Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

(1) At the moment the game is a bit overwhelming for me, I just started playing and jumped straight into Beyond the Sword. Should I stick to a simple cottage economy for now until I become more savvy with the game, and then try out a SE or a hybrid? Also, which civilizations are best for a CE?

(2) I'm confused by how economies work in this game in general. I usually hoard up a large amount of gold that just sits there doing nothing... what's the point in having a large amount of gold? Just to upgrade old units? It seems just the income matters so it can be turned into research.

(3) Again with the economy - are you supposed to aim to have the research slider at 0%? I see a lot of people on this forum saying they have it at 0% like it's a good thing.

Thanks.
 
(1) At the moment the game is a bit overwhelming for me, I just started playing and jumped straight into Beyond the Sword. Should I stick to a simple cottage economy for now until I become more savvy with the game, and then try out a SE or a hybrid? Also, which civilizations are best for a CE?

Most of us played vanilla civ4 before BTS, so we were used to a large part of the game. When you jump straight into BTS then I can imagine that the game is a bit overwhelming. Just play a few games at low difficulty levels and you'll learn more each game.

The financial leaders are best for a cottage economy. But I don't think it is a good idea to only play with financial civilizations as you will start to rely on the bonus.

It's probably best to learn about great persons and how they work before basing your whole economy on them (the SE). I almost always play a hybrid economy leaning towards the CE and I'm not a newbie anymore.

(2) I'm confused by how economies work in this game in general. I usually hoard up a large amount of gold that just sits there doing nothing... what's the point in having a large amount of gold? Just to upgrade old units? It seems just the income matters so it can be turned into research.

It's no use to hoard money. Yes, it can be used to upgrade stuff or to pay the maintenance, but you can always increase the gold slider to 100% when you really need gold for upgrading. Until that moment, you can use the extra gold by running at a negative gold per turn and investing more commerce into science (so called deficit research). It's no use to sit on the money.

(3) Again with the economy - are you supposed to aim to have the research slider at 0%? I see a lot of people on this forum saying they have it at 0% like it's a good thing.

Thanks.

If you see a remark like: 'I had a great game yesterday. I was Bismarck and was researching at 100% while still getting 34 gold per turn', then you have encountered someone who thinks he understands the game and is playing great, but still doesn't get how the economy in civ 4 works. He/she is still relatively new to the game.

The research speed is not linked to the research percentage, but linked to the number right of the research percentage. An empire which is researching at 700 research per turn at 70% research while using the other 30% to pay for all kinds of upkeep, is researching much faster than an empire researching at 100 research per turn at 100% research while no gold percentage is needed for paying the upkeep.

At the higher difficulty levels, the upkeep is also higher and thus the percentage of your commerce that is needed to pay this upkeep is also usually higher.

You should aim to get a high commerce yield in your cities if you want to research quickly. The research slider determines how much of that commerce is used for research. Some buildings then increase research and gold after the slider has divided you commerce in those two. (In BTS, you can also use a percentage of your commerce for espionage points if you wish.)

Pure commerce cities without any hammer production at all are also not that great because you need those hammers to get libraries and markets to multiply the science and gold output. So even a city aiming for a high research output should have some production tiles.
 
It saves automatically, press the PrtScn button (If you have a function/lock button, make sure it's off) and it'll save automatically to your civ screenshots folder, go to the folder where you installed civ (Or Warlords, or BTS if you took the shot there) and go to the Civ4/Warlords/BTS Screenshots folder.
 
Now, I'm aware I suck horribly at this game, so there's no need to point that out. However, I'd appreciate help understanding how to start not sucking.

I've uploaded this save file from a game I started yesterday. Obviously, I'm not doing well, but... could someone tell me specifically what I'm doing wrong? What I'd be better off doing? How you'd solve the problems I'm in? Why I'm behind the others in points?

At the moment I was planning to invade Germany to the east of me. However as soon as I remove troops from my capital, the happiness goes down ridiculously since I'm running Monarchy (the only way I could think of getting myself out of huge amounts of unhappiness.)

So, what am I supposed to do?

Thanks.
 

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Now, I'm aware I suck horribly at this game, so there's no need to point that out. However, I'd appreciate help understanding how to start not sucking.

I've uploaded this save file from a game I started yesterday. Obviously, I'm not doing well, but... could someone tell me specifically what I'm doing wrong? What I'd be better off doing? How you'd solve the problems I'm in? Why I'm behind the others in points?

At the moment I was planning to invade Germany to the east of me. However as soon as I remove troops from my capital, the happiness goes down ridiculously since I'm running Monarchy (the only way I could think of getting myself out of huge amounts of unhappiness.)

So, what am I supposed to do?

Thanks.
Here's a few things off the top of my head, just glancing at your save.
  • You're cottaging. That's good and it plays to Ragnar's Financial trait. Too many newbies don't cottage enough.
  • You're way too small. Only 3 cities by 1090 AD? Yikes. Bismarck should have died centuries ago. You're the Vikings! Your Berserkers should be cutting a swath through what remains of the Dutch by now at the very least.
  • You're not taking advantage of resource trading. You could get wheat from Shaka and gold from Joao, and that would help with your happiness and health problems a bit. Bismarck, Wang Kon, Willem, and Isabella all have some gold per turn to spare for any extra resources you have left over.
  • You built the Pyramids and you're running Hereditary Rule. Huh? The main reason to build the big stone tombs is to run Representation early (and maybe a little Police State too, before and during a war). Representation really only benefits you if you're running lots of specialists, which you're not, and that's not a strategy that plays to Ragnar's strengths anyway. Next time, skip the big expensive wonders and invest in Axemen instead. Go take the shiny wonders from your closest neighbour. It's fun and profitable. :goodjob:
  • Your current builds are not what you need. You need to take down Bismarck. Your land, what's left of it, sucks. His doesn't. You should be building nothing but military units (once you've built Barracks in all your cities, which should have been a high priority build long ago--you're Aggressive, so they're cheap). You built a Settler? With all that lousy tundra? Why bother? Go kill the German! He's squatting on your land!
  • Switch out of Serfdom, possibly the most useless civic there is. Double up your Workers and you have its effects. Slavery is the way to go for as long as you possibly can. Whip units like there's no tomorrow. Use Police State to help them get built and Vassalage to give them additional XPs. You're only getting 14 commerce from trade routes, so you might want to give Mercantilism a go as well.
  • Speaking of units, I think you've pretty much got all the CR units you need. What you need are Catapults and lots of them.
  • This is a terra map, so you should be prioritizing Optics to go find the new world, then Astronomy to go take it over. Gunpowder can wait until later. Though I'd probably research Engineering first for the extra road movement and Trebuchets, which are even better than Catapults.
  • Throw in a Spy build among the Cats and go check out the rest of Bizzy's land and the disposition of his forces.
You're playing at Warlord level so the game is not lost. But peacefully building hasn't gotten you into a winning position. Land is power in Civ. That means in the early game, you need to claim land, and there are two ways to do it: by spamming Settlers or by the sword. The Vikings lend themselves to the latter. Let Ragnar be Ragnar. Go raid somebody.
[*]EDIT: Turn off the automation of your Workers. One of them's replacing a cottage with a workshop. That's just an example of the bone-headed things an automated Worker will do.

Remember what Conan said the best things in life are:

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." :D
 
Well, there are many ways to play, but I think your problem here is just that you have too little cities.
You need to expand faster and more aggressively at the start of the game.
Settle near rival cities if you need and pump those cities with culture, settle in places that are far away from you capital but allow you to secure a closer, better block of land from your enemies.

As for happiness, if you don't really have alot of luxury resources, then you'll either need to somehow get your cities infected with as many religions as you can and build a bunch of temples, or research music, build a coliseum and a theater and raise the culture ledger a bit.

Now as for a long term solution, there's a large, untouched block of land to the west, that looks more like America than anything in a fantasy world should, but I suggest that you get there as fast as you can with 3 or 4 settlers, raise the tax ledger for a few dozen turns until you can build a forbidden palace there and start making a few more cities.

Your score should jump a bit, and I'd go for either diplomatic, if you have at least 10 or 11 cities altogether or space race, if you have less.

Also, you're playing on the fastest speed, right?
I'd suggest playing on epic or marathon, if you have the time or patience.
 
Here's a few things off the top of my head, just glancing at your save.

It's an honour to have you respond to my post... all the good/useful/well written guides I've seen around for this game have all been written by you. You're great. And thanks for the suggestions.

[*]You're cottaging. That's good and it plays to Ragnar's Financial trait. Too many newbies don't cottage enough.

I've only played a few times before, but this was my first time playing as Vikings, and Terra. I couldn't really see what was so great about Berserkers - And I'm not really a navy person, either, in any game. The reason I chose Ragnar is because I tried a hybrid economy with Elizabeth before (on recommendation of your trait guide), but that seemed too complicated for me, so I decided to do a more simple cottage spam economy, and Ragnar seemed good for that. Who do you think's best for a CE?

[*]You're not taking advantage of resource trading. You could get wheat from Shaka and gold from Joao, and that would help with your happiness and health problems a bit. Bismarck, Wang Kon, Willem, and Isabella all have some gold per turn to spare for any extra resources you have left over.

When I tried to trade resources with them, Shaka for example would offer Wheat for Sheep (or something, can't remember) and refused anything else. Both gave 1 health, so I thought it was an utterly useless trade... perhaps I just don't understand how it works.

[*]You built the Pyramids and you're running Hereditary Rule. Huh? The main reason to build the big stone tombs is to run Representation early (and maybe a little Police State too, before and during a war). Representation really only benefits you if you're running lots of specialists, which you're not, and that's not a strategy that plays to Ragnar's strengths anyway. Next time, skip the big expensive wonders and invest in Axemen instead. Go take the shiny wonders from your closest neighbour. It's fun and profitable. :goodjob:

Yeah... when I'm researching something, and none of what I can build is really helping me, I tend to make some silly choices and build the Pyramids for example. Also, I didn't really know how I wanted to win.

[*]Switch out of Serfdom, possibly the most useless civic there is. Double up your Workers and you have its effects. Slavery is the way to go for as long as you possibly can. Whip units like there's no tomorrow. Use Police State to help them get built and Vassalage to give them additional XPs. You're only getting 14 commerce from trade routes, so you might want to give Mercantilism a go as well.

Well, I did use Slavery for quite some time. However, when things are costing, say 2-5 population for a whip for just some axemen or something I don't think it's worth it. Growing that population back could take a while.


[*]Speaking of units, I think you've pretty much got all the CR units you need. What you need are Catapults and lots of them.

Well, as I said. My main problem is the gross unhappiness in my main city. If I move my attack force out of it due to having Monarchy, I get a ton of unhappiness. So my only option is to keep a sizeable force in there doing nothing, and create yet another attack force just to attack Bizzy, which seems ridiculous.

[*]EDIT: Turn off the automation of your Workers. One of them's replacing a cottage with a workshop. That's just an example of the bone-headed things an automated Worker will do.

Another big problem I have with civ is that it's one of the most complicated games I've played... and I just jumped straight into Beyond the Sword without playing vanilla/Warlord first. So things like putting workers on automated takes a portion of the attention needed away, reducing the overwhelming-ness a bit.

Thanks again for responding, Sisiutil and Tanktunker.
 
It's an honour to have you respond to my post... all the good/useful/well written guides I've seen around for this game have all been written by you. You're great. And thanks for the suggestions.
:blush: Thanks!
I've only played a few times before, but this was my first time playing as Vikings, and Terra. I couldn't really see what was so great about Berserkers - And I'm not really a navy person, either, in any game. The reason I chose Ragnar is because I tried a hybrid economy with Elizabeth before (on recommendation of your trait guide), but that seemed too complicated for me, so I decided to do a more simple cottage spam economy, and Ragnar seemed good for that. Who do you think's best for a CE?
Anyone with the Financial trait, of course.

I really like playing as Elizabeth, she's probably my favourite leader after Julius Caesar ('cause Praetorians are just so much fun). My main strat with her is to capture a capital with an early Axeman rush, which then becomes my GP farm to leverage her Philosophical trait.

I haven't played any games as Ragnar yet (I make it a rule not to play a leader before I've tried him/her out in an ALC game). He's also Financial so also benefits from a CE. But with the Aggressive trait, he's a warmonger too. So what you want to do with him is conquer good land for cottaging.

I'm not sure about his UU either. Having Amphibious early sounds great, except when you realize you don't have a naval unit that can remove a city's cultural defenses. What I'd be doing with the Berserkers is using them like normal Macemen mostly, and once they're uber-promoted, upgrade them to Amphibious Grenadiers and Rifles to be teamed up with Frigates/Ships of the Line.

The only way I can think of leveraging the Berserkers' Amphibious promotion early is to prowl the coastline and attack the occasional unit that's on a coastal tile outside of a city, or take out a new coastal city that suddenly appears.
When I tried to trade resources with them, Shaka for example would offer Wheat for Sheep (or something, can't remember) and refused anything else. Both gave 1 health, so I thought it was an utterly useless trade... perhaps I just don't understand how it works.
You can always change what they're offering you. Just click on the item they're offering to clear it and click on what you really want. Or, instead of selecting your resource first and asking, "What will you give me for this?", try selecting their resource that you want and asking, "What do you want for this?". This is a good technique for tech trading too, though in that case I usually find it necessary to click "Sorry, we cannot accept such a deal" and then "What would make this deal work?" to see if they're willing to throw in anything else (another tech, gold, world map).

1 health is not useless when your capital, as in your case, is experiencing unhealthiness, and remember that the resources' effects get multiplied by buildings. Wheat, for example, contributes a 2nd :health: in each city that has a Granary.
Yeah... when I'm researching something, and none of what I can build is really helping me, I tend to make some silly choices and build the Pyramids for example. Also, I didn't really know how I wanted to win.
Next time, when there's nothing else to build, just build either a military unit or a Worker instead. Problem solved. Also try to direct your research at those times so that a useful building will be available soon--Currency so you can build Markets, for example.
Well, I did use Slavery for quite some time. However, when things are costing, say 2-5 population for a whip for just some axemen or something I don't think it's worth it. Growing that population back could take a while.
For myself, I boil the effective use of Slavery down to two main techniques. First off, work more food-heavy tiles than food-poor tiles. That means working fewer hammer tiles (though not none). You're converting food to hammers, so you'll make up for it. It also means you'll grow that population back faster. Granaries are very helpful in that regard as well.

Second, put hammers into the build until you can whip 2 pop away to complete the item in the queue--preferably on the turn just before that will go down to 1 pop, which requires a little math. On normal speed and without any hammer multipliers like Organized Religion or a Forge, 1 pop will whip for 30 hammers; on epic speed, for 44 hammers--IIRC. (I'm not the whiz at this that a lot of other people are, I'm trying to simplify it.) So if you're building an Axeman in an normal speed game, for example, wait until the build has about 31 or so hammers left (you can manipulate tile assignments to make this happen), then whip. There will be hammer overflow from the 2 pop whipped away that will go directly into the next build. You can often get 2 Axemen from one use of the whip this way. Or a faster Settler, Worker, Granary, Library, or Barracks or whatever else you need.

That's the idea: you're working fewer hammer tiles so the first build takes a little longer, but the whip overflow means the 2nd build happens much faster. Yes, you sacrifice population, but you're building an army and infrastructure faster than you normally would. This gives you a big early-game advantage. If you can then seize an even bigger early advantage as a result, such as capturing a neighbour's capital, you'll be well-positioned for the rest of the game.
Well, as I said. My main problem is the gross unhappiness in my main city. If I move my attack force out of it due to having Monarchy, I get a ton of unhappiness. So my only option is to keep a sizeable force in there doing nothing, and create yet another attack force just to attack Bizzy, which seems ridiculous.
Yeah, I call this the HR trap. Frankly, in your case, I think your capital is too big. Rather than building up, you needed to build out--more cities under 10 pop rather than a big capital that's over it. A city doesn't always have to grow--I frequently stagnate growth or, of course, whip unhappy citizens away.

As I said in my previous post, I'd be tempted to switch from HR to Police State and then whip away the resulting unhappy citizens in the capital to build a force of Catapults. With the crabs and the sheep you'd be able to build the capital back up in due course.
Another big problem I have with civ is that it's one of the most complicated games I've played... and I just jumped straight into Beyond the Sword without playing vanilla/Warlord first. So things like putting workers on automated takes a portion of the attention needed away, reducing the overwhelming-ness a bit.
I hear ya, and I wish Firaxis had made the AI a little better in that regard. There is a setting in the game options, IIRC, that keeps the Workers from changing existing improvements, and I highly recommend turning it on if you want to use automation. That way you can direct the first and most essential improvements yourself and then let the Workers do their thing if you're so inclined. (Though it does mean that if you, say, farm a banana tile, you have to remember to go back and put a plantation there once you have Calendar.) I myself prefer to direct their actions, I kind of enjoy doing that as part of each turn.

It is a complicated game, but that's why so many of us love it. Sid nailed it years ago when he said the game was "a series of interesting decisions". In the ALC threads you can see the agonizing that goes on over the simplest of those decisions (such as where to place the capital, something that usually leads to 6+ pages of thread discussion!). We love the game because of that series of complex decisions. What should I do next? How will it help me achieve my short term goals, and my long term goals? And then there's the payoff when a set of your decisions leads to you accomplishing those goals--such as winning a war, completing a wonder, or winning the game.

First and foremost, though, have fun, and keep on Civving! :D
 
Anyone with the Financial trait, of course.

Aye, but taking more things into account for me. I'm definitely a warmonger, and for now I'd like to simplify the game as much as possible to get started, so I'll be cottage spamming. I thought Ragnar, but... I don't think is UU/UB are for me. Hannibal perhaps?

You can always change what they're offering you. Just click on the item they're offering to clear it and click on what you really want. Or, instead of selecting your resource first and asking, "What will you give me for this?", try selecting their resource that you want and asking, "What do you want for this?". This is a good technique for tech trading too, though in that case I usually find it necessary to click "Sorry, we cannot accept such a deal" and then "What would make this deal work?" to see if they're willing to throw in anything else (another tech, gold, world map).

If I remember correctly (which I probably don't....) Shaka was all "lol you're joking right?" when I hovered my mouse over the resource I really wanted that would increase my happiness ... everyone was like that, in fact. What I mean by useless is that he offered me some Wheat for Sheep... I don't see the point in this, to me it seems like someone saying "Hey I'll give you $5 in exchange for your $5," because they both were the same item in effect (+1 Happiness) but again, maybe I don't know how it works.

It is a complicated game, but that's why so many of us love it. Sid nailed it years ago when he said the game was "a series of interesting decisions". In the ALC threads you can see the agonizing that goes on over the simplest of those decisions (such as where to place the capital, something that usually leads to 6+ pages of thread discussion!). We love the game because of that series of complex decisions. What should I do next? How will it help me achieve my short term goals, and my long term goals? And then there's the payoff when a set of your decisions leads to you accomplishing those goals--such as winning a war, completing a wonder, or winning the game.

First and foremost, though, have fun, and keep on Civving! :D

Indeed I shall, in no small part due to how there are fantastic people like you in the Civ4 community. Would it be alright to private message you a replay from time to time for tips, if I'm confused as to why I'm doing badly?

Oh, and good luck with winning with Russia in ALC this time, I'll be sure to continue reading the ALC project - even though I won't be able to have any input due to being a complete noob :p
 
Aye, but taking more things into account for me. I'm definitely a warmonger, and for now I'd like to simplify the game as much as possible to get started, so I'll be cottage spamming. I thought Ragnar, but... I don't think is UU/UB are for me. Hannibal perhaps?

Hannibal is in my opinion one of the very best leaders. Not only because of the strong financial and charismatic traits (charismatic is mainly strong on high difficulty levels), but also because of his unique building which will dramatically increase trade income in coastal cities. Its unique unit however isn't that special.

The Romans have the strongest unique unit in my opinion and I'm not alone in that regard. Julius Ceasar is organized and that trait also helps with commerce generation because it lowers the upkeep cost. You can expand fast without getting a huge upkeep cost when you are organized.

If I remember correctly (which I probably don't....) Shaka was all "lol you're joking right?" when I hovered my mouse over the resource I really wanted that would increase my happiness ... everyone was like that, in fact. What I mean by useless is that he offered me some Wheat for Sheep... I don't see the point in this, to me it seems like someone saying "Hey I'll give you $5 in exchange for your $5," because they both were the same item in effect (+1 Happiness) but again, maybe I don't know how it works.

I just downloaded your savegame to check this. Just do the following to complete the trade in that savegame:

Contact Shaka, click his gold resource, click your crab and then click 'what would make this deal work'. Shaka will add 1 gold per turn to your side of the trade table. Since the happiness bonus from gold is doubled by the presence of a forge in a city, gold is a very nice happiness resource. A source of gold provides 2 happiness in cities with a forge. The silver source in your capital will also increase its happiness bonus from 1 to 2 with the presence of a forge.

2 different sources of health both add 1 health to your cities, 2 identical sources won't. So it is interesting to trade.

Indeed I shall, in no small part due to how there are fantastic people like you in the Civ4 community. Would it be alright to private message you a replay from time to time for tips, if I'm confused as to why I'm doing badly?

Oh, and good luck with winning with Russia in ALC this time, I'll be sure to continue reading the ALC project - even though I won't be able to have any input due to being a complete noob :p

Although, I'm not Sisiutil, I wouldn't mind seeing some savegames from you here or in another thread of this forum. There are many people who can help you and many people will give different advice. No advice is perfect and so anyone can add his or her ideas to improve your game and you can pick the advice that fits your playing style. If you're not afraid of some criticism, then I would advice you to just post your savegame on this forum. Most posters are nice here, no bashing the newbie on this forum. :)

I agree with Sisiutil about whipping some units in your capital and starting a war of conquest, but it would have been even better to not get in this position and that's why I would want to see an earlier savegame. A good moment for a savegame would be when you have just finished your first settler in your capital and when you're building your third or fourth city. The opening strategy is pretty important and seeing that you only have 3 cities, my guess is that it can be improved.

Try the following opening strategy which is often fairly decent: worker first while researching a suitable worker technology (dependent on terrain) and explore with the first warrior/scout. Then another warrior for capitol defense while researching additional worker technologies. Try to grow the capital a bit so that it can use the strong tiles around it (worker improved resources and such) and then build the first settler. You can start building a barracks while growing and pause it to build the settler when the city has grown enough or you can build additional units for exploring or defending future cities.

Note that this is not a recipe for a good game, just something to try. If you only have water food resources, a workboat is often better than a worker. There are no fixed opening strategies that are always best.

Also, don't play on a terra map next time. It's a bit of a special map that is designed so that your starting position is a bit cramped but a totally empty continent is present after astronomy and ocean going vessels have been invented. Play a more normal map, like a continents map on say normal size to see how you can improve your opening strategies and try to claim a bit more land.

You could improve your city placement. Try to pay more attention on the food resources next time. It is not good to place a city in a spot where it cannot grow or only grows slowly. So claim the positions with food resources (and other resources) first and only then go for the lesser positions.
For instance, the position 4 steps north of your capital, directly north of the iron is a better city position than the 2 other cities that you have settled. Granted, it has some overlap with the capital but that isn't too bad. There are more than enough food resources and other good tiles for both of your cities in the area. (I would have gone for Upsala first to stop German expansion in that direction, but I just wanted to point you to a good settling position that you might have overlooked.)

By the way, you have a relatively bad starting position. There are many on this forum who wouldn't play such a starting position because they consider it too bad (weakling that they are ;) ). With a more average starting position, you would probably have performed better. So I must compliment you on your attitude to play the map that the map generator gave you and make the best out of it. Still, it's not a very bad idea to restart a few times to get a good starting position with less tundra while you're learning the game. Getting the most out of a bad starting position is not something that you have to learn during your very first game(s). You can become a die hard player who plays the (bad) starting position that he gets later. ;)

Edit: What's up with the super worker north east of Haithabu? :confused:
 
Also, don't play on a terra map next time. It's a bit of a special map that is designed so that your starting position is a bit cramped but a totally empty continent is present after astronomy and ocean going vessels have been invented. Play a more normal map, like a continents map on say normal size to see how you can improve your opening strategies and try to claim a bit more land.

Ah, okay. Is pangea okay to play on, though? All my other games have been on that.


I agree with Sisiutil about whipping some units in your capital and starting a war of conquest, but it would have been even better to not get in this position and that's why I would want to see an earlier savegame. A good moment for a savegame would be when you have just finished your first settler in your capital and when you're building your third or fourth city. The opening strategy is pretty important and seeing that you only have 3 cities, my guess is that it can be improved.

So in short; Quantity over er.. 'quality'. Build more cities instead of making your main city a population powerhouse.

I save the game tons, so I actually have a save from that point, which I've uploaded.


Edit: What's up with the super worker north east of Haithabu? :confused:

Haha. I had heard things about worldbuilder before but never knew how to access it, when I presed esc to save I saw it and clicked it to see what it was/how it worked. I did that to the worker for the hell of it.. didn't change anything else or look at the other civs though.


On an entirely different note to this game. The second file I've uploaded is an earlier game I tried, with an attempted hybrid economy as Elizabeth. I sort of ran out of patience and stopped playing it. Any comments?
 

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So in short; Quantity over er.. 'quality'. Build more cities instead of making your main city a population powerhouse.
Er, not really. Balance it, but "City specializiation is more important than city sprawl."
 
I don't know if this question is here or in technical support, if I am in the wrong thread please excuse me, my question is:
how can I make the Warlords Games have music (any kind of music) right in the beguinning of the game? in my pc, there is only birds, etc, no music, only after the modern age I have music on.
I do thank you in advance for your help.

PS: it doesn't matter, I found out the problem by myself, thanks.
 
Ah, okay. Is pangea okay to play on, though? All my other games have been on that.

Every map type is ok to play on. I just wanted to point out that the terra map type results in cramped starting positions and that is not the usual experience.

Pangea is ok. I find it a bit boring with one large continent and no new continents to discover after astronomy has been discovered, but it doesn't have the cramped starting positions of a terra map.


So in short; Quantity over er.. 'quality'. Build more cities instead of making your main city a population powerhouse.

Preferably both quality and quantity. ;)

When your civilization grows in number of cities, you will usually also control more happiness and health resources which will help you to grow bigger healthy and happy cities.


I save the game tons, so I actually have a save from that point, which I've uploaded.

The starting moves of the game are about grabbing you a piece of land that you will control. If you wait too long, then the AI will grab it. You should have more than 2 cities in 850BC.

Your savegame is from 850BC while the second city is from 1920BC, but that doesn't matter. The savegame is interesting and shows some of your gameplay.

Your capital has build a library. This building is useful as it increases your science output with 3.82 science. However, I would surely have preferred another settler to expand your empire. The new city would add production and science to your growing empire and it would allow you to control more resources.

Your capital still has massive untouched forests around it. Each of those forest are bags of 20 hammers (30 after mathematics) that are just there to be picked up. It's like a goody hut that needs to be worked by a worker for 4 turns (chopping it) and then you get your price of hammers. Those forests can really help early game expansion. Instead of building roads on those forest squares, you could have chopped those forests for more workers, settlers, units and buildings. Often players 'chop' their second worker with their first one.

You have build Stonehenge in your second city, which probably has slowed your expansion. Always realize that building a wonder in the early game has serious disadvantages. The hammers could also have been invested in other things like settlers, workers and units that could have enlarged your empire. In this case, I can't see the great value that Stonehenge adds to your empire.

My guess is that Uppsala was accidentally build on the iron resource before you could see iron. Otherwise that would have been a bad move. The value that the tile can add with a mine is a lot bigger. Even if I hadn't known about the iron, I would still have build the city on the desert tile directly adjacent to its present location. The desert tile would have instantly changed into a useful tile as the center city tile always has a minimum output of 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 commerce. Additionally, you could then use the two coastal grassland tiles adjacent to the sheep tile. The tundra tiles are not that interesting. Of course, you would have gotten into a cultural war with Berlin, but you would only need enough culture to control the tiles close to your city and with some focus on culture, that should be possible. Sometime later you would conquer Berlin and that would end any culture war problems.

I don't see why Uppsale is so small. Have you recently poprushed it or did you just improve the sheep tile relatively late?

You have explored a lot, but since I would want to make war with Bismarck, I would have preferred to scout the area around his cities more.

The sailing technology would be useful for you. It would allow you to build the trading post (unique building version of the lighthouse) which gives +1 food to water tiles which is useful in your capital as it is using coastal tiles and more of your cities will use water tiles. It also allows trading over coastal tiles which would allow you to get foreign trade routes with other civilizations. Foreign trade routes are a lot more profitable than domestic ones.
There are also some civilizations left with which you can sign an open borders treaty which will improve relations and allow foreign trade routes between their cities and yours if you can see a trade route to their cities using roads, rivers and coastal tiles (after sailing).

I've signed open borders treaties with everyone and traded polytheism for sailing with Willem and now you'll see trade routes that give 2 commerce in your cities. You can trade with Germany because Berlin is connected to the ocean with that river and the ocean is connected to you.
I've also placed some new city signs on the map and drawn their borders with the strategic overlay. In your situation, I would found the 2 cities marked city and then go for war with Bismarck. After the war, I would found the 2 cities marked minor city. The minor cities will never be great cities, but they will make more money than they cost. They will mostly use coastal tiles which are actually quite decent when you have a lighthouse (trading post for the vikings).
To wage an effective war, you'd want catapults so I would beeline for those. You need catapults to reduce the defensive bonuses of cities and to weaken the defenders with direct collateral damage attacks.

Haha. I had heard things about worldbuilder before but never knew how to access it, when I presed esc to save I saw it and clicked it to see what it was/how it worked. I did that to the worker for the hell of it.. didn't change anything else or look at the other civs though.

Evil cheater! :nono:

;)

On an entirely different note to this game. The second file I've uploaded is an earlier game I tried, with an attempted hybrid economy as Elizabeth. I sort of ran out of patience and stopped playing it. Any comments?

Hmm, I guess you have improved since that game. ;) ;) ;)

You haven't taken a lot of land and my guess is that it has to do with the wonders that you have build in your capital. I would advice you to play a game where you are forbidden to build a single wonder. Just so that you can see what you could have done with those resources. There are many players who have so called 'wonder-addiction' and feel compelled to get every wonder that they can get their hands on.

You could trade for some health resources, especially if you cancel the resources that you have supplied to Ceasar for free. (I guess he demanded them.) You can end these one-sided trade deals after 10 turns without repercussions. Of course, you would be improving your relations with him if you keep providing those resources for free, but you can use them to improve your own empire.

Your cities should grow some, especially after you have gotten some health resources.

You can claim the whale resource in the north if you build a city there. It would give +1 happiness in all of your cities (with compass to build whaling boats) and another +1 happiness if you have a market. It would be a fishing city of course and not a strong city, but still useful enough. The same is true for the fish resource in the north which would provide some health to your cities.

There is a fairly large area (11 tiles) between York, Arretium and London that is unclaimed by any city. You can clearly see the area if you use the strategic overlay to draw borders around the areas that are used by your and your enemies cities. I would put a city somewhere in that area. It's not the perfect location for a city, but there are no perfect locations left.

Your border cities are virtually undefended while your capital in the center of your empire is filled with units.

Also in this game, I would prepare for war as soon as possible. It's the only way to get a better position in this game. It will take quite some unit building, but it is the only way to get more land and more power.

In civ, you can in general say that the number of tiles that are being used by your cities roughly translates into the power of your civilization. Every tile that is being used by your empire adds commerce and production to your empire. And if you control a large area, then you have a lot of resources to make your people happy and healthy and to trade to other civilizations for even more resources and gold.

ChocolateSnake BC-0850, version 2.CivBeyondSwordSave
 

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So I tried some suggestions. Whipped my main cities' population to hell and back. I got loads of temporary unhappiness from this, and finally when it went down I had a city with equal happiness (8:8 or so) and with little population, making it quite unproductive. With all my new catapults and Berserkers, I declared war on Bismarck. The battles were a lot more tedious than I thought they'd be, I had some bad luck, and made a few silly mistakes so I had to re-capture a city a few times when I shouldn't have.

Anyway, I finally captured 3/5 of his cities (which took longer than you'd expect,) and I saw Shaka with a huge amount of units on my border. I guess he got pretty angry that I refused to give into his ridiculous demands earlier. The rest of my army was further to the North attempting to capture the German's fourth city... and even if they were back there to help the poor 2 Berserkers left to defend, I doubt I would've won. So at this point I know it's over. In any case, I continue. Shaka declares war, and immediately so do Suryavarman and someone else... I guess they became his vassals and I didn't notice. At this point it was about time to click 'Exit to desktop'

Better luck next time I suppose, and I'll make sure I pick a better starting location, map, and civilization, too.
 

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I'm know this is a stupid question, but I can't find the answer anywhere. Do you have to have Warlords to run Beyond the Sword? I don't have either at the moment and would like to avoid buying something I can't use.

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm know this is a stupid question, but I can't find the answer anywhere. Do you have to have Warlords to run Beyond the Sword? I don't have either at the moment and would like to avoid buying something I can't use.

Thanks in advance.
No
Spoiler longer version :

when you install BtS without having Warlords it installs all the necessary stuff from Warlords you need to run BtS as a tuned down version of Warlords anyway. So all you miss out is the Scenarios that ship with Warlords
 
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