Condensed tips for beginners?

[nishant1911]

How so? Everybody beelines one tech or another in most games, i dont understand what you mean ...

suppose you don't beeline at all and just go for tech that looks good on the moment,,,another ai might have that tech and is not trading with you at the moment (we don't want to start trading away this technology just yet),,so in a way you are slowing the 'world research ' down.........
or you can go for a new tech ,the prerequiste for which you have just researched ,,,wait for ai to trade the tech you want,trade it ,and again going for a new tech.
thus in a way this would allow both civ to have both techs in half turns (a rough picture).it might look like the very concept of tech trading but it is different.

if at the start of the game,instead of going for worker techs you head straight to alphabet and start trading and gifting techs around ,i bet the ship will launch 30-40 turns earlier than it would have normally.

this whole argument holds good for small-standard maps,at intermediate difficulties (noble,prince,monarch), with 3-4 civ but not for huge maps ,where many civ will be on the same tech at the same time....that's why space race is faster in huge maps.
if the game allowed more tech choices at a given time ,game will finish even faster.

by the the way the fastest space colony i have achieved with tech trading off is 1532 ad (settler),i am curious to know other players's.

 

[nishant1911]

I need some advice in early game warring. Dos and Don'ts? General tips?
I'm kinda new to Civ, and can beat Warlord level anytime (whoopdy-doo...) but still, those early axe-sword-archer-cata wars cause me headaches. Don't get me wrong, I do win them everytime, but I'm sure there's a way to do it better.

My strategy right now is to simply get up a decent production city, build barracks and just spam units as much as possible. (I usually use 2-3 cities for this when preparing for an invasion). It's difficult to explain better.

Any advice is welcome

have you tried playing with huayana capac,not only you will have a decent combination of traits (industrious,financial),but you will be able to wipe off a civ before 3000 bc with quechas (+100% with archers) and get a second city without hampering your capital growth (building a settler).
you can also boast of your first deity conquest victory in a duel map with this.

 

[Solon70]

I seem to recall reading an article about the math of whipping, with calculations and rules of thumb about when you want to whip and when you just want to let the city grow instead, and so on. I've looked in the War Academy but didn't see the article I was remembering (maybe I missed it). Does anyone know what I am talking about?

 

[cabert]

by the the way the fastest space colony i have achieved with tech trading off is 1532 ad (settler),i am curious to know other players's.

there are BC space wins in the HoF

 

[dalamb]

there are BC space wins in the HoF

The mind boggles. Do you know of a commentary on such a game that explains how it's possible?

 

[Silu]

The mind boggles. Do you know of a commentary on such a game that explains how it's possible?

Getting >10 techs and ~20 settlers and workers from huts. Using the starting settler to pop huts as well. You need a ridiculous number of restarts, of course.

 

[Shafi]

Getting >10 techs and ~20 settlers and workers from huts. Using the starting settler to pop huts as well. You need a ridiculous number of restarts, of course.

So what level do they do this on? Settler?

 

[nishant1911]

there are BC space wins in the HoF

i know what you're talking about(kamino-10bc).but we are talking about sane games here....

 

[cabert]

yes it's settler, getting huge amount of things out of huts is possible there

 

[yanner39]

If I start a custom game, continents, 2 Civs per continent, if I don't like the Civ on my continent, is it possible to rearrange the Civs on the desired continents using Worldbuilder?

 

[The Simple Mind]

I seem to recall reading an article about the math of whipping, with calculations and rules of thumb about when you want to whip and when you just want to let the city grow instead, and so on. I've looked in the War Academy but didn't see the article I was remembering (maybe I missed it). Does anyone know what I am talking about?

Do you mean this one:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193659

by VoiceOfUnreason?

 

[Solon70]

Unfortunately, no, but that's certainly an excellent article.

 

[adrianj]

If I start a custom game, continents, 2 Civs per continent, if I don't like the Civ on my continent, is it possible to rearrange the Civs on the desired continents using Worldbuilder?

Yes. If you wanted to simply swap two civs, the easy method would be to delete the starting units of each, and then put them back in in the normal way. Although, you might come across strange quirks this way such as the two AIs already having contact with eachother.

Another way to do it is to do the above, but then also change the initial starting location of each in the actual world builder file. TMIT's Guide to Strategy & Tips Series Map Creation has some good info about this sort of work, particularly swapping leaders after the game is made.

 

[fichot_c4]

a few Qs:

1. Golden age? I used to like this in earlier versions but in BTS somehow i don't see a benefit? Gold/science rises a bit, ok, but maybe it's better to use the GPs to build/discover/etc something or join a city?

2. Why can't i see all the rivals in the score/power/etc graph? I've met them all. Is it something to do with espionage or maybe a bug, cause in earlier games i could see them.

3. Which leader would you say it's the most treacherous? I found 2 religions but switched to Buddhism just to make Shaka happy(ier) but he just kept coming. Lucky for me i discovered a pattern. Kublai would strike (understandable as he was choked hard from my culture) from one side, and after i take a couple of his cities and garrison there to put down the revolt, Zulu would declare war and he's on the other border. Still, it's fun.

4. Which unit promotions give a better effect for attacking? A star (10% strength), a city raid or one of those like 25% vs mounted or gunpowder? I guess a star is like univalue and has best use for whatever unit, a city raid useless in the field and the gun/mounted well, i used them a lot but they don't seem very effective.

5. More a frustrating conclusion than a Q: Why does my 1st settler almost always appear on the far end of a continent and usually just a few clicks from ice?
5.1. Why when playing Terra map all civs appear on a single continent? And "America" is so freaking far away.
5.2. I have the feeling that every time the AI strikes with its strongest on my weakest and i do the opposite (not by choice of course).

6. SAM inf. Don't you think they come a bit early in the game? By the time i get to planes almost every rival city, fort and stack have them.

 

[dalamb]

2. Why can't i see all the rivals in the score/power/etc graph?

You need to build up enough espionage points against them.

3. Which leader would you say it's the most treacherous?

As you notice, Shaka is fairly likely to attack, but Monty is the real psychopath (although he's so tech-backwards you can often bribe him to attack someone else). Another take on treachery is backstabbing: Catherine can declare war on you when officially Pleased.

5. More a frustrating conclusion than a Q: Why does my 1st settler almost always appear on the far end of a continent and usually just a few clicks from ice?

It's random.

5.1. Why when playing Terra map all civs appear on a single continent? And "America" is so freaking far away.

It's a design feature of that map type IIRC.

 

[fichot_c4]

What about Charlemagne? Top score, i'm 2nd. Territory on the south of me, tanks and what not in the north fighting Japs. My fear is that he'll probably vassalize the Japs and then turn against me. I've got him on pleased now. Do i need to worry? I'm close to tanks tech but it will take some time until i make a pleasing amount of them.

 

[adrianj]

a few Qs:

1. Golden age? I used to like this in earlier versions but in BTS somehow i don't see a benefit? Gold/science rises a bit, ok, but maybe it's better to use the GPs to build/discover/etc something or join a city?

I'm surprised to hear you say this. I find that in earlier versions Golden Ages were under powered, and in BtS they have been made so much better.
From memory I think all you used to get was
1. An extra on every tile already producing 1
2. An extra on every tile already producing 1

In BtS you also get
3. Free civic and religion changes
4. +100% production
5. +100% production
6. Extra wonder in BtS - the Mausoleum of Maussollos extends the length of golden ages by 50%.

These are not insignificant bonuses, especially the free civic changes when used efficiently. Plus, in BtS the cost of a golden age starts at only 1 great person, rather than 2.

Whether it is better than using a great person for a bulb/special building/etc is debatable and depends on the situation. But particularly just after a succesful war and you need to get newly acquired cities into shape, or late game particularly when building Spaceship parts, a golden age can be an excellent use of a great person.

2. Why can't i see all the rivals in the score/power/etc graph? I've met them all. Is it something to do with espionage or maybe a bug, cause in earlier games i could see them.

Now part of the espionage feature (push CTRL+E or click the icon for details). It comes from the passive ability "Can see demographics", which is fairly cheap in most cases, but does require you to have invested some espionage into your rivals.

3. Which leader would you say it's the most treacherous? I found 2 religions but switched to Buddhism just to make Shaka happy(ier) but he just kept coming. Lucky for me i discovered a pattern. Kublai would strike (understandable as he was choked hard from my culture) from one side, and after i take a couple of his cities and garrison there to put down the revolt, Zulu would declare war and he's on the other border. Still, it's fun.

This post by DanF5771 deserves some sort of medal for explaining this sort of stuff.
Charlemagne at Pleased has a 100% chance to NOT PLAN to go to war with you according to the XML, and also can't be bribed into war with you at Pleased. Barring some random event, I think you are reasonably safe. But if he drops below Pleased, even for a single turn, you should be careful, as during that 1 turn he could start PLANNING (We have enough on our hands right now, aka, WHEOOHRN) and not necessarily declare until quite some turns, at which point you might have him at pleased or even friendly. Fickle fickle AI...

4. Which unit promotions give a better effect for attacking? A star (10% strength), a city raid or one of those like 25% vs mounted or gunpowder? I guess a star is like univalue and has best use for whatever unit, a city raid useless in the field and the gun/mounted well, i used them a lot but they don't seem very effective.

Mix your promotions up. Assign some units for stack defense with a wide variety of specific counter promotions, and other units for city attack if that's what your plan is.
This article by Arathorn from the war academy is a valuable read.

5. More a frustrating conclusion than a Q: Why does my 1st settler almost always appear on the far end of a continent and usually just a few clicks from ice?
5.1. Why when playing Terra map all civs appear on a single continent? And "America" is so freaking far away.
5.2. I have the feeling that every time the AI strikes with its strongest on my weakest and i do the opposite (not by choice of course).

5. Yeah... pretty random I think.
5.1. I think that is the whole point of the terra map type.
5.2. I'm not sure I understand the statement... Attacks your weakest city with a strong army? Sounds sensible to me. Attacks your weakest neighbour? Also sounds sensible. Sometimes you might do the opposite, attacking the strongest AI simply to remove the threat as soon as possible. This would require a bit more forward think than the AI is capable of. But if it is just more land for you to expand onto, the weakest neighbour is definitely best.

6. SAM inf. Don't you think they come a bit early in the game? By the time i get to planes almost every rival city, fort and stack have them.

Yeah, SAMs can be a pain if you're using planes. Personally I'm not a big fan of planes anyway, and as far as defending against land based threats SAMs are pretty poor, so usually I'm quite pleased to see them defending against my artillery and infantry.

 

[kcd_swede]

Quite so! An empty virgin landmass that's there for the taking after Astronomy (Optics if you are Joao).

However, if you want a Terra-like map where the AI are distributed in both Old World in the New World, Choose Hemispheres, 2 continents. There are some differences in resource distributions and map size... but it should give an approximation of what the OP was looking for.

 

[none]

Quite so! An empty virgin landmass that's there for the taking after Astronomy (Optics if you are Joao).

However, if you want a Terra-like map where the AI are distributed in both Old World in the New World, Choose Hemispheres, 2 continents. There are some differences in resource distributions and map size... but it should give an approximation of what the OP was looking for.

There is an option for playing terra maps with or without old world start.

 

[ZeekLTK]

Can anyone give me some tips on how to focus on BOTH the peaceful and military sides of the game at the same time?

I've discovered that if I only focus on one and ignore the other that I thrive, but then when it comes to the point where I need to do both at the same time I fail horribly.

Basically: I can get a huge tech lead early on if I didn't focus on military at all. Or, I can wipe out a few opponents by just focusing on military and ignoring everything else. But when I triy to focus on both at the same time it goes completely downhill and I fall behind in both.

Here is an example if it helps:

The recent game I'm playing (which I am about to lose - there are 65 turns left and I'm nowhere near any victory conditions) the random map generated a bunch of small islands so the 8 of us each had our own little place to build up by ourselves. I didn't spend any effort on military at all and I got out to a huge tech lead. I got to all the techs that give you a free one if you get there first and I founded 2 religions (and managed to spread the one I picked as my state religion to half of the other civs, making mine the dominant one in the game). I was even building tons of wonders, I got stonehenge, sistine chapel, oracle, colossus, etc. I was leading on points with only one civ anywhere near me, although they were still a bit behind.

But then the problem was when I got up to rifles. I decided to start building an army so I could go wipe some people out (my army was literally 3 axemen and 2 warriors at this point). I was the only one in the game with rifles so I had a significant advantage. By now we'd all traded world maps so I knew where everyone was. I went and picked on the weakest civ and destroyed them rather easily with rifles/catapults against longbows. Then I picked out a civ in the midldle of the pack who was annoyed at me (the weak civ was annoyed as well, so that's why I took them out) and targeted them. I wiped out half their empire before they finally started to build grenadiers, so that slowed me down a little bit but eventually I destroyed their main island and exiled them to two small cities on tiny islands (less than 3 squares of land apiece, and across the map from each other). By now the bigger civs had gotten rifles so I was done fighting and tried to return to my peaceful ways so I could continue to go forward on the tech tree and I figured I could probably win the space race if I kept ahead of everyone.

But then all of a sudden it came up "100 turns left" and I was nowhere even near the space race. According to the tech tree I had about 60 turns worth of research (at 100%) just to even get through the 3 techs I needed to have the ability to build the Apollo program. There was no way I was going to be able to build an entire spaceship in 100 turns. So, being so far behind on the scoreboard and with no other victories even remotely possible (scoreboard - I'm several thousand points back now; conquest - no way; domination - nope, only at 12% right now; cultural - only one city is even remotely close to legendary and all the great people I produce are prophets not artists; diplomatic... I could maybe build the UN with ~10 turns left but the #1 guy has the highest population and is my main 'buddy' in the game, we have a defensive pact and everything [plus he has the biggest army], so I feel like everyone who likes me also likes him and the people who don't like me might also like him - so he'll probably win in the vote.) I'm just trying to figure out what went wrong - because nothing stands out. I've had research on 100% the entire game too but I'm only just researching Physics right now and the techs others have that I don't are ones that are further back that I skipped.

Anyways, by the time I finished that war I noticed that I went from a pretty decent lead on the scoreboard to now being in third place and considerably behind the top 2. During the entire war I never dropped my research to under 100% so I kept plugging along there (and I still had plenty of techs the civs in front of me didn't have, although they had managed to get a few that I had skipped - but no one wants to trade anymore). So the only difference (that I noticed at least) was that I stopped producing buildings in my cities and instead I produced troops. But all of a sudden I had fallen way behind and was never able to catch up.


Setting was Nobel on epic speed - standard map with 7 opponents.
I was Arabia (random selection) against Persia (#1), Germany (#2), France, Mongols, Japan, Egypt (the 'middle' civ I warred with), and Spain (the weak civ I eliminated).

When I started fighting I had good relations with Persia, Mongols, Japan (they were all the religion that I founded), cautious with Germany and France (each had their own religion that no one else had), and Egpyt and Spain were both annoyed at me (both the same religion as each other). I don't remember exactly but I think the scoreboard at the time was: 1-Me, 2-Persia, 3-Germany, 4-Mongols, 5-Egypt, 6-France, 7-Japan, 8-Spain.


To be honest, if it weren't for the time limit I think I would easily have been able to win the space race. However, I still feel like I fell 'off pace' when I waged those wars. So what did I do wrong here? I've only won once on Nobel before and it was a diplomatic victory on a small map where I remained peaceful for basically the entire game, managed to have the highest population (by far), built the UN, and tricked one other civ into voting for me; which was enough to win.