Totally and utterly new to the series - help!

[Mewcenary]

My only experience of Civ to date has been watching a friend play the _original_ Civilization years ago.

I'm really stuck with this. I've gone through the Tutorial, and there seemed to be a lot of "Wait X turns for this to happen!", which was not terribly exciting.

I wonder if anyone had some general hints and tips when starting out?

1. What are good sorts of games to play? The standard ones? Maybe reduce the World size and increase the game speed to get to grips more?

2. Is getting a Worker to Automate Improvements a good or bad idea? If micromanaging this, what are good priorities? Where do roads fit into this?

3. What other critical advise would you give such a new player as myself?

I keep restarting when I get time on my PC, just to try things a little differently, which is probably a bad idea as it means I am only really experiencing the early game at the moment....

 

[Colonel Kraken]

What I would do (and, what I did) on the first couple few games is play on Settler or Chieften (maybe Warlord) and put your workers on automate and use the games suggestions for techs to research and buildings to build. Play on the Normal speed. The game will go rather quickly, and you'll get a really good feel of what happens in the game.

This allowed me to discover all the cool little things that happen in the game like religion, great people, and how military works. On those difficulty levels and using the game suggestions, you'll do rather well in the game against the AI.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I'm really stuck with this. I've gone through the Tutorial, and there seemed to be a lot of "Wait X turns for this to happen!", which was not terribly exciting.

Most people find this very addicting; "just wait X turn until this has happened", "oh, but now just a few more turns until Y will happen",
"okay, just one more turn ..."

1. What are good sorts of games to play? The standard ones? Maybe reduce the World size and increase the game speed to get to grips more?

Reducing the world size might be a good idea, as this will lead to fewer cities to watch over, fewer Civilizations to deal with, etc. However, I don't recomment starting with a quick game, as this will give you too many techs and building options way too fast. Try normal speed first, that will give you more time to absorb all the new things that present themselves throughout the game.

2. Is getting a Worker to Automate Improvements a good or bad idea? If micromanaging this, what are good priorities?

If you are a new player, I would strongly recommend automating the workers at first. That relieves you of the burden of improving your tiles while learning all the other things in the game. Later, when you know how the tech tree works, what diplomacy can do for you etc., then you can start to think about moving the worker manually!

Where do roads fit into this?

Roads connect your resources, like corn, wheat, iron, pig etc to your cities. Iron for example will enable you to build swordmen, but only if the city you want to build them in has a road to an iron mine.
Roads also connect cities to each other, so that every city can benefit from your resources, and last but not least, roads allow your unit to travel faster, which might come in handy in war-time.
In many cases, you also need a road to other civilizations to trade resources with them.

3. What other critical advise would you give such a new player as myself?

Maybe try to play peacefully during your first games, so that you will be able to concentrate on building infrastructure, on researching, and trading at first. Build some military to defend yourself, but don't start a war; maybe go for the spaceship victory first, as this will let you research nearly the whole tech tree. Once you've got the hang of that, you might try to play a bit more aggressive.

The only other advice I can offer you is to come back here in case you have more questions.

-Kylearan

 

[Yao777]

1. Standard maps are good if you're just starting out and like Kraken said, try Settler or Chieftain to get more of a feel for the game.

2. Roads are primarily used to connect resources (iron, copper, pigs, cows) and also used to increase your units' movement.

3. Don't restart and just play it through a few times to get the hang of it. You're best off learning from your mistakes.

 

[Colonel Kraken]

Another thing to consider after you have a couple of games under your belt is deciding what type of game you want to play. Do you want to be a conquerer? Do you wish to focus on culture or science? Maybe you'll put a big emphasis on religion! All these strategies are viable options, and it's fun to decide before hand which way you want to play.

After you decide, pick a nation and leader that fits your goals. Look in your owner's manual (and in-game help) to find the wonders and buildings that will help your strategy. Focus your research on those techs that'll give you the buildings and wonders (units?) that you'll need. Don't miss out on resources that help your strategy (marble and stone for wonders!).

It's great fun to have a focus in your game and do a little role-playing (even, perhaps, put a couple limits on yourself) instead of just saying "MUST BEAT AI AT ALL COSTS!!!" Some people enjoy using every little game mechanic loop-hole to their advantage against the AI just to win. I enjoy playing the game to enjoy the experience and immerse myself in what's happening in the game. You choose what works best for you.

 

[hahntsak]

for fun just pick a civ and leader that is what you want. I prefer custom as you can pick a lot more stuff. I pick who I am as well as who my opponents are. If you have the gigantic map option you need not consider, but you have to actually tell the game to open up the extra slots to full 18 players by going to like 12 or so and adjusting it to AI then all the way down to 18. you can pick the leaders you compete with. you can leave some random and others chosen.


you can pick your size and type of map. also there are options on some of those. on custom continents you can choose the rough number of them. on Archipilago, you can choose archipiliagos, islands, or snaky continents. there is a lot of choice. even if you choose tropical, there will still be ice and snow at poles and even if you choose colder you still will get some jungle just not as much.

you will usually get a settler and a warrior [incans get their warrior replacement the quechua instead of it]. you can settle where placed or take a few turns to find a better location. you can save the game just in case you make a mistake.

I advise by the time you get a level 3 city to by then see about getting a worker if not before.

you should select one or more religions you want to FOUND. you can research some techs for just skills, but you want to be sure and get the faith tech you need first. another popular tech is bronze. it gives you slavery [rushing] and gives your worker the ability to chop forests down speeding up production. if you have water resources within your city zone, make work boats otherwise these can wait.

you can leave workers on auto or manage them. it's up to you. unlike previous civs, these workers usually do pretty good on their own. except if you want to prioritize things like chopping forests to rush that production.

you can build things like barracks, libraries, ets... you can build military. you can build workers and settlers. it is not a good idea to send settlers without a military escort.

when you meet other civs, you can conduct diplomacy with them.

remember F4 for diplomacy, F3 for civics, and F7 your faiths page. F6 is kind of wierd in that I had to always click on exit. [esc didn't work on this one most of the time - maybe a good thing] F6 is your tech page.

one of the great things about civ 4 is the multiple paths of the tech tree. check out the civlopedia.

remember that even if you get wiped out in the end, at least you had fun.

 

[Lerxst]

That wouldn’t be the Mewcenary who used to play Everquest would it?
Anyway, I’m new to the game too. I just started my first five or so games on Settler level to get a feel for the game, not really caring if I made mistakes. I just took my time, studied what my moves did to my cities, took notes and kept the manual by my side.
Once you get a feel for the game it really starts to get fun. A quick Civ 4 session usually turns into a 4 hours Civ 4 session!!!

Stick with it. Perseverance brings rewards.

 

[hahntsak]

keep the manual and the tech tree beside you and be read you flip that char over and back. the keyboard chart is nice but the manual and tech chart are really great for reference.

but keep in mind a few differences exists.

like catherals in game take 4 temples instead of the 3 mentioned in the manual.

 

[Mewcenary]

That wouldn’t be the Mewcenary who used to play Everquest would it?

That's me!

 

[Strobe]

Play small maps first with maybe only 4 civs and one land mass. This will make the game go easier and quicker so you can play through a few to get the hang of things. If you play continents or island type maps you will have to also deal with water and sea invasions.

Also the number of cities could be fairly small and you can check them and look at the figures without getting overwhelmed.

Play on Settler or chieftan and stick with most of the suggestions for build etc... but check what effect they actually have and slowly start making your own choices later.

Automating workers would be the best bet at first, or maybe automate them all but 1 which you can control for priorities like roads or specific resources.

use CTRL-R and make sure you know where resources are, all of them are worth grabbing imo

You could also try putting an AI on the same team as you, you then get complete line of sight (you can look at his cities etc... ) and can look at what he is doing and think about why.

I also decided to keep my games short initially and concentrate each one on learning one particular area, like workers, specialists, combat etc...

It is worth the effort and each game gets more fun as you learn

 

[Lerxst]

Hi Mew, Balders from Twilight Brethren here Have a read at Sulla's walkthrough on this website. It's a great read and gives you a great feel about what to do and what to expect in the future.

 

[GeneralSim]

You've gotten great advice so far. I'll just add my two cents...

What is so frustrating to you as a new player is actually what makes the game so great - it is complicated and never the same game twice. There isn't just one way to play/win and with the different traits of the civs, no one strategy works best in each game.

I would suggest that you start on the easiest level and experiment. Don't worry about "winning" the first couple of games. Attack a city - get a feel for how the fighting works and how strong of a force you need. See how the different units move and fight. When it seems like you're kicking the AI's butt and you're saying to yourself, "this game is too easy" then kick the difficulty level up. Then you'll see a difference and need a different style of play for the higher levels. On the easiest level, there is very little that you can do wrong.