The_Oakster
Warlord
Introduction
I bought Civ IV as soon as it was released after being incredibly addicted to Civ III. I was never a fantastic player of Civ III, I used to play on Monarch but would get beat most of the time and the few times I would win would be by score.
Civ IV from the box wouldnt work on my laptop and so it started gathering dust on my shelf, until 3 days ago when I noticed that patch 1.61 was out. It now works acceptably on my laptop and I started playing.
Firstly, this version is so much better than Civ III! I have only played 2 games and I am converted already. I started to read the various strategy articles but I cant really take in information that way so I will use this thread to highlight my games and maybe with some help from readers improve my game.
Here is a brief description of my last game and then I will update it with my new game.
Summary
Noble, Fractal, Standard size, randomised civs, Normal speed.
I was given the Chinese to steer to historical greatness, my opponents were Spanish, American, German, Greek, Mongolian and Roman.
I started on what turned out to be the largest Island. I was in a very tropical, jungle area but with a few cows in the lower reguions and lots of dye I felt that i was in good shape, I started of manually moving my workers and felt I was doing okay. I had a few scuffles with the odd panther and barbarians but lost no troops.
I then found Spain on my island, and I felt that their continual border expansion closing in on mine was threatening. She had 4 towns and i felt that the Spanish were soon to be eradicated from existence
I built up some archers and with my Civ III head still on I stacked them up and moved them to the outskirts of Barcelona, with my troops positioned on a forested hillside I felt that it wouldnt be long until the city was mine.
My first mistake was trying to take the city with my archers, it was hard going and I wasnt getting anywhere, I changed tactics and built some War elephants, catapults and the Cho Ku Nu, after a long hard fight using unit promotions and terrain to full advantage I eventually overcame the inferior spanish.
What followed was a slow game of me trying to keep up the tech race , while Genghis kept threatening to go to war if we didnt give him money and techs. I kept calling his bluff and then the Romans started doing this and so did the Greek. I realised that I was becoming pretty weak and unpopular, so I started sucking up to the Germans who had the most power of the people I knew.
Being friends with them, gave me the chance to earn some free techs that he was all too happy to give to a friend. Then the threats stopped. Until Genghis invaded!!
Not only did he pile frigates and galleons into my territory and offloaded a load of cavalry and riflemen into my country, he also started bombarding my towns and destroying my workboats. Luckily for me he did this about 2 turns after asking me for an open borders agreement so he may have taken a large rep hit (not sure of the mechanics in Civ IV), but I managed to get the Greeks to declare war with him. Also in my favour was my tech advantage over Genghis so his cavalry where fighting promoted Infantry and machine guns with a few cavalry for good measure. I realised that I would need to dominate my coast for me to stop this happening again.
After building 6 or 7 destroyers and getting some transports ready I realised that Julius was not talking to me. A few turns later and he had troops in my country. My force destined for Mongolia was soon given new orders to invade Rome.
After a quick sea battle, my destroyer made a safe corridor for my troops to leave. They arrived on the Roman coast and disembarked into some forested Hills on the outskirts of a Roman town. The town was full to the brim of about 30+ units, galleons, frigates, riflemen, cannons and archers! I just let them attack me in the hills where my promotions came into their own. But the sheer numbers of Roman troops looked like I was going to get wiped out. The first turn after landing must have had 40-50 fights, my troops won a vast majority but they were in bad shape. Slowly the resupply effort kicked in and things were all equal.
Then I got gunships.
Now I dont know if it was just the way it happened or if these units were designed for this but they won war for me. I used them to fly around the Roman land destroying roads, towns, villages, cottages, plantations, windmills and the occasional lonely Roman unit. It wasnt long before I felt ready for a land offensive with my hillside troops. they took out the town but in a rushed mouse click I accidentally burned it to the ground!!
By this time, due to the constant aggression shown by my gunship crews, the Roman civilisation was grinding to a halt. I could see it happening in front of my eyes, with less troops leaving the towns, and more troops garrisoning. City sizes were dropping every turn as the Romans started pop rushing troops. Civics were changing all the time. It was war. Then a major turning point happened.
"The Americans have built SS Thrusters!"
During the war the Americans had been slowly growing and growing and were soon far in front of me. With just under 60 turns left, I didnt know if I had enough time to turn this round. I quickly made peace with the Romans leaving them with just 3 towns and a barren, almost primitive landscape. I had a large points advantage over the Americans and I knew that if I could just slow down their advance I could stop them building the SS.
I started to reorganise for a war on the Americans. I didnt think that there was really time to but I felt that it wouldnt hurt. I had moved my destroyers, carrier and submarines to the US coast for my imminent invasion, troop carriers filled with my gunships and infantry were ready. I just needed some more as the Americans were, by this time, the most powerful Civ.
I started researching for ICBM's and trying to get other civs to attack them but everyone else was busy or too friendly with them. I signed a defensive pact with the Germans and then tried to goad the Americans into a war but they just ignored me.
As it happened Washington decided that enough was enough so he attacked the Mongols with about 30 turns left and the SS parts stopped being built.
Then with 10 moves to go, I could build an ICBM in 10 turns, I decided to nuke the Americans, I didnt know if you could nuke the SS like you could in Civ III but it was worth a try.
Then it was gameover, I won on points (boring I know), I didnt get a chance to nuke them, and I never invaded. Still I did win.
My inexperience shows with all the mistakes I made, i was always reacting to my enemies, I completely forgot about religion and using that to gain friends and I never attacked when I could have done.
But I learnt a lot in this game, and now I will start a new game and hopefully you can help me with decisions and critique my poor play.
Ben
I bought Civ IV as soon as it was released after being incredibly addicted to Civ III. I was never a fantastic player of Civ III, I used to play on Monarch but would get beat most of the time and the few times I would win would be by score.
Civ IV from the box wouldnt work on my laptop and so it started gathering dust on my shelf, until 3 days ago when I noticed that patch 1.61 was out. It now works acceptably on my laptop and I started playing.
Firstly, this version is so much better than Civ III! I have only played 2 games and I am converted already. I started to read the various strategy articles but I cant really take in information that way so I will use this thread to highlight my games and maybe with some help from readers improve my game.
Here is a brief description of my last game and then I will update it with my new game.
Summary
Noble, Fractal, Standard size, randomised civs, Normal speed.
I was given the Chinese to steer to historical greatness, my opponents were Spanish, American, German, Greek, Mongolian and Roman.
I started on what turned out to be the largest Island. I was in a very tropical, jungle area but with a few cows in the lower reguions and lots of dye I felt that i was in good shape, I started of manually moving my workers and felt I was doing okay. I had a few scuffles with the odd panther and barbarians but lost no troops.
I then found Spain on my island, and I felt that their continual border expansion closing in on mine was threatening. She had 4 towns and i felt that the Spanish were soon to be eradicated from existence
I built up some archers and with my Civ III head still on I stacked them up and moved them to the outskirts of Barcelona, with my troops positioned on a forested hillside I felt that it wouldnt be long until the city was mine.
My first mistake was trying to take the city with my archers, it was hard going and I wasnt getting anywhere, I changed tactics and built some War elephants, catapults and the Cho Ku Nu, after a long hard fight using unit promotions and terrain to full advantage I eventually overcame the inferior spanish.
What followed was a slow game of me trying to keep up the tech race , while Genghis kept threatening to go to war if we didnt give him money and techs. I kept calling his bluff and then the Romans started doing this and so did the Greek. I realised that I was becoming pretty weak and unpopular, so I started sucking up to the Germans who had the most power of the people I knew.
Being friends with them, gave me the chance to earn some free techs that he was all too happy to give to a friend. Then the threats stopped. Until Genghis invaded!!
Not only did he pile frigates and galleons into my territory and offloaded a load of cavalry and riflemen into my country, he also started bombarding my towns and destroying my workboats. Luckily for me he did this about 2 turns after asking me for an open borders agreement so he may have taken a large rep hit (not sure of the mechanics in Civ IV), but I managed to get the Greeks to declare war with him. Also in my favour was my tech advantage over Genghis so his cavalry where fighting promoted Infantry and machine guns with a few cavalry for good measure. I realised that I would need to dominate my coast for me to stop this happening again.
After building 6 or 7 destroyers and getting some transports ready I realised that Julius was not talking to me. A few turns later and he had troops in my country. My force destined for Mongolia was soon given new orders to invade Rome.
After a quick sea battle, my destroyer made a safe corridor for my troops to leave. They arrived on the Roman coast and disembarked into some forested Hills on the outskirts of a Roman town. The town was full to the brim of about 30+ units, galleons, frigates, riflemen, cannons and archers! I just let them attack me in the hills where my promotions came into their own. But the sheer numbers of Roman troops looked like I was going to get wiped out. The first turn after landing must have had 40-50 fights, my troops won a vast majority but they were in bad shape. Slowly the resupply effort kicked in and things were all equal.
Then I got gunships.
Now I dont know if it was just the way it happened or if these units were designed for this but they won war for me. I used them to fly around the Roman land destroying roads, towns, villages, cottages, plantations, windmills and the occasional lonely Roman unit. It wasnt long before I felt ready for a land offensive with my hillside troops. they took out the town but in a rushed mouse click I accidentally burned it to the ground!!
By this time, due to the constant aggression shown by my gunship crews, the Roman civilisation was grinding to a halt. I could see it happening in front of my eyes, with less troops leaving the towns, and more troops garrisoning. City sizes were dropping every turn as the Romans started pop rushing troops. Civics were changing all the time. It was war. Then a major turning point happened.
"The Americans have built SS Thrusters!"
During the war the Americans had been slowly growing and growing and were soon far in front of me. With just under 60 turns left, I didnt know if I had enough time to turn this round. I quickly made peace with the Romans leaving them with just 3 towns and a barren, almost primitive landscape. I had a large points advantage over the Americans and I knew that if I could just slow down their advance I could stop them building the SS.
I started to reorganise for a war on the Americans. I didnt think that there was really time to but I felt that it wouldnt hurt. I had moved my destroyers, carrier and submarines to the US coast for my imminent invasion, troop carriers filled with my gunships and infantry were ready. I just needed some more as the Americans were, by this time, the most powerful Civ.
I started researching for ICBM's and trying to get other civs to attack them but everyone else was busy or too friendly with them. I signed a defensive pact with the Germans and then tried to goad the Americans into a war but they just ignored me.
As it happened Washington decided that enough was enough so he attacked the Mongols with about 30 turns left and the SS parts stopped being built.
Then with 10 moves to go, I could build an ICBM in 10 turns, I decided to nuke the Americans, I didnt know if you could nuke the SS like you could in Civ III but it was worth a try.
Then it was gameover, I won on points (boring I know), I didnt get a chance to nuke them, and I never invaded. Still I did win.
My inexperience shows with all the mistakes I made, i was always reacting to my enemies, I completely forgot about religion and using that to gain friends and I never attacked when I could have done.
But I learnt a lot in this game, and now I will start a new game and hopefully you can help me with decisions and critique my poor play.
Ben