Condensed tips for beginners?

[yanner39]

Nothing gets cheaper or anything at higher levels, it's more the AI gets better, and gets more advantages.

At higher levels, it just takes more managing to make sure cities don't get too unhealthy or unhappy. Careful about whipping, managing growth more closely, and stuff like that. Early on, you just know your cities can't grow past 4-5 until you grab some luxury resources.

So I won my first space race at the Chieftain level. I know, I'm still a rookie here. I won the game in 1942 which seems to me like it was pretty fast. I assumed I was ready to graduate to Warlord. Wrong.

In both games I've played, I start off where I think I will do good (nice resources, nice terrain, etc) but both times I'm stuck in a corner of the map where I am limited in the number of cities I can pace. What I mean is that I build 3 cities and then I have no more land, at least good land. In order for me to expand further, I would have to jump over 2 or 3 civs.

I'm either last or second to last in both games, where in my chieftain game, I was first by a long shot.

2 questions:

Is it just luck of the draw in terms of starting point or is there that big a jump from cheiftain to Warlord;

and what is the best strategy to get more land when I seemed cornered. Attack and conquer early? If so, how early? I find that mid game, the wars are way too long.

 

[Sian]

its luck of the draw ... the game sets out X spawn points for civs, give them a bit of ekstra resouses to make them even (only looking at the diffent BFC's) and then it roll a dice about who's going where (simplified but thats how i figure it to be and the theory works fine enough unless you dig deep into the game and how it works)

first attack should if possable and the enemies aren't to far away should be a stack of axes, at prince or below you should be able to go around with ~6 axes, of cause depending on the speed of the map (easier to pull at slower maps due to them being relatively faster to get from A to B), the range from your cities to their, and the terrain their cities are on (hills) ... if they are to far away and your still cornered to that degree, you're more likely either to slow Rexing, having really sucky land and/or being to perfectionistic about where you'll place your cities

 

[yanner39]

its luck of the draw ... the game sets out X spawn points for civs, give them a bit of ekstra resouses to make them even (only looking at the diffent BFC's) and then it roll a dice about who's going where (simplified but thats how i figure it to be and the theory works fine enough unless you dig deep into the game and how it works)

first attack should if possable and the enemies aren't to far away should be a stack of axes, at prince or below you should be able to go around with ~6 axes, of cause depending on the speed of the map (easier to pull at slower maps due to them being relatively faster to get from A to B), the range from your cities to their, and the terrain their cities are on (hills) ... if they are to far away and your still cornered to that degree, you're more likely either to slow Rexing, having really sucky land and/or being to perfectionistic about where you'll place your cities

Thanks for the info.

I just found it weird the amount of points I had considering the resources I had access to (Horse, cows, gems, copper, fish, clams, marble) and yet I found myself at the bottom of the list in terms of points. I was building a nice army. Am I putting too much stock in the points I get per turn or are the a good indication of my civ in relation to others?

 

[Sian]

as far as i know (feel free to point me wrong if you know) then points are calculated from Tech's known, population, land area and number of soldiers

nonetheless the points is next to useless (expect for a very rough estimate which can be done by looking at how big the enemies are anyways) unless your going for a time victory, in which case your proberly doing something wrong anyways

 

[mystyfly]

Looking at the points is nonsense.

From what I read, yanner, you should try a bit more agressive settling. Don't settle your 2nd and 3rd city beside your capital but use them to seal off land from other civs. You can backfill that land later and get more cities (try to get at least land for 6).

 

[yanner39]

Looking at the points is nonsense.

From what I read, yanner, you should try a bit more agressive settling. Don't settle your 2nd and 3rd city beside your capital but use them to seal off land from other civs. You can backfill that land later and get more cities (try to get at least land for 6).

And that's exactly my problem. I know that I usually establish 2nd and 3rd cities closer to my capital city because I want to get things started and a jump on the other civs. Also, I still have trouble locating the other civs when I find them and I am concerned that if I establish cities 2 and 3 too far, other civs will cut me off in the middle.


Or maybe I'm just thinking too much.

 

[mystyfly]

You can't be thinking too much.

Scouting early isn't as easy as it may seem imo.

Try to follow rivers as they often lead to good land (well, THEY make the land good ) and follow the coast. Only go so far until you reach another AI's border, then follow it and try to get the shape of the continent first.

Where to settle to seal off other AIs is also not easy. ALWAYS settle near at least 1 food resource you can improve. You can get lots of information on how to do the "land grab" by watching screenshots or following games (SGs for example) here. If you see some mid-game screenshot, you can deduce which cities have been settled in what order by looking at the city names. By looking at screenshots and trying yourself (experience!) you should learn these things quickly.

 

[yanner39]

You can't be thinking too much.

Scouting early isn't as easy as it may seem imo.

Try to follow rivers as they often lead to good land (well, THEY make the land good ) and follow the coast. Only go so far until you reach another AI's border, then follow it and try to get the shape of the continent first.

Where to settle to seal off other AIs is also not easy. ALWAYS settle near at least 1 food resource you can improve. You can get lots of information on how to do the "land grab" by watching screenshots or following games (SGs for example) here. If you see some mid-game screenshot, you can deduce which cities have been settled in what order by looking at the city names. By looking at screenshots and trying yourself (experience!) you should learn these things quickly.

So for my first city, should I look around a bit? I mean, I usually try and establish early (usually where the blue circle is) so that I can get started. If I wait too long, I could fall behind right? I figure if I look around abit and find a better spot for my city, it could outweigh the fact I started later?

I've started 3 Warlord games so far and both times, I had very little to work with in terms of initial city placement.

 

[Sian]

not your first city ... that should usually be built in turn one ... or maybe if you can see it'll be placed better another place in turn two

the quoted part was about later cities after your capital

 

[mystyfly]

Yes, I meant your first city you found with a self-built settler Capital locations generally are great as they are.

And DON'T settle a city on a certain spot just 'cause there's a blue circle!

 

[GamerDad]

The two most important things you can do for both the Civ newcomer and the die-hard Civ fan...

1. Read the manual. (Seriously, READ it. Very important)
2. Read the manual a few more times.

but, but... what if you got it from D2D and don't have a manual!?

 

[dalamb]

Also, I still have trouble locating the other civs when I find them and I am concerned that if I establish cities 2 and 3 too far, other civs will cut me off in the middle.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "too far".

You should be exploring in an expanding circle around your initial city, looking for good places for your 2nd and 3rd cities. You can afford to leave some space for 4th and 5th cities if you can place 2nd and 3rd farther out than one city radius, if they have good resources, especially copper and horses, but if you go for a resource that's far, far away you can kill your economy. Until Writing each civ's borders are closed to movement by the others, so you might also find "choke points where the cultural area around your city grows big enough, soon enough, to block your opponents.

 

[Cinnabar]

Hello, everyone!

I just moved up to Civ IV, and I was wondering whether my hut-popping experience is typical. The second game I played (Warlord level), I popped five huts, and ended up with one warrior, one worker and three settlers. The next game I started, I popped about five huts, and ended up with three new techs (plus a map and some experience, I think). In Civ III, if memory serves, you almost always get gold, maps or attacked. Is this typical of Civ IV? Does it vary depending on what level you're playing? Just curious...

Thanks!

 

[CCRunner]

It definitely depends on the level. I know that on noble and above, you can't pop units and the probability of popping a tech is a lot lower. Gold is the norm, with the occasional map. It's only on the much higher levels you can get attacked.

 

[Bleys]

You can pop units on Noble and above, just not Workers or Settlers anymore. Techs get less and less common as you move up the difficulty ladder as well.

 

[dalamb]

It's only on the much higher levels you can get attacked.

Just a couple of days ago I popped a barb warrior on Noble. I suspect you may be part-right, with probability of barbarians being fairly low on Noble and increasing with difficulty.

 

[CCRunner]

Just a couple of days ago I popped a barb warrior on Noble. I suspect you may be part-right, with probability of barbarians being fairly low on Noble and increasing with difficulty.

Really? I've never once had that happen to me.

I take back what I said about that then. It's just super rare.

 

[Dresden]

but, but... what if you got it from D2D and don't have a manual!?

Then D2D should have given you a PDF copy of the manual. Although when I bought the disc edition of Civ4 Gold there was supposed to be full PDF copies of the Vanilla & Warlords manuals on Disk 3, but that turned out to be a lie so I wouldn't be surprised if D2D didn't supply one either. Luckily you can get a replacement copy.

==========

Regarding goody hut possibilities, see Villages/Goody huts/Whatever. Particularly useful are the posts in that topic by KMadCandy and r_rolo1 (who quotes all the various probabilities from Mewtarthio)

 

[yanner39]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "too far".

You should be exploring in an expanding circle around your initial city, looking for good places for your 2nd and 3rd cities. You can afford to leave some space for 4th and 5th cities if you can place 2nd and 3rd farther out than one city radius, if they have good resources, especially copper and horses, but if you go for a resource that's far, far away you can kill your economy. Until Writing each civ's borders are closed to movement by the others, so you might also find "choke points where the cultural area around your city grows big enough, soon enough, to block your opponents.

This might be a stupid question but is it a bad idea to establish another city when the BFC will go over another of your cities BFC? I try not and do it but the other day, a blue circle appeared telling to establish a 4th city at a place where the BFC will eventually cross over in another one of my cities. I know, don't go by what the blue circles say but I am curious as to why this would even happen.

 

[UWHabs]

Well, if you want both cities to grow to size 20+ and use every square, then no, don't overlap. But a few squares overlap isn't a big problem usually. Barring special circumstances, you don't want to steal 20 squares from the BFC, but often sharing a mine or cottage between adjacent towns can be useful (ie. if one needs to finish a building faster, it can steal the mine. Or you can have one town grow the cottage, then when it's all grown, let the other one use it so that it doesn't "waste" time in developing it).