Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[prophesy.]

Can you eliminate war weariness by having cities with jail, rushmore and in police state? Or does the multipliers not work like that?

 

[Ghpstage]

Can you eliminate war weariness by having cities with jail, rushmore and in police state? Or does the multipliers not work like that?

Yes you can.

 

[Bigmac3000lbs]

Hi guys,
I recently started playing Civ IV and I joined the forums in search of general strategy tips. Two terms that keep popping up are the Cottage Economy and the Specialist economy. What do these terms generally refer to?

 

[Blitzstrahl]

OK. Total Civ newb here. Haven't played Civ since Civ 1-2 about a decade ago, I think.

I love Civ 4. But, all the walkthrough, tutorial and chatter I read about Civ 4 is using either Civ 4 warlords or Civ 4 colonization. I was originally playing Civ 4 ("vanilla") just because I thought I'd get my value out of Civ 4, then move on to warlords and colonization.

Should I skip directly to Colonization or Warlords, not passing the proverbial "go"?

 

[Abegweit]

OK. Total Civ newb here. Haven't played Civ since Civ 1-2 about a decade ago, I think.

I love Civ 4. But, all the walkthrough, tutorial and chatter I read about Civ 4 is using either Civ 4 warlords or Civ 4 colonization. I was originally playing Civ 4 ("vanilla") just because I thought I'd get my value out of Civ 4, then move on to warlords and colonization.

Should I skip directly to Colonization or Warlords, not passing the proverbial "go"?

There is nothing in Warlords aside from a couple of scenarios. Get BtS. As for Colonization, IMO it sucks.

 

[Roots]

IS there a guide for things that Warlords and BTS added?

I got BTS and don't know how vassals and colonies and stuff work.

 

[s.bernbaum]

IS there a guide for things that Warlords and BTS added?

I got BTS and don't know how vassals and colonies and stuff work.

Try the BTS info center here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/bts/

I also downloaded a nice manual last year from the Firaxis or Aspyr website. I've forgotten which and can't find the link anymore.

There is also a new BTS features section in the Civilopedia, in game.

 

[s.bernbaum]

OK. Total Civ newb here. Haven't played Civ since Civ 1-2 about a decade ago, I think.

I love Civ 4. But, all the walkthrough, tutorial and chatter I read about Civ 4 is using either Civ 4 warlords or Civ 4 colonization. I was originally playing Civ 4 ("vanilla") just because I thought I'd get my value out of Civ 4, then move on to warlords and colonization.

Should I skip directly to Colonization or Warlords, not passing the proverbial "go"?

I suspect that you mean Beyond The Sword (BTS) rather than Colonization. BTS is an expansion. Colonization is an entirely different game, a dumbed down version of CIV. I never played Warlords. Most folks around here say skip it and go to BTS, which is what I did. There are enough things that I like better in BTS that I have not gone back to vanilla, although there are some things that I like better in vanilla. The big deciding item for me is the BUG mod (BTS Unaltered Gameplay). It makes the playing of the game so much more enjoyable because it adds all the ease of play to the user interface that the game should have had from the get go.

 

[Ansive]

Hi guys,
I recently started playing Civ IV and I joined the forums in search of general strategy tips. Two terms that keep popping up are the Cottage Economy and the Specialist economy. What do these terms generally refer to?

I'm guessing the first is based on building lots of cottages for commerce (and universal suffrage for hammers, emancipation and free speech also help), while the second uses farms for a lot of specialists under representation (3 science for each one) and possibly caste system and mercantilism.

Search the forum for more information.

 

[Blitzstrahl]

I suspect that you mean Beyond The Sword (BTS) rather than Colonization. BTS is an expansion. Colonization is an entirely different game, a dumbed down version of CIV. I never played Warlords. Most folks around here say skip it and go to BTS, which is what I did. There are enough things that I like better in BTS that I have not gone back to vanilla, although there are some things that I like better in vanilla. The big deciding item for me is the BUG mod (BTS Unaltered Gameplay). It makes the playing of the game so much more enjoyable because it adds all the ease of play to the user interface that the game should have had from the get go.

You're quite right; thanks for the info. Moving on to BtS now...

 

[Ansive]

What decreases the chance of a forest to spread? Building a road/railroad on the forest tile, or building a road/railroad on the tile where I want the forest to spread to.

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

The second one.

 

[jantonio2992]

hi everyone.. sorry if this have been answered but well i don't even know how to search for it.. well i have Civ V and when you start a game either on on the mode to simply start a game or on set up game, the civilization are not in a place where they would be in real world like American in North America, or Elizabeth on UK or the Arabic on Saudi Arabia.. I know this is a game but does anyone know a way, a script or a pre made map to make them start on their position in the real world?.. well.. i think that's it.. thank you in advance.. cheers

 

[Roots]

I'm going for my first culture victory. I'm on Prince difficulty, when should I start turning the culture slider up and how much? And when should I start beelining towards liberalism?

 

[Sisiutil]

hi everyone.. sorry if this have been answered but well i don't even know how to search for it.. well i have Civ V and when you start a game either on on the mode to simply start a game or on set up game, the civilization are not in a place where they would be in real world like American in North America, or Elizabeth on UK or the Arabic on Saudi Arabia.. I know this is a game but does anyone know a way, a script or a pre made map to make them start on their position in the real world?.. well.. i think that's it.. thank you in advance.. cheers

Assuming you really are asking about Civ V rather than just making a typo, you're in the wrong forum. Here's a link to the Civ V Quick Q & A thread.

I'm going for my first culture victory. I'm on Prince difficulty, when should I start turning the culture slider up and how much? And when should I start beelining towards liberalism?

If you're pursuing a cultural victory, you don't have to use the slider at all--in fact, I'd advise against it, as you will begin to lag in research, your units will become obsolete, and you will begin to look like a tasty treat to the AI. A few cultural victory tips:

• Liberalism? Beeline towards Music; you want that free Great Artist. You also want to build the Sistine Chapel for the bonus from both state religion buildings and from specialists. Liberalism will be nice for the free tech and for the Free Speech civic, but being first to Music is higher in importance for this type of victory.
• Speaking of specialists--that's the best way to accomplish a cultural win. For your three cultural cities, choose sites with a plethora of food. Research Code of Laws and run Caste System, which will allow you to run as many artist specialists as those cities can support. The artist specialists will boost the in those cities, and they will produce Great Artists which you can use for the additional culture from Great Works.
• Financial leaders have an advantage going after cultural victories because of the research boost they get from the trait. Playing as a cultural leader is, ironically, not so advantageous here--the +2 per turn just doesn't add up to much over time. I think Mansa Musa is one of the best leaders to use for a cultural victory because of the Financial trait, plus Spiritual means you can switch between Slavery for whipping and Caste System for specialists anytime you want. Spiritual also gets cheap temples; see below...
• Open Borders and diplomacy: you want to have open borders with as many civs as possible, and you want to have good relations with other civs. You want foreign religions to spread to your cities; for this reason, you should also avoid running the Theocracy civic.
• 9 cities: because of the above, the magic number of cities to have for a cultural victory is at least nine; you need to build three temples in order to build a "cathedral" (+50% !), and you need three cathedrals, one in each of your cultural cities.
• Corporations: another non-slider contributor to cultural victories is the right corporation: Sid's Sushi, Civilized Jewellers, and Creative Constructions all contribute to any city where they're present. Sid's also gives you food to run more specialists, CJ more gold to boost your research, and CC more hammers to accelerate your builds. So they're all good. The main problem with CJ is you have to sacrifice a Great Artist to found it, and usually you prefer to use them for Great Works; you're also likely to have more of the resources used by either Sid's or CC.

 

[Abegweit]

What decreases the chance of a forest to spread? Building a road/railroad on the forest tile, or building a road/railroad on the tile where I want the forest to spread to.

The latter. Jarlaxe Baenre had it wrong. As I recall it cuts the probability in half.

 

[May Day 10]

a few questions:

Because Workers cost food and hammers, its a good idea to let a new city grow before a worker, right? In times using Slavery/Whipping a granary is the best first build (usually) in a new city?

When are the optimal times and where are the optimal locations for Windmills, Waterworks, and Workshops?

I usually end up running State Property for the distance from capital leeway. However, this has prevented me from ever founding a corporation. Is a corporation worth dropping State Property and building a forbidden palace?

Also, if you have a food city or a Commerce city, I always hear wonders are good, as are happiness buildings. However, I cant afford to wait 70 turns for Wall Street. What is a good strategy for production in one of these cities?

Im having a terrible time balancing my SP and have little command over that aspect. Any suggestions?

 

[Ghpstage]

Because Workers cost food and hammers, its a good idea to let a new city grow before a worker, right?

Exactly the opposite, if you grow onto a new tile before building a worker you have to remember that the new tile requires 2 to work.
As = production this means you gain the new tiles yield -2 toward producing that worker, in the case of most unimproved tiles this means either 0 net gain or +1 at the most!

In times using Slavery/Whipping a granary is the best first build (usually) in a new city?

Granary is going to be one of the earliest builds in almost every city, the only thing likely to go before it is a Monument if you need a border pop to work resource tiles.

When are the optimal times and where are the optimal locations for Windmills, Waterworks, and Workshops?

Workshops aren't worth building until you have at least 2 of the +1 bonuses, they come from running Caste System, and the Guilds and Chemistry techs, they become amazing if you run State Property later.
Watermills work for emergency production in a city with Machinery but are best left till Replaceable Parts, again they are great with State Property. A little niche exists in that watermills are the only improvement that can be built on flat Ice and non floodplain Desert tiles, though the latter are extremely rare since one of BTS patches.
Windmills I know I underuse so hopefully someone else can pitch in. For much of the game they are only really good for balancing city food and providing extra food in marginal cities. With Environmentalism they become very good tiles to have, and if I find myself running it I do build a lot of them all over the place.

I usually end up running State Property for the distance from capital leeway. However, this has prevented me from ever founding a corporation. Is a corporation worth dropping State Property and building a forbidden palace?

They are a worthy alternative in many games. Corps get more powerful as you get larger, with a big empire its not uncommon to see Mining Inc adding 20+ base to a city, and any city can get this bons, even at size 1.
I would advise you give them a couple of trials and see how you like them

Also, if you have a food city or a Commerce city, I always hear wonders are good, as are happiness buildings. However, I cant afford to wait 70 turns for Wall Street. What is a good strategy for production in one of these cities?

buildings can be whipped in food cities and later on, rushbought anywhere. Wonders are more difficult, some solutions (which can be usede in food cities too) include slowbuilding with a few mines/workshops, using a Great Engineer or the Mining Inc or Creative Constructions corps.

 

[sendos]

I've just got Civ 4 after having Alpha Centauri and Civ 2 for about 10 years. Perhaps this has been mentioned before, but c'mon, there's 827 pages here.

The question is, how on earth do you hurry up production--that is, spend your money to boost production which is in the old firaxis games I have just mentioned?

 

[Psyringe]

The question is, how on earth do you hurry up production--that is, spend your money to boost production which is in the old firaxis games I have just mentioned?

You need to run specific civics to enable rush-buying. For example, if your civilization runs slavery, then you can spend population to rush production. And two of the government civics allow rushing with gold. If you do run the respective civic, then check the boxes in the lower right area of the city screen. Underneath the "Draft" button, you'll see two rush buttons, one for rushing with population, one for rushing with gold. Hovering the mouse over the button tells you the cost for rushing the current build project.