Civ4 and Civ5

[Cormorant]

As I wait with excitement for Civ5, having played Civ4 as an average player (NOT an expert!!!) for years, does anyone out there agree with my main crit of wonderful Civ4 that I hope will be corrected with the new game? I've always found the gap between Warlord level and Noble level much too steep. I've always won as Warlord, with no other Civs attacking me, but nearly always defeated at Noble. With so many levels available, couldn't the difficulty rise more gently? Do hope they attend to this imbalance with Civ5. Do any other average players like me feel the same?
I've probably got too stuck in my approach with Noble, always following the excellent advice by Sulla, but taking the same road. Mysticism, Hinduism, Bronze working to chop through to Stonehenge, copper for axemen, elephants and catapults. This method with other detail always gets me well in front for the beginning and middle stages, but always during the last quarter when I've started building my space ship some idiot like Isabella starts a war to allow someone more powerful to win the game. Would welcome comment from you guys who are more clever than me with this great game!

 

[Ororo]

Researching the religious techs first is not always the best approach, to be honest. What you really need at the beginning are the essential worker techs, especially those that allow you to improve resources in your capital's BFC. Stonehenge too comes with high opportunity cost: your main focus at the early stages of the game should be to expand either peacefully or by the sword. You really should think first about whether such hammer investment is worth it. In some cases it is, in some cases it is completely useless (Creative trait). Basically, the same applies to any other wonder, they all require quite a lot of hammers and come with some opportunity cost.
You shouldn't always aim for space race victory. Providing you manage to get a solid tech lead (which is very likely on Noble) and you have a good production base (a couple of production cities, Heroic epic city) you should seriously consider a conquest. It's a lot easier to destroy Isabella's longbows with your rifleman in 13th century than to worry about her tanks in 20th while you're building your spaceship.
All you need is to read through various games in Strategy&Tips section. I recommend TMIT's videos on youtube, Mad Scientist's RPC's, Nobles' club, various cookbooks, various succesion games etc.
And if you're unsure about something just ask. These guys are always willing to help (I say from my personal experience), you just need to be more specific because general strategies don't always work...

 

[Tyrael]

Wrong forum. This thread does not constitute a "strategy article".

 

[pi-r8]

You've been playing for years, and you still can't even beat noble? That's... interesting.

FWIW I do think the gap between immortal and deity is a bit too steep. I wouldn't mind a new level in between there.

 

[goodolarchie]

You've been playing for years, and you still can't even beat noble? That's... interesting.

FWIW I do think the gap between immortal and deity is a bit too steep. I wouldn't mind a new level in between there.

I played on warlord for a good year casually before I actually got into the game in BTS. Prince is the first difficulty where bad decisions will actually have threatening consequences (like pissing everybody off = world war on you). I never paid attention to happy and health, refused to trade techs, never understood much of the city screen. Granted, this was well before I read these boards and the civilopedia!

I have to agree that the Diety jump is hefty, mostly because you won't likely win at first until you get a stacked deck. I still lose over half of my deity games that I don't regenerate, but I can't recall the last immortal game I lost..

Cormo - my advice is read up about economy, military, and diplomacy. You could probably beat Monarch by the end of this weekend if you follow a few of the high level players' shadow games and employed some of their strategies. TMIT has a pretty good video series on yt. Odds are you're just making mistakes that cause the game's mechanics to work against you, rather than for you.

 

[Gwynnja]

I struggled moving from warlord to noble. Then again from noble to prince, prince to monarch, and now I'm struggling on emperor. Civ is a very cerebral, complicated, and challenging game, and I don't think moving up the levels is supposed to be easy. However, this forum is full of resources to help along the way. If you want to get good enough to beat noble, start a game, play ten or fifteen turns then post screenies and a save and ask for help. I'm sure there will be players offering advice.