Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Way_Traveler]

Roland-- Ah, thanks! So, can I load tactical nukes too, or is it just guided missiles?

And I was actually pretty close to figuring it out. I had the missile cruiser parked in a city, and told the missile to relocate there. I figured it would give me an option of where to load it, and when it didn't, I was out of ideas. I was so close. . I really should have hung on to the BtS manual; it's not in the civopedia.

 

[Mknn]

how to initially get a handle on automating workers is to never automate them.

I do this. But then it gets overwhelming, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it optimally. It seems that, since I don't feel I understand the SE yet, I should be using workers to (a) build commerce tools to up /; (b) build mines for in that order, then use the "maximize from the city screen, occasionally setting it to max if the city requires it. Also, of course, roads to connect both resources and cities and likely routes of troop movement.

Is that the general idea? If so, how do you prioritize? Start with the most productive tiles (like, cottage all the 3 , then mine all the 3 ?

I know it is situation dependent, but as a guide is that on track, and, if not, what am I missing?

And, props to me for cool smiley usage.

 

[daz34]

thanks roland i know about specializing cities but haven´t been doing it. will try it.
I find that my capital is usually the best place for both my oxford and wall street. I usually opt for the oxford as i tend to have early on built my national epic there. if i do remember to specialize it is usually for a military city and i try to put the heroic epic there with ironworks and i try to make sure it has some access to the sea for naval units. in a recent game i put maori statues and ironworks in the same city just because it seemed the best. man could that thing put out the units.
and i agree about the guy with the suspicious game. he may not have been cheating. others were saying he was but when i asked in a later game as you say he didn´t like the implication. i wish him gg anyway.
so how do i find some people to play with here. I want to try some of those locked games and how do i learn about ladders and teamers. i don´t join teamers because i don´t want to saddle someone with me until i know what i am doing. i just posted a PM to someone looking for a replacement player for PBEM. would like to get in on a new one.

thanks again
oh one more thing I really like the Byzantiums lately and their 12 Cata whatevers/knights. any hints on how to make that civ work really well.
Daz

 

[6K Man]

thanks roland i know about specializing cities but haven´t been doing it. will try it.
I find that my capital is usually the best place for both my oxford and wall street. I usually opt for the oxford as i tend to have early on built my national epic there. if i do remember to specialize it is usually for a military city and i try to put the heroic epic there with ironworks and i try to make sure it has some access to the sea for naval units. in a recent game i put maori statues and ironworks in the same city just because it seemed the best. man could that thing put out the units.

Oxford is usually a good bet for the capital because of the Bureaucracy bonus (+50% hammers and commerce) that is in place for much of the middle part of the game (my games, anyway). If you put Oxford, an Academy, Library/University/Observatory and/or multiple Monasteries in your Capital under Bureaucracy, the research will really pile up.

Wall Street, on the other hand, can usually be built somewhere else. If you founded and widely spread a religion w/Shrine, that city is usually the place for Wall Street.

 

[Illusion13]

Just wondering, is there any difference between the chop forest command, and just go straight to building an improvement there?

 

[ggganz]

Only difference is that the forest won't be destroyed until the improvement is finished being built. Say improvement X is being built, and it would normally take 5 turns. But then cutting the forest will take 4 turns. If you cut then build, the forest will go away after 4 turns and the resrource will be build 5 turns after that. But if you just go ahed and build it, the forest will disappear on the same turn as the improvement is finished, which will be after 9 turns.

 

[Illusion13]

Hm... isnt it always good to just build the improvement then?

Does chopping yield more sheilds?

 

[Illusion13]

Oh another question... How is chopping useful for rushing wonders if... A chop only yields a small amount of 25 sheilds and you wont ever have that forest again (Unless you leave that land unimproved and it grows back)

 

[ggganz]

Well, it's actually hammers. And there's no difference.

Some people like to chop so the enemy can't "camp" inside their borders, using forests as defence bonus. They never leave forests adjacent to their city. And keep in mind that building Wonders can be like a race, and winning that race can be worth losing the forest.

 

[6K Man]

The advantage of building the improvement instead of chopping and then building the improvement, is that the forest adds +1 hammer to the tile output while it is still there (it vanishes when the improvement is built). So if you're building something and not trying to chop-rush it, chopping the forest first means you lose that hammer and get nothing back until the improvement is built. In the middle game, this comes up often when adding windmills to forested plains hills.

Conversely, if you ARE chop-rushing something, it makes sense to cut the forest down quickly and not worry about concurrently building the improvement (in the early game, when you are chopping to rush out Axemen/Settlers/Workers/Wonders, you will probably move your chopping workers onto the next forest as soon as the first one is down).

It's usually a good idea to chop jungle first and then improve it, unless you're running one of those late game civics or National Park where you get a happy/healthy bonus for jungle. For the most part, jungle just gives you a -1 to food and some unhealthiness. Besides, cutting it down first lets you move a second worker onto the tile to help without spending an extra movement point.

 

[Lord Parkin]

not sure if this is the place for these questions or a multiplayer forum

i want to improve my multiplayer game a couple of ways

1. I want to be quicker on my turns. the early game is no problem but the mid to end game i tend to be one of the last done. I have quick combat on, i stack move, automate a lot but not the workers til later.

Unfortunately, apart from turning off all animations, there's not a great deal that you can do to increase the speed at which you play turns, without sacrificing your gameplay. I'm a multiplayer player myself, and on the occasions where I play live online games, I'm usually one of the last ones to end my turns after the early game has passed too, simply because I like to think and dislike playing "blitz" like so many players seem to like in that environment. You might find that you'd enjoy slightly slower-paced games with players who take similarly long with their turns as you. Try looking around the multiplayer part of the site to find some people who might be interested in playing an online game with you with a slow or nonexistent turn timer.

2. my mid game sucks. i might get an early lead sometimes but then most experienced players are out teching me and have better finance GNP. I work cottages as quick as i can, get markets, banks, grocer and try to have a financial leader i must be missing something.

One possibility in the multiplayer environment is that several human players may be teaming up to share all their technologies with one another and thus advance very quickly. This happens very regularly in multiplayer games, and in fact in every long-lived multiplayer game I've ever played in with more than 2 human players, some sort of "technological alliances" have always formed at one point or another. These alliances aren't always a bad thing if you're involved in them, but can be depressing if you're always the odd one out. Try playing with a different group of players - if you're regularly playing with a group of people who are friends amongst themselves, then they may be more inclined to help each other technologically and thus leave you in the dust, which can be no fun.

final note: recently, I played three games hosted by the same guy,the first two, other players made some comments about the game being fixed(host switched his level to chieftan and then used his own map the second game) third time i saw him i asked him about it and he told me to leave the game. is there anyway someone can look into someone who hosts a lot that wins a lot of his own games(ie suspicious games).
thanks

No, you can't "check up" on anyone, but if you feel that someone isn't playing fair then you can increase the chances of having a fair game by playing with different people. Your own friends or people from the multiplayer forums here will (usually) be very reasonable and honest players (especially the more established players who have been around the site for more than a few weeks). You're not required to play with the same people all the time - so go out and try playing with some other players, and switch around a bit until you find some friends who you can play enjoyable games with regularly.

and i agree about the guy with the suspicious game. he may not have been cheating. others were saying he was but when i asked in a later game as you say he didn´t like the implication. i wish him gg anyway.
so how do i find some people to play with here. I want to try some of those locked games and how do i learn about ladders and teamers. i don´t join teamers because i don´t want to saddle someone with me until i know what i am doing. i just posted a PM to someone looking for a replacement player for PBEM. would like to get in on a new one.

Ladders in the online multiplayer world are generally organised through the Civ4 Ladder site (a Civ4 site devoted almost exclusively to arranging online multiplayer games). Ladder games are not really too different to regular games, except there is a points system at the site which ranks players. You could try looking there for players in these sort of games. Try either of these two links. Teamers can be arranged through any group of friends, not just on the Civ4 Ladder site. Don't worry about "burdening" anybody, just mention that you are relatively new and most players will certainly be accommodating.

By the way, if you are used to playing online multiplayer then you might find PBEM games rather slow by comparison. However, it's worth trying them out just to see - a lot of people enjoy PBEMs and you might find that you do too. Good luck!

I do this. But then it gets overwhelming, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it optimally. It seems that, since I don't feel I understand the SE yet, I should be using workers to (a) build commerce tools to up /; (b) build mines for in that order, then use the "maximize from the city screen, occasionally setting it to max if the city requires it. Also, of course, roads to connect both resources and cities and likely routes of troop movement.

Is that the general idea? If so, how do you prioritize? Start with the most productive tiles (like, cottage all the 3 , then mine all the 3 ?

I know it is situation dependent, but as a guide is that on track, and, if not, what am I missing?

And, props to me for cool smiley usage.

Yeah, you seem to have the right general idea. In addition, it's almost always best to improve special resources first (things like Pigs, Horses, Corn, Gems, and such) before any other tiles. Generally you want to improve your food resources (like Cows and Wheat) first to aid your city's growth, then the hammer resources (like Copper and Iron) and the commerce resources (like Gold and Silver).

 

[Lord Parkin]

not sure if this is the place for these questions or a multiplayer forum

i want to improve my multiplayer game a couple of ways

1. I want to be quicker on my turns. the early game is no problem but the mid to end game i tend to be one of the last done. I have quick combat on, i stack move, automate a lot but not the workers til later.

Unfortunately, apart from turning off all animations, there's not a great deal that you can do to increase the speed at which you play turns, without sacrificing your gameplay. I'm a multiplayer player myself, and on the occasions where I play live online games, I'm usually one of the last ones to end my turns after the early game has passed too, simply because I like to think and dislike playing "blitz" like so many players seem to like in that environment. You might find that you'd enjoy slightly slower-paced games with players who take similarly long with their turns as you. Try looking around the multiplayer part of the site to find some people who might be interested in playing an online game with you with a slow or nonexistent turn timer.

2. my mid game sucks. i might get an early lead sometimes but then most experienced players are out teching me and have better finance GNP. I work cottages as quick as i can, get markets, banks, grocer and try to have a financial leader i must be missing something.

One possibility in the multiplayer environment is that several human players may be teaming up to share all their technologies with one another and thus advance very quickly. This happens very regularly in multiplayer games, and in fact in every long-lived multiplayer game I've ever played in with more than 2 human players, some sort of "technological alliances" have always formed at one point or another. These alliances aren't always a bad thing if you're involved in them, but can be depressing if you're always the odd one out. Try playing with a different group of players - if you're regularly playing with a group of people who are friends amongst themselves, then they may be more inclined to help each other technologically and thus leave you in the dust, which can be no fun.

final note: recently, I played three games hosted by the same guy,the first two, other players made some comments about the game being fixed(host switched his level to chieftan and then used his own map the second game) third time i saw him i asked him about it and he told me to leave the game. is there anyway someone can look into someone who hosts a lot that wins a lot of his own games(ie suspicious games).
thanks

No, you can't "check up" on anyone, but if you feel that someone isn't playing fair then you can increase the chances of having a fair game by playing with different people. Your own friends or people from the multiplayer forums here will (usually) be very reasonable and honest players (especially the more established players who have been around the site for more than a few weeks). You're not required to play with the same people all the time - so go out and try playing with some other players, and switch around a bit until you find some friends who you can play enjoyable games with regularly.

and i agree about the guy with the suspicious game. he may not have been cheating. others were saying he was but when i asked in a later game as you say he didn´t like the implication. i wish him gg anyway.
so how do i find some people to play with here. I want to try some of those locked games and how do i learn about ladders and teamers. i don´t join teamers because i don´t want to saddle someone with me until i know what i am doing. i just posted a PM to someone looking for a replacement player for PBEM. would like to get in on a new one.

Ladders in the online multiplayer world are generally organised through the Civ4 Ladder site (a Civ4 site devoted almost exclusively to arranging online multiplayer games). Ladder games are not really any different to regular games, it's just that there is a point system which ranks players at the site. You could try looking there for players in these sort of games. Try either of these two links.

As for teamer games, you can play those with anyone, not just ladder people. Don't worry at all about "burdening" anybody - if you let people know that you are a newer player, they will surely be accommodating and understanding.

By the way, if you are used to playing online multiplayer then you might find PBEM games rather slow by comparison. However, it's worth trying them out just to see - a lot of people enjoy PBEMs and you might find that you do too. Good luck!

I do this. But then it gets overwhelming, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it optimally. It seems that, since I don't feel I understand the SE yet, I should be using workers to (a) build commerce tools to up /; (b) build mines for in that order, then use the "maximize from the city screen, occasionally setting it to max if the city requires it. Also, of course, roads to connect both resources and cities and likely routes of troop movement.

Is that the general idea? If so, how do you prioritize? Start with the most productive tiles (like, cottage all the 3 , then mine all the 3 ?

I know it is situation dependent, but as a guide is that on track, and, if not, what am I missing?

And, props to me for cool smiley usage.

Yeah, you seem to have the right general idea. In addition, it's almost always best to improve special resources first (things like Pigs, Horses, Corn, Gems, and such) before any other tiles. Generally you want to improve your food resources (like Cows and Wheat) first to aid your city's growth, then the hammer resources (like Copper and Iron) and the commerce resources (like Gold and Silver).

 

[cabert]

I do this. But then it gets overwhelming, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it optimally. It seems that, since I don't feel I understand the SE yet, I should be using workers to (a) build commerce tools to up /; (b) build mines for in that order, then use the "maximize from the city screen, occasionally setting it to max if the city requires it. Also, of course, roads to connect both resources and cities and likely routes of troop movement.

Is that the general idea? If so, how do you prioritize? Start with the most productive tiles (like, cottage all the 3 , then mine all the 3 ?

I know it is situation dependent, but as a guide is that on track, and, if not, what am I missing?

And, props to me for cool smiley usage.

you have it quite right.
Some basic guidelines :
- have enough workers. You don't want to work unimproved tiles (of course it's unavoidable in the beginning).
- food first. It's almost always better to grow as fast as possible. The rest will be som much better if you have big cities.
- highest output tiles first. It's no use having loads of soso tiles, if you can have a handful of very high output tiles (like big food resources and a few gold/silver/gem/copper/iron mines).
- improve the tiles according to the city needs. It's no use having 3 cottages if you're only size 2 and growing slowly. Better to farm a few tiles and grow, then come back and cottage.

 

[HUSch]

Perhaps i'm only stupid, to take the right word for search.
So i ask here, where can i find a list of the objects from goody huts?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Perhaps i'm only stupid, to take the right word for search.
So i ask here, where can i find a list of the objects from goody huts?

Hi HUSch,

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Do you just want a list of all the possible things you can get from a goody hut? If so, you can find that information in the folder Assets\XML\GameInfo\CIV4HandicapInfo.xml. I have attached a spreadsheet, it is a few months old though so may not be completely up to date. (Look on the bottom lines.) This file also gives the likelihood on each difficulty level of a given event occuring, which is very useful.

The possible items from a goody hut are: Gold (small amount), Gold (large amount), Map, Settler (Warlord level or below only), Warrior, Scout, Worker (Warlord level or below only), Experience, Healing, Technology, Barbarians (small amount) (Chieftain level and above only), Barbarians (large amount) (Warlord level and above only).

If you want to know something else, like for instance the list of all possible technologies, then I can probably find that somewhere around too... I know I've seen it before. Hope I've helped you.

Cheers,
Emperor / Lord Parkin

 

[Roland Johansen]

Roland-- Ah, thanks! So, can I load tactical nukes too, or is it just guided missiles?

And I was actually pretty close to figuring it out. I had the missile cruiser parked in a city, and told the missile to relocate there. I figured it would give me an option of where to load it, and when it didn't, I was out of ideas. I was so close. . I really should have hung on to the BtS manual; it's not in the civopedia.

It works for tactical nukes too (and also on submarines).

This game is fairly complex. It's quite easy to miss an element of gameplay for a while.

thanks roland i know about specializing cities but haven´t been doing it. will try it.
I find that my capital is usually the best place for both my oxford and wall street. I usually opt for the oxford as i tend to have early on built my national epic there. if i do remember to specialize it is usually for a military city and i try to put the heroic epic there with ironworks and i try to make sure it has some access to the sea for naval units. in a recent game i put maori statues and ironworks in the same city just because it seemed the best. man could that thing put out the units.
and i agree about the guy with the suspicious game. he may not have been cheating. others were saying he was but when i asked in a later game as you say he didn´t like the implication. i wish him gg anyway.
so how do i find some people to play with here. I want to try some of those locked games and how do i learn about ladders and teamers. i don´t join teamers because i don´t want to saddle someone with me until i know what i am doing. i just posted a PM to someone looking for a replacement player for PBEM. would like to get in on a new one.

Lord Parkin, who is more familiar with the multiplayer scene, has already answered many of your questions by now. However, I would like to correct something that I said.

Specialisation can be useful, but don't overdo it. I tend to prioritise some buildings in some cities and prioritise other buildings in other cities, but still lots of buildings will be needed in every city when the city becomes huge. For instance, most health and happiness improving buildings are needed in every city once the city becomes huge. So a city focussing on unit production which grows to size 20 might still need a grocer. Maybe not for the gold bonus, but just for the health bonus. Although that might depend on whether you have the resources that are enhanced by the grocer.
Some players will talk about specialisation as the holy grail of civ-playing, but I would just say if you prioritise some buildings in some cities, then you're getting a considerable advantage.

Specialisation to optimally use the national wonders is clearly a method to optimise your game play. That type of specialisation should be used in every game.

thanks again
oh one more thing I really like the Byzantiums lately and their 12 Cata whatevers/knights. any hints on how to make that civ work really well.
Daz

I just checked out the Byzantines in the civilopedia (I don't know all of the leader statistics by heart).

They start with mysticism and the wheel. The start with mysticism might allow you to grab one of the early religions. It depends a bit on your starting position (do you have a good commerce tile to use early on to research extra quickly) and whether another civilization in the game is also starting with mysticism. Still, if you manage to grab one of the early religions, then you have a potentially great Wall Street city right there. The shrine income will greatly help you.
Being the owner of a holy city also offers you line of sight from cities with this religion in vanilla civ4 and Warlords or cost reductions for espionage in such cities in BTS.

You don't start with mining, so you won't be one of the first to reach the great bronze working technology. The wheel is needed for cottages and to build chariots.

Their leader is spiritual and imperialistic. Make use of that 0 turn anarchy by switching civics whenever it might be useful. You can switch between war civics and peace civics every single turn if you wish.
The switch between peace time civics like organized religion and pacifism and the war time civic theocracy is one of your options. Another is the switch between bureaucracy and free speech and vassalage. Quickly switching to police state when war weariness starts to hurt is also a great option for a spiritual leader.
You get unit experience according to the civics that you're using when you finish a unit.

Imperialistic should allow you to claim a bigger piece of the land area because of the production bonus when building settlers. However, this civilisation still has to pay for these cities and still has to build units to defend these cities, so don't overdo it. You only get the hammer bonus when you build settlers with hammers, not when you build them with food. This makes it extra useful to build settlers using the whip when you are imperialistic.
You will get some extra great generals when at war and especially your first great generals will come very early. Settle them in your best unit production city as great instructors and you'll get super-units to fight your enemies. Once you get units of a certain level out of such a unit production city, it might be better to create a second unit production city which is creating super units. Creating level 4 units takes 10 xp and that is still attainable, but creating level 5 units (17 xp) or level 6 units (27xp) is taking far to many great instructors to be efficient. And the units aren't getting that much better anymore.

The unique building, the hippodrome allows you to get a huge happiness bonus from using the culture slider. That might be useful when war weariness starts to hurt.

The cataphract is a strong unique unit. It is perfect for defending your stacks against most units. The only unit that can fight it efficiently is the pikeman, but your macemen or crossbowmen could stop those units. It's also a great counter for an opponent who is massing siege units. It's very hard to find a unit in that era that can win against a shock promoted cataphract, so you can use flanking attacks against catapults and trebuchets (BTS).

It can't get the city raider promotions and it can't remove city defence bonuses on it's own so rushing an opponent could get expensive. However, if you use spies to remove the defensive bonus of cities (BTS) and your opponent isn't anticipating your attack by building lots of pikeman, then you can rush your opponent. Shortly before the war, you move all of your espionage efforts on one opponent so that you'll have a nice stockpile of espionage points to remove the defensive bonus of cities. I could see this working in multiplayer although I don't have a lot of experience with multiplayer wars.
If you beeline guilds (expensive), then you might get cataphracts before your opponent has pikemen. If you remove his iron, then he can't build pikemen. You could use spies to do that.

I don't know how good your opponents are. This will not work when your opponent sees it coming.
Promotions: Flanking II for those who are expected to lose the battle and just weaken the enemy. It's also great against longbowmen with many first strikes.
Shock for those who are supposed to destroy melee units like pikemen and spearmen and macemen.
Combat promotions to kill a non-specific unit. When facing mixed stacks of units, combat promotions often work well. Your units will get the best counter unit fighting against them anyway.
Formation when your opponent has elephants. It's probably not a good idea to fight elephants with horse-based units.

I often don't use my unique unit very much in single player, but I can imagine that any battle advantage is crucial in multiplayer, so that's why I wrote a long section about this unit.

 

[daz34]

thanks again guys (Lord Parkin and Roland, was there anyone else if so thanks)
I´m off to play SP for a bit to get a hang of ´whipping´ and ´spies´

about Great Generals. The first one i generally use as a general to get a level 4 unit quickly so i can build the heroic epic(usually i get a level 6 and then later west point isnt a problem either) as i have found if i dont the war ends sometimes with my having a lot of level 3´s but no level four. then the rest i put into instructors and academies (when i get them). is that about right or do you do things different. The only time i built a second strong general was in a war i was losing and needed a good unit quick. oh and do you find that the unit attached to the Great General tends to die a little too quickly even with really good odds(had one die with 95% odds, grrr)
Daz

 

[HUSch]

Thx Lord Parkin
the list was what i searched.

 

[Roland Johansen]

thanks again guys (Lord Parkin and Roland, was there anyone else if so thanks)
I´m off to play SP for a bit to get a hang of ´whipping´ and ´spies´

about Great Generals. The first one i generally use as a general to get a level 4 unit quickly so i can build the heroic epic(usually i get a level 6 and then later west point isnt a problem either) as i have found if i dont the war ends sometimes with my having a lot of level 3´s but no level four. then the rest i put into instructors and academies (when i get them). is that about right or do you do things different. The only time i built a second strong general was in a war i was losing and needed a good unit quick. oh and do you find that the unit attached to the Great General tends to die a little too quickly even with really good odds(had one die with 95% odds, grrr)
Daz

I usually only need to use a great general as a warlord to get a level 6 unit for West Point. Without the charismatic trait, it takes 26 xp to get to that level and that's not that easy. Sometimes I get such a unit through war, but not always. I don't think I've ever used a great general to get to level 4. Sometimes I get a level 4 unit from fighting barbarians and otherwise I would get it in the first war. I haven't played non-PBEM multiplayer yet, so I don't know if it might be hard to get a level 4 unit against humans.

I do tend to play on the larger maps so that might make it easier to get one unit fighting enough barbarians or enemy units to get to level 4.

I always use a warlord to create a great medic. Single units tend to die, however experienced they are, they do tend to die. There are only so many 90%+ battles that you will win in a row. Sooner or later the unit will die. And when you would only use a unit to fight battles with a 99.9% chance of victory, then the unit isn't fighting any of the real battles anyway. A single unit rarely makes a difference in a war in civilization IV.

A medic III warlord however will heal your units a lot faster. In that way, you don't have to heal for extended periods of time between battles and can use your units for the job they were created for namely fighting. (By the way, medic I, woodsman III healers are great too, but hard to come by, especially early in the game.)

I tend to use this warlord on a fast unit so that my healer can be there where he'll be needed. I also tend to pick a weak unit so that he'll defend last in a stack and won't be killed by a random attack. Usually that means a chariot or an explorer. I won't upgrade the chariot (except when it becomes a speedy helicopter) because that will only make it a better stack defender which is too risky.

I usually don't make a second warlord. The rest of the great generals are used to create military instructors. I will only build a military academy in a city that can build level 4 units (10 xp) when using peacetime civics (no xp bonus from civics). Level 4 units can be city raider 3 units or another set of very useful promotions. Higher level units take too many instructors in one city. I'd rather have 2 cities producing level 4 units fast than one city producing level 5 units fast. You might wnat to go for level 5 units when you're charismatic (13 xp).

 

[Bridger]

I'd like to maybe play online, and the expansions look like fun. Should i get one or the other or both? Do you play with both active at the same time? Is this the most common game to be found?

Edit: Also - if i have the normal store bought version of Civ IV, can i get an expansion from Steam?