New to Civ IV

[BobDole]

I'm new here, and to CiV 4 as well.

I got it of the Steam summer sale a few days ago for 10 bucks. Anyways, I went ahead and installed Beyond the Sword, and figured out most of the basic gameplay elements from reading Sisiutil's guide.

I'm trying to develop a proper strategy and stuff, but I always get distracted by my units. I seem to have an itch to wage war, no matter the reason or the logicality of war at that time.

Yeah, I was like that too. I would always be plotting a war, and you can get away with doing it when you're starting off if you're at a low difficulty setting. But sooner or later you'll find out it generally doesn't work cause you'll do things like wreck your economy/tech (potentially), make everyone pissed at you (and you can't take everyone at once), etc.

Found the bloodlust sort of went away as I learned more about other aspects of the game, like how to set up cities properly and use tile improvements better. Still tend to not give in to AI demands and declare war too much.....but not as bad as before.

 

[Default]

Got my first Win!!!! It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I decided to take things slow, and small, to start of with. I set up a Pangea map on Cheiftan difficulty (with only 2 other civs), and I squashed them both. Never gave a chance for Roosevelt to build his Great White Fleet, and as soon as I got Beserkers (I was vikings as I choose random), it was pretty much game over for the enemies.

Btw, what does collateral damage mean? Does that happen when I bombard (I click on that target crosshair icon), or do the catapults/trebuchets have to manually attack a city?

 

[Ataxerxes]

Welcome to the forums, Default!

A lot of the computer games are almost all war, so we get used to "I have a unit, who can I kill with it?" In CivIV, it's a balancing act between war and development. I think the part that takes the longest getting a handle on is diplomacy.

 

[Default]

Welcome to the forums, Default!

A lot of the computer games are almost all war, so we get used to "I have a unit, who can I kill with it?" In CivIV, it's a balancing act between war and development. I think the part that takes the longest getting a handle on is diplomacy.

Diplomacy definitely seems to be huge in this game. I know I demanded money and stuff from Roosevelt, and he gave in because he was about to get smashed. I also found out that you can't break peace treaties. Is there any process to choose who you want to ally with and who you want to crush in the beginning?

Also, what's the best game size to get a better hang of things? I only did a 3 civ game.

Also, thanks for the rockin' welcome

 

[BammBamm]

Congrats on the win, and welcome to CivFanatics, D.

Collateral damage means that more than one of your enemies will receive damage at the same time.

Way to go, you brute, you...

 

[BammBamm]

And, yes, I think collateral damage only occurs when you attack with catapults/siege weapons, rather than merely bombarding cities.

 

[jacortina]

Btw, what does collateral damage mean? Does that happen when I bombard (I click on that target crosshair icon), or do the catapults/trebuchets have to manually attack a city?

Your siege units must attack to cause collateral damage. This quite often results in their deaths. But in sacrificing them in this way, they tend to weaken enough defending units that it's very much worth it. After using some to bombard defenses, tossing a half dozen or more expecting none of them to survive is a common and workable strategy.

The key is thinking of them as disposable units (you may even see them referred to with terms like 'disposa-pults' around this forum). And the answer to queries of 'what am I doing wrong - why can't I take enemy cities' here will almost always bring a chorus of 'more siege'.

 

[Default]

So more siege I use in attacking a city, the better right?

Another question: When I select a stack and tell them all to attack at once. How does the game choose which particular unit attacks? Will the defenders have the advantage or the attackers in this matter?

For example, say I have a stack of Axemen and Spearmen combined. I send the Stack to the enemy city. If my Axeman was chosen to attack, who will he face? The war chariot or the spearman holed up in the city?

Finally, I wanna try for a cultural victory, but damn Engi update on TF2 kept me busy.

 

[BobDole]

So more siege I use in attacking a city, the better right?

Another question: When I select a stack and tell them all to attack at once. How does the game choose which particular unit attacks? Will the defenders have the advantage or the attackers in this matter?

For example, say I have a stack of Axemen and Spearmen combined. I send the Stack to the enemy city. If my Axeman was chosen to attack, who will he face? The war chariot or the spearman holed up in the city?

Finally, I wanna try for a cultural victory, but damn Engi update on TF2 kept me busy.

If you select different units of yours in a stack (in a diversified stack that is), you may notice it'll select a different unit in the opponent's stack. It will automatically always pick the best possible defender (whichever has the highest odds of winning), so if for example you sent a knight to attack a city with maceman and pikes, it would (in normal conditions, upgrades/remaining strength and such may affect this) pick a pikeman due to their huge bonus vs. mounted. So in theory the defender has an advantage in that the offense can't pick a favorable matchup.

And yes, always bring siege. They're good for removing defenses (the more you have, the sooner you can reduce it to zero) and then it's advisable to have them attack so they cause collateral damage. You'll have to replace them regularly as a result of suicide attacks, so always try to keep a good sized force. You could do other things (like use spies to cause revolts, thereby removing defense, bomb with planes, etc.) but siege is the most straightforward.

 

[Willem]

Think about all the things he has to learn at first: the roles of food / hammers / commerce, culture / gold / gpp / beakers, has to master the whole freaking combat system, religions, etc, etc.

Then think about all the things he'll have to relearn because his vanilla strategies/approaches no longer apply in BtS. Or their are better ones he can use that he could easily miss out on, having developed certain habits beforehand.

 

[DKatana10]

If you have never played before, then the lowest or second-lowest difficulty on Beyond the Sword would be good. Avoid the Archipelago map style for now, and choose Continents. A moderately sized map would be best.

Before that just read some basic guides on the forum to acclimatize yourself; you might also want to play on Civ's tutorial before you create a game. Don't worry about how things go or if you find yourself in war quite early in the game.

Despite being a Civ III player for years I could not get into Civ IV right away; I actually left it alone for months before going back and discovering it's brilliance. Basically it can suck you in.

To all new folks who enter this topic: Good luck and welcome to the forums.

 

[Default]

Can someone tell me how to make the resource indicators pop up and stay up? I was watchin some CiV4 vids on youtube and they have unveiled.

This fellar's game for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhT8H55jPKY

Notice how the icons are popped up constantly.

Btw, I have the BAT mod installed if that helps.

 

[mechaerik]

Press Control+R.

 

[Regina]

For the past couple of weeks I devoted some play time to Civ III and was again reminded of why, as a lover of all things Civ for years before getting that game that I hate it. I took the plunge yesterday into Civ IV and I am finding the experience EXTREMELY enjoyable! I love the diplomacy thing with my AI neighbors. For once they are requesting trades that make sense and aren't stacked so far in their favor I feel like I'm being shafted (as in why should I be trading THREE of my luxuries to your one?). I LOVE how opponent civs can't even enter your territory without a right of passage which equally benefits both players.

I still have a lot to learn about this game but in the meantime I'm having a blast with it. I laughed myself silly over watching my stacked units turn into a huge lumbering group and stampeding along their path. I love seeing everything built in a city showing up on the map (takes me back to my days of "Conquest of the New World"). I passed up Civ IV for years because I was afraid I'd hate it as much as I did Civ III. I'm glad I was so wrong!