PRINTED manual and strategy guide

[Randy Scott]

Greetings. I'm a long-time civ fanatic, having played ALL the previous versions of the game.

However, I really can't enjoy it and play well unless i have a PRINTED manual and/or strategy guide to study. I just can't focus on "on-line" manuals.

I have tried contacting firaxis to find out if I can order the PRINTED manual, to no avail. My printer is shot, too, so I can't print it out.

does anyone know of anywhere where the PRINTEd manual is available for sale?

Civ 4 looks to me the most complicated version yet and I NEED to study the manual, in a relaxed mode (not staring at a screen) to enjoy the game!

 

[marius312]

The manual is provided with the discs you bought. You cannot get other ones unless you print off the online ones here.

 

[Walliard]

If you're just looking to get a handle of the basic game mechanics, then I recommend playing through the tutorial.

 

[marius312]

I disagree, the tutorial fails to cover a large majority of the game concepts.

 

[Quintillus]

I'm almost positive Civ4 came with a manual when I bought it (not at home right now). But then again, I did buy it in October 2005, and I'm in the U.S. - it might not be included everywhere, and it might not be included at any place anymore. You might want to post which version you bought/where you bought it. I can't speak for all cases, but I thought Civ came with a printed manual.

Amazon does seem to have an official strategy guide if that's adequate. Although you might be just as well off, not to mention slightly richer, to print off a bunch of the War Academy articles on CFC (Civilization IV-->War Academy from the Site Navigation bar at the top of any Forum window).

 

[gps]

I'm almost positive Civ4 came with a manual when I bought it (not at home right now). But then again, I did buy it in October 2005, and I'm in the U.S. - it might not be included everywhere, and it might not be included at any place anymore. You might want to post which version you bought/where you bought it. I can't speak for all cases, but I thought Civ came with a printed manual.

First releases usually come with a paper manual while budged, bundeled, gold or complete versions usually have it as pdf-file on the game disks.

 

[El Koeno]

There must be some shop in your neighborhood were you can print online stuff right?

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Printed manual is quite bad and error-ridden so you're really not missing out much.

 

[Randy Scott]

thank you all very much for the advice.

I may print the manual if I can figure out how to configure it right. I might also buy the strategy guide, although it was HUGELY expensive at amazon.

Perhaps I can gradually learn by hanging out here.

I find civ4 more complicated and less intuitive. Every time they come up with a new version they improve some things but drop some, other, appealing features

IN some respects I think CIV 2 was the best -except for the annoying Caravans

Civ 3 didn't have enough vital resources on the map. I ended up having to attack other civilizations just to get access to vital oil, coal, etc.


thanks again.

 

[Rub'Rum]

You might also want to check this out:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=236346

These are awesome reference sheets, a lot of people have printed them and, frankly, they seem a lot more useful to me than the manual. They are rather big too, and I'm not sure they are in the North American paper format. But still, just for you to consider if you'd like to print these instead. I know I would pick that over the manual.

 

[Tully Bascombe]

These are awesome reference sheets, a lot of people have printed them and, frankly, they seem a lot more useful to me than the manual.

I agree - the reference charts were the most useful part of the manual or of the study guide (which I bought after I misplaced the manual).

Randy's printer is broken, but perhaps he can print the charts while at the library. Or, rather than spending money to buy a new book, spend the money to repair or replace his printer.

 

[jkp1187]

thank you all very much for the advice.

I may print the manual if I can figure out how to configure it right. I might also buy the strategy guide, although it was HUGELY expensive at amazon.

Perhaps I can gradually learn by hanging out here.

I find civ4 more complicated and less intuitive. Every time they come up with a new version they improve some things but drop some, other, appealing features

IN some respects I think CIV 2 was the best -except for the annoying Caravans

Civ 3 didn't have enough vital resources on the map. I ended up having to attack other civilizations just to get access to vital oil, coal, etc.


thanks again.

I would not buy the "official" strategy guide at this late date. It was written just before vanilla Civ IV was released in 2005, so it actually contains some inaccuracies. It doesn't cover any of the later changes from patches to Civ IV vanilla at all....and certainly nothing from Warlords or BtS.

(If you're a completist who insists on spending your money on a copy, PM me and I'll sell you mine. But, again, in many cases the official Strategy Guide is just flat-out wrong.)

Best thing to do in my opinion would be to surf through the Strategy Articles subforum, skim a few articles that look good, and then print out those posts to review later. There are some really good articles there, and in many cases, they were updated as changes were made via patches.

Once you've done that, try to play a game a couple of times, write down some questions, and just post and ask. People here are real friendly like.


EDIT: Here are some articles/reference charts to check out. Not everyone necessarily agrees with the advice in some of these articles, but it's a good place to start.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185838
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=215506
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=209697
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144897
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252717
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144029
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=182895
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=237717
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=243068
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=197818