[BEGINNER] why am I such a loser ?

[cleanzero]

Searching for some hints on why all games I've tried have a similar bad story like this one.
I'm a newbie so it's just Chieftain level (please don't laugh )
I'm attaching three differents ages of the same game.
While I guess I handled it not that well, in 1844 a.c and 1949 a.c. I was scoring at the top, then things went really bad, with long and terrible wars that I didn't know how to handle, and in 2027 a.c. I'm ready to retire from the game.
Suggestions are really welcome.

Ah, just two other different question...Is there a way to wake up ALL units on the map ? I have this terrible thing where I completely forget about some of them until I need some unit, start training it and then realize that I already had some available.

Is it possible to select all units of a kind on the map ?

Thanks.

 

[feralminded]

I think you're going to have to narrow the scope of your question somewhat if you want any meaningful response. There's tons of different guides that may help in the strategy articles sub-section... some are really well done as well. The War academy has some classic submissions as well.

 

[cleanzero]

I think you're going to have to narrow the scope of your question somewhat if you want any meaningful response. There's tons of different guides that may help in the strategy articles sub-section... some are really well done as well. The War academy has some classic submissions as well.

Yes, I know, have read some of them. But can't actually really think about a decent strategy

 

[DaveMcW]

If you aren't willing to control every one of your units, you don't have much of a chance at this game.

You try playing smaller maps to make it more manageable.

 

[Shurdus]

Is it possible to select all units of a kind on the map ?

Thanks.

After a war I send my units to a central spot in my empire do that I can get them anywhere quickly. My cities that are most likely the targets in case of an attack are more heavily reinforced to not tempt fate.

If you fail to keep track of your units there is always the option of pressing F5 to bring up the military advisor. Here you can see where all your units are located. I do not think there is an option to wake up all units, but this way you can find every unit available reasonable fast and it becomes impossible to forget units since all are shown.

 

[nbcman]

DaveMcW has the right answer. If you have troubles keeping track of all of the units, play smaller maps with less units. Also, I would assume that you are having problems with diplomacy since you are having 'long and terrible wars' and smaller maps/less AIs will simplify the diplomatic aspect also.

 

[CreeDakota]

I opened the thread just to see if daveMcW would say "Cottages".

If you want to try playing a public game, post start position, ask for advice, play some, ask for advice etc. You will ge great feed back and I bet you could become competitive at Noble after a single game.

 

[Sammcs]

Your cities are very small for how late in the game it is.

A few general tips to get your playing in order, from what I saw:
1. Do not automate your workers. You had a hodge-podge of odd improvements up.
2. Pick an economy type and run with it. The two major types are cottage economy (CE) and specialist economy (SE). CE is easier for beginners, so I suggest you build many more cottages in future games and work them so they grow.
3. Micro-manage your cities. Double click on a city and you can manage the tiles that the citizens work. I noticed in many cities you had a couple specialists working that weren't the greatest choice for you.

I saw 5 or 6 artists in one city. Unless going for cultural victory I would stay away from these guys. In a couple cities you just had a regular citizen specialist. This is a big no-no. There's almost always a better option.

 

[Tempesta13]

Just send all new units to the same city to keep track of them. Just have the 1 minimum defender in most other cities, or an adequate defensive mix of units in border cities if necessary. (unless you need more units in a city for hereditary rule happiness) Or you can open the examine city screen and quickly scroll through your cities to see if you have a bunch of units sitting in one that you forgot about.

Try playing a game to 1 AD or so, when you will have at least a few cities and have a good chunk of land scouted - then post screenshots showing your cities so people can see what you're building, your tech rate/beakers per turn, tile improvements, city placement etc...

Then just briefly describe what buildings you have built where, and in what order, your military, what techs you researched (and it what order) and what you are planning to do next. This is something you probably can do in 30 minutes - and it will probably be very easy for everyone to tell you a good amount of things that you should do differently.

Just basic things like build worker first, then build warriors while letting your city grow - and improving food tiles first before you build any mines - are things that can take a long time to figure out on your own, but a somewhat detailed 30 minute report with some good feedback can easily get you playing on noble/prince before long.

(use photobucket or something to post images - isn't too tough to set up)

edit: if you don't know how to get screenshots... just hit print screen in game - it sends it somewhere like my games/civ4/screenshots.

 

[cleanzero]

If you fail to keep track of your units there is always the option of pressing F5 to bring up the military advisor. Here you can see where all your units are located. I do not think there is an option to wake up all units, but this way you can find every unit available reasonable fast and it becomes impossible to forget units since all are shown.

Wow. That's really useful.

 

[cleanzero]

Your cities are very small for how late in the game it is.

How do I avoid this ? War or culture ?

 

[oyzar]

How do I avoid this ? War or culture ?

More food... Turn on resource bubbles and try to claim at least one food resource with each city(as well as many different resources as possible). More happiness through either monarchy(stationing units)/resources will at some point let your cities from bigger as well...

 

[feralminded]

Yeah its basically all about food. If a city doesn't have a major food resources or a few minor ones you probably shouldn't be building a city there. I think in the beginning it's better to focus less on overarching strategies and more on short term tactics. At the lower levels your larger economy isn't the point (you will have bonuses that make up for it), learning how to build cities and learning what to build in them is.

 

[cleanzero]

I opened the thread just to see if daveMcW would say "Cottages".

If you want to try playing a public game, post start position, ask for advice, play some, ask for advice etc. You will ge great feed back and I bet you could become competitive at Noble after a single game.

nice advice, maybe will do this in the future.

However, this must be the best gaming forum of the whole net

 

[Shurdus]

nice advice, maybe will do this in the future.

However, this must be the best gaming forum of the whole net

There is also the option of browsing through full games played on theis forum. there are some very interesting and well played games out there that will teach you so much about the game that, like me, you can bump your level up from noble to emperor in no time.

You can find a lot of games here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=258697

Also you may want to look up threads by obsolete, BurN, Rusten, and I am sure there are many, many others, but these guys made me from an AI punching bag on noble all the way up to very close to my first ever win on immortal.

On a side note, these boards are the best on the net by far.

 

[Rubbaduck]

2. Pick an economy type and run with it. The two major types are cottage economy (CE) and specialist economy (SE). CE is easier for beginners, so I suggest you build many more cottages in future games and work them so they grow.

NO.
Use all the assets you are given according to which yields the best results in a specific scenario. Learn to read the map and notice your needs.

Regarding unit management: You generally want to keep garrisons in each city depending on it's proximity to a possible threat and have some sort of a road network to quickly reinforce cities under attack. You should never have a need to move EVERYTHING.

Read some games around here, look at the saves and see how they do stuff. And read some stuff from the strategy articles forum.

 

[oynaz]

O, you can read a couple of Sisiutil's ALC games and emulate him. Make a start, post a screenshot and ask for advice. The play 50-100 turns, post screens and ask for advice again. This will improve your game very quickly. Guaranteed.

 

[macmert]

lol you are not loser, you just started to learn playing... anyways I didnt take a look at your saves but I think the best thing for you is to read articles in the war academy... they will help you a lot...

 

[Winston Hughes]

Use all the assets you are given according to which yields the best results in a specific scenario. Learn to read the map and notice your needs.

When directed at a beginner, 'learn to read the map' is far too vague. Since the only way to achieve it is through experience, it's almost like saying 'play more civ' - not very helpful.

'Build and work more cottages', on the other hand, is excellent advice - simple, easy to follow and effective. Of course, cottage spam may not always be the optimal choice. But who cares about optimal play when you're struggling to beat Chieftan?

And while the CE/SE distinction is pretty redundant for most high-level players nowadays, these basic economy types are still useful learning tools for lower-level players looking to improve.

 

[cleanzero]

I'm playing a new game, this time with a smaller map, but, poor me, it's slowly taking the same path. Looks like my problem is that I cannot handle war. This time a built a lot of cottages and had a lot of food and hammers. I was scoring at the top but then I declared war against the roman empire because it happend to be in between my cities, limiting them. After this, decay begun. My problem is that I tend to capture cities by moving some stack against them but then start losing most of my units and improvements one after one.