Condensed tips for beginners?

AncientPC said:
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?

If you have a PC just right click where you want to go.
 
'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. =)'

Eldar was right in his post. He was talking about aggressive civs, who start with combat 1. With barracks for one more promotion if you choose cover that's a total 35%, whereas choosing city raider is 30%. Of course, after one win you'll have another promotion, and so if you chose cover and now go for city raider it's 55%, which is the same as for combat 1 and city raider 1 and 2. So cover works better until 10 experience points, at which point city raider 3 would be nice. However, that's a long wait, and cover gives you the bonus even when not attacking cities.
 
Hi, I love civ 4 but I came across a little bump, I can't find where to delete cites I no longer want!!! What key strokes, or how do I get rid of extra cities once I'm into the game a fair bit?? Thanks for looking into this for me!
 
AncientPC said:
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?

I'm assuming you mean rally points?

If so then Shift + right-click any city bars = Set rally point for multiple cities

I'm not too sure how to set an individual city's rally point, but I would assume you just right click on the city bar.

See this thread for more info : http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=138984
 
majgie said:
Hi, I love civ 4 but I came across a little bump, I can't find where to delete cites I no longer want!!! What key strokes, or how do I get rid of extra cities once I'm into the game a fair bit?? Thanks for looking into this for me!

Unfornately you can't. You could try gifting a city to an enemy and then razing.
 
Well, here I am. I've never played Civ anything before a few weeks ago. I love it. It's kept me up several nights now... too bad I still stink! I love the forums and all the info, it's really helped me a lot! I'm still in my first game, as Julius. Anyone have any tips on balancing religious expansion vs. military expansion?
 
back to tips for beginners

get bronze working and a worker very quickly so you can chop rush more workers (for more chopping), settlers and perhaps a wonder (like parthenon, pyramids, oracle, stonehenge) if your really good/lucky you may be able to expand faster than anyone else and thus get up to 3 of these wonders, if you do you should be in a great position

also, if an aggressive leader is near by you MUST build up a military and get iron unless you can get them to have the same state religion as you- you should have good diplo relations then

if going for a culture victory chose frederick of germany and get as many culture buildings as quickly as possible in your 3 chosen cities (usually the first 3 you found) then try andget loads o great artists and loads of wonders if you get far enough ahead in tech in the first half of the game, towards the end try and beeline towards elec, radio and mass media so you can ty and get rock n roll, hollywood and broadway as well as the eiffel tower but only if you are certain to get the other three
 
o yeh a few more notes

if you wish to introduce yourself to the art of war, chose julius and build lots of preatorians and catapults and attack the weakest civ next to you

religion expansion isnt too important, though perhaps if you want space race the extra commerce from a shrine or shrines will help a bit and if your going for diplo a lot of civs with the same religion as you (even if you didnt find it) will help

i your going for domination i wouldnt care too much for religion though through proper use it can be of great use in getting allies and turning people on each other
 
I seem to have problems with overcrowding in some cities, while others are stagnant. Do traded food items actually become food in cities? How can I decrease the pop of a city? Is a stagnant city bad? What are some general thoughts on city size?
 
Fetch said:
I seem to have problems with overcrowding in some cities, while others are stagnant. Do traded food items actually become food in cities? How can I decrease the pop of a city? Is a stagnant city bad? What are some general thoughts on city size?

Hi, i'm a first time poster, but i've been playing civ IV for a while now.
Not that good, best victory was prince, but i feel quite confortable with my noble setting.

As for overcrowding, it isn't a big deal if you're late in the game. Build whatever helps you
1) get health (granary, port (yes! with fish, and such), aqueduct,...)
2) most important : make people happy (temples, even if it's not your state religion, coliseum, theatre, market place (yes! with luxuries), ...)

If it's early in the game and you have not access to all those things :
first try to get a religion, to build the temple. Second, try to get the luxuries. you can buy some from your neighbours sometimes, but mostly you'll have to get your own gold, silver, gems, ...
One precious tip : if you've got a quickly growing city which you cannot keep happy, choose slavery as civic and pop rush some buildings
=> you get the building fast, the city gets unhappy on one side but with fewer people in it, global happiness is better. Plus, if you wait 10 turns, your fast growing city will have grown enough to make another pop rush, with no additionnal unhappiness:goodjob: .
Same for stagnant city: a stagnant city isn't always bad, but if you pop rush things every now and then (don't get too cruel to your people!) it will keep growing again.
Anyway, if you've got low end cities, you may have misplaced them from the start:mischief:
 
3. ALWAYS NEGOTIATE TRADE OFFERS. When a civ comes to you offering a trade ALWAYS click the negotiate option. Clear the table and then select what he was asking for. Then click on the "what will you offer for this" option. The requesting civ will often offer more than what they had originally offered. This is often worthless with open borders offers however.

Also, don't be afraid to switch up potential offers. If you want another tech, the civs can sometimes be persuaded to give it to you.

When a civ is trying to trade techs, juggle arround with the options. I found that if you pick the right combination, you can sometimes get two for the price of one.
 
Don't place your cities too close to each other. Develop the tiles that falls outside your city radiuses as well. This way, if you go to war, the AI waist valuble time pillaging utterly useless improvements.
 
As far as I'm concerned, the name of the game is being ruthless and trying to take over as much land/resources as possible as quickly as possible.

A general early game strategy I've found to work *up to prince level* on a consistent basis on small to huge maps:
1. Concentrate on workers, settlers, archers/warriors early game. Maybe parthenon and pyramids.Try and build about 4 or 5 cities early. Get as many resources as you can as quickly as you can. Civs in your way, or surrounding a city you built to catch a resource, you will kill shortly. Basically what I'm saying here is don't let defensive worries stop you from building a city in a prime spot. Your goal is to be on the offensive.

2. Your early war should look something like this: Get some copper, and build tons of axemen and take over as many cities as you can until the AI develops harder to beat units or you feel you've adequately expanded for the time being. The key is here is *quickly.* Don't sit around building granaries and libraries and temples and monasteries early, just build lots and lots of units and maybe a barracks or a library or a granary when you have a chance. In general build lots of units as quickly as you can. As your army gets larger and larger you can take little breaks in building units and build improvements.

You should go for catapults early. Once you get some catapults then you should be *unstoppable*. Keep building *lots* of them (I mean lots of them) and don't worry about suicide missions, that's what they are here for. If you have enough catapults and you play your cards right you can keep the same stack of axemen/swordsmen/horsearchers/whatever alive for a long, long time, because the catapults are doing the "heavy lifing," i.e. weakening the defensive units so you just waltz right in to their cities, all the while developing much needed experience. Lots of catapults and lots of any offensive unit = free continent for you to play with. Be aggressive, even if you are not the aggressive trait. If you've got a special unit like praetorians then even better. Horse archers take some time to develop but are also good for this. If the city you are taking over isn't on a good location then raze it. Don't worry about making early neighbours mad because your goal is to eventually eliminate them, but don't fight many people at once early on. Pick people off one at a time. Appease the others and then, when you're done with one of them, go after the next one. Rinse. Wipe hands on pants. Repeat. Once you've got the continent to yourself, sit back and enjoy your massive wealth and build to your hearts content. At this point any win scenario should be open to you. If you're good, you got the whole continent to yourself before they even met any of the other civs, so they wont be mad at you for "declaring war on their friend" or any other stupid nonsense the AI gets mad at you for.

3. Dont worry about being at 50% for a while. Cities that are not either GP cities or production cities should focus on being commerce heavy, with as many cottages as your food and health allow. Eventually when they become villages and towns you will be raking in the dough and will catch up. If you're at war with the AI they go a little slower tech wise anyways.

4. Your early techs depend on what you start out with. Don't build workers until you've got something for them to do, but you should have something for them to do early. The wheel, mining, agriculture and bronze working are "must haves" early. Bronze working allows you copper and axemen, which you should build lots of early and kill kill kill. If you've got a resource that requires a specific tech, do that tech first.

5. Don't found religions, take them over. You should be at war early anyways and if you're lucky the AI has already built the shrine and spread it anyways. Founding religions waste valuable time spent elsewhere, and when I say elsewhere I mean *kicking the AI's butt*.

This is just one strat out of many, but for me it works almost every time. On monarch this has worked as well but the AI is more unpredictable, they might show up on your weak side with a fairly large army if you're not careful. But, I have been succesfull with this on monarch. On tiny and small maps obviously the goal is to just kill everyone as quickly as possible so I guess this strat works there as well, I've only played one small terra map (meaning the AI is all on your continent so a conquest win is easier) with the Romans on noble and this is essentially what I did, winning around 990AD.

Also dont take this as the be and end all strategy, I have overlooked many things here and it is impossible really to briefly "sum up" what you should and should not do. To recap, the AI is a scourge that needs to be dealt with severely and with utmost prejudice, unless they are giving you stuff you need. Then, they only need to be dealt with severely and with utmost prejudice when you don't need their stuff anymore. ;)
 
When you're the top dog, and you find nr 2 is gaining on you, don't try to rectfy the problem by attacking nr 2. All you achieve is dragging you both down while someone else takes 1st place.

Rather go for the under dogs. They are easy to defeat, and afterwards, their extra cities (Remember to develop them once you've captured them) will boost your score out of nr. 2's reach again.
 
There were the warmongers. :D

If you're more civilisated and trade with others instead of butchering them, trade your techs. Mouse over your techs and the other's ones in the diplomatic screen, and watch their cost in beakers. Don't give a 480 beakers tech for a 72 one. If you want fair trades, try adding the beakers to have the same total on both sides. And never let go a tech you've got a monopoly on or one which gives you a strategic advantage unless someone puts a really high price to have it.

Science is key in every domain, including military, and you'll always go faster with trading. Try to get as many techs as you can by offering the same tech to the others leaders in the same turn : for exemple keep giving Medecine, once against Artillery, once against Military tradition, and so on. So you get all the goodies and the opponents can't trade your techs between them if you sell the same tech to everyone. If the opponent is way behind you in techs, accept even slightly bad trades : you'll still save the turns to research the techs you gain, and it will help you catch up the leader or keep your advantage.

If an AI doesn't accept the trade you're proposing, ask it what it wants : sometimes it will just add 10 gold and you'll have your trade. AIs are greedy, and they can be tricked in a strategic trade if you give them a short term winning trade : for exemple, if you're going for a spacerace and lack aluminium, give everything you can to have it. You trade bananas for victory, and the AI can't resist extra bananas in a deal. They will eventually get it, and try to cancel the deal : renegociate, ask them what they want and give them what they want. Sometimes they'll ask less than before, and you'll still have your victory.

If you just want to build your empire in peace, make a powerful ally by trading techs, converting him to your religion and so on, give him one or two cheap techs. Go for Fascism and sign a defensive pact with him. That will really make the AIs think twice before attacking you, and you'll not have to produce military units all along. If that pact gets canceled (because the guy's not so friendly anymore or if he declares war on someone else) , build modern units and garnison them asap. You're on your own again and the aggressive AIs keep smelling blood when they look at you.

Watch Isabella closely if you're not of the same religion, she's quite the zealous one and will probably attack you for that. Watch Moctezuma closely in any case, he's mad : not really dangerous, but he'll attack you with obsolete units (this guy can't search) and waste your time and production in defense. Watch Alexander, Genghis and others aggressive leaders, they are dangerous if close and not friendly. Keep checking the diplomatic relations sometimes (especially after religious conversions) between you and the opponents AND between your opponents : click on one leader's head in the diplomatic screen and watch what others leaders think.

Press F9, go to the power graph and see if you've got enough military power to crush an enemy or defend yourself. Don't be too weak or someone will decide that you'll make a good prey. If AIs start making harsh demands, it's time to put the war machine on, just to keep them cautious. Don't just make units to protect your towns, make also mounted units to patrol your territory and protect your improvements. If someone attacks you, try to port the war on his territory, and waste his land. It will make him more willing to make peace, and he'll offer you bribes if you hurt him seriously enough.
 
one question on automatization. how do you like it?

for me it depends on my mood at the moment i am playing. sometimes i just put almost everything on auto and some other times i just tend to micro manage every little detail of the game

of course for the strategy standpoint it is better if you micro manage everything
 
Hanno said:
When you're the top dog, and you find nr 2 is gaining on you, don't try to rectfy the problem by attacking nr 2. All you achieve is dragging you both down while someone else takes 1st place.

Rather go for the under dogs. They are easy to defeat, and afterwards, their extra cities (Remember to develop them once you've captured them) will boost your score out of nr. 2's reach again.


I agree with this for the most part. However, sometimes you can anticipate who might become powerful in the future, and wasting time on a tiny worthless civ that will never be a problem (and you could take them out quicker later anyways) might not always be the way to go.

Also if you are in the modern age, you can bomb all their improvements and bring them to a grinding halt, while not really bothering with anything that taxes you too heavily such as making a huge invasion. (Just negotiate open borders with someone and put a bunch of planes near them.) Or, just flood their land with units and pillage them for a few turns, then be peaceful, which also slows them down. Basically war always doesnt mean long drawn out conflict, being a pest is just as annoying and bad for them while easy for you.
 
hey guys. im totally hopeless at this game 'cause i've only had for 2 weeks and have lost the manual (ps-i hate tutorials), so can someone please tell me how to attack with several units at once?
 
Vizzini said:
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. :p


HE's right. I read the manual cover to cover, and after that, my game improved drastically.

Don't get me wrong. Actaully experiencing the game helps a whole lot more than just reading a manual, but if you're just starting, then read that manual. NOW!

omar.c said:
hey guys. im totally hopeless at this game 'cause i've only had for 2 weeks and have lost the manual (ps-i hate tutorials), so can someone please tell me how to attack with several units at once?

First, get all the units in one tile. Second, double-click on that tile. Depending on how you've set up your options, then you can either right-click on the enemy until the whole stack is doen, or right-click once, and they'll attack until they're done or the enemy is dead or they are dead.
 
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