Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[gfmech]

Thanks a lot Parkin, I suspected that was it, but I couldn't find a confirmation in any instruction booklets. Thanks again for the quick reply.

 

[Jerrymander]

Parkin did it already. Curse you page 486.

 

[Inconceivable]

Thanks to all who helped me with my questions on the previous page. I started a new game as Ragnar (Agg/Fin) and turned on Raging Barbarians so I had an excuse to build up my army very early. Even though I only had Warriors/Longbowmen/Catapaults (barbs took all my resource cities) I won my first war against Montezuma, who according to the F9 chart had a stronger military than me. Suicide cats worked very well! I am working on settling the land (I razed all of Monte's cities because they weren't located in very good spots) and pumping my economy back up. I also eradicated all the local barbs, though more come in on ships. My next war will probably involve a substantial Navy, so I have to work on those techs too (I haven't been off my continent yet).

Thanks especially for the help with the food. It makes much more sense now.

 

[6K Man]

Thanks to all who helped me with my questions on the previous page. I started a new game as Ragnar (Agg/Fin) and turned on Raging Barbarians so I had an excuse to build up my army very early. Even though I only had Warriors/Longbowmen/Catapaults (barbs took all my resource cities) I won my first war against Montezuma, who according to the F9 chart had a stronger military than me. Suicide cats worked very well! I am working on settling the land (I razed all of Monte's cities because they weren't located in very good spots) and pumping my economy back up. I also eradicated all the local barbs, though more come in on ships. My next war will probably involve a substantial Navy, so I have to work on those techs too (I haven't been off my continent yet).

Thanks especially for the help with the food. It makes much more sense now.

Well done on the early war vs Monty. One tip - it's very rare that an AI capital is so badly placed that razing is better than keeping it. The game ensures that virtually all nations start with a good location for their first city, for some reason. Consequently, one of the big benefits of an early war is snagging a resource-laden capital.

 

[Al-Iskander]

Here's an example of what the shortcut's "target" should look like to load up the "40Civs" mod straight away.

"C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" -mod="mods/40Civs"

Include all spaces and quotation marks. Just change "40Civs" to the relevant mod name, and you'll be sorted.

Worked great! Thanks so much!

 

[Lord Parkin]

Thanks to all who helped me with my questions on the previous page. I started a new game as Ragnar (Agg/Fin) and turned on Raging Barbarians so I had an excuse to build up my army very early. Even though I only had Warriors/Longbowmen/Catapaults (barbs took all my resource cities) I won my first war against Montezuma, who according to the F9 chart had a stronger military than me. Suicide cats worked very well! I am working on settling the land (I razed all of Monte's cities because they weren't located in very good spots) and pumping my economy back up. I also eradicated all the local barbs, though more come in on ships. My next war will probably involve a substantial Navy, so I have to work on those techs too (I haven't been off my continent yet).

Thanks especially for the help with the food. It makes much more sense now.

Well done. Although along with 6K Man, I'd question whether it was sensible to raze all of Monty's cities. The capital especially should not be a city worth razing. It's also often worth considering keeping other cities that you capture, even if they're not placed how you'd like. Having an extra decent-sized city in the early game, even if it's suboptimally placed, often outweighs razing, rebuilding and then growing a new city. That Settler could have been used somewhere else to expand your empire even further, rather than rebuilding near a city that you razed.

It's especially questionable to be razing cities on raging barbarians... cities are great fogbusters.

Worked great! Thanks so much!

No worries.

 

[r_rolo1]

In Civ4, whenever you are producing a Worker or a Settler, all of your excess food goes into producing the Worker or Settler. This has an upside and a downside - it means that you get extra production towards your Worker or Settler, but it also means that you cannot grow while producing a Worker/Settler. Thus, you need to think carefully about whether your city is large enough to afford not growing before building a Worker/Settler. It adds an interesting tactical element to the game, particularly in the ancient times.

The underlined part is not exactly true. If you had the avoid grow button ticked and filled the food bar and you start a worker/settler, if you untick the button during the build the city will grow next turn if there is not a food deficit at that moment.

Of course this is a completely useless info

 

[a4phantom]

The underlined part is not exactly true. If you had the avoid grow button ticked and filled the food bar and you start a worker/settler, if you untick the button during the build the city will grow next turn if there is not a food deficit at that moment.

Of course this is a completely useless info

Somebody hang this man!

 

[Inconceivable]

Well done. Although along with 6K Man, I'd question whether it was sensible to raze all of Monty's cities. The capital especially should not be a city worth razing. It's also often worth considering keeping other cities that you capture, even if they're not placed how you'd like. Having an extra decent-sized city in the early game, even if it's suboptimally placed, often outweighs razing, rebuilding and then growing a new city. That Settler could have been used somewhere else to expand your empire even further, rather than rebuilding near a city that you razed.

It's especially questionable to be razing cities on raging barbarians... cities are great fogbusters.

Oh, I suppose I should have kept the capital...though I don't think I knew which one it was. Would it just be the city with the lowest # for that civ or.. ?

I was a little more willing to raze/resettle the cities I guess because I had cities on all sides, and it was fairly easy for me to do so. My next war was against the Persian empire and I kept most of those cities. And my latest war was on Elizabeth and I kept 3/4 of her cities (yeah, tiny civ)-- one of them was automatically razed.

At the moment I'm attempting to exterminate all the barbs, though they keep coming back from somewhere. I have to finish exploring the map. After that, it's on to Suryavarman II's cities. This run seems pretty easy so far, so I'll probably move up the difficulty level next time.

 

[a4phantom]

Oh, I suppose I should have kept the capital...though I don't think I knew which one it was. Would it just be the city with the lowest # for that civ or.. ?

The capital will have a star around the population number instead of a circle, just like yours. Capitals are always placed on good real estate. The capital will probably have one of the highest numbers, because that number indicates the size/population of the city.

At the moment I'm attempting to exterminate all the barbs, though they keep coming back from somewhere. I have to finish exploring the map.

Barbarians can pop up anywhere in the "fog", that is, areas that are not directly visible at the moment by any civilized cities or units. This includes unexplored areas (black) and explored by not currently surveyed areas (darkened terrain). The "fog-busting" that LP mentioned means stationing units slightly beyond your borders to keep as much of the map visible at all times as you can, so that barbarians don't pop up near your cities. Barbarian cities can also appear within the fog.

 

[hellfire140279]

civ 4 is a great game used to play one my old computer with windows xp, now have upgraded to new computer with windows vista sp1 and cant load civ4, dowloaded the latest patch and even dx9. now it starts to laod and it gets to init engine and just stops? please help

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Try the tech support section, there are many threads about Vista issues

 

[r_rolo1]

First of all, vista does not use directx 9 , but 10......

 

[ori]

First of all, vista does not use directx 9 , but 10......

true but wrong
Microsoft in its wisdom removed some of the code that programs coded for directx9c use from its dx10 release. Meaning that some programs programmed for Dx9c have a hard time running on Vista unless the user manually installs Dx9c to recover the code that was left out...

@hellfire: post in the tech support subforum as already mentioned - this thread is no good for problems like this since any posts get buried too quickly...

 

[r_rolo1]

Well, Civ IV AFAIK has no problems with directx 10... at least I don't have

 

[LateGameWarMong]

Ok, so I can win games on noble now....

Healing questions:
A unit normally does not heal when it moved during the turn, right?
What about when it still has movement points left? will it heal proportional to how much movement it has left?

Units with march heal every turn the same aount regardless of how much they move, right?

What about medics? does the medic have to be stationary to heal units in the stack? If I have an infantry with 2 medic promotions following my infantry with other promotions, can I move them all and expect the medic promotion to take effect, or do they all have to sit still one turn with the medic?
If they don't heal if they/the medic moved, will the "march" promotion change this? if Instead I use Mech infantry (have march by default) as the medic, and modern armor (no march), will the modern armor get healed when moving 2 spaces with the mech infantry?
What if its an infantry medic (no march) following Seals/Marines (march promotion), do the march units get the medic heal bonus?

When is the healing bonus applied. If I have combat 4 (or is it 5) that gives +10% healing in enemy lands, grouped with a warlord medic (10+10+25 %healing), my units should heal over +50% per turn. So assume my combat units are at 50% when I click to end the turn.
While in the "waiting for other civilizations" phase, say my combat units get attacked. Will they be at 50% like at the end of the turn, or will the healing bonus be applied at the end of the turn, and the combat units are at 100% when the enemy attacks?

or

Suppose my units are at 100%, I click end turn, they get attacked and strength would have gone down to 50%, will the healing be applied only after the other civs make their moves, such that I start the next turn with my units at 100%?

(Warlords only, not Beyond the Sword), if a SAM infantry shoots down an airplane, does it get experience? what about intercepts that don't destroy the plane?

So I'm thinking of getting BtS.
Do stealth destroyers still see subs, or is this role now only for subs- making a sub fleet more needed?

Or do stealth destroyers basically largely replace the role of subs as invisible naval combat units detectable only by (now stealth) destroyers.

Personally, I'd like to get rid of the invisible stuff, and give subs and SDs a 50% withdraw chance similar to the stealth bomber's 50% evasion chance.

Do aircraft now get combat promotions?

Isn't the new mobile infantry sort of redundant? right now with warlords, I use modern armor with barrage and CR, seems way more effective and versatile than suicide artillery.

City defenses are obsolete for post-gunpowder units anyway, right?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Ok, so I can win games on noble now....

Healing questions:
A unit normally does not heal when it moved during the turn, right?
What about when it still has movement points left? will it heal proportional to how much movement it has left?

No, there's no healing for units that have moved unless they have the march promotion.

Units with march heal every turn the same aount regardless of how much they move, right?

Right.

What about medics? does the medic have to be stationary to heal units in the stack? If I have an infantry with 2 medic promotions following my infantry with other promotions, can I move them all and expect the medic promotion to take effect, or do they all have to sit still one turn with the medic?
If they don't heal if they/the medic moved, will the "march" promotion change this? if Instead I use Mech infantry (have march by default) as the medic, and modern armor (no march), will the modern armor get healed when moving 2 spaces with the mech infantry?
What if its an infantry medic (no march) following Seals/Marines (march promotion), do the march units get the medic heal bonus?

Units are only elligible for healing if they haven't used any movement point or they have the march promotion. Medics just increase the healing amount per turn for units that are elligible for healing.

When is the healing bonus applied. If I have combat 4 (or is it 5) that gives +10% healing in enemy lands, grouped with a warlord medic (10+10+25 %healing), my units should heal over +50% per turn. So assume my combat units are at 50% when I click to end the turn.
While in the "waiting for other civilizations" phase, say my combat units get attacked. Will they be at 50% like at the end of the turn, or will the healing bonus be applied at the end of the turn, and the combat units are at 100% when the enemy attacks?

50%

or

Suppose my units are at 100%, I click end turn, they get attacked and strength would have gone down to 50%, will the healing be applied only after the other civs make their moves, such that I start the next turn with my units at 100%?

100%. The healing bonus to your units is applied after the AI's and barbarians turn.

Read the article about unit healing for more information: Unit Healing.

(Warlords only, not Beyond the Sword), if a SAM infantry shoots down an airplane, does it get experience? what about intercepts that don't destroy the plane?

I'm not sure. I think the interception needs to be lethal in order for the SAM unit to get experience.

This article on air combat in BTS might be interesting: Air Combat in BTS explained.

So I'm thinking of getting BtS.
Do stealth destroyers still see subs, or is this role now only for subs- making a sub fleet more needed?

No they can't see subs.

Or do stealth destroyers basically largely replace the role of subs as invisible naval combat units detectable only by (now stealth) destroyers.

They're a different class of invisible, the stealth class. They can only be detected by stealth destroyer and are thus almost immune unless they meet stealth destroyers.

Personally, I'd like to get rid of the invisible stuff, and give subs and SDs a 50% withdraw chance similar to the stealth bomber's 50% evasion chance.

You could mod that. Only withdrawal on defence doesn't work.

Do aircraft now get combat promotions?

Yes. Some promotions to become better at aerial combat (combat promotions), some against certain units (gunpowder, armoured), some to avoid interception and some to increase range. You'll get some experience (4) with an airport and some more when you survive interception (or is it win an aerial battle, I don't remember).

Isn't the new mobile infantry sort of redundant? right now with warlords, I use modern armor with barrage and CR, seems way more effective and versatile than suicide artillery.

With the latest patch, barrage promotions have been removed for armour (to be more precise, they don't work with the official patch and have been removed with the unofficial patch).

City defenses are obsolete for post-gunpowder units anyway, right?

The cultural defences are still active. Just the wall and castle defences are gone for gunpowder units.

 

[LateGameWarMong]

Just realized... I can't get BtS without a lot of hassle, as I'm using a Mac and its not out yet.

Getting to SDs and attack subs seems like it creates 2 classes of units with overlapping roles... invisible units with 30 strength that can only be countered by the same unit type.

Earlier subs had destroyers and other subs to worry about, now it seems subs only worry about other subs, and SDs about other SDs...
Does the SD still intercept aircraft? can you build the old destroyer after teching to the new? does this leave the carrier with fighters as the only source of naval air defense?

I could swear my Barrage promotions for modern armor were working and it was saying I caused collateral damage. I'll load a save and test when I get home.

I love my CR3+barrage modern armors (and a combat I, or ambush or pinch,or another barrage or two thrown in on those that have the experience - the first promotions taken care of by great generals+barracks+westpoint)
Low mortality rate, and soften the defenses up for my mech infantry and non-westpoint-derived modern armors.
A 2 movement artillery would be nice, so it wouldn't slow down the stack to bring along, but I wouldn't go out of my way to tech to them

 

[a4phantom]

Getting to SDs and attack subs seems like it creates 2 classes of units with overlapping roles... invisible units with 30 strength that can only be countered by the same unit type.

Destroyers and I think airships can detect subs, along with other subs. Only SD's can detect SD's.

Earlier subs had destroyers and other subs to worry about, now it seems subs only worry about other subs, and SDs about other SDs...

Subs will always have to worry about standard Destroyers. As of 3.17 they are now a dead end unit that never upgrades or goes obsolete.

Does the SD still intercept aircraft? can you build the old destroyer after teching to the new? does this leave the carrier with fighters as the only source of naval air defense?

In 3.17 I believe SD's were stripped of their ability to shootdown planes and Destroyers were therefore allowed to be built until the end of the game, they no longer upgrade to SD's. SD's are a weird unit, but great for scouting or (I imagine) blockading. They don't seem to really have much to do with Destroyers anymore actually.

A 2 movement artillery would be nice, so it wouldn't slow down the stack to bring along, but I wouldn't go out of my way to tech to them

Mobile artillery are pretty sweet. Once the enemy develops AA defenses, you want to use your precious air force more carefully and having arty around to bombard defenses to 0% without any risk of retaliation is very useful again. Obviously, as you indicated, there's a trade off in that you're delaying other techs.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I could swear my Barrage promotions for modern armor were working and it was saying I caused collateral damage. I'll load a save and test when I get home.

I was of course talking about BTS with the latest patch (and unofficial patch). Since you're not using BTS with the latest patch, you still have modern armor with barrage promotions. This promotion was considered a bit too much for the already powerful modern armor unit as it forced the artillery and the mobile artillery into a niche role. Now you need artillery or planes for collateral damage instead of tanks. I see that a4phantom already dealt with the other questions.