Help for beginner?

[Nick53]

Hi guys. As you can probably guess, I’m new to your forums, and to Civ IV. I got it a couple of days ago. I’ve have completed Alpha Centauri on the 2nd highest level of difficulty but I need a bit of help! I’m going for Noble and probably the S/S. For early stuff, I was thinking

Worker
Size 2 while building Warrior
When Size 2 build Settler
Size 3 while finishing Warrior / new one
Worker 2

I’ve probably got this from the War Academy but can’t be sure! If I have, then thanks to the creator. (I’ve been researching Civ IV a week in advance) Any Thoughts/Advice/Help? Btw could someone explain cottage spamming please?

Thanks for helping!

 

[Galileo44]

Welcome to CFC!

I think that that seems like a pretty good early build order, but remember that in CIV, nothing is set in stone. Depending on what happens you may have to build different things.

Cottage spamming is building cities that work almost nothing but cottages. These cities are best situated on rivers and grassland. They should be working a vast majority of cottages, thus the name. This is one strategy for economy, the Cottage Economy or CE. The other strategy revolves around building farms to run scientist specialists. That strategy is the Specialist Economy or SE. To learn more I advise you to read these forums, there is a great amount of info from many smart players.

 

[Nick53]

My other idea was:

Worker
Worker
Settler

(Again, this may be someone elses idea, if so, thanks!) On a normal size map, continents, with 5-7 other civs, is 5 cities a good number or not? How do you take Screen Shots? I could post my starting position (maybe in the begginers help thread)

[edit] this is without barbs of course!

 

[CivMonger]

unlike other versions of Civ and Alpha Centauri, cities do not grow when producing workers or settlers, so keep this in mind. Also, you need certain techs to build farms, roads, mines, etc. You no longer start with all that. SO building workers right off the bat may or may not be a good idea. If you have wheat or rice or something like that by all means get farming that as quick as you can, as excess food = production when making workers or settlers. Play it by ear, and you should be fine, just keep your cultural boundries in mind when your building your new cities.

 

[Cam_H]

Yep, just to echo Galileo, try to avoid formulae, although be aware that there are some tried and tested strategies that will reward you well (e.g. heading towards Iron Working when Rome).

My advice would be keep playing and keep reading. I would suggest that you play with Barbarians, or else your playstyle will get soft. You'll get a better feeling of reward by winning the game yourself rather than having lots of input and advice from the community - initially at least I'd suggest.

As for screenshots, hit the PrtSc button (may be Fn+PrtSc or Shift+PrtSc or other - depending upon your keyboard). In Civ4 the screenshot will be saved to a folder within your Civ directory structure. If you have a good 'paint' program you can comprehensively edit the image, although you can do a barely passable job with Microsoft Paint.

 

[Shawnosaurus]

Yea, you don't want to rush out all these workers and realize there is nothing for them to do. Could be times when a work boat is more advantageous or an extra military unit.

What is with this no barbs crap? Is this some Disney remake of civ? Turn on raging barbs! That'll change your early build/research plan quite a bit

 

[Nick53]

OK, thanks for the help everyone! (I turned barbs on!) I just spent 20min on a game and I'm struggling a bit. Everyone is better than me! (I checked the world builder, ) Is it normal for a settler to take 17 turns to build?! On Alpha Centauri it used to be 6 turns for a former/colony pod! It didn't help that my first city (Beijing) wasn't near any fresh water! I've only got 2 cities and it's like 2000BC! Help anyone? here is a save file and screenshot.

 

[Galileo44]

I would say that two cities at 2000BC is not a big problem. And yes, settlers take a lot longer to build now. More troubling is the small size of your cities. this may be linked to the fact that you haven't built a workboat for the crabs yet! That should have been your first build once you got fishing! It will help a lot with city growth and settler/worker production to get a high-food tile improved.

 

[Nick53]

Thanks once more for the help. I have to say that my starting place was pretty crap. (Or maybe it's me!!) I just built the 2'nd city. Normally I would be a 'bit better' by now. So It's the size>amount of cities. Probably cause on AC it was kinda amount>size (15 cities was good IMO). On another save I got corn or wheat with 6 food and a gold mine with 4 production and 6 commerce. Lol! (I think! Is that possible, I haven't managed to get it again....)

 

[pigswill]

Had a quick look at the save. City#2 would have been better 1 tile south east to capture 3 resources in city radius but that's not a big deal at the moment. I agree with letting cities grow a bit; suggest you could spend some turns building a road between your two cities (means they can trade and pool resources for health and happiness) then once you've discovered AH pasture the sheep in city2 so it grows faster. Also change build in capital from settler to workboat- not only will city grow faster but when building settlers and workers extra food gets counted as hammers so you build these units faster the more excess food you have.

 

[cloud_above]

hey how can u stop ur citizen from being angry saying its too crowed here?

 

[Nick53]

I think you can't change the "it's too crowded". It's standard unhappieness. As for angryness (is that a word?) get some happieness resources such as... I've forgotten lol. Check on the War Academy or I'm sure someone here would have memorised them all... Some civics promote happieness, I think hereditary rule gives +1 happy for each unit in base. Build a colloseum or any +happy buildings. Also there is war weariness to look out for (use jail)

 

[Cam_H]

Ways into happiness by Cabert.

Check on the War Academy

... yep, there's lots of information already posted, so you are well served by spending some time and having a read.

Welcome to CivFanatics cloud_above!

 

[Nick53]

I've got a better start. 1 commerce for river plus 1 for cottage = 3!!! (financial) Is it any better? I've got Pyramids and Stonehenge, I've finaly got some Stone. Any ideas?

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

OK, thanks for the help everyone! (I turned barbs on!) I just spent 20min on a game and I'm struggling a bit. Everyone is better than me! (I checked the world builder, ) Is it normal for a settler to take 17 turns to build?! On Alpha Centauri it used to be 6 turns for a former/colony pod! It didn't help that my first city (Beijing) wasn't near any fresh water! I've only got 2 cities and it's like 2000BC! Help anyone? here is a save file and screenshot.

I think it's way too early in the game to be interested in your competition's progress. I also think you're moving too quickly to splash cities onto the map. Heck, I don't usually build my first settler until my capital is up to a population of 4 or 5... I just won a conquest in an epic standard noble game with just six cities -- and probably could have done without one or two of them. There's a point at which a large number of cities becomes detrimental to your science and economy, so there are few good reasons to churn out settlers so quickly in the early game.

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

I've got a better start. 1 commerce for river plus 1 for cottage = 3!!! (financial) Is it any better? I've got Pyramids and Stonehenge, I've finaly got some Stone. Any ideas?

I would have settled Shanghai 2N1E, granting access to the cows (health / production), incense (happiness / commerce), and an additional hill. Looks like there's a resource 1N1E of the cows, which you'd also have access to. Making use of the desert by putting your city there does not compensate for the loss of working those resources. You'd still have access to bronze and the ocean.

What purpose does your proposed city site southeast of Shanghai serve? A bunch of desert and planes for... cows? You'll get the health benefit of the cows from Shanghai, even though you're not going to be working the tile; I can't see that an extra cow for trading is worth an entire city on a plot that is only remarkable for its lack of remarkableness.

Your next city should be the site you've marked just east of the rice paddy -- but should be 1N of there. You'll still get the rice and horses, but will add that extra cow for trading (so then you *really* have no reason to settle toward the west coast cows) and two additional hills -- this will make a nice naval base.

I assume your current state of anarchy is resulting from your switch to slavery. Should've done that earlier, and whipped out the granary.

Lest this seems all negative, let me congratulate you on having a stone quarry.

 

[Nick53]

Update! How am I going?

 

[Galileo44]

I think that your playing is pretty good, although i am curious about city placement. Had you placed Shanghai 1N 2E it would be an excellent production city, able to work the copper and cows as well as 3 grassland hill mines. This would give you 17 raw hammers which would give you a great early heroic epic city for troop production at only size 5! I also question the founding of Xian. Although it brings 4 furs in, it has no food to feed the citizens to work those. Also, i believe that a city should have been placed 2W of the eastern fish. With 3 food resources, this would be an exellent GP farm. Finally, a city 1NE1N of the southern clams would be a good city, much better than Xian or Chengdu. This city would grab cows, clams, some grassland, and a floodplain.

 

[Galileo44]

Updated dotmap:



The dot i added, Pink dot, would be a good filler later with irrigation and windmills. I also am showing the cities that you have that i would keep in place.

 

[Nick53]

I restarted to check out your ideas . Here I am at 200BC. Blue is where I think cities should go. Would this be better or worse than the other one? btw, how do you get the F/Boat to get the N Fish? its in the ocean .