That's probably true. Maybe I should just down a bottle of sleeping pills. Life is never going to be worth living.
I Still SUCK At Civ IV.
- Thread starter Nevordan
- Start date
That's probably true. Maybe I should just down a bottle of sleeping pills. Life is never going to be worth living.
May I suggest you try the following at Noble level.
Play Roman as Augustus.
Settle on spot. In capital, build a worker -> warrior -> stonehedge -> great wall -> warrior -> settler -> pyramids -> warrior -> settler -> (switch to police state) -> preatorians.
1st settlement should have some resources and fresh water (but no big deal if not) and should be built near an AI, build worker -> barracks -> worker -> preatorians.
2nd settlement should have iron unless you already have it in other cities, build barracks -> worker -> preatorians.
Research order = bronze working -> mysticism -> mining -> masonry -> ironworking -> pottery -> writing -> polytheism -> priesthood -> code of laws -> alphebet (slip in some resouce techs inbetween depending on what you have).
Give all preatorians city raider I promotions, when you have around 10 (and maybe a couple of axeman, march them to the nearest AI (hopefully not protective ), get all its cities except the last one (you should capture its capital though). The 1st captured city goes barracks -> preatorians, the other captured cities get courthouses first.
Auto all workers (except when you get your iron city, at that stage, hook up iron fast), auto all worked city tiles, auto citizens. When AI has 1 city remaining, sue for peace and take any techs that AI has to offer. Switch to representation. After 10 turns, declare war again and finish him off.
By then, you should have around 7-9 cities, each with courthouses and library. Your research % should be very low but no problem. Build some workers (auto them), trade for currency tech if you do not have it. If no one is willing to trade you currency, switch your capital to build Research and research it yourself. Spam markets. Spam more workers till you have around 10+. If you are in dire financial trouble, disband some of your army (esp the initial warriors you have at the beginning).
Settle all great people in capital unless you (1) use him to found a shrine (2) save him to rush a wonder (3) set up an academy in capital. Try to get the Great Library in capital.
Research feudalism, make some longbows and put them at your border city. Then get Education and build universities (Oxford at capital). Beeline liberalism. Get Nationalism as free tech. Try to build Taj Mahal for golden age, then research towards rifles. Once you have rifles, switch research to 0%, use the money to upgrade your preatorians to rifles, draft some more rifles, make more rifles and go for the next AI (which should only have macemen and longbowmen). Capture his cities (incl. capital) until he capitulates. Then find your next victim, rinse and repeat.
The techs you need after you get rifles is probably drama, then constitution (both of which to mitigate ww), and then either goes for democracy if other AIs have that (which is unlikely) or beeline assembly lines + facism. I would suggest that you ignore the astronomy tech line, the railroad tech line and the scientific method tech line until after you get facism to ensure you have infantry as soon as possible. Also ignore military science and military tradition.
That should be a guaranteed success strategy for Noble level and should work on most non-island maps. There are actually a LOT of things wrong with this way oversimplified strategy but it should have no problem on Noble level. Roman UU are really overpowered. I hope you get a good win out of this and kick your gf from her number 1 spot in HoF.
Play Roman as Augustus.
Settle on spot. In capital, build a worker -> warrior -> stonehedge -> great wall -> warrior -> settler -> pyramids -> warrior -> settler -> (switch to police state) -> preatorians.
1st settlement should have some resources and fresh water (but no big deal if not) and should be built near an AI, build worker -> barracks -> worker -> preatorians.
2nd settlement should have iron unless you already have it in other cities, build barracks -> worker -> preatorians.
Research order = bronze working -> mysticism -> mining -> masonry -> ironworking -> pottery -> writing -> polytheism -> priesthood -> code of laws -> alphebet (slip in some resouce techs inbetween depending on what you have).
Give all preatorians city raider I promotions, when you have around 10 (and maybe a couple of axeman, march them to the nearest AI (hopefully not protective ), get all its cities except the last one (you should capture its capital though). The 1st captured city goes barracks -> preatorians, the other captured cities get courthouses first.
Auto all workers (except when you get your iron city, at that stage, hook up iron fast), auto all worked city tiles, auto citizens. When AI has 1 city remaining, sue for peace and take any techs that AI has to offer. Switch to representation. After 10 turns, declare war again and finish him off.
By then, you should have around 7-9 cities, each with courthouses and library. Your research % should be very low but no problem. Build some workers (auto them), trade for currency tech if you do not have it. If no one is willing to trade you currency, switch your capital to build Research and research it yourself. Spam markets. Spam more workers till you have around 10+. If you are in dire financial trouble, disband some of your army (esp the initial warriors you have at the beginning).
Settle all great people in capital unless you (1) use him to found a shrine (2) save him to rush a wonder (3) set up an academy in capital. Try to get the Great Library in capital.
Research feudalism, make some longbows and put them at your border city. Then get Education and build universities (Oxford at capital). Beeline liberalism. Get Nationalism as free tech. Try to build Taj Mahal for golden age, then research towards rifles. Once you have rifles, switch research to 0%, use the money to upgrade your preatorians to rifles, draft some more rifles, make more rifles and go for the next AI (which should only have macemen and longbowmen). Capture his cities (incl. capital) until he capitulates. Then find your next victim, rinse and repeat.
The techs you need after you get rifles is probably drama, then constitution (both of which to mitigate ww), and then either goes for democracy if other AIs have that (which is unlikely) or beeline assembly lines + facism. I would suggest that you ignore the astronomy tech line, the railroad tech line and the scientific method tech line until after you get facism to ensure you have infantry as soon as possible. Also ignore military science and military tradition.
That should be a guaranteed success strategy for Noble level and should work on most non-island maps. There are actually a LOT of things wrong with this way oversimplified strategy but it should have no problem on Noble level. Roman UU are really overpowered. I hope you get a good win out of this and kick your gf from her number 1 spot in HoF.
Remember that you have set the ai back a few steps. He has to start over on the city, and he has to spend production and growth for a new settler. If you do that with a lot of his cities, you will set him back quite a bit. Especially if you pillage too.
While he builds settlers, you build other units.
Catan_Settler
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2008
- Messages
- 448
So... the idea is just to cause a setback? If that's the case, how the hell does anyone win a domination victory? It would take half the game to get rid of one of your 6 opponents... or is it 7. Gah, I forget.
Yesterday I had to start over about... 15-20 times. Every game leads to a dead end. The only thing I've discovered is that perhaps the early rush is now a dead tactic. It simply doesn't work post-vanilla civ, at least not for me. It's not... how do you say, cost-effective. It causes craploads of war weariness, drains your economy to a standstill, and may win you one city. I think it's best to wait for catapults, and build up your economy so it can take the kick to the ballicks. Just my non-expert newbie idiot opinion.
Yesterday I had to start over about... 15-20 times. Every game leads to a dead end. The only thing I've discovered is that perhaps the early rush is now a dead tactic. It simply doesn't work post-vanilla civ, at least not for me. It's not... how do you say, cost-effective. It causes craploads of war weariness, drains your economy to a standstill, and may win you one city. I think it's best to wait for catapults, and build up your economy so it can take the kick to the ballicks. Just my non-expert newbie idiot opinion.
Catan_Settler
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2008
- Messages
- 448
Pro tip: Play a duel sized, great plains map. Get good at zerg rushing your one opponent. Start increasing the map size and playing with more difficult maps like archipelago and continents. Or just do everyone in your life a favor, and take that bottle of bills with a nice glass of scotch.
Revenant27
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2007
- Messages
- 47
this post is sounding more and more like trolling everyday
AI expands fast and it's hard to keep up in the beginning, what's not hard to keep up is tech. To win domination you need to out-tech the AI and use superior troops to offset the massive number of units AI makes. Sounds like you have fast enough tech rate since you are working floodplain cottages, so now you just have to focus on getting techs that all the AIs don't have, and trade it around.
some easy way to get ahead in tech:
- cottages around the capital, and run beauracracy.
- get pyramind and great library, run specialists and representation early.
- get greatwall and great spy and steal techs (while you research new techs that you can't steal).
- trade one tech to all AI for different techs.
- set up a GP farm and use the GPs to pop techs.
- play as a Financial leader.
- build Oracle, first to Liberalism.
some easy ways to get troops fast:
- draft every turn.
- whip units out of every city, 2-3 times.
- set tech slider to 0% to get gold for a few turns and mass upgrade.
- set up one or two unit factory and make nothing but units, heroic epic, west point, and hammer multipiers like forge and factory.
These are good starting points, try implementing some of them, or better yet, all of them because they can work together for the most part. Don't be discouraged if the AI has 2 or 3 times more cities than you have, once you got a leg up in tech, you can easily make those cities yours.
some easy way to get ahead in tech:
- cottages around the capital, and run beauracracy.
- get pyramind and great library, run specialists and representation early.
- get greatwall and great spy and steal techs (while you research new techs that you can't steal).
- trade one tech to all AI for different techs.
- set up a GP farm and use the GPs to pop techs.
- play as a Financial leader.
- build Oracle, first to Liberalism.
some easy ways to get troops fast:
- draft every turn.
- whip units out of every city, 2-3 times.
- set tech slider to 0% to get gold for a few turns and mass upgrade.
- set up one or two unit factory and make nothing but units, heroic epic, west point, and hammer multipiers like forge and factory.
These are good starting points, try implementing some of them, or better yet, all of them because they can work together for the most part. Don't be discouraged if the AI has 2 or 3 times more cities than you have, once you got a leg up in tech, you can easily make those cities yours.
Hey don't lose hope! I was in a similar situation where I bought civ4 just played on Chieftain and all I could do was domination or space race. When I tried to move up levels I got crushed, I tossed this game to the side and stopped playing it. Well last year some time before BTS came out, some how I came across this group. I actually did a lot of studying and reading the different strategies. I learned all about the Orcale slingshot.
I printed out tons of stratgey tips. I made a list of build orders and tech orders that people mentioned. I tried them, some games I messed up, but I got a little better each time.
I read the ALC threads and numerous others. I now play on Noble and won a culture victory, I know people posting say that is easy. Well I had no idea how to do it before so I got great joy out of reading some threads on it and figuring it out.
In closing if you like civ keep at it, read the threads on strategies and post some saves and what you tried. Don't give up unless you don't want to invest the time. Good Luck
I printed out tons of stratgey tips. I made a list of build orders and tech orders that people mentioned. I tried them, some games I messed up, but I got a little better each time.
I read the ALC threads and numerous others. I now play on Noble and won a culture victory, I know people posting say that is easy. Well I had no idea how to do it before so I got great joy out of reading some threads on it and figuring it out.
In closing if you like civ keep at it, read the threads on strategies and post some saves and what you tried. Don't give up unless you don't want to invest the time. Good Luck
domination is the "hardest" victory condition, in the sense that you need to balance warfare and economy.
The early rush is cost effective if :
- the enemy capital is close by and stuffed with resources (happens often)
- you have production capacity.
I would suggest postponing the rush strats for a while. Come back to it later, when you know how to handle the economy thing...
Exercice : you play 1 given map type, and try to get the most beakers at 1AD, with a mimimum number of cities requirement. Let's say 4.
Try different leaders, different strats, get the feel for it.
I agree. I usually fail if I go blindly for any of the aggressive victories.
I found out that it's best just battle for resources and space for my cities in the beginning. Short wars for just one or two cities. Then, when the economy is in place, and I have a good up-to-date army, I let my wars last a bit longer.
I guess the veteran players can just decide how they will win. I'm still changing win strategies over time after how the situation changes.
I found out that it's best just battle for resources and space for my cities in the beginning. Short wars for just one or two cities. Then, when the economy is in place, and I have a good up-to-date army, I let my wars last a bit longer.
I guess the veteran players can just decide how they will win. I'm still changing win strategies over time after how the situation changes.
BoogieCheese
Chieftain
Wow, I am impressed. That was so incredibly helpful and mature! All the other tips pale in comparison. I bow to your infinite wisdom, although I think vodka is a better choice.
Being new here, I can only hope comments like these are not the norm. Goddess knows, I need plenty of help myself ... in and outside of the game
Anyway, I don't get the AI's rapid expansion, either. In my current game (Noble difficulty) Suleiman was going on his 13th city, while I still had four. Perhaps I'm a tad slow, but his expansion was utterly rediculous. I have no idea how the AI can expand at such a rate & still tech fairly decently. It's frustrating to say the least, especially as he had invited himself to my continent, once his was full. Jackass.
Edit: I just re-read that quote. If you're handing out bottles of bills, be sure to pass one my way. I could use a bunch of crisp bens.
Catan_Settler
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2008
- Messages
- 448
At Noble and Prince, I used to expand considerably faster than the AI to my 6th city or so while still being an absolute wonder hog and out-teching them (after that, my rate of expansion varied a lot depending on overall strategy) so this is very possible.
Doing all 3 at once might require a little organisation or even nerdity (time it so you can improve the first tile the round a new city is founded to avoid maintenance without gain. Let your cities grow, then switch to settler production for one turn while multiple chops provide hammers. Whip a lot at low city sizes, down to the point where they're only working the tiles with massive food outputs).
You can easily do one or two of those without resorting to cheese, then leverage that.
Militarily, set yourself a goal. If you want to conquer something, make sure you don't pay a disproportionate amount in units for the gain. If you can't win a decisive victory, steal all workers an opponent has, pillage them dry and tech to a military advantage. A few gold now, no units lost, no crippling maintenance and a painless victory in the future. If you manage to do this once or twice, you should have enough land that you can out-tech the peacemongers and the type of victory is yours to choose.
Doing all 3 at once might require a little organisation or even nerdity (time it so you can improve the first tile the round a new city is founded to avoid maintenance without gain. Let your cities grow, then switch to settler production for one turn while multiple chops provide hammers. Whip a lot at low city sizes, down to the point where they're only working the tiles with massive food outputs).
You can easily do one or two of those without resorting to cheese, then leverage that.
Militarily, set yourself a goal. If you want to conquer something, make sure you don't pay a disproportionate amount in units for the gain. If you can't win a decisive victory, steal all workers an opponent has, pillage them dry and tech to a military advantage. A few gold now, no units lost, no crippling maintenance and a painless victory in the future. If you manage to do this once or twice, you should have enough land that you can out-tech the peacemongers and the type of victory is yours to choose.
Actually, while the AI usually founds more cities than you as a player does, they actually do tech slower. I'd suggest trying to get the hang of tech trading(which is what the AI will do to stay in the tech race while expanding in the beginning).
After a while you'll start to get a feel for what techs the AI will usually trade away and which ones you should focus on yourself(most military techs for example, not to mention the "path to liberalism").
The_Reckoning
Prince
Do the posting of savegames thing.
Spikey1201
Chieftain
I would just like to point out that Nevordan's posts are always the best to read. I hate to see him suffer, but at the same time, you half want him to keep failing because the posts are hilarious. Nevordan=Chicago Cubs
MrPopov
King
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2006
- Messages
- 985
heh, I could probably stuff a few bills into a bottle if you'd like. hmm, let's see, that damn gas bill sure is high during these cold months...
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