Top X reasons you can't beat Noble.

[madscientist]

- Your married with children.

I disagree! I have a wife and kids and probably TOO much time to play on the computer and refine my CIV skills

 

[Cleverbeans]

Other than #13 (you don't have a plan), you could take a very strong player at CivIV, pick half of my list and tell them they must make this mistake the entire game, and they would still usually win at noble.

So why include them in your guide?

 

[cabert]

I disagree! I have a wife and kids and probably TOO much time to play on the computer and refine my CIV skills

really?
My wife and kids don't think it's right I can play civ instead of (insert some painful duty here) for them

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

really?
My wife and kids don't think it's right I can play civ instead of (insert some painful duty here)

letting them play civ ?

 

[eewallace]

really?
My wife and kids don't think it's right I can play civ instead of (insert some painful duty here) for them

Yeah, I've solved this at my house by (a) making sure my husband and son each have their own computer; and (b) buying them each a new game whenever a new civ comes out. Then the only question is who has to go buy takeout food for dinner...

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

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.

The point might be clearer to the current audience were it phrased as "you probably won't get your first win at Noble (etc) if you are making these mistakes".

 

[Pantastic]

You try to make nice and be friends with Toku and Monty.

I haven't played for a while now (just came back with the new expansion) but did they radically change those two? In vanilla and warlords, befriending either one lets you direct his crazy aggression at your biggest rivals and keeps them off you, and generally doesn't have much cost if adopting their religion fits with the rest of your plans. Toku generally just requires that you be his religion and gift him some random resource for a while, since he's isolationist the other AIs won't do anything to be his friend and if you drag him in on a few wars he's pretty much locked in as your pal.

 

[Daedal]

They're not mistakes, but they certainly can be stumbling blocks for inexperienced players, especially if you don't realize when to apply them and when to do something different. Whipping and chopping are perfect examples of situational tools. Maybe a good way to go about this guide would be to give a few real examples of when these tools/strategies should be used and when not to show the differences.

 

[madscientist]

I haven't played for a while now (just came back with the new expansion) but did they radically change those two? In vanilla and warlords, befriending either one lets you direct his crazy aggression at your biggest rivals and keeps them off you, and generally doesn't have much cost if adopting their religion fits with the rest of your plans. Toku generally just requires that you be his religion and gift him some random resource for a while, since he's isolationist the other AIs won't do anything to be his friend and if you drag him in on a few wars he's pretty much locked in as your pal.

Back to the origional post, top reasons you cannot win at nobel. An experienced player can negotiate these two, but somone who is challenged at nobel would probably try to either make friends with them or neglect them (I did my fair share of both).

 

[xanadux]

I edited the original post #10 to:

10. You always try to found Buddhism or Hinduism when you do start with Mysticism.

It is too often not a mistake to go for Buddhism or Hinduism when you start with Mysticism, so the original wording wasn't very good. It is however a mistake to always try to found one of these religions even when starting with Mysticism. Good and Bad examples:

Good time: You start with agriculture and mysticism and have corn and 2 flood plains in FC. You can afford to pursue an early religion without sacrificing much early capital development.

Bad time: You start with fishing and mysticism, and the only food tiles in your FC are pigs and cows. All other tiles are either plains or covered with forests. Going for an early religion here has a major developmental cost. After the time to research the religion, you need 2 more techs to improve the 2 pasture resources (hunting/AH or agr/AH) and then 2 more techs to improve anything else (mining/BW). Going for the religion here is a major setback in capital development.

 

[AlessioCerci]

The Number 1 reason you can't beat noble is that you have never visited CFC and thus are not reading threads like these.

 

[TRJS]

Yeah, I've solved this at my house by (a) making sure my husband and son each have their own computer; and (b) buying them each a new game whenever a new civ comes out. Then the only question is who has to go buy takeout food for dinner...

My wife has an aversion to computer games for some reason and my three year old struggles in most games. My 9 month old is starting to show promise however, she loves to hit the keyboard.

 

[Nishdog]

I recently tried a game at Noble on the Earth map 18 civs. I was playing as Isabella of Spain. I picked up Buddhism and most of my neighbors soon converted as I was the first religion. I built a boat to get a settler over to N. Africa 'cause I was blocked in by Rome and Paris. I think I lost that game because I spent the early turns building wonders. I had Stonehenge and I think I had the Pyramids too (can't remember now). With 3 cities and no iron or copper, Rome and their Praetorians declared war on me. Everybody else followed along and I was toast. I thought having the religion would make everybody like me. I guess they didn't respect my weak military and saw a nice, sweet target.

 

[KMadCandy]

The point might be clearer to the current audience were it phrased as "you probably won't get your first win at Noble (etc) if you are making these mistakes".

going by that theory, i'll throw in some i haven't seen mentioned. i'm not going to pick apart or add go on and on about the stuff already mentioned.

- you try to be friends with everybody

- on a map where you meet several civs post-optics, you trade with some of the new guys before you've met them all. that can win you the "you have traded with our worst enemies!" prize with one or more, before you have big picture to figure out what looks like the best long-term trading plan.

- you don't do WHEOOHRN checks often enough. okay, r_rolo1 did mention that one but it's really important so two mentions is good

- you sign DPs because you want protection in case of war, losing sight of the fact that you may have to defend your DP partner. evaluate not only how much you want/need military help, but also how the world feels about your DP partner, before you sign the dotted line!

Spoiler example :

you have a DP with shaka. that's great if you play light-on-military like i tend to do, since he's a great military sugar daddy if he stays at friendly. but if cyrus DoWs shaka, you automatically declare war on cyrus because of the DP. even if cyrus is your other bestest friend in the world and you two would never ever fight otherwise .

it works out the same as a declaration of war against you (rather than your DP parter) in that you have no choice of the opponent or the timing; better than that as far as he actually has another target and is going after shaka's cities instead; and worse in that you earn the permanent -3 DoWd us and -1 DoWd our friend diplo penalties instead of cyrus earning them by DoWg you himself.

you're locked into war with cyrus, so dogpiling on the opportunity to take cities away from shaka is now harder than it would be, if you want to try that. and you might have DoWd cyrus anyway for MMS with shaka or because cyrus has nice land or whatever, but my point is that the DP left you with no choice.

i've seen people get in a big mess because they'll sign two DPs, one with each neighbor, since they're friends with both. that can be real ugly when the neighbors aren't friends with each other and one DoWs the other. you're instantly involved, and not necessarily on the side that you'd prefer. ugh.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Earth 18 civ is a tough map, watch your diplomacy.

Top reason for not beating noble? A very hopeless, deep, icy arctic start and then Mansa on the other pacifist continent wins by space. Especially on BTS.

 

[Nishdog]

Earth 18 civ is a tough map, watch your diplomacy.

Top reason for not beating noble? A very hopeless, deep, icy arctic start and then Mansa on the other pacifist continent wins by space. Especially on BTS.

I'm pretty bad with diplomacy. I ignore all demands and threats. I don't like to trade my techs and I sometimes even make arrogant demands . And I figure Isabella on Earth needs diplomatic skills due to the poor starting position. Now if I was Germany or Rome it would have been a different story...my words are backed by SWORDS!

 

[Deriem]

The Number 1 reason you can't beat noble is that you have never visited CFC and thus are not reading threads like these.

This.

- you try to be friends with everybody

This II

Top reason for not beating noble? A very hopeless, deep, icy arctic start and then Mansa on the other pacifist continent wins by space. Especially on BTS.

This III

And my thought... you can't beat Noble because a pop 5 city is more important that a worker.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

WHEOOHRN

that's new one. what does it mean? Re the offspring - school offers Civ3 and Civ4 as a club. Is is evil to bring them here and teach them? nobody else, including the instructor seems to know about this site.

Failure to realize that money is power. works on all variants, all levels. i don't wanna start an SE v. CE debate, but think, if'n you're not investing that money, you can use it to ugrade.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

We have enough on our hands right now, i.e. they are about to invade someone, probably you (definitely you if it is Monty).

It's a better acronym than WHOR (we have our reasons...).

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

thanks.