Top X reasons you can't beat Noble.

[xanadux]

I've been wanting to put a long write up listing all the common mistakes I see lower level players make over and over again in this forum, and hopefully be of some help. It's the top X reasons because I will probably add more and edit this post a lot. After the list, I will go into each mistake in-depth. So here it is:

The top X reasons you can't beat Noble (or Prince, or Warlord, or Settler, or even Monarch) (in no particular order)

1. You don't prioritize developing your capital from turn 1.
2. You work a lot of unimproved tiles.
3. You don't expand quickly enough.
4. You expand too quickly.
5. You don't develop your economy.
6. You don't build enough military.
7. You build too many buildings.
8. You build too many wonders.
9. You found Buddhism or Hinduism and you didn't start with Mysticism.
10. You always try to found Buddhism or Hinduism when you do start with Mysticism.
11. You like to beeline to Archery.
12. You don't get a strategic resource early.
13. You don't have a plan.
14. You don't know how to choose good tech paths.
15. You simply must have a religious shrine.
16. You don't think diplomacy is important.
17. You don't chop forests early.
18. You never use slavery.
19. You don't know how to use civics to your advantage.
20. You love the City Garrison promotion and use it often.



If you are beating Monarch most of the time, you probably aren't making most of these mistakes, or at least not often. You also probably realize that not all of these are always mistakes.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for future use.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for future use 2.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for future use 3.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for use in the future.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for use in the future 2.

 

[xanadux]

Reserved for use in the future 3.

 

[xanadux]

It will probably take me weeks to finish all this. I encourage anyone to post or PM me with additions to the list. I also encourage any feedback on my explanations. I'm no super-expert at this game. I still can't beat Immortal level, so I am sure that I will make some mistakes from time to time. Maybe we can get to the top 100 reasons eventually?

 

[xanadux]

There will be a lot of edits here, but I will make a new post to point out what has been edited each time.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

This looks like it is going to be... ambitious.

Some suggestions:

each entry in the list should get its own post. Use a hyperlink to connect the table of contents to the topic, and don't worry too much about reserving space for everything. Therefore, post #1 should remain as your table of contents. It needs some particular order, but until you have an idea what the overall organizational theme is going to be, I'd recommend listing them in the order you plan to address them.

I'd anticipate some topics having multiple parts - those topics should be linked together. When that happens, you probably want a small outline of the topic at the head of each post. I'd suggest you consider using the font tags, similar to how I used them in The Whip.

Oh, who am I kidding? You should probably scope this - talk to Sisiutil about the crossover from forum posts to PDF.

There should probably be room for a topic on tech trading, a topic on using military, and quite possibly a topic on understanding the tech tree.

 

[Diamondeye]

10. You found Buddhism or Hinduism and you did start with Mysticism.

That's a problem because of what?

11. You like to beeline to Archery.

... Who does this? That's a sick thing to do.

16. You don't think diplomacy is important.

... Eh, that calls for a lose?

18. You never use slavery.

...Slavery is not a must. Like axerushing is not a must.

20. You love the City Garrison promotion and use it often.

...What's the problem?


And now, to contribute instead of being a jerk:

-You stop after the first war and think "That was that war, now I'll relax the rest of the game"
-You aren't cynical enough to backstab a weak friend.
-You aren't paying attention to what kind of victory the enemies are pursuing
-You aren't competent enough at war in a specific era (modern, early, medieval, whatever...)

 

[ButSam]

I agree with the above poster...

But here are a couple of reasons people may lose on Noble (or on higher difficulty levels):
* Not specializing your cities
* Switching civics just because you got the tech to switch (contrary to previous versions of Civ, where governments got progressively better in general with research, in Civ4, almost all civics can be used effectively mid- to end-game, depending upon situation, except the starting ones of course)
* Not reading Sisiutil's guide

 

[Kev]

I'll add:

Keeping every city you take from an enemy in an early war. I still have bouts of "Non-Raze-itis". It can fall under the "Expand too fast", but likely should be it's own category.

 

[r_rolo1]

I would add ( from my 1-year experience in Noble ):

- You try to play the leaders all the same way, with a cookie-cutter strategy
- You try to play the same way in every map
- You build early wonders when neighbouring a agressive AI ( like Shaka or Alex ... What would you do if you were in their shoes ? )
- You don't overlap BFCs, even when it is clearly better to do so
- You don't value blocking cites and place cities only by proximity of capitol
- You don't value nukes and Police state in late wars
- You don't check regularly your foes for the " we are with the hands full" on the diplo
- You don't use caravels and submarines as a first warning net about naval landings, and if you spot a AI task force you don't try to tackle it on sea, letting it land ( of course that, if the stack is predictabily small and / or easy to tacke, this does not apply )

 

[Speedy36]

Here's a good one

-Leaving the slider at 100% research, just to get the maximum amount of research from wealth

 

[eewallace]

15. You simply must have a religious shrine?

Eh? Can you think of something better to to with an otherwise fairly useless great prophet? And if you chopped the oracle early (I notice that is NOT on your list of no-nos) you'll probably be getting some great prophets...

 

[r_rolo1]

Eh? Can you think of something better to to with an otherwise fairly useless great prophet?

In the beginning of the game ( IMHO ,of course ) settling a prophet is far better than shrining it.... 2 hammers and 5 gold is nothing to sneeze at in those times where you work at max 2 mines per city ( and rarely you have more than 4 ), and in civ-type games it is better 1 coin ( hammer, food, etc) early than 20 coins ( hammers food, etc) in the late game.... And we should count with the hammers spent in monasteries ( or the extra cash needed to run OR ) and missionaries ( auto spread is unreliable and slow )

 

[xanadux]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, keep them coming.

As I said before, I don't consider all these things mistakes all the time. For example, fairly often, I go an entire game without using slavery (although it is more common for me to use it exclusively). Also, I occassionally do decide to found Hinduism although it is very hard to convince myself that it is a good idea.

I don't just want a list of the really bad mistakes, and the things that are clearly always mistakes, but also things that if a player does them in every game, or never does something, it's going to hurt their game badly.

Some people may think I am way off on some things, but that's ok. I can't beat Deity, so I would be pretty surprised if I was right about everything.

 

[LlamaCat]

I've been wanting to put a long write up listing all the common mistakes I see lower level players make over and over again in this forum, and hopefully be of some help. It's the top X reasons because I will probably add more and edit this post a lot. After the list, I will go into each mistake in-depth. So here it is:

The top X reasons you can't beat Noble (or Prince, or Warlord, or Settler, or even Monarch) (in no particular order)

why is Monarch thrown in there but not Prince? is this for Noble and below or ... ? not sure what difficulty levels we are talking about here

 

[troytheface]

-You read posts offering suggestions and then the devil in ya makes you see if you can win by purposfully avoiding everyone else's tactics.
(try the no chop/automate wrker/ build on mountain only game)

-You quit when you see your going to win at an early stage

-You admire creativity of play over slavish "must do's" to win.

-You choose civs based on color.