Good resource for total newbie?

[Rhuarc]

So I got my wife started playing a game of Civ4 BtS last night. She has never played a game of any Civ or anything similar in her entire life. I showed her some of the basics, and then set her loose. She played for a couple of hours and seems to be doing pretty good. She was wondering if there were any resources out there for her to read, however. I know there are several guides for beginners here, but in my experience those are more oriented for osmone who at least knows the basics of the whole game already. I am looking for something that explains everything about the game from each interface quirk to how combat and movement are calculated. (I realize this sounds like it would be complicated, but my wife is an engineer, she likes all that math and technical stuff and learns quickly from it)

So... any ideas?

Thanks!

EDIT: I was also wondering if anyone thought the one of the Strategy guides you can buy woudl be good for this type of thing? I think I saw that Brady makes one, does Prima sell one as well?

 

[Xurr]

The war academy on this sight is an excellent place to find the material you are looking for.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/

 

[Rooseville]

The War Academy is the best Civ IV resource out there, but it does break things down into topics. I saw on Amazon that somebody had written a book about the game, but I've not read it. I believe there's also an official strategy guide.

There's enough information on this site alone to keep an engineer satisfied for some time...and who knows, she might end up writing a good strategy article once she gets deep into the game

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I believe there's also an official strategy guide.

The Official Strategy Guide is no better than the manual or the Civilopedia. It's neither worth the money nor the effort.

Like you and Xurr said, the War Academy is the best place to start.

 

[The Rook]

The Official Strategy Guide is no better than the manual or the Civilopedia. It's neither worth the money nor the effort.

Few "Official Guides" to games of substance are any good. I think the problem is that these guides are a money spinner launched at the time the game first becomes available. Even the so called experts are relative noobs at the time of release, so there quite simply aren't any people qualified to write a high standard strategy book initially.

 

[Thomas G.]

Try Sullla's walkthrough:

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/civ4_walk_1.html

It seems to be a very old version of the game, (he can somehow see horses present without animal hubandry) but it is an entertaining read and covers a lot of ground.

How did you get your wife interested? Mine sure won't...

 

[r_rolo1]

One good resource is a really good sucession game ( that a lot of people know around here ) is the classic RB1 - Cuban Isolationists that was played by Sulla and Sirian in a time where there wasn't a lot of people with Civ IV .... so they took care to explain a lot of stuff.

 

[Sisiutil]

I wouldn't waste money on a guide. You can get everything you need from this site, so the best thing to do is to guide her here. If either of you have any questions about game specifics, especially on the math side, just start a thread and ask.

 

[The BRO]

I wouldn't waste money on a guide. You can get everything you need from this site, so the best thing to do is to guide her here. If either of you have any questions about game specifics, especially on the math side, just start a thread and ask.

I will second Sisiiutil recommendation, and give a plug for his beginner's guide. I had played ALOT of CIV I, II, and III, but didn't really get into CIV IV when it came out. Recently became addicted again, and found some of Warmongering ways I used in previous editions didn't work. His guides and the War academy here gave a great overview of Game and new nuances

 

[Gwynnja]

I never played civ 1, 2, or 3. I bought vanilla a couple years ago and have been hooked since. Now I play bts but I got the basics from vanilla. Id pop that in for her and let her play the tutorial scenario.