Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[r_rolo1]

In short, no. The DP is only a promise they will attack who attacks you, a thing they can't do if they are the agressors

OTOH normally a civ that is willing to do a DP with you will most likely have enough in the diplo stance to have little odds of choosing you as a target, and the DP diplo modifier will only add to that, but if they are planning to do a attack for a long time ( say, they started looking with greedy eyes to you when they first contacted you via caravel ) or if you are dealing with people that plan attacks at high diplo stances, it might happen. It happened to me atleast twice, both with Saladin ...

 

[Sisiutil]

A quick one. If I have a Defensive Pact with an AI, does this prevent him from declaring war on me?

I don't think it technically prevents it, but it is certainly extremely unlikely. You have to be at "Pleased" or "Friendly" (depending on the leader) to have a DP, and very few leaders will declare war at Pleased, and I don't think any do at Friendly (though I could be wrong about the lovely but treacherous Cathy in that regard). Plus the DP will add to your diplomatic bonus with that leader, improving relations further.

 

[Ansive]

Lol, I was 2 turns away from winning using the United Nations when a more backward civilization used the Apostolic Palace for a diplomatic victory vote... I won, in 1883 (had half the votes). Obsolete victory...

 

[Turquoiside]

Assuming they weren't hopelessly hopelessly backwards, you should have given them Mass Media to prevent close calls like that.

 

[kcd_swede]

bear in mind that in a PA, if one of you is building a wonder then it disables the other from building it. So if you're already building those wonders you should be good. You can also queue up future wonders so your teammate can't prevent you from building them. The only thing you have to look out for is if he starts building a wonder immediately on the turn you research the tech for it. Nothing you can do in that case, unfortunately.

Actually, there is an advanced technique to ensure you DO get to start building any wonder first. The key is to make sure that the technology finishes on YOUR turn while your partner is teching something else. When you are one turn away from the tech, e.g. mass media, you go to "Lets discuss something else" and ask them to research something else besides mass media. Then it is your beakers that finish the tech and you can immediately start the UN in one of your own cities BEFORE the turn is completed and your PA partners turn begins. Your PA partner doesn't get the tech until it is his turn. (Tech is the first thing that happens when you press end turn, and the turn doesn't end until all the builds are completed and you get promted to queue a new one; only then does the AI get a turn, and by then you've already queued to wonder so your PA can't).

 

[Ataxerxes]

A quick one. If I have a Defensive Pact with an AI, does this prevent him from declaring war on me?

As Sisiutil said, it is unlikely, but I've seen it happen on a number of occasions. About half of the AI's can plan war at Pleased, and they are capable of signing a pact and then declaring war. As Sis noted, even Friendly doesn't completely protect you from Cathy, but she's the only one. Since the AI likes you enough to sign a pact, they're less likely to attack you even if they can war at Pleased.

However, the two decisions seem to be independent for the AI. So if a warmonger signs a defensive pact with you, you still aren't safe unless he's been Friendly for a time.

 

[Ambidexter]

Never mind, I've reposted in the correct thread.

 

[mimixdad]

I may not be posting to the correct thread so let me know the correct one if necessary. I have been playing Civ IV for a month now - never played Civ before. I have read a lot of the manual and a number of forum posts, etc. on beginning strategies. To learn the game, I am trying for timed game wins.

I have won the timed game in Settler and Chieftan diffculty. I have tried Warlord difficulty about 25 times and get wiped out or am so far down on the points list that I give up - I have never been close to a win. I have tried different strategies - heavy cultural, heavy military, multiple cities, few cities, etc., etc.

I am so frustrated that I am about to delete the game from my PC and never come back. I thought I would try posting here before I do that

I need some advice on what to do at Warlord diffculty or to be pointed to a post or guide to help me with this. I end up with a lot of gold, but am way behind on other areas so my points are way low. I have quite a few workers and build a lot of cottages, workshops, etc. I try to get along with all of the other civ's - avoiding war. I try to balance culture and building miliary units for protection.

Can anyone help me or should I just free up some disk space?

 

[bestbrian]

I may not be posting to the correct thread so let me know the correct one if necessary. I have been playing Civ IV for a month now - never played Civ before. I have read a lot of the manual and a number of forum posts, etc. on beginning strategies. To learn the game, I am trying for timed game wins.

I have won the timed game in Settler and Chieftan diffculty. I have tried Warlord difficulty about 25 times and get wiped out or am so far down on the points list that I give up - I have never been close to a win. I have tried different strategies - heavy cultural, heavy military, multiple cities, few cities, etc., etc.

I am so frustrated that I am about to delete the game from my PC and never come back. I thought I would try posting here before I do that

I need some advice on what to do at Warlord diffculty or to be pointed to a post or guide to help me with this. I end up with a lot of gold, but am way behind on other areas so my points are way low. I have quite a few workers and build a lot of cottages, workshops, etc. I try to get along with all of the other civ's - avoiding war. I try to balance culture and building miliary units for protection.

Can anyone help me or should I just free up some disk space?

Have you read any of the guides for beginners in the War Academy? Sisiutil's is quite good. Also, The Me In Team has some Let's Play videos on the Youtube.

 

[Ansive]

You haven't specified in what areas you aren't doing well. The score isn't too important. You can win in many ways, time victories are very hard to get.
If you insist on going for it make sure to disable the other victory conditions since you'll most likely lose the game to another civ through space race or culture.

Spare race - easy, just get enough cities, keep up with the tech and have good production
Cultural race - easy, build wonders in 3 cities, all the cultural buildings and multipliers you can get, pop great artists, found culture corporations and towards the end of the game run the culture sliders at 100%
Diplomatic - tricky, get all but the biggest rival at friendly status by trading, accepting demands, unifying religion and running their favorite civic
Domination - hard, get a big army and start attacking your rivals one by one, take all cities or vassalize when you can't
Conquest - hard, eliminate all rivals (or vassalize)
Time - hard, get the biggest score by 2050 (big cities and lots of land)

Try playing Huayna Capac , spam wonders and try to own the most cities. Go for cultural or space race. Play epic speed, the pace is a bit more chilled.

 

[Sisiutil]

I may not be posting to the correct thread so let me know the correct one if necessary. I have been playing Civ IV for a month now - never played Civ before. I have read a lot of the manual and a number of forum posts, etc. on beginning strategies. To learn the game, I am trying for timed game wins.

I have won the timed game in Settler and Chieftan diffculty. I have tried Warlord difficulty about 25 times and get wiped out or am so far down on the points list that I give up - I have never been close to a win. I have tried different strategies - heavy cultural, heavy military, multiple cities, few cities, etc., etc.

I am so frustrated that I am about to delete the game from my PC and never come back. I thought I would try posting here before I do that

I need some advice on what to do at Warlord diffculty or to be pointed to a post or guide to help me with this. I end up with a lot of gold, but am way behind on other areas so my points are way low. I have quite a few workers and build a lot of cottages, workshops, etc. I try to get along with all of the other civ's - avoiding war. I try to balance culture and building miliary units for protection.

Can anyone help me or should I just free up some disk space?

First off... welcome to CFC!!!



You should absolutely not free up that disk space. (Did you really expect anyone here to tell you different? )

Now then... have you come across my own Beginner's Guide (link in my sig, below)? And in addition, check out some articles in the War Academy if you haven't discovered it yet.

You might want to consider starting a thread in the strategy forum where you post a handful of saved game files from a recent game (the start, 1/4 through, 1/2 through, etc.) and ask for opinions and advice. People should really be able to zero in on where you can improve if they have the specifics right in front of them.

Beyond that, based upon the few details in your post, I have a couple of comments/suggestions. First off, time victory is generally shunned by most serious Civvers, especially in Civ IV, where your end score is higher the earlier you win. Playing that long also increases the chances that the AI will "stumble into" a victory condition on its own. If you're trying for a cultural victory, but the way, you should usually expect your score to be relatively low but still win.

Cottages are good, but workshops? I only build them if I need to, i.e. I have no other sources of hammers. So that may be something to think about...

The big glaring thing for me, though, was your admission that you avoid war. Tsk tsk! Warmongers are rewarded handsomely in this game. It sounds like you've tried all other strategies but shunned this one. Give it a try, it's fun and profitable! (And yes, I have guides to it as well. )

 

[mimixdad]

Yes, I even downloaded Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for beginners, printed it and read it, highlighting areas to try. I read A Guide to Civics. I read Sulla's Civ IV Walkthrough. From all of these, I have made notes and follow them as I play the game. I have tried different combinations of some of their strategies.

All of this to no avail. I have played games where I am ahead for maybe half the game and then drop like a rock. Why? No idea. I probably didn't change strategies at that point in the game properly, who knows...

I have studied more about this game than any other game I have ever played. Been playing WOW for over 5 years - I know... . Total frustration at this point.

 

[mimixdad]

It sounds like I am trying for the wrong win - timed. It just seemed like a good way to learn the game, trying strategies and watching my score. I will try for a cultural win or maybe space race. If I struggle with those, I will try posting a couple of my saved games as suggested.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[Sisiutil]

It sounds like I am trying for the wrong win - timed. It just seemed like a good way to learn the game, trying strategies and watching my score. I will try for a cultural win or maybe space race. If I struggle with those, I will try posting a couple of my saved games as suggested.

Thanks for the help so far.

Without warfare, your score will inevitably drop. You get the biggest point totals for (a) population and (b) land, and the best way to secure both is through war. Seriously, you played WoW and you're gun-shy? Dust off that man card and go bust some heads!

 

[Darth Fred]

What is the "range" of a spy? Which is to say, if I have a spy sitting on a given resource to keep saboteurs at bay, how many tiles out can they "see" enemy spies and stop them from destroying the tile improvement on that resource? (Or any tile improvement for that matter)
F

 

[kcd_swede]

As Sisiutil said, it is unlikely, but I've seen it happen on a number of occasions. About half of the AI's can plan war at Pleased, and they are capable of signing a pact and then declaring war. As Sis noted, even Friendly doesn't completely protect you from Cathy, but she's the only one. Since the AI likes you enough to sign a pact, they're less likely to attack you even if they can war at Pleased.

However, the two decisions seem to be independent for the AI. So if a warmonger signs a defensive pact with you, you still aren't safe unless he's been Friendly for a time.

Don't forget the triangle diplomacy... if you sign a DP with two civs who do not have a DP with each other, when one of them DOW's the other, you will auto-DOW the first (an AI you have a DP with!). Same happens if you sign DP with a civ that has a DP with someone else. If you DOW that someone else, your DP partner DOW's you. Friendly or not.

 

[Lord Parkin]

What is the "range" of a spy? Which is to say, if I have a spy sitting on a given resource to keep saboteurs at bay, how many tiles out can they "see" enemy spies and stop them from destroying the tile improvement on that resource? (Or any tile improvement for that matter)
F

I believe it's only on the tile they're actually sitting on - though I could be wrong. (Maybe it's a 1 tile radius.) Either way this may not seem like much, but typically you don't have that many tiles that need to be protected - just key cities and critical resources. I do know that a Security Bureau in a city gives the same effect as a Spy sitting on a city tile - and that effect doesn't stack. So if you have a Security Bureau in a city, adding a Spy there has no additional effect.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Without warfare, your score will inevitably drop. You get the biggest point totals for (a) population and (b) land, and the best way to secure both is through war. Seriously, you played WoW and you're gun-shy? Dust off that man card and go bust some heads!

Not to totally play Gandhi's advocate here, but war isn't always the best option all the time. You have to be economically prepared to handle the costs of war, and have a good enough war machine build up with production cities that can produce enough units to keep up with the enemy and prevail (and to garrison all the cities you'll be taking).

Nearly as many times as not my early wars with close neighbbors have crashed my economy, put me hopelessly behind in techs (can't even trade to catch up when you're the very last in the race), and made me wish I'd invested a little more in libraries and marketplaces to avoid the dreaded STRIKE zone, or the tech vaporlock when the only thing that CAN be built is units because you don't have Currency yet.

I'm still a fan of war early and often to go grab land in Civ, but there are prerequisites on the economic side.

 

[Sisiutil]

Not to totally play Gandhi's advocate here, but war isn't always the best option all the time. You have to be economically prepared to handle the costs of war, and have a good enough war machine build up with production cities that can produce enough units to keep up with the enemy and prevail (and to garrison all the cities you'll be taking).

Nearly as many times as not my early wars with close neighbbors have crashed my economy, put me hopelessly behind in techs (can't even trade to catch up when you're the very last in the race), and made me wish I'd invested a little more in libraries and marketplaces to avoid the dreaded STRIKE zone, or the tech vaporlock when the only thing that CAN be built is units because you don't have Currency yet.

I'm still a fan of war early and often to go grab land in Civ, but there are prerequisites on the economic side.

Good points. One of my key war aims in an early war--when your economy is most vulnerable--is to gain some sort of economic advantage to compensate for the outlay I'll be going through. Capturing a holy city is great (especially if it already has a shrine), but capturing high commerce luxury resources are good too--they ensure the captured city will pay for itself, and the boost means you can run more specialists or work more cottages. A little later, with Alphabet and Currency, you have the option of getting techs and/or gold (respectively) in exchange for peace. Heck, even just snagging city and pillage booty can keep you going a long time!

 

[almughavar]

Can someone tell me how the "inflation" index count per turn, please?