Hi, I've been playing Civilization IV quite sometimes specifically rhyes and fall of civilization and I noticed one thing!
My armed forces suck! I can never build a lot to protect my cities from an random invasion nor can I succeed in attacking another civilization and win wars.
Any tips and strategies?
1. Obviously, build more units. Establish a few cities with good production (eg, lots of hills that you can mine) and have them build nothing but units - and buildings that enhance that like barracks, forge and factory - for the whole game. A common beginner mistake is to have too many buildings - like libraries, markets and theatres - in cities that don't need them. The only buildings you need everywhere are granaries and possibly courthouses.
2. Build more siege weapons (catapults / trebuchets / cannon etc.). Essential for capturing enemy cities and also good for weakening attackers.
3. Try to be the first to research technologies that unlock powerful units - and then take advantage of that. Construction, for instance, gives you catapults and war elephants (if you have ivory) which can be devastating in the early game. Likewise civil service & machinery (for macemen), gunpowder & military tradition (for cuirassiers), steel (for cannons) and rifling (for riflemen, obviously). Combustion (for destroyers and transports) is also very worthwhile on a map with lots of ocean. The first civ to build and use a decent number of these is very hard to stop until others catch up.
4. Similarly, if your civ has a strong unique unit, target the techs and resources that unlock it, build lots of them, and then attack. Particularly true in the early game, where units like war chariots (Egypt), immortals (Persia), keshiks (Mongolia) and praetorians (Rome) can give you a big advantage.
5. Attack the strongest nearby civ you think you can beat: may mean a longer war, but negates the threat from them and gives your units more experience. When doing so, (a) scout their territory first to see what units they have where; (b) try to use more than one stack to target multiple cities at the same time (which the AI doesn't handle well); and (c) also pillage their strategic resources like iron, copper, horse and ivory (early game) and uranium, oil and aluminium (later on).
By the Way on a totally unrelated topic..
With what civics will give me a specific form of government?
Like how do I get pure communism, democracy, republic, monarchy, etc?
No such thing in civ 4 although some civics work well together, like representation / caste system (for research) and vassalage / theocracy (for military).
Also for my economy I'm interested in the cottage economy technique? How does that work and do I go on about?
Thank you
A cottage economy is simply one which depends on improving and working cottage tiles and benefiting from the commerce they generate - which you can of course turn into research or gold (or culture) using the sliders. The best tiles for cottages are riverside grassland and (especially) floodplains, so cities in these areas are clearly what you want. There was once a long-running debate between this approach and the so-called specialist economy, which instead relies on generating a lot of food to support specialists, in turn boosting wealth, production and research. These days many of us would say that a mixture of the two is better, with some cities working a lot of cottages and others supporting a lot of specialists.
