Balkans
Warlord
Hi all. The text that folows is something between tutorial, tips, overall observations and maybe few boring lines.I decided recently to contribute to CivFanatics comunity and thinking about what to do i decided to look at the headlines in civilopedia and write the first things that crosses my mind. I didn't wanted to do very precise guide about some aspect of the game because i'm more about philosophy than mechanics of the game. Not to mention that it much harder do something structurally than without head and tail. English is not my mother language, i studied it at school, from TV, music etc... I apologise if there are some parts that doesn't make sense because it's very hard to express in foreign language specially because slang is much needed and i don't know how to use it. I think everything that Civ begginer reads is useful. Everything helps to create the big picture. It will probably help bigginers to think little deeper about CivIV and maybe will be interesting to some better players inerested in someone other's perspective and thoughts about Civ. I also think that this type of writing is easy to read because you don't have to calulate much, you just have to think a little about stuff...
Feel free to corect,critisize or just share your thoughts with others.
Technology
It’s no brainer that you have to know the tech tree really well, or at least use it frequently throughout the game in case you can’t remember that some tech that would allow you some crucial building, unit, or wonder is near. If you know tech tree well, you will naturally choose the best path depending on your goals, and believe me, you will have much more stable empire if you know what to research. For example: you notice that your economy is lousy, you automatically know what is nearest economy improvement tech, you’ll research it and improve your economy; You have a threatening neighbor, you will choose a path that will unlock a unit that is going to allow you to mop the floor with him/her… In Civilopedia, there is advice not to research too expensive techs because it will cost you to do that because cheaper ones are faster done and you’re able to use unlocked units/buildings/wonders earlier. This is really important and it’s true. Don’t get me wrong, you have to beeline sometimes but usually it is better to research not the most expensive or the least expensive but the most useful for your current goals or overall strategy.
Units
There is a great article about what unit types are best suited against other units in WarAcademy. If you don’t have the nerves to study a lot about warmongering this is the fastest way to improve yourself on the battlefield. Spears will always destroy those annoying horse pillagers, and the only way to reduce city’s cultural bonus is using catapults. With experience you will learn to promote your soldiers the right way and for this purposes I recommend Sisiutil’s guide about Stacks. When I started playing CivIV I was awful on the battlefield. I was beaten constantly. You want to know what allowed me to kick ass on monarch? You take a walk around your foe’s country(one example), see what units he/she has and automatically you know do you have what it takes to beat him. Sometimes, if you have very early a relatively strong unit, for example, keshik (my favorite), you can go ahead and declare war and kick ass without problems. As far as units are concerned all you have to know is their power, what they are meant to do and what is their counter unit.
Buildings
Buildings are materialization of the idea of your empire. Huh? That’s right. You want be research leader? Have your cities build 100% buildings that increase research. You want to be filthy rich? Build gold multipliers. I don’t want to go into details about in which cities to build these buildings, all I will tell you is if you have all of these buildings in majority of your cities, especially the ones that’s working maybe three hills and everything else gold, you’ll probably win the game. Sometimes it’s not necessary to build every building in every city, furthermore, it’s completely wrong. To learn about this read articles about city specialization . In a nut shell . Every building gives some benefit to your Civilization. If you lack in some areas build infrastructure that helps growth of that area.
Wonders
…who needs them?! In my opinion wonders are all about synergy. You should build only wonders that you’ll make use of their benefits, or you’ll be throwing hammers down the drain. Example : Sistine Chapel +2 culture per specialist in every city = chasing cultural victory . If you build this wonder and not chasing cultural victory…hmm… Again, don’t get me wrong, build all the wonders if you can, but the game is most interesting when you create synergies between a lot of different aspects. A lot . That’s when you become brutal. There are many synergies hidden, it’s fun to stumble upon them. And one more thing, wonder addiction. It stupid . You don’t need all the wonders. Sometimes when I play on noble I purposely don’t want to build a wonder that would be done in just 5-6 turns! - just for kicks and fun. I don’t want to show off, I’m just giving an example that you simply don’t need all the wonders + higher difficulties, better think and prioritize what wonder to build.
Base terrain and terrain features
There is not much to say about this area. You can memorize it really quickly and by experience you’ll be able just by looking at an area of the map predict what kind and how powerful a potential city can be.
Resources
You want to hook up as much as possible. You want to have monopoly on some of them. You want crack somebody’s head just to get it. Resources are goooooooood…
Improvements
Improvements allow you to either use the resource or to make it shine in his full potential. Also there are improvements that increase gold, food or production. Tile that can feed himself can become cottage, floodplain even better. If you want to increase production in a city build a watermill on floodplain or grassland. In short, you want to improve every single tile in your kingdom. As you become better player you’ll know even in what order to build improvements. Everybody who wants to know more just search for some articles and tutorials.
Specialists
Special citizens who don’t work the tiles but can still generate beakers, commerce, or culture. The most important thing about specialists is that they contribute Great Person Points or GPP. If you have need for a GP of some kind you will put as many as possible specialists in a city with high food surplus and generate it. Specific buildings allow you to hire specialists or some civics like Caste System. It is smart early in the game when you don’t need a lot GPP to generate GP to hire only one or two specialists (sometimes you can’t have more even if you would like), because you’ll generate GP with no problems.
Promotions
As I mentioned earlier there is a great article by Sisiutil about stack creation and some great advices about promotions. City attacker should get as many city attacking promotions as possible, pillager should get extra vision promotion, defending unit should promote to counter specific units. Just read Sisiutil’s guide.
Unit Categories
There are different unit categories. Daaaa… When you remember them all and what they can do, you’ll know when you need them.
Civilizations and Leaders
The heart of the game . Civilizations and their leaders . It’s all about traits. No, that’s wrong. It’s all about using traits to the max. We are all different, and probably we all have different approach to the game and how to handle certain situations. Traits allow players to find their style. Here’s few examples. You hate early religion because everybody with different religion hates you, some want to kick your ass and you are condemned to spread it around but you find that boring…CREATIVE. Nobody is ever going to sneak attack you or disrespect your way of life. You decided not to allow anyone anymore to play with you and humiliate you .Maybe you just want kill somebody. It’s time for …AGGRESSIVE. You want to try break your own record in Space Victory. That means you want strong economy and research. I’m thinking…FINANCIAL. You want to have fun and produce every building or unit with other beneficial civic without the anarchy penalty…SPIRITUAL. This is only a few examples and this is only peak of the floating ice…lol…I don’t know what’s correct English expression. And then comes the synergy of two traits. Now that is a killer. Two max used traits, a few useful wonders and you’ll find yourself climbing difficulties. I can’t stress enough how every leader is potentially very powerful, I mean every single one. You just have to learn using traits bonuses.
Religions
Religions are very powerful. Just look at human history and take a look around you today. If there wasn’t religions there would be only one nation. Probably 99% less wars or at least we would have to find 99% other reasons to kill each other. It’s same in CivIV. Leaders with same religions often make a union and like each other, trade and don’t attack each other. Except aggressive leaders. They are from different planet. You can trust them only if you are at least double their strength… metaphorically speaking. Players like a lot building shrines for their religions because they make money. Religions, if spread fast and wide enough, will find you a few friends, maybe a dog on a leash and a pocket full of money. But hey, you don’t have to believe in anything if you don’t want. There are different ways to make up for not having a religion. That’s the best thing about CIV4. There is no the best way or the right way. I learned this from CivExperts like Sirian and Sulla from their games. Check it out if you didn’t already. One time(one of the games, can’t remember which) they were discussing with other players what is the right way and said that there isn’t the best path. There is only numerous possible paths and every can be equally strong and good. I remember in one discussion one guy tried to say that there’s got to be the strongest move in any time given, that there’s no way that there are many options available equally strong and Sirian tried to tell him that CivIV is all about that. Their goal was indeed to do that, to make a game that you won’t always go the same way, the ‘strongest’ way, the boring way… When I was reading this discussion maybe I didn’t really understood but today believe me, there isn’t the best choice only many of choices. With this digression I just wanted to say to people who are having problems with aggressive neighbor or beginners who always first beeline to a religion, that you don’t even have to have a religion. God knows I never chase it…almost never … ;-)
Civics
I remember my first games. Probably every beginner does the same. As soon as I unlock new civic I automatically switched to it. I’ll just give y’all a few advices which I think everybody agrees. Every civic you use should improve your ability to finish your current or overall goal. Example : you want an extra experience points for your units and you’ll build a lot. You have spread your state religion in all cities but few of them. You choose theocracy and pump units in a city that doesn’t have your state religion. That’s civic waste. You have built pyramids. You are running Universal Suffrage BC. Wrong. You have 4-5 cities with terrible food problems, every city have almost enough to feed it’s citizens. Don’t whip if you don’t necessarily have to. Caste system? What’s the use if you don’t have a food surplus. You didn’t built any workshops or watermills during entire game. Maybe switching to state property won’t be a big boost for your empire. Every civic have it’s potential. It depends on your play style which one to use and which one would be the most useful. One more thing. Don’t switch to any civic if don’t know exactly what good is it.
Projects
Internet, Manhattan and Apollo projects. Very nice, I like…
Game Concepts
If anyone who reads this short observations founds them useful or inspiring feel free to write something similar about Game Concepts or maybe I’ll write a little about it if anyone founds this useful.
Feel free to corect,critisize or just share your thoughts with others.
Technology
It’s no brainer that you have to know the tech tree really well, or at least use it frequently throughout the game in case you can’t remember that some tech that would allow you some crucial building, unit, or wonder is near. If you know tech tree well, you will naturally choose the best path depending on your goals, and believe me, you will have much more stable empire if you know what to research. For example: you notice that your economy is lousy, you automatically know what is nearest economy improvement tech, you’ll research it and improve your economy; You have a threatening neighbor, you will choose a path that will unlock a unit that is going to allow you to mop the floor with him/her… In Civilopedia, there is advice not to research too expensive techs because it will cost you to do that because cheaper ones are faster done and you’re able to use unlocked units/buildings/wonders earlier. This is really important and it’s true. Don’t get me wrong, you have to beeline sometimes but usually it is better to research not the most expensive or the least expensive but the most useful for your current goals or overall strategy.
Units
There is a great article about what unit types are best suited against other units in WarAcademy. If you don’t have the nerves to study a lot about warmongering this is the fastest way to improve yourself on the battlefield. Spears will always destroy those annoying horse pillagers, and the only way to reduce city’s cultural bonus is using catapults. With experience you will learn to promote your soldiers the right way and for this purposes I recommend Sisiutil’s guide about Stacks. When I started playing CivIV I was awful on the battlefield. I was beaten constantly. You want to know what allowed me to kick ass on monarch? You take a walk around your foe’s country(one example), see what units he/she has and automatically you know do you have what it takes to beat him. Sometimes, if you have very early a relatively strong unit, for example, keshik (my favorite), you can go ahead and declare war and kick ass without problems. As far as units are concerned all you have to know is their power, what they are meant to do and what is their counter unit.
Buildings
Buildings are materialization of the idea of your empire. Huh? That’s right. You want be research leader? Have your cities build 100% buildings that increase research. You want to be filthy rich? Build gold multipliers. I don’t want to go into details about in which cities to build these buildings, all I will tell you is if you have all of these buildings in majority of your cities, especially the ones that’s working maybe three hills and everything else gold, you’ll probably win the game. Sometimes it’s not necessary to build every building in every city, furthermore, it’s completely wrong. To learn about this read articles about city specialization . In a nut shell . Every building gives some benefit to your Civilization. If you lack in some areas build infrastructure that helps growth of that area.
Wonders
…who needs them?! In my opinion wonders are all about synergy. You should build only wonders that you’ll make use of their benefits, or you’ll be throwing hammers down the drain. Example : Sistine Chapel +2 culture per specialist in every city = chasing cultural victory . If you build this wonder and not chasing cultural victory…hmm… Again, don’t get me wrong, build all the wonders if you can, but the game is most interesting when you create synergies between a lot of different aspects. A lot . That’s when you become brutal. There are many synergies hidden, it’s fun to stumble upon them. And one more thing, wonder addiction. It stupid . You don’t need all the wonders. Sometimes when I play on noble I purposely don’t want to build a wonder that would be done in just 5-6 turns! - just for kicks and fun. I don’t want to show off, I’m just giving an example that you simply don’t need all the wonders + higher difficulties, better think and prioritize what wonder to build.
Base terrain and terrain features
There is not much to say about this area. You can memorize it really quickly and by experience you’ll be able just by looking at an area of the map predict what kind and how powerful a potential city can be.
Resources
You want to hook up as much as possible. You want to have monopoly on some of them. You want crack somebody’s head just to get it. Resources are goooooooood…
Improvements
Improvements allow you to either use the resource or to make it shine in his full potential. Also there are improvements that increase gold, food or production. Tile that can feed himself can become cottage, floodplain even better. If you want to increase production in a city build a watermill on floodplain or grassland. In short, you want to improve every single tile in your kingdom. As you become better player you’ll know even in what order to build improvements. Everybody who wants to know more just search for some articles and tutorials.
Specialists
Special citizens who don’t work the tiles but can still generate beakers, commerce, or culture. The most important thing about specialists is that they contribute Great Person Points or GPP. If you have need for a GP of some kind you will put as many as possible specialists in a city with high food surplus and generate it. Specific buildings allow you to hire specialists or some civics like Caste System. It is smart early in the game when you don’t need a lot GPP to generate GP to hire only one or two specialists (sometimes you can’t have more even if you would like), because you’ll generate GP with no problems.
Promotions
As I mentioned earlier there is a great article by Sisiutil about stack creation and some great advices about promotions. City attacker should get as many city attacking promotions as possible, pillager should get extra vision promotion, defending unit should promote to counter specific units. Just read Sisiutil’s guide.
Unit Categories
There are different unit categories. Daaaa… When you remember them all and what they can do, you’ll know when you need them.
Civilizations and Leaders
The heart of the game . Civilizations and their leaders . It’s all about traits. No, that’s wrong. It’s all about using traits to the max. We are all different, and probably we all have different approach to the game and how to handle certain situations. Traits allow players to find their style. Here’s few examples. You hate early religion because everybody with different religion hates you, some want to kick your ass and you are condemned to spread it around but you find that boring…CREATIVE. Nobody is ever going to sneak attack you or disrespect your way of life. You decided not to allow anyone anymore to play with you and humiliate you .Maybe you just want kill somebody. It’s time for …AGGRESSIVE. You want to try break your own record in Space Victory. That means you want strong economy and research. I’m thinking…FINANCIAL. You want to have fun and produce every building or unit with other beneficial civic without the anarchy penalty…SPIRITUAL. This is only a few examples and this is only peak of the floating ice…lol…I don’t know what’s correct English expression. And then comes the synergy of two traits. Now that is a killer. Two max used traits, a few useful wonders and you’ll find yourself climbing difficulties. I can’t stress enough how every leader is potentially very powerful, I mean every single one. You just have to learn using traits bonuses.
Religions
Religions are very powerful. Just look at human history and take a look around you today. If there wasn’t religions there would be only one nation. Probably 99% less wars or at least we would have to find 99% other reasons to kill each other. It’s same in CivIV. Leaders with same religions often make a union and like each other, trade and don’t attack each other. Except aggressive leaders. They are from different planet. You can trust them only if you are at least double their strength… metaphorically speaking. Players like a lot building shrines for their religions because they make money. Religions, if spread fast and wide enough, will find you a few friends, maybe a dog on a leash and a pocket full of money. But hey, you don’t have to believe in anything if you don’t want. There are different ways to make up for not having a religion. That’s the best thing about CIV4. There is no the best way or the right way. I learned this from CivExperts like Sirian and Sulla from their games. Check it out if you didn’t already. One time(one of the games, can’t remember which) they were discussing with other players what is the right way and said that there isn’t the best path. There is only numerous possible paths and every can be equally strong and good. I remember in one discussion one guy tried to say that there’s got to be the strongest move in any time given, that there’s no way that there are many options available equally strong and Sirian tried to tell him that CivIV is all about that. Their goal was indeed to do that, to make a game that you won’t always go the same way, the ‘strongest’ way, the boring way… When I was reading this discussion maybe I didn’t really understood but today believe me, there isn’t the best choice only many of choices. With this digression I just wanted to say to people who are having problems with aggressive neighbor or beginners who always first beeline to a religion, that you don’t even have to have a religion. God knows I never chase it…almost never … ;-)
Civics
I remember my first games. Probably every beginner does the same. As soon as I unlock new civic I automatically switched to it. I’ll just give y’all a few advices which I think everybody agrees. Every civic you use should improve your ability to finish your current or overall goal. Example : you want an extra experience points for your units and you’ll build a lot. You have spread your state religion in all cities but few of them. You choose theocracy and pump units in a city that doesn’t have your state religion. That’s civic waste. You have built pyramids. You are running Universal Suffrage BC. Wrong. You have 4-5 cities with terrible food problems, every city have almost enough to feed it’s citizens. Don’t whip if you don’t necessarily have to. Caste system? What’s the use if you don’t have a food surplus. You didn’t built any workshops or watermills during entire game. Maybe switching to state property won’t be a big boost for your empire. Every civic have it’s potential. It depends on your play style which one to use and which one would be the most useful. One more thing. Don’t switch to any civic if don’t know exactly what good is it.
Projects
Internet, Manhattan and Apollo projects. Very nice, I like…
Game Concepts
If anyone who reads this short observations founds them useful or inspiring feel free to write something similar about Game Concepts or maybe I’ll write a little about it if anyone founds this useful.
