BrantleyL1
Warlord
OK, I'd be happy to post in the correct place, but please explain what is the difference between "Condensed tips for beginners?" and "'Newbie' Questions".
Condensed tips for beginners?
- Thread starter Roger_Mellie
- Start date
OK, I'd be happy to post in the correct place, but please explain what is the difference between "Condensed tips for beginners?" and "'Newbie' Questions".
iamnleth
Warlord
Quick question: Does simply hooking up a resource (like gems or gold) give you free commerce without a citizen working it? Maybe I misunderstood.
Hero
NPC
I think hooking it up only gives you the 
or 
benefit to your cities. It has to be worked by a citizen to give the 
/ 
/ 
.
or benefit to your cities. It has to be worked by a citizen to give the / / .smokey t bones
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2007
- Messages
- 23
the strategy i use when starting is not to build a settler first, b/c the capital city will not expand while it's being built and if you let the capital expand to a size 2 city first, it will build the settler faster anyway. no... i build a scout first (i almost always choose a civ that starts with the hunting technology), then the settler for the second city. also, i very rarely build settlers or workers in any size 1 city, for the same reasons.
besides that, a good strategy is to dominate the religions being founded. try playing civs that have mysticism for their starting techs. go for meditation, followed by polytheism immediately, and, if your scouts are getting lots of good techs from the goodie huts, you can go for monotheism very quickly after that (after you get archery and a few techs to give your early workers something to do, like the wheel and pottery to name the best first two).
also (and this is really good advice, in my opinion), focus on building cottages rather than farming as much as possible in your fat cross squares that already yield two grain icons. when the cottages start to kick in in the mid-game, you can start expanding like crazy. although it was on warlord level with a lot of "hut cheating" (reloading customized games until i got what i wanted from every goodie hut), i scored over 30,000 adjusted score once playing gandhi (his fast workers are by far the best special units in my opinion).
a couple of other good ideas i've had success with (by the way, some of these may be repeated here, b/c i have not read over all the threads posted here): 1) make sure every city has a mounted unit in it for plucking off barbarians as they come near your cities to pillage (the 2 movement points means you can rush out to attack them instead of waiting for them to impale themselves on your arrows attacking your cities); 2) use great artists in the mid and late game to push out a few of your cities cultural borders when there's a border conflict with another empire (i find they are highly valuable in this regard and use them this way almost always rather than having them research techs or merging with cities); 3) save great engineers for building wonders of the world (even if you aren't building any at the time, you can put them on snooze and then wake them up to complete the wonders); 4) trade a lot (once i research a new tech that's valuable, i start with the civilization that is losing the worst and try to trade it for whatever i can get, then work my way up to the more competitive civs, trading it as much as possible); 5) build a ring of cities around your capital early, b/c it keeps barbarians from invading your capital (they only attack from outside your combined cultural borders); 6) build a lighthouse and a forge as early as possible to start construction of the great lighthouse and the colossus; 7) sometimes it's a good idea to have a few cities with barracks early on churning out archers and other military units and shotgunning them out to other cities (this way, each city does not have to work on defense, but can work on world wonders, religious missionaries, etc); 8) put the national epic in the city that already gets the most great person points per round (usually my capital, when i play) so that that city can really pump out the great people; 9) one good idea is to have a skirmish with another empire early so you can ensure you have a military unit with 5 experience points (required to build certain things, like the heroic epic) (waiting for a major war in the mid and late games is very expensive; better to wage war early with swordsmen, axemen, and catapults); 10) after your scouts are finished mapping out your initial continent, place them in a city or cities near other landmasses and on the coast, so you can ship them out for exploration as soon as possible, with gallies or galleons); 11) go ahead and give the other empires technologies when they ask for them, b/c it means they are far less likely to attack you later if you do and they'll vote for you as the diplomatic leader once the united nations is constructed; 12) build as many world wonders as possible, b/c the effects ripple and multiply (all wonders are good wonders!); etc....
smokey t bones, ph.d.
besides that, a good strategy is to dominate the religions being founded. try playing civs that have mysticism for their starting techs. go for meditation, followed by polytheism immediately, and, if your scouts are getting lots of good techs from the goodie huts, you can go for monotheism very quickly after that (after you get archery and a few techs to give your early workers something to do, like the wheel and pottery to name the best first two).
also (and this is really good advice, in my opinion), focus on building cottages rather than farming as much as possible in your fat cross squares that already yield two grain icons. when the cottages start to kick in in the mid-game, you can start expanding like crazy. although it was on warlord level with a lot of "hut cheating" (reloading customized games until i got what i wanted from every goodie hut), i scored over 30,000 adjusted score once playing gandhi (his fast workers are by far the best special units in my opinion).
a couple of other good ideas i've had success with (by the way, some of these may be repeated here, b/c i have not read over all the threads posted here): 1) make sure every city has a mounted unit in it for plucking off barbarians as they come near your cities to pillage (the 2 movement points means you can rush out to attack them instead of waiting for them to impale themselves on your arrows attacking your cities); 2) use great artists in the mid and late game to push out a few of your cities cultural borders when there's a border conflict with another empire (i find they are highly valuable in this regard and use them this way almost always rather than having them research techs or merging with cities); 3) save great engineers for building wonders of the world (even if you aren't building any at the time, you can put them on snooze and then wake them up to complete the wonders); 4) trade a lot (once i research a new tech that's valuable, i start with the civilization that is losing the worst and try to trade it for whatever i can get, then work my way up to the more competitive civs, trading it as much as possible); 5) build a ring of cities around your capital early, b/c it keeps barbarians from invading your capital (they only attack from outside your combined cultural borders); 6) build a lighthouse and a forge as early as possible to start construction of the great lighthouse and the colossus; 7) sometimes it's a good idea to have a few cities with barracks early on churning out archers and other military units and shotgunning them out to other cities (this way, each city does not have to work on defense, but can work on world wonders, religious missionaries, etc); 8) put the national epic in the city that already gets the most great person points per round (usually my capital, when i play) so that that city can really pump out the great people; 9) one good idea is to have a skirmish with another empire early so you can ensure you have a military unit with 5 experience points (required to build certain things, like the heroic epic) (waiting for a major war in the mid and late games is very expensive; better to wage war early with swordsmen, axemen, and catapults); 10) after your scouts are finished mapping out your initial continent, place them in a city or cities near other landmasses and on the coast, so you can ship them out for exploration as soon as possible, with gallies or galleons); 11) go ahead and give the other empires technologies when they ask for them, b/c it means they are far less likely to attack you later if you do and they'll vote for you as the diplomatic leader once the united nations is constructed; 12) build as many world wonders as possible, b/c the effects ripple and multiply (all wonders are good wonders!); etc....
smokey t bones, ph.d.
LordWeazelNobil
Chieftain
You don't build them
-"...they will come", if you R tha 1st t 2 finish researching religious based technologies. Then they will spontaineously appear like moscitoes, only nice - in 1 of your cities ( usually the capital but ah). U research it they will come.
-30-
I have a few quick q's...
1. when your settler is moving around, theres blue circles around. what are they??? good places to found towns?
2. if a settler builds a city on a resource eg pig, does the city get the resource? is this a good idea?
3. when a city is building something, and you want to change what its building, is there a way of transfering the hammers youve already accumulated? eg nearly completing a warrior, then changing to a settler without having to start him from scratch?
4. if your researching something and you want to change, can you transfer the research or do you have to start from scratch also? if you can switch how is it done?
1. when your settler is moving around, theres blue circles around. what are they??? good places to found towns?
2. if a settler builds a city on a resource eg pig, does the city get the resource? is this a good idea?
3. when a city is building something, and you want to change what its building, is there a way of transfering the hammers youve already accumulated? eg nearly completing a warrior, then changing to a settler without having to start him from scratch?
4. if your researching something and you want to change, can you transfer the research or do you have to start from scratch also? if you can switch how is it done?
1) Blue circles are "recommended" settlement spots - which isn't to say that the AI is great at recommending spots to settle, but they are usually semi-decent.
2) You get the resource, yes, but you generally don't get the improvement benefit from it. For example, if you mine an iron square, you get extra hammers for it, if irrigate wheat, you get extra food. If you settle on the iron/wheat, you won't get the same benefits from them. So in general, it's not a good idea to do it, unless for defensive reasons you want to ensure that your Empire has access to the resource.
3) You can't transfer hammers - but hammers aren't "lost". They are saved, and once you finish your new build item, it will resume building the previous item.
4) The same as above, you can't transfer them, but they are never "lost". You can switch what you are researching in the F6 screen.
Bh
2) You get the resource, yes, but you generally don't get the improvement benefit from it. For example, if you mine an iron square, you get extra hammers for it, if irrigate wheat, you get extra food. If you settle on the iron/wheat, you won't get the same benefits from them. So in general, it's not a good idea to do it, unless for defensive reasons you want to ensure that your Empire has access to the resource.
3) You can't transfer hammers - but hammers aren't "lost". They are saved, and once you finish your new build item, it will resume building the previous item.
4) The same as above, you can't transfer them, but they are never "lost". You can switch what you are researching in the F6 screen.
Bh
LordWeazelNobil
Chieftain
OK -A few qk ?'s. Here's your research paper 2 t best O'mi
ah, O ya, knowledge:1. The O's = just the comuter's best guess in accordance with where Ur Set = @ t time. IOW no, it's loc data 4 t Set; U can ignore these, I find it useful just 4 feedback. Then there's coast vs. fresh water + near how much hammers, what stage of the game. First few CITIES (vs. Towns) should include 1 or 2 on t coast if pos, 1 or 2 near fresh water, + @ least 1 near lotz o hammers to build things quick. Ideal 1st city = near fresh water pref. on coast, near some resources -usually a 1coin, 1hammer, 1bread sit is sug.
2. The city gets the resource; I used 2 do this all t time. I read in a recent post this = not t best idea; I suppose because U don't get the full monty.
3. Usually t W. n ts case will get push 2 2nd place
your city screen dbl click city name + bot. left. If you want something right after: hold shift key. U can do other joggling (ask me later, also).4. I don't think there is a way to transfer but t research done on that tech will still be there when you come back 2it if you don't mess around 2much + believe me -this = a game where U can pretty much mess with everything.
CU in heaven when U reach t deity level!
LordWeazelNobil
Chieftain
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134903Er, no.
I'm not playing police here, I'm just wondering why people can't ask questions in the questions thread...
This thread is too polluted now to be any good : who would go through 27 pages to find some hidden condensed tips?
Unsubscribing here...
BrantleyL1
Warlord
I've been thinking about that. And have also contributed to the errors. And I think I've got it.... The title of the forum is "Condensed tips for beginners?" with a "?" on the end - which may lead people to erroneously believe that this is a place to ask questions.
Also, it is frequently at the top of the list...
Im not a expert myself so i dont know whether i should just shut up, but nontheless: I agree: theology is very important tech if you are betting on your army, since you get extra levels and the way i always get it before my enemies do, is this (not sure if anyone has said this already, didn't have the time to read all comments): First study the techs that will lead to Theology, but dont start studying it, since it takes a lot of time. Instead, study all other techs (i pretty much always go with the ones that don't take so long, sorry!) and construct the building Oracle so that you get a free tech. Then take Theology..
Perugia
Prince
Bureaucracy is a very powerful civic to improve the output of your Capital once your civ learns the Civil Service technology. Bureaucracy gives +50% , +50% 
in Capital but there are both limitations and additional benefits to understand to use it to best effect.
The first point to note is that the +50% bonus is like most boni additive improving the output of all tiles and Engineer, Priest & Citizens specialists in the normal way and acts the same as having 2 forges in the city would (not that you can have 2 forges!).
The second point to note is that commerce is increased by 50%. Certain manuals and official strategy guides incorrectly state +50% gold. This is because the initial release of the game used the commerce icon for commerce and gold which confused the authors. The Civilopedia is correct.
The third and most important the thing to note is that as commerce is multipled by 50% this increase is cumulative with the various building multipliers for
, and 
that are available from the likes of Libraries, Banks, Cathedrals etc, after allowing for the effects of the commerce slider. This is quite unusual and very powerful [I think the only other example of a cumulative bonus is the one associated with Financial Trait.] Other bonuses devalue the more of them you have for example if you have a Library +25% science bonus then your net University bonus is 40% not the gross 50% you might first think.
However as a direct result of the calculation, the +50% multiplier does nothing for , and received from specialists or for gold or culture from buildings 
.
Therefore if you intend to run a Great Person (GP) farm focussed on Great Scientists, Artists or Merchants maybe based on the Caste System civic then it might be best not to have this in your Capital at least while you are running Bureaucracy.
Given a choice the Capital should use it's food surplus for a 'Cottage economy' rather than Caste System specialists.
Also there's no harm allowing religions to found outside the Capital as they will tend to do unless you do not settle your second city. Bureaucracy cannot assist their shrines which is actually quite a realistic seperation of Church and State. For similar reasons you don't need to worry about the location of the Spiral Minaret if you are fortunate to learn Divine Right in timely fashion.
Also if you are going for a cultural victory and have reached the Liberalism, adopt Free Speech and set culture slider to 100% stage you can be reassured that the gross boost to culture from the 100% bonus of Free Speech is greater than 2x the boost you were getting from Bureaucracy (Free Speech works on the culture received from buildings as well as that from commerce). This applies even if there are no towns around your capital to benefit from the other effect of Free Speech.
However because the Free Speech bonus devalues with buildings bonuses from Cathedrals, Hermitage, Broadcast Tower etc, whilst the Bureaucracy one does not this may not be true if you have more than 100% culture bonuses from buildings combined with much more commerce based than buildings based culture. Specifically the break even point (ignoring towns and other cities) is when (2 x culture value of buildings) >= commerce * 100% * (buildings bonuses -100%)
Finally note that Priest specialists benefit from the +50% bonus but not the +50% one.
, +50% in Capital but there are both limitations and additional benefits to understand to use it to best effect.The first point to note is that the +50%
bonus is like most boni additive improving the output of all tiles and Engineer, Priest & Citizens specialists in the normal way and acts the same as having 2 forges in the city would (not that you can have 2 forges!).The second point to note is that commerce is increased by 50%. Certain manuals and official strategy guides incorrectly state +50% gold. This is because the initial release of the game used the commerce icon for commerce and gold which confused the authors. The Civilopedia is correct.
The third and most important the thing to note is that as commerce is multipled by 50% this increase is cumulative with the various building multipliers for
, and that are available from the likes of Libraries, Banks, Cathedrals etc, after allowing for the effects of the commerce slider. This is quite unusual and very powerful [I think the only other example of a cumulative bonus is the one associated with Financial Trait.] Other bonuses devalue the more of them you have for example if you have a Library +25% science bonus then your net University bonus is 40% not the gross 50% you might first think. However as a direct result of the calculation, the +50%
multiplier does nothing for , and received from specialists or for gold or culture from buildings . Therefore if you intend to run a Great Person (GP) farm focussed on Great Scientists, Artists or Merchants maybe based on the Caste System civic then it might be best not to have this in your Capital at least while you are running Bureaucracy.
Given a choice the Capital should use it's food surplus for a 'Cottage economy' rather than Caste System specialists.
Also there's no harm allowing religions to found outside the Capital as they will tend to do unless you do not settle your second city. Bureaucracy cannot assist their shrines which is actually quite a realistic seperation of Church and State. For similar reasons you don't need to worry about the location of the Spiral Minaret if you are fortunate to learn Divine Right in timely fashion.
Also if you are going for a cultural victory and have reached the Liberalism, adopt Free Speech and set culture slider to 100% stage you can be reassured that the gross boost to culture from the 100% bonus of Free Speech is greater than 2x the boost you were getting from Bureaucracy (Free Speech works on the culture received from buildings as well as that from commerce). This applies even if there are no towns around your capital to benefit from the other effect of Free Speech.
However because the Free Speech bonus devalues with buildings bonuses from Cathedrals, Hermitage, Broadcast Tower etc, whilst the Bureaucracy one does not this may not be true if you have more than 100% culture bonuses from buildings combined with much more commerce based than buildings based culture. Specifically the break even point (ignoring towns and other cities) is when (2 x culture value of buildings) >= commerce * 100% * (buildings bonuses -100%)
Finally note that Priest specialists benefit from the +50%
bonus but not the +50% one.
Joul Ironhand
Ya rly!
I never did manage to win a game of Civ 4 - perhaps I will try again when I have my two monitors set up. One playing Civ 4 and the other on this forum thread
Littlewolf
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2004
- Messages
- 29
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Within the game, press your Ptr Scr key. The files automatically go to either C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\ScreenShots or to C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\My Documents\My Games\Warlords\ScreenShots depending on which version of the game you're playing.
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