Condensed tips for beginners?

[Brusati]

As I said, I am new at this. I play at the cheiftan level. I gather from what I have read thus far, many things change as one moves to higher levels of difficulty. At the cheiftan level the margin for error is greater. That is good because there is a lot to learn to master this game.

The advice to make military units as often as possible has worked. At the Chieftan level, the AI won't mess with you if you have the power edge.

As far as navies go, I disagree that a powerful navy is a waste of time. I haven't figured out how to make the most efficient use of navies as yet, but to control the seas gives a lot of advantages, at least to me. Frigates ships of the line on up can bombard cities and destroy offshore improvements. If you set up your trasnporting of personnel properly, you can bring forces to bear at points of attach near costlines very quickly. You can also protect your own coastline. But, to be honest, I haven't yet harnessed the power of the seas yet. I will keep the interested posted on this.

A couple of you advised attaching as soon as possible after IW. That has proven good advice. I am finding at the Chieftan level that I can wipe out one or two civilizations with a load of Praets. The key is strick fast. I have also found that an agressive strategy requires patients. To go right for a city is deadly. I have learned to move forward destroying everything in my path. Counter attack AI units if they are stupid enough to leave the protection of their cities. Surround the city then pounce.

Someone advised that settlers should found cities carefully to make sure I get all the resources needed. They were right. I have been more judicious as to where I place my first cities. Iron, copper, horses arekey in the early going. Lack of oil is a killer later in the game.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my first contact.

 

[Sisiutil]

As far as navies go, I disagree that a powerful navy is a waste of time. I haven't figured out how to make the most efficient use of navies as yet, but to control the seas gives a lot of advantages, at least to me. Frigates ships of the line on up can bombard cities and destroy offshore improvements. If you set up your trasnporting of personnel properly, you can bring forces to bear at points of attach near costlines very quickly. You can also protect your own coastline. But, to be honest, I haven't yet harnessed the power of the seas yet. I will keep the interested posted on this.

Try the following, which is commonly known around Civ IV circles as the "Sirian Doctrine". Basically, it involves using troops who lack Amphibious promotions (basically anything that isn't a Marine) in amphibious assaults, especially long before you even have Industrialism and are able to build Marine units.

Build up an attack force of Frigates, Galleons, and load the latter with a combination of siege weapons, city raiders, and city garrison units (assuming you plan to keep some or all of the cities you attack). Now pull up to an enemy city, use the Frigates to bombard away the cultural defenses, then attack from on board the Galleons with your siege weapons and then your City Raiders. You'll lose several siege units, but this sort of pre-Marine amphibious assault has two distinct advantages over a land-based attack in the same era.

• Mobility. This is a crucial military concept. The faster you can move, the more dangerous you are and the more likely you can win a war. Ships move through enemy territory at the exact same speed as the ydo outside of it, whereas land units have to slow down because they can't use enemy roads. A naval-based assault force can therefore quickly move from coastal city to coastal city, often catching the AI flat-footed. You also reduce the impact of war weariness if you can end the war faster.
• Protection. By attacking from aboard the ship, not only do you save a turn where you'd normally off-load the units; you also avoid counter-attacks from enemy units. Now that mounted units can perform flanking damage to siege weaponry in BtS, this tactic has become even more valuable. In BtS, you'll probably lose the same number of siege weapons even with the amphibious assault penalty as you would from a land-based attack. Perhaps even fewer!

By the way, Ragnar is ideal for this tactic, since you can build several Berserkers and later upgrade them to Grens or Rifles and they'll have their Amphibious promotion intact--allowing you to use (and lose) fewer siege weapons. And with his UB helping to churn out even faster ships, you're even more mobile. It's ironic, perhaps, that the real heyday for the Vikings in the game comes at least an era after it did in real life, but hey, that's Civ for ya.

 

[BrantleyL1]

I've been around a while and think I STILL have a lot to learn.

I used to get off to an OK start and usually could win - in vanilla. I've had to dial it back a level in BtS...

On the learn thought, what I think I just read here is that I should use my second warrior to explore and the third to escort the settler to the point close to the copper (or Iron, if playing Rome)... Is this right?

I've been playing one of the American or English rulers, mainly. I'm going to have to try Rome and an aggressive play, like sysiutil describes.

Generally, I build: warrior, worker, settler... But I leave the warrior in the city - waiting to escort the settler to the next city placement, while the first warrior goes out and explores. Seems like maybe warrior (go explore), worker, warrior (for excort duty), settler might be better??

I always go for mining (if not a starting tech), then BW. Most of the time, I then go for Agriculture (if not a starting tech), the Wheel, Pottery, then Animal Husbandry.

Depending on what I find, and how quick I need to expand borders. I will put Mysticism in there - sometimes sooner - because it's not real expensive. I've had real trouble being the first to stonehenge lately - is it better to not bother with it??

Sometimes I place a city 2 squares away from the copper and use a monument to expand the border. Is this a bad idea (generally)?? Second city, I usually build a worker - mine the copper - and then connect the cities by road.

Thoughts on this strategy??

[edit] I'd also be interested in a similar thoughts to sysiutil's dozen (or so thoughts), but directed toward the American or English rulers...

 

[Sisiutil]

I've been around a while and think I STILL have a lot to learn.

I used to get off to an OK start and usually could win - in vanilla. I've had to dial it back a level in BtS...

On the learn thought, what I think I just read here is that I should use my second warrior to explore and the third to escort the settler to the point close to the copper (or Iron, if playing Rome)... Is this right?

I've been playing one of the American or English rulers, mainly. I'm going to have to try Rome and an aggressive play, like sysiutil describes.

Generally, I build: warrior, worker, settler... But I leave the warrior in the city - waiting to escort the settler to the next city placement, while the first warrior goes out and explores. Seems like maybe warrior (go explore), worker, warrior (for excort duty), settler might be better??

I always go for mining (if not a starting tech), then BW. Most of the time, I then go for Agriculture (if not a starting tech), the Wheel, Pottery, then Animal Husbandry.

Depending on what I find, and how quick I need to expand borders. I will put Mysticism in there - sometimes sooner - because it's not real expensive. I've had real trouble being the first to stonehenge lately - is it better to not bother with it??

Sometimes I place a city 2 squares away from the copper and use a monument to expand the border. Is this a bad idea (generally)?? Second city, I usually build a worker - mine the copper - and then connect the cities by road.

Thoughts on this strategy??

[edit] I'd also be interested in a similar thoughts to sysiutil's dozen (or so thoughts), but directed toward the American or English rulers...

I like exploring with two Warriors (or Scouts, depending) early on, so yes, unless I'm lucky enough to pop an exploring unit from a hut, I'll build a second one. Barb animals won't enter your cultural territory, and barb military units won't either until everyone on your land mass has founded their second city or thereabouts, so you can leave your capital undefended for awhile (unless you're playing multiplayer, but that's a very different beast). You also don't need a military unit to raise the happy cap for awhile either. In other words, your revised initial build order and usage plan looks good.

I usually don't "escort" the Settler unless the city site is a long way off. What I usually do is send the slower-moving Warrior out first to fog-bust, then the Settler travels the "lit" path to the city site.

On the higher levels, Stonehenge is usually a non-starter unless you start with Mysticism. Even then, you want to get BW quickly so you can chop it. Otherwise, just build the darn monuments. The nice thing is they don't vanish when Astronomy comes along.

Founding the city with the strategic resource outside the first ring is a judgement call. If you can afford the time and it makes it a better long term city, fine. But don't do that with iron if you're playing as Rome and have no other strategic resource, as by the time it takes so research BW/Wheel/IW, the barbs will be appearing en masse.

 

[Mystz0r]

Hi,

Very quick question! I've just started with Civ 4 -- I'm an "oldie" though, having played Civ 1 and Civ 2 for countless hors. At the moment, I on "prince", though I'm probably kicking it up a notch or two soon. My question is relatively simple;

What map settings do you guys play? I'm having hard time deciding - either I get too big of an area for myself without any opponents, or I get too little. Normally my playstyle is to aim for a peacefull win, I'm not really into war wins.

Thanks!

 

[Sisiutil]

Hi,

Very quick question! I've just started with Civ 4 -- I'm an "oldie" though, having played Civ 1 and Civ 2 for countless hors. At the moment, I on "prince", though I'm probably kicking it up a notch or two soon. My question is relatively simple;

What map settings do you guys play? I'm having hard time deciding - either I get too big of an area for myself without any opponents, or I get too little. Normally my playstyle is to aim for a peacefull win, I'm not really into war wins.

Thanks!

I find that the number of civs on the map affect the frequency of wars as much as the map itself; more civs means less space for everyone, and that tends to increase the number of wars, or at least make it more necessary if you want to have enough land and productive cities to win the game.

For a more peaceful game, I tend to play hemispheres maps with the standard number of civs. I may have to fight an early war if I'm sharing my continent, but after that I tend to be able to expand peacefully. I may have to prioritize Astronomy if I'm isolated, but sometimes I can reach other civs by island-hopping.

 

[Mystz0r]

I'll try them all out and see which I prefer .

A few more questions;
1) I've always built my cities so their BFC is 100% theirs, and doesn't overlap with my other cities (except in some cases, where cities share maybe 1 tile). Is this wise, or should I build them closer? For the record, I play with a CE (financial leader) and I only know all these terms because I read that beginner guide 10 times

2) Unit promotions... How do they work? It's rare I can actually click them myself, they seem to upgrade automatically?

3) Hows the easiest way to secure a Cultural Victory? It seems like _alot_ of culture for 3 cities, I presume you need a lot of great artists?

Again, thanks for the help

 

[mystyfly]

I like fractal map script the most - either with +2 civs or Agg AI. I don't like everyone being diplomatically a prat and pissing every one off without any wars.

1) Overlap is quite good actually, especially for a CE. Say your research centre is currently building oxford university and is thus working hills rather than cottages. Now if you have overlap, your other cities can develop those cottages for you research centre and when oxford is done you can work towns instead of cottages.

2) ctrl - o. there you can turn auto-promotion off. About how you should promote your units, there are loads of guids as well

3) A good way (it seems to me) is to pick a high food site and two produciton sites. The production site (one of which should be the capital) build wonders, especially taj, MoM, parthenon, ... those that add GAs to your pool. Those also provide more culture than say the GW. The food site should run as many artists as possible. Try to settle as many GAs as possible, as soon as possible. Also, try to settle your 3 culture cities first as all cultural buildings double their culture output after a certain number of turns (50 or 100 or so..). Try to found a couple of religions and spread them to your cities, build temples, monasteries and cathedrals. Then, probabely after you get Free speech, turn your research off and invest everything into the culture slider (run it as high as possible) while you wait for your cities to become legendary. So cultural victories in 1400 are very well possible. When you go for cultural however, it's a good idea not to use agg ai


Good luck and welcome to civfanatics

 

[dalamb]

For cultural victory, there's Godotnut's Guide to Totally Peaceful Deity Cultural Victory; it's (obviously) written for deity level but there are a lot of good ideas that will work at lower levels, too. A key element is getting 9+ cities, 3 religions, and the "cathedral" building for those 3 into your 3 "to-be-legendary" cities.

 

[Mystz0r]

Thanks for that guys. One more final question before I start my Emperor game: exactly what is "balance" in the game creation menu?

 

[mystyfly]

Don't you want to try monarch first?

By "balance" do you mean the "balanced" option concerning ressources?

 

[7Fang]

Quick question, in some of the games on here, like The Nobles Club, people have different color backgrounds for "examine city" and such. How do you do that?

 

[mystyfly]

Quick question, in some of the games on here, like The Nobles Club, people have different color backgrounds for "examine city" and such. How do you do that?

I think you mean CivScale, a tool where you can edit the font, fontsize, background as well as scale different stuff like cities, buildings, units, improvements, ... A fun tool to play around with

 

[Mystz0r]

Ye Mystyfly, I mean the balanced option concerning ressources .

Oh ye, I meant monarch!

 

[7Fang]

I think you mean CivScale, a tool where you can edit the font, fontsize, background as well as scale different stuff like cities, buildings, units, improvements, ... A fun tool to play around with

Cool, Thanks!

 

[Fandango]

Since this is a "condensed" tips thread, I thought I'd ask the following question...

Top Three Tips (TTT) for:

1. City Placement
2. City Specialization
3. City Management
4. Technology
5. Religion
6. Civics
7. Diplomacy
8. Wonders
9. Great People
10. War

Pick one or pick'em all... it's all good!
Looking forward to the replies and insights.

 

[mystyfly]

1. City Placement

ALWAYS near a food ressource. Otherwise your city will be crappy forever.
Coastal cities with as few coastal tiles as possible are great.
Pack your cities close together, with, say 1-3 tiles overlap -> use all your land!

2. City Specialization

Err... do it?
Seriously, cities with much food surplus > GPFarm lots of grassland > science city (probabely through cottages) lots of mines (but the food to work them!) > production city.

3. City Management

More specific please?

4. Technology

same as above, do you mean tech path? tech trading? the answer is: it depends

5. Religion

Avoid them unless your close neighbors share the same. Religion is a diplomatic tool! If there are much religious differences, Free Religion is your friend.

6. Civics

Depends on your strat. BTW one of the best tips (IMO) is: HAVE A PLAN.

7. Diplomacy

Befriend the strong and close AIs, kick the weak and far away AIs. Don't try to be friends with everyone but pick certain civs you want to get to friendly.

8. Wonders

Don't build 'em. If any, build only a few that perfectly fit your strat.

9. Great People

They're strong. Use them wisely, meaning according to your strat. Example: You run a SE and are spiritual (probabely even philosophical too) and in pacifism. Starting a GA is a complete waste.

10. War

Is fun.
Honestly, often it's the only way to get out of a hole. If you have hammers to spare on units, do so and attack someone. Their shiny cities and wonders look good in your color!

 

[pigswill]

I'm playing a game and I've just lost my GG Medic pikeman (C1,med3) to an onslaught of knights even though I had another pike with C2/charge (the anti-horse promotion?) that never defended.

I'm wondering how that happened. Is it that the program selects the best unit type to defend then the most experienced unit of that type rather than the unit with the best odds?

If that's the case then I'll have to refigure which units I turn into medix.

 

[mystyfly]

^^Anti horse promotion is called "Flanking"

As far as I know it always picks the unit with the best odds. If there are two units with equal odds, it pick the less experienced.
In your example there was either a bug or there were other factors (like your medic had fortification bonus). But I agree, there HAS to be done something about GG-units and defending.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

Wow, I'm reading a lot of tips in favor of overlapping city tiles - which up until this point I assumed was a huge no-no.

What advantage do you get from doing this, and doesn't it only reduce the number of tiles your city can work in the late game - perhaps even limiting your population?

Also, I have question regarding this. Let's say two cities do share a tile - is there a way for me to control which city is able to work that specific tile? It seems to me that the city that originally controlled the shared tile will stay in command of it, even if it's not being worked, while it would remain grayed out for the secondary city.