First Post (and a Newbie Question)

[FatNoob]

First Post. Warning: My posts (this one, and future ones) will not be for impatient experts. I'm gonna ask a lotta dumb Qs. This particular post is actually mainly to send the game to a friend of mine who’s out of town, so that he can look at it, and advise me, but I’d love input from other folks as well.

I'm not sure what to do with this situation. I'm ahead in score (barely, and only Noble setting) and I'm playing Napoleon, who is industrious and gets 50% wonder production. I've got a patch of land behind me with mostly ice and tundra, but it also has marble and deer. I covet the marble for the increased increase in certain wonder production. Not sure whether to go for it, considering the crummy output of the sqaures around it, and if so, where to settle. (I just made a settler.)

Questions:
(1) Should I expand out towards the other civs, or run back and grab the marble? If so where do I settle? (*** See the ending remark)

(2) I know (or should say I’ve read) that desert land, which is crummy in the beginning, can be good to grab because of the increased possibility of oil later in the game. Is that so? And is there anything similar for ice?

(3) Is there a “Dumb Question/Newbie forum” ?

(4) Not A Question, It’s a Statement: Great Game. I can’t wait to get semi-good at it.



*** I’m a semi-pro poker player. I know the answer is “It depends”. I’m looking for some more specific guidance than that.

 

[Yeeek]

I'll try to awnswer your 2nd question, as i'm also a fairly new player to CiV IV. I played a good dozen games, lost most of them on higher difficulty levels But i know that Oil can also spawn in the sea. So there's a good chance that if you have lots of sea squares in your empire that one or two oil ressource will pop.

 

[FatNoob]

OK, my first attempt at screenshots... (of this situation)

 

[oagersnap]

(3) Is there a “Dumb Question/Newbie forum” ?

Yes, there's a thread about it here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134903

 

[BlackMage]

It looks very good for a start, but I would suggest you hold off expanding for a bit, let your borders firm up and improve your territory with your workers. Be careful of rapid expansion, because maintenance expenses can bankrupt you.

As for your first few questions - I would not go for the marble as of yet, because all that will accomplish is give you a junk city with pretty high maintenance, given it's distance from your capital. Once your income is a bit better, settle the tundra around it and let the borders expand to it.

Desert is the same way. You cannot improve it at all. All it is good for are floodplains and oil, both of which you can settle around and let your borders expand to.

There's my $0.02USD. Welcome to CFC and Civ!

 

[Aramazd]

Welcome to CFC FatNoob

1) I would go for the marble. Marble is a good resource, which makes some wonders finish earlier
2) Desert has floodplains, oil, and oasis, otherwise it's crap. Ice has some resources, but is also bad
3) Technically it's a thread
4) Glad we agree

 

[Aurelius321]

I'll agree with BlackMage, I'd be more concerned with beefing up your military by a few units and keeping your science output up. This early in the game if you plop a city down in crappy land it's going to drastically effect your ability to keep up with technology.

Marble is a decent resource, and if your stratgety depends on having the Wonders that use it to speed up production, as in "Crap if I don't get that marble I'm farked" then it might be worth it. If you just want the marble as a passing thing, as in "Gee it'd be nice to have that" then I'd skip it.

 

[kb2tvl]

Questions:
(1) Should I expand out towards the other civs, or run back and grab the marble? If so where do I settle? (*** See the ending remark)

(2) I know (or should say I’ve read) that desert land, which is crummy in the beginning, can be good to grab because of the increased possibility of oil later in the game. Is that so? And is there anything similar for ice?

(3) Is there a “Dumb Question/Newbie forum” ?

(4) Not A Question, It’s a Statement: Great Game. I can’t wait to get semi-good at it.

(1)I did not d/l the save but I am looking at the pics. I would do one of two things in that corner. I would block access to that area with your border or I would settle on the resource you need. Blocking that AI will be the best choice, I think. You should look at setting cities around your capitol and grab luxaries near by. The cities settled on ice will not produce much but settling there will prevent other civs from taking the land.
(2) Ice can get oil and coal... same with tundra.