Newbie wants to know how to play

[mnOne]

Gentlemen,

I am new to Civ IV, sure it's a great game, but I am equally sure that it's time-consuming to learn. So, here I go, trying to find a bit of a shortcut: I have a couple of questions that I absolutely must know before I even start playing the game (I like to over-prepare).

1. Who is the best leader for someone who has never played before? If possible it should be someone that I can play for a long time and thats versatile in all stages of the game. Perhaps I should say that I have a thing for espionage and generally Machiavellian leaders... On first glance, I liked Willem van Oranje, what do you think?

2. Is the tutorial worth playing? In most games I know, I couldn't be bothered but since I haven't even played another Civ before, I think it might be a good idea.

3. Any other tips? What is an essential feature/part of the game that newbies often overlook? Is there a thread where the other beginners' questions are answered by the senior members of this board?

Thank you for your time!

 

[oranges]

1. If you haven't played any of the CIV games before, I'd advise a few games at a lower difficulty level (settler or the one above) to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics, tech tree etc. Any leader should do fine at those levels.

2. It's been a long time -- don't really remember if I played the tutorial and if so what it looks like, but it can't hurt. In any case, the tutorial is likely to cover only the basic stuff such as how to move you units, build buildings and units in a city, improve the land around your cities, etc. For anything more than that, you can always check the ingame civilopedia, which is not perfect, but has most of the info you might need about any aspect of the game. There is also an amazing fan-made Reference Booklet to help you out.

3. It's not so much there is a single feature you might overlook, but more that the game is complex and it takes time to understand all its aspects. Lower difficulty levels enable you to enjoy the game while still learning all kinds of stuff. Have fun.

 

[champ82]

Do the tutorial.
Don’t play on settler, you won’t learn s***. Play on Warlord, maybe Chieftain for your very first game only.
Play as an industrious, philosophical, or financial leader. Huaya Cupac of Inca, Ramses II of Egypt, Darius of Persia, Pacal of Maya. Or play as Mehmed II of the Ottomans – and if you do this get gunpowder early and raise some hell.
Wilhelm Van Orange is great, but maybe save him for your first noble game. His unique building, which is amazing, comes a bit late so he might not be the best training-wheels civ.
Diplomacy is the trickiest part for a beginner if you ask me. Keep track not only of who likes you but who likes everyone else. It may be worth it to stop trading with a civilization if others request it and they are unpopular.
Oh yeah – either convert your neighbors to your religion or convert yourself to theirs. If there is more than one religion, chose the one with the neighbors that are stronger and who will actually trade techs with you.
Play on noble as soon as you can. You won’t truly understand what it means to build a balanced civ until you do.
Corporations confused the hell out of me at first. You’ll figure it out eventually, but for starters know that if you build a corporation, start it in your city that has or will have Wall Street.

 

[hest]

I think Mehmet would be really good for a beginner. Organized is a passive trait that requires little attention to use, so is Expansive. And also, the UB is pretty awesome too.
UU is not that great, but you since you should use Mehmet to learn the game and all of the different units, it shouldn't matter that much.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Gentlemen,

I am new to Civ IV, sure it's a great game, but I am equally sure that it's time-consuming to learn. So, here I go, trying to find a bit of a shortcut: I have a couple of questions that I absolutely must know before I even start playing the game (I like to over-prepare).

1. Who is the best leader for someone who has never played before? If possible it should be someone that I can play for a long time and thats versatile in all stages of the game. Perhaps I should say that I have a thing for espionage and generally Machiavellian leaders... On first glance, I liked Willem van Oranje, what do you think?

2. Is the tutorial worth playing? In most games I know, I couldn't be bothered but since I haven't even played another Civ before, I think it might be a good idea.

3. Any other tips? What is an essential feature/part of the game that newbies often overlook? Is there a thread where the other beginners' questions are answered by the senior members of this board?

Thank you for your time!

I'd advise you to play one game on settler difficulty level and then move up to chieftain, and then in due time play on whatever difficulty level you feel comfortable with. Augustus Caesar of the Romans is a good leader to start with because of his traits, his unique unit (Praetorian) and his unique building (the forum).

By all means play the tutorial once; it will teach you the basics, and that can never do any harm.

You have to expand fast enough to control enough land and yet not so fast that it ruins you, since every new city increases your maintenance costs. Because of that, once you have researched the basic technologies you should aim for Code of Laws (so you can buy courts, which decrease costs), and Currency (so you can buy marketplaces that earn you money). Also remember that if you found a religion, every city in the world which has that religion pays you one gold per turn.

Research Writing early and build libraries in your best cities, and run sceintist experts for faster research.

 

[caketastydelish]

I'd advise you to play one game on settler difficulty level and then move up to chieftain, and then in due time play on whatever difficulty level you feel comfortable with. Augustus Caesar of the Romans is a good leader to start with because of his traits, his unique unit (Praetorian) and his unique building (the forum).

By all means play the tutorial once; it will teach you the basics, and that can never do any harm.

You have to expand fast enough to control enough land and yet not so fast that it ruins you, since every new city increases your maintenance costs. Because of that, once you have researched the basic technologies you should aim for Code of Laws (so you can buy courts, which decrease costs), and Currency (so you can buy marketplaces that earn you money). Also remember that if you found a religion, every city in the world which has that religion pays you one gold per turn.

Research Writing early and build libraries in your best cities, and run sceintist experts for faster research.

In addition, you can even pick what the rival civlizations are. Pick none-aggresive ones, such as Gandi. Don't pick Toguegwa, he'll never trade with you.

 

[troytheface]

i suggest Babylon, fractal, standard, noble, build a city and then three units. then build a wrker and a settler and make a second city and see what happens. aim for 6 cities and build 3 times as many units as you think you need.

 

[Solver]

My first tip would be not to get frustrated. There is some complexity involved in learning the game, and you will probably be confused about quite a few things for your first game. That's okay. The tutorial isn't the best one ever conceived but it will get you going with the very basics.

I recommend starting on the Chieftain difficulty. It's very forgiving - the computer civilizations won't be aggressive towards you and you'll get a variety of bonuses that will allow you to grow easier and such. Elizabeth, Huayna Capac or Mansa Musa would be my picks as good beginner leaders.

There are, as it has been said, many complex game elements that you won't understand until later but don't worry, that's largely what the lower difficulty levels are for. They allow you to play and learn while making many mistakes. For example, knowing how fast to expand early on is an important Civ4 skill but the easier levels are quite forgiving if you expand too slowly or too fast.

Above all else, ask questions on the forums when confused

 

[MrCynical]

1)For a beginner I'd suggest Mansa Musa. Financial is a strong trait (and simple to use), Spiritual is a great help if you're not entirely sure what you're doing with civics, and the skirmisher is handy to defend in the early stages.

2)If you haven't played any civ before, I'd try the tutorial.

3)For relatively short questions this thread is quite good.

 

[Jimmyballz]

^^what they said.

I recommend using the tutorial, but just until you get the basics down. No need to play it all the way through, unless your really enjoying it.

I started on Chieftan, to get familiar with the different victories. You could do this on Warlord too. A lot of people say start on Noble, but you will learn a lot of things the hard way, and it can be disappointing, like losing settlers to Barbarians

I don't believe that Settler is a good starting point, unless trying a new strategy. Barbs and wild animals seem to dodge you at this level. Getting accustomed or comfortable to your style of play at Settler will result in you having to drastically revamp your approach when moving on up to a higher difficulty.
-jb

 

[Supr49er]

Go with Huayna Capac. He has good early UU (Quecha), and UB (Terrace).

 

[alamo]

It depends on whether you learn by doing or like to learn all the details first.

Learning by doing means going along happily until the rest of the world arrives on your doorstep with an army. Rough lessons, but fun along the way.

If you prefer to read in advance then there is plenty to read from, especially the information center.

Ultimately you will have to have both detailed understanding and experience to get to the higher levels.

 

[Fireseal]

I suggest a leader with "creative" trait, it makes the beginning of the game a lot easier and simpler so you can focus on learning other basics.

 

[jono256]

Read the different winning strategies here , print them if you can
I've recently been going through the different wins to get a general feel of what's best to do depending on the situation. The other articles focus on low-level tips and tricks which are good habits to have.

 

[Lexicus]

First thing you have to do is learn by heart what each trait does. Then pick leaders who have the traits you like best.

 

[oranges]

First thing you have to do is learn by heart what each trait does. Then pick leaders who have the traits you like best.

I hope this was a joke. Otherwise, I would say that you first need to learn the tech tree by heart, much more important. Few people would be left to the play the game in such conditions, however.

 

[Supr49er]

I do need the traits chart and tech tree on the wall where I play.

I also made a Corporations sheet and Quests sheet.

 

[brainshannon]

I think the most important and difficult thing to learn in Civ IV is how to properly specialize cities and prioritize the tiles you want a city to work. Often times when I first started playing I would just build every building in every city, trying to balance the three major resources that cities produce: commerce (gold and science), hammers (production), and great people (GP) points. The result was cities which were subpar in all these areas. The correct strategy is to specialize each city so they predominantly produce only one of these; thus, you will have commerce cities that produce huge amounts of gold or science (it’s best to sub-specialize these cities into one or the other) but little production and GP points, others cities with huge manufacturing capabilities to pump out military units or wonders (here too is another sub-specialization), and then ONE city (two at the most, but one is preferable) to pump out your Great People. There will inevitably be some hybrid cities in your empire, for example, your main wonder building city may also be your Great People farm.

Regardless of the type of city you are constructing, it is vital to prioritize the order in which you improve squares within a city. Food is the foundation of your city; each citizen within a city consumes two units of food per turn with the remainder going towards population growth. Your city can only access the squares in its “fat cross” (essentially a 5 x 5 square missing its corners), so it is important to look at what the total food potential of your city will be before you settle it as this will determine its future population potential (at least until the food corporations make their appearance). Every city should have at least one food resource (or a heck of a lot of flood plains) within its fat cross, and having two or three is far better. Without the excess food, your city will take forever to grow and will be limited in both its potential size and in its ability to work tiles which are underproductive in food but high in production and commerce. Your priority for worker improvements should be roughly: food resources, strategic resources, luxury resources, flood plains, grasslands, grassland hills, plains, plain hills. Remember not to improve more squares within a city than its population can currently work if you have other cities with unimproved workable squares.

Finally, remember not to neglect your military. Many beginners overemphasize wonder production at the cost of their military. This is usually fine at the lowest levels, but at the higher levels the computer will punish you for it.

Hope that helps. Good luck and welcome to Civ IV!

 

[alamo]

FYI - The thread starter has disappeared.