Civilization IV Leader Traits: Self-Actualization, Axemen, and You

[Sisiutil]

Civilization IV Leader Traits: Self-Actualization, Axemen, and You

After many frustrations with the board software messing up my changes to the posts, I've converted this article into a PDF document. Download and enjoy!

Updated: April 21, 2008

 

[Sisiutil]

Deleted - see PDF file

 

[Sisiutil]

Deleted - See PDF file

 

[Sisiutil]

Deleted - See PDF file

 

[Sisiutil]

Deleted - see PDF file

 

[Ozbenno]

To gain the benefits of the cheap temples, you need a state religion. You’ll therefore need to either found a religion or have one spread to you. In addition, you may need or want to adopt a state religion very early on, and that may have diplomatic repercussions for you.

Not true. You get the benefit of a temple regardless of whether you have a state religion or not. If you've got three religions in a city and build three temples you get three s.

Interesting guide and obviously well researched and thought out.

I would put Organised in the top category as I put it and Spiritual just below Financial and Philosophical as the best traits

I think the main thing I would add to this is that the victory condition you are chasing as well as the type of game is important as well. Protective may be a dud trait if you're trying a space ship launch but if you're playing an Always War game it is possibly the best trait. Agressive won't help you win by culture but is great for conquest etc.

Anyway good work!

 

[DarkFyre99]

Sisiutil,

I noticed these problems right off the bat...

Part One: The Traits

The Strongest Traits

Financial

Useful Wonders:

• The Colossus
• Wall Street
• Best Buildings:
• Markets
• Grocers
• Banks

First, "Best Buildings" shouldn't be a part of the "Useful Wonders" list. Second, IMO, the best buildings for this trait are Libraries, Universities, Observatories, and Laboratories. The buildings you listed multiply gold, and your goal in a CE is to maximize your research slider, which lessens the effectiveness of the buildings you listed.

How to use it

Since you’ll have all that extra commerce rolling in, prioritize buildings that do something with it, and the technologies that enable them. Libraries, monasteries, universities, observatories, and laboratories all turn commerce into research, while markets, grocers, and banks multiply the commerce itself. In addition, Printing Press will increase the yield from your cottage investment, as will the Free Speech civic. Emancipation will make any immature cottages grow faster.

Ah, I see where the above came from now.

Correction: markets, grocers, and banks multiply the gold that is converted from commerce. Only the civic Bureaucracy multiples raw commerce. Generally, you only want to build these buildings where there's a source of gold (shrines, or merchant specialists, settled Great Prophets or Great Merchants) or a commerce city is in need of happiness or health, and you have no intention of raising your science slider above 70%.

edit: edit: Never mind... I missed it the first time.

 

[oyzar]

while markets, grocers, and banks multiply the commerce itself.

I am pretty certain this isnt true... Sci multipliers should be in buildings too or just dont include either of them(gold and sci multipliers). Though all kind of games kinda need these buildings so i wouldnt realy say they are specifically good for financial.

 

[Martinus]

Good article, although you forgot Louis as Industrious.

 

[Sisiutil]

Good suggestions and catches, everyone. I'll incorporate your ideas into an upcoming revision. Keep them coming.

 

[KMadCandy]

I think the main thing I would add to this is that the victory condition you are chasing as well as the type of game is important as well.

big factor for me. i like to start games with an "i'd like to win by X victory, even tho i have all enabled" mindset more often than most do.

thoughts about expansive from that oddball standpoint:

you pointed out "Notre Dame can also be handy. If you’re whipping ‘til your hands bleed, the big cathedral’s happy boost may be very welcome indeed."

that's quite true. on the other hand, in games where happiness is a non-factor later on, health is your limit on city size, so expansive can be a huge help. it's probably my favorite trait for one-city-challenge; globe theatre makes happiness literally not matter. your cultural boundaries do have a hard limit, so health resources are at a premium. there are only so many you can trade for. i actually like expansive for OCCs more in vanilla, since it's +3 for the city and workers hardly matter, i only make two usually, but that's another discussion.

[about isabella as a cultural leader choice]
3) expansive is cool too for the cheap granaries, cheap workers, and free health (no conquest wars in those games = lacking health resources. happiness isn't a problem when you run 100% culture )

which is another good point (and of interest to more folks than OCC games i imagine). i'd never thought about that and really want to try it!

 

[LlamaCat]

So the Warlords expansion doubles the production speed of workers for Expansive leaders? wow, that seems huge to me...I might have to go out and get Warlords now

This is a great read, learning a lot. I think as I get better at this game, I am learning that the key to success is always about leveraging any little advantage that is offered. I first noticed this in terms of the map: the resources titles are clearly a huge factor - get those titles working and hooked up, because everything else is just an "average" title. Then, specialize your cities and those tiles as much as possible. Next think about how to use your unique units, buildings and traits.

 

[LlamaCat]

A couple other thoughts:

- I recently won my first Prince game (Vanilla) with Cyrus (Expansive, Creative). I agree that I found both traits to be very weak in the late game, so they probably weren't the best for achieving my space race victory. Actually I think Creative is a weaker trait overall. I can see why it helps you pop borders early on, but that can easily be overcome with other methods.

- Financial trait...I kept hearing about its benefits but was never quite sure how it was so great. You've convinced me and now I'm trying that one next.

It's interesting that none of the new traits in Warlords really shines, they just seem to balance out some factors from the Vanilla game.

regarding your analysis of Philosophical and the SE economy, I think this trait can be great in the hands of the masters, such as yourself. But you really have to know what you're doing, otherwise I think the whole Great Person system can be very weak for someone on lower levels like myself (Prince). Like you said it takes longer and longer to get more GP later in the game, and knowing how to work the trades with the AIs and run 0% science is something I am learning but finding very tricky to do.

What are the best traits to play for beginners and what are the best ones for experienced? Is there any difference? I would say Philosophical is one example.

 

[KMadCandy]

So the Warlords expansion doubles the production speed of workers for Expansive leaders? wow, that seems huge to me...I might have to go out and get Warlords now

only the shield contribution, not the food (S mentioned that). going from memory, i think that the city governor just assigns tiles without considering the bonus, something to keep in mind. if others confirm that, or i get around to testing it, probably worth a mention.

 

[Sisiutil]

What are the best traits to play for beginners and what are the best ones for experienced? Is there any difference? I would say Philosophical is one example.

I think you answered your own question. Financial is a good trait for beginners once said beginner figures out the importance of cottages. Creative is also good since it means you don't have to worry about the complication of achieving that first, crucial border pop.

Once you get to be a mid-tier player and are comfortable with war and combat, Aggressive is a handy trait. Most beginners, however, seem to start out as peaceful builders.

Philosophical is best leveraged once you're confident enough with the game to give the micromanagement-heavy SE a try. Frankly, I'm still not entirely comfortable with the SE, but then I probably don't try to use it often enough. My favourite Philosophical leader is still Elizabeth so I can run a hybrid economy. The first capital I capture with English Axemen usually becomes the Great Person Farm.

On another note, I may have to include a new section for each trait on "Best victory conditions" or something like that.

 

[LlamaCat]

I was thinking the same thing about Elizabeth because I am tending to go with a hybrid economy. I might try her next, raise a lot of cash and go beat up my neighbors with a CE.

It seems one needs to create at least a few Great People throughout the game to keep pace, yet it's difficult to not use cottages and rely mostly on specialists for science. Thus, the hybrid economy. How else to raise the GP rate if not with specialists? ...through wonders and leader traits of course, but you still need specialists to some extent I feel like because the wonders and traits are just enhancers of specialists generating GP points.

I would be very interested to read more if you include another section. I think your ALC games are by far the most informative game reports out there, and I like this follow-up to them.

 

[DarkFyre99]

only the shield contribution, not the food (S mentioned that). going from memory, i think that the city governor just assigns tiles without considering the bonus, something to keep in mind. if others confirm that, or i get around to testing it, probably worth a mention.

Yes, the city governor doesn't take full advantage of the bonus. When you're expansive building workers or imperialistic bulding settlers, you have to micro-manage to maximize those traits.

 

[flamingzaroc121]

love the article

You don't have to run a SE with a Philosophical leader, just as you can run a SE without the Philosophical trait, but the SE and the Philosophical trait are both at their strongest when combined.

i think you were refering back to Financial and CE, but other than a few small errors like that wonderful article

 

[Sisiutil]

love the article

Thanks!

i think you were refering back to Financial and CE, but other than a few small errors like that wonderful article

No, though maybe I should rephrase it. I meant that you don't have to be playing as a Philosophical leader to run a Specialist Economy, but it certainly helps.

 

[Syndrome Zed]

Great posts Sisiutil - your posts and aelf's UU/UB articles (IIRC) have done wonders (no pun intended here either) for my play.