Dominated early game, got wrecked later on.

[Rynian]

So I destroyed my opponent on epic, noble difficulty in early game. I was on a continent alone with greece, and used all my celtic warriors to facewipe his horsehocky, I also picked up the pyramids and stonehenge which had amazing synergy with my leader. HELL YES.

Tokugawa was just a short boat ride to the east, but he was too strong to fight, so I erased most of my units and focused on development. I Worked my way down the tech tree, I was never TOO sure what I wanted to do because the civ 4 tree is wild, but I did focus a lot on getting culture in my capital city +2 others for a cultural victory since invasion via boats would suck ass.

Shaka declares war.

OK

I get a ton of riflemen via drafting on galleons/frigates and send them west to attack. Im way ahead, or so I think.

Somehow shaka is on par with me military and tech, and he wrecks my ass when I go to his island.

Whatever, I decide to go back to square one, and just focus on infastructure while making a few ironclads to defend my boarders.

Suddenly tokugawa and gilgamesh roll up with large fleets and all the civs hate me too much to do anything to stop it.

and here goes the grave for my most promising game yet.

What... what should I do better next time? When it comes to war over the sea, making my way down the tech tree mid/late game, and in general advice for culture victories? To stop from getting gangfudged by every other country? (Make strong friends with a few at the expense of others I think) Hmmm Im improving at least ;p

 

[Tatran]

Civ 4 tech tree paths are clear : culture, religion, economic, exploration or science mixed with some military techs.
In most games you can skip the religious + cultural paths, thus the path to Music and the path to Theology.

Shaka and Tokugawa only trade techs at pleased or friendly. If their relations are worse they fall behind in tech quick.
Gilgamesh is a nasty opponent (CRE + PRO), a good tech trader and a huge backstabber.
If you are going for a peaceful victory just raze all their coastal cities and don't waste resources on invasions.

 

[6K Man]

Whatever, I decide to go back to square one, and just focus on infastructure while making a few ironclads to defend my boarders.

There’s no such thing as an ‘infrastructure victory’ in Civ4.

 

[Rynian]

There’s no such thing as an ‘infrastructure victory’ in Civ4.

No, but there is culture and science, and infastructure helps bolster ability to win any victory condition. I do not see your point

 

[6K Man]

Infrastructure is a means to an end, not an end in itself. You don't focus on infrastructure, you build the bare minimum of infrastructure to accomplish what you're trying to do. For culture, that means 3 cities with some infrastructure and 9 others with Granary, Forge, and as many Temples as you can manage. For science (I guess you mean Space) you build up science improvements in a handful of cities and wealth in most other places, and eventually spam Workshops everywhere once you've researched what you need.

Point being, you're usually better off building Wealth, workers, units or whipping things in most of your cities, as opposed to infrastructure (beyond Granary/Forge).

 

[Pedro78]

I mean no offense but this is kind of an empty dialog. It would be extremely helpful to have some saves/screenshots to look at so we can better assess your position @Rynian
But the first advice I would give you is watch some YouTube Civ4 LPs, it's not hard on your brain but teaches you a lot (Lain Civ 4 deity, Imploading, Chris67132 depending on the playstyle you prefer)

 

[Rynian]

I mean no offense but this is kind of an empty dialog. It would be extremely helpful to have some saves/screenshots to look at so we can better assess your position @Rynian
But the first advice I would give you is watch some YouTube Civ4 LPs, it's not hard on your brain but teaches you a lot (Lain Civ 4 deity, Imploading, Chris67132 depending on the playstyle you prefer)

Ill check those out. Im trying to switch to History Rewritten mod, as I like the larger number of civs and expanded religion mechanics... though the large scope of the map turns me off a bit. It is more realistic as the early enemies you fight will naturally be "barbarians" and you won't even meet other civs until you are both more established, though it interrupts the flow of the game a bit much IMO

 

[Rynian]

I mean no offense but this is kind of an empty dialog. It would be extremely helpful to have some saves/screenshots to look at so we can better assess your position @Rynian
But the first advice I would give you is watch some YouTube Civ4 LPs, it's not hard on your brain but teaches you a lot (Lain Civ 4 deity, Imploading, Chris67132 depending on the playstyle you prefer)

what are the differences would you say? I don't exactly have a ton of free time right now to invest too heavily into all 3

 

[Pedro78]

Hmm I'd say Lain's videos are the slowest, but also the most detailed about micro and he basically wins every game, so his videos are likely the most "educational". Chris67132 (AbsoluteZero here) has a very fast-paced gameplay that is very fun to watch, only problem is it does often lead to strategic mistakes. Imploding's channel shows some interesting/funny outside-the-box strategies, definitely fun to watch.

Considering the fact that you're playing on Noble, I think any of those three would teach you a great deal, though.

 

[gaash2]

I agree Lain and Chris have good videos.. don't watch start to finish that can be really boring (at least for me) just skip around and pay attention to important stuff. Some things I learned: specialist "management" .. I had never thought to starve cities for the fast great person before! Some good bee-lines/rushes, diplo strategies, smart use of temporary civic changes, and how there are many ways to win!

 

[Rynian]

I agree Lain and Chris have good videos.. don't watch start to finish that can be really boring (at least for me) just skip around and pay attention to important stuff. Some things I learned: specialist "management" .. I had never thought to starve cities for the fast great person before! Some good bee-lines/rushes, diplo strategies, smart use of temporary civic changes, and how there are many ways to win!

wait... wait... what? starving for great people? yo...

 

[Lexicus]

Yep, if you stack up specialists you go into negative food. But usually during a GA you can get a GP before you lose a pop. Even if you do lose a pop or two the cost of growing them back is trivial compared to the benefits of a GP.

 

[Rynian]

Yep, if you stack up specialists you go into negative food. But usually during a GA you can get a GP before you lose a pop. Even if you do lose a pop or two the cost of growing them back is trivial compared to the benefits of a GP.

horsehocky dude, I may have to sift through some of those videos. There are a lot though, and they are quite long ;p I tried watching from ep 1 and got rather bored

 

[elmurcis]

Yep, if you stack up specialists you go into negative food. But usually during a GA you can get a GP before you lose a pop. Even if you do lose a pop or two the cost of growing them back is trivial compared to the benefits of a GP.

Very true about last 1 or 2 turns. City will starve no matter if -1 or -32 food (if size 16 for example) so for that one turn you can have 16 specialists running (let say that could run 8 specialists without starvation - so gain is 8 specialists for 1 turn) and if add 2nd turn with 15 scientists (let say 7 extra specialists versus food neutral specialists number), you starve down 2 population points but profit 15x3= 45 base GPP points. With Golden Age that is 90, with Pacifism 135, in your NE city 180 GPP generated for 2 pops costs.. "GPP Slavery"

 

[Lexicus]

GP generation is another thing that I neglect really heavily in my games. I sometimes totally forget about them until I see one pop in an AI empire and I'm like "oh yeah that's a thing"