Suggest a difficulty level for me

[Alles gut]

Let me say first of all that civ4 is a great game and i've wasted a lot of time playing it. So much so that i've often deleted it from my laptop only to reinstall it a few weeks later. Even had to repurchase it after throwing out the cd.

I like to play as follows:
Normal speed
Standard size map (maybe large but no bigger) for time reasons
Fractal or continents
All other settings standard settings (usually turn off huts and random events)
Either no tech trading or no brokering
I won't play a map if it looks like an exceptionally good start (or a very poor one)
Prince (often win) or Monarch (struggle)

I've followed various diety games recently and watched a couple of TMIT's games onyoutube and saw plenty of tips which i intend to use
e.g. taking diplomacy seriously (i rarely ever gave in to a request or demand from the AI ), focusing on a larger number of cities with fewer buildings, fewer wonders.
There are some things i don't want to do e.g. rushes, availing of AI stupidity like demanding 1 gold when they go into war mode to buy 10 more turns.

I basically enjoy playing without exploiting AI weaknesses, peacemongering, developing my own cities, trading goods but not tech (at least no brokering as i like to enjoy the different eras and trading is too fast).

My ideal game would see me and one or two rivals neck and neck up to the modern age and then a space race or late war (on a normal map without dozens of cities).

Can this be achieved on Monarch or Emperor levels? Or do you have to be more aggressive?

Finally, what is the best mod to use for additional info during the game?

thanks in advance.

 

[Seraiel]

You can even beat Deity totally peacefully with a handful of cities if you have good diplomacy.

 

[Alles gut]

Do you mean by culture or religious victories only? Or is a space win possible?

P.S. i read your thread on Replay 4 and was hugely impressed by your civ knowledge, and also your patience

 

[Seraiel]

Thx

All of those three are possible. Religious Victory is possibly the most easy and the fastest needing the fewest cities. For a religious Victory, you need at least enough cities to build the temples to unlock enough Cathedrals, but that amount can be gotten by good REX on most maps, maybe you have to rush a neighbour, but most is decided by your skills of city specialization, diplomacy and empire developement. Space is easiest with lots of Vassals, and those can also be aquired peacefully. You simply must build an army of 1.5 times of their size, have good diplomacy and AI will join your empire. I think I had about 6 or 7 Vassals in Replay #3, most of them came peacefully. There is a point in the game when one can outproduce any empire, and one can outresearch them if one bribes them against each other all the time.

My question would be, why so afraid of aggressive play? Afraid to lose? In war, you just have to take your chcances, either you win, or you lose, doesn't make a difference.

 

[Pangaea]

Use the BUG mod (with BULL) and you'll have much more info during the game. It's very popular around here. Install it to CustomAssets.

 

[Alles gut]

My question would be, why so afraid of aggressive play? Afraid to lose? In war, you just have to take your chcances, either you win, or you lose, doesn't make a difference.

In my experience, fair enough at lower levels, one successful war gives you enough land / cities to power your way to victory. Many times i wouldn't bother finishing the game

 

[Alles gut]

Use the BUG mod (with BULL) and you'll have much more info during the game. It's very popular around here. Install it to CustomAssets.

ok thanks i'll check that out.
I used bug a long time ago and i remember it seemed to crash a game I had been playing so i deinstalled it

 

[Seraiel]

In my experience, fair enough at lower levels, one successful war gives you enough land / cities to power your way to victory. Many times i wouldn't bother finishing the game

There are many people who call games "won" and don't finish them. I however have to, because HoF only accepts victorys, but if competing in HoF wasn't my Hobby, I would leave many games unfinished aswell, I'm quite sure about that, although: I always like to see my empire in the end, and the Victory animation, feels somewhat nice, also to have the savegames and look back at some time how n00b one was and how much one has improved.

I'd say try IMM, that's the last difficulty where you can really play, Deity is more like a form of extrem focus, gambling and hard work. Warring on IMM shouldn't be so easy either, if you still find you win to easy or too fast, go Deity, fight stacks of 50 units with only half of that, be 300

 

[Iranon]

Depends on what you want to accomplish.

If you want to perfect your empire administration: Immortal, Emperor if intending something weird. Whatever gives you a fair chance to outdo the AI under your own power with a bit of breathing room for experimentation/mistakes.

If you want to get a good feel for the AIs and how to spot the right unconventional play for strange situations, play Deity.