Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

But eliminating an easily accesible copper resource that your opponent would have use of for 10 turns is a good idea. How many spears could they slave out?
Not sure -- I don't have a save from the time, but IIRC that city had at least 5 pop and there was at least one nearby with 4-6; I presume they could each grind out 1 per turn for a few turns at a cost of 2 pop -- but I don't know how to estimate how many they'd have been able to build with hammer overflow instead of whipping. How low will the AI take its population to whip military units?

I was pillaging with 2 Keshiks, had about 3 more nearby, and was waiting for the rest to heal in a city about 5 tiles away. The city had about 5 defenders, two of which were spears. I don't recall how tough the other 3 cities were. Tactically I wasn't in a position to take the city whose BFC had the copper yet; inside the BFC a couple of spears could have counterattacked immediately so sitting on the resource instead didn't seem like the best option. I don't recall if the "nearby" Keshiks were close enough to retake the copper from a damaged spear. Lesson learned: I hadn't brought enough axes with me.
 
Hmm. What about pillaging only the strategic resources? I was once attacking with Kheshiks and pillaged my opponent's copper even next to cities I wanted to keep so they couldn't build spearmen (or axemen, but the spears were what I was worried about). That might still fit your rubric because it was an early city and I had about 5 more to conquer, but I'm not sure how soon you meant by "anytime soon." I was starting to run low on Kehsiks, though, so ending the spearman threat was important to me!


I think that it's usually better to just bring enough military so that you don't need to worry about pillaging. I often target cities with strategic resources for this reason. If this isn't possible (if they're far away) then I just bring in enoug units to destroy the victim's whole civilization. Also, if you captured the city next to copper, and the opponent's culture doesn't go over the copper anymore, then there's no need to worry. If the copper is still in their possession - yes, that's a situation where I'd pillage.

I agree with Lord Parkin - pillaging is generally not worth it and I'd rather be capturing cities.
 
In the case of your enemy having access to an important strategic resource (like Copper) that you can't remove from their hands easily by capturing one city, I think pillaging is a reasonable option. I was really referring more to pillaging of cottages, or excessive pillaging in general. Pillaging a Copper mine or Horse pasture here and there that you can quickly rebuild later is fine; pillaging cottages/mines/windmills etc all over the place is almost certainly not a good idea, unless you really think you'll have no chance of taking an opponent's cities for a very long time. ;)
 
Civilization IV: Quick Answers

Hi everyone!

In this thread, feel free to ask basic questions about Civilization IV. This should make it easier for you guys to get answers quicker, and it should also separate discussion threads from more basic questions. :) With time, this will make it possible for us to put together an official Civilization IV FAQ article as well. If you aren't in a rush to post any questions, make sure to read through the available information, which is likely to answer a lot of questions itself.

Just post your questions here without worrying about if it's already covered somewhere else, and hopefully some of the experts will answer them.

I encourage everyone to participate here, answering questions they can. Thanks!


How do you load missiles onto the Missile Crusier in BTS? I can't figure it out.
 
How do you load missiles onto the Missile Crusier in BTS? I can't figure it out.

Move both the missile cruiser and the missile in the same city and then press the load button when you have the missile selected.

And welcome to civfanatics!:dance::band::beer:
 
How do you load missiles onto the Missile Crusier in BTS? I can't figure it out.

What Roland said. Beyond that, it's quite annoying how missiles can be already loaded on a Cruiser or Submarine, and yet the 'load' icon is still active for them. The only way to know for sure that you've already loaded them is to mouse-over the vessel and see how much cargo space is left (4/4 or 3/3 for Subs).

And unlike missiles, Fighters and Jet Fighters can be loaded onto Carriers at sea with the rebase button.
 
Ok, just installed Civ IV, Beyond the Sword, to my husband's fancy new computer. When I run it, I get all sorts of graphics "artifacts". It's a nice new ATI X1600 video card, just like the one I installed on my computer (which runs the game fine) on a P4 platform (3.01 Ghz Northwood chip) with 1 GB RAM. I ran the game fine with this same setup (only not as good a video card) so I'm thinking it's some setting, any ideas?

The graphics artifacts are random moving rays and shimmery spots on the terrain as best I can describe it. Help! :)
 
And unlike missiles, Fighters and Jet Fighters can be loaded onto Carriers at sea with the rebase button.

Yeah, but you don't want to fly the missiles to your ships, you typically want to fly the missiles to the other guys ships... :p

Ok, just installed Civ IV, Beyond the Sword, to my husband's fancy new computer. When I run it, I get all sorts of graphics "artifacts". It's a nice new ATI X1600 video card, just like the one I installed on my computer (which runs the game fine) on a P4 platform (3.01 Ghz Northwood chip) with 1 GB RAM. I ran the game fine with this same setup (only not as good a video card) so I'm thinking it's some setting, any ideas?

The graphics artifacts are random moving rays and shimmery spots on the terrain as best I can describe it. Help! :)

I can't help you, but I'd advice you to ask for help in the Technical Support forum.
 
Ok, just installed Civ IV, Beyond the Sword, to my husband's fancy new computer. When I run it, I get all sorts of graphics "artifacts". It's a nice new ATI X1600 video card, just like the one I installed on my computer (which runs the game fine) on a P4 platform (3.01 Ghz Northwood chip) with 1 GB RAM. I ran the game fine with this same setup (only not as good a video card) so I'm thinking it's some setting, any ideas?

The graphics artifacts are random moving rays and shimmery spots on the terrain as best I can describe it. Help! :)
I would recommend you to go to the technical support like Roland did, but this surely looks like a driver issue.
 
Thanks, I checked more and it seems my brand new video card is overheating. I thought that was a symptom of overheating, just didn't expect it on a new card, but I downloaded some diagnostic software and sure enough. :(
 
Yes, I figured that much. Am I getting a production bonus or something, or is it not doing anything other than informing me that they are happy?
 
@ VollAufRisiko

It means that there is no city maintenance expense for that city.
 
Making a colony?

1- On a huge Terra map I raced to astronomy and have 5 new cities on an empty continent. I have also placed a couple of cities on islands across the ocean. My goal is to turn the island cities into seperate colonies/vassals. When I go to the city list screen to click on a city and click on the fist to make a colony I get two options. One is to turn the 5 cities on a seperate continent into a colony the other is to do nothing. My plan is too move my capital/empire to the new continent and have my existing cities on the old continent turned into a colony/vassal. So for now I just want to make a few individual cities into a colony/vassal. Help.

2- Can colonies break free? Do they have the same status/effect as vassals?

Thank you in advance.
 
Making a colony?

1- On a huge Terra map I raced to astronomy and have 5 new cities on an empty continent. I have also placed a couple of cities on islands across the ocean. My goal is to turn the island cities into seperate colonies/vassals. When I go to the city list screen to click on a city and click on the fist to make a colony I get two options. One is to turn the 5 cities on a seperate continent into a colony the other is to do nothing. My plan is too move my capital/empire to the new continent and have my existing cities on the old continent turned into a colony/vassal. So for now I just want to make a few individual cities into a colony/vassal. Help.

2- Can colonies break free? Do they have the same status/effect as vassals?

Thank you in advance.

A colony needs at least TWO cities (on ONE land mass). I believe they can break away but you really need to abuse them.
 
A colony needs at least TWO cities (on ONE land mass). I believe they can break away but you really need to abuse them.

Are you talking about Civ4, or colonization? If this is just for Civ IV then there must be some part of the game I am missing because I have no idea what you are talking about.
 
Yes, I figured that much. Am I getting a production bonus or something, or is it not doing anything other than informing me that they are happy?
To clarify: that city's maintenance drops to 0 for a turn.

I love those days you get where you have like 4 or 5 of your cities celebrating every turn. :D
 
Civilizations aren't supposed to stick around when you capture their last city right? If they still have a unit somewhere do they remain in the game?
 
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