Help a Newb... 5 questions

[Japes]

I am new to Civ Games and have searched all over for answers to my questions and have found quite a few, but alas I cannot find them all .

1. What do you do with all the military units you create?
I read where people say you only need 3-4 per city garrison and wonder what I am supposed to do with the rest. I usually garrison everything when it is created unless I am blocking those pesky neighbors workers. Am I doing this right ? Should I be producing dozens and dozens of military just as a deterent , or am I being wasteful?


2. Why am I always getting bullied by the AI nations ?
I am winning the game and have the highest score but they start coming from every angle to extort from me. Why are they doing this?


3.Why cant I even get past railroads and most times dont even get to build hospitals to continue growth , in the entire game?
I cant balance my trasury and pump up sciense no matter what I do


4. I play on chieftan at the moment and wonder if that is why I cant advance. I am always the most advanced nation so I cant buy Tech's from the other civs. Should I move it up a notch or something ?


5. Are all the games the same length, as far as number of turns from begining to 2050 , or do Huge maps have more turns than tiny?

I will stop here before I make this too big for anyone to wanna answer.
TIA!

 

[Sodak]

1) Go visit the neighbors and punish them for being foreign. Use them to sack cities! Some will die in the process, eliminating any excess you have...

2) The AI will be harder on you if your lead grows too large. It's a way to make runaway victory difficult, that's all.

3) You need to sell techs and resources to other civs to boost your economy. Also, build marketplaces and banks in your most productive cities. For science, build libraries! Trade techs with other nations. Part of the fun of Civ is having to balance military with economy and science. Don't build too many improvements, tho, as they cost money for upkeep. Only build what you need.

4) Sure, then you will be middle of the pack. You will be treated more kindly and be able to gain other's techs. Then you'll get better and repeat the process.

5) I don't know if there are different numbers of turns - there were in CivII. They sure take longer just for the sheer number of cities and units that the AI has.

 

[Dralix]

1) Well, unless that sort of thing, it's not your bag, baby, I would say attack!

2) The AI will always try to bully you, but if you are more powerful than they are, when push comes to shove they will often back down in negotiations. Pay close attention to their attitude towards you (ie. Polite, Furious, or somewhere in between) and the way they feel about your culture. This will influence the way the negotiate. Someone who is furious may likely go to war.

3) Not sure what you are saying here exactly, been as time goes on, techs become more expensive to research. You need to keep increasing your research, by building more cities and improving the cities you have. Build libraries and universities, roads in every square being worked, find bonus resources that increase commerce.

4) Increasing difficulties should make it harder to research, not easier.

5) Don't know about that.

Hope that helps a little. I don't have all the answers. Far from it.

 

[Shaitan]

1. Use the military units to kick AI butt. If you are doing a peaceful expansion then you probably don't need that many units. Figure 3 units per city (2 of your best defender and 1 fast attacker). For border cities add another attacker and defender and a bombard unit (catapult, cannon, etc). That's about where I peg my military when I'm not building up for a war.

2. The AI will demand tribute when your army is significantly weaker than theirs (they know they can bully you) or if you've paid tribute before (they know you'll cave in again). They will also randomly toss some demands at you if your relationship with them is not so hot. Check with your military advisor to see the relative strength of your army compared to theirs. Note that this is only the total number of units and does not represent the quality of those units at all.

3. Beats me. I'm in 500BC and starting to build railroads. Some factors could be that there are not enough civs or that the game level is too low. Research is accelerated the higher the difficulty level is. The problem with your cash flow for research might be that big ol army you've got lying around. Those troops take cash for upkeep.

4. Definitely

5. All games are the same length (turns and time).

 

[Japes]

Wow thanks everyone .

OMG!!!
railroads while still in BC , this is truly an amazing feat. Is this where most people are doing this?

 

[Hobbes]

1) Use those units, in despotism you only need 2 units per city, so find something for them to do (i.e. attack)

2) Because they think they can get away with it, tell them to take a flying leap and problem 1 might just get solved also. And remember, what comes around goes around, you can extort the AI.

3) Trade techs when possible; build libraries and universities and appropriate wonders, create scientistists.

4) If your winning kick it up a notch, your not really playing unless you curse at the AI at least a few times during your game.

5) Yes


I've never got RR's in the BC's, my earliest was around 1000 AD. That is playing diety on a small map, with only 3 civs left, so I am assuming that if their were 5 civs left the tech race would have progressed faster. The AI had the RR's about 10 turns before I did though, I had to purchase it for a large stack of gold.

 

[EdwardIV]

I completely agree, railroads while in B.C is truly an amazing feat. I am in 1988, and am just researching hospitals, and I am by far the most advanced civ in the game. I have my science rate set to 100 now, but it has been 80 for most of the game, and i am still gaining 22 gold per turn from other civilizations. I prefer to build up my military even during peacetime, because if a close neighbor attacks you without warning, you will be prepared. If anyone has any suggestions on the best way to win the game, i would be grateful ( right now i'm clueless ) Thanks!!

 

[Shaitan]

Originally posted by EdwardIV
I completely agree, railroads while in B.C is truly an amazing feat.

Sure would be, except I typo'd. It was 500AD. oops

 

[Arrian]

Even so, 500 AD is pretty damn impressive. The best I've done, I think, is roughly 1200AD (Monarch level).

A general suggestion:

Once you have a good defensive unit in a city, build attack units. Attack units are better than defenders...and 2 or 3 move units are better than footsloggers. Border cities may warrant 2 or 3 good defenders, but your interior doesn't need that many (unless you're running a martial law gov't like despotism or communism, where those units help with unhappiness). Build a large attack force, and if someone messes with you, kill them.

Tech advancement moves at a galacial pace on chieftain, because the AI has all sorts of penalties which makes it impossible for the other civs to research, make money, etc. at a reasonable pace. Thus, you're always in the lead, and have to research everything yourself (techs are more expensive the farther ahead you are). Also, the AI will be so poor it can't buy things from you, a major source of revenue in my Monarch games. My advice would be to move up to Warlord.

-Arrian

p.s. Oh, and don't forget to manipulate the tax slider! There are caps on the maximum and minimum # of turns an advance can take (40 and 4, repectively). You will find that no matter what, you cannot research a tech faster than 4 turns. Also, you will find that OFTEN, a tech that takes 4 turns to research is really taking you 3.1 turns, and 9/10ths of the 4th turn is wasted if you leave your science rate up high. You can lower it, still get the tech next turn, and make a bundle of money. The opposite works in the beginning of the game. You can set science to 10% and still learn the next tech in 40 turns. Sometimes that's worthwhile, as you would have to run 80% science or something like that to get the same tech in... 36 turns. Woohoo. Get the money, you're gonna need it later.

p.p.s. Check out Vel's strategy threads on Apolyton.