Best Things for New Players to Read in 2019

Qoce · Jul 4, 2019

Hello All,

I have been playing Civ games for a long time, but I am new (20 hours of time played 0-2 on Prince) to Civ 4. (Have mostly played 5, but also a lot of 3). With Civ 3 my favorite way to learn the game was to read many of the amazing succession games and story games people had posted on the forums, as well as guides people have posted.

I've been looking for similar stuff for Civ 4 over the past few days, but many old threads now have formatting issues or are missing the images they once contained. Additionally, I've seen warnings of some old information being outdated or incorrect. With this in mind, I was wondering what games and guides people would recommend reading (either for improvement or just because they are fun).

Thank you very much.

Izuul · Jul 4, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBiPHqnZ3mwIqtraltox6jg

You could also read some of the newer Nobles Club threads.

BornInCantaloup · Jul 4, 2019

Because of the scope of the game, good, all-around sources are hard to find. Those that are tend to be overly detailed, which can suit the taste of some.

TheMeInTeam has a youtube channel that is very informative and a lot more beginner friendly than Lain's (as with any youtuber, start with older videos if you get there). There are great write-ups, too, here and there.

In order to improve quickly, first thing is to identify the different phases of the game. It's important to have objectives at all points, in order to know what to emphasize.
Civ4 is a game of trade-offs and conversions (food, hammers, commerce). There is a micro element (the tile, the unit, the city) and there is a macro element (the Empire, the civic, the great people, the wonders, the scouting, the warring, the peaceful development). There are mechanics associated to each of those points and those mechanics all have their learning curve.
The micro should always serve a greater, macro, purpose.

Players who have a sound macro have no troubles improving. Civ4 is similar to Civ3 in that : you never have enough. A proper Empire spreads.
A usual beginner's flaw is that people tend to be content with what they have. No. Once you start to see what you're going to have peacefully, you need to start making decisions towards a war, and once you start envisionning the end of that war, you need to start making plans for the future.
Having a clear idea of where your Empire is going makes all the small decisions a lot easier.

krikav · Jul 4, 2019

I have done quite a few writeups lately, search for me and nobles club and or lonely hearts club. Dont be afraid to bump threads if you have relevant questions.

Olddudes shadow games have been quite active too.

BornInCantaloup · Jul 4, 2019

Yes, your write-ups make it easy to follow the logic behind the moves

sampsa · Jul 4, 2019

Krikav's recent writeups heartily recommended!

gavenkoa · Jul 4, 2019

sampsa said:
Krikav's recent writeups heartily recommended!

Care to post link?

I also started to play Civ4 month ago (bought on GOG for 4.5$) and it is extremely difficult to make sense of game setup and strategy up to date to 2019.

There are outdated Stack of DOOM by Sisiutil and such guides here which have no any sense for Immortal/Daity level.

Watching Youtube is time consuming. Spent 12h of let's play to see one natty trick?

It took me several evening of research to get to BUG/BULL as must have for vanilla experience to be updated to 2010 (last date of official mods build).

I'll post below my README.md files of researched info...

sampsa · Jul 4, 2019

gavenkoa said:
Care to post link?

Well, just browse through the recent threads. For example https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/nobles-club-209-kublai-khan.647011/ and other NC-threads.

gavenkoa said:
Watching Youtube is time consuming. Spent 12h of let's play to see one natty trick?

Don't spend 12h. Focus only on the openings at first, say until T75, and try to come even close to that in your own games.

gavenkoa · Jul 4, 2019

https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/

http://www.sullla.com/civ4.html
http://www.sullla.com/civ4intro.html
Detailed intro into game mechanic.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/919352-civilization-iv/faqs

https://www.reddit.com/r/CivIV/

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sisiutils-strategy-guide-for-beginners.165632
famous guide (not for PRO)
https://www.youtube.com/user/Chris67132/playlists
AbsoluteZero Deity
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBiPHqnZ3mwIqtraltox6jg/playlists
Lain Deity

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-complete-guide-to-espionage.638613/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civic-upkeep-explained.148840/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-illustrated-1-know-your-enemy.478563/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/computing-civic-upkeep.524042/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/trade-routes.159047/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/vocum-sineratio-the-whip.193659/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beaker-overflow.624745/

CivilizationIV.ini
cheat mode 0 => "chipotle"
5) After the manual change done, open a game and do CTRL+Z (shortcut)
6) You just entered debugger and you can play a game and see what the AIs do.

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/qu...-i-find-a-good-civilization-4-strategy-guide/

Forums:

* https://apolyton.net/
* https://www.civfanatics.com/

# Rally point

Click on the city bar to select the city, then Shift + right click on the tile you want to set as
the rally point. You can also Ctrl+left click on any city bar to select all cities, then set the
rally point for all of them, though of course that means if you build things like missionaries
they'll go there as well.

To cancel a rally point for a city, just set the rally point as the city tile.

CTRL + clicking on a city selects cities on that continent. ALT + click selects all cities.

You CAN create a rally point to send newly created units from one city to another city. Click once
on the creating city to highlight it, then Ctrl-shift-right-click on the destination tile (which CAN
be a city).

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/set-new-unit-waypoint.158560/

# Select automated workers

Locate any automated worked (via Advisor) and holding Alt click on Cancel auto work icon.

# Key binding

C - center unit
E - auto-explore
F - fortify
G - Go-to mode
S - Sentry
W - wait (temporary skip unit)
Enter - skip unit to next turn
Alt+click - all units on tile
\ - Cycle to previous selected unit
Ctrl+click - same type units
Ctrl+# - bind unit group
Ctrl+H - select all wounded units

[Shift-F5] Quick Save
[Shift-F8] Quick Load
[Alt-S] Create Sign
[,] Cycle to previous unit (same tile)
[.] Cycle to next unit (same tile)
[/] Cycle through active workers
[Home], [End] Cycle through cities
[Insert] Open nearest friendly city screen

Ctrl+W - Worldbuilder

Shift+RCLick - queue unit movement path

https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/references/keyboard-shortcuts/

gavenkoa · Jul 4, 2019

krikav · Jul 4, 2019

That was quite a collection of links!
Thanks @gavenkoa

Zavior · Jul 4, 2019

Completely recommend olddudes shadow threads! They contain a lot of great discussion and explanations of when and why to do things.

krikav · Jul 4, 2019

Link to them:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/shadow-game-for-an-old-dude.636725/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/prince-shadow-game.644837/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/shadow-game-2-first-time-at-prince.638065/#post-15258220

BornInCantaloup · Jul 4, 2019

When "we" played the game with the team of "us", we often stopped the game, arbitrarily, at turn 100.
Trying to replicate a good opening, testing openings on a single map, are great ways to understand why and how one way is better than another.

Taking a game to completion... bleh. It's a fine objective if you're trying to beat a level.
But if you're trying to, just, improve, then replaying a single opening and making the most of it is the way to go. Foregoing map knowledge, if you will. This is how you learn mechanics. And, mechanics, you can focus on one at a time.

This is where the Noble Club's maps can come handy : you take a successful write-up, its time frame, its save, and you try to reach a similar position. A position that is just as good. And you won't succeed on your first try, and this is why the effort is worth it. Comparing offers great insights.
And once you manage it, you'll switch your attention towards other, later things (civics, great people, warring...).

One thing that you will notice is that the decision points are not always intuitive. Recognizing where the decision points are is a huge step in management.
Example ? When you start a build, you should already know how it will be completed. It involves turns, workers, whipping, switching tiles, the stuff. You don't often start a build at the end of another. Most often, a build is started after a city grows a size.

gavenkoa · Jul 5, 2019

BornInCantaloup said:
This is where the Noble Club's maps can come handy

Except newcomers still need to know about tons of thins, like fog busting, whipping, overflows, failfold, shrines, academy, why you may beeline Oracle or Pyramid, why keep only 5-6 extremely close cities until Currency, binary or 50% research and this list is infinite.

Mid game "elecat" affair come to mind )) Gifting city full of settled spies, vassaling the civ and giving most of the cities back to have competent tech trade partner.

When I watched Deity game I don't understand WHEOOHRN, guys give presents to rivals for no obvious reason and said "plotting" every 2 words. https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/what-does-wheoohrn-mean.316515/

In order to play game as economy/research spreadsheet optimization you need deep knowledge of game mechanic, formulas, AI habits to exploit every potenial.

Tobiyogi · Jul 5, 2019

gavenkoa said:
Mid game "elecat" affair come to mind )) Gifting city full of settled spies, vassaling the civ and giving most of the cities back to have competent tech trade partner.

That's quite new to me, gifting a city full of settled spies :-)

Another warfaring trick is to built a city next to the border of someone you want to declare war on very soon. City must be in flatland. Then you bring your City raider units in position, declare on him, he will probably move most of his units in that city. They are in flatland now, don't have any fortification bonus and no cultural defense as the city still belongs to your culture. Also he will probably move in all the units without any defense bonus at all (like siege and mounted). And so you can get rid of his army in 2 turns. I have only seen that on video, never used it, you can also win games without any tricks.

BornInCantaloup · Jul 6, 2019

gavenkoa said:
Except newcomers still need to know about tons of things

Agreed. A single map won't give a complete overview of the game. But play enough starts and you can start recognizing patterns.
Replaying a start lets you solve questions in relatively simple situations. Then, when you run into a similar question at a complex stage of the game, you don't need to give it nearly as much thought.

There's a difference between learning rules and understanding principles. You don't need a spreadsheet to understand principles, what option is better or worse in a given situation, and why, and how it evolves.
Replaying starts and, ideally, comparing your own results with those of a player who reached a better position can give great insights. Even the first 50 turns. Is it better to grow 1 more size or start a settler or a worker ? Can it be chopped, can it be whipped ? What incidence does it have on the techpath ? What is the best way to sustain/develop commerce on a particular map ?
If you replay 10 times a single opener... for one, it doesn't take much time... and for two, it becomes increasingly easy to see the trade-offs : emphasis on commerce, lower production, etc.

Learning rules is fine and all but only if you understand principles can you apply the rules appropriately.
So, take a successful Noble's Club game, a turn 50 save and try to replicate the result ? Sure thing, great idea.

Qoce · Jul 7, 2019

Thank you everyone for your responses! I will be going through the material referenced for a long time to come I bet

gavenkoa · Jul 8, 2019

Qoce said:
I will be going through the material referenced for a long time to come I bet

Don't forget to play.

I watched/read in proportion 2:1 to actual game playing (( I don't like to waste time on Monarch difficulty level.

Check difference at https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty_level_(Civ4)

Best Things for New Players to Read in 2019

Qoce

Chieftain

Izuul

Level 86

BornInCantaloup

Agent of Chaos

krikav

Theorycrafter

BornInCantaloup

Agent of Chaos

sampsa

Ghost

gavenkoa

Prince

sampsa

Ghost

gavenkoa

Prince

gavenkoa

Prince

krikav

Theorycrafter

Zavior

cIV forever

krikav

Theorycrafter

BornInCantaloup

Agent of Chaos

gavenkoa

Prince

Tobiyogi

King

BornInCantaloup

Agent of Chaos

Qoce

Chieftain

gavenkoa

Prince

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