Favourite settings for playing Civ 4?

[DrJambo]

Civ 4 offers a few alternative ways of playing the game and I thought I might be interesting to see what people's favourite settings are for a typical game.

I've now tried quite a few of the map types and I my old favourite used to be a Continents or Archipelago map, and the main reason for this was because it emphasised the naval aspect and usually provided each civ with some inherent safety (i.e. the opposite being surrounded on a Pangea!). However, after a few games using standard sized Terra maps, this has since become my new favourite. The promise of a barbarian infested New World to explore and settle mid to late game is excellent as is the close quarters action in the early game on the continent where all the civs start.

In terms of other settings I think the game is best played with Aggressive Civs and Permanent Alliances. I found standard settings on non-Terra maps to be extremely peaceful and it wasn't uncommon to go through entire games without any AI to AI wars let alone any wars that weren't started by me. Coupling Aggressive Civs with a Terra map leads to a very volatile situation, one which involves many interactions - AI to AI and AI to human. The lack of immediate land to expand into often means there's a shortage of vital resources (Iron and Horses in my current game!). As a result, nothing can be taken for granted each game. In my current game, I'm the biggest civ on the continent, but without Iron and Horses I'm having real trouble repelling the constant onslaught of Spanish Conquistadors and Roman Cavalry with my French Muskateers. I'm at a critical stage of needing Rifling ASAP!

Permanent Alliances is a nice option because it can throw an unexpected spanner into the works by derailing an otherwise easy cruise to victory. My last game I was leading in score and was the biggest civ until two of the other AI civs joined forces and made it a close run in.

So, my current fav settings would be standard Terra map, Aggressive Civs and Permanent Alliances. At the moment this is on Prince difficulty with 8 civs in total.

What are yours, and why?

 

[vinstafresh]

Small map: Always small. Moving units around for ages takes way too long for me and I'll lose interest. Always 8 or more Civs on a map (4 to 5 cities for each Civ)

Noble for a nice click/no micromanagement laidback clickfest, Prince when I want a bit of a challenge

Terra: I love sacking those barbarians and settle the new land like crazy.
Pangaea: Meeting all civs quickly and small navy required

OCC: I like building a supercity

I never really experiment with other settings. I did use to play duel or tiny lakes maps with 18 civs. Perhaps I should pick those settings up again. Frantic 'next turn' clicking and wiping out civs by taking their single city and doubling your land in the process.

 

[Grey Fox]

So you have to click the option permanent alliances to be able to form one with the AI or the AI to form them. Hmm, didnt think of that. How stupid of me.

I barely touch the settings in the Custom screen, except for the map options and the number of civs.

Lately Ive been starting to use the SmartMap script to generate maps, it gives you so many more options on the map and can create very nice looking (And very big if you want to) maps. Although it seems to be placing an aweful lot of food resources, which can be fun, but it might just be my setting that makes it do that.

I tend to play Continents maps. I like the Terra map too, but I feel like the new world gives the player an unfair advantage (of knowing of its existence beforehand, and having a much better chance of settling it). I also like to play on Pangaeas.

I like to play Huge maps or bigger but they tend to go slow, so I usually play standard size maps.

My two favourite victory types are Domination and Culture. You seem to have to work the most for those two. (Well it can be argued that Conquest is harder then Domination). UN victory can also be hard to achive. But I find it to be easier to win UN victory by going the Aggressive path. Which I find too odd.

I play on Prince difficulty usually, but Im trying to play on Monarch. While I rule on Prince usually, I have a much harder time on Monarch. And I do like to win. And since I am a much more casual player then I used to be, Prince seems to be the usual choice. Or when I want to be real casual I play Noble.

My favourite traits are, in no particular order, Financial, Industrial, Spiritual and Aggressive. I usually pick Random for civ nowadays though. Sometimes I restart if I get a civ I dont feel like playing though.

My favourite Civs/Leaders are;
- Arabia, India/Gandhi, Spain - For Cultural victory. Very seldom play spain, but they can be very Religion dominative in the early game if you get a coastal start, or a start with lakes. Making it easier to grab many of the religions, if not all. Which are important for a cultural victory.
- Inca for aggressive games. Clear favourite for those. Germany/Bismarck,Rome,France/Napoleon and Japan can also be good for these.
- USA I like to play the american civ sometimes, usually as Washington then, because Organized and Financial works pretty good together for a large civ. The Navy Seal is also good for a late game war.

Well thats all for now.

 

[NuWorld]

Favourite settings: monarch difficulty, standard map, marathon speed, pangaea, 10-12 civs, raging barbs, no cheating, disabled space race, random leaders, climate & sea level. If OCC, I increase the number of rival civs from 15-18. Tried few games with no tech trading, but it was no fun since I was tech leader throughout the game.

 

[HourlyDaily]

Standard or large maps - huge maps have become too much work and city placement lacks a bit of strategy. 18 civs. Noble, because I don't like the AI getting to cheat (in an obvious way) Always Marathon speed because anything faster passes by without any thought or involvement.

Space Race always disabled, usually Diplomacy as well. Often with no tech trading, cities flip back after conquest. Tech trading is balanced against the human player even when you try to use exploits to get the best deal.

I use Smart Map or created World Maps. Approx 40% Ocean with no real preference to map style. Random civ usually as well as the opponents - I like my Sevo's CivFanatics Fusion to have a larger choice of opponents. I often just feel like playing the Celts or Carthage. Sometimes Qin Shui Huang too.

I play for Domination, chipping away slowly at whatever civ gets on my nerves. Usually I bait them by not having the best defended cities.

 

[Overcast32]

Huge Continent Maps
Custom Game 12-14+ Civs
Temperate Climate w/ Medium Sea Level
Monarch Speed
Culture and Domination/Conquest Victories (dunno why I check them both, just habit, I guess... lol)
Normal Barbarians
No Cheating (I won't anyway, don't ask me why i check the option, lol)

Used to play Qin Shi Huang a lot, but recently I've taken quite a liking to Cyrus. I seem to be able to do twice as good with Cyrus as I do with the other Civs - guess the Persians just fit my play style. I like to expand the empire early on to stake my claim on land. Then get the infrastructure nice and solid - like to build a War machine I can 'fire up' at any time.

Was playing Cyrus last night, got a interesting starting spot - not the best, but I like building on terrain that has a non-typical layout. In this one, I have the end of a pennisula with a 'sand bar' extending 3 spaces out into the ocean with a wheat resource on the end. The Capital city, further south ended up expanding to cut-off access to the northern part of the pennisula early in the game. The Incans decided to build a base - right in the middle of my cities - oh well, it will be the victim of a culture take over very soon, especially since I just culture-bombed the closest city

I've done quite well and been quite pleased with Cyrus since I've started playing him. I used to try to play Peter all the time, as I liked his traits, but I have the worst time getting anywhere with him...

 

[player1 fanatic]

Continents, large map, normal speed, emperor difficulty, random civ.

 

[DrJambo]

It's a pity there isn't an option for selecting a completely random map (continents, pangea, archipelago, terra). One always has to select the map type.

 

[Overcast32]

Is there an option when you do a custom game for a random map type? I don't recall, as I've been pretty happy with the continents maps.

 

[balthamael]

Terra, Standard Upwards, Agg Ai, Sometimes Raging barbs, 12-18 civs

 

[Oggums]

Monarch

A "proper game of Civ"...Continents, standard speed with all default settings.

 

[jray]

It's a pity there isn't an option for selecting a completely random map (continents, pangea, archipelago, terra). One always has to select the map type.

There is such an option, in the best mod ever, surt's [Map Script] SmartMap. You can randomize and customize an incredible amount of stuff! And it's really random, unlike the vanilla Civ4 version of "Random" that reverts back to the previous choice if you try to use it twice.

 

[Overcast32]

Thanks for the link Jray I was gonna search for that after reading a couple posts about it, but... well, since you posted a link.... hehe

 

[zeeter]

Noble level.
No City Raizing
No Space Race
Occasionally, if I'm playing Ghandi or someone like that, I'll turn Barbarians off.
Normal Map
Small continents.

 

[Eternalsteelfan]

Huge Map

12+ Civs

Terra Normal Sea Level Temperate Climate, pretty much as Earthlike as possible

No Cheating Random Seed on Reload

Diplomatic Conquest and Domination Victory Conditions

*edit Marathon Speed ^

 

[Older than Dirt]

Terra Maps are consistently fun. The New World barbarians always come at you like fireants up your leg when you stand on their mound. SODs and waves of macemen, grenadiers, or riflemen. And, they build lots of useful stuff in their large cities. The AI civs have a lot of trouble taking them on and usually have little, if any success, in my experience. I do not like all the ice which seems to be particularly present up north on these maps. Best to navigate the globe in the south. There seems to always be an isthmus and a bunch of islands off the coast of the New World. The only problem is that it can be too crowded in the Old World, especially if you are in the center. Multi front wars are not fun.

 

[Monado]

pangea, duel, all 18civs, high water level, hardest difficulty for me at the time (prince now)

there's not even enough room for each civs capital! once i take one other capital though, its a given that I am going to win. The very start I find fun though

 

[King Flevance]

For me it's:

Huge Map
Continents
Temperate Climate
Low sea level
10-15 Civs
Moderate/Hard difficulty (personally it is Monarch - Emporer)
Raging Barbarians
No Space Race
Marathon
Optional: Random Personalities. (added fun by by joining Agg AI)
No cheating

These settings usually result in large empires having wars over turf alot. Especially, early on when there is a "grey area" about who owns what. (Like when borders are being formed.)

 

[LordOfTheDrinks]

Continents, tropical, large, 18, aggresive AI, alliances, raging barbarians, monarch, marathon.
Pretty easy (but not too easy) and lots of fun.

 

[Older than Dirt]

My favorite setting for Civ 4 is my game room at home. I keep getting interrupted here at work. I seem to be stuck on Terra Maps with Epic speed on Prince Level - Monarch made me too tense.