Help for a returning player

[pwoz]

It's been a long time since I've played civ 4. I was able to beat Emperor all the time and Immortal some of the time when I last played, but I've forgotten a lot.

I have a few specific questions, I may post a game later to get advice once I've recovered some of my familiarity since I think that would be the best way to get to deity level.

First question: whipping. I see a lot of advice to not work hills early since it's more efficient to work food and whip. How should I manage the unhappiness? If I understand it right, first whip is 1 unhappy for 10 turns. If 4 turns later I whip again, I'd have 6 turns of 2 unhappy and 14 turns of 1 unhappy. Is my understanding correct? It seems like you can quickly get to a point where the unhappiness is unmanageable.

Second question: I get a bit bogged down in wars. I remember how to do the Cur lib rush, but I end up being unsure when I should press on and when I should heal. Are there good guidelines for this? Something as far as what's an acceptable % win chance? Also what would a standard stack look like for a deity level game? 15? 20? Is it advisable to try to have globe theater up in time for whipping the Curs?

Last question: Super medics. Are they worth it? I find I always use them as a mop up unit to minimize the chance of loss, but that means they are one of the strongest units in the stack, and so take on the best attacker when defending. Generally seems like a waste to me, so I lean toward settling GG. Is that right or are there some better ways to protect the super medic?

Thanks for the help all.

 

[Fippy]

Hiya, whip unhappy are 10 turns added each whip and the amount of unhappy pop are also increased in steps of 10, yup.
It's mostly about getting the most urgent builds done early, when working another tile instead would never be worth so many hammers.

For example, it can be better getting 2 settlers quickly and then letting the unhappy fade away by slow building something, than slow building those settlers.
Even if your city stays unhappy, you get the benefits of having other cities earlier.
Another example would be whipping a granary, then letting the city grow for some time..10 turns go by quickly early
Mines are not always bad, it's mostly about worker turns. They are also very valuable early.

Cuirs are about pressing your advantage, if you can get reinforcments it's okay losing some (or many).
Important bit = all or nothing on deity, abusing and whipping cities non-stop once Cuirs are available until their window closed..
after all you get more cities from the AIs.

I almost never build Globe in such games, it's rare that after Calendar resis are available, and additional happy from forges, to have cities that struggle after they became small anyways by whipping.

Super medics are very good, and having one as Cuir should really be fine.
Other Cuirs should get combat (never flanking..!), and be way ahead in strength this way as they are not using their promos on medic, morale and other stuff that's better than combat for your super medic.
I very rarely settle generals generated from Cuirs, as mentioned you want to press your advantage ~~
20 shared xp can help you much faster, if you get the right mentality for rushing you will usually not even think about settling them anymore cos you will look at your stacks instead.

 

[InovA]

It sounds like you have the whipping unhappiness part down, but for clarity, it'd be: 1st whip -> 4 turns of -1 -> 2nd whip -> 6 turns of -2 -> 10 turns of -1.

Basically whipping adds +10 to the number of Unhappy Turns (or w/e you want to call them). Every turn this integer goes down by 1.
For every 10 Unhappy Turns (rounded up) that your city has, it will have -1.
So for 30 Unhappy Turns the city would have -3, 21 Turns would also be -3, 20 Turns would be -2, and so on, regardless of when the whipping occurred.
So the unhappiness can suck sometimes, but that's why we trade for + resources and coordinate some early techs/civics to revolve around remedying the unhappiness.

Cuirs stacks are situational, as is everything in the game. If you were able to get your target into another war before you DoW them, you may only need 15 cuirs for the 1st wave (if you've scouted that enemy stacks are well out of range of you). If you were unable to do this, you may feel more comfortable waiting until you have 30 or 40 cuirs before DoW. The main thing in warfare is to do what you can to minimize losses, so if you can DoW and your first 15 cuirs can quickly seize 2 cities on that turn, but will then be swarmed before reinforcements have arrived, you've clearly made a mistake. 35 Cuirs could do the same, 5 turns later or so, and would be able to be in good position to attack the enemy's defending stack on your own terms (or he's suiciding into your stack(s), yay!). Other than minimizing losses, the only other factor in warfare is how quickly you can take down your opponent, so that the cities become beneficial for you sooner. If you're trying to sweep the world, the minimized losses is your main concern for the first few wars, until you can force a cap or two. If it's an early classical or medieval war and you just want to conquer a neighbor/wonder and assimilate them ASAP, you may DoW sooner, even if it's cutting it close on whether or not they could defend well.

And as Fippy said, you'll have plenty of happiness from other sources, don't go for the Globe Theater in warmongering games. Maybe for culture victories, to help generate more artists in your GP farm while out of Caste System, otherwise I think it's mainly used in One City Challenges.

Super medics are a huge plus to both the warfare factors. Units can get back into the fight much sooner at full strength. Putting a super medic on any 2 unit is obviously desired, and the other units should be the stronger defenders (combat 1+ promotions) while the medic has just the medic abilities, and maybe flanking just to make sure it won't be the stronger defender. If you want, you can keep the medic on a chariot all game long if you want to be safe about not losing it first in your stack.

 

[pwoz]

Thank you for the replies. Very helpful. I think in my last game I left forges too long. For a warmonger game I want a city with granary, barracks and forge, correct? Some cities will have library too, obviously, but I don't think I need libraries everywhere, right?

 

[sampsa]

You definitely don't NEED a forge. You can calculate yourself how many pop you need to whip away before a forge has paid itself back. Skipping a forge allows you to start military buildup earlier too, something to keep in mind. So, depends. Kinda the same answer concerning libraries.

 

[InovA]

Granary is something to grab 99% of the time. The 1% being if you're close to conquer/domination win and just want to whip a unit out ASAP.
Forges are for cities that will have a good amount of and/or . Small cities that were placed mainly to grab a strategic resource or alike and have low / would be wasteful to build forges and libraries.
Libraries are for cities that have high (obviously) or need that . Often a monument or missionary is enough, giving the city +1, but sometimes investing an extra 60 for a Library pays off well enough that you'd skip the monument, or if a rival's culture is fighting your city's culture, etc. The commerce reason comes up when your city has high enough (planned) available. How high the threshold should be is game specific, bla, bla, maybe +12 is a good threshold.

So a Library in your capital, cottage city(s), and GP farm(s) are clear picks. Forges in any city expected to be capable of producing adequately, and Granaries everrrrrywhere! Barracks aren't always needed for each city. I build them right before my main war tech will be coming up, but some cities are still finishing their Forge or Granary, so I don't build a barracks in them until the next war is coming up.