List of Things to Do in Civ IV [so that the game doesn't go stale]

[mystyfly]

i never won time. i once won ss. i twice won culture. i won some diplo. i won countless conquest. i won even more domination.

call me weired if you like, go ahead

 

[Iranon]

Break the game. Get massive per-city bonuses and reintroduce old-school Infinite City Sprawl. Hog the food corporations and turn an already arid world into a radioactive wasteland. Befriend someone like Monty and turn him into a monster by gifting him military techs. Settle the polar regions and each remote island (and pay attention to what it does to your economy). Wage war constantly but leave cities alone (pillaging for fun and profit). Have someone handcraft a ridiculous start for you like a tiny island that can support only a single city. See if you can eradicate a religion from the face of the earth.

 

[cabert]

Break the game. Get massive per-city bonuses and reintroduce old-school Infinite City Sprawl. Hog the food corporations and turn an already arid world into a radioactive wasteland. Befriend someone like Monty and turn him into a monster by gifting him military techs. Settle the polar regions and each remote island (and pay attention to what it does to your economy). Wage war constantly but leave cities alone (pillaging for fun and profit). Have someone handcraft a ridiculous start for you like a tiny island that can support only a single city. See if you can eradicate a religion from the face of the earth.

you're lacking ambition.
Befriend toku, and trade techs with him!

 

[mystyfly]

you're lacking ambition.
Befriend toku, and trade techs with him!

I once took out ghandi with chariots and stole a worker from toku. There was no one left on this island. Me and Toku. But I still got him to a point where he'd gladly would gift me Monarchy, despite the -3 "You declared war on us".... Too bad I didn't find that screenshot, because I'm sure, I was so surprised I took one....

 

[cabert]

I once took out ghandi with chariots and stole a worker from toku. There was no one left on this island. Me and Toku. But I still got him to a point where he'd gladly would gift me Monarchy, despite the -3 "You declared war on us".... Too bad I didn't find that screenshot, because I'm sure, I was so surprised I took one....

I'm sure you will agree that such an achievement gives the game a whole new life.

To go a bit further on this, I once won a warless cultural victory on epic speed (!) (emperor level, if I remember well) while being surrounded by alex, tokugawa and bismarck (+ huyna capac on another continent + mansa musa on some islands close to my continent).
I had almost no troops and kept alex on mansa musa, and tokugawa was my trading partner .
Late in the game (was already running 100% culture), I signed a defensive pact with Alex just a few turns before huyna capac landed an invasion.
I killed those cavalries and cannons with catapults and muskets, alex and toku took care of any reinforcements that could have been coming.
Such memories make the game very special...

 

[Iranon]

Oh, I didn't pick Monty because I consider him hard to befriend; I just consider Monty with cutting edge technology to be more amusing.

 

[jeffreyac]

oops - deleted post, my mistake.

Move along, nothing to see here...

 

[hecubus]

Playing the HOF gauntlets has been a great way for me to try out new map types, victory conditions, difficulty levels.

 

[Veritass]

My last two games have been very interesting. I started them both on standard-size pangaea maps with random leaders, and made sure to add 5-6 "extra" AI's beyond what the game automatically set up. Lots of diplomacy, lots of interaction. I regenerated the maps a couple of times to make sure I had a location that would support some early growth and military, since you had better plan on a quick early war over at least one neighbor.

I'm surprised no one has brought up to play OCC if you haven't already done so. If you do, make it a tiny-small map; there's no way to keep up with 15-city civs on a large map.

 

[Sisiutil]

Try playing at least one game with every single leader.

Also, once you get used to a certain tactic to the point where you rely on it, try a game where you intentionally abandon it. For example, if you always build The Oracle/Great Wall/Great Library/whatever, try a game without it.

Be perverse. Pick a warmonger (Caesar, Shaka, any of the Aggressive leaders) and pursue a cultural victory. Alternatively, pick one of the wimps (Gandhi, Mansa Musa, Saladin) and go for conquest or domination.

I'm not a big fan of the mega-mods, but I like some of the "additional civ" mods (Canada, of course, being a favourite ).

 

[Way_Traveler]

I completely fail at culture-monging. I need to jump down a difficulty level and make myself win that way.

Whenever I try, I inevitably overbuild units to protect my cities. Well, then I have too many units, and we all know the cure to that is to go to war. Well, then, I have to protect my new cities. And then I have too many units...

 

[Frostite]

In regards to number 5, I think I only win cultural victories now. I love building wonders too mcuh to focus on anything else...Yeah its sorta pathetic how small my military always is.

yea but its not like theyre gona atak u, i tend to have onyl 1 perosn per village and focous on improving the civ for a great future, sure starting up an army's in hte first turns to kill off weker ones but then you lose a lot of turns and create musket's in 2000's, and wonders r great =p

 

[Solomwi]

In regards to number 5, I think I only win cultural victories now. I love building wonders too mcuh to focus on anything else...Yeah its sorta pathetic how small my military always is.

Heh. My Boudica/Romans game ended in a cultural victory. It was on a huge Big & Small map, and after I conquered my continent, I noticed culture was attainable. The irony appealed to my sense of humor, so I went for it.

 

[johnny_rico]

Use windmills & environmentalism to fuel a modern era economy.

 

[Pir Lan Tota]

Before starting, pick a few civs to be your enemy, for example., when ever I play and I get randomly assigned the following enemy civs: England, America, France, Rome or Greece, I make it my priority to conquer/kill them ASAP....this usually leads to unique problems, because they are located in difficult positions to attack or because you need to negotiate Open Borders with other Civs...Also, with your army being far off, it leaves you open to invasion....very interesting way of playing

 

[Bleys]

Reload old saves and try to "turn the strat around", I still dont believe how baddly I played some of my half-games, heh. Since many of them are lower difficulty than what I play now, its not hard to turn an "attempted pure CE" game into an SE, or something like that.

Another twist on something someone else mentioned is to build ONLY Wonders you never usually build, even if you think they suck. If you generally go Oracle-Great Wall-Pyramids, try Stonehenge-Colossus-Great Lighthouse, or something along those lines (mpt saying those wonders suck, so please dont jump in with "Lighthouse is AWESOME" posts, heh).

 

[civtigger]

If all this fails to keep the game fresh then download a mod or two. It's like playing a whole new game.

 

[jray]

Play different leaders, as Sisiutil says. As soon as each game starts, go to the tech tree and click on the two techs (shift-clicking on the second one to queue it) that unlock the UB and UU for your Civ, in whichever order you prefer. Fight your grumbling at the silly path you may be following, but content yourself by trading techs to pick up the other branches. As soon as you get your UU, spam it and launch a major attack with it (unless it's the Fast Worker ... or perhaps a ship...). Realize that you're being ridiculously inefficient, but drop a difficulty level or two to make up for it.

 

[LlamaCat]

my advice, play a new game with the same game: Fall from Heaven II mod. if you don't already know what this is... for shame

 

[oPlaiD]

People never win domination or cultural?

You're joking, right?

What is the "common" victory? SS? Time? Conquest?

I can't even remember the last time I won spaceship (or even started to build one!). I think not since I got over my "builder only" fixation after having the game a couple months. Never went for spaceship in warlords or BTS ... though I'm thinking I should go out of my way to try once, since they've changed it now in BTS & I'm curious to see how it works.

I'm not sure I've ever won time (since I may have never played to the end of time).

I can't believe very many people win conquest (that would be my guess for rarest).

Diplomatic is the only other one ... but I'm not sure I believe many people win diplomatic.

Maybe I'm just odd in how I play?

I tend to win some SS victories because sleeping all my units and hitting enter is slightly less tedious than moving them all around the map to wipe out Civs or gain territory for Domination.

As for Cultural, I've never really tried it; in every game I've ever played, even when I'm Industrious and playing as a massive builder, I've never come close to winning a Cultural victory and I really have no concept of how hard/easy it is to do. I suppose I'll try it in one of my next games, as Qin or something.

I won a Diplomatic victory one time as it was one of the rare games where I actually had friends. We had Hindu bloc going with me, Saladin, Hammurabi, and Catherine, everyone Friendly with each other. Catherine ended up Vassalizing Mao and Sureyaman while I wiped out Genghis Khan, all in mutual wars with all four holy nations participating. I had the tech lead, though, so everyone loved me as I gifted it around. When Hammurabi built the UN, the rest was history... I could've won it with AP much earlier, but Sure's only Hindu city was a captured Arabic one that ended up getting gifted back to Saladin by the AP! :<