Condensed tips for beginners?

This is for beginners, of course, but it took a few games for me to realize the new dynamics of 'city growth limitations'.

1. Avoid unhappy citizens! They have no usefulness, they eat their 2 food and sit there glaring at you. :mad: The only time you should abide unhappy citizens in a city is if you have luxes/wonder/civic/peace effects coming online soon and can accumulate food despite their presence. Work ahead of unhappiness: try to anticipate rapid growth and give your new people something to smile about before they arrive.

2. An unhealthy city can still be a happy, productive city. :p Don't be overly concerned with a stink cloud and a few green-faced dudes, it won't cause any lasting harm. Just realize that if you haven't reached your happiness threshold in that city, it won't achieve full population potential as soon as if it were fully healthy.

3. Do your best to balance health and happiness for your empire. Some pointers include:
* connect one of each resource in your territory, then connect the extras for trade
* trade for both foodstuffs and luxuries with your neighbors (careful with strategic resources)
* Some buildings double the health/happy bonuses of resources you may already have. Keep your current resources in mind for your build queue
* provision for extra health points by building granaries, harbors and the like, because some useful buildings (forge, coal plant, iron works) cause unhealth
* You can live with unsanitary flood plains, but I'm afraid those jungles have to go
*As painful as it may be: when scouting city sites, settle the sandy one with the three resources before the featureless, but food-rich, green one
 
What is required to get income? I have one city and gold mine and it shows that I don't get any money. Sometimes I have build many cottages and still don't get any. I'd like to know all the requirements, because I haven't spot any specific tech that has started my commerce.
 
I think I am missing something. In the score box you can see your competitors score, religion, a funny looking scroll and (3) arrows in a circle that I believe symbolizes trade. I never have a scroll or the arrows. What in the heck I am doing wrong???? This issue is driving me insane..And whatever it is, I have several victories as a noble but inturn I cannot win at the Prince level to save my life.
 
pzico said:
is it possible to have science rate 100% and still get gold?


Yes from specialists and religious shrines and I believe trade routes
 
You can direct your ally to attack certain cities before taking it yourself the next turn.
 
This next point is obvious to those that have played the game but for newcomers it may save a headache or two. If a civ cancels it's open borders with you it is very likely (though not always) a prelude to war. When a civ cancels it's open borders with you, immediately begin transferring military assets to your border with that civ. Also, the civs are a bit more sneaky this time around. Don't be surprised to see an enemy ship dropping off some units somewhere away from the border. Keep a group of units handy to respond to such excursions.

God, yes. Also, watch for civs switching to Vasselage, Theology or other war-positive civics, as this is another indicator :)
 
eldar said:
- If you're Aggressive, build barracks and units, and go for Mining->Bronze Working. Early Axeman rushes can be very effective. A Cover promotion is better than a City Raider II promotion, as well (+25% vs. Archers opposed to a general +20% city attack; given most early defenders are Archers, it makes sense).

Hmmm, not quite. City raider I is 20%, City Raider II is another 25%, and III is another 35%. To get cover you have to go Combat I -> Cover for a 35% general boost against archers (and 10 to everything).

If you think you're mostly going to be raiding cities rather than fighting in the open field, its Raider all the way. 45% from 2 promotions vs. 35%, 80% vs 55% after 3. =)
 
If you can, use your borders to block of penisulas for later expansion. I've won many a game this way :)
 
After a dozen games or so, up through prince difficulty...here's what I've been enlightened with:

1. Watch for aggressive Civs - If you encounter a civ that's immediately demanding items upon first meeting, early or late in the game, beware of them. They tend to be the global "problem child" and they usually need to be dealt with accordingly. Multiple games have proven this to me. Obliterating them as soon as possible might not be a bad idea.

1a. If a civ never seems to open their border, or repeatedly cancel open border agreements. They hate you...period. Do NOT waste valuable resources by giving them technologies, resources, etc trying to win them over. It will take too much to make them happy and they will use these against you with all their might. Hunker down, build some troops, and be ready for defense and offense. When they declare war, get as many other civs to declare war against them as you can to deter their efforts.

2. Barbarians suck - While annoying, I still have not actually turned barbarians off. As distracting as they are to you, chances are they are distracting the other Civs just as much (or more). They will not land troops within your cultural boundries....so....press your cultural boundries outwards. Drop coastal cities. *stonehenge or oblisks for non-creative civs will help push the boundries*

2a. If you're getting slammed by barbarians, stack up on archers and try getting them on forested hills OUTSIDE of your borders (and behind rivers). They will lose handfuls of units with their bloodlust because the computer will attack an adjacent military unit almost without any regard to their chance of success. Absolutely avoid them getting inside your borders because they pillage like maniacs. Early in the game this is VERY detrimental and could cost you a win hours later.

3a. If you discover barbarian cities near other civs, you might want to let them go. This might be very obvious but I might as well explain. Unless the barbs are holding onto a resource and attacking you...let them be. They will attack the AI instead and slow their possibility of winning.

4. Religion - If you are stuck on an island all to yourself, it would be a pretty good idea to research at least two religions on your own. (This depends greatly on your strategy, but in hindsight it would have worked better for me.) If you're on an island, other religions might not spread easily to you and if your city population is above 10, a colluseum and one temple might not appease your population very well.

5. Resources/Luxuries - If a specific res/lux item isn't within the border grasp of your first cities, it's not necessarily worth it to research that technology. Example: If there are no cows, pigs, sheep nearby....animal husbandry might not be for you. It's probably better to go for a religion or expensive tech and sell it to another Civ later down the road. *If you trade/sell off the tech to another Civ, try to make it a Civ that isn't neighboring you so you maintain an advantage.*

--my 2 cents....take it with a grain of salt.
 
DaveMcW said:
Have you been reading the Civ3 forums? There's no such thing as open border backstab in Civ4. You should sign every deal possible with stronger civs, to make them like you.

The AI, like me, often uses open borders to scout you out. So if you are weak, and don't want the AI to know it, you probably shouldn't sign that open borders. On the flip side, abuse your open borders to their full extent! Your opponent here is just asking you to take note of every detail about him. especially early on, if you have a bit of a tech lead on your opponent, you can get a feel for where they stand by looking at what resources are available to them. A large part of early warfare lurks in strategic denial of resources. Also note what unique units they can have, and what units you don't want them to have. Do you share borders with the Mongols, and you see that they are just now developing their first horse square? You don't want them to have that nasty horse-archer-unique-unit (UU). So, get ready for war as soon as you can, and place a few units on their border as close to the horses as you can. Then, when you declare war, those units bee line for the horse tile, and then pillage that resource. This gives you an edge, because they can't build that unit that they were going to rely on. The same thing applies to iron, and copper, early on. Oil later.

Probably my best tip is to read the manual, oh god, read the manual.

Another important thing, I think, is to get into the habit of periodically checking relations of all the AI players. See who likes who, and who is likely to declare war on who.

Have I mentioned that you should never appear weak to your opponents? Even if they are pleased, if you are too weak, and you have something they want, they'll take it. So keep that military sharp.

Also, it is very very hard to diplomatically aquire a city from the AI. So if in a war, you lose a city, be very careful how you go about taking it back. If you press your attack too hard, and your "ally" AI partner (say, someone also at war with the civ, or someone you asked to help you join the war) takes the city, you can kiss it goodbye unless you want to declare war on them too.

Remember, it takes 2 food per population just to keep things "stagnant." So get used to monitoring the growth of your civ. If you don't have any critical things to build, and you have tiles you want to work (and you have the happiness /health / food to support it!) you can change your city to grow faster (by selecting more food tiles), and then change it back when you need it to work again.

Have I mentioned read the manual? I'm pretty sure I did...
 
I am also a "new" player. I am now messing around with various prince settings. The biggest and only real error so far is......



GARRISON YOUR TOWNS!!!!

All of them!!!!!!

Seriously.
 
Hey everyone,

I LOVE playing earth scenario in single player, but is there a way for me to turn off certain victory conditions? I know this can be done in multiplayer mode, but then I don't see the wonder movies etc and I can't quick load/save.

thanks!
 
DaveMcW said:
Have you been reading the Civ3 forums? There's no such thing as open border backstab in Civ4. You should sign every deal possible with stronger civs, to make them like you.


I think the point that they were trying to make is that if your military is weak, the AIs can't find out how many units are guarding interior cities if you don't sign OB with them (the AI is not all-knowing in cIV (Thank God!)). It also protects you from their missionaries who can give information about your war readiness.

This seems to be a logical strategy, but not necessarily a good strategy.


Edit: Sorry Crosspost with Mathemagician13.
 
I'm not sure where to ask beginner questions so I'll ask here.

In previous Civs you could have a unit auto-move to a certain tile after it was built. How do you do this in Civ4?
 
Hi:
I am totally new to Civ IV and was hoping someone might be able to help. I have found aluminium in a new continent and now my three new cities have access to this resource. However my original continent with my capital and the majority of my cities are an ocean away. Is there any way that they can get access to aluminium discovered on the other continent too?
 
Yes. If you have Astronomy (allows trade through ocean) and a line of sight path, then connect your 3 new cities to a port city via road, if one of them is not a port already. Then, make sure there is a port city on your MAIN continent connected to your capital.
 
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