How do I play Civilizations IV?

[Civ001]

I want to know how do I play Civilizations IV? I have been playing this game for a few years now and I am still terrible at it. I have only been able to play on Chieftain difficulty and even then I find this game can be difficult for me. One of my biggest problems is money. I often see the AI expand like crazy and settling a lot of cities across the map and that gets me worried. When I try to expand I get into huge debts up to like -30 in some areas. Yet I do not want to be so small. Another problem is war. I am often defeated by a smaller army even though I have larger numbers and more advanced units. I take over one city and when I try to take over the other city the one I captured gets re-conquered. I also noticed that my troops move very slowly in enemy territory like 5 turns to each city while in my territory it takes 1 or 2 turns to go from one city to the other. Another problem I have is research. I like to be the most advanced nation in the world. But somewhere in the Middle ages or the Renaissance ages I start to fall behind. I really suck at this game and I have been playing it for a few years now. I still seem to be really terrible at Civ IV even on Chieftain difficulty.

 

[jackelgull]

Read through some threads like improving on monarch level by Todelotti and try posting a save game of your own.

 

[Seraiel]

Here .

 

[MrRadar]

Youtube can be your friend as well. No amount of reading the forums did me so much good as watching some videos. Sullla's Dutch playthrough will help you grasp the basic mechanics of the game. He's switched off the tech trading for that game, but covers other aspects very well. Just don't listen what he says about CiV; however, for Civ IV you can trust him

And afterwards, you can search for TheMeInTeam's and Chris67132's Civ IV videos for new perspectives on advanced levels.

With their help my level just skyrocketed from struggling and losing on Monarch to feeling quite comfortable on Immortal. Deity on Civ IV is still to be conquered (as opposed to CiV, which is done).

 

[Flipantropo]

If you have money problems, try working more cottages and riverside tiles, also linking your cities with those of a civ you have "open borders" with building roads/acquiring the "sailing" and/or "astronomy" teches helps with trade route income. Your units move slower in enemy territory because they cant use their roads,and theres nothing you can do about it (unless you want to give a unit the "commando" promotion, but it demands a ton of xp).

Sometimes its better to keep your invading army waiting in a recently conquered city until you can defend it properly, cause resisting cities are especially vulnerable since they have no defensive bonuses until they are subdued and can build walls/cultural defenses.

Falling behind in tech in middle age/renaissance is an issue I used to have too, until I started experimenting with different ways to play the game, and played some games with tech trading disabled, I observed it was much easier for me to keep up in tech level in those games, so my conclusion was: I dont trade enough tech in normal games. So I started being more proactive with diplomacy and traded tech and stuff more often and I improved a lot as a result. Dont know if this is your case tough.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

I would recommend playing through a game at Monarch (never play anything below Monarch okay, Noble is fine) and give yourself vision of the entire map the whole time. If you are this lost, watching what a player (the AI) does to win should at least be a useful learning, a kind of apprenticeship. Or if you win with access to all the information, it can let you think about what makes decisions right or wrong when you have to guess what that information is.

It can't be understated to learn how the game works, too. Civ IV is a game that needs you to know what the heck is going on even to beat Noble. What are roads. What is commerce. How do you get techs. What is and what is it used on.

Civ IV is also a game with a brilliant early phase. While giving you the seeming of freedom and natural open-endedness, its mechanics and progression subtly but firmly reinforce that it is critical to get the economy running very fast and not to play warlike.
Last, to improve you have to learn. Every time you lose you learn how to beat someone.

 

[Seraiel]

Sry, but watching what the AI does will not make you a better player, but probably a worse one.

Starting a game in the S&T forums is probably the best you can do, and really read that link I gave you, and also some guides, the one called "CIV Illustrated" have been written with having new players in mind, so you should be able to understand them.

Watching videos is also very good, if you know, that the player who recorded it also isn't perfect and makes many faults.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

Sry, but watching what the AI does will not make you a better player, but probably a worse one.

He cannot get worse than the Chieftain AI to whom he is already losing. Study is difficult, apprenticeship at least gets the ball rolling and the view I received from the first post is Civ001 is totally at a loss.

 

[elitetroops]

If you want to play like the AI, then automate your workers, let the governor handle all city management and roll a die to select techs and builds. This will hardly make you a good player.

 

[TheSunIsDark]

Could you post screenshots and saves from your games?

 

[Tatran]

As your empire grows you have to discipline yourself more and more, because
with more cities, units, worker actions, checking trade screens, etc. the repetition is also growing fast.
The first 5 cities isn't a problem, but after 10 or much more cities your concentration drops fast.
And this will result in sloppy game play and lack of focus.
At some point your brain is simply bored.

Maybe OP his/her mind has a low tolerance for repetition.