Civilization IV Opening Strategy Walkthrough

[KeloGBites]

Surviving the Aryans...very nice, I'm an Emperor player as well (moving up to Immortal and taking a few stabs at Deity with Caesar, isn't working out too well really is a whole different game) and usually if they show up I am... screwed, I'd say it's quite lucky you had the resourceless Dog Soldiers, that UU is really under-rated though this may be skewed since I just got my entire Praetorian stack annihilated by Sitting Bull and his damn Dogs :S. Nice videos though.

 

[AthenaMaria]

Excellent videos thanks for making this series.

As a mere noble player I learned a lot through watching this. Thanks.

Another vote here for following through and showing how the war went against the French! (not that this is a democracy lol)

I also watched all of TMITs vids and I really appreciate you guys for making them!

 

[Ignatiuz]

Perfect!

I just started to play Civ again after several years.

 

[vicawoo]

Any chance you could broadcast games live using livestream? I'd do it myself if it wouldn't set my cpu on fire, I can link some guides.

 

[CornPlanter]

Tutorial is great, I watched all. Great presentation wise, exactly the kind I like - not only every decision explained, but also future plans, alternate ways (and why you didnt take them at this particular situation), etc. It really helped me to learn a thing or two about errr a thing or two. Thank you

Now some questions. (I'm still struggling with the Emperor level, winning probably less than half games.)

First, diplomacy. You seem to be pretty much isolationist - closed borders everywhere apart from De Gaulle and Oranje. Why? I usually open with just everybody. I.e., in this particular case, what harm could come from opening with Hannibal or Darius?

Second, diplomacy. You stated that Oranje is a backstabber, declares at pleasant, and then you were trying to have good relations with him. Why? If he's a backstabber, why bother? I would have had him as my first target. So did you. That puzzled me even more - why bother with relations if he is gonna be wiped out asap?

Third, diplomacy. (yes, thats my theme... never quite learn how to do it). You said you dont care about Shaka much. But chances are, Shaka is right behind Oranje who's gonna get killed soon. In this case Shaka would be your direct neighboor. It really doesnt make sense that you wanted relations with Soon-to-be-dead-Oranje but not with Soon-to-be-your-neighboor-Shaka. Why? I know you cannot trust Shaka but still... if you have good relations with him, you can point him to the right direction and avoid being attacked yourself. Especially if you were going to war against another AI you dont want Shaka to join in against you or dow on you prematurely. What am I missing?

Four, infrastructure. You didnt seem to care about roads much, while I always connect every city just in a case I need to regroup my army fast (barbarians or unexpected DoW). Was that because you had not enough workers and other jobs seemed to be more important, or why? Is that normal strategy than you dont care about roads first hundred turns if you have rivers/coastline for trade routes?

Five, exploration. After initial search for places for new cities, I try to explore as much as possible, sending at least one warrior/scout/chariot. Now you had black tiles right next to your cities and it seemed OK. Do you always play this way, or its just particular circumstances, like having not enough units and desperately need them elsewhere?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Any chance you could broadcast games live using livestream? I'd do it myself if it wouldn't set my cpu on fire, I can link some guides.

I would definitely watch some deity players doing that...

But I myself would also be willing...with 4GB RAM, a 1 GB dedicated graphics card, and a 2k FSB 3 ghz processor, I ought to be able to handle it as long as the internet connectivity holds.

I need to look at how livestream works however.

 

[tks2103]

Tutorial is great, I watched all. Great presentation wise, exactly the kind I like - not only every decision explained, but also future plans, alternate ways (and why you didnt take them at this particular situation), etc. It really helped me to learn a thing or two about errr a thing or two. Thank you

Now some questions. (I'm still struggling with the Emperor level, winning probably less than half games.)

First, diplomacy. You seem to be pretty much isolationist - closed borders everywhere apart from De Gaulle and Oranje. Why? I usually open with just everybody. I.e., in this particular case, what harm could come from opening with Hannibal or Darius?

Second, diplomacy. You stated that Oranje is a backstabber, declares at pleasant, and then you were trying to have good relations with him. Why? If he's a backstabber, why bother? I would have had him as my first target. So did you. That puzzled me even more - why bother with relations if he is gonna be wiped out asap?

Third, diplomacy. (yes, thats my theme... never quite learn how to do it). You said you dont care about Shaka much. But chances are, Shaka is right behind Oranje who's gonna get killed soon. In this case Shaka would be your direct neighboor. It really doesnt make sense that you wanted relations with Soon-to-be-dead-Oranje but not with Soon-to-be-your-neighboor-Shaka. Why? I know you cannot trust Shaka but still... if you have good relations with him, you can point him to the right direction and avoid being attacked yourself. Especially if you were going to war against another AI you dont want Shaka to join in against you or dow on you prematurely. What am I missing?

Four, infrastructure. You didnt seem to care about roads much, while I always connect every city just in a case I need to regroup my army fast (barbarians or unexpected DoW). Was that because you had not enough workers and other jobs seemed to be more important, or why? Is that normal strategy than you dont care about roads first hundred turns if you have rivers/coastline for trade routes?

Five, exploration. After initial search for places for new cities, I try to explore as much as possible, sending at least one warrior/scout/chariot. Now you had black tiles right next to your cities and it seemed OK. Do you always play this way, or its just particular circumstances, like having not enough units and desperately need them elsewhere?

Great questions! I probably don't have all the right answers, but I'll let you know my particular thought process for each point.

Point 1: I tend to wait on open borders until I can come up with a clear strategy for who my allies will be. This is to prevent other civs from requesting that I stop trading with another civ. We had been planning a war in this playthrough, but we weren't sure exactly who until the last turn. If I were to record another segment, I would declare on one civ and open borders with the others in the diplomatic block that I'd like to be a member of.

Point 2: Since Oranje is a backstabber, we have two options. We can either plan to war with him and totally forego any shot at diplomacy, or we can attempt to get him to friendly. If you plan to war, you have a fairly narrow strategy, but you get to decline his demands and requests. If you try to be nice, you have the option of building relations all the way to friendly OR going to war. The downside is that you'll have to give in to demands and requests. I prefer to have the option to keep a civilization at friendly, but that requires advance planning.

Point 3: I'm not sure what my exact verbage was, but I was trying to establish Shaka as the 3rd highest priority in my diplomatic list. De Gaulle and Willem trumped him only because of proximity. Later on, Hannibal would have gotten more consideration once I realized how close he was. Again, I did not have plans to war until the very last segment, and, even then, I don't believe war was necessary (just the most straightforward strategy). It's possible to shift gears and focus on something like culture or diplomacy by turn 76, and you can win with either of those strategies with the terrain that we had already acquired. In the case I don't go to war, I would need Willem and De Gaulle to be my allies first and foremost, Shaka next.

Point 4: With rivers, roads become complicated. Any road network that I would have built before construction would not have shaved that many turns off movement because I lacked bridges. Additionally, all of my resources were connected without the roads. That's two of the main benefits of roads, transportation and resource networks. That said, I do build roads usually much sooner, but we lacked workers. Our terrain was terrible, and clawing your way out of terrible terrain requires fast and decisive action. Had we better terrain to expand to, I'd have started more workers around turn 60-70 and started a road network.

Point 5: I like to explore as well, but most of my spare units were in the south spawnbusting. You can see just how many barb problems we had even without units exploring. Additionally, since I did not want to open borders with any civ until I knew my diplomatic strategy, a scouting unit wouldn't have much to see anyway.

The key in most of my games has been understanding opportunity costs. Most ideas in Civ IV can be valuable in abstract, but they come at a cost. For example, reconnaissance is very important in general. At the beginning of my playthrough, recon came at the cost of chasing barb huts. In that case, recon is more important. At the end of my playthrough, recon came at the cost of diverting a unit from my war stack or from spawnbusting the south. In that case, war and spawnbusting are more important.

I hope I answered your questions! I have a lot to chew on for my next playthrough!

 

[learner gamer]

Firstly, slightly off subject, but thanks TMIT for posting your youtube vids...I saw them a while back and I appreciate the time you took to make them.

Secondly, tks2103, your video playthrough is brilliant...a must view for all noobs IMHO (and even some more seasoned players too!) Its great to see someone take the time to explain not only WHAT they're doing but also WHY they're doing it. Vids like yours can only help gamers IMHO, so thank you! That reminds me, if you do complete a game, whether its this walkthrough or a future game, I hope a link gets gets added to the sample game directory.

Now, I've two QQ's of my own for you if OK:

(a) You mentioned the maths behind slavery (which was great to see); is it worthwhile also mentioning in a later vid, if you do one, about the benefits of whipping in the sweet spot (when you grow back one of the pop you whip next turn) - just so that noobs are aware it can be beneficial at that point?

(b) On a gameplay note, when you beelined construction, was there a reason why you elected to go masonry > maths > construction, rather than perhaps maths > masonry > construction, the latter path getting maths' chopping bonus a little earlier? Was it because, for example, you were happy to see the bonus applied to catapult rather than sword production? Or was it perhaps simply the result of the way civ beelined construction?

As mentioned, great job! One last thing...would you be OK me inserting a referenced link to my signature that directs (in particular new) gamers to your vids...seriously, they're that good!

 

[tks2103]

Any chance you could broadcast games live using livestream? I'd do it myself if it wouldn't set my cpu on fire, I can link some guides.

Go ahead and link the guides. I cannot do live broadcasts now, but I will be able to soon when I get a better computer.

(a) You mentioned the maths behind slavery (which was great to see); is it worthwhile also mentioning in a later vid, if you do one, about the benefits of whipping in the sweet spot (when you grow back one of the pop you whip next turn) - just so that noobs are aware it can be beneficial at that point?

Yes, I will try to rehash slavery mechanics a bit more in the next playthrough. I am not familiar with all the of the tricks though, so I will be learning more than I will be teaching =P.

(b) On a gameplay note, when you beelined construction, was there a reason why you elected to go masonry > maths > construction, rather than perhaps maths > masonry > construction, the latter path getting maths' chopping bonus a little earlier? Was it because, for example, you were happy to see the bonus applied to catapult rather than sword production? Or was it perhaps simply the result of the way civ beelined construction?

I believe it was because I could not research mathematics at 100%. I wanted to get masonry under my belt, and then use binary research on the rest of the technologies.

You can absolutely link to my videos! Please note who the author is in the video, and please link to the playlist for easy viewing. LINK AWAY!

 

[Groogaroo]

Great job really found this very informative, it's great to actually watch another player playing the game and getting an insight into what they're thinking and how they make decisions.

I'm currently playing Monarch but not quite ready for emporer and definatley found this helpful, thanks.

 

[Bugg123]

Good job. Allways fun to watch someone else play

You mentioned the Leader Diplo XML. Haven't really been able to relocate it (I know I've seen it before). Can you help me out?

Thx

 

[learner gamer]

@Bugg123...the best source I've found is dj_anion's excellent guide...contains the xml details and a host of other info besides...you can get it here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=236346

 

[bovinespy]

tks2103, I just watched through all of your videos. Very informative and well-presented. I hope you make more of these. I'd be interested in seeing how you handle the mid-game as well.

A few things stand out to me in particular:

1) You built several military units without barracks, something I almost never do, but which leaves me very weak at the beginning.

2) You waited to develop a road network. I'm usually OCD and like to build roads connecting all my cities first, even though early chopping is often a better use of worker-turns.

3) You built libraries before granaries. I NEVER do that in my game, but I think your strategy (especially with a Phi leader) can be more efficient.

4) I never do binary research in my games, because I used to think it was too "fiddly", but I see that it's pretty simple to use, and again, boosts your efficiency.

I usually play at Prince level, where I can be kind of sloppy and still pull out a win, but I think with your insights, I might be able to win more consistently or maybe even move up to Monarch.

 

[AthenaMaria]

(a) You mentioned the maths behind slavery (which was great to see); is it worthwhile also mentioning in a later vid, if you do one, about the benefits of whipping in the sweet spot (when you grow back one of the pop you whip next turn) - just so that noobs are aware it can be beneficial at that point?

+1

I'm absolutely going to second this.

Thank you for explaining this and please expand on this if you don't mind in later vids. (Its easier to understand in a vid than an article IMHO)

edited to add, that's not to say the articles on the slavery mechanics aren't useful - they absolutely are, but I had a couple of what I would call "aha" moments watching this vid, that filled in some of the knowledge gaps I didn't quite grasp when reading articles. There is enough room for both, because I just went back and re-read one of the articles after watching the vid, and it helped a LOT!!

 

[vicawoo]

Go ahead and link the guides. I cannot do live broadcasts now, but I will be able to soon when I get a better computer.



Yes, I will try to rehash slavery mechanics a bit more in the next playthrough. I am not familiar with all the of the tricks though, so I will be learning more than I will be teaching =P.



I believe it was because I could not research mathematics at 100%. I wanted to get masonry under my belt, and then use binary research on the rest of the technologies.

You can absolutely link to my videos! Please note who the author is in the video, and please link to the playlist for easy viewing. LINK AWAY!

Guide
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=90892

Basically, you're recording to a flash stream instead of to a video file.

Requirements:
- A good internet connection, with especially decent average upload speed.
- A decent computer, preferably dual core can run on a different core
Camtasia Studio. This is not a freeware program. Camtasia 6 does not have live output so does not work. Camtasia 4.0.2, Camtasia 5.02 works. Maybe this is worth a paypal donation?
- Flash Media Live Encoder. This is a freeware program
- A livestream account. Make it here by following the link at the top right to register your channel.

You should check the guide, but basically Camtasia Recorder uses live output capture mode to send your screen into a video file, but instead of a video file, you use adobe flash media live encoder to use the Camtasia Video Driver.

Set up both as in the walkthrough, then start up both, start recording on camtasia, start encoding on adobe, start civ 4.

Potential problems is that starcraft has cpu throttling, so I don't know if running both will overheat the cpu. Also the guide is for streaming at 640x480, although you could probably reduce the frame rate for higher resolutions.

 

[CornPlanter]

Thanks a lot, yeah it did answer my questions. As for Shaka, I probably just got you wrong Looking forward to your next video

 

[vicawoo]

There's a chance you could just download livestream procaster from the site and it can stream civ 4 with no fuss, since it's newer than sc.

 

[King Pluto]

Great videos, I figured I'd check it out and ended up watching all of them. I'm a Prince player but I found these very helpful.

 

[obsolete]

I briefed through it. There's a bunch of things I'm not so sure I agree with but 2 issues that really got my attention are the fact that you claim protective is a BAD trait, and that you rarely build totem-poles.

The fact that you didn't build them in this game, with such uber-synergy really seems to be a waste. Only SB can get those ultra CGIII or Drill III archers out right from the start. In fact, this basically gives him a SECOND resourceless UU. And the same UB/traits will work on LongBows as well as archers.

There are some interesting issues with this ub, such as getting your units out with higher exp, meaning it is easier to get your HE unlocked without having to end up in a war to do so. Also, it does allow you to push the limits... you can safely put cities in vulnerable but key areas early, and still feel confident you can win a war if backstabbed. Though sometimes I will purposely DoW on someone like Monte and just let him suicide into me. I get free EXP.. GGs.. and when all is said and one, usually they give you techs or gold for peace. And you slowed them down!

That protective works on any so many units unit you make, INCLUDING many of your precious drafts. Ask any deity player which English leader he would like to have when getting into a war (even when he's on the offensive). You will get an over-whealming choice of Churchill. The amount of hammers you save with protective often more than make up for substance you lose by not having other traits.

I also think you may have some leaks if you are also not building obelisks when having an Egyptian leader. Anyhow... if someone plans on mostly being a builder and staying out of wars, that's fine, but I still don't think protective should be labeled as a BAD trait.

 

[siggboy]

Let me know if you guys like it, and, if you are an elite player, help me get better! =P

The video quality is very good, as others have said already, but you really should increase the bitrate for the audio. Your voice sounds very distorted, and it's not at all pleasant to listen to for that reason. (The actual narration is great, by the way.)

With AAC, an average bitrate of 96 kbps should be enough to get good quality audio (but probably not a lot less than that).

Deity is really hard. Only a handful of players regularly play it. I'm trying to join that group and have made strides (winning lib, taking civs out, even winning now and then but very rarely). Now, playing deity QUICKLY makes it harder still. Doing it WHILE thinking of what to say while recording is even a step beyond that.

Video tutorials (or "screencasts", as they're often called) are commonly used in the tech industry to produce tutorials. A lot of technical screencasts that I've watched used both editing and voicing over after the fact to avoid those problems that you've mentioned.

I don't think a Civ screencast has to be recorded live at all (unless, of course, you want to show off). So by all means consider taking your time with turns, maybe even reloading if there were minor glitches -- this can then be edited later at your leisure.

In a similar spirit, the voicing over doesn't have to happen while you're actually playing. You can make a preliminary version, or just take notes, and then, after editing the video, record a clean narration. From the viewer's perspective, that will feel very much like a 'live' recording, even though it might feel awkward, or somehow 'wrong', to you at first while you're producing the video.

Very good technical screencasts are available, for example, at http://railscasts.com. The subject matter might not be relevant to you, but maybe take a look at how they feel from an audience perspective. Their producer uses both editing and narrating after the fact to great effect. Also, both the video and audio quality are up to the standards one should expect.