New to Civilization in general need help from the pros :D

[ThomasWJames]

FIRST THANKS IN ADVANCE TO ALL PROS WHO REPLY!!!

I consider myself a pretty smart guy I've always played strategy games since the old days like Romance of the Three Kingdoms III-XII, Liberty or Death, Sim City, Transport Tycoon, etc. I never saw a game with a higher learning curve than this one. I LOVE THIS GAME. Picked Civ IV, expansions, and Colonization for a good price. Needed to come back to turn-based games again. I tried to look for these specific answers but couldn't find them...and yes I read the manuals. I need some assistance so here are my questions.

1) If you are attacking stacked units can you choose which one to attack? If so how? If not how does the computer choose for you? Attacks the weakest one, strongest, etc?

2) Consequently, if I tell my stacked group of different units to attack another single unit or stacked unit who will attack first?

3) Once my culture border expands what happens if I lower the culture percentage slider? Will my culture border for that city shrink? Or once it's grown it won't come back down?

4) On the topic of culture, how far does a city culture border grow? What are the limits?

5) Is there a secret balance I should keep with number/percentages between research, culture, espionage?

6) In City View, if there isn't a circle around an improvement or plot of land is your city not benefiting from that improvement even though it's built or land or is it still getting something from it?

7) What is the upkeep for units? Are unit up-keeps different per unit? Where can I find this upkeep per unit/units?

8) What does commerce control in the game exactly?

9) Where can I find unit categories in the game without having to go into Civipedia? Like to see who's melee, archer, mounted?

Again thank you so much for all your help!!! I can't wait to pass the learning curve of this game and actually win a round

Sincerely,
-A "Noobie"

 

[King Pluto]

1. No, in all cases the defender is chosen to be the one with the best odds against the attacker.

2. I'm not actually sure, it might be the first unit in the stack, but I usually only stack attack when I'm not paying attention to my units that much.

3. Your culture will not decrease, once it expands, it stays expanded.

4. You can only work tiles with the Big Fat Cross, or BFC, of a city. This is the 20 tiles surrounding the city, two tiles in every direction. The culture border can expand 5 or 6 tiles out.

5. Unless you have a specific reason, you probably don't want to run espionage at all since you're new. The culture slider can be run when you're pushing cultural victory or when you have severe happiness problems and need it from culture. Otherwise, stick to research. It's important to know that keeping research at 100% is NOT important. Many newbs say "I can't expand anymore without my slider dropping past 70%" or something to that effect. Land is power, grab as much as you can and worry about getting your slider high in the mid-game. Remember, 50% of 100 is greater than 100% of 20 .

6. The circles mean the city is working the tile and gaining its yields. However, if you have the correct improvement on a resource (or a fort in BTS), all cities gain the health/happiness/etc. from that resource, regardless of whether you're working it.

7. I'm not great with upkeep, but there is a financial advisor in-game that shows how much you're spending on units, maintenance, etc.

8. Simple answer: commerce commerce is what you pull from your land (cottages, riversides, resources) and from trade routes. It is then fed through the various multipliers and sliders to produce gold gold, beakers science, culture culture, and espionage espionage.

9. I believe it says so on the units in the main screens, but I could be wrong.

I would advise that you download the BUG mod, most players here use it because of its great interface improvements and the increase in information that you can easily access.

And welcome to the forums!

 

[gps]

3. Your culture will not decrease, once it expands, it stays expanded.

... as long as there is no competior putting culture pressure against your borders ...

 

[ThomasWJames]

Wow, these are good to know. Somethings the manual didn't say.

So let me get this straight on one topic...

So if there is grassland and I build a city next to it I get no benefit from that grassland unless I put a circle around it in the city view right?

HOWEVER, if I send a worker out there and build a farm I can now remove that circle from it in city view and concentrate the worker on another tile right?

Cause I'm going nuts with these circles I have all these improvements around my city but I can't fill them all with circles.

 

[Htadus]

Disclaimer: Some of the answers below are based on observation only, not code based.

FIRST THANKS IN ADVANCE TO ALL PROS WHO REPLY!!!

I consider myself a pretty smart guy I've always played strategy games since the old days like Romance of the Three Kingdoms III-XII, Liberty or Death, Sim City, Transport Tycoon, etc. I never saw a game with a higher learning curve than this one. I LOVE THIS GAME. Picked Civ IV, expansions, and Colonization for a good price. Needed to come back to turn-based games again. I tried to look for these specific answers but couldn't find them...and yes I read the manuals. I need some assistance so here are my questions.
Welcome to Civ4 and say bye to sleep.

1) If you are attacking stacked units can you choose which one to attack? No If so how? If not how does the computer choose for you? The game will use the best defender against your attacker, Sury's war elephants are an exception when attacking non city tiles.Attacks the weakest one, strongest, etc?Always the unit that has best odds to counter the attackers.

2) Consequently, if I tell my stacked group of different units to attack another single unit or stacked unit who will attack first?If there are seige, in that stack, for some reason the computer assign them to attack. I try to keep them separated for that reason. Otherwise the unit with best odds to win is chosen.

3) Once my culture border expands what happens if I lower the culture percentage slider? Will my culture border for that city shrink? Or once it's grown it won't come back down?ONly way to shrink culture boundary is for anotehr civ's culture to be dominant over the tile being contested.

4) On the topic of culture, how far does a city culture border grow? What are the limits?Don't know. Sad for a guy who played culture for the longest time. I have observed out to 5 tiles I believe.

5) Is there a secret balance I should keep with number/percentages between research, culture, espionage? It is a level of comfort to most players, for me it range from 100% science to 0%. It is ok to drop to 0$% if you have your economy techs reached or within reach: Writing for science specialist, alpha for trades and build sceince in an emergency, CoL for CH and Casts System and Currency for selling techs for gold, extra trade routes, markets and build wealth

6) In City View, if there isn't a circle around an improvement or plot of land is your city not benefiting from that improvement even though it's built or land or is it still getting something from it? Yes and no. If you have gold improved and connected then you get the happy for gold but if no citizen is working that tile, then no commerce benefit from it.

7) What is the upkeep for units? Are unit up-keeps different per unit? Where can I find this upkeep per unit/units?All units cost the same but you do get several free units. I usually look up in the economics advisor to see cost. I think there is a guide at the war academy.

8) What does commerce control in the game exactly?Commerce control nearly every aspect of the game either directly or indirectly. It pays for science, culture, espionage, units, city maintanance and the balance is banked/deducted at the end of each turn.

9) Where can I find unit categories in the game without having to go into Civipedia? Like to see who's melee, archer, mounted?Trick question. Down load djanan's referance guide in the download page for a comprehensive guide. There may be others. Also the unit tab under Civ4 index on the left side of Civfanatics home.

Again thank you so much for all your help!!! I can't wait to pass the learning curve of this game and actually win a round It is a pleasure and hope you got expected answeres.

Sincerely,
-A "Noobie"

Won't be a noob for long with this kind of questions. Welcome to civ4

 

[King Pluto]

So if there is grassland and I build a city next to it I get no benefit from that grassland unless I put a circle around it in the city view right?

HOWEVER, if I send a worker out there and build a farm I can now remove that circle from it in city view and concentrate the worker on another tile right?

Cause I'm going nuts with these circles I have all these improvements around my city but I can't fill them all with circles.

Not exactly. Some tiles have special resources, like Corn, Copper, Cow, etc. These resources provide extra benefits to all cities once they are properly improved (extra health, units-making, etc.). However, to get the actual yield (food/hammer/commerce) from the tile, you have to work it (circle on it). For any tile without a resource, you don't gain anything from it unless you work it.

 

[ThomasWJames]

Thank you soooooo much to everyone! I'm off to play another round and see how far I can get. It will be awhile before I dare to play online with other people though hehe.

Wow, and yes to sleepless nights, this game is so advance and so complete!

 

[Htadus]

So if there is grassland and I build a city next to it I get no benefit from that grassland unless I put a circle around it in the city view right?The white circle around the tile in the city view mean a citizen is working the tile. It is getting the benefit of growing using the food on that tile.

HOWEVER, if I send a worker out there and build a farm I can now remove that circle from it in city view and concentrate the worker on another tile right? I will assume that you are talking about the white circle. Once you improve this tile with a worker, definately have a citizen work it. So no. Do not remove the circle since you will want to use that tile. Btw actual tile improvement is done by workers you build out side the city screen.

Cause I'm going nuts with these circles I have all these improvements around my city but I can't fill them all with circles.

That is normal in the begining. As the city grow and you have happy and health resources, then the new population can work those improved tiles.

 

[skyclad]

Remember that the most important thing for any city is food, which makes the city grow and gives you more circles, or citizens, working. Try to always found cities near food resources and improve and work them asap.

 

[ThomasWJames]

So it's possible to send a worker to build improvements in the surrounding land around a city then go into city view and not have enough citizens or circles to get the benefit of all these improvements so I'll have to choose which ones are the best until I get more citizens or workers right?

Geez, sorry if I sound like a spas about this concept.

 

[King Pluto]

Correct. Typically you want to improve food first, since more food helps you grow the city population. More citizens = more tiles to work.

 

[Htadus]

Just for future referance and clarity, please use the term citizen or population when describing assignments within the city view and use "worker(s)" for the worker units you build.

Also you can use your workers to improve resources outside of the BFC as long as the tile is within the culture boundary. And in the early game it is very important to improve the tiles that give you the most yield.

 

[s.bernbaum]

9) Where can I find unit categories in the game without having to go into Civipedia? Like to see who's melee, archer, mounted?

You can find the unit categories of units that you currently have quite easily. Click the military advisor button in the right upper corner of the main screen (or press the corresponding F-key - I don't use the F-keys, so I don't know which is). Now sort the units by combat type. They will be sorted by unit category and then by specific units: eg, Maces and axes will both be listed under melee (assuming that you have at least one of each).

 

[Antilogic]

So it's possible to send a worker to build improvements in the surrounding land around a city then go into city view and not have enough citizens or circles to get the benefit of all these improvements so I'll have to choose which ones are the best until I get more citizens or workers right?

Geez, sorry if I sound like a spas about this concept.

Exactly, although you want your cities to grow to use the land eventually. A big part of city and worker management strategies is figuring out how to get a surplus--you need two food per citizen in the city, so if you get some farms up with 3 food per tile, then those two tiles can support either a specialist in the city or a mine or some other low-food tile. Food resources like corn, wheat, rice, pigs, seafood, etc. can give you tiles with 4 to 6 food, so one citizen can work those resources, then 1-2 other citizens can be specialists in the city or work in high-production/high-commerce but low-food tiles.

Cottage-type improvements are also easy to use for economy building, since you can build them on grassland (provide two food, so they sustain their citizen) and they build up commerce over time when worked.

 

[happyturtle]

You get as many circles as you have population, plus the centre tile (the city itself). A size 1 city can gets the city plus 1 circle, a size 15 city can work the city plus 15.

So every tile can be improved, but until your city gets large, it can't take advantage of it. In the early game, you want to only improve your best tiles, then move your worker on to build roads or improve a newer city. It would be bad to have every tile improved in your capital while your newer cities had no tile improvements at all.