Idiot mistakes 101

[King Flevance]

Hehe. In my most recent game I was trying to rush Hanging Gardens in a city that had limited resources. I chopped most of it until about 1/5 was left to build. Then (city population was 2 btw)

The plan:

Work tiles:
A grassland by a river with a hamlet on it [+2 food, +3 coins]
A Plains with a farm on it [+2 food, +1 coin, +1 hammer]

Then when enough food was stored up (2/turn) I would work 2 mines on plains/hills that produced [+3 hammers, +7 gold] although this meant I had to take a hit of -2 food every turn while I pulled the 6 hammers per turn.

I was doing ok turn by turn watching it. Then I had to plop another city down and get it going. I wasn't paying attention and I spent 1 too many turns starving my Hanging Gardens city to 1 population. Instantly, taking my turns left to produce from about 4 turns to 19 turns. And there is more!

So, I am like and have this little guy in my head going and in my frustration I wasn't thinking because I forgot you can't starve a city to death. I move my production off the mine and onto the food so I dont lose the city and then I can starve them again swapping back and forth with only 1 population.

Then that little guy in my head notices what I did. Yells at me to put it back on the mine which I did and the 2nd mistake took me from 19 turns to 21 because I wasted 2 turns farming food.

EDIT: BTW somehow I still got it. I was one of the last people to pick up Math

 

[Kalleyao]

Building the UN when I'm everyone's worst enemy. Then the next election I lose by diplomacy when I had like 2 turns left to finish space ship.

 

[Fusker]

Just last night,

an AI offered me a tech trade, and I thought I would try to ask for more. So I mistakenly offered another one of MY techs to the pot. I was very pleased they went for it, only to realize I just gave away the farm

 

[autocon]

I've an idiot mistake to share which I made twice in two recent games. Situation is: A pair of workers is chopping forests for wonder rushing. Suddenly a barbarian axe pops up. No problem, I've got a woodsman II archer hanging around at my borders. I place the archer on the worker pair in order to protect them. The turn the axemen attacks is exactly the turn my workers finished their forest chop. Ooops ! The archer of course is a lovely prey for the axe - woodsman II is not a big factor when there is no wood any more... farewell my workers...

LT

lmao! this one made me laugh

 

[Sisiutil]

Got a new one from my current game.

I keep going to meet the AI leaders, but NONE of them will trade resources with me--there aren't even any resources on the list! Surely they can't be THAT backward, or advanced! Don't they LIKE me? What am I doing wrong...

Oh. I'm on a continent by myself and I haven't discovered Astronomy yet...

 

[Campaco]

I've done this ... but I *OFFERED* the trade! I didn't know you can offer away your only resource!

It isn't always stupid - you can use this to your advantage. It enables you to trade with two civs. First you give or trade away your single resource, and then trade it back from another civ. I used the strategy sometimes in Civ III, and now i regularly give away my luxury resources when going for a diplomatic victory. (Which only succeeded once, on prince level...)

 

[Jheronimus]

Building Caravals instead of Galleons and ship all these Caravals to the other side of the world and find out there that all my units won't get into the ******* boats! boy am I stupid or what

 

[Campaco]

It is fun reading everyone's bloopers while playing Civ 4. At first, my biggest mistake was playing Civ III-style. But as you can read in the strategy forum, that's common knowledge now.
To me it was even quite fun to see the money in my vault vault dwindle while waging a war after settling my third city on a far away strategic spot. And with all the money gone, my army went on strike, and eventueally there was no unit left to capture that foreign city with. Awesome. You won't make that mistake ever again!

You might try this one for yourself also: generate a tropical map at a higher difficulty setting. Send your first settler into the jungle and found your second city at a place with at least five jungle tiles adjacent to it.

Ever seen a size one city suffer with health problems? Now you do!

 

[JackRules]

I'm no war monger but after reading about praetorians I thought I'd try a domination game. So I go to set-up and who do I pick? Alexander of course. So who is the first civ to attack me? Julius with his praetorians.

 

[Eyeflash]

My first few times of playing: training a worker in a new city so it does not grow. ARGH.

Just now: having some workers "auto-improve" on a continent where nearly all squares are already improved. I check back several turns later, and what do I see? They're in the progress of destroying all of my Towns(yes, Towns, not Cottages or anything, but TOWNS!!!) to build farms in their place, while I already had several farms for that city.

 

[balthamael]

Playing as MM, heaidng for space race- all teh wya through game i payed 3 Agg Ai's (Alex, Monty and Tokugawa) to wipe out the other, and leace me alone. I end up with only teh Agg AI's left- i play Alex and Monty off against each otehr and make buddies with Tokugawa. later i pay Alex to destroy Tokugawa- paying him with techs. I know realise i am trapped with massively mroe powerfull agg AI's, as high as me in the tech rate, and all Cautious or annoyed. Uh-oh.....

 

[GiantRaven]

My first few times of playing: training a worker in a new city so it does not grow. ARGH.

Just now: having some workers "auto-improve" on a continent where nearly all squares are already improved. I check back several turns later, and what do I see? They're in the progress of destroying all of my Towns(yes, Towns, not Cottages or anything, but TOWNS!!!) to build farms in their place, while I already had several farms for that city.

Same here, that's when i vowed never to automate again

 

[Eyeflash]

After just having my n00b question on "City must work to become a Hamlet/Village/Town" answered, another dumbass mistake with regards to automation: allowing my city governors to automate which tiles are being worked!

 

[Eyeflash]

One of my first games had a doozy. I was being attacked by Barbarians, and knowing that Barbarians would pillage my improvements, I moved an Archer out of his city to sucker them into attacking it.

...on Grasslands...one tile outside the city...with nothing left behind to guard the city...

I did that a few days ago!

Another thing: trying to suck up to Montezuma. It just. Doesn't. Work.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Needed to confess on this one: going for a diplomatic victory, Cyrus abstains. Bother, says I. But he's in the midst of a war, and here I am with a transport full of mechinf and a destroyer escort. I bet gifting them to him will help.

And sure enough, he jumps from pleased to friendly, and I get his votes next time.

Of course, I selected the stack when I made the gift, which only selected the ships (?!), so now Cyrus is driving around a transport with my military on board!

 

[The Tyrant]

Of course, I selected the stack when I made the gift, which only selected the ships (?!), so now Cyrus is driving around a transport with my military on board!

OMG! I loved that one. Can you select those units at all? Even if you can't click on them, can you cycle through units to reach them? Can you get them off the boat when he nears land?

 

[AvianAvenger]

Was trying to go for a cultural victory when Montz was my only opponent.., thats bad enough as it is...

...i thought i was safe but little did realise that my horse's,iron,bronze were right on his doorstep.. so he takes on step over the line declairs war, destroys my resources in the same go.. (even tho his attitude towards me was happy)

this leaves me with my next best units... a warrior up against his knights...he then proceeds to whipe every city out in less than 10 turns!!!!

... painfull leason to learn.

 

[BadHorsie]

One I still make... putting my research down to a low percentage for some cash, then forgetting it there and wasting a load of time trying to develop a tech in 52 turns or something.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

Was trying to go for a cultural victory when Montz was my only opponent.., thats bad enough as it is...

...i thought i was safe but little did realise that my horse's,iron,bronze were right on his doorstep.. so he takes on step over the line declairs war, destroys my resources in the same go.. (even tho his attitude towards me was happy)

this leaves me with my next best units... a warrior up against his knights...he then proceeds to whipe every city out in less than 10 turns!!!!

... painfull leason to learn.

Never trust an Aztec. Especially ones with nukes.

A lesson I learnt the hard way. Stupid counter-alliances.

 

[Older than Dirt]

I just pillaged my fishing net instead of disbanding a galley. I was too lazy to go back and reload. I just pretend it is sabotage (I was going to say ter...ism but don't want the forum to be under surveilance).