Condensed tips for beginners?

[ordinaryguy]

Well, I played my Augustus game and won domination, but my score was lousy (Emperor Constantine). This is because I made a critical mistake mid-game. I went to the other continent (despite it being 'fractal' ) after crushing my 2 neighbors early to eliminate Victoria who was the tech leader, but not the power leader. I was about to finish her when Napoleon suddenly declared war, undoing all my work on that continent. This set my domination win back many turns, but I later returned to wipe Napoleon out and win the game. The lesson: always kill the power leader, even if he/she isn't the tech leader. Take a note, fellow noobs.

Actually, it depends on your objectives and the situation. Nothing is the same everything. I learnt from experience, and you will do the same too (as in this case).

 

[Rancid Sushi]

Actually, it depends on your objectives and the situation. Nothing is the same everything. I learnt from experience, and you will do the same too (as in this case).

Normally I would agree, but this was very odd. Napoleon wasn't even on my continent, he just suddenly declared war and swept through all the cities I had taken from Victoria, except 2 which I managed to save. I gave back one of the cities I had taken to Victoria (couldn't trade, she was the tech leader) which blocked Napoleon from taking London and Nottingham because they didn't have an OB treaty. Nappy tried to land some troops on my continent but the galleons were easily destroyed by my ironclads (they're not as useless as people think). The point: I was surprised since it was the first time an AI declared war by invading territory which I had taken over just a few turns before.

EDIT: This was on Noble difficulty. I still don't feel ready to move up to prince even though I've had this game for a couple months now.

 

[ordinaryguy]

Normally I would agree, but this was very odd. Napoleon wasn't even on my continent, he just suddenly declared war and swept through all the cities I had taken from Victoria, except 2 which I managed to save. I gave back one of the cities I had taken to Victoria (couldn't trade, she was the tech leader) which blocked Napoleon from taking London and Nottingham because they didn't have an OB treaty. Nappy tried to land some troops on my continent but the galleons were easily destroyed by my ironclads (they're not as useless as people think). The point: I was surprised since it was the first time an AI declared war by invading territory which I had taken over just a few turns before.

EDIT: This was on Noble difficulty. I still don't feel ready to move up to prince even though I've had this game for a couple months now.

1. Check the foreign advisor to see your relations with him. If it is bad, then I wouldn't be surprised by this happening.

2. Check the power graph (measurement of quantity and quality of units). If his power is much higher than you, then there is a good chance he will attack you (even more so when he hates you).

3. Check if relations between AIs. Sometimes you can find out why they are behaving in such a manner.

4. If all fails, closely examine the replay and demographics after the game for the reason(s).

I hope these helps.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

EDIT: This was on Noble difficulty. I still don't feel ready to move up to prince even though I've had this game for a couple months now.

Me, too. I can't even produce a decent showing on Noble.

 

[cabert]

Me, too. I can't even produce a decent showing on Noble.

try reading some SGs.
If you go for some with funky variants, you will see how some great players go around the obstacles, giving you a new set of tools .

The GotMs spoilers are great learning tools too.

Since I don't want to do any publicity for others , I'll give you a link to :

P666-01 : fix the trash game, where Cam_h, Pigswill, Mice, VuDu, Armstrong, Petrucci and myself went for domination on prince.

There are saves (some were removed to save storage space, so don't get upset if some don't work) at various moments (every 40 turns or so).
Some of us gave out good strategic thinking with their saves.

I suggest DL the initial save, playing out for 40 turns, then looking at "our" saves and see what goes right and what goes wrong.
The best/worse voting isn't necessarily the most interesting part in this. The good part is seeing what was done by different players, what each considered a move or a move.

It's not going to give you a complete set of tools (it's one game, with one leader, going for one predefined victory condition = not a complete spectrum)

 

[ShoKay]

Hi, this is absolutely basic stuff, but I've looked everywhere on this site and others and I can't find the answer probably because its too obvious. I don't have a manual and the tutorial gets the 'initialising renderer' error but I can't fix it and it doesn't affect the main game, its driving me mad!

Sorry, so anyway, how do you actually use a city? I mean like what do you actually click on to do stuff in it? Every time I open up the city screen I've got my single citizen staring at me with the minus button, and when I click on a tile to put the white ring round it and see all the benefits, I'll end the turn, and then I'll come back and its gone again and the citizen's just sitting there having done nothing.
Also, is the game supposed to go by so fast? I'm playing on standard, and its like 2050BC already and I've only been able to make one worker, an obelisk and research a few things. Is there something else I should be doing, can you build more than one thing in a turn, or is it just standard for the game to skip 30 years each time I press the enter button?

-edit-
I'm sorry, I just went back and had a proper look, and I realised that I'd clicked the + button on citizens, thus having a citizen (who I didn't realise was different from population) just sitting there for 2 thousand years Yes I'm an idiot. I'd still like to know how to fix my tutorial without breaking the whole game, but don't worry about my newbie game questions.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

try reading some SGs.

I have! The difficulty comes in (a) remembering the advice in the SGs and (b) applying it to my specific situation.

Thanks for the links, though, I'll make time to check them out.

 

[Rancid Sushi]

1. Check the foreign advisor to see your relations with him. If it is bad, then I wouldn't be surprised by this happening.

2. Check the power graph (measurement of quantity and quality of units). If his power is much higher than you, then there is a good chance he will attack you (even more so when he hates you).

3. Check if relations between AIs. Sometimes you can find out why they are behaving in such a manner.

4. If all fails, closely examine the replay and demographics after the game for the reason(s).

I hope these helps.

Nappy was Cautious towards me. I have a theory that Victoria bribed him with a tech so Nappy would come to her rescue. Lot of good it did the old hag, Napoleon is now French toast.

 

[G-Max]

Caveat that with "... unless you have units that negate many archery advantages, like Quechu or Immortals"

Persia + Horses = (super cheap!) Immortals = Ancient Era Nightmare

Nice in theory, but by the time you've actually researched animal husbandry, researched The Wheel, built a worker, built a pasture, built a barracks, blah blah blah, and started cranking out horses, your opponents' cities will have 40% defense. At this point, you're not getting anywhere without Catapults, and by the time you research those, your opponents will be defending their cities with Swordsmen and the like.

Ok strategies for beginners.

Aggro whomp strat go romas get iron and 4-5 cities pump out preatorians whomp your neighbours if you are slow get catapults.

THAT is a strategy that works wonders

You have to put about 2-4 catapults and 6-8 Praetorians on a city to capture it, but it works beautifully until Gunpowder shows up.

 

[cabert]

Nice in theory, but by the time you've actually researched animal husbandry, researched The Wheel, built a worker, built a pasture, built a barracks, blah blah blah, and started cranking out horses, your opponents' cities will have 40% defense. At this point, you're not getting anywhere without Catapults, and by the time you research those, your opponents will be defending their cities with Swordsmen and the like.

totally wrong
Build 2 immortals for every archer in a city.
They won't die as often as normal chariots, and you can rampage through every thing.
+ the reinforcements come soon.

 

[ordinaryguy]

Nappy was Cautious towards me. I have a theory that Victoria bribed him with a tech so Nappy would come to her rescue. Lot of good it did the old hag, Napoleon is now French toast.

How about Nappy's power in relation to yours?

And did you have adequate troops to hold the captured cities? This is important! If you are going to conquer cities then you will need troops that are able to repel counter-attacks and hold on to the city (archery units are best - they can do the mopping up of red-lined units sometimes too).

Regarding your theory, as I have said before, you could always find out after the game

 

[Rancid Sushi]

First I'd like to say that you guys have been a big help to me. Now for another noobilicious question. I want to build the manhattan project, but which city should I build it in? I don't wanna build it in my main production city, because that's where I want to crank out units, but if I build in a city with marginal production, it will take too long. In other words, how do I build the Manhattan project quickly enough so as not to stifle my unit production for too long?

 

[ordinaryguy]

First I'd like to say that you guys have been a big help to me. Now for another noobilicious question. I want to build the manhattan project, but which city should I build it in? I don't wanna build it in my main production city, because that's where I want to crank out units, but if I build in a city with marginal production, it will take too long. In other words, how do I build the Manhattan project quickly enough so as not to stifle my unit production for too long?

no problem at all

I usually have 2 main production cities, one with heroic epic and west point and the other for wonders. IMHO, use the "wonder" city to build the Manhattan Project.

Or if you have a city with many forests, you can chop it and whip it. (I think)

Or you could just focus on building units and go whack some AI This saves time by not building the Manhattan Project plus using nukes can lead to global warming in the city or cities where u build and launch the nukes from

 

[Rancid Sushi]

I know. I just won't be playing CIV for a while, but when I return I want to come back with a bang. Tired of having my modern soldiers do all the manual labor. Besides, if I were to reduce the other civ's population with nukes, wouldn't that put me closer to domination? By decreasing enemy population, more of the world's population would belong to me and therefore I would have a higher percentage.

 

[ordinaryguy]

I know. I just won't be playing CIV for a while, but when I return I want to come back with a bang. Tired of having my modern soldiers do all the manual labor. Besides, if I were to reduce the other civ's population with nukes, wouldn't that put me closer to domination? By decreasing enemy population, more of the world's population would belong to me and therefore I would have a higher percentage.

You could also have planes...

If you capture cities, it will also put u closer to domination. Keep in mind that nuking causes global warming (creation of desert tiles) and this might reduce your population. Whereas if you just conquer cities, the problems are war weariness and maintenance/civic cost.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I've always been nervous about the MP, because it puts nukes into the hands of every civ. OK you might get the first strike in, but you can bet the retaliation's going to be pretty overwhelming (unless you leave them with only a few small cities, which is probably the idea).

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

the can only retailiate when they have nukes. on noble I ussually build nukes till the invent fission, then I use the un resolution in the UN to forbid the building of nukes. But by that time I ussually have about 10 to 50 nukes.

 

[ordinaryguy]

I've always been nervous about the MP, because it puts nukes into the hands of every civ. OK you might get the first strike in, but you can bet the retaliation's going to be pretty overwhelming (unless you leave them with only a few small cities, which is probably the idea).

You could launch an attack. Then the AI would be busy building troops instead of nukes

Usually, I don't wait until nukes. Just destroy the AI before then

 

[OscarWildebeest]

[Post deleted, in wrong thread, sorry.]

 

[jamuraa]

I have been looking around for a while, but I can't find a good article on how barbarians work - when do they show up, how does clicking on raging barbarians change their behavior, etc. Is there a good article somewhere on this? I noticed that in different map sizes some of the XML settings that mention barbarians are different, but don't know what they mean.