I decided to start this thread for those folks who played Civ3 but have not opened Civ4 box and want to see what is especially different between Civ4 and Civ3. Certainly I am not going to copy game manual here but rather put things I stumble upon while playing Civ4 and found them interesting to mention
1. Fascism is required technology for Mt. Rushmore great wonder. May be I miss some historical data, but I couldnt figure what fascism has in common with one of the major American landmarks.
2. Players can cash rush great and small wonders . I found this to be an interesting fact. I wonder if AIs know about it as well.
3. Wonder cascading is not possible. If someone has beaten you in wonder marathon run your construction project is scrapped and you receive some money.
4. So it is not possible to do any pre-builds neither for wonders nor for any other buildings. If you decide to change build while building something else this new build will start from scratch but old project wont be dropped it will be picked up where it was left after the new orders are completed.
5. Tech research is working on similar manner. If you decide to change tech in the middle of researching something else nothing will be lost. You can start researching new tech and then return to the previous one where it was left. However if you wait for too long or forget you switched your citizens will also forget this over time and you might actually spend more turns on research.
6. Forget about settler and worker factories in a sense we had them in CIV3. Their build doesnt consume population of your town, instead population simply doesnt grow when you building these units.
7. It is still possible for lucky spearman to kill a tank. Actually in my game it was a lucky archer who killed my modern armor. No kidding and yes armor was already slightly damaged but so what? But I found it even funnier when grenadiers were throwing grenades at my helicopter gunships and I actually lost 3 out of 3 while sieging a city.
8. There is no such thing as defensive vs. offensive units in this game. Units have only one value strength and in addition to that special abilities, like archers first strike, or some units are better vs. mounted units or vs. melee units just like it was done in Age of Empires. However units can gain experience by winning battler or by a virtue of being built in city with barracks. Different experiences can be used to make unit more offensive or more defensive.
9. Firaxis promised that the warfare will be all about combined arms But I found it not to be truth exactly. Nothing beats a horde of Russian Cossacks sweeping enemy cities, exactly like it was in Civ3.
edited: Ok, you guys convinced me - under normal game circumstances combined arms are the way to go.
10. No more pollution Yay Unless you have nuclear meltdown that is. or a nuclear war
11. Health is another term in this game and it pretty much works like happiness in Civ3. Happiness is also present. So players need to collect luxes and build temples etc. to make people happy and also domesticate certain animals and build certain buildings to make people happy.
12. It is very difficult to expand fast at the beginning . Id love to see another Military Academy article on how to expand fast.
13. I love religious aspect of this game. I believe it is great, but it is also very complex and everyone will need time to learn it well. I cant wait for nice deep strategy guide on how to use religion in Civ4.
14. Navy is more important in this game. There are sea resources that can be pillaged and navy is needed to protect. Also looks like AIs use navy much better in this game.
15. City governors are not much smarter than they were in Civ3. Micromanagement is still a must. I havent tried to use prioritization buttons to automate tasks. I never tried to automate workers either so I dont know if it will make difference.
16. Small wonders are now called national wonders and guess what you cant build more than 2 national wonders in the same city.
17. The previous and few other game specifics lead to city specialization. I think it will be common to see players having one super-science city another super commerce city etc It will just take time for all of us to learn all these new buildings and techs and what to do with them to polish our skills.
18. One thing that is definitely better in Civ4 Russian czarina. She is young and cute unlike that old fat ugly grandma from Civ3.
19. Railroads are extremely downgraded comparing to Civ3. Also both roads and rails only required to connect cities and create trade routes and to speed up troop movement a little. They do not increase gold or shield (sorry hammers) output. corrected: Actually they do (increase hammers by 1) on Mines and Lumber mills but that's it
20. Just mentioned above... Get used to the new terminology hammers are used to show production output instead of shields.
ADDED:
21. Catapults can no longer bombard "normal" tiles. They can only bombard cities. Catapults can attack enemy units just like normal units can. When they attack, they damage all of the units on that tile at the same time. However, catapults attacking that way usually die a terrible, painful death.
22. If you were wondering how did i end up with Choppers gunships. Well, this is who Cavalry can be upgraded in Civ4. I've given my Cossacks choppers but i guess they were tried to fly helicopters the same way they would ride horses. so i lost quite few of those toys
23. You can not place cities closer than two tiles between each other. As you remember it was one tile in Civ3.
24. Mountains are Totally impassable/unusable.
25. RoP rapes are not possible in Civ4. RoP is called "Open Borders" in Civ4. When you declare a war while you have troops on enemy territory your troops are automatically removed from his or her land
26. My favorite - no more hammers/beakers wasted. they simply overflow to the next build/technology.
Just put your tech slider as high as you can and keep it there. Neat. Less MM nightmares
27. You thought barbarians were raging in Civ3 - think again. Barbarians are disastrous in Civ4. Especially on monarch levels and above (well... i've only played monarch so far but can deduct the worse). Barbarians aren't just sit in their huts and roam around. They actually act as mini-states, build their own city and their own research. If not taken care of you will see barbarian archers and axemen raging around. Actually barbarians not simply take your cash and money - they raze cities when sacking them. Beware.
Please help me to add those small but peculiar facts you learn playing Civ4 and think Civ3 players would be interested to know.
1. Fascism is required technology for Mt. Rushmore great wonder. May be I miss some historical data, but I couldnt figure what fascism has in common with one of the major American landmarks.
2. Players can cash rush great and small wonders . I found this to be an interesting fact. I wonder if AIs know about it as well.
3. Wonder cascading is not possible. If someone has beaten you in wonder marathon run your construction project is scrapped and you receive some money.
4. So it is not possible to do any pre-builds neither for wonders nor for any other buildings. If you decide to change build while building something else this new build will start from scratch but old project wont be dropped it will be picked up where it was left after the new orders are completed.
5. Tech research is working on similar manner. If you decide to change tech in the middle of researching something else nothing will be lost. You can start researching new tech and then return to the previous one where it was left. However if you wait for too long or forget you switched your citizens will also forget this over time and you might actually spend more turns on research.
6. Forget about settler and worker factories in a sense we had them in CIV3. Their build doesnt consume population of your town, instead population simply doesnt grow when you building these units.
7. It is still possible for lucky spearman to kill a tank. Actually in my game it was a lucky archer who killed my modern armor. No kidding and yes armor was already slightly damaged but so what? But I found it even funnier when grenadiers were throwing grenades at my helicopter gunships and I actually lost 3 out of 3 while sieging a city.
8. There is no such thing as defensive vs. offensive units in this game. Units have only one value strength and in addition to that special abilities, like archers first strike, or some units are better vs. mounted units or vs. melee units just like it was done in Age of Empires. However units can gain experience by winning battler or by a virtue of being built in city with barracks. Different experiences can be used to make unit more offensive or more defensive.
9. Firaxis promised that the warfare will be all about combined arms But I found it not to be truth exactly. Nothing beats a horde of Russian Cossacks sweeping enemy cities, exactly like it was in Civ3.
edited: Ok, you guys convinced me - under normal game circumstances combined arms are the way to go.
10. No more pollution Yay Unless you have nuclear meltdown that is. or a nuclear war
11. Health is another term in this game and it pretty much works like happiness in Civ3. Happiness is also present. So players need to collect luxes and build temples etc. to make people happy and also domesticate certain animals and build certain buildings to make people happy.
12. It is very difficult to expand fast at the beginning . Id love to see another Military Academy article on how to expand fast.
13. I love religious aspect of this game. I believe it is great, but it is also very complex and everyone will need time to learn it well. I cant wait for nice deep strategy guide on how to use religion in Civ4.
14. Navy is more important in this game. There are sea resources that can be pillaged and navy is needed to protect. Also looks like AIs use navy much better in this game.
15. City governors are not much smarter than they were in Civ3. Micromanagement is still a must. I havent tried to use prioritization buttons to automate tasks. I never tried to automate workers either so I dont know if it will make difference.
16. Small wonders are now called national wonders and guess what you cant build more than 2 national wonders in the same city.
17. The previous and few other game specifics lead to city specialization. I think it will be common to see players having one super-science city another super commerce city etc It will just take time for all of us to learn all these new buildings and techs and what to do with them to polish our skills.
18. One thing that is definitely better in Civ4 Russian czarina. She is young and cute unlike that old fat ugly grandma from Civ3.
19. Railroads are extremely downgraded comparing to Civ3. Also both roads and rails only required to connect cities and create trade routes and to speed up troop movement a little. They do not increase gold or shield (sorry hammers) output. corrected: Actually they do (increase hammers by 1) on Mines and Lumber mills but that's it
20. Just mentioned above... Get used to the new terminology hammers are used to show production output instead of shields.
ADDED:
21. Catapults can no longer bombard "normal" tiles. They can only bombard cities. Catapults can attack enemy units just like normal units can. When they attack, they damage all of the units on that tile at the same time. However, catapults attacking that way usually die a terrible, painful death.
22. If you were wondering how did i end up with Choppers gunships. Well, this is who Cavalry can be upgraded in Civ4. I've given my Cossacks choppers but i guess they were tried to fly helicopters the same way they would ride horses. so i lost quite few of those toys
23. You can not place cities closer than two tiles between each other. As you remember it was one tile in Civ3.
24. Mountains are Totally impassable/unusable.
25. RoP rapes are not possible in Civ4. RoP is called "Open Borders" in Civ4. When you declare a war while you have troops on enemy territory your troops are automatically removed from his or her land
26. My favorite - no more hammers/beakers wasted. they simply overflow to the next build/technology.
Just put your tech slider as high as you can and keep it there. Neat. Less MM nightmares
27. You thought barbarians were raging in Civ3 - think again. Barbarians are disastrous in Civ4. Especially on monarch levels and above (well... i've only played monarch so far but can deduct the worse). Barbarians aren't just sit in their huts and roam around. They actually act as mini-states, build their own city and their own research. If not taken care of you will see barbarian archers and axemen raging around. Actually barbarians not simply take your cash and money - they raze cities when sacking them. Beware.
Please help me to add those small but peculiar facts you learn playing Civ4 and think Civ3 players would be interested to know.
)
