Hello everyone...few not-quick questions here

[S100Headache]

Hello everyone! I've found myself sucked back into Civ after years away. Started with Freeciv, then bought III, IV, V, and VI. I was always a more peaceful player, save for the time I went for conquest with Russia in V, but now want to enjoy combat more. VI I wasn't really feeling.

Decided to post here rather than on Reddit since the Civ reddit there is mostly VI at this point. I didn't see a "New Members" subforum here, and I have a few non-quick questions.

The first group is about general play. When I last played IV, I struggled on Chieftain. I spent so much time building buildings that my neighbors would expand faster or DOW me, and was lucky to earn the second-lowest rank upon victory. Or maybe it's because I ran with Better Bat AI? Now I'm starting a game on Warlord (without mods), with Cathy on a small continents map. Sury, Willem, and Gandhi all showed up on my continent, and the other continent has an unmet civ. I paid more attention to expansion than I used to, and was able to claim more of the continent than any of them. I'm leaning towards a specialist economy, I only have one cottage city. With no more room, Sury went for Willem and asked me to join. I said no, but then planned my attack a few turns later. While they were slap-fighting I took Willem's cities. How long should I wait before going for Sury? Should I wait until I can upgrade my catapults to trebuchets, or should I strike now? I can pick off one of his stacks, and I don't even think he even has longbows yet. On the other hand, I want to increase my tech rate again so I can see that other continent. Game date is still before 1000 AD.

This is going quite smoothly. I'll probably step up to Noble / standard size continents for my next game. Should I also change the speed to Epic so it's more forgiving and I can savor the run? I heard Marathon is somewhat broken as the AI struggles with it.

Snipped my multiplayer question, I asked it in the multiplayer forum.

 

[civac]

From the description of your game, either path would work. It's very difficult to say without more information. You can use the espionage screen (assuming BTS expansion) to get a rough estimate of his military strength compared to yours by looking at the Power graph (press F9, click on "Power" near top of the screen). This requires you having invested some espiongae point into Sury. If he does not have more than you and you can wipe out some of his units with a first strike attacking immediatly is worthwhile.

Some general observations:
There is no such thing as a specialist economy. You can get away with leaning on specialists on low difficulties especially if tech trading is enabled but they are in principle not competitive with cottages (especially cottages around your capital). The main reason to run specialists is to produce the very powerful Great Persons. Your commerce should come from cottages and trade routes. Later on there are decent ways to convert hammers into commerce to power your economy but this requires mid to late game tech.

Upgrading is less efficient in Civ4 than in CivV and CivVI. There are situations where it is viable to get an earlier attack, especially if you can cash in a Great Merchant to generate a ton of gold (see point about pecialists/Great Persons above). In the catapult/trebuchet case however, the normal play would be to keep the catapults, research Engineering, whip (use slavery to produce) some trebuchets and then use both in your army.

 

[Elliot_Ness]

Generally you want to balance conquest with keeping your economy healthy. It's not just about wether you can win a war but can your economy sustain the extra maintenance costs.

 

[S100Headache]

Thanks for the general gameplay tips. So the whip and the cottage are king in IV, got it. I guess I was getting away with sloppy play because this is only Warlord difficulty.

Picked up my save file. the year was 780 AD. Gandhi peacefully vassalized to me. Sury didn't have Feudalism when the war started, but got it soon after. It took maybe too long, but I wiped him out. Gandhi built the Apostolic Palace, so I ended up spreading Hinduism into my cities to give me the votes to cut off his pathway to a diplomatic victory. My tech rate fell far behind, but I more than caught up after the war. Started exploring, Mansa Musa had his own continent about half the size of mine and is far behind in tech obviously. I think I can easily go for domination from here, I'll definitely do Noble next time.

Still need a little help setting up LAN play so my girlfriend and I don't have to share a screen (and can experience true fog of war).

And now I'm torn between III and IV to commit to. I like III's look and feel better, and am starting to prefer the combat in III, but IV's gameplay overall wins out. I'm no longer a twenty-something shut-in with endless time for the game, but a thirty-something with more commitments in life.

 

[Lennier]

Note that catapults don't upgrade to trebuchets.

Most buildings are bad. Granary in almost every city. Libraries in high food and/or high commerce cities. Forge in high production cities. Maybe a few barracks. Most other buildings are situational.

It's not that the AI is particularly worse a Marathon than Normal speed; it's that Marathon is more war-focused, and the AI sucks at war. Everything but units is triple cost on Marathon; units are only double-cost. (Compared to normal speed.) Marathon games also take longer. Especially if you play huge maps.

 

[lymond]

Still need a little help setting up LAN play so my girlfriend and I don't have to share a screen (and can experience true fog of war).

And now I'm torn between III and IV to commit to. I like III's look and feel better, and am starting to prefer the combat in III, but IV's gameplay overall wins out. I'm no longer a twenty-something shut-in with endless time for the game, but a thirty-something with more commitments in life.

Multiplayer subforum is here. You should be able to find assistance there.

 

[sinimusta]

For pbem you can just send the save literally via email, no need to set up LAN.

 

[civac]

Technical questions regarding MP play are better anwered at realmsbeyond.net.