Condensed tips for beginners?

[Peace Lightbulb]

1. Farms are useful when you want a city to grow and the tiles it can currently work provide too little of that. That may sound overly obvious, but it's the whole truth - if you have a city with two wet corn which you want at size 6, then you probably don't need other farms and can work cottages, mines, or specialists instead (or whip a lot of units and buildings - Slavery!). If your city has no other source of food, then you should a) ask yourself why you built it in the first place b) build a few farms so you can reach the happy cap sooner. Regarding Financial leaders and cottages - in an old thread, someone (I think Dave) showed that first growing to happy cap with farms and then building cottages for the now-enhanced population often gives more commerce than working cottages from the beginning but growing slower.

Regarding pillaging, you really should not get your tiles pillaged very often. If you do, the problem has to do a lot with diplomacy, and a bit with not declaring war on your neighbours soon enough.

2. Walls are sometimes a necessary build in cities which you suspect/know will get attacked in the Ancient or Classical era. Again, this should not happen often, because diplomacy can go a long way towards improving your odds of not getting attacked. It can happen sometimes though. Scout out the stacks of aggresive neighbours to know which city will get attacked, and either build a wall there or make sure you can whip one in (Slavery!) in an emergency. In other situations, walls are useless.

3. To make sure you don't get attacked, the most important thing is good relations with the AIs that share borders with you. AIs with no common borders (precisely: less than 8 tiles shared borders) are less likely to declare on you. It happens sometimes though, so you should also know which AIs are more likely to declare in general than others, and either have good relations with them or keep them busy by bribing them into wars. It's usually very hard to have good relations with everyone, so focus on those who would attack you otherwise first, followed by those who you want to conduct trades with.

4. Yes, it is a bad thing. Sometimes this can work (i.e. you built the Pyramids for early Representation and have lots of food so you can work specialists everyhwere) but usually having different cities is more efficient. I won't go into detail about specialization here...but it's usually good to have at least a few cities produce commerce (through specialists or cottages) and at least one of them be able to produce units fast (through wipping - Slavery! - or working mines).

5. Yes, it is a very bad thing. Slavery is the single most powerful civic in the game. A whip gives you 30 hammer on normal speed, which is usually a lot more than you would get if the person whipped away would just work a mine for several turns. Whipping allows you to get out faster Settlers and Workers in the beginning, set up your cities faster with Granaries and Monuments, and produce a lot more units when you go to war. So it gives you more and earlier cities, more productive cities, and a bigger army. Use it. General rules: a) Whipping is for cities which can regrow the lost population rather fast (so not for that city having only a Plains Cow as its food ressource) b) try to whip for two population points when possible c) in the early game, whipping can work without a Granary, but try to get one in cities you will whip a lot as soon as possible. There's a useful article by VoiceOfUnreason on the basics of whipping in the Article section.

Now Caste System - which you can't use in Slavery - is also a good Civic, as producing Great People will help your early to mid game a lot. The way many people go about it is to trigger a Great Age at a convenient time with your first Great Person, switch to Caste + Pacifism, run a lot of specialists for the duration of the Great Age, and switch back to Slavery before it ends. You can do it without the Great Age as well at the cost of two turns of Anarchy. Just trying to get across how powerful Slavery is.

6. I don't play Cultural victories, but there's a guide to Cultural Victories (forgot by whom), and there's the excellent write-up named "Replay #7" by Seraiel over in the Hall of Fame forum. These will probably help you a lot with these kind of victories.

Thank you very much for your tips and information! I very much appreciate it! I tend to get some great people to use but never really sure when/if to use them for a golden age. super specialist, ability etc. That Caste System strategy is something I will surely implement when I'm not using Slavery and the reverse will occur when I'm not using it. Often I do feel I'm very focused in basically cloning the same city over and over, I didn't see the long term consequences of it I guess but I understand now that a balanced focus is key. 2. Should have definitely been obvious to me, build what is needed in the city of question. I will have to keep a close eye on the other players, You've made me realize that , "If you don't really know what to build next, check what the AI is doing and adjust/adapt to countering that". I appreciate the assistance and tips, have a great day.

 

[Deckhand]

Hello all! I'm still relatively new to Civ iv and I have a some questions I would like to ask if that's ok, thanks .

1. This one my sound silly but "Are farms really that important or useful for a Financial Leader?" ...

2. "Should I build walls and defensive structures or just produce more military units?"

3. "Is neutrality with everyone better at preventing wars against yourself then picking one side and sticking with them to the very end?" I find it very difficult to be on good terms with all of the computer players at the same time.

4. I tend to focus all my cities to synergies with my leaders traits and be exactly the same, rather then to focus each city to be a money generator, a producer, a great person generator, etc. Is this a bad thing and too much focus? Should I have my city be more diverse?

5. "I don't use the Slavery civic, is this a bad thing?" I have no idea why I don't use it, I just tend to forget about and ignore it after I've researched the tech for it.

6. "How do I get the most optimal gain of culture between three cities for a Culture Victory?" I'll clarify. By the time I won my first Cultural Victory on a civ iv game, one of my legendary culture cities had 2.5x more culture then the other two cites that were also legendary culture, though their cultural numbers were very similar.

This is all I have for now, sorry if these are complicated to answer. Thank you though for reading all this, I appreciate it!

A. What georgjeorge said

B. also

1. Farms are for resources and chain irrigation, cottages are best by rivers for the extra commerce, I like to farm by lakes. Generally ignore plains tiles for any use.

2. Walls are seldom built.

3. You can't please everyone

4. Specialization is the way to go (not that I practice it well)

5. What georgjeorge said: Whip

6. you should generate a lot of great artists and when you have enough culture bomb the other cities, so they all get to legendary at the same time

7. you didn't ask, but I've read that chopping your forests early is best way to get a quick start

 

[Yxklyx]

A. What georgjeorge said

B. also

1. Farms are for resources and chain irrigation, cottages are best by rivers for the extra commerce, I like to farm by lakes. Generally ignore plains tiles for any use.
...

Plains rivers are great for watermills under State Property.

 

[dalamb]

6. I don't play Cultural victories, but there's a guide to Cultural Victories (forgot by whom), and there's the excellent write-up named "Replay #7" by Seraiel over in the Hall of Fame forum. These will probably help you a lot with these kind of victories.

jesusin wrote a guide to cultural victories.

 

[Yxklyx]

Related to culture. Here's a tip that I was an idiot not to realize earlier. I've only ever Built Culture when going for a cultural victory but I just realized this is the best way to get new cities up and running. In the past I would just use the culture slider or missionaries - so now Music is a major priority before colonizing.

 

[Yxklyx]

Regarding Healing and this article:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157954

usually the primary decision the turn after capturing a city is whether or not to move your damaged units from enemy territory into the city before healing. If you have a Medic III that means that you can heal 30 HP (30% of health) in enemy territory correct? So, if my 12 Str Cannon has 3.6 damage (0.3*12=3.6) or less it should stay put and heal right? This is assuming I want the Cannon to be fully healed in one turn.

 

[Lennier]

If you hover your mouse over the "heal" button, you can see how many turns it will take to heal (save you the bother of calculating the heal rate.)

In general, I usually keep my 1-turn healers in place and move my 2+-turn healers into the city. And leave an undamaged unit or two behind to protect the slightly damaged stack. You might consider moving them all into the city if everybody's damaged and you're afraid of counter-attack.

 

[Yxklyx]

If you hover your mouse over the "heal" button, you can see how many turns it will take to heal (save you the bother of calculating the heal rate.)...

Wow, never knew that! +1200 hours too!

 

[Yxklyx]

When will non-capitulation vassals break free of their master? I've been warring against a master and his vassals are not freeing themselves. Is there a better chance if I declare peace?

 

[Sisiutil]

When will non-capitulation vassals break free of their master? I've been warring against a master and his vassals are not freeing themselves. Is there a better chance if I declare peace?

Based solely on my own experience, the chances of this occurring increase with the territory & power rating you take from the master.

 

[Manco Capac]

When will non-capitulation vassals break free of their master? I've been warring against a master and his vassals are not freeing themselves. Is there a better chance if I declare peace?

Just to note that vassals/capitulees to the human never breaks.

For a vassal to an AI master, there are two conditions of breaking the vassal treaty:

1) Pact of Protection: If the master didn't manage to provide the minimum of protecting its vassal and therefore that one loses over 50% of its original pop/land, then the treaty is broken. It is very possible that the check for breaking any diplo deal is at a frequency of 20 turns (or defined as two length of enforced peace treaty).

2) Rejection of a weak master: If the vassal, through whatever means, absorbed more lands and population to a point to have 50% of its master, it has the right to cancel the vassal treaty. Frequency is likely just like the first condition.

@Sisiutil

Welcome back to the Newbs.

 

[Tjmachado]

In Civ 4, there are a lot of different things that will dictate your strategy from Turn 1. A LOT. This list includes, but is not limited to:

Terrain (Hills, Resources, Oceans...)

Leader Traits

Diplomatic Relations (and AI personalities)

Tech, Resource, and Military Situations



HOWEVER, these things should NOT (strongly) dictate your strategy:

What You "Feel Like"

What Worked on Another Map

What Other People Have Done

And Most Importantly, THE "ONE" STRATEGY! There is no "winning strategy" in Civ 4! A good player should have only a general idea (and I mean very general, maybe not even the victory condition) of what they plan to do before they generate a map.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

+1.

Agree 100% with Tjmachado suggestions above.

Strategies in Civ IV must adapt to changing situations just like strategies in the real world. Also, even good strategies can lead one astray with too many bad random (Random Number Generation) influences. Better strategies will mitigate bad luck with contigency plans - a simple example is go to war with 25-50% more units than the number that would seem to suffice; this is to ensure your military is not exhausted (has enough strength and mobility to continue, usually with increasingly better odds) until all objectives have been met. In others words, always consider what might go wrong and how badly and have a mitigation plan that will usually turn things around.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Noble Zarkon]

a simple example is go to war with 25-50% more units than the number that would seem to suffice; this is to ensure your military is not exhausted (has enough strength and mobility to continue, usually with increasingly better odds) until all objectives have been met.

That's generally good advice however I know my game much improved by not over preparing for war, especially in the early game, 6 axes out early is better than 10 that come out 20 turns later.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

That's generally good advice however I know my game much improved by not over preparing for war, especially in the early game, 6 axes out early is better than 10 that come out 20 turns later.

Agreed. I was just suggesting a modest extra number of military units to mitigate bad luck outcomes. Maybe 2-3 more, though four would be better, assuming the delay is reasonable.

It should not take 20 turns to produce 4 more axes though. Assuming at least two cities, a 2 Pop whip in each will produce the first two of the extra four and generate enough overflow to produce two more axes in each city in 2-3 turns. This is assuming one has at least 4 Pop in each city after generating the first six axemen. If not, it may be better to go with six axemen and not wait any longer (which is exactly what you were suggesting).

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[TheSunIsDark]

Rush someone early, you can wipe them out, get free gold and cities, promote units, etc. You can often get a world wonder or holy city! Try to avoid those with early UUs, especially Mali with the Skirmisher.

 

[TheSunIsDark]

Don't put too much weight on one-on-one unit matchups, 10 axemen are going to beat 2 archers fortified in a city

 

[ThatOne]

Rush someone early, you can wipe them out, get free gold and cities, promote units, etc. You can often get a world wonder or holy city! Try to avoid those with early UUs, especially Mali with the Skirmisher.

usually just destroy the cities. Never in right locations.

 

[dalamb]

You have to balance getting "perfect" locations with the expense of producing your own settlers. Like anything else in Civ, it depends on the map. AI capitals are often decent locations and sometimes have those nice wonders TheSunIsDark mentioned -- and secondary cities can be holy cities, too.

 

[ZeekLTK]

2. "Should I build walls and defensive structures or just produce more military units?"

The only time you should build walls or other "defensive structures" is if you both:

a) Think you will be getting attacked there soon/often
b) Don't plan on expanding past that point for quite a while


For example, if you build a city on the outskirts of your land and there are a lot of barbs who will be coming at you - it might make sense to build a wall in order to make it easier to hold them off. Also, if you have workers out there, improve the tiles BEHIND your city, so that it is harder for the barbs to raze them.

Unless of course you want to set up a trap - if there are lots of jungles/forests that make it hard to pick off the barbs, improve a rice plot or whatever and they will go after that. You can attack them as soon as they step on it and they won't have any defensive bonuses like they would in the forest/jungle. However, this doesn't work if they have horses, because they can raze the tile on the same turn they move onto it.

Speaking of that, try to clear the forests/jungles that are directly next to your cities first. It removes the "cover" that attackers would have, allowing you to counter-attack them more easily. For example, if you have a forested hill next to your city, the attackers will go to that spot and then it will be really hard for you to hit them back since they'll have a 75% tile bonus. If you at least clear the forest before they get there, they don't have such a high bonus. It's even better if you can try to not let them get on any hills at all - force them onto a flat tile with no trees and they'll have no bonus.



Going back to walls - what I like to do is find a choke point somewhere where mountains/water make it difficult for someone to go around you (ideally find a spot where the tile you build a city on is the ONLY tile that can be used to go from one side to the other). Build a city there and put up walls/castle and then you can make it extremely difficult for anyone to attack you from there. And you won't need as many units to protect it because of the bonuses. Some locations you can probably hold off an entire army with just a few longbows if you have a city on a hill with walls that they can't just go around.

However, if you have a city in the middle of your borders, or even if you have a city on the outskirts right now but you plan to settle beyond it relatively soon, then it doesn't make sense to build walls because it is unlikely to ever be attacked.