noob has questions ;)

[Enigma256]

I am a rather big fan of the series, since civ1 for the Mac

now I never could get into civ3 nor vanilla civ4, I just couldn't feel "the magic" of previous games, but, nevertheless, I decided to give Warlords a chance.


so here I am, quite new to this game

since I always was a huge fan of "play the world" type scenarios i got me one of those, modified it a little to my liking (no, not really overpowering, just easier access to South America, don't wanna spoil myself) and started the game as the Incas.

now they have a nice early UU, but i am not the warmongering type, at least not in this stage of the game. the relativly isolated starting point and low difficulty setting allows me the luxury of peace early on


now, to my questions:
how do i start?
build a settler right away? that was my game in earlier civs, pump out settlers as much as i could. as I understand it, that doesn't work in civ4 as there should be few specialized cities.
but, when i build a settler (or worker for that matter), the city doesn't grow.

so should i start with a warrior (or rather the UU) that i don't really need to allow the city to grow?

then with the specialized cities: i have much jungle to my disposal, ideal place for commerce cities (once i got rid of the jungle, of course )
should i first build a commerce city or a GPP city, since they need more or less the same surroundings.


now, onto the fighting system:
Siege weapons have a property like "lowers city defence by 20% per turn", does that mean if i bombard the city with 5 siege weapons of that type it doesnt have any defense bonus left?
how about the innate defense bonus of units? or the city defender upgrade (the name slipped my mind, sorry)?

i know that are many questions, but i didn't find adequate answers, and the "Condensed tips for beginners" need a guide on their own
and sorry also for my english, haven't used it in quite some time

 

[MrCynical]

Starting off you defintiely don't want to start with a settler. A worker is the most common starting choice, since it can improve the terrain around your city to compensate the initial loss of growth. It can also chop forests to accelerate your next projects. A warrior is also a reasonable choice. Pumping out settlers as fast as you can will bankrupt you extremely rapidly. Unlike Civ 3, Civ 4 requires a much slower expansion pace, since when they are first built cities will cost more to maintain than they actually make.

As far as the fighting system goes, you're correct that five siege weapons of that type would complete remove the city defense bonus. They don't have any effect of inate bonuses, city defender upgrades and so on, but you can suicide them into the city to do direct damage to a number of the units there.

 

[Enigma256]

what is the "ideal" number of cities early on? or rather, what is the upper limit?
this is all on a rather low difficulty setting, if that matters

the defense bonus remains removed the next turn? or do i have to bombard them again?

 

[MrCynical]

what is the "ideal" number of cities early on? or rather, what is the upper limit?

Bit to vague for meaningful answer. As a rough guide, if you have to drop your science rate to below 60% to break even each turn, you're going too fast and should stop expanding until your existing cities get going.

the defense bonus remains removed the next turn? or do i have to bombard them again?

The defense bonus stays removed for the following turn, and then gradually regenerates a few percent each turn after that.

 

[Enigma256]

alright, thank you.

just two more questions, then i think i'm done at least for a couple turns
are there any "must have" Wonders? i'm financial/industrious, so i think i should make use of the faster wonders.

i found The Great Wall to be extremly useful, as i don't need to defend myself against barbarians, any other nice wonders?


and my second question:
what should i build if there isn't anything to build?
i mean if a city is well defended, has all the special buildings for its purpose and if i build anything else it would just cost me without benefitting me.

 

[jimbob27]

Ok, I hope you like reading

None of the wonders are "must have" like leonardo's workshop was in civ2, they've all been toned down a lot since then, but the do provide a nice bonus. A lot of the depend on what particular strategy you want to carry out. Being the Incans, I'd say the wall is 50/50. On one hand, you've got a big empty continent, so you'll see a lot of barbs, but on the other hand, your first few cities will be protected by the andes, and your UU will be able to fend of any archers, it's only really the axemen you've got to worry about. You've got copper nearby, so you should be able to defend against them by the time they come knocking.

Stonehenge would probably be a must have if you were playing as stalin, as he's got a crazy landgrab to deal with, but the incan UB is a granary which provides culture, and mostly everyone tries to build a granary in each city early on, so again... stonehenge probably isn't the wonder for you. That leaves the oracle, parthanon and pyramids for you to choose from. If you want to run a lot of specialists later on (and all that grass under the jungle will be great for specialist cities) so the pyramids is a good wonder for that situation, because you can enable representation, which gives specialists a science boost much earlier than you normally would.

Again, the oracle will be good in your situation, because you've only got 2 crappy trading partners, so the free tech will be a big help in keeping you up to speed with the civs on the old-world. The parthanon would be good too, because you've got all that grassland, and can make a great GP farm.

I hope this kinda gives you an idea of how they've changed things. No longer are there "no-brainer must-have" wonders, you've got to think hard and decide which wonders will boost your situation the most.

Theres very very rarely nothing left to build. If you've built all the buildings, then chances are you've been neglecting your army somewhat, so build more units! Even if you feel your army is strong enough to defend, and you don't want to attack anybody, building more is still useful. It'll make the other civs scared of you, and less likely to declare war, and it means they're much more likely to hand over all their gold every few turns, when you ask for tribute.

 

[Enigma256]

now i changed the map a little bit so that i can get out of the Andes by other means than by boat, so i can get into the jungle earlier. i also removed a peak that separated north and south america, so i can go there by foot.

i try to found a religion in my first expansion city that will be commerce based, so with a shrine the money should really come flocking in
on the other hand i am more open to barbarians, so the wall should come in handy

the problem with the copper is, that it is a little bit out of reach of my capital and it has really crappy surroundings to establish a city there, i dont really want to waste a settler just to get me my copper.
there is no iron or horses nearby, so early warfare is out of the question anyway

where should i build the wonders, or does that even matter?
my capital is surrounded by hills, so it has great production.

on the other hand, i think the wonders would do better in my specialist cities, mainly the GPP city (once i fully understand how GPP work, that is ) but other than choprushing the jungle they don't really have that much production.

 

[MrCynical]

While there's something to be said for stacking wonders in your GP farm, if it has poor production you're wasting time. Build them where you can, and don't get two fixated on getting lots of wonders.

Oh,and you can't chop rush jungle by the way. Removing it gives no production boost like chopping forest.

 

[Proteus]

Yep, the only use of chopping jungle in Civ IV is to remove the health penalty you get for every jungle tile within your fat X and to develop the underlying terrain.

 

[Enigma256]

and i wondered why they still didn't produce as fast when i chopped the jungle, now i know why

thanks for all the answers, that should keep me alive long enough to find more questions

 

[weasel77066]

Yep, the only use of chopping jungle in Civ IV is to remove the health penalty you get for every jungle tile within your fat X and to develop the underlying terrain.

Also to get a 'kill zone' and take the defensive bonus away from your city that any attackers would recieve.