beginner's question

[GRD]

I'm a fairly new to Civ4 and I was wondering how can you tell an opponent's military strength before declaring war. Does the military adviser only show an opponent's units that are in your units line of sight?

 

[Puhi]

The best thing to do is scout the opponent's territory before declaring. If you have open borders, you can do this with any unit, though 2 move units like chariots are preferable. If you have closed borders, you can use spies, or, if you have physics, airships work great.

The advantage to this is that it tells you not only WHAT the opponent's strength is, but WHERE all of the units are.

 

[stratfiend]

Also check the graphs screen. You can change the graph option from Score to Power and it will give you a good estimate of civs' military power.

 

[Um the Muse]

Scouting is good. For a quick check, you might consider downloading the BUG mod (a mod that makes things you can see stand out better). Many players recommend it these days: it gives you a better sit rep on military, espionage, even domestic goings-on by improving the interfaces. If you don't mind changing the game a little, you might want to add BULL as well.

 

[Kid R]

Does the military adviser only show an opponent's units that are in your units line of sight?

No if the adviser has the information it will cover all the enemy units. The majority of which will consist of archery city garrisons, hence if you have equal strength their main stack will be much smaller than yours and you're in good shape!

Also even if they have like double your strength, they tend to keep all their units in one main stack and move it around dumbly. If you scout beforehand and find/follow this stack you can often get very good kill ratios by knocking it down it with appropriate counter units (and liberal use of siege).

Ps. Welcome to the forums!

 

[Bei1052]

Download the BUG mod; it will show you your strength relative to the computer's strength.

However, that number is usually misleading. Unlike the human player, the AI tends to build stuff like walls and castles as well as tends to garrison all of their cities with multiple units, which inflate the AI's strength, whereas the human player tends to do neither of these things.

 

[GGracchus]

Download the BUG mod; it will show you your strength relative to the computer's strength.

However, that number is usually misleading. Unlike the human player, the AI tends to build stuff like walls and castles as well as tends to garrison all of their cities with multiple units, which inflate the AI's strength, whereas the human player tends to do neither of these things.

This. Put espionage on the AI as well(ctrl+e brings up this screen), and eventually you can see a person's power rating.

 

[Archon_Wing]

A common mistake for beginners seem to be not remembering to open borders. Besides the extra trade and diplo bonuses, it lets you keep tabs on your rival's army.

 

[GRD]

Thanks for all the input. Hopefully, it will help me achieve my first conquest victory, which has been my biggest challenge so far.

I would also like to say that I am really glad I stumbled upon this form. You guys give great advice to help me improve my game. I’ve also noticed that you guys don’t criticize other members for posting “stupid questions” as I have found in many other forums.