Condensed tips for beginners?

[HoRRoR21]

Hey, been lurking for almost two weeks now. Had Civ 4 two years ago, but could never play higher than settler - Embarrassing i know...rebought the game with its expansions two weeks ago, and immediately found this site, which gave me a whole load of insights. Many thanks to Sisiutil and co.
Managed to complete my first game on Warlord - (think it is, its the third difficulty setting??) - last night with the romans, and am very pleased to have done so. I still have a few issues with tech research in the mid-game and am at some times a bit direction-less, which is why Im still not yet willing to try a higher difficulty level. But, hey, basically only had the game two weeks, so give us a chance.(I am new to Civ)

Anyways, I was wondering, what mod do most people use - in a lot of the screenshots posted - on the main screen there is a bar which shows how much GPP are being produced per turn, along with percentages, as well as GG points... What mod is this, and is it possible to get it? figure, the game is about strategic decision making, and well - any bit of readily available information will be helpful.

Oh yes - MANY THANKS TO HELPING ME TO MY FIRST VICTORY!! (via everybody's helpful guides)

 

[mystyfly]

It's the BUG mod or BULL or BUFFY or ...

They're all different mods with the same purpose, to not alter gameplay while making as much information available to the player as possible. BUG is the "normal" version, BULL is BUG with some modified dll and BUFFY is a merge between BULL and the HOF mod for competitive play. Enjoy

Welcome to CFC btw

 

[nfw]

It might not be the correct term, but has anyone started a preemptive war for the sole purpose of destroying another empire's SoD? Is this a common strategy?

I had just finished a war with De Gaulle, I knew he and Ragnar were buddies so I immediately DoW'ed on Ragnar while de Gaulle couldn't join in. Sure enough Ragnar sent his SoD in like lambs to the slaughter.

Aside from the diplomatic hits there doesn't seem to be many negatives to this strategy.

 

[cabert]

It might not be the correct term, but has anyone started a preemptive war for the sole purpose of destroying another empire's SoD? Is this a common strategy?

I had just finished a war with De Gaulle, I knew he and Ragnar were buddies so I immediately DoW'ed on Ragnar while de Gaulle couldn't join in. Sure enough Ragnar sent his SoD in like lambs to the slaughter.

Aside from the diplomatic hits there doesn't seem to be many negatives to this strategy.

yes there is, you spend resources and gain nothing

 

[Sisiutil]

yes there is, you spend resources and gain nothing

That depends, doesn't it? If you think war with that Civ is likely, and you know where their largest concentration of forces is, and you have adequate forces to take them on... well... doesn't it make sense to declare war and tackle them when you're in control of the situation rather than waiting for the shoe to drop? I.e. do unto others before they do it to you.

I would agree with Cabert, however, that if the Civ in question is not warlike and/or is a potential ally, it makes little sense to incur the diplomatic demerits and probably lose several units in the process just to deal them a heavy-handed blow.

 

[Ghengas Moz]

Wow... a 104 page, 5 year old thread...lots of info. I read through the first dozen or so pages, and a bit of the last few and found some nice tips that I'll implement as I move foward.

I played CivI (back before there was interent and forums like this,LOL...am I really THAT old???) and did well. I played a bit of CivIII also, but have just now DLd CivIV and am getting back into this "cult" I need some help in my early game to become the type of player that most of you appear to be,please.

The cottages: To me, I don't understand why you'd put them down on a tile that can make 2 food and support a citizen...which can then be whipped or drafted later,or turned into a specialist. What is the rationale, or what is the break point for when to use the tile for food compared to when to cottage it?

War: this will be a terribly n00b question, but when I attack with a stack, should I attack with "all forces" or do I singally select units to attack the city? I'm assuming that I select 1 of my units at a time, but conventional thinking says take all of my troops at their few troops? A little help here please. Also, how do I know which of my units will be attacking which of their units if I select my units to attack sinagally?

Thanks for the help, I'll post more as I work through the simpler questions first.

 

[cabert]

there is an article on cottages by DaveMcW.

The thing is you need some gold to pay for your cities and some beakers to get techs.
production alone isn't enough to win.

So cottages are the easiest way to keep rolling.
Of course, they get way better later on, but in the beginning all you have to pay and tech are the 8 commerce points from the palace. A bit light, isn't it?
Later, you have a lot of options, and among those options, riverside cottages aren't the worst.

 

[Ghengas Moz]

But that's one of my biggest dilemmas... if a tile is adjacent to a river, isn't it better to bring in the extra food resource by farming and irrigating it? Would the tile be better used as an irrigated farm early, then turned into a cottage later on....or do I just need to pick a better spot for the city in the first place?

 

[cabert]

But that's one of my biggest dilemmas... if a tile is adjacent to a river, isn't it better to bring in the extra food resource by farming and irrigating it? Would the tile be better used as an irrigated farm early, then turned into a cottage later on....or do I just need to pick a better spot for the city in the first place?

if you're at +4 or +5 food already (2 food resources), you're going to grow fast enough. Better get something from the tiles you work.

 

[Sisiutil]

But that's one of my biggest dilemmas... if a tile is adjacent to a river, isn't it better to bring in the extra food resource by farming and irrigating it? Would the tile be better used as an irrigated farm early, then turned into a cottage later on....or do I just need to pick a better spot for the city in the first place?

Like Cabert said, you need to offset your costs. Early in the game this is relatively easy to do, but as your empire and your cities grow, this will become more challenging. You need additional sources of commerce, which can be converted into research, culture, espionage (in BtS), and gold for your treasury.

If I recall correctly, in Civ I and II you obtained commerce or gold from having a citizen assigned to a tile with a road on it. Civ IV no longer works that way; to bring in commerce to support your empire's economy, the best choice is to assign citizens to several tiles with cottages (+1 ) that will grow to hamlets (+2 ), villages (+3 ), and towns (+4 ) and thereby bring in larger amounts of commerce as they do so. Also, discovering technologies like Printing Press, adopting civics like Free Speech, and building commerce-multiplying buildings like markets, grocers, and banks will further magnify the benefits of your cottages, especially as they mature.

 

[Ghengas Moz]

So if you're going to be working that many tiles as cottages, where does the food come from? From the sounds of the way it's being explained, it would seem rather impossible to to settle a city anywhere other than a BFC with at least 2-3 flood plains for an initail 3 food (more with farm and irrigation). No??

 

[Ghpstage]

So if you're going to be working that many tiles as cottages, where does the food come from? From the sounds of the way it's being explained, it would seem rather impossible to to settle a city anywhere other than a BFC with at least 2-3 flood plains for an initail 3 food (more with farm and irrigation). No??

Grassland tiles are food neutral (2 ), they feed themselves. In order to have a decent growth rate you ideally want a food resource for each city too.

 

[Ataxerxes]

So if you're going to be working that many tiles as cottages, where does the food come from? From the sounds of the way it's being explained, it would seem rather impossible to to settle a city anywhere other than a BFC with at least 2-3 flood plains for an initail 3 food (more with farm and irrigation). No??

Welcome to the forums! The research that gold provides is at the heart of the game.

You have a partial understanding that I would put in the reverse way - don't settle a city that doesn't have a food surplus available (in most cases). A good city site should have either flood plains or AT LEAST one food resource (Corn, Fish, what have you) unless you just need a junk city for a strategic resource. That then enables you to work the food neutral tiles and still grow. This is also why most people don't like plains until mid-game, the food reduction.

By the way, this is just for typical cottage cities. Cities your going to use as a GP farm need multiple food bonuses. Fortunately these bonus tiles are reasonably common.

 

[SneakyJes]

Just curious, when learning to play the game, is it better to play just one nation or just try them all? Also, are their more noob friendly civs to start with in order to get the hang of things?

 

[Sisiutil]

Just curious, when learning to play the game, is it better to play just one nation or just try them all? Also, are their more noob friendly civs to start with in order to get the hang of things?

Hmmm, well, as with many things in Civ, that can depend. If you have a particular civilization that you're enamored with (as I am with Rome, for example), it may be more fun for you to role-play leading that civilization. There is something to be said for getting a lot of practice at using one particular set of "tools" (starting techs, UU & UB, traits) and mastering them before moving on to others.

On the other hand, variety is the spice of life (and of Civ, hence the game's tremendous replay value). It can definitely improve your game to try out different leaders and civs and discover what other strategies you can use, and how tried-and-true ones need to be adapted.

Besides playing a "favourite" civ as mentioned above, a few of the leaders definitely lend themselves to beginners. Huayna Capac of the Incas is often a favourite to recommend to beginners as his traits and UU are flexible enough to be adapted to almost any strategy. Darius of Persia is another popular leader with excellent traits and a fun early UU. Aside from that, playing as a leader with the Financial trait can make your games as a newbie a lot easier; as you start to feel more comfortable with the game, you can start doing without that crutch.

 

[Yxklyx]

I think the Creative trait would make it easier for a beginner as well.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Just curious, when learning to play the game, is it better to play just one nation or just try them all? Also, are their more noob friendly civs to start with in order to get the hang of things?

Sisiutil's points are excellent. And I agree that Creative makes it easier for a beginner.

I'd take either Huayna Capac (culture with Granary) or Hatshepsut (Creative and Spiritual are 2 easy to use traits). Both are top overall leaders as well.

But definitely try different leaders and nations. Some of them take a little more leveraging to bring out their strengths (Izzy, Zara and others) and each may dictate a slightly different emphasis.

 

[cabert]

So if you're going to be working that many tiles as cottages, where does the food come from? From the sounds of the way it's being explained, it would seem rather impossible to to settle a city anywhere other than a BFC with at least 2-3 flood plains for an initail 3 food (more with farm and irrigation). No??

others have answered this, but let's stress it further
You don't want to settle food poor cities.
It's less a problem on settler or chieftain, because the lone commerce you get from a riverside farm makes you sky-rocket away from the AIs, but higher than that, you'll need to :
- make do with smaller cities for a while (happiness cap)
- pay for higher maintenance.
So you need to make every people count. Running citizen specialists isn't a common practice, because, well, they don't do much (1H) + they don't count towards great people (which is the biggest power of running scientists or priests).

Meaning that a food positive tile is good if either it brings something else with it (like a flood plain cottage) or if it allows to work another very productive tile or to feed a worthy specialist, meaning it is at least +2 food (flood plain farm or special food resource). The "consensus" on this forum is that a city needs to grow fast first, which is obtained by a total of +4 or +5 food total for the city. More than this is a overkill, and makes it either a worker/settler pump or brings it into unhappiness so fast it's not funny.

Those aren't hard rules, and on some maps (ice age or some others) you'll have to make farms everywhere in order to grow to your happy cap. But on usual maps, your first 4 or 5 cities should have at least one food special.

 

[Ghengas Moz]

More than this is a overkill, and makes it either a worker/settler pump or brings it into unhappiness so fast it's not funny.

Ok, so this seems to be my problem now I'm running into rapid pop growth, but there's not enough buildings or bonus resources to even out the happiness in those villages.

So, the fix then is to make more workers or settlers. I'm gonna go with workers since it is AD and I have the recommended 6 villages.

I have been trying to build cottages, yet the economy is only +3 per turn. I am running the science beaker at 100% though. Is this what the cottages are for? Or am I not using the gold from the cottages correctly?

Thanks for all the n00b help everyone, it's making the game very enjoyable, although a bit more complicated

 

[vranasm]

I know there probably has to be some thread about it somewhere but i am not in a mood to look for the answer there...

Soo If I build research are those hammers multiplied by library/uni/OU?