very new to the game plz help

[MarrySue]

hi all.. i know i posted some stupid question earlier ...i wasnt able to get through the toturial thing ,... i did play other games and was good at.... like pharoah ...ceaser n age of empires .....

but this one ... dont know .... i search through this forum trying to put my hands on some general help for really new bies to this game ... that havent played any series of civ.... like me

so plz if u recomend me to read anything plz do... i downloaded the pdf file "basic stratigy guide" .. but i really didnt know what it was talkin bout since i dont know what this or that means ..


plz help me out here ... im so anxious to play this game ...


thanks alot in advanced ,,,

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'd say try the tutorial again. I think there's a problem with it if you save the game and reload it later though. You only really need to play the tutorial until it says "right, you are on your own now", to get the basic idea of the game.

Then have a try without the tutorial on the lowest level. It shouldn't be too hard and you will be able to make lots of mistakes. When you finish that game, I suggest reading the manual through if you haven't already. Play your first few games with the manual close by too.

Finally, check out the War Academy here (links at top of page below Civ IV on the links bar). And keep asking questions, good luck.

 

[Cam_H]

MarrySue,

You've done the right thing by looking as Sisiutil's guide.

Further to ParadigmShifter's good advice, you might be able to get some value from Sulla's walkthrough although I should point out two things; (1.) it has been taken from the perspective of someone who's reasonably familiar with Civ3, and (2.) was a very early version of the game and some of the rules have been 'tweaked' marginally (for instance; Horses are now hidden until you acquire Animal Husbandry).

I hope you enjoy Civ4!

... and make sure that you patch your game - link from menu above : Civilization IV > Patch and Update.

 

[futurehermit]

be sure to read through this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=138904

and in general just read everything you can in this forum. there is a lot of helpful stuff here. if you read through some of sisiutil's old alc threads you will get the idea of how to approach the game.

 

[mice]

Play at settler level for a while. double click on a city to open it up. In there you can move around the citizens (white circles) to work different tiles. these tiles give you food or production(hammers) or commerce.

The cities can build buildings or units. the units go to war the buildings give you advantages and better use of your commerce.

F6, the tech tree. Just try to move through the tree steadily. it will unlock new units, wonders , give you a religion sometimes.

Wonders give you some advantage and the videos look cool.

Build a bunch of axemen and go take your neighbor's cities. Build catapults to bombard the culture defense to zero first ( target icon )

With other leaders, on settler, be friendly or unfriendly as you like.It wont matter much.

Build some workers to develop the tiles in your cities. Eg, if your have rice, research agriculture to be able to farm it.

If you have copper, (EDIT; because you researched bronze working)you can be mine it and build axemen.

If you have horse, build a pasture to be able to make horse archers or chariots.

Get your workers to make some cottages ( after researching pottery) and go into the city to allocate a citizen (white circle) to be on these cottages. They will bring in a lot of commerce and this can be spent on units, city maintenance, culture, and other things.

Also go to options and uncheck 'unit cycling' Unit cycling drives me mad. Another thing I disable is all the audio going on. I recommend taking a lot of the audio down so that you can concentrate.

Private message me if you need more information. I'm happy to help.

 

[InFlux5]

My best advice to a total noob: hit F12 a lot. It's the hotkey for the Civilopedia. Even those of us who have been playing for years still have to consult it.

I would also say to keep in mind that there are many ways to win this game. I think at first it's overwhelming because you don't know what you're supposed to be doing. The thing about Civ is, it's sort of like a sandbox game (such as SimCity) - except that you can win. It doesn't go on forever, but it goes on for a while, and each game is different.

So just have fun and try to enjoy building up your ideal empire. Worry about winning later. That's my advice.

 

[madscientist]

Quick advice for starting this game. Start at settler and plan three games
1) Build everything and try to avoid war. See where that gets you.
2) Go tech crazy and build alot of cottages to get a great economy. Try to avoid war.
3) Build a massive army and start killing peopl with little regard to games 1 and 2.

By this time you can get most game concepts to move onto game 4 which should be more balanced or as the game style you enjoy.

 

[futurehermit]

When I first played, I would play only the first era and then restart until I knew the ins-and-outs of the first era. Then I would move on to the second. Rinse, repeat.

The downside is that you don't finish win/lose games in the early going. The upside (imo) is that you learn things better. My thinking was that it didn't pay to go through a whole game if I lost track of what the different things were that I was doing. Of course if you are playing for fun then don't worry about it

Good advice in this thread so far. I would say just concentrate on learning the game mechanics. Understand how to manage your city tiles, your specialists, and that kind of thing. Understand how to finance your empire (build cottages, courthouses, etc. don't overexpand). Understand how to expand your empire (settlers and warfare).

And above all: Understand bronzeworking.

Chop-Rushing

Pop-Rushing

Axe-Rushing

When you understand these three concepts well you can move up to at least noble.

 

[OldDays]

1) Learn the power of
2) Learn the power of chopping! +
3) Learn the power of very early war!

And never forget: In the end "It's the economy, stupid!"


Have fun

 

[futurehermit]

Land is power > It's the economy, stupid

 

[MarrySue]

thanks everyone for the advices u gave me ...

i began playin the game ... yes still lots of things i dont know about ... speacially the techs ... what should i research first and all that /.... the walkthrough thread really helped me to understand the game even more ...

but one thing that is /.// when u click on a city .... and if u have a red sad face ,,, it would say like too crowded or something

how would i uncrowed the city ??????

and one last question one of u were saying work on tiles (white circles) and make cottages ... i should like put workers on each cottage i build to make it function?

thanks really for the help

 

[ParadigmShifter]

You can't get rid of the "too crowded" red face except by using slavery to whip the city and reduce population. Just get happy resources connected or build happy buildings (temples, colosseum, theatre [with dye], market [with some resources], forge [with gems/precious metals], cathedral [of state religion]). Or use the culture slider. As long as you have no angry red "specialists" you are OK. As long as your happy faces are >= your sad faces you are fine (beats me why it says > rather than >= on the city screen though).

You don't need workers on your cottage to make it function, you just need workers to build the cottage. EDIT: You do need to work the tile though, with a citizen, that's the white circle thingio.

EDIT2: Tech wise, there's a thread here with "what so you research first" with general good ideas - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=230588. It depends where you start, what techs you begin with, what civ you are playing, etc. For example, Egypt starts with agriculture and the wheel, and you only need to tech Animal Husbandry to get powerful war chariots online. Other civs start with mining and bronze working is a good choice, you can chop trees down for hammers and use slavery to get rid of unhappy faces (best to whip 2 pop at a time rather than 1).

 

[MarrySue]

i just one my first game loool

tho i dont know how i did it ,,, but it was through land domination condition ... and got rid of one enemy out of 2

but there was this space race in the winning conditioons... i tried to look for those buildings in the f12 but i couldnt find it /....

would anyone tell me how to get there? space race or sometghing like that ....

i began my game as a settler

 

[ParadigmShifter]

To win a space victory, you need to do the following:

1) Tech to rocketry
2) Build the apollo program
3) Get all the techs required to build spaceship parts, and build them. The techs and parts are -

SS Casing (rocketry) need 5 of these built
SS Thrusters (satellites) need 3 of these
SS Engine (fusion) need 1 of these and 1 of all the rest of the parts
SS Docking Bay (robotics)
SS Cockpit (fiber optics)
SS Life Support (ecology)
SS Stasis Chamber (genetics)

Next step - move up a level, keep moving up until you lose a game, then stick at that level until you can consistently win.

 

[RLesink]

Paradigm covered it well, but I just wanted to add that space ship parts are in the Civilopedia under Projects, not Buildings. You build them like regular units or buildings, but they can't be rushed with Slavery or a Great Engineer.

 

[MarrySue]

how about this question.... how to know where to find the best location for ur first city???? what to go for? more food prodoction or money??

as u might know im startting to play the single game /custom game/ settler

but do other civs in my game play as settlers as well?????


and one last q. can i like play the game and still browse here?
like make the game screen in a small window or anything like that?

thanks

 

[Cam_H]

(a.) More often than not the starting spot will be a good spot and likely to be the best spot available to you.

(b.) Too many variables to say "Do this" or "Do that". If you need an answer - check to see if you have the Fishing technology ... if so, and your starting spot is on the coast with a seafood resource that can be worked, then build a Work Boat. If not, build a Worker.

(c.) Play at least at Chieftain level. It's not much harder and at least one step in the right direction.

(d.) The other tribes play on a level roughly equivalent to Noble level.

(e.) Yes. You can go Options > Graphics > (deselect) Full Screen Mode.

 

[MarrySue]

thanks alot ....

 

[MarrySue]

i have tried to download the v1.61 patch ....but when i hit the exe it would tell me after few second that
"the setup has detected that no version of sid meier's civlization 4 is installed the update requiers that a previous version of the application be installed"

what the hell is that??????
how have i been playin all this time then?

 

[futurehermit]

mmm...do you have warlords installed, that could be why.

for your first city, settle in place. don't move the settler until you understand why you would want to move it. the generator usually puts you down in a good location.

for subsequent cities you want HIGH-FOOD cities. look for surplus food sources: fish, clams, crabs, wheat, corn, rice, pigs, sheep, cows, bananas, sugar, grassland spices, floodplains. settle your cities so that 2 or more (if possible, don't settle unless there is at least 1) of these surplus food sources in the big-fat-cross of the city.

the big-fat-cross is the workable tiles surrounding your city. there are 2 tiles in each direction making for a total of 20 tiles:

-xxx
xxxxx
xxcxx
xxxxx
-xxx

If you have 2 or more food sources, your cities will grow quickly which is good! From there, you just need to increase happiness so that you don't get a lot of red mad faces.

Ways to increase happiness early:

-Look for happiness resources:

-Ivory and fur (hunting)
-Gold, silver, and gems (mining)
-Wine (monarchy)
-Incense, spices, sugar, dye, silk, etc. (calendar)
-Whale (optics)

Run civics:

-Hereditary rule: 1 /unit in city (monarchy)
-Representation (requires pyramids to get it early)

Build buildings:

-Markets, Forges, Theatres, Temples, etc.

Traits:

-Play a charismatic leader if you have warlords. +1 immediately. Another +1 from monuments

Increase your happiness as much as possible and grow your cities as large as possible. Expand your empire through building settlers and conquering neighbours as much as possible (don't go below 70% science slider if possible, build cottages to keep your tech rate up).

If you can master that approach, combined with the above advice on pursuing space race and using bronzeworking, you should be winning space races on noble/prince in no time