Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[chr1829]

Hello, I'm totally new in here and I'm new to Civilization games too.
My brother played this game a lot, but I didn't. Now my brother lives in other city, and now I started to play Civilization 4, but I just can't play this game right.

Actual question:
I don't like to play aggressive, I'm more like peaceful player, but I just don't get one thing. How to make great empire and how total noob could make succesful war. I'm total noob in warfare, I lost all 4 my cities against country which had one town.

P.S. This game is so addictive!!!

 

[IAM]

Actual question:
I don't like to play aggressive, I'm more like peaceful player, but I just don't get one thing. How to make great empire and how total noob could make succesful war. I'm total noob in warfare, I lost all 4 my cities against country which had one town.

That's a big question. Try playing a civilization that gets bonuses like aggresive or charismatic. Make sure you have a counter for enemy units. If they have lots of chariots then build extra spearmen. If your enemy has stacks of troops (Multiple units on a single tile) hit it with seige units like catapults. They will cause collateral damage to several units then kill the wounded ones before they can heal.

The more you play the more you learn.

 

[bestbrian]

Hello, I'm totally new in here and I'm new to Civilization games too.
My brother played this game a lot, but I didn't. Now my brother lives in other city, and now I started to play Civilization 4, but I just can't play this game right.

Actual question:
I don't like to play aggressive, I'm more like peaceful player, but I just don't get one thing. How to make great empire and how total noob could make succesful war. I'm total noob in warfare, I lost all 4 my cities against country which had one town.

P.S. This game is so addictive!!!

Hit up the Strat Guides in The War Academy. There are several good ones in there for learning how to wage war, and how the combat mechanics work.

Welcome to the forums, and Happy Civving.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Hello, I'm totally new in here and I'm new to Civilization games too.
My brother played this game a lot, but I didn't. Now my brother lives in other city, and now I started to play Civilization 4, but I just can't play this game right.

Actual question:
I don't like to play aggressive, I'm more like peaceful player, but I just don't get one thing. How to make great empire and how total noob could make succesful war. I'm total noob in warfare, I lost all 4 my cities against country which had one town.

P.S. This game is so addictive!!!

This is a huge question with many possible answers, and I don't know anything about your gameplay and potential areas for improvement.

However, I'll hazard a guess and suggest that the best defence is an active offence. You're not going to win a war if you just build up troops and sit inside your cities waiting for your enemy to attack you. You have to take the fight to them.

Of course, this may or may not apply to you, but given that you said you managed to lose all your cities to a civ that had just one, you must be making some sort of fundamental mistake in warfare. If you want more specific advice, I'd suggest starting a new thread here and posting a savegame or two (say, around the times of 1000 BC, 1 AD and 1000 AD) - the people here should be more than happy to give you some advice on how you can improve your gameplay, and especially your war strategy.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I am playing my first BTS game. It is version 3.19. I do not have BUG or any other mod installed. Previously, I was playing vanilla at Prince level. My question regards the overall city info screen, the one that lists all the cities in your empire. The last column before the one that lists the current construction that the city is working on is headed by a black symbol that looks, to me, like a chess castle (rook). For each city it lists a single digit number. What is this column? I understand all the other columns but this one has me puzzled.

Could the single digits stand for a %? As in 4 stands for 40%. Would that correspond to your real city defenses?

It's likely the number of units in the city.

Hello, I'm totally new in here and I'm new to Civilization games too.
My brother played this game a lot, but I didn't. Now my brother lives in other city, and now I started to play Civilization 4, but I just can't play this game right.

Actual question:
I don't like to play aggressive, I'm more like peaceful player, but I just don't get one thing. How to make great empire and how total noob could make succesful war. I'm total noob in warfare, I lost all 4 my cities against country which had one town.

P.S. This game is so addictive!!!

One of the most fundamental errors in warfare in this game that will cost you lots is using small groups of military against opposing forces and letting the opposing forces heal in between battles. Always bring enough troops to finish the job. Damaging opposing units without killing them is useless and even hurts you as the opposing forces become more experienced. It's such a fundamental error that most experienced players don't even mention it as a potential cause for military failure.
Another fundamental error is not using siege units (enough). Use them to bombard the enemy cities and then attack the enemy city directly with them to cause so called collateral damage. Also use these units to attack strong groups of enemy units.
A third fundamental error that has appeared newly in this fourth instalment of the game is defending (cities) without counterattacking the enemy troops. The collateral damage caused by siege units is just too powerful for this to be a valid tactic. Defence doesn't work, even against the AI.

Collateral damage: a type of damage caused by special units (siege units, bombers and some late game capital ships) that will damage a large group of enemy units on the same tile, thereby significantly improving the odds of your units against the wounded enemies in subsequent battles.

 

[Darth Fred]

Upon taking up the Vassal Civic, how does one "cash in," on the free units?

During peace time, how much backside kissing does it take to turn an independent state into a vassal?
F

 

[Sisiutil]

Upon taking up the Vassal Civic, how does one "cash in," on the free units?

During peace time, how much backside kissing does it take to turn an independent state into a vassal?
F

1. Switching to the vassalage civic doesn't give you a bunch of brand new, free units; rather, it removes the maintenance costs for a certain number of your units. Thus, you will notice the benefit in your gold per turn (GPT). The exact math for how many maintenance-free units you get depends, IIRC, upon the size of your civ. Perhaps someone else can post a more detailed explanation. At any rate, the best way to cash in on the vassalage civic is, quite simply, to go to war, to put the maintenance-free units and the +2 XPs (+4 if you run Theocracy as well) to work.
2. It depends. Yes, you have to have Friendly relations--at least in my experience. In addition, you also have to (a) be geographically close; (b) have a decent power rating relative to everyone else, especially the potential vassal; and (c) have a bit of a tech lead, again especially vis-a-vis the vassal. Again, someone else may be able to interpret the code more precisely, but these are the sorts of circumstances, in my experience, that make a voluntary vassal possible.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Originally Posted by s.bernbaum
I am playing my first BTS game. It is version 3.19. I do not have BUG or any other mod installed. Previously, I was playing vanilla at Prince level. My question regards the overall city info screen, the one that lists all the cities in your empire. The last column before the one that lists the current construction that the city is working on is headed by a black symbol that looks, to me, like a chess castle (rook). For each city it lists a single digit number. What is this column? I understand all the other columns but this one has me puzzled

.

It's likely the number of units in the city.

As usual, Roland nailed it precisely. The "castle" column in the city screen in unmodded BTS shows the number of military units in the city. The number does not include workers, spies, or great people. I did not have any missionaries to check but I suspect that they would not be included either.

Now I have another question. I am playing at Chieftain. Since I was playing vanilla at Prince and about to go up to Monarch, I am walking away with the game but I did it this way so I could try out all the BTS and Warlords things that are new to me, with little competition. Now for the question. As soon as my immediate neighbors researched feudalism, they volunteered to become my vassals. I just finished obliterating Asoka. At no time did he ask to capitulate and become my vassal. Was he being obstinate or do I have to do something to get an active enemy in a war to capitulate? He did ask me to end the war. Should I have picked negotiate to get the capitulate option?

 

[Silu]

Now I have another question. I am playing at Chieftain. Since I was playing vanilla at Prince and about to go up to Monarch, I am walking away with the game but I did it this way so I could try out all the BTS and Warlords things that are new to me, with little competition. Now for the question. As soon as my immediate neighbors researched feudalism, they volunteered to become my vassals. I just finished obliterating Asoka. At no time did he ask to capitulate and become my vassal. Was he being obstinate or do I have to do something to get an active enemy in a war to capitulate? He did ask me to end the war. Should I have picked negotiate to get the capitulate option?

AIs don't actively ask for peace or capitulation, just peacevassaling. To end a war you must propose it yourself, same with capitulating someone. There're various conditions for them to be willing to capitulate, such as being below 2/3 your Power and being below average Power globally.

 

[elhupo]

hey there

is it possible for the ai (darius) to dow me when darius and me have a defensive pact? what about his 3 vassals? are they having any influence on that? can the pact be broken by darius without an immediate dow?

its my second emperor game and i'm leading in tech and production but i'm too lazy to finish him off - so i would like to go for space. given the possibility that he cant declare anymore would be nice. but i really have no clue about the defensive pact and alliance thing. never used them before.

thanks

 

[Gwynnja]

suppose I have a stack of chariots and horse archers that are more or less obsolete and I am about to unlock cuirassiers; would it be better to upgrade them to knights then cuirassiers, or does it make a difference?

 

[Sisiutil]

hey there

is it possible for the ai (darius) to dow me when darius and me have a defensive pact? what about his 3 vassals? are they having any influence on that? can the pact be broken by darius without an immediate dow?

its my second emperor game and i'm leading in tech and production but i'm too lazy to finish him off - so i would like to go for space. given the possibility that he cant declare anymore would be nice. but i really have no clue about the defensive pact and alliance thing. never used them before.

thanks

Since the DP adds points to your diplomatic score, it makes a DOW more unlikely. Only certain leaders will declare war at Pleased or Friendly--search the site, the list is around somewhere.

suppose I have a stack of chariots and horse archers that are more or less obsolete and I am about to unlock cuirassiers; would it be better to upgrade them to knights then cuirassiers, or does it make a difference?

It does make a difference. One upgrade is cheaper than two, so go right to Cuirassiers and skip Knights. Also, don't upgrade them unless (a) you really need them in a hurry and/or (b) you have the gold to spare. I usually don't upgrade units unless they have more promotions than I could easily reproduce.

 

[Civ4combo]

First time poster here

So me and my friend often play civ4 together and add a bunch of AI to play with/against. Anyway, both of us usually set our workers to auto-build improvements and stuff, but sometimes the build forts over valuable resources!

Is there anyway to set it so they never build forts? It can become quite annoying when they build them over gold etc.

 

[Silu]

First time poster here

So me and my friend often play civ4 together and add a bunch of AI to play with/against. Anyway, both of us usually set our workers to auto-build improvements and stuff, but sometimes the build forts over valuable resources!

Is there anyway to set it so they never build forts? It can become quite annoying when they build them over gold etc.

You still get the resource with a fort... They build forts on resources outside city BFCs because the yield doesn't matter and the fort can be of use when defending.

 

[Civ4combo]

You still get the resource with a fort... They build forts on resources outside city BFCs because the yield doesn't matter and the fort can be of use when defending.

and here's me and my friend thinking that our workers were just brain damaged!

Thanks, i'll be sure to remember that

 

[Silv Something]

You still get the resource with a fort... They build forts on resources outside city BFCs because the yield doesn't matter and the fort can be of use when defending.

Really? Even if you don't have the tech to make the improvement, like you have the tech that reveals oil but not the one that lets you make wells?

 

[TheLazyHase]

Really? Even if you don't have the tech to make the improvement, like you have the tech that reveals oil but not the one that lets you make wells?

No, for oil, you need combustion and either a oilwell or fortress ; for uranium you need fission and either a mine or a fortress.

 

[Silv Something]

Okay. Thanks!

 

[Kalmah]

Can't believe I didn't discover this forum earlier, it's an absolute goldmine of info.

Anyway like most first timers to the Civ series I've got some nooby questions. First up, I'm always having a problem with starvation with nearly all my cities as I'm approaching modern era. It seems once 1900 turns up my cities automatically starve. Leading up to end game my cities grow pretty well and without many problems. Is this normal and am I paying too much attention towards it? To me it seems pretty detrimental, does it really have any affects at all?

Secondly, other than environmentalism and recycling centres is there any way to prevent pollution? Most of the time when I have heavy pollution in mid game I try and trade AI for health providing foods and it seems to work for a while but some cities tend to go into pollution again. Also is there a way to stop my population being angry at overpopulation/being too crowded? I've tried countering this by having a strong military presence (with hereditary rule) in cities that are angry but sometimes I can't do this due to cost. I also try to build temples and happiness raising buildings but sometimes it isn't enough.

Lastly, I play with a friend online against AI and he's always having the lowest life expectancy, even with high health in his cities, good growth rates and environmentalism, it's not of huge importance but it annoys him to constantly be lowest for it so what could be causing it?

Cheers.

 

[Sisiutil]

Kalmah: welcome to CFC. I recommend that you peruse two articles in the War Academy by the insightful Cabert:

• Ways into Health
• Ways into Happiness