Getting back to Civ

[dutchfire]

I hadn't played civ4 for a couple of years, but decided to re-install it today. Do you have tips on how to get into form again? I've already downloaded the patches and the BUG mod. I played quite a bit of civ4 (especially vanilla, some BtS) and was at roughly Monarch level. I'm a bit shaky on the BtS concepts (AP, espionage, colonies). Any tips for coming back to civ after a long time?

I think I'll post a thread here so you can give some tips. What are the recommended settings for that?

 

[Amao]

Big and Small mapscript is worth trying.

 

[MegaLurker]

To master the fundamentals you can basically ignore espionage (except to see what a top AI is researching), AP (except to build temples and monasteries for the hammer bonus) and colonies.

 

[dutchfire]

Playing a quick first game, some questions arose:
* What do you typically build in cities? I now take granary ASAP, whip a library to be able to run some scientists and also whipped a forge in bigger cities (had gems+gold, so forge is worth two ). Capital also gets temples to let it grow.

* How many units do you need to start an attack on an AI?

* Do you take open borders with everyone? Does it influence diplo negatively?

The game is going well by the way, Peter with gold in capital, got oracle->CoL (city 2 had marble). Got to 4 cities (eventually 5) while self-researching Civil Service + Machinery. Resource wise, I had iron, gold, gems and some calendar resources. I now started a war with Sitting Bull, he still had archers. First I bribed Mehmed into war with Isabella. These are the three AI I found so far, Mehmed is hindu, Sitting Bull and Izzy are buddhist. I am atheist.

 

[Ghpstage]

* Do you take open borders with everyone? Does it influence diplo negatively?

I take OB with everyone I can. It doesn't cause diplo negatives, but does add positives with everyone you have them with (+1 after 25 turns, +2 after 50 turns maxing out at +2).
As far as I remember other AIs won't even ask you to stop trading with someone you have only OB with, other trades need to be active to trigger it.

 

[Learner]

* What do you typically build in cities? I now take granary ASAP, whip a library to be able to run some scientists and also whipped a forge in bigger cities (had gems+gold, so forge is worth two ). Capital also gets temples to let it grow.

Granary and Forge are buildings you should generally build in every city that intends to grow or build stuff (meaning almost every city). Courthouses are good if you are organized, lighthouses are good if you have sea tiles and resources.

* How many units do you need to start an attack on an AI?

It depends on many things. You have to build a lot more units if you are attacking against sitting bull than against Gandhi. It mostly depends on your timing. If you are ahead of military technology and have superior units you'll need less units. Unique units can also help.

* Do you take open borders with everyone? Does it influence diplo negatively?

Opening borders with others gives you an access to foreign trade routes and positively affects the diplo meter, so you should usually try to take open borders with most opponents. However, if your opponents hate each other, and you have open borders with both another one of them might demand that you stop trading with the other one, meaning that you'll take a diplo hit with either of them. I'm not entirely sure if this can happen only with open borders.

 

[Boingle]

From the start onward, it is good to get open borders to most of the other Civs. But if there is Tokugawa, Stalin, Shaka, and Gandhi, Gandhi can be almost guaranteed the worst enemy of all three of the others at the start.

Also, even just having open borders you can get requests "It can no longer be tolerated. We demand you cancel your deals with the vile X". I don't usually agree to Cancel Deals unless theres no alternative though. This can happen even a few turns after Writing, when you opened borders on everyone, also you'll notice they say as a greeting in diplo "We would encourage you to stop trading with X". It kinda sucks how certain people (Gandhi, Sitting Bull, Elizabeth, etc) seem to draw so much hate in so many games, I feel bad for them but that's what happens.

 

[FlyingSwan]

A tricky Q to answer,If your going to use seige to batter an enemy citys defences you will need fewer shock troops,If your using horse archers,swords etc without seige you need to expect alot of casulties,I guess 2 to 1 as a rough rule of thumb.

Obviously this changes if you have a tech advantage,macemen vs archers,or cavalry vs longbows for example.

One small bit of advice I would give though is to build enough garrison troops to hold the citys you capture-archers,muskets etc.There can be a fair bit of time before a newly captured city comes out of revolt,and usually you want your army to keep on the march to the next city.

 

[dutchfire]

Played on and eventually quit. War with Sitting Bull took a long time, then he capped to Isabella, I waged war against her, she capped to Hannibal (other continent), and meanwhile the Ottomans got way ahead of me technologically. I spent too much on military and was at 10% science most of the time.

How do you prevent people capping to another AI, dragging you into a war? Do you cap them yourself (I don't like this)?

Anyway, my military planning could and should have been much better. I should have started the war on Sitting Bull only when I had sufficient forces to instantly knock him out. Probably would have been better to research Civil Service -> Construction (build catapults) -> Aesthetics -> Literature (build GL) -> Metal Casting -> Machinery (build maces and start attack). That gives sufficient time to build support troops, and since I was ahead technologically due to the Oracle, I could probably easily build the GL, which would have helped a lot with science, even during war.

 

[sinimusta]

It's hard to comment without saves or screenies but the game sounds like you expanded rather slowly (or teched really fast). 4-5 cities seem like weak peaceful expansion, what date/turn number did you have that many?

SB isn't a great target either as he's a unit spammer and protective. I wonder if the problem with your war was being too slow, you should get out the army fast by aggressive whipping and chopping and then start taking cities. Time is very valuable at war, don't always (fully) heal or bombard if you are able to do faster without.

 

[shpeka]

How do you prevent people capping to another AI, dragging you into a war? Do you cap them yourself (I don't like this)?

The key is diplomacy.
There are two types of vassalization -

1) war vassal: if you and and another AI have a common war - the common enemy might vassal to the other AI. Peace is automatically signed, no additional wars are triggered.

Solution: Bribe the other civ out of the war.

2) peace vassal: check the DanF's excel file for the diplo values and see which AI might become the master of your target. Beg for a small sum of gold from that AI (if pleased+ with you). If cautious of less - there is not much you can do. Either choose another target, or bite the bullet and pray for the best. You WILL have to take capitulation ASAP, though, otherwise your target WILL vassal sooner or later.

Actually you can demand gold from non-pleased AIs, this will too give you a 10 turn window of opportunity to finish off an opponent.

On a side note. Do learn to vassalize AIs. 90% of the time this is the most sensible thing to do. This gives you trading partners, war allies, saves you A LOT of time in which you can attack someone else, and helps with cultural pressure on next targets - providing good bridgeheads for further advance.

Many good players actually gift conquered cities back to their new vassals.