Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[jollycynic]

got another random thought/question for yas; do the AIs take into account your military conquest history versus other civs when deciding how to act towards you? ie, will they perhaps spot a pattern of picking on/conquering nations one at a time and eventually decide to not wait till you come for them, or will they sit dumbly whilst the world falls to you a piece at a time?

 

[LordValuna]

I've been trying to build religions cathederal to improve culture in best 3 cities but have run in to a timing snag

it seems you need 3 temples to build a cathederal
and you need 6 temples (of correct religion) to build second cathederal
and then 9 temples to build 3rd cathederal

but it also seems that to build a 4th temple of the same religion you need build a cathederal in place

am I correct or am i missing something?

 

[PieceOfMind]

I've been trying to build religions cathederal to improve culture in best 3 cities but have run in to a timing snag

it seems you need 3 temples to build a cathederal
and you need 6 temples (of correct religion) to build second cathederal
and then 9 temples to build 3rd cathederal

but it also seems that to build a 4th temple of the same religion you need build a cathederal in place

am I correct or am i missing something?

You don't need any cathedrals (or equivalent) to be able to build temples. As you noted, for every cathedral you want to build, you need 3 temples already built. This means for a given religion no more than one third of your cities can get cathedrals.

If you are finding anything different it may be a bug. Could you elaborate?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Is there a Civ IV-Equivalant to "Double Your Pleasure?"

There are several, some adding more stuff than others. Check the Project & Mod Development thread. The mods each have their own thread there and most if not all have a post that describes the mod. The Modpacks forum is less well organised and contains other smaller projects which haven't gotten their own thread in teh Project & Mod Development thread yet.

got another random thought/question for yas; do the AIs take into account your military conquest history versus other civs when deciding how to act towards you? ie, will they perhaps spot a pattern of picking on/conquering nations one at a time and eventually decide to not wait till you come for them, or will they sit dumbly whilst the world falls to you a piece at a time?

The AI doesn't have a memory which is one of its main shortcomings. You do get a diplomatic penalty with the civilisations who like the civilisation that you declared war against and those penalties add up. So once relations deteriorate, the AI's might take action against you. But the diplomatic penalty generally is too small to have that effect.

You could follow the BetterAI project which has improved the AI.

 

[CivIVMonger]

Whenever I plan an early war, (1 AD ish.) And I send in my invasion force. I cannot declare war them!?! For some wierd reason, it says we have the "Peace Treaty 10 Turns" agreement signed!?! Please help as 10 turns on normal is alot of time!

Edit. Can the AI detect your increase in military thus making thiers larger?

 

[Racsoviale]

you have probably given in to a demand, or demanded something from them, both scenarios comes with a 10 turn peace treaty. You can see how long you have left in the foreign advisor screen under current deals I believe. It is frustrating, but I believe it is implemented in order for the player not to extort everything from the AI and then declare war right after the trade has concluded.

EDIT: yes they use the power rating to estimate whether it is worth/time to declare. you can see theirs in if you press f8 and choose power in the sidebar

 

[CivIVMonger]

you have probably given in to a demand, or demanded something from them, both scenarios comes with a 10 turn peace treaty. You can see how long you have left in the foreign advisor screen under current deals I believe. It is frustrating, but I believe it is implemented in order for the player not to extort everything from the AI and then declare war right after the trade has concluded.

Yup, that would be it! thanks!

Also, how do you win w/ the AP?

 

[Racsoviale]

All civs must have the AP religion present in one of their cities, the diplo victory should be available then. Ofcoarse like the UN victory you also need them to be pleased/friendly so they don't vote for your opponent. A nasty (exploit) trick if you have problems gaining acces to one civ(no open borders) is to found a city close to them, spread religion and then give the city to them....BANG!!! they have a city with the AP religion present....One of the reasons an AP diplo-victory it feels a little weak imho.

 

[CivIVMonger]

All civs must have the AP religion present in one of their cities, the diplo victory should be available then. Ofcoarse like the UN victory you also need them to be pleased/friendly so they don't vote for your opponent. A nasty (exploit) trick if you have problems gaining acces to one civ(no open borders) is to found a city close to them, spread religion and then give the city to them....BANG!!! they have a city with the AP religion present....One of the reasons an AP diplo-victory it feels a little weak imho.

Is that why they call it ap cheese I wonder?

 

[Racsoviale]

I believe so yes, I did it once in a LAN-game with a friend inorder to end the game, he was financially screwed throughout the entire game(too much REXing, economy never normalized) I then spread my religion to one of his cities and the last civ, and we voted me leader.
Its quite handy when you want to end a game early but still want to end it in a "proper" way

 

[Ghpstage]

Is that why they call it ap cheese I wonder?

Its worse than just city gifting, thats the 'fair' end of the AP cheese wins
The real cheese is that you can manipulate the vote system to make you the only candidate, and make sure that only leaders that will vote for you have a meaningful number of votes

 

[Roland Johansen]

Whenever I plan an early war, (1 AD ish.) And I send in my invasion force. I cannot declare war them!?! For some wierd reason, it says we have the "Peace Treaty 10 Turns" agreement signed!?! Please help as 10 turns on normal is alot of time!

Edit. Can the AI detect your increase in military thus making thiers larger?

You keep asking questions about the early military rush. The best place to get a good discussion about the subject (as there is no simple answer) is in the Strategy & Tips subforum. Just start a thread there where you ask about how to perform an early rush and you'll get some good answers.

There's also a War Academy article on the subject called surprisingly 'The Early Rush'. I don't know if it's any good because I haven't read it, but usually War Academy articles are at least decent as otherwise they won't be selected to be in the War Academy.

A few pointers:
-most players won't think of a 1AD attack as 'an early rush'. The main idea of the early rush is to target the AI opponents in their expansion phase while they're building settlers and workers and when their unit count is low and cultural defence undeveloped.
-Axemen are the most used unit for an early rush as they have a fairly high strength score, can get the city raider promotion and need a fairly common resource. Chariots can also work with flanking promotions so that they survive more often. Chariots are faster which is an advantage because you're faster to the enemy.

You research towards bronze working for forest chopping and visibility of copper and possibly slavery if you can develop some good food resources. You settle near or on the copper with your first settler. Further research is towards developing the land, developing the food resources to allow pop-rushing of units through slavery.
Your first city starts by building (a) worker(s) and then a unit and a settler to settle near the copper resource. Your workers develop the land and chop axemen (or more workers first if that is more efficient).

Your starting unit has been scouting the land for copper and your target. Ideally, you can position your warrior in such a way that you can see what the target is doing and what its defences are. You build enough axemen to defeat the defending units. Warriors can almost be discounted as they offer almost no resistance. Take 2 axemen for each archer and then 2 extra just in case you have bad luck. If the target is protective, then it is a bit harder, maybe 2.5 axemen per archer. You should expect to lose one axemen per defending archer. Keep sending reinforcements if the enemy has more cities to crack. Sign a peace treaty if your attack has stalled and attack again when you have enough units. Don't attack when you aren't sure that you'll win, don't waste wounded units on attacks. Healing is a lot cheaper than rebuilding. Never attack with just a section of your troops that can't finish the job as the defenders will just heal the damage.

It could well be that you attack with 6 axemen in 1500BC instead of 20 at 1AD. It depends on whether you have copper nearby and some other random things.

I didn't respond before because I'm far from an expert on the subject of rushes. I play on huge maps with multiple continents and immortal or deity opponents. The situation just isn't made for rushes and I like it that way. But I do know how to beat an opponent.

Yup, that would be it! thanks!

Also, how do you win w/ the AP?

Next to the advice offered, you can't win a diplomatic victory when you have enough votes yourself to vote yourself the winner. It's good to know that when you want to go for a cheesy AP-win.

AP-votes: 2 per pop if you're a full member, 1 per pop if you're a voting member. You can only win a diplomatic victory as a full member or AP owner

You can read more about the AP here.

 

[Sisiutil]

A nasty (exploit) trick if you have problems gaining acces to one civ(no open borders) is to found a city close to them, spread religion and then give the city to them....BANG!!! they have a city with the AP religion present....One of the reasons an AP diplo-victory it feels a little weak imho.

Heck, you don't even have to go to that much effort. Put a missionary for the AP religion on a caravel, send the boat into their territory, then gift the caravel and, thereby, the missionary to them. The AI will automatically use the missionary to spread the AP religion to one of their cities.

As the French say, quelle fromage...

 

[Skreed]

This is probably one of those questions with dozens of 'right' answers, and I'm sure over time I'll figure out what works best for me and go with that, but for the more expierienced players:

How early do you identify the victory condition you're going for?

I was kindof taking a time victory for granted until, at the end of the 20th century, Joao made a huge diplomatic move and leapfrogged me (ended a world war before I could turn my attention to France, made them his vassal state, and beat me by a handful of turns to the UN).

I'm friendly with the Joao, so muscling him with my military isnt really an option. I still have a huge tech lead, so I'm falling back on a space victory... but if I end up losing its going to be b/c I wasnt focused on a particular victory condition and just let the game come to me... not a mistake I intend to make again. :S

 

[CivIVMonger]

I just sorta expand and conquer until I have a winning advantage. And then I decide.

 

[CivIVMonger]

I need desperate help w/ warring. I know, build lots of seige. But my problem resides in BUILDING an army. I can never seem to build an army capable of crushing the AI w/out crushing the economy. Come to think of it. I can't even build it at all. Please Help.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I need desperate help w/ warring. I know, build lots of seige. But my problem resides in BUILDING an army. I can never seem to build an army capable of crushing the AI w/out crushing the economy. Come to think of it. I can't even build it at all. Please Help.

Before giving any advice, I want to ask some stuff first. The reason that I ask these questions is because there can be so many reasons that an offensive fails and it's no use to give a solution to a problem that you aren't facing.

When you're fighting an enemy which is equal in technology, what is your win-loss ratio? Are you suffering from massive War Weariness? Do you win a few battles and then reach a stalemate? At the start of the war, do you move aggressively forward or wait for a moment and give the first move(s) to the enemy?

edit: Do you lose cities in a war that you decided to start (not a surprise attack from the AI). Are you aware of the power ratio of the enemy that you're facing?

What is the typical base production value of your cities (production value before hammer production multipliers from forges and such are applied) at various points in the game(size 5 cities ancient age, medieval size 12 cities, modern size 18 cities)? Do you specialise your cities where some focus on economic infrastructure and commerce and others on unit production?

edit: how large is your main offensive stack that you wish to use: both the value for normal units and siege units.

Which version of the game are you using?

 

[Sisiutil]

This is probably one of those questions with dozens of 'right' answers, and I'm sure over time I'll figure out what works best for me and go with that, but for the more expierienced players:

How early do you identify the victory condition you're going for?

I was kindof taking a time victory for granted until, at the end of the 20th century, Joao made a huge diplomatic move and leapfrogged me (ended a world war before I could turn my attention to France, made them his vassal state, and beat me by a handful of turns to the UN).

I'm friendly with the Joao, so muscling him with my military isnt really an option. I still have a huge tech lead, so I'm falling back on a space victory... but if I end up losing its going to be b/c I wasnt focused on a particular victory condition and just let the game come to me... not a mistake I intend to make again. :S

Well, first off, I never go for a time victory. The end score is too low, it takes too long, there's a good chance the AI will "blunder" into another victory before you... and it's boring!

Sometimes I decide right off the bat, when I choose the leader (or am assigned one, if I'm playing with random leaders on). For example, if I play as either of the Caesars, or Boudica, or almost any of the aggressive or charismatic leaders, I'll almost always go for a domination win.

With other leaders, I usually need to explore the map first and meet all the other leaders--so it could be shortly after Optics on most maps (continents, hemispheres, etc.). Once I know the full situation I can usually make a better decision about the chances and effort required for each victory type.

I need desperate help w/ warring. I know, build lots of seige. But my problem resides in BUILDING an army. I can never seem to build an army capable of crushing the AI w/out crushing the economy. Come to think of it. I can't even build it at all. Please Help.

This requires more than just a quick answer. Check the war academy (including some of my own articles, such as the one on the Early Rush) for some help.

But in a nutshell... you have to anticipate that an army, especially early in the game, is going to drag down your economy--that and the cities you acquire what with the additional maintenance and all. First off, remember that you will lose units and this will, ironically, help you, as you will decrease your maintenance costs as the units die and vanish. Second, be very choosy about which cities you keep; they should provide some benefit relatively soon, otherwise, raze them instead.

Finally, once you have the techs required for your units, go after techs that will help your economy. Early in the game, these techs are The Wheel (for roads for trade routes), Sailing (for river/coastal trade routes), Pottery (so you can improve tiles with cottages), and Writing (for Open Borders for trade routes and for libraries so you can run some scientists to help your research while the science slider is in the tank). Later on, you'll want to make Currency and Calendar into priorities either for researching, or, more likely, to acquire through trade (the AI prioritizes those techs).

 

[CivIVMonger]

Before giving any advice, I want to ask some stuff first. The reason that I ask these questions is because there can be so many reasons that an offensive fails and it's no use to give a solution to a problem that you aren't facing.

When you're fighting an enemy which is equal in technology, what is your win-loss ratio? Are you suffering from massive War Weariness? Do you win a few battles and then reach a stalemate? At the start of the war, do you move aggressively forward or wait for a moment and give the first move(s) to the enemy?

What is the typical base production value of your cities (production value before hammer production multipliers from forges and such are applied) at various points in the game(size 5 cities ancient age, medieval size 12 cities, modern size 18 cities)? Do you specialise your cities where some focus on economic infrastructure and commerce and others on unit production?

Which version of the game are you using?

I will gladly answer all of the questions. It's good to know that someone wants to help me out in-depth.

I usually am able to take only about 1 to 3 cities before I hit a stalemate. My economy would have already crashed thus making new units is not an option.

My army is usually right next to the enemy waiting to slaughter the turn I declare.

I usually have 2 or 3 cities that produce close to 10 to 15 hammers in the early era. And the rest only have anywere from1 to 5.

I roughly specialize my cities. Yes, and no. Sometimes I build just to get more workhorse power. I have good city placing skills. (One area I son't suck at.) And the spots I pick usually turn out to be blue circles.

I bought the complete edition. But I play BTS 99% of the time.

 

[bestbrian]

If you're settling on blue circles that could be a problem (the AI is pretty poor at city placement). Your hammer totals sound pretty low, as well; how are you improving your land?

Could you post some screenies of what your civ looks like before you go to war? It would help give an overall look at your game. As a matter of fact, you should probably post that in a separate thread - you'll get alot more feedback, and will get more in-depth responses.

Good luck.