Help me beat my friend in this game!

[csmith963]

Ok guys I've been playing for about a month now. Most times I'm playing a direct IP connection with my buddy. Our favorite map/scenario is world map with 18 civs. I do not have any of the expansions.

Ok here's the deal. He's always beating me! For the most part he leaves me alone militarily, but this is mostly because he knows that if he destroys me then essentially the game is over. I want to change this so that he doesnt attack me because he knows I'll give as good as I get. I've been practicing enough now so that I'm right in the thick of things up until mid game starts, then he starts pulling away. It just seems that hes able to out-tech me and out produce me. I just dont get it! One thing that I've thought of that may be the problem is specialization. I really dont do much of it. When I look at a cities tiles sometimes I can squeeze one or two specialists in without starving the city, but many times not. What I'm looking for are some good city setup tips so that I can maximize by production and science. Do I dedicate a few cities to science? If so how does one do something like that without falling behind in production?

 

[Zanttu]

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/city_specialization.php
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/specialization.php
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252717

Read those for a start.

 

[r_rolo1]

First of all, which civs you and your buddy are playing?

 

[Mao Zendog]

im not a huge civ 4 player, but i have some good experience in civ 3. The best hint that i can give you is to build lots of citys. If its a very large map like you describe, then you should keep building citys untill you cant any more.

I personaly dont do alot of city specializatoin either, although i will try to fit a great leader farm or 2 in my civ. Citys with alot of grassland and rivers and not alot of hills will become commernce citys (build all cottages), but other than that I will farm the heck out of everything els.

For the most part, you are going to need to chose between a money city, or a production city. Farm it to get production (more citizens to work on mountains) or cottage spam to get money and science. Yes you will need to specialise citys by either putting lots of farms around them, or lots of cottages, becuse if you make all farms then you will have very little $, and if you make all cottages your production will stink

 

[csmith963]

In our current game he's playing Louis of the French and I'm the Egyptians. We play on Noble level

 

[popejubal]

im not a huge civ 4 player, but i have some good experience in civ 3. The best hint that i can give you is to build lots of citys. If its a very large map like you describe, then you should keep building citys untill you cant any more.

This is outstanding advice for Civ3. This is terrible advice for Civ4. Each additional city that you found costs more $ per turn to support than the last and in addition, each city you found causes the $ per turn of your other cities to go up as well.

I personaly dont do alot of city specializatoin either, although i will try to fit a great leader farm or 2 in my civ. Citys with alot of grassland and rivers and not alot of hills will become commernce citys (build all cottages), but other than that I will farm the heck out of everything els.

City specialization was not as necessary in Civ3 for a variety of reasons. It is absolutely critical in Civ 4. I've found that I tend to have 1/2 of my cities as commerce cities, 1/4 to 1/3 as production cities (this is largely determined by the map. A city with a couple of food resources and lots of hills is obviously well suited to production. A city with all grasslands and Flood Plains is obviously suited to cottages/towns.)

For the most part, you are going to need to chose between a money city, or a production city. Farm it to get production (more citizens to work on mountains) or cottage spam to get money and science. Yes you will need to specialise citys by either putting lots of farms around them, or lots of cottages, becuse if you make all farms then you will have very little $, and if you make all cottages your production will stink

Quoted for truth. You can also farm some land and assign merchant/priest specialists for cash and you can assign scientist specialists for research. This works exceptionally well for some leaders and some map types. If you do have a city that grows lots of specialists, don't bother to cottage that city. Cottages take a lot of time to improve into towns and they only improve when you are actually working them. If you are running specialists in a town, then you are obviously not working the cottages.

Cottages are terrible tiles to build and work. The reason why you do work them is that they eventually turn into hamlets/villages/towns when you do. Towns are amazing tiles to work.

One final thought: Improve any special resources that you have as quickly as you possibly can and don't be afraid to plant a city in an otherwise undesireable location if it grabs you a couple of resources that you don't currently have (as long as you can defend that city appropriately). Claiming and improving special resources is the most effective and efficient route to power and all the other tactics that you read are what you do in addition to that.

 

[r_rolo1]

^^that is exactly where civ 3 and 4 differ..... if you try to spam settlers "untill you cant any more" you'll get broke, your units will be dismantled and someone will remove you from existance ( maybe even the barbs )

Ps Heavily beaten...

 

[csmith963]

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/city_specialization.php
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/specialization.php
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252717

Read those for a start.

Some great and very helpful articles. Methinks this plus the advice in this thread should give me the edge I need. Thanks fellas!

 

[Mao Zendog]

...The best hint that i can give you is to build lots of citys. If its a very large map like you describe, then you should keep building citys untill you cant any more...

I should have clarified. No matter wich version of civizatoin you play, having lots of citys will give you the best chance of winning the game. There is no such thing as over expanding, but there is such a thing as expanding too quickly. What I ment to say was to build as many citys as you can afford to untill you cant expand any more. If you can build 10 cities (unlikely) before you run out of room, then by all means build all 10. If you can only afford 5 before you start to lower the research slider below 60 or so, then wait for your cottages, and citys to grow, and then build the rest of your citys.