Instructional content

[joess]

Sup, I've been playing civ 4 a couple of years now. I'm wondering if there are any good resources for intermediate players to get better?

I watch a few videos on YouTube and suchlike from people like henrik and absolutezero. Though these tend to be just watching a high level player rather than anything instructional

For reference i play on emperor on Quick (which i just found out from reading the forums is harder!) and generally win about half the time (or quit when in a winning position - i don't find finishing long, grinding wars particularly enjoyable)

Basically i'm decent at it but i have no idea how large parts of the game work. I always turn espionage off because it annoys me and I have never attempted a cultural victory, for example.

I'd like to understand the game more fully, optimise strategies in the middle game, and eventually progress to immortal/deity.

Also would love to try multiplayer some time - how does it work? How often are games? Dont mind getting my ass kicked at first. Only impediment is timezone & internet (i live in a van in New Zealand)

 

[s.bernbaum]

I am assuming that you are playing the BTS expansion, which is what most people do. Turning off espionage (which I also dislike) raises the culture target limits enormously, so it takes longer to get a city expansion and forever to win a culture victory. For these reasons, I put up with espionage. The best way to get advice is to go to the Strategy and Tips Forum in the CIV forums. You can ask questions, look over games played by others, and post a game of your own to get advice. The best way to get advice on your game is to play a standard game, post the opening turn, ask for advice, wait until you get advice (you don't need to wait online, just give it a day or so for advice to be given), then play a few turns, post the map at that point and ask for advice again. Procede in that manner for many turns and you will learn a lot.

 

[Plains-Cow]

This has everything you need to know to polish up your simple game, if there's a mechanic you're not sure about:

Beginner help - the basics

In this thread i will collect everything (i can think of) that helps new (or newer) players with founding their empire, and learning the basics of this wonderful game :) I will not get into advanced mechanics like keeping barbarians out, preparing war or annoying AIs, etc. which can be for...

forums.civfanatics.com

Otherwise watch YouTubers like Sullla or Henrik who do full let's plays on Deity regularly using different strategies. I use a lot of Henrik's stuff in my style of play.

 

[SittinDown]

I have never attempted a cultural victory, for example.

They're a whole different thing - if you're interested in branching out, start up a game at your normal level of difficulty, but set out to win on cultural. There are plenty of guides out there or YT content that go through cultural victories.

They're a very different type of game than domination / conquest or space. They're fun a few times, but they get a repetitive.

Another cheesy one is Religious (AP) victory. It's a whole different game entirely, and generally it's a gambit from the start, but even a casual player (like me) can beat deity with the AP.

I found the Hall Of Fame to be a fun way to explore and try out lots of different settings personally, as well as the Game-of-the-month competitions, which are 'Community Solo' games in a way.