New player to Civ 4 and totally lost

[rantzzz]

Hi all,

Gotta admit, Civ 4 is totally overwhelming. I'm a veteran MOO2 player, but I can't for the life of me get into Civ 4.

There seems to be so many things to do in Civ4. I havent really establish a build order, I always start out totally lost, no clear direction of where I'm going. As a result, every turn is like a drag, resulting in a totally boring game for me....

It was like that for MOO2 for me initially. But after reading strats on build orders, etc, I picked it up.

How does a noob Civ 4 player make it enjoyable for himself?

1) I've got Slavery as a civic. How do I sacrifice citizens?

2) How in the world do I increase my city pop? I've been building alot of farms. In the city management screen, are the white circles showing the tiles that are being worked on? If I have 5 pop, I should see 5+1 circles?

I really want to play Civ4 and enjoy it... Please help out a noob like me! Thanks in advance!

 

[pat4]

Hi all,

Gotta admit, Civ 4 is totally overwhelming. I'm a veteran MOO2 player, but I can't for the life of me get into Civ 4.

There seems to be so many things to do in Civ4. I havent really establish a build order, I always start out totally lost, no clear direction of where I'm going. As a result, every turn is like a drag, resulting in a totally boring game for me....

It was like that for MOO2 for me initially. But after reading strats on build orders, etc, I picked it up.

How does a noob Civ 4 player make it enjoyable for himself?

1) I've got Slavery as a civic. How do I sacrifice citizens?

2) How in the world do I increase my city pop? I've been building alot of farms. In the city management screen, are the white circles showing the tiles that are being worked on? If I have 5 pop, I should see 5+1 circles?

I really want to play Civ4 and enjoy it... Please help out a noob like me! Thanks in advance!

Hi welcome to the overwhelming world of civ4.

I am not even close to being an expert but I'll try answer your questions.
The first thing you should do is read the articles for beginners in the war academyhttp://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/

For number 1: Well I am not great at using whiping but try this:http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193659

For number 2: I'm stumped, mabye post a save. You might be working farms but mabye you have unworked citizens who are unhappy or are specialists.

My general advice is to not try too much at once. Make sure you know how to use a worker, than mabye try to specialise your cities. Learn what you want to first.

 

[absimiliard]

I hate to say this, but some of your questions are user-interface questions. To answer those you should probably go to the manual.

For the strategy questions Pat4's suggestions are solid. Read some of the beginner advice guides. I'll also mention That other site. They don't talk much to us, and we don't talk much to them, but we are both solid sites with each haing some excellent contributors. I deplore the politics that makes us neglect mentioning the "Other site" to folks looking for good advice on how to play the game, so I'm referencing them to you here.

-abs

 

[LlamaCat]

1) I've got Slavery as a civic. How do I sacrifice citizens?

2) How in the world do I increase my city pop? I've been building alot of farms. In the city management screen, are the white circles showing the tiles that are being worked on? If I have 5 pop, I should see 5+1 circles?

1) There is a little button in the bottom right of your inside city screen.. it's the "Hurry" button. You need to have enough citizens to sacrifice the current item you are building in order to do it. If you do not have enough hammers invested in something, this button will not light up for you yet, so just spend a few more turns building the current item until it does.

2) You increase population by having your granary fill all the way up - once it does, your pop increases 1 number. Yes the white circles show what parts of the land you are working, and you can switch them around of course. Yes if you have 5 pop, that means you have 5 extra white circles, not including the center circle.