How to get the most out of Civ4 for Newbie

[Mistro]

Hello community, I'm new here.

I was introduced to Civilization 3 (vanilla) two weeks ago by a friend. I spent 48 hours after that installation glued to my computer and growing a beard as I was instantly addicted. My wife got a little worried.

I am a SimCity 4 player. I usually do not play this type of game. One thing I love about PC gaming is the modding and custom content so I been lurking and reading up in the Civ community to see how I could get the best out of playing Civilization. I found out that version 5 was out and did some reading. In the end, I chose to get Civ4 after reading many reviews and posts. I like the older mature games more than the newer ones for various reasons.

So I bought Civ4 complete from Amazon (not the steam version) and so far I'm loving it. The only thing I am wondering is what I should expect playing the modded versions. I played the vanilla civ4 first, then I tried Beyond the Sword. Aside from having more nations to play with, I did not notice any difference from my vanilla session with the exception of the date going beyond 2050 without telling me game over. (still learning how not to have knights, spearmen and cannons in the 21st century ) Perhaps I don't see much difference because I'm new and don't notice the new resources? I also read that in BTS we can choose what era to begin but I don't know how to start later than 4000 BC.

I feel like I am missing something. When I start a new game I feel like I'm about to do the same things I did in the last session (a sense of repetitiveness)

First question is: what is the best way to advance and have modern stuff by the time I get to the 20th century?

Second: How do I start at a later date than 4000 BC?

Third: What differences should I look for gameplay wise when playing BTS or any other modded versions of the game?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lindsay40k]

Welcome to Civ Fanatics

1 - There's two things that are easy to under-estimate or under-produce when getting the hang of Civ 4: Cottages, and Great People.

Cottages add +1 Commerce to a plot (which then gets turned to gold and/or beakers, depending on how you've set your budget); but as time goes by, that bonus increases. You increase the bonus by working the Cottage, developing the Printing Press, and adopting Free Speech. If a city has a food resource, a bunch of Cottages, and prioritises research buildings like Libraries and Monasteries, it'll get your tech developing in no time.

Great People, as you may have noticed, enable you to lightbulb technologies. Things like Mathematics, Theology, Education and Currency can be obtained very easily if you have a city set aside for farming Great People. If you've got a bunch of Food resources around a city (common situation for capitals), then Libraries, Temples and Markets (or Caste System) are a good choice to let you run Scientists, Priests and Merchants. (Throw in a National Epic to produce GP faster, maybe even adopt Pacifism if your neighbours are friendly.) Given time, they'll generate a genius who'll help you jump ahead in technology, get first dibs on a powerful Wonder, trade it with AIs, and so on. Just don't teach unfriendly neighbours how to make Catapults! Also - every Wonder you build will slowly generate GP's; the Great Library in particular makes an excellent addition to a Great People Farm.

Also, there's one thing that's easy to over-estimate: number of cities. If you're starting in the Ancient Era, remember you're a stone age tribe, not the Soviet Union. Stick to a modest number of cities if you don't have Code of Laws to build Courthouses, otherwise they'll incur a lot of upkeep and by the time you've (automatically) paid for maintenance there'll be no funds left over for research. It's all too easy to keep building Settler after Settler and wonder why there's no money left and everybody's on strike! Likewise, when you capture a city, take a look inside - if it hasn't got a lot of useful buildings or a really good Wonder, is it worth paying 5 or 10 gold per turn (and garrisoning a bunch of units) to maintain it, or can it be razed?

2 - I believe you need to muck around with Starting Era for non-Ancient starts. I dunno, I never bother - I like to begin with a caveman

3 - TBH, I jumped straight into BTS and didn't bother installing Civ 4. BTS ironed out the combat system's maths, filled some gaps in the tech tree and unit roster, added random events if you prefer interesting distractions to competitive tournament play, and introduced Corporations so you can have a good Cold War. It also has the extra stuff from Warlords, so you can have Great Generals lead or train the troops, make defeated rivals swear allegiance as Vassals, and construct a building that's unique to your culture. The AI plays a better game, too.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Hello community, I'm new here.

I was introduced to Civilization 3 (vanilla) two weeks ago by a friend. I spent 48 hours after that installation glued to my computer and growing a beard as I was instantly addicted. My wife got a little worried.

So I bought Civ4 complete from Amazon (not the steam version) and so far I'm loving it. The only thing I am wondering is what I should expect playing the modded versions. I played the vanilla civ4 first, then I tried Beyond the Sword. Aside from having more nations to play with, I did not notice any difference from my vanilla session with the exception of the date going beyond 2050 without telling me game over. (still learning how not to have knights, spearmen and cannons in the 21st century ) Perhaps I don't see much difference because I'm new and don't notice the new resources? I also read that in BTS we can choose what era to begin but I don't know how to start later than 4000 BC.

I feel like I am missing something. When I start a new game I feel like I'm about to do the same things I did in the last session (a sense of repetitiveness)

First question is: what is the best way to advance and have modern stuff by the time I get to the 20th century?

Second: How do I start at a later date than 4000 BC?

Third: What differences should I look for gameplay wise when playing BTS or any other modded versions of the game?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forums!

1. The Strategy and Tips section has a number of articles that are very helpful. You can use specialists or cottages (or a combination, best) to fuel your scientific advance. Check on your neighbors periodically after they or you have Alphabet to trade technologies.

2. Go to Single Player/Custom Game. In there are almost all the options you can think of, including what era to start. Or you could try the advanced start, but then you have to decide what to start the game with.

3. In basic gameplay BTS isn't that different from vanilla. You have more leaders, more wonders and some slight changes to wonders, Unique units, etc. (Such as Space Elevator being put much further down the tech path, making it worthless).

Mods can have significant differences. I play a lot of Rhye's and Fall of Civilization and many of the wonders have different effects, some UU's work differently and there are other features different (such as plague and stability). I wouldn't try a mod until you have a couple games of BTS done and feel comfortable. It's a very complex game. I personally like the one-city challenge to finish a game in an hour or so.

I also come from a CivIII background - still play sometimes. CivIV is a very different game.

 

[Daft73]

^^^ all of the above is quite useful.

I personally like to start in ancient as well, and to honest it's easier ,imho, to start off slow.

Getting to know the traits of all the leaders helps, you can find some traits you'll like to use. These traits will generally give you a play-style to work around.

As far as game options, how do you like to play? For example, are you trying to play against AI only, or do you want barbarians as well? Adding barbs will add a sense of early urgency to protect yourself, and start getting xp for your troops
Another big choice is goody huts. Do you want the chance for some early techs/money/maps/units...ect the ai also gets these so its a pot-shot.

As far as mods, well they add to what is already there. Generally they are a bit more difficult than vanilla(which usually means more fun!). Mods give you the option to play a fantasy Civ4, a Space game, High fantasy etc..then there are mod mods...and so on.

If you feel like your playing the same game over and over, switch up who you play as..You generally don't play the different leaders the same..ie It's probably more efficient to play an aggresive stance with say Shaka, versus Ghandi.
Also the map settings. You want to get to fist 'o cuffs going right away play a Pangaea, want some time to grow play continents/islands..

Happy civing mate Welcome to cfc

 

[Aswissrole]

Play as different civs, try go for different victories or try a different map type to spice up the game a little Or of course 1 city challenge!

1) The more research you have the faster you can progress. So obviously focus on building libraries and the likes in every city and keep the science funding high ~70% I aim for. You can also trade techs with AIs and (unless you have disabled it) trade techs you gained through other trades thus being a sort of information dealer which obviously improves your tech progression.

2) Why would you not want to start in the ancient era? As Ataxerxes said you can select era in custom game and also turn on advance start which allows you to purchase cities and techs to start with.

3) BTS is an expansion pack so it doesn't really add much. Mods add so much more. Try Caveman2Cosmos if you want a ridiculous amount of stuff added to it. FallFromHeaven2 is the probably the best fantasy mods. And FinalFrontier is actually included with BTS for all your spacing needs (get the modmod FinalFrontierPlus tho).

 

[s.bernbaum]

Everything that has been said, I concur. As for differences between vanilla and BTS, two big ones are the espionage system and corporations. Espionage works entirely differently in the two and is much more complex in BTS. Corporations were a new feature added in BTS. There are also several unit types, particularly modern era ones, that do not exist in vanilla. As you mentioned, you wouldn't notice these and other changes unless you are already familiar with the game. The game not ending in 2050 is not a feature of either vanilla or BTS. It is an option in both that you can activate by unchecking the Time Victory option in the Custom Game screen. Why your game had it off, when you did not enter that screen will be a forever puzzle, unless you did it while looking around without knowing what it does.

I would suggest going to the War College (on the Civ4 drop down menu at the top of this page) and reading several of the articles in the introductory category. That will get you started.

If you are going to play BTS, which I recommend, you also want to download the BUG Mod and install it according to the CustomAssets install directions. It will make learning much easier and playing much more fun. It does not change the game at all. It only changes the User Interface (UI) to make the game run more smoothly.

 

[happyturtle]

I love starting in later eras. You'll get all the techs of the previous eras, and the religions will be randomly sorted a few turns after the game starts. Renaissance or later, your cities will start with some buildings already done. It lets you skip past a lot of the boring turns.

 

[AW Arcaeca]

1) An emphasis on tech - tech points, as I call them, symbolized by in-game, are produced each turn by your cities. The game automatically takes cities' commerce commerce and converts it into tech points, thusly, you need to focus on commerce. Coastal cities receive plenty. Other sources include building cottages, oases, and resources such as dye, sugar, gold, silver, and gems.
2) Starting era can only be changed in Custom Game in Single Player mode. You'll know it when you see it; it includes a drop-down menu.
3) What you should expect from modded versions is what the modder says the mod includes. As for what differences you should expect while playing BTS:
a) It includes different scenarios and maps, although that's probably a no-brainer.
b) Almost twice as many civs as in the vanilla version plus new leaders for existing civs.
c) The addition of the Aesthetics tech, plus many more in the Future Era.
d) Many new concepts from C4W that are included in BTS, like unique buildings, new leader traits, vassal states and great generals.
e) Espionage, corporations, random events, expanded diplomatic and space race victories, and new game options like "Choose Religions".

I'm not good with strategy so don't expect much of that from me. Contrary to what most of the more experienced forum members think, I'd say BTS is wildly different from the vanilla version. Oh, and welcome to Civfanatics!

 

[Mistro]

Thanks for your replies. Spent all day yesterday playing and I figured out all the customization options. I played one session way beyond the time victory and was ready to dominate the world with my huge arsenal including cyborgs and biological weapons with destroyers and battleships of all kinds in key positions all over the world. For some reason I could not produce any nukes (is uranium a resource to find like copper?) No one messed with me for that whole session so I wanted to start something and was picking who was gonna get it first until I learned a hard lesson on saving frequently as the game crashed to desktop.

I find myself wanting to focus on things that enhance the cities like culture and education more and more. My reason is that I think production gets faster as a city gets smarter. The drawback I experienced in my last two sessions was the slow progress in building my military units (I was playing on Epic). When I play starting with building a huge army, no one seems to want to mess with me but meanwhile I'm losing out on getting some wonders. But when I spend much time producing wonders and libraries and such, I get called out early. This B!@* from Russia kept offering me bad deals (offering little bit of gold for tech or flat out threatening me to give it up for nothing)and I kept turning her down so she declared war on me and wiped us out. I tried building 3 cities that would each specialize on certain productions. One for wonders and culture, one for military, and one for things like workers and boats. The problem I'm having is the slow progress between each unit (warrior in 20 turns). If I focus on improvements to get the city producing units faster, then someone declares war before I have enough units to effectively defend myself. I'm thinking it's because of the lack of a strong army that this happens. I got something for her next game though.

Maybe it was the mode I was playing in but it seemed too slow to produce those early essential units like workers, warriors and settlers. Looks like I will be using the custom game page to find the right balance of game length and difficulty. Any suggestions regarding setting up custom games?

 

[lindsay40k]

Yep, Uranium is a resource. You can detect it when you develop Physics; I always have a look around after that tech (and Scientific Method, which reveals Oil) to see if anyone needs a good invading to tell them to stop sitting on my resources.

There's little need to worry about culture. It only becomes an issue when your borders are being pushed back by a rival's city; a Monument will generally pop your borders to hook up important resources. If you fancy trying your hand at a Culture Victory, this is generally achieved by methods other than Wonder spam; there's plenty of strategy articles on this already

Ah, Catherine... she's a tricky one. She's programmed to be a backstabber, it's impossible to ever be certain she's not about to plan an invasion. If she - or a warmonger like Genghis, Shaka or Napoleon - is nearby, at least one city with a food resource and a number of mines really ought to be producing a granary, barracks and then loads of units. Alternatively, convert to their religion, and give them a bunch of techs to declare war on some heathen

Specialised cities is good, though it's nice to have several commerce cities researching away. As long as every city has got a worker or two improving the fields, they should all do their jobs well.

A worker to start with, develop a food resource and then chop forests and whip population (both with Bronze Working) is the secret to rapid early production. Better yet, send a Warrior to kidnap a neighbour's worker

 

[Manco Capac]

Ah, Catherine... she's a tricky one. She's programmed to be a backstabber, it's impossible to ever be certain she's not about to plan an invasion. If she - or a warmonger like Genghis, Shaka or Napoleon

No, it's possible to know what those are up to on FRIENDLY stance. Even Catherine. She backstabs while befriending you only when the dogpiler is also one friend of her. Players that Cathy are pleased with are not sufficiently appreciated to allow a backstab over someone she likes more. So, given true friendship happens for AI with a recluse circle, you should adapt and predict what will happen. And dogpiling only happens when you are at war with the dogpiler.

 

[God-Emperor]

Those "bad trade offers" are not necessarily bad. Sure they will sometimes make you a preposterously low offer for a tech in the hopes that you will be foolish enough to take it, but sometimes what they are doing is trying to trade for a tech that they have already almost fully researched.

If there is some tech the takes 500 research points to research and you are offered 70 for it it might be because they are trying to rip you off, or it might be because they have been researching it for a few turns and are only 70 research points short of finishing it (they usually value techs at something near 1 gold per research point, but it can vary depending on what the tech actually does for you).

If you accumulate enough espionage points against a civ you can see what they are currently researching (next to their name down in the scoreboard). This can help you get some idea of how far along in the tech they are and thereby whether or not they are trying to get it for less than it is really worth to them.

You can also get a diplomatic bonus from accepting an otherwise bad trade. This can be up to +4 and is labeled in the list of modifiers you have with them as something like "fair trade" (even though in order to get it, especially at better than +1, it has to be distinctly unfair for you).

 

[Willem]

One thing I would suggest if you want to get the most out of your game is use the BUG mod. It adds a bunch of new interface options that will make getting the info you need much, much easier. There's also a number of other options that will come in handy while you play, such as being able to place a marker for any future cities, being able set up a naming convention for your units etc. I consider it a must have when playing Civ 4.

Here's a link to the thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=268

 

[chiznut]

I suggest that instead of doing work while you are at work, you should come onto these forums and read the strategy articles and go through a few posted games to see how the better players run things.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Couple of more tips based on your experiences.

As linsay401k said, if there is a psycho next to you (Genghis, Shaka, Monty, Alex, Nappy or Ragnar) expect trouble. Even if none of them is around you, still have a city devoted to unit production. Even lesser AI's can attack and you can't please everybody in diplo.

Due to religion, some AI's will not like you. You have to choose your friends (easier if they're in your state religion and are zealots such as Isabella). The others will not like a heathen generally.

If an AI asks for a cheapo tech or small amount of gold, giving it to them improves their opinion of you. Also, when you first meet an AI you give them an unsolicited gift - a very cheap tech or 10 gold. This gives you +4 diplo right off to start dealing with them (although the +4 goes away quickly). Unsolicited gifts to improve relations after first meeting take a lot more of a gift.

 

[lindsay40k]

when you first meet an AI you give them an unsolicited gift - a very cheap tech or 10 gold. This gives you +4 diplo right off to start dealing with them (although the +4 goes away quickly). Unsolicited gifts to improve relations after first meeting take a lot more of a gift.

It's not uncommon for a human doing this to be the only one to get Open Borders with the extremely paranoid Tokugawa.

His isolationism usually see him stagnate, but if he's teching up capably, he can be a useful ally.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

My suggestion is to hang out in the S&T forum for a bit, and learn some basics.

But the best suggestion that I can give you is to play to have fun.

 

[Mistro]

Thanks again everyone. Now I need directions to the nearest Civ Rehab! I don't know where the past few days went and the scary part is I know I should be doing something else at certain times but I don't care. That's not good. *going back to click civ icon after post*

 

[lindsay40k]

Ah yes, moderation is the other thing to get the hang of

Maybe aim to restrict yourself to playing the current Nobles Club game from the forums? Shared games are a nice way to have a go, compare how you did with other strategies, and avoid the temptation to keep trying another game