Civ IV Noble Washington Advice Needed

[Thegratefulhead]

I am new to Civ IV but an old time Civ vet. I am having trouble with Noble and I have never had a problem with any Civ before, beat them on Diety. I just started a Continent, Huge Map and I am the only one on the continent playing as Washington on Vanilla Civ IV. I have a Coastal city(3rd one) with a great lighthouse, I built the Oracle, lost out on Pyramids due to resources being far away. My question is, is this game winnable now? Old school civs I would just expand, it's a great land mass and then wipe the other Civs. Rapid expansion doesn't seem possible anymore. What strategy would you use at this point. Can I keep a city happy on another continent(Distance)? Or should I just go to trade for now? What would an experience vet do?

 

[Ghpstage]

Welcome to the forums

First thing i'll say is that its much easier to get help, and the help you get will be better if you post a save, or at least a few screenhots!
Some people even opt to play games and post regularly to get pointers from forum dwellers to help improve their play
Also there are loads of articles on everything from game mechanics to empire management and war in the forums War Academy

I have a Coastal city(3rd one) with a great lighthouse, I built the Oracle, lost out on Pyramids due to resources being far away.
Wonderspam is usually a bad move in civ 4, at least when its done in an unplanned mish mash way!
In particular these 2 potentially game changing wonders;

Do you have a plan to make use of the Great Lighthouse (GLH)?
Building the GLH for just one coastal city is a big waste, where if the map allows, it could be used to solve your problem with Rapid Expansion as it will pay the maintenance for a huge number of coastal cities!

If you had built the Pyramids, did you have plan to make good use of them?
The main reason people build the 'mids is to be able to swap to the Representation civic to make their scientist specialists much stronger, but unless your intending to use a lot of specialists then this wonder will do little for you.

Wonders have a very high cost in the long run, using precious early hammers to build the Pyramids in particular can cause you to lose many great city sites to the AI.
Wonderspam has led to the downfall of many civs, human and AI alike!

My question is, is this game winnable now?
Almost certainly yes, nearly anything is winnable on noble

Old school civs I would just expand, it's a great land mass and then wipe the other Civs. Rapid expansion doesn't seem possible anymore.
Rapid expansion is still alive and still quite effective, while you do need to expand more slowly and plan ahead more than in previous civs it is possible to get 15+ cities by 1AD in extreme cases (bear in mind maps are smaller than in civ 3 now)

One of the biggest problems for people learning the game is usually not having enough workers, having citizens working unimproved tiles is a cardinal sin in civ 4

Another related issue is tech path, the techs your workers need to improve your lands are of the highest priority at the start, some of these being Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working and Pottery. Cottages from Pottery are a very effective improvement you can build entire empires on

Paradoxically Slavery is an effective tool to manage unhappiness and unhealthiness, there are articles on happiness, health and slavery in the links

Can I keep a city happy on another continent(Distance)?
Happiness doesn't change with distance, maintenance increases however. How far are the other 'continents'?
Even 1 tile islands count as continents, with big trade bonuses to work with the GLH

Or should I just go to trade for now?
On noble the AI rarely gets anything worth trading for unless something incredible has gone wrong

What strategy would you use at this point.
What would an experience vet do?
Couldn't say much else without a save or pics

 

[Sisiutil]

First off, as Ghpstage said, welcome to CFC.

He did an admirable job running through things for you, so I'll try to supplement what he said rather than repeating it.

First off, have a close look at what any wonder does before building it. Building the Great Lighthouse is best when you have several coastal cities on a landmass with several other civs, because trade route income is higher from foreign civs. On an isolated landmass with few coastal cities, it's a waste of hammers. Choose your wonders strategically, not based on an "oooh--shiny" factor. You're not a magpie.

A lot of players don't like isolated starts; I'm among them. I like interacting with other civs (which usually includes conquering them, so my definition of "interacting" is, shall we say, quite broad). Nevertheless, I've played a few isolated games. Here are some thoughts about them.

• Make sure you are isolated; other civs are potentially valuable sources of techs, resources, and such, which is why isolated starts can be challenging. Explore the land mass thoroughly, then explore surrounding land masses (islands and such). You may have a navigable route to another civ. Keep re-exploring too--a civ may expand to a previously-uninhabited area and grant you some form of contact.
• If you are indeed isolated, you don't have to worry about military threats from other civs for some time, but you do need to worry about barbarians. Build just enough military to fend them off. You can "fog-bust" by posting enough units on your land mass to "light up" all the tiles where barbarians would normally generate.
• Expansion can be delayed and strategic. Don't build cities for their own sake, build them to claim crucial resources that will help you grow your civilization and support your population. For example, don't build a city just to claim a second source of cows, which won't do you any good until you have Astronomy and can trade those cows for another resource; DO build a city to claim a source of gold, which brings in valuable commerce and increases happiness.
• Prioritize making contact with other civs. This means bypassing many techs in favour of pursuing a bee-line to Optics so you can construct Caravels, the earliest-available ocean-going naval unit.
• Have a look at my Intermediate Tactics and Gambits guide (link in my sig). There is a section in there on how to obtain Astronomy very early in the game. This will grant you critical trade routes and resource trade options which will support your efforts to expand; you can limit your cities to what's sustainable, research your way to Astronomy, and then REX while supported by very lucrative intercontinental trade route income and resource trades.

 

[Ringo Kid]

Welcome!

Agree with the 2 previous posters.

Read Sisiutil 's strats .

Did you select the lowest number of AI's when you set the game up? More AI's to kill is usually more fun.

When I get too deep into building wonders and such, I go back to the basic early ax rush- build only military- kill every AI on the continent style game. You end up with the wonders and shrines anyway.

Research? Military techs. When you have an AI down to the last city or two, trade peace for his techs then kill him off ten turns later.

 

[Thegratefulhead]

Welcome!

Agree with the 2 previous posters.

Read Sisiutil 's strats .

Did you select the lowest number of AI's when you set the game up? More AI's to kill is usually more fun.

When I get too deep into building wonders and such, I go back to the basic early ax rush- build only military- kill every AI on the continent style game. You end up with the wonders and shrines anyway.

Research? Military techs. When you have an AI down to the last city or two, trade peace for his techs then kill him off ten turns later.

Yes I have read his strats, for this game I am certainly very alone on my content and I have chosen the maximum number of AIs. I never much cared for early military victories, it seems to “easy”. I like later military victories.

First off, as Ghpstage said, welcome to CFC.

He did an admirable job running through things for you, so I'll try to supplement what he said rather than repeating it.

First off, have a close look at what any wonder does before building it. Building the Great Lighthouse is best when you have several coastal cities on a landmass with several other civs, because trade route income is higher from foreign civs. On an isolated landmass with few coastal cities, it's a waste of hammers. Choose your wonders strategically, not based on an "oooh--shiny" factor. You're not a magpie.

A lot of players don't like isolated starts; I'm among them. I like interacting with other civs (which usually includes conquering them, so my definition of "interacting" is, shall we say, quite broad). Nevertheless, I've played a few isolated games. Here are some thoughts about them.

• Make sure you are isolated; other civs are potentially valuable sources of techs, resources, and such, which is why isolated starts can be challenging. Explore the land mass thoroughly, then explore surrounding land masses (islands and such). You may have a navigable route to another civ. Keep re-exploring too--a civ may expand to a previously-uninhabited area and grant you some form of contact.
• If you are indeed isolated, you don't have to worry about military threats from other civs for some time, but you do need to worry about barbarians. Build just enough military to fend them off. You can "fog-bust" by posting enough units on your land mass to "light up" all the tiles where barbarians would normally generate.
• Expansion can be delayed and strategic. Don't build cities for their own sake, build them to claim crucial resources that will help you grow your civilization and support your population. For example, don't build a city just to claim a second source of cows, which won't do you any good until you have Astronomy and can trade those cows for another resource; DO build a city to claim a source of gold, which brings in valuable commerce and increases happiness.
• Prioritize making contact with other civs. This means bypassing many techs in favour of pursuing a bee-line to Optics so you can construct Caravels, the earliest-available ocean-going naval unit.
• Have a look at my Intermediate Tactics and Gambits guide (link in my sig). There is a section in there on how to obtain Astronomy very early in the game. This will grant you critical trade routes and resource trade options which will support your efforts to expand; you can limit your cities to what's sustainable, research your way to Astronomy, and then REX while supported by very lucrative intercontinental trade route income and resource trades.

Welcome to the forums

First thing i'll say is that its much easier to get help, and the help you get will be better if you post a save, or at least a few screenhots!
Some people even opt to play games and post regularly to get pointers from forum dwellers to help improve their play
Also there are loads of articles on everything from game mechanics to empire management and war in the forums War Academy

I have a Coastal city(3rd one) with a great lighthouse, I built the Oracle, lost out on Pyramids due to resources being far away.
Wonderspam is usually a bad move in civ 4, at least when its done in an unplanned mish mash way!
In particular these 2 potentially game changing wonders;

Do you have a plan to make use of the Great Lighthouse (GLH)?
Building the GLH for just one coastal city is a big waste, where if the map allows, it could be used to solve your problem with Rapid Expansion as it will pay the maintenance for a huge number of coastal cities!

If you had built the Pyramids, did you have plan to make good use of them?
The main reason people build the 'mids is to be able to swap to the Representation civic to make their scientist specialists much stronger, but unless your intending to use a lot of specialists then this wonder will do little for you.

Wonders have a very high cost in the long run, using precious early hammers to build the Pyramids in particular can cause you to lose many great city sites to the AI.
Wonderspam has led to the downfall of many civs, human and AI alike!

My question is, is this game winnable now?
Almost certainly yes, nearly anything is winnable on noble

Old school civs I would just expand, it's a great land mass and then wipe the other Civs. Rapid expansion doesn't seem possible anymore.
Rapid expansion is still alive and still quite effective, while you do need to expand more slowly and plan ahead more than in previous civs it is possible to get 15+ cities by 1AD in extreme cases (bear in mind maps are smaller than in civ 3 now)

One of the biggest problems for people learning the game is usually not having enough workers, having citizens working unimproved tiles is a cardinal sin in civ 4

Another related issue is tech path, the techs your workers need to improve your lands are of the highest priority at the start, some of these being Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working and Pottery. Cottages from Pottery are a very effective improvement you can build entire empires on

Paradoxically Slavery is an effective tool to manage unhappiness and unhealthiness, there are articles on happiness, health and slavery in the links

Can I keep a city happy on another continent(Distance)?
Happiness doesn't change with distance, maintenance increases however. How far are the other 'continents'?
Even 1 tile islands count as continents, with big trade bonuses to work with the GLH

Or should I just go to trade for now?
On noble the AI rarely gets anything worth trading for unless something incredible has gone wrong

What strategy would you use at this point.
What would an experience vet do?
Couldn't say much else without a save or pics

I LOVE your articles, I had already read them, I keep them on my task bar to reference while playing. I was always a dominant Civ player. Friends would start civs, get themselves in horrible positions and would want to quit and I could take their position and win on almost any level. The city list doesn’t register with me the way old Civ ones did. I used to able to just look at the list, change specialists, build a ton of workers, develop the land, turn off science, change to democracy, up the culture to a crazy level and explode the civ with happy days. Switch, turn on the money, buy what I needed, then go back to science or build a military.

I felt like I could play a civ like a musician. I cannot on the new Civ and I like it but I want to get better. I tend forget religion and have hard time with Civics, depending on the time and size of my Civ I use them. I have restarted this game a few times so I have fore knowledge, but I am trying to learn. I save I try a new civic and see where I am 10 turns from then and then go back and try something different to see the results.
I find the AI to be much smarter now, whenever my Civ is turning the corner, about to become dominant. Eg I buy Observatories in every city in one turn, the AI immediately declares war preventing me from turning in the science.

My latest Civ, I am at 1945 and feel I am in a good position. The AI has made some cities on the continent, I have already taken one through culture and my cities are very well developed with buildings and military. I am 3rd in technology but it is pretty close. Not trying to build too many wonders was key to this latest attempt, and having tons of workers, worked in old Civ, don’t know why I got away from it. I will post some screenshots later, I made key saves along the way. What screenshots from what time periods would you like to be able to give me constructive criticism?