up on Sulla's and Sisiutil's games (and others, which names escapes me ATM). Highly educational. Also read all these guides: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/#intro

 

[pawelo]

Great to see that the game-virus continue it's spread

Sisutil games may seem too heavy for the start (though are, IMHO, a true gold mine into gameplay strategies). What I would suggest, above the initial save game post or playing a new game, reporting it and checking in for the advise (and you will always have good advise in here ), is to check for Orion Guides to winning on Noble in the Strategy Forum.

Try to play the game he proposes while you read the guide.
I think of no better way to discover the game
Good luck and hope to see you soon in the Succession Games forum

 

[Trains]

I'll bet you are not specializing your cities, or are expanding too fast. Read the start articals on city specialization, then give it another go.

 

[futurehermit]

1) Don't build any wonders (not a general rule, just good practice for beginners, you can start adding some in later once you have a better understanding of the game; new players tend to be buildaholics)

2) Focus on building more military units

3) Put those military units to work conquering enemy territory instead of getting attacked--be the aggressor

4) Start a game, play some rounds, then when you start getting stuck post some screenshots (photobucket.com) and save games here so we can give more specific help

5) Don't forget to build enough cottages; they may start small, but later you'll be glad you built them

 

[morpheus11]

First, I don't consider myself an expert at all. Not that long ago I was in your same place. I have not got a pretty good record on Warlord and have moved on to Noble.

The most important thing that helped me was to quit trying to play every character and being good at all the traits. Find a trait that you are comfortable with and stick with that. You then can set up strategies that will work in multiple games and give you benchmarks to reach to help you judge your own play. Personally I like Finacial civs. I am most comfortable running a cottage economy and so getting the extra gold is a big help.

My second tip is to calculate the food for your cities before you found them. This might sound tedious but I have found it extremely helpful. I now can look at a potential city site and know how many farms I need to grow fully. Also keep in mind that Biology will give your farms more food so you might be able to put an extra cottage instead of a farm. This could end up helping a lot once the cottage is mature.

Third, know your neighbors. This is really important. Some civs have a tendency to attack no matter what, e.g. Monty. While others would rather just build wonders and tech and trade regularly, e.g. Mansa. Then you have the ones like Toko that likes to build tons of cities, will rarely trade, and could attack at any moment. So, once you meet the other civs you will have the idea on how much of an army that you need.

Lastly, don't forget your army. It is important to keep track of your army. You need to make sure that they are up to date, i.e. no warriors when you could have maces. Also, make sure that they are in the right place and/or they can move through your empire quickly. For example, if Monty is right next to you, then you might want to keep a majority of your army near that border so that when war is declared you can respond quickly. I am not a warmonger by any means, and early in the game my army is usually very small, but once I get to maces I have at least one city that will start pumping them out constantly. Also, don't forget to use good defensive units/upgrades in the cities. Longbows and rifles are my favorite early and mid game defense but once I get railroad for machine guns I try to have a couple in each city.

Wow, this turned out to be a really long post. I know when I was looking for advice playing I was always looking to understand how others thought while playing. I hope that this helps. Also, if any experts read this and see glaring errors please point them out. The last thing I want to do is give out bad advice.

Good Luck.

 

[futurehermit]

^^^That's some pretty good advice there, including sticking with certain traits. I would go even further to say stick with a given leader for a few games.

Also, when I first started I would play out the first few ages then restart to get a really good understanding of the beginning of the game, which is most important imo. Imo it's no good floundering around in the later ages when you have limited understanding of what the techs even do or what you are doing. Learn the first few eras' techs first then learn the later eras' techs later. Why? Because in the majority of your losses you won't live to see the later eras anyways and if you do live to see the later eras chances are you are winning or close to it so your tech choices will not matter as much.

 

[eewallace]

Usually when you are getting attacked alot it is because you haven't built enough military units. Also, I found that moving from chieftan-warlord-noble required some significant changes to my early diplomatic strageties. On cheiftan, I could be totally isolationist, not trade techs or open borders, and still win. Not so on higher levels. You need to make friends and trade techs. Sharing a religion with neighbors often plays an important role.