Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lennier]

And barracks don’t survive capture either.

 

[Fool's Gold]

1.) What's the furthest up the tech tree you can go without obsoleting buildings / wonders / resources in BTS? Optics / Banking / Replaceable Parts / Steel / Mil Trad / Mil Sci / Liberalism / Democracy?

2.) What are the rules for UUs going obsolete and how do they differ from the normal unit obsolescence rules? (Sorry, having trouble finding a reference.)

 

[Samson]

2.) What are the rules for UUs going obsolete and how do they differ from the normal unit obsolescence rules? (Sorry, having trouble finding a reference.)

I do not think the rules are different. The difference is some have more upgrade paths, so are frequently available longer as they are available until all possible upgrades are available.

 

[Fippy]

Quechuas stay until Maces, regular warriors obsolete with hunting & copper.
Cannot remember others

 

[Fool's Gold]

Quechuas stay until Maces, regular warriors obsolete with hunting & copper.
Cannot remember others

That was the first exception that came to mind, although I didn't test it - I vaguely remember something about UUs lasting for one more upgrade along their pathway compared to regular units, but I'm worried that I'm remembering wrongly because I don't recall where it was discussed...

 

[civac]

I do not think the rules are different. The difference is some have more upgrade paths, so are frequently available longer as they are available until all possible upgrades are available.

This seems to be correct. Quechuas have an additional upgrade to macemen. Praetorians have addidional upgrade paths to riflemen and grenadiers.

 

[Plains-Cow]

Has anyone ever done a warrior (NOT Quechua) rush on higher difficulties against a neighbor? If so, what were the circumstances?

 

[drewisfat]

Was some debate about sword rushes being the best strategy on a certain map (on Emperor) to take out Pacal early, but then Fippy chariot rushed him instead to prove a point. Now I can't resist a good pissing contest, so I put these clowns to shame and killed Pacal with warriors, and then some other punk doubted the endurance of my minions, so I killed egypt too for good measure.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/stock-swordsman-rush-no-praets-no-cheese.650936/post-15574757
TLDR: If you're ok with "could work" as opposed to "will work", agg warrior rushes can carry you all the way through Immortal.

 

[Fippy]

Stock swordsmen..cheers for the memories @drewisfat

 

[sampsa]

I have succesfully archer rushed on immortal, because popped archery from a hut.

edit: I mean that archers feel like the worst possible unit to rush with (much slower than warriors), but even that can work under good circumstances.

 

[Totokadoba]

Hey would you guys recommend just buying the complete pack, or buying the base game and then expansions over time? The reason I ask is I'm wondering if any of the expansions made major changes that altered the base game dramatically. I don't want to miss out on a fun/different experience from early patches if I just buy the complete pack straight away. Or is it not all that different? Thanks.

 

[lymond]

Hey would you guys recommend just buying the complete pack…..

Get Complete as you want to be playing Beyond the Sword, which is the definitive version of Civ IV.

 

[Fippy]

BTS really improved Civ4 drastically, yup.
Warlords also had it's charme imo.

 

[Set]

While BTS is definitely the best version to play, I'll note that neither of the expansions changed that much. Warlords added unique buildings and great generals only? Plus some new leaders and civs. BTS added espionage (generally ignored unless going for one of the specialist espionage strats), corporations (come too late to impact the game most of the time). Also some new traits, civs, leaders and balance tweaks. The expansions made Civ 4 a much better game but they refined it more than they changed it.

Also, almost all mods are compatible only with BTS. A couple of the scenarios from the earlier expansion are interesting but you can always play the older expansions with complete. Not to mention @isenchine has been kind enough to update most of those scenarios for BTS 3.19 anyway.

 

[lymond]

Yep, thanks for mentioning those scenario conversions @Set . I was actually thinking of that as well but could not remember who created them.

BTS is a major improvement over Civ IV, but Set is correct in that the basic core gameplay does not change considerably between vanilla and BTS. However, the overall improvement is considerable from the tweaks to certain mechanics and the added features like wonders and new leaders. And as Set mentioned, if you are interested in modifications, then pretty much only BTS mods can be found/updated. Highly recommend you get the BUG/BULL mods or BAT for BTS once installed. It improves UI and stuff without changing gameplay. Also, Blue Marble for some graphic updates.

Let us know where you purchase the game, as Steam has some special considerations required, especially if you play with mods. Also, the GOG version I believe needs some special code and @Noble Zarkon can help with that, if needed.

So, basically, no real reason to play vanilla or Warlords, although you might want to try the Warlords scenarios at some point just for fun. Again, some of those have been converted to BTS, as set mentioned.

 

[Plains-Cow]

If you play vanilla, be sure to try out England and Russia. Their unique units are ridiculously OP.

 

[elmurcis]

Sometimes AI forgets what version it plays and will bring zillion catapults on attack (yes, Monty, I talking to you and your Vanilla-killer stack that doesn't work on BtS)

 

[Lennier]

While BTS is definitely the best version to play, I'll note that neither of the expansions changed that much. Warlords added unique buildings and great generals only? Plus some new leaders and civs. BTS added espionage (generally ignored unless going for one of the specialist espionage strats), corporations (come too late to impact the game most of the time). Also some new traits, civs, leaders and balance tweaks. The expansions made Civ 4 a much better game but they refined it more than they changed it.

Warlords also added vassals.

 

[Totokadoba]

Awesome guys, thanks a bunch for your feedback!

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

Has anyone ever seen the AI complete all the spaceship parts but not launch it? I observed this twice in an AI match the other day and am curious whether it has to do with changing strategies, a bug, or other factors.