Idiot mistakes 101

[GIO888]

I went to war with Louis XIV (hey, who wouldn't!) without a navy of any worth, he sent a solitary frigate which systematically destroyed every fishing boat along my extensive Eastern Coast, putting all my cities into starvation pretty quickly.

LOL re workers sleeping until railroad, but forgetting to wake 'em when it's discovered. I've done that so many times I should get scanned for a tumor.

CIV ON!

 

[karadoc]

accepting a trade for my only supply of horses; while I'm at war; and relying heavily on the cavalry currently being built.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

{slapping head repeatedly}
I am truly dumb... I KNEW this but I forgot... :whatever

In my current game I am dominating one island and Ghandi is a nice guy, but weak, and living on a nearby continent; he's just asking to be taken out, LOL! So I decide to attack, Civ3 style, and place troops in good, strong hillside positions next to three of his best cities with a view to attacking them the next turn. I declare war and BAM! all my troops are shunted to some Godforsaken ice tile in the bottom left hand corner of his continent.

D'OH! I had forgotten that in Civ4 your units get ejected when you declare war on someone. Still, in my defence, I will say that I am primarily a builder. I will respond to an attack but rarely start one myself. Maybe I should just continue quietly building, clearly I'm not cut out for warmongering. hehe.

 

[paulfish]

{slapping head repeatedly}
I am truly dumb... I KNEW this but I forgot... :whatever

In my current game I am dominating one island and Ghandi is a nice guy, but weak, and living on a nearby continent; he's just asking to be taken out, LOL! So I decide to attack, Civ3 style, and place troops in good, strong hillside positions next to three of his best cities with a view to attacking them the next turn. I declare war and BAM! all my troops are shunted to some Godforsaken ice tile in the bottom left hand corner of his continent.

D'OH! I had forgotten that in Civ4 your units get ejected when you declare war on someone. Still, in my defence, I will say that I am primarily a builder. I will respond to an attack but rarely start one myself. Maybe I should just continue quietly building, clearly I'm not cut out for warmongering. hehe.

OOPS the I forgot something again and again.

 

[tigerden27]

1) Leaving your only source of Iron UNDER a city defended only by the original Warrior.

2a) Build your second settler and escort it with the capital's defender. But wait it get's better.
2b) Forget that the capital had a barracks queued up. 15 turns without a defender. hmmm. What do barbarians do with undefended cities?

 

[weltenbrand]

I still walk around AI units and towns......

 

[Lahdoz]

Using group move to load a galley, crossing a sea, then finding I loaded a missionary and an archer instead of the archer and settler I meant to. Fortunately it only set me back 3 turns, I still got the iron and stone I was after.

 

[Renata]

I still walk around AI units and towns......

Ack! I just did that in my succession game turns last night! Stoopid.

 

[ZouPrime]

As a builder, I think the biggest mistake I used to make (and the one that kept me from being able to win on Prince and above) was being shy of building up my millitary, because of the upkeep cost and the absence of visible threats (everybody likes me! I don't need to upgrade those warriors! right?).

Now, I almost always have one city or two building up some millitary unit at any moment of time. If you end up with a bunch of city that have nothing else to build, maybe it's a sign you're neglecting your millitary.

If you want to wage war (and you should, even if you are a builder; plunders are a good source of income, and you can quickly acquire good sized cities and living space this way), do it like you mean it. Send a good stack of miscellaneous units that will get the job done for real the first time instead of a small one that will just tickle your opponent. Think big! Think strong! Don't just steal one of its city, crush him to the ground with your massive hordes!

Also, someone else once said that you shouldn't build things that help your city, you should built things that help your civilization. This is soooo true. Don't build a librairy in a city that produce 3 beakers each turn; build a barrack and a knight instead to defend your empire.

 

[LeGrandCharle]

Having a +7 relationship with the only Civ on my right (France), feeling secure and moving 95% of my units to assist in the grand battle to destroy the Germans on the Western Front... only to have the Germans and the French sign a military alliance against me... French Tanks came rolling in and i lost half my civ before i could react... and i can not even say Damn the French because i am French. Definition of Ironic.

 

[Flak]

Although, this might not be a '101' mistake, still pretty stupid. Moving a Gally with units on it into a city, and then deleting that ship thinking that the units automatically disembark ala Civ III and previous versions. That ate up a GP!

 

[Kolyana]

accepting a trade for my only supply of horses; while I'm at war; and relying heavily on the cavalry currently being built.

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

 

[Zhahz]

I'm sure I'm forgetting some original blunders. I've also been afflicted by:

1. Accidentally exploring with a worker instead of a nearby warrior.
2. Leaving my workers asleep for X turns after getting to railroads. (should mod the description to remind me to wake them up!)
3. Trading away resources I need. I did this up royally last night, trading away just about every health and happy resource I had in one big batch only to discover almost every one of my cities then became unhappy and seriously unhealthy.

Additional minor blunder I just thought of. I tend to chop rush a lot of stuff early and occasionally I'll chop rush a settler only to realize that I only explored a small portion of the nearby fog and I have no idea where to build a city with the settler. Mean while my lone exploring warrior is 15+ turns away checking out some prime desert real estate or something.

 

[eewallace]

Using up all of my movement points in my units to take out all the defenders of a barbarian city, only to have my neighboring civ waltz in and take the undefended city from under my nose!

 

[Meffy]

=>_<= Ouches. I've had that happen in Civ III (not barbs, of course, but a city of a mutual enemy).

 

[Velvet-Glove]

.....French Tanks came rolling in and i lost half my civ before i could react... and i can not even say Damn the French because i am French. Definition of Ironic.

Thanks for the laugh, I found that so funny!

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

Ah.... I think I've sussed this out now (correct me if I am wrong anyone!).... if THE AI come to YOU for a trade and you have just 1 Horse, for example, then it's safe to trade that horse because only surplus resources are listed. On the other hand, if YOU initiate a deal then the table will show ALL your resources so only negotiate with stuff you have 2 or more of, or think very carefully before you give away that single resource!

I think that's how it works, anyway - check it for yourself before taking my word for it.

 

[neriana]

Ah.... I think I've sussed this out now (correct me if I am wrong anyone!).... if THE AI come to YOU for a trade and you have just 1 Horse, for example, then it's safe to trade that horse because only surplus resources are listed. On the other hand, if YOU initiate a deal then the table will show ALL your resources so only negotiate with stuff you have 2 or more of, or think very carefully before you give away that single resource!

I think that's how it works, anyway - check it for yourself before taking my word for it.

I'm not sure, but I don't think that's how it works. I'm pretty sure Alexander offered to trade me something for my only source of iron the other night. I cleared the table to double-check, and I only had one.

Just to be safe, I never accept a trade with the AI without "care to negotiate" and double-checking everything first.

 

[The Spac]

You actually were in a game with multiple Taoistic civs? wow. Were they on a continent where no other religion was founded?

This is usually the case, when all the civs on one continent get all the techs and then they only manage to get one on the other. They all seem to adopt it. Usually that continent has less wars too haha. And their civs tech up faster.

 

[opticaljim]

Going to all the time, effort and costs to construct the Pyramids, actually acheive it, only to forget to change the civic government (the major benefit) for the next 150 turns.

 

[ZippyRiver]

Using a lot of old non-upgraded units to start a pilliaging war. Now my neighbor has a butt-load of level 5s and I have a LOT of units to get built.

Just because you can build them with 8 exp points does not mean you should trash-out your older 4/5 archers. lol