Thoughts and suggestions

[Lazonby]

Hi guys, first time poster here but long time player. Funny how a game I consider so-so ends up eating most of my gaming time. I've been playing since CivIII but only now am I really starting to see the big picture.

Anyhow, I find the game a little heavy on the micromanagement towards the mid-late game and I either get whipped, or lose interest because I'm doing the whipping. I'd like to talk about my playing style and hopefully get some feedback on that and maybe some better direction. This is for Civ4 basic. Unless I screw something up, I can beat noble 4 out of 5 games (conquest or domination) and I'm working on prince. I start out really well, then get run over by massive armies after ticking off Alexander or Montezuma ("NO I'm not giving you tribute!"). When left alone long enough, I can lay some serious wood to my foes, but that's not really happening on prince.

I'm kind of 'losing touch' with city management around mid-game, and tend to build too much infrastructure. I find it easier to just automate my workers & city production after a while so I can focus on trading, building, & fighting (macromanagement I guess?). I suspect this is my problem, because this is about the time I get beat. I like to play on the standard map size, maybe large, with lots of Civs. I like the interaction between multiple civs & making friends or foes--it's more of a challenge. I guess I'm looking for some direction and ways to streamline my operations. What exactly should I be focusing on in the higher difficulty levels? I want a medium length game (No ICBM's/Future Tech, maybe Modern Armor being the tipping point) that's challenging, but not a severe beatdown.

Help? I realize I might be a little vague with details, just chime in for specific info. Thanks!

 

[DaveMcW]

Hold down Alt when building military units. This sets the city to build the unit repeatedly, so you can concentrate on fighting instead of babysitting your cities.

Click the city bar, then right-click a rally point for units to gather.

Double-click a stack of units to group them into an army and move them all at once.

 

[Lazonby]

Anyone care to critique my game? I'm almost at the point where if I don't build an army, Alex is about to gang up on me. Luckily, Elizabeth is providing a nice buffer.

Plan:

1. Build up a bit more infrastructure.
2. Get caravels & go scout. Open up some trade routes.
3. Build army.
4. Rough up Khan or Alex & take their lunch money.
5. Expand.

 

[Cam_H]

Lazonby,

I agree that you need to get going on an army, and also scout around the place a bit on boat and on foot.

You're now getting some value from your Cottages that have begun to grow into Towns and Hamlets - but many of your cities are barely scraping by in terms of food. You've good food-rich land, but have been reluctant to farm anything that isn't a special resource. Cities on 10 or 11 population with a food surplus of 1 will be very slow to build their population further.

You're a Philospohical leader, but haven't really begun to leverage your -popping power. As assigned Specialists require 2 each, you'll want to look at ensuring good food levels to support your Specialists, and that usually means building Farms.

Try to specialise your cities more. Which cities will be your Unit Pumps (Hamburg would be one)? Which one your Great Person Farm (hopefully Cologne)? A switch into The Caste System and running several Scientists in Cologne will help propel your empire by leveraging your Philosophical trait.

Research Alphabet! The world leaders are trading technologies between them, and you're missing out on advantageous deals. If you're lucky, you might go further to Literacy and pick up The Great Library. Currency would be one to seek from the AI as a priority so you can set up some -reaping trade deals. I'm not sure exactly where you're going with the tech' tree - Liberalism slingshot? If so, I'm not sure that such hard-line bee-lining is necessary at this point.

Spread Confucianism in your empire! If you're going to adopt a State religion - make it count.

Look at your Workers - one's building an incidental road near Berlin where there's a heap of tiles that need Farming and a couple more Cottages near that city alone.

Here's one suggestion that will improve Hamburg's net food haul by two, and also give Berlin and Essen further growth opportunities. I'd consider replacing that unworked Cottage to the immediate North West of Hamburg's city square with a Farm too if this city is to be one of your main -centres;

The SoD you have in the south I believe is too small to do any meaningful damage if you were planning to attack someone. I'd use them to explore Mongolia.

I'm not sure you need The Hanging Gardens; the influence towards Great Engineers is nice, as would be the bonus population, but isn't much of a problem while you're neither Industrious nor have access to Stone - so it's a fair commitment.

You've certainly drawn some less than desirable foes in Genghis, Alex, and Tokugawa! Best of luck!

 

[Lazonby]

Thanks a lot for your help! I'm trying to figure the thing out, so you're help with that is great. I was trying for Liberalism SS, but at that point I was pretty far ahead of the other Civs tech-wise. I did go back & pick up alphabet and traded for several techs (Curreny, etc).

I just started playing Cre/Phi, as I'm trying to learn about and spcialization and how to use my land more effectively. How exactly do you know which tiles should get a farm and which should get a cottage?

I was scouting with the SoD, but wanted to survive in case I ran into some Barbarians. They've come back home and have been upgraded. I've got caravels out now, and am about to circumnavigate the globe.

 

[Cam_H]

Thanks a lot for your help! I'm trying to figure the thing out, so you're help with that is great.

No problem.

How exactly do you know which tiles should get a farm and which should get a cottage?

I guess that this assumes that you want to specialise your cities - that is, have a nice blend of -focussed cities and -focussed cities, and perhaps a -focussed city.

Much of this is already discussed in Sisiutil's Guide and well worth referring to if you have yet to do so.

"Which cities should be which?" is a natural follow-on question, and I'd probably point to special resources and general landscape plus the mix of your existing empire to guide you. A city spot with Cows-Corn-Iron-Oasis-Hills looks like a city ... Rice-Dye-Sugar-Jungle looks like a centre in waiting. Of course you want to find a nice balance of 'brains and braun' for your overall empire, so you'd be looking for some cities of each type.

The next thing is food counting. I did a post a few days ago in a thread in the Succession Fourum's "Mentor Game" that might be of value here.

Food plays a crucial role in every city type - a city can't work Cottages if there isn't food to feed the city, a city can't work the Mines, and a Farm can't feed the specialists. Having an eye open for food-deficit tiles and considering how the citizens working these are going to be fed is necessary. A Grasslands and food resource site destined for heavy Cottaging usually isn't too bad from a food-deficit view, but these may rely on the whip to get basic buildings completed - in which case Farms can help, as if you're keen on using the whip in the Slavery civic, again Farms play an important role in quickly re-establishing the city population for the next ' conversion'.

Clearly, as the game develops and new technologies, improvements, civics, and so on become available, so too will the capability and balance of your cities. VoiceOfUnreason sets this out well in the article; Evaluating production about how later game improvements and civics can convert a low production site into a high spot.

Hope this is of help - and all the best with it!