Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Madeleine]

Hi all!

I have a question concerning culture and team game. I haven't played many team games so far and an annoying thing happened. I hope this is the right forum to ask this question..

As you can see in the picture below my dear ally, Stalin, somehow managed to rob my pig tile although I should still have it (98% Egyptian).. Heliopolis was my 3rd city and I got the pig quite quickly in the beginning of the game. It really bugs me as I like building not so many cities but those few should be even better in quality. And now that stupid Stalin's 15th or so city stole my city's key tile..

So the question: Does some1 have a clue why did I lose the pig and how I could get it back inside my cultural borders!? I would really appreciate answers.. (^_^)

 

[Ernieboy]

Hi everyone. As a new player to Civ, I tend to lose track of the game when things get complicated (3-4 cities, with BW and IW, 15-20 units, etc). I just don't know what to do with all those units and don't know what to build in my cities, since there's so much choice. I have opened a thread about this but I thought I might get a faster response this way. I play on Warlord. I do know how to zoom out, but it doesn't help.

Thanks!

 

[Mint]

I am in need of help. I have been noticing that the AIs haven't been building any other cities, and I am getting VERY annoyed with this. If anyone could assist me with this issue in any way possible, I would appreciate it. (I am playing Civ4 without any expansions).

 

[Silu]

So the question: Does some1 have a clue why did I lose the pig and how I could get it back inside my cultural borders!? I would really appreciate answers.. (^_^)

In a team game (or permanent alliance, which is almost the same), city BFC tiles are assigned primarily by the distance to the city, and only secondarily by culture (if the distance is equal). 2 tiles east is shorter than 2 tiles west and 1 north, so it's assigned to Chita's controller. Sadly, you can't get it back except by gaining control of Chita.

 

[Madeleine]

Aww that's lame! Anyways thanks for the answer Silu! =)

 

[henrebotha]

I've only really started playing BtS recently, and having had some success at Prince level stealing techs and inciting revolts, the idea of playing an "espionage game" appeals to me. I made a shortlist of traits, UBs, and UUs that I felt were conducive to espionage, but no civ/leader had two good traits and suitable UUs and UBs, so I ended up going with the leader who seemed to me to be the next best thing: Hannibal. I also felt it appropriate to jack up the difficulty to Monarch.

Can anyone offer me some tips and pointers as to how to play an efficient cloak-and-dagger game? I figured beelining for Compass and Code of Laws would set me up nicely to get a strong economy going, which I can channel into espionage points which I use in turn to incite revolts in enemy cities and capture them using Numidian Cavalry. Any other thoughts?

 

[Sisiutil]

For an espionage game, Gilgamesh of Sumer might be a better bet as Ziggurats replace courthouses and are available much earlier (with Priesthood).

Regardless, try to research to Masonary ASAP and build the Great Wall to start generating Great Spies. Depending upon the circumstances of the map/game, you can use him for infiltration, settle him, or build Scotland Yard. My own recommendation would be to settle an early GSpy--the extra EPs early on will help you against everyone, and you get some research points as a bonus.

 

[Baldyr]

Can anyone offer me some tips and pointers as to how to play an efficient cloak-and-dagger game?

The way I roll is that I get an early Spy specialist in my first research city (running 2-4 Scientists depending on if I have the Great Library or not). This gives me an early Great Spy - one of many, as I continue to run Spy specialist in any city creating .

The first one I usually use to conduct the Infiltration mission in one of the cities of my closest neighbors. By that time I try to have a veritable army of regular Spy units, which I plant in the nearest city of my victim-to-be. Once my Spies have the maximum discount for being idle I steal everything my neighbor has Tech-wise. In the meanwhile I've allocated all of my spending on another neighbor, and can steal anything they have also... And I should have points to spare against both of them once I'm done!

This way I can skip a lot of the early Techs and beeline for whatever I'm pursuing in that game. Stealing and trading Techs enables me to achieve parity with the Tech-leaders even if I'm not going all out for research myself.

Consecutive Great Spies could be settled in my future Great Spy factory, located at the fringes of my domains. (Lots of un-chopped Forests.) So I build the Scotland Yard there in preparation for the National Park to become available. Then I use all the free specialist slots enabled by that National Wonder to run Spy specialists only, together with the Security Bureau and the Intelligence Agency. Apart from all the created in this city (no need to actually spend on ) there will also be more Great Spies to come - and more cloak and dagger opportunities for m...

 

[georgjorge]

Hi everyone. As a new player to Civ, I tend to lose track of the game when things get complicated (3-4 cities, with BW and IW, 15-20 units, etc). I just don't know what to do with all those units and don't know what to build in my cities, since there's so much choice. I have opened a thread about this but I thought I might get a faster response this way. I play on Warlord. I do know how to zoom out, but it doesn't help.

Thanks!

Maybe you could try playing a One-City-Challenge for a start (OCC as they say around here)? There you'll only have one city for the duration of the entire game, it's an option you can check at the start of a Custom Game (you can play that way in a regular game as well, but it's very hard since you only can build two National Wonders etc, those restrictions are lifted in a OCC). There are some threads around for OCCs, like that one. It's a different experience since you have to put much more values on some things, less on others, but it could help you ease yourself into the game.

 

[IAM]

@ Madeleine: very well presented question. That may seem like an odd comment but it makes it so much easier to give accurate advice with screen shoots and specific info.

 

[Tadzio]

Hey guys, noobie here.

I've only had CIV4 (Vanilla) for the last week. My first game was on Settler, won it. Second game on Chieftain, won it. Third game on Warlord, lost it. Found these forums and read up on some stuff. Fourth game on Warlord, won it. And now I'm playing my fifth game on Noble.

The problem is, I'm not too thrilled about my empire's start location so I thought I'd come straight out and ask for advice. Here's my map:

Spoiler :

Yeah... All the whitish tiles are desert. Egad! T T ...well at least I have lotsa dyes!

Anyway, I'm thinking that I'm going to HAVE to start an early war, but even if I'm successful, I'm worried about my maintainance costs (which are already bad with only 4 cities). Any tips/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The Particulars:
I'm Tokugawa (Aggressive, Organized) of Japan.

To the far West is Saladin (Annoyed) of Arabia. -- His starting position may actually be worse than mine since I'm blocking him in.
To my North is Isabella (Cautious, Open Boarders) of Spain.
To my East is Cyrus (Cautious) of Persia.
I'm not sure where Louis (Cautious) and Frederick (Cautious) are. I only saw their scouts before a barbarian killed my scout, but I believe they're on the North East landmass behind Isabella and Cyrus.

Current Techs:
Fishing
The Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing -> (currently teching Alphabet, but I'm thinking I should change it)
Agriculture -> Animal Husbandry
Mysticism
Mining -> Bronze Working

Map type: Fractal
Standard Map Size
Normal Game Speed
Noble Difficulty
Everything else random.

 

[henrebotha]

Your maintenance costs are fine. You've got a sweet stockpile of cash going, and you're only barely bleeding money at 80% science, so I wouldn't worry - particularly considering that your cities are completely undeveloped.

Not sure why you settled Tokyo where you did (1W would also have nabbed you copper), but yeah. Kyoto and Osaka look set to make badass commerce cities, and Edo will do a serviceable job of being a production centre.

Your task right now is to develop your land. You need to get Workers out there to build improvements and get rid of jungle, the latter part of which means you'll need Iron Working before Osaka will become viable. You'll also want to grab Hunting soon for those lovely oliphaunts, though if you stick with Alphabet you can probably trade it for peanuts instead of needing to waste five turns teching it yourself. Anyway, I don't know whether you have any Workers at all, but I'd rate you need about 4-6 of them right now. I would focus on improving Kyoto first, then move on to the other cities. Have you been whipping severely? If not, why are your cities so small?

I don't see why early war is important here, and I certainly don't think Edo is a killer enough production centre to be able to mobilise a huge fighting force quickly. I'd rather build infrastructure like a madman and establish a solid tech lead, then start thinking about warfare in the Middle Ages.

 

[Tadzio]

Your maintenance costs are fine. You've got a sweet stockpile of cash going, and you're only barely bleeding money at 80% science, so I wouldn't worry - particularly considering that your cities are completely undeveloped.

Not sure why you settled Tokyo where you did (1W would also have nabbed you copper), but yeah. Kyoto and Osaka look set to make badass commerce cities, and Edo will do a serviceable job of being a production centre.

Your task right now is to develop your land. You need to get Workers out there to build improvements and get rid of jungle, the latter part of which means you'll need Iron Working before Osaka will become viable. You'll also want to grab Hunting soon for those lovely oliphaunts, though if you stick with Alphabet you can probably trade it for peanuts instead of needing to waste five turns teching it yourself. Anyway, I don't know whether you have any Workers at all, but I'd rate you need about 4-6 of them right now. I would focus on improving Kyoto first, then move on to the other cities. Have you been whipping severely? If not, why are your cities so small?

I don't see why early war is important here, and I certainly don't think Edo is a killer enough production centre to be able to mobilise a huge fighting force quickly. I'd rather build infrastructure like a madman and establish a solid tech lead, then start thinking about warfare in the Middle Ages.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, and the tips!

I put Tokyo where I did cuz a copper and a green tile (with forest) seemed better to me than a copper and a brown tile. With enough culture I should be able to get access to both unless Saladin builds in the desert.

I have 4 workers, but 6 would be nicer.

I think I agree with you about Ironworking and Hunting. Alphabet will take a while to research at this rate.

TBH I think Edo looks pretty screwed... how do you make it "serviceable"? Whipping?

And no I haven't been whipping (I still don't understand how to leverage it). When I lost on Warlord I read a guide that suggested if you start without the worker techs to develop your area, you start with a warrior, grow to 2, get a worker, build warriors til you get to 5, then spit out 3 settlers and 3 workers. So all my expansions are essentially the same age.

Oh, and the reason I'm considering war is I really like what I saw of Isabella's land and she's just expanded in such a way that Osaka is separated from the rest of my empire (the reason I Opened borders with her, so I could build a road to Osaka and get workers there, etc).

Hope you've got more advice coming my way!

 

[phoenix_sprite]

I just tried RFC for the first time today, I understand the concepts but there are two things that are bugging me:
Can marshes be eliminated through a tech/worker?
Is there a way I can make my normal non-RFC games look like RFC? (Darker water and terrain)

 

[henrebotha]

I actually think 2S 1W would have been even better for Tokyo.

To get Edo going, improve the resources and put mines on the hills. You'll be able to produce some troops in the early game, and can later just set it to build wealth or something.

Somewhere on this forum there's a post that conclusively proves that it is best, in 95% of cases, to build a worker first (the exception is a coastal start with seafood and Fishing). Remember, if we're talking unimproved tiles (and we are, since we don't have a worker yet), every pop point you grow only adds +1 to worker production (since every pop point consumes 2 food). At the end of the day, you lose more time growing than you save building the worker. And as for not starting with the right worker techs - well, that's what research is for. These days, I always start by teching whatever I need for food resources, then Mining and BW.

Fair enough, rape and pillage the Spanish to your heart's content. You'll want to use the whip to get more soldiers out, though. Also, I suspect that if Izzy is blocking your roads, your cities will be disconnected once you declare war, so get Fishing and Sailing so that you can connect your cities via the coast.

Leveraging Slavery is simple. It allows you to convert food into hammers. Just make sure you always whip at least two pop points (otherwise unhappiness will cause trouble), and don't whip on the first turn of production, because there's a certain percentage production penalty if you whip a building/unit before you've invested any hammers in it. Also, make sure you have a Granary before you whip.

 

[saon1971]

does having 7 happy and 6 unhappy people have any effect at all, or do neg. consequences only kick in once you have more unhappy than happy people? (likewise with healthy/unhealthy)

 

[Baldyr]

does having 7 happy and 6 unhappy people have any effect at all, or do neg. consequences only kick in once you have more unhappy than happy people? (likewise with healthy/unhealthy)

Short answer: Yes.

Congratulations, you pretty much figured that one out yourself, but it was wise to ask for confirmation. Now, try and figure out the rest of the City Screen. You won't regret it!

 

[Baldyr]

I just tried RFC for the first time today, I understand the concepts but there are two things that are bugging me:
Can marshes be eliminated through a tech/worker?
Is there a way I can make my normal non-RFC games look like RFC? (Darker water and terrain)

On the first question: No. I've modded this myself though, as have others. Look for it on the RFC forums. I don't know if there is a released mod that does this, but if you can't mod it yourself maybe you could ask for help. (Start a new thread in the modmod section! Don't forget to specify what exactly you want it to do!)

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the second question, as I wasn't aware RFC uses different graphics. (Its designed to download fast and has few to none graphical enhancements. AFAIK.)

 

[Tadzio]

I don't wanna disrupt the questions and answers of this thread, but I thought I'd give a quick follow-up. So spoilers to protect the uninterested.

Spoiler :

Welp, my first venture into Noble ended pretty quickly. Here's the condition of my empire when I retired:

So exactly 2 turns after I loaded the savestate Saladin placed a city right next to Tokyo, nearly in the same spot henrebotha suggested I should've placed Tokyo in the first place (doh!). Then a few turns later a barbarian started demolishing Tokyo's improvements, and my fortified warrior had a 73.8% chance to win the fight, so I sent him out to kill the barb... and I lost. An immediate rage-retire followed.

And, omg, the end-game screen makes me even sadder. Look at all that juicy land on the main continent. What I wouldn't give to have started there! Oh well. Learning experience!

In any event, thanks go to henrebotha for taking the time to give advice!

 

[IAM]

Tadzio You did good. Sometimes I learn more from a loose and it makes the victory so much sweeter.