Melhisedek
Prince
Hmmm I've researched Alphabet a few turns ago, but no one seems to want to trade tech with me, even the guys that are pleased with me. Am I doing something wrong?
Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions
- Thread starter Civrules
- Start date
Alphabet just makes it possible. They might want to keep that technology to themselves.
Greeneyedzombie
King
trading techs, depends on ai atitude, there personality, and if it is a military or monopoly tech. techs wich gives wonders wont be traded if they are building that wonder.
Melhisedek
Prince
Thanks folks, I got the hang of it now 
How do I know when I should stop expanding (building new cities) ?
How do I know when I should stop expanding (building new cities) ?
Melhisedek
Prince
Good
Now I have 2 scouts from the begging of the game that are just standing there doing nothing... Do they take some resources/upkeep and in that case should I destroy them or is there a better use for scouts later in game perhaps?
(There is nothing left to scout
Now I have 2 scouts from the begging of the game that are just standing there doing nothing... Do they take some resources/upkeep and in that case should I destroy them or is there a better use for scouts later in game perhaps?
(There is nothing left to scout
Units take up a small amount of gold to upkeep every turn, but you have a certain number of units that take no gold (called free units). Units outside your borders need gold for "Unit supply", but again, you have free units. If there is nothing left to scout, you should delete them.
Lord Parkin
aka emperor
If you upgrade the Scouts to Explorers, those units can be useful for exploring new lands when Caravels become available. However, if there are no new lands on the map type you are using, then you are right that these units will not be of much use, except perhaps as fast-moving Healers for your military (with the Medic promotions).
As ggganz says above, it is usually good to stop expanding when your economy begins to plummet. A rule of thumb that can be used is when your science slider starts getting too low (you'll have to judge this, but somewhere around half or less is often getting dangerous). At this stage you should build more Workers and Cottages, build up your economy a bit, then continue expanding once more.
For me, when playing against the AI on this level, usually Stonehenge will be built c. 2000 BC, and the Oracle c. 1500 BC. However, like anything this is variable, and depends on the map type and number of opponents, and even varies between different games with the same type of map and number of opponents. More opponents and a larger map generally means more chances that someone will build a wonder earlier, though.
Technically you should never really stop expanding, just stop for "breathers" every now and then.
As ggganz says above, it is usually good to stop expanding when your economy begins to plummet. A rule of thumb that can be used is when your science slider starts getting too low (you'll have to judge this, but somewhere around half or less is often getting dangerous). At this stage you should build more Workers and Cottages, build up your economy a bit, then continue expanding once more. 
Roland Johansen
Deity
Good
Now I have 2 scouts from the begging of the game that are just standing there doing nothing... Do they take some resources/upkeep and in that case should I destroy them or is there a better use for scouts later in game perhaps?
(There is nothing left to scout
Hmm, scouts are quite useless in the middle and late game. The only useful scout in the late game would be one that is upgraded with medic promotions. In that case, it is a fast stack healer that will not be attacked (because it is the weakest unit in the stack).
Take a look at your unit upkeep (F2). If it is positive and there is nothing useful for the scouts to do, then I would disband them. If your unit upkeep is zero (because you have a large free unit upkeep and only a few units), then there is no reason to disband them.
Edit: Too slow again...
Melhisedek
Prince
About "city placement rings" that pop up when selecting your settler... Should I follow them (newb to the bone) or should I try to make up my own mind?
Thing is by following these rings my cities got too widespread or so it seems, and I got one city one tile away from ocean, so no trade there...
Thing is by following these rings my cities got too widespread or so it seems, and I got one city one tile away from ocean, so no trade there...
Greeneyedzombie
King
its ussually safe to ignore those cirkels. with exp you become far better at city placement then the placement of cirkels give you if you follow them.
Roland Johansen
Deity
You should place them yourself. You are playing the game, it's not an AI versus AI game, is it?
You can do better than the AI city placement. Maybe you need a bit of practice and some advice, but you can definately do better.
Melhisedek
Prince
I see, I'll turn those off and see how I do from there
But maaan I have so much to learn, like now barbs are owning me (lack of military), I have a lot of unused tiles (city placement), Health is on a all time low and I can't seem to fix it so my cities can't really grow (I think I should trade for some +health stuff).
How bad is it to not have a long/short term plan while researching or building stuff in my town? i just try to build everything in a city and I try to be methodical with researching tech, like in I research column by column
But maaan I have so much to learn, like now barbs are owning me (lack of military), I have a lot of unused tiles (city placement), Health is on a all time low and I can't seem to fix it so my cities can't really grow (I think I should trade for some +health stuff).
How bad is it to not have a long/short term plan while researching or building stuff in my town? i just try to build everything in a city and I try to be methodical with researching tech, like in I research column by column
Melhisedek
Prince
Greeneyedzombie
King
City placements. pref with one food resource and a strategic resource.
But the food is more important. it will let you grow quickly, and let you whip more. Where to place your cities depends on the map. you should place them so you can grab resources. iron/copper/horses are the most important ones. then things like happy resources. Food is ussually rather easy to come by, thus less important than the other resources and won't cripple growth as much if you lack them. the ai is rather willing to trade them.
Health can be improved by having lots of different food resources. Buildings like harbours and graneries will improve the health bonus of the food resources.
further I recommend you read these threads:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=189559
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158482
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632
And read more in the strategy forums.
But the food is more important. it will let you grow quickly, and let you whip more. Where to place your cities depends on the map. you should place them so you can grab resources. iron/copper/horses are the most important ones. then things like happy resources. Food is ussually rather easy to come by, thus less important than the other resources and won't cripple growth as much if you lack them. the ai is rather willing to trade them.
Health can be improved by having lots of different food resources. Buildings like harbours and graneries will improve the health bonus of the food resources.
further I recommend you read these threads:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=189559
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158482
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632
And read more in the strategy forums.
Greeneyedzombie
King
for research, bronzeworking and AH researched early as possible to find those resources.
Research worker techs as need in the order of the land around you.
then pick research paths wich benefits your empire the most.
Research worker techs as need in the order of the land around you.
then pick research paths wich benefits your empire the most.
Roland Johansen
Deity
I see, I'll turn those off and see how I do from there
But maaan I have so much to learn, like now barbs are owning me (lack of military), I have a lot of unused tiles (city placement), Health is on a all time low and I can't seem to fix it so my cities can't really grow (I think I should trade for some +health stuff).
How bad is it to not have a long/short term plan while researching or building stuff in my town? i just try to build everything in a city and I try to be methodical with researching tech, like in I research column by column
You have to think a bit when playing this game. There's no optimal build order like in some RTS-games. Every game is different.
Example1:
You start with cows and fur in your fat cross of your first city.
I would research hunting (for the camp improvement) and animal husbandry (for the pasture improvement) early. I would start building a worker in my capital first. When it is ready, it can immediatly start improving the land around your capital. An improved tile is 2 or 3 times as productive as a non-improved tile
Example2:
You start with the mysticism technology and close to an oasis tile which offers two commerce at the start of the game.
Pick the oasis tile and start researching one of the early religion technologies. You're almost assured to get the technology before the AI. This won't work (for sure) at the high difficulty levels.
Example3:
You start with the fishing technology and some sea food resources around the capital and lots of forests.
Start researching for bronze working while building a workboat to improve the sea food resources. Try to get bronze working and the first worker around the same time. The worker will be finished faster thanks to the food from the improved sea food tile. Chop some forests with the worker for more workboats for the other sea food resources. With the high food income from sea food resources, your city will quickly grow beyond its happy and health caps. When that happens, you should switch to the slavery civic and poprush something like a settler. Poprushing becomes more efficient with a granary because lost population will regrow faster.
You see: three different starting positions, three different tactics. And I can think up more starting positions and options about what to do. Often it is not clear what is the best option.
Any advice regarding city placement would be more than welcome
Uhm, that's not easy to describe with words. Greeneyedzombie had some good comments. A food resource in the fat cross is often nice as it helps the city grow and develop more quickly once you improve it.
It's clear that you want to get cities near nice terrain first and later fill in the less optimal spots. But I like to plan ahead and don't like to leave small strips of terrain inbetween my cities which won't support a decent city anymore.
You can use the strategic overlay (zoom out until you see the clouds, click the left most button above the minimap) to draw on the map and place signs on the map. Signs can also be placed with Alt-s. That might help you plan your cities better.
Don't be afraid to have some overlap between cities. There are many players who want cities without any overlap, but while it allows huge cities with 20 useful tiles in the endgame, it isn't that efficient. It will seriously limit your city placement and you will lose good tiles because you can't have them in your fat cross without having overlap between cities. If two cities have 6 tiles of overlap (which is quite a lot), then both cannot use 3 tiles (or one of them will not use 2 and the other will not use 4) and will not be able to use more tiles after growing to size 17. Since it takes a long time before a city is happy and healthy enough to support 17 citizens, this isn't a big problem. And when you can really use cities of sizes larger than 17, then a size 17 city isn't that bad compared to a size 20 city. And you can fit in far more size 17 cities than size 20 cities without overlap.
You want to capture some strategic resources with one of your first cities. You can use them to build advanced units to defend against barbarians or become aggressive against AI opponents.
You want to get some luxury and health resources to enable a higher health and happy cap in your cities. With these higher caps, your cities can grow larger and use more cottages, farms and mines and thus support the costs of your continued expansion. Trade for these resources if you have many of one kind but none of another.
okay I have another question. Once again, monarch/epic. I took a 6 month break or so, and I want to know if slavery is still super strong, and how best to use it. I usually just wait until it only costs 1 pop, and unhappy for 15 turns. It doesn't seem to be so gamebreakingly important like everyone says it is though.
Lord Parkin
aka emperor
The bug with Slavery where you would get extra hammers up to the Civ4 1.61 patch has been fixed with Warlords. So in some respects, yes, Slavery is less powerful than you might have been used to. However, it's still quite a decent tool if used effectively.
Generally, it is best to whip at least 2 population with any pop-rush. This is because you receive 1 unhappy citizen for 10 turns in the city regardless of the number of population that you whip. Thus, whipping only 1 population is a rather inefficient way of whipping if you are doing it a lot, since you are gathering at least twice the unhappiness than you would otherwise get if you were whipping 2 or more population at once, and thus your city will probably become very unhappy quite quickly.
Generally, it is best to whip at least 2 population with any pop-rush. This is because you receive 1 unhappy citizen for 10 turns in the city regardless of the number of population that you whip. Thus, whipping only 1 population is a rather inefficient way of whipping if you are doing it a lot, since you are gathering at least twice the unhappiness than you would otherwise get if you were whipping 2 or more population at once, and thus your city will probably become very unhappy quite quickly.
Is there such a bonus?Similar threads
