Vanilla Cheese

[Boojingles]

I am currently running un-patched, non-expansion pack vanilla Civ 4. I have been browsing the many strats and techniques discussed here at the forum, and I notice that some times posters will have asides such as "not like it was in vanilla". What I am looking for, are some fun/cool/weird strats, tricks or mechanics cheeses that got patched out of civ 4. What broken gameplay do you miss exploiting that was (preharps rightfully) removed from the game?

Thanks!

 

[Noogai]

What "Vanilla" stands for?

 

[Boojingles]

plain; no mods, no expansions, no patches. Civ IV out of the box.

 

[Agramon]

build oracle, tech CoL,take Bureaucracy. Hire scientists and gather academy. Early bureau+ academy is a huge boost.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I think you can still do baiting with workers in vanilla - move a worker to where it can be captured by troops from a city to make the city defence weaker. I don't think they disband captured workers either, so you should be able to get them back later.

I think prophets can bulb Civil Service in vanilla as well, avoid masonry I think. They changed the bulb priorities at some point so masonry was bulbed instead.

 

[lymond]

Build a gigantic stack of catapults with 1 or 2 defenders and conquer the world....siege does not kill in BTS

oh...and get BTS

 

[Riflin'Joe]

Ah those cossacks! And oh those redcoats!!

 

[Boojingles]

Thanks for the suggestions! Overpowered units and lightbulbing are a little zzzZZZZzzz, but i was vague in my request. I guess I am looking for more quarky stratigies (like a diplomat rush from civ1, or culture flipping all non-capitals like civ revolutions).

Thanks again!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Cossacks and Redcoats got nerfed in a patch, so you can't rely on that.

Rushes work a lot better in warlords/BtS since the AI doesn't whip defenders.

 

[coanda]

Hammer overflow was a little absurd back before patches. I'm struggling to remember the details, but it involved chopping forests while building walls with a Protective Leader who had Stone hooked up.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Not in vanilla (no protective trait)

 

[Dhoomstriker]

There was apparently a way to use "keyboard trickery" to get infinite Great People.

Hammers received from whipping were buggy in that if you timed things right, you could get extra Hammers if there was a production bonus (such as a Forge in the City) involved in the calculation.

Before you declare war on an AI that you are about to eliminate, demand all of their Gold (not Gold per Turn), even if they aren't Pleased with you. Chances are that they will give it to you and there is no enforced period of 10 turns of Peace like there is in the Beyond the Sword expansion.

Spam Axemen as if there were no tomorrow. Chariots do not counter them like they do in the expansion packs.


Just go and read through all of the patch logs for patches that were made after the game version that you are using. Chances are, except for bugs that were introduce by one patch and fixed by another patch, that reading this info will give you several more ideas of things to try.

 

[Clam Spammer]

There was apparently a way to use "keyboard trickery" to get infinite Great People.

Now you mention that, I recall reading about a bug that let you get infinite techs from the Oracle or Liberalism. Something involving save and reload, I think.

Another minor bit of Vanilla cheese is early chopping. This was changed in a fairly early patch so you didn't get the full amount of chop hammers until you research Mathematics. So early rushes (eg. chariots, or the aforementioned uncounterable axes) are more potent if you luck in with a forest-heavy start. OTOH, forest-heavy starts were made a lot more common in BtS, so swings and roundabouts I guess.

 

[vicawoo]

Civil service does not require mathematics. Easy oracle slingshot.

You can't retarget chopping overflow.

I think you could bulb philosophy without those pesky alphabet/mathematics techs.

No aesthetics, alphabet was the substitute.

Pre-patch, moonsinger tactics. She has a how to win deity article back when nobody played deity, it involved abusing pre-nerfed chops and infinite anarchy to avoid strikes.