Few questions on Civ IV

[mappi]

Hi All,

I started to play Civ 4 and with many tips provided in this forum helped me to understand and play the game. This game is quite interesting, but I have played only cheiftan, and the the rest I usually get attacked or destroyed by the AI . I will come to the point:

1. When a city becomes STAGNANT, what should I do ? What does that mean ? My cities often get STAGNANT.

2. When does the GREAT MERCHANT be born ? For me, 2-3 are suddenly born, and then for the next 50 turns nothing. Same with the philosophers or great architect or great artists. What should I do to make them appear quite frequently ? Is there any building or any other tips or strategy to make them appear ?

3. How do i use Great Merchat ? I tried to make him do a campaign in the allied city, but it gained me only 2 Gold. How to gain much gold thru Great Merchant ?

4. While I do a War, the enemy has just 2 or 3 LongBow men and I have a lot of them. When Attacked, i loose about 5-6 of my army before I capture the city. I do not understand how it is possible that the 2 enemy Longbow men could kill 4-5 of my army ?

5. How to make the AI declare war with the other civilization. I tried to bribe them with gold or with research, but always the DECLARE WAR ON is red and I am not able to choose it. How to break the bonds or allies between 2 other civilizatioN. Mind that, I have a lot of Gold and newest Technology !

For the moment these are the few questions that were troubling me, and i would be happy if anyone would be kind enough to explain me the necessary.

I wish you all a good weekend; Happy playing

Mappi

 

[Empty Eightysix]

1. When a city becomes STAGNANT, what should I do ? What does that mean ? My cities often get STAGNANT.

The amount of people dying and being born is the same, so the city doesn't grow anymore

2. When does the GREAT MERCHANT be born ? For me, 2-3 are suddenly born, and then for the next 50 turns nothing. Same with the philosophers or great architect or great artists. What should I do to make them appear quite frequently ? Is there any building or any other tips or strategy to make them appear ?
yes, the amount of great people you get depends on the amount of wonders you have and how many specialists you assigned.

3. How do i use Great Merchat ? I tried to make him do a campaign in the allied city, but it gained me only 2 Gold. How to gain much gold thru Great Merchant ?
Bring him to another Civ's city, preferable a capital far away from you.


4. While I do a War, the enemy has just 2 or 3 LongBow men and I have a lot of them. When Attacked, i loose about 5-6 of my army before I capture the city. I do not understand how it is possible that the 2 enemy Longbow men could kill 4-5 of my army ?
They get defensive bonusses such as being dug in, defending a cultural city or being on a hill.

5. How to make the AI declare war with the other civilization. I tried to bribe them with gold or with research, but always the DECLARE WAR ON is red and I am not able to choose it. How to break the bonds or allies between 2 other civilizatioN. Mind that, I have a lot of Gold and newest Technology !
It often happens on it's own, but you can make it happen if you're very close friends with them.

 

[Tunguska]

Welcome Mappi,

1. Stagnant= the cities food is just enough to feed all of its people. It's not a bad thing, but there are someways to increase food, like irrigate a tile or removing one of youre special citizens (scientist, priest etc.) and placing him on the land to work more tiles.

2. Each time great people are born it takes longer for the next one to be born.
To speed up the proces you can build certain wonders that increase GP points, you can also take a worker of a tile in youre city and make him a engineer, scientist, priest etc. (you need like a forge to be able to put an engineer in your city, and a temple for a priest etc.).

In each of you're cities (on the right site, just below the center) is a bar that will tell you when you're next person will be born, if you hover over it, it will tell you wich type has the best chance to be born in this city.
The wonders you built increase the % of a GP (if you built the pyramides, the change that a great engineer will be born is increased).
And you can also influence the outcome by placing an engineer in you're city (need a forge first), this way you know you'll get an engineer. (Built the Great Lighthouse, and a grocer and you're in for a merchant etc.)

When you have like a scientist and a priest in the same city, there will be a chance that you get or a scientist or a priest.

3. The further away a city is from you're empire, and how big the city is, and if the city is not yours, are of big influence on the amount of cash you can get from the GM.

4. Always bring catapult, trebs, cannons, artillary to your battle.
Use them (or a boat on coastel cities) to first bombard away there defence.
Then use some of them to attack. Sure you'll lose some of them but they will soften 'the enemies for your other troops.
Then attack with axemen, swordfighters, macemen etc. (melee troops)
Don't attack longbows with longbows.
All units have counters, so if you are going to attack someone, bring a stack of units, some defenders (longbowmen, spearmen etc.), a few horses (knights, cavalry etc.), melee troops (axemen, macemen etc.) and don't forget the catapults, canons etc.

5. If an AI is very good friends with the other he won't attack. If you're not so good friends with an AI, we won't declare war against someone else.
Some AIs are just friendly and will (almost) never declare war on an other.
Some AIs will be easier.

Hope this helped you a bit.
Read even more articles that are in these forums and follow the ALC's (they are very good for learning) and even better play more.

Tunguska.

 

[mappi]

Merci Beaucoup ! That was quite quick and useful comments. Well about the attack and merchant, I follow very well. About the cities getting stagnant, I do not know how to improve tiles. I always choose the workers and automate them. Also, I do not know how to use the engineers or priests. All my cities have them. About the wonders, i adore building wonders. I concentrate more on them. Also, I only build not more than 4 citites, so the wonders could be build equally in them.
What is the benefit of converting a Wonder to a Great man ?
Sometimes the cities are unhappy. I checked in this forum and one of the forum said that if the unhappiness is due to too crowded, you can ignore it. But for me, its always unhappy, almost all the time. I try to take the military away, but nothing happens. Any idead ?
To summerise,
1. could you please explain how to improve tiles ?
2. How to increase population or control Birth and Death rate (where can I find it) ?
3. how to bring back Happiness in the cities ?
4. how to use Great men like scientist or priests ?

Note that, I always build all the necessary building in a city, and then only concentrate much on the military. Ofcourse, I have a small number of military to defend.

Thanks a lot, and with these tips added, i will start a new civilization

Mappi

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Hi,

try reading these threads/guides

Civ IV Intermediate Tactics and Gambits

War academy

Condensed tips for beginners

I'm sure you will find answers to most, if not all your questions from those plus much more. Happy civving!

 

[Macha]

Hi All,

I started to play Civ 4 and with many tips provided in this forum helped me to understand and play the game. This game is quite interesting, but I have played only cheiftan, and the the rest I usually get attacked or destroyed by the AI . I will come to the point:

1. When a city becomes STAGNANT, what should I do ? What does that mean ? My cities often get STAGNANT.
It means it isn't growing. Rearrange your people or build farms where they work.

2. When does the GREAT MERCHANT be born ? For me, 2-3 are suddenly born, and then for the next 50 turns nothing. Same with the philosophers or great architect or great artists. What should I do to make them appear quite frequently ? Is there any building or any other tips or strategy to make them appear ?
That happens to me aswell. What happens is after so many great people the amount of great ppl points you need goes up and most wonders add great people points.

3. How do i use Great Merchat ? I tried to make him do a campaign in the allied city, but it gained me only 2 Gold. How to gain much gold thru Great Merchant ?
You have to send him far away, preferably to someone else's city.

4. While I do a War, the enemy has just 2 or 3 LongBow men and I have a lot of them. When Attacked, i loose about 5-6 of my army before I capture the city. I do not understand how it is possible that the 2 enemy Longbow men could kill 4-5 of my army ?
Longbowmen are stronger when defending.

5. How to make the AI declare war with the other civilization. I tried to bribe them with gold or with research, but always the DECLARE WAR ON is red and I am not able to choose it. How to break the bonds or allies between 2 other civilizatioN. Mind that, I have a lot of Gold and newest Technology !
Often civs just won't declare war on certain other civs. i would pick a new target.

For the moment these are the few questions that were troubling me, and i would be happy if anyone would be kind enough to explain me the necessary.

I wish you all a good weekend; Happy playing

Mappi

Hope that helped

 

[Cam_H]

To summerise,
1. could you please explain how to improve tiles ?
2. How to increase population or control Birth and Death rate (where can I find it) ?
3. how to bring back Happiness in the cities ?
4. how to use Great men like scientist or priests ?

Before 1. - 4., absolutely follow Julian Delphiki's advice and read those threads!

1. could you please explain how to improve tiles ?

Improving tiles is about balancing , , and . Regardless of whether you focus a city on production or commerce - you must think about the city's food needs.

Do not automate workers! They do not understand strategy. They do not understand that every city has a role in your empire. They do not understand about city specialisation. They do not accommodate for Great Person Farms or Unit Pumps or Science Centres. They build hybrid cities - ordinary at everything and good for nothing. Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners will lay this one out.

2. How to increase population or control Birth and Death rate (where can I find it) ?

Increasing growth ... understand the Granary. Decreasing growth ... understand the whip.

More reading: Vocum Sineratio: The Whip

3. how to bring back Happiness in the cities ?

Happiness you ask? Ways into Happiness

4. how to use Great men like scientist or priests ?

The use of Great People is one that there's rarely an absolutely correct answer for. I'll summarise with some very general observations;

(a.) Do not disregard the opportunity to 'lightbulb' ... that is, having your Great Person used by putting towards a technology. The use of lightbulbing can give you a monopoly technology which can allow you to trade backwards and pick up a lot of technologies that you've skipped over. For example, a common application is to have a Great Scientist lightbulb Philosophy, which typically nets you Taoism (at the lower and mid levels), is a prerequisite to Liberalism (another free technology in the offering), and if you decide to trade it, you can make multiple trade deals for it and pick up a lot of missed technologies. One Great Person can net you a new religion, offer up a new civic, and provide great trading opportunities so you can back-fill your technology tree and improve your relations (often) with neighbours.

(b.) Great Artists are 'cruicial' for Cultural Victory wins, but otherwise their main purpose is to either stop a revolt in a large recently acquired city and give it some tiles to work through 'Create a Great Work' or as an effort to force a border shift in a fringe city of yours ... for instance, there are crucial resources just on the other side of one of your cultural borders - the placement of a Specialist Artist or a Great Work will push those borders into your turf, or indeed even flip a city.

(c.) Great Engineers typically are used to hurry Wonders. In the final throws of a Space Race (post The Space Elevator) they might be more useful to trigger a Golden Age. One slingshot idea is to use a Great Engineer generator to rush The Pyramids as per Civ IV Intermediate Tactics and Gambits as linked above. Whether a Wonder is worth hurrying to begin with may be situation dependant.

(d.) Great Scientists are excellent for lightbulbing. In the case of Cultural victories, they can build Academies that can provide an extra 4 per turn. If you have one or two cities that are providing the bulk of your haul, an Academy would be well worth considering. Acidsaytr has indicated that lightbulbing is typically the best use for Great Scientists. You can assess for yourself whether settling a Great Scientist in your Science City is the best use of that Great Person or not. The Representation civic adds to specialists.

(e.) Great Merchants have the unique trait of adding 'free ' if they merge with the city, so you can consider adding several of these to create an army of free specialists. Commonly an off-shore trade deal will reap over 1,000 which means you can run at full science or culture (depending upon your objectives) for a while. Again, consider lightbulbing - especially if towards a monopoly technology.

(f.) Great Priests are handy in the early game for lightbulbing, although with the latest Warlords patch, the slingshots have been largely nerfed. It depends to some extent about how well your game is set up for specialists as to whether Great Priests are better off settling in a city or not (e.g. Sistine Chapel adds , Angkor Wat , Representation ...). If you have a religion that's reasonably well spread, then a Shrine would be a clear consideration.

(g.) Great Generals. Circumstances will determine how these are best used, but if you have a Unit Pump city or two, it would be hard not to consider the value of a Military Academy. Attaching Great Generals to units with Flanking promotions is a common tactic. See: Which unit to spend great general on

Disclaimer: There are always circumstances and objectives that 'change the landscape' and make one 'general rule' obsolete under particular circumstances that you may be confronting at any given time. For instance, in some circumstances the best role for a Great Engineer may be to merge to a production-focussed city ... who knows?

 

[Macha]

Before 1. - 4., absolutely follow Julian Delphiki's advice and read those threads!





(g.) Great Generals. Circumstances will determine how these are best used, but if you have a Unit Pump city or two, it would be hard not to consider the value of a Military Academy. Attaching Great Generals to units with Flanking promotions is a common tactic.

Great generals are only in warlords

 

[Fire.Soul]

All the other users have provided the answers to your questions, but I think reading the manual would really help you. Civ is a complex game, but it comes with a very complete manual explaining the most important details you need to know in order to play through it. All your doubts appear in the manual, and perhaps you should read it before playing. Then you will understand the mechanics a little better. The tutorial is also a good help at introducing you to the game concepts. So, my advice is: before reading the guides (which are written with the idea that the readers know the mechanics in mind), read carefully through the manual and you'll get most of your answers. Helped me!