Condensed tips for beginners?

[Jondan]

I have a problem with economy. I like to go to early war but after it I have too manny cities to pay. I lose about 10-20 gold in a turn and science is 50% or below. Any advice how to fix that

 

[CCRunner]

Prioritze researching Code of Laws for courthouses and Currency for trade routes

 

[ridinfree]

i've never played any games. i tried civ4 and seem to be a little hooked. although clueless. so...here's the silly question; do you lose your technology if you trade it to someone, or once you have it, you have access to it? also, how do you fix "too crowded" THANKS SO MUCH! i am really enjoying this new found hobbie!

 

[ridinfree]

i've never played any games. i tried civ4 and seem to be a little hooked. although clueless. so...here's the silly question; do you lose your technology if you trade it to someone, or once you have it, you have access to it? also, how do you fix "too crowded" THANKS SO MUCH! i am really enjoying this new found hobbie!

 

[CCRunner]

1. No you don't lose access to the technology the person you trade it to just gets all the benefits of it. lThey can re-trade it as well.
2. You can't. That's the natural unhappiness that comes from population. The only thing you can do is somehow obtain more happiness either from resources, buildings, or civics.

 

[Sisiutil]

i've never played any games. i tried civ4 and seem to be a little hooked. although clueless. so...here's the silly question; do you lose your technology if you trade it to someone, or once you have it, you have access to it? also, how do you fix "too crowded" THANKS SO MUCH! i am really enjoying this new found hobbie!

No, once you have a technology, through research, trade, or other means, it's yours for the rest of the game.

"Too crowded" results in either unhealthiness or unhappiness . Usually the latter. So you need to increases the health and happiness in your cities. There are many ways to do both. They're dealt with in detail in other articles in the Strategy sub-forum, but briefly:

• Resources such as wheat, fish, and pigs increase health; others such as gold, dye, and furs increase happiness.
• Some buildings also increase health and happiness, such as aqueducts and grocers for health, temples and markets for happiness.
• Civics can also have a positive effect. Running Hereditary Rule, for example, gives you one happy citizen per military unit in the city; running Environmentalism increases health and also happiness provided you have some forests or jungles preserved.
• And of course, certain wonders can increase health and happiness too--such as the Hanging Gardens and Notre Dame.

You should also be aware that the health and happiness "caps" for your cities decrease as you go up the difficulty levels.

 

[mystyfly]

I have a problem with economy. I like to go to early war but after it I have too manny cities to pay. I lose about 10-20 gold in a turn and science is 50% or below. Any advice how to fix that

Tech currency (and col later) as currency gives an instant boost and enables you to sell techs/resources as well as build wealth in emergencies.

Having a slider near 10% isn't that bad if you are running some scientist specialists.

Try to keep only those cities that are either capitals or holy cities. Raze all others.

 

[BarmyArmy]

Ive only played a few games of civ IV.

What speed of game do you recommend for the best chance of victory for a new player?

Or is it different depending on the victory you are going for?

 

[mystyfly]

Marathon. Much time to spot and correct mistakes.

Also, Marathon helps you warring as your units have more time until they become obsolete. Thus you have a bigger chance of winning if you want to go to war in a certain era. On top of this, warring is where the AI's worst at.

 

[CCRunner]

I would recommend epic first. Marathon is just to long for my tastes and epic offers the same benefits of longer times before your units go obsolete and the ability to spot mistakes.

 

[Sisiutil]

Ive only played a few games of civ IV.

What speed of game do you recommend for the best chance of victory for a new player?

Or is it different depending on the victory you are going for?

Marathon. Much time to spot and correct mistakes.

Also, Marathon helps you warring as your units have more time until they become obsolete. Thus you have a bigger chance of winning if you want to go to war in a certain era. On top of this, warring is where the AI's worst at.

As much as I like Marathon, I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. Everything takes too long, especially early in the game, and when you don't know how to manage your economy for the best, things never seem to speed up. I'd leave the slower speeds for later.

Just play Normal speed to get used to the game. If you find yourself to be more of a peaceful builder, you'll probably prefer to stick to that speed. But if you get into the warmongering side of the game, you'll want to eventually try out Epic and then Marathon speeds.

 

[BarmyArmy]

What about the best map size and type for a beginner.

 

[mystyfly]

Map size, I'd say small. You have way better overview and you don't have that many opponents to keep an eye on. And you can better see the results of your actions.

Map type, I think, doesn't matter, unless you choose weired maps like Fantasy_Realm.
Play something like pangaea, terra, continents, bignsmall, hemispheres, fractal, archipelago. All provide different challenges and require different strategy.

 

[Hehehe]

Many of you have propably figured this out already, but my tip for beginners (and maybe to some of the more advanced players too) is that in the options screen, when selecting the "other" tab, one can choose the "clock on" option and/or set an alarm. It's so easy to lose track of time when playing civ...

 

[frankcor]

Why would you need to keep track of time?

 

[texasnightowl]

Why would you need to keep track of time?

So you don't play until 3 in the morning and become very late getting to work after little to no sleep.

 

[mystyfly]

You still have your alarm clock going off at 6AM telling you to prepare to go to work so you aren't late at least

 

[texasnightowl]

You still have your alarm clock going off at 6AM telling you to prepare to go to work so you aren't late at least

Some of us are better at ignoring alarm clocks than others

I set three alarms (2 on my cell phone and 1 clock/radio) and if I don't get at least 5 hours, I sleep through all 3.

 

[Timid Turtle]

Here's what works for me, but it depends upon the civilizations you are playing against to make it work

Try using a civilization that has hunting as a starting technology. This will start you off with a scout. Build about two more scouts and spread out. By entering villages with them you will recieve much need cash or even new technologies (a big boost in the begining)

I like to also select an industrious technology and focus on getting the technology to build the Oracle. This allows you one free tech advance and can give you a huge advantage.

Create a couple of warriors (or axemen) but avoid swordsmen, there pretty useless in a one on one fight and haven't given me the advantage I need when attacking a city. Send your battle units into the wilderness and let them build up experience fighting barbarians or animals.

As someone else said, catapults are essential in a fight. A few shots will decrease the power of the entire stack and give you the advantage need to kick but.

 

[Sisiutil]

A few comments on Timid Turtle's erudite tips, which are indeed very good for beginners on the lower levels:

• Scouts are great for both exploring territory and finding goody huts. As you move up the difficulty levels, however, they become less useful because barbarians increase in number and aggression level, and Scouts are weak against them, especially against barb military units.
• Another advantage to pursuing the Oracle is to start with the Mysticism technology, which gives you a head start on pursuing it (you then only need to research either Meditation or Polytheism and then Priesthood). In addition, having the Masonry tech and having marble quarried will accelerate the build of the Oracle even more than possessing the Industrious trait will.
• I would have to disagree on avoiding Swordsmen. With their inherent +10% city attack bonus and +1 strength over Axemen they're invaluable for classical-era city-busting, especially when you give them City Raider promotions to enhance their abilities further. Just don't use them exclusively, because the suck at defense. If you don't have Catapults yet, you'll lose some Swordsmen--but you'll lose less of them than you would Axemen. And if you play as Rome and have their amazing Swordsmen substitute, the Praetorian... wow. Just wow.
• Yep, Cats are great! But as I said just above, they're not essential. I've taken cities on hills from Protective leaders pre-Construction. You just need more Axes and Swords, because you'll lose more of them.

And BTW, TT, welcome to CFC!