Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[BrantleyL1]

My plan for learning a bit is working... When last heard, I had four opponents left on my continent: Isabella, Mansa, Toku & Saladin.

On the other main continent is Lizzy and Jules. Monty has a rather large Island all to himself. They havve NEVER tried anything.

I wiped out Saladin, then Toku. Somewhere just before I finished off Toku, Mansa declared on Isabella. She asked for help & I refused. That may have played into my later problem... Wiped out Mansa with Tanks & riflemen. Gave one of Isabella's cities back to her And finished the UN. Thinking I might have a decent chance for a diplo victory somewhere in the 1970s or so... No such luck. Even though I later killed off Mansa for Izzy - I think she still holds it against me. (She abstained once, but consitantly votes for Jules. 4 or so votes later, I can't muster enough to win.

Thought about cultural victory until I remembered that it's 50,000 points (not 10K, like I was close to).

So, since domination requires 40% of the population (and I have 60%) and 60% of the land mass (and I have 58%), it's bye-bye Izzy. Once I take a couple of her remaining cities, I'll have enough land mass.

I'm wondering if I should have just declared on her right after I wiped out Mansa. Is there a time period for the "we long to return to our homeland" complaint and/or the "War, unh, what is it good for?" to wear off??? Mansa's former cities were REALLY unhappy!!

 

[BrantleyL1]

In the game described above, A couple of my older cities have a problem. One of them has decreased to size '1'. Other nearby cities have stabilized in the low-to-mid teens and one at around 21 or so. This one now at size '1' is surrounded by a fair number of cottages and a few farms.

Why does that happen? What can I do to get it to build again?

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm wondering if I should have just declared on her right after I wiped out Mansa. Is there a time period for the "we long to return to our homeland" complaint and/or the "War, unh, what is it good for?" to wear off??? Mansa's former cities were REALLY unhappy!!

The 'War, unh, what is it good for' is war weariness unhappiness. It is zero as long as you're not at war with the civilisation that caused the war weariness. If you redeclare the war after a short peace period, the war weariness will return at almost full strength. You will have to remain at peace for many dozens of turns before you can redeclare war with only a small remainder of the war weariness unhappiness.

The 'We long to return to our homeland' unhappiness is caused by the fact that a large fraction of the culture of the city is a foreign culture. You can see this by entering the city and looking at the culture bar in the city.
By producing culture in the city, the fraction of culture that is form your civilisation will increase slowly. So you should build some culture producing buildings in the city. It will take a long time to get a decent fraction of the culture in the core cities of the enemy civilisation that you've captured.
If you completely destroy another civilisation, then their culture will disappear and this type of unhappiness will disappear.

In the game described above, A couple of my older cities have a problem. One of them has decreased to size '1'. Other nearby cities have stabilized in the low-to-mid teens and one at around 21 or so. This one now at size '1' is surrounded by a fair number of cottages and a few farms.

Why does that happen? What can I do to get it to build again?

It could be that you're suffering from a lot of unhappiness from war weariness or you don't have enough food in these cities. I don't know what is causing it without seeing a savegame.

 

[Samson]

My plan for learning a bit is working... When last heard, I had four opponents left on my continent: Isabella, Mansa, Toku & Saladin.

On the other main continent is Lizzy and Jules. Monty has a rather large Island all to himself. They havve NEVER tried anything.

I wiped out Saladin, then Toku. Somewhere just before I finished off Toku, Mansa declared on Isabella. She asked for help & I refused. That may have played into my later problem... Wiped out Mansa with Tanks & riflemen. Gave one of Isabella's cities back to her And finished the UN. Thinking I might have a decent chance for a diplo victory somewhere in the 1970s or so... No such luck. Even though I later killed off Mansa for Izzy - I think she still holds it against me. (She abstained once, but consitantly votes for Jules. 4 or so votes later, I can't muster enough to win.

Thought about cultural victory until I remembered that it's 50,000 points (not 10K, like I was close to).

So, since domination requires 40% of the population (and I have 60%) and 60% of the land mass (and I have 58%), it's bye-bye Izzy. Once I take a couple of her remaining cities, I'll have enough land mass.

I'm wondering if I should have just declared on her right after I wiped out Mansa. Is there a time period for the "we long to return to our homeland" complaint and/or the "War, unh, what is it good for?" to wear off??? Mansa's former cities were REALLY unhappy!!

These are 2 different types of unhappiness, and they are quite different. "War, unh, what is it good for?" is war weariness (WW), and should stop the turn after you make peace with someone. There is a different WW tally for each opponent, so if you make peace with one and straight away make war on another then WW should go away. If you have previously been at war with the new opponent, you may still have WW from before, it goies away very slowly. For more details see War Weariness Mechanics

The "we long to return to our homeland" is related to the city nationallity, the bar close to the bottom left of the city screen. It is basically the totasl accumalated culture of that tile from each civ. If you capture an establised city you will never be able to get rid of this unhappiness. The way I do it is to try and elliminate an opponent, then the culture and so the "we long to return to our homeland" unghappiness goes away.

Your other problem, of the cities shrinking, it is hard to say. Probably WW, or some odd setting on the govenor, or perhaps you forced all the citizens to be specalists? Post a save if you cannot figure it out.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

You are right, that was later after the period of the republic and was pretty short lived. But still the area of the low countries has a similar culture and in that sense belongs together. So you're right that it could have been called the Low Countries to represent the whole region.

Oh, and I like to use understatements. The religious differences were one of the main reasons that the nation of Belgium became independent from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and many other wars in that period have a religious starting point like the independence of the Republic of the Netherlands from Spain.

If they would use some Belgian cities for the Netherlands in this game, then that would probably not be appreciated by some Belgians who really don't want Belgium seen as a part of the Netherlands. I don't think Firaxis will do that, gaming companies tend to be conservative.

By the way, are you from Belgium?

No, I'm originally from the "ocupied" part of holland. Brabant.
But the indepence war against spain started out as a war for selfcontrol and taxes. Only later with alva, it became a religious war. But I was for using belgium cities, cause they are using willem de zwijger, and in his time belgium and holland where still closely tied politically and socially. Although culturally their where already signs of both drifting appart.

 

[Rancid Sushi]

Today I realized that I have very little experience with financial civs. This board is probably to blame. When I was just a noob, I didn't play as any financial leader because lots of people on here said that it's a bad trait for noobs because it can become a crutch. Well, I would like to play as Wang Kon or Ragnar, but every time I consider it I start feeling guilty because financial seems so overpowered. Finally, my question: it won't be too long before I try my hand at Monarch level, so would you Monarch (and above) players recommend an 'easier' leader like Elizabeth or Mansa Musa, or would it be better for my growth as a player to stay with more difficult ones like Genghis or Alexander?

 

[cabert]

Today I realized that I have very little experience with financial civs. This board is probably to blame. When I was just a noob, I didn't play as any financial leader because lots of people on here said that it's a bad trait for noobs because it can become a crutch. Well, I would like to play as Wang Kon or Ragnar, but every time I consider it I start feeling guilty because financial seems so overpowered. Finally, my question: it won't be too long before I try my hand at Monarch level, so would you Monarch (and above) players recommend an 'easier' leader like Elizabeth or Mansa Musa, or would it be better for my growth as a player to stay with more difficult ones like Genghis or Alexander?

financial isn't overpowered, play one at your current level and make your own opinion.
I get better results with spiritual ones .

 

[Roland Johansen]

Today I realized that I have very little experience with financial civs. This board is probably to blame. When I was just a noob, I didn't play as any financial leader because lots of people on here said that it's a bad trait for noobs because it can become a crutch. Well, I would like to play as Wang Kon or Ragnar, but every time I consider it I start feeling guilty because financial seems so overpowered. Finally, my question: it won't be too long before I try my hand at Monarch level, so would you Monarch (and above) players recommend an 'easier' leader like Elizabeth or Mansa Musa, or would it be better for my growth as a player to stay with more difficult ones like Genghis or Alexander?

The most important thing that decides the difficulty of a game besides the difficulty level is the map that you draw. You can get very lucky and get a very strong starting position with weak neighbours or you can get a very bad starting position with aggressive neighbours that got a strong starting position. You might start in an isolated starting position with barely any resources which is one of the hardest starting positions because you can't trade technologies and can't get any big cities and don't get foreign trade routes.

Whether you pick a strong leader or a weak leader also makes a difference, but don't conclude things like: wow I played well this game, this must be a strong leader. The draw of the map was probably more important.

So, if you go up a level and don't like to lose a game, then you should find a game with a decent starting position. If you haven't played a financial leader before, then you should definitely try it. Variation is fun. The financial trait is strong, but it won't win the game for you.

If you want to learn, then you should play several games with everything as random as possible (except difficulty level), so that you learn to adjust to the circumstances.

 

[Rohili]

What does First Strikes and the Drill promotions actually do? I don't see anything special when I get a unit with First Strikes to attack another unit...

 

[cabert]

What does First Strikes and the Drill promotions actually do? I don't see anything special when I get a unit with First Strikes to attack another unit...

first strikes do exactly what the name says .

beware : first strike CHANCES are not straight first strikes.

Let's say you have a Crossbowman.
"naked", he has 1 first strike

Let's say you face a maceman.

Your crossbowman will have a "free" round of fight vs the maceman.
If he wins this round of fight, the maceman will lose some health.
If he loses this round of fight, nothing happens.

Now let's say you have drill I and II on your crossbowman. Now your unit has 2 first strikes + 1 first strike chance.
There is a "dice roll" to check if the first strike chance actually gives a first strike or not.
Then the crossbowman has 2 or 3 free rounds of fight.
Meaning that he has 3 chances to hurt the maceman without risking his own health.
I can tell you macemen usually die in this situation .

Now, there are units immune to first strikes :Horse Archer, Knight and the derived UUs + all units with flanking II promotion.
SO if your crossbowman fights a horse archer, he has no free rounds of fight at all.

 

[Rohili]

Ah, thanks. Question: How many "rounds" does a fight typically last? Just to see how valuable first strikes actually are. If one round typically lasts 5 rounds before one unit is dead, then it is very useful. But if a fight usually lasts 100 rounds, then getting 1 free round seems insignificant.

 

[cabert]

Ah, thanks. Question: How many "rounds" does a fight typically last? Just to see how valuable first strikes actually are. If one round typically lasts 5 rounds before one unit is dead, then it is very useful. But if a fight usually lasts 100 rounds, then getting 1 free round seems insignificant.

It depends on R, relative force (A/D = R, with A = attacker's force, and D defender's force). The more powerful you are, the more damage you deal.
Combat ends when health point are at 0.
On a typical fight, it's around 7 rounds.
On a very disproportionate fight, it's 3 rounds.

3 first strikes is usually significant, but it's a lot less efficient if you lose those 3 rounds (because you're so weak )

 

[zefar101]

hello everyone,just wondering when i buy civ4 d i need to get warlords and the one releasing soon to enjoy the full effect of the game..thank you

 

[Samson]

hello everyone,just wondering when i buy civ4 d i need to get warlords and the one releasing soon to enjoy the full effect of the game..thank you

No, the original game is great and the changes with warlords are relativly minor. I reakon I got value for money out of warlords, but I play it a lot. If the money maters to you, just get the vanilla game and then if you get into it you can pick up warlords later.

 

[Roland Johansen]

hello everyone,just wondering when i buy civ4 d i need to get warlords and the one releasing soon to enjoy the full effect of the game..thank you

The second expansion pack, 'Beyond the Sword', will probably contain all the core elements of the first expansion pack, 'Warlords'. With core elements, I mean everything except the scenario's. So, I guess you might want to skip the first expansion pack.

Oh, and welcome to civfanatics!

 

[zefar101]

thanks to you both..just got civ iv and having a great time!...ill wait for the Swords pack..again thank you

 

[ArghLuiz]

just out of my mind, now that cabert used the crossbowman in his explanation.

is there REALLY a situation where producing them is really useful? i never use crossbowmen in my games, but maybe i just don't know the best way to use them. this goes for musketmen too, and a few other units i dont remember right now.

another thing: the 10% city attack bonus of certain units (i.e. swordmen) is really worth the extra cost? I mean, are they really THAT useful when atacking cities? how does this bonus work? in the early game, I usually stick with axemen, because they are cheaper, but mostly because the A.I. seems to rely a lot in defending cities with melee units...

the false last one: how do you, fellow experienced players, quickly raise an unit level to six, to build the west point?

the true last one (heh): i just got my hands on warlords. there is something i dont seem to understand... acording to civilopedia, great generals are created when a civilization reaches a certain amount of "battle" experience points. but what determines in which city the g.g. will apear? and where is shown (if there is) the amount needed/ already acumulated to create the next one?

sorry about the expelling. english is not my native language and i am REALLY tired to worry about spellchecking right now...

thanks in advance!

 

[frankcor]

Short of popping several tribal villages that provide experience, the only way to raise experience higher than 10 is to win combats vs opposing Civs, not barbarians.

 

[scienide09]

I suspect that cabert simply chose to use the crossbowman as an example because, as he pointed out, a "naked" crossbowman is automatically granted 1 first strike. Upgrading with a couple of drill promotions can make a crossbowman a pretty useful unit. That being said, I occasionally use them to plug a full gaps in defense, but mostly ignore them. You can live without.

The best way to get your level 6 unit for West Point is to fight. If you only have one that's getting close, stack him with some good defensive units to ward off counter-attacks so that he's not losing hitpoints defending himself. Then use catapults/cannons/artillery to soften the enemy units with collateral damage. Finally, use the unit you want to promote to finish the kill.

By the way, your spelling doesn't seem to bad to me.

 

[ArghLuiz]

wow, that was quick. anyway, i think i'm just too perfectionist.

anyway, the amount of exp. the unit will receive is always the same after a battle, regardless of the, let's say, intensity of the fight? I mean, if I fight, like in your example, with a unit aready crippled by other units i shall receive the same amount I would if I was fighting a full-health unit? does the level (or the type) of the enemy unit counts on this value?