What was your biggest mistake(s)?

[TheCox]

I like this thread, lots of good rookie/veteran mistakes to learn off of

 

[MrGrandiose]

All of the above... up until I discovered this forum

 

[TheSunIsDark]

Early underexpansion, because I focus too much on infrastructure. Usually, my only option left is turtling to a cultural victory, because my empire is too small to build much of an army or build spaceship parts quickly. I tend to do better in games where I start boxed in, because I have more of an incentive to build early cities!

 

[Izuul]

When i was new to Civ 4 and Civ in general i made most of the mistakes that i still see new players making.

• Built way too many wonders and buildings (probably the most common mistake in Civ 4, 100% of newbs do it)
  
• Focused too much on founding a religion and spreading it
  
• Very, very little understanding of the economy and the numerous ways of generating commerce and gold.
  
• Didn't war enough, and when i did war i did it at the wrong times and without enough commitment to it.
  
• Lack of focus on great people
  
• Terrible tech paths and tech choices
  
• Worker mismanagement

And more....

 

[Tatran]

Overexpansion and not enough (every 1 or 2 turns) consulting the tech trading screen.

 

[rah]

All classics.
My biggest dilemma was when classifying whether something was a feature or a cheat.

Fail gold on national wonders always caused me the most anguish since there was no way I could convince myself that the designers would have thought this was legit. I can always be blind to it on world wonders since it was a consolation but not on national ones.

 

[intutama]

For me it's still is not producing enough units... Let's build a barrack first. Hey in 8 turns I can get a better unit. Hm with this GS I can rush that stuff and get that even better unit.

And then I hear the trumpets of doom.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Fail gold on national wonders always caused me the most anguish since there was no way I could convince myself that the designers would have thought this was legit. I can always be blind to it on world wonders since it was a consolation but not on national ones.

Yeah, that along with Wealth and Research being so efficient are imo the biggest flaws with this game, as it means optimal play requires you to forgo most buildings. Personally I think Wealth and Research (and Culture but that's less relevant) should only convert 50% of Production, and you should only receive half of the hammers in a wonder into failgold. Research, Wealth and Failgold should imo be emergency measures, not the backbone of your economy.

 

[rah]

Agreed, and if they did only convert 50% it should be unmodified (in terms of like marble or stone bonuses) I don't mind the hammer bonus from them but to get fail gold based on that just seems way to cheesy.

 

[Herostratus]

I seem to be somewhat reluctant to engage in a limited war. This may be a relic of my many years of playing Civ2 and worrying about my reputation.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Agreed, and if they did only convert 50% it should be unmodified (in terms of like marble or stone bonuses) I don't mind the hammer bonus from them but to get fail gold based on that just seems way to cheesy.

Now that I wouldn't have a problem with. All those Marble and Stone structures you have lying around the now defunct construction site surely have a nice market value.

 

[gramm87]

Yeah, that along with Wealth and Research being so efficient are imo the biggest flaws with this game, as it means optimal play requires you to forgo most buildings. Personally I think Wealth and Research (and Culture but that's less relevant) should only convert 50% of Production, and you should only receive half of the hammers in a wonder into failgold. Research, Wealth and Failgold should imo be emergency measures, not the backbone of your economy.

I think trying to get the best result in single player games is all about finding the games boundaries and exploiting them. From that guy making reaching the maximum population physically possible in SimCity 3000 to a guy making a 13 minute morrowind speedrun, it's all about pushing games to their limits. So I think that's what interesting to most deity players, that they really understand how the game works internally.

Anyway, my biggest mistake is: I suck at diplomacy. I have no idea what leader is treacherous or not, and I just lost yet another Monarch game cause I thought the two civs on my island were my buddies, (both "pleased") but then they DOW on me with stacks of cuirasser and trebuchet.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I think trying to get the best result in single player games is all about finding the games boundaries and exploiting them. From that guy making reaching the maximum population physically possible in SimCity 3000 to a guy making a 13 minute morrowind speedrun, it's all about pushing games to their limits. So I think that's what interesting to most deity players, that they really understand how the game works internally.

I don't mind that per se, every game no matter how complex is going to be completely analyzed and "solved" at some point, but I'd still prefer if Wealth, Research and Failgold were suboptimal emergency measures and most buildings actually worth building no matter the difficulty.

 

[blunderwonder]

My biggest mistakes was rexing too much, this is a byproduct of playing alot of civ 3.

"oh look here i can chop out 5 settlers and whip out 2 more in only 25 turns, and the only thing i need to tech is bronze working... imagine how many cities i will have to whip units out of?"

only to find by the time i get to currency the ai is at civil cervice lol.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yes, blunderwonder, I have that habit too, and it is really hard to break. In Civ3, cities pay for themselves almost immediately. In Civ4, I end up crashing my economy and my science rate drops to 0.

 

[Fractal Spiral]

A lot of Civ 4 games before, my problem is I get set into one plan or one mindset and I don't ever change or read the situation. Now I've learned the hard way to keep looking at what could change in the future and think about more than one possibility.
Like this one game, I was going for culture and had 3 cities getting really close maybe like 20 or 30 turns to winning. Tokugawa hated my guts but he wasn't even near me, what's the big deal? Then outta the freaking blue Toku declared war, shows up off my coast with Frigates and Galleons. He landed some Grenadiers and Knights and random stuff next to my city, where I desperately got like 1 or 2 longbows there.. I couldn't do anything, he freaking captured and BURNED DOWN my culture city did not see that coming at all.

 

[texasAAD]

I was real young when I started Civ 4, so bear with me here.

1.Combat- Never knew how to see combat odds, just right-click on enemy units with fingers crossed.

2.Cities- Either spam units because of heavy losses in war, or build wvery building or wonder. Also placed them EVERYWHERE so nobody would settle ANYWHERE.

3.Diplomacy-Open borders woth everyone and cancels deals with other civs if asked.

4.Civics- Hell, I thought (obvipusly still do) slavery was horrible, and never ised it. Also drafted when I got Nationhood and wondered why people would get mad.

5.Techs- I'd gor for whatever sounds coolest. Can't think of a good example, but I'd pick techs that are cool to research, never caring about their uses or cost.

In short, I've come a LOOONG way from there. And Civ 4 is still pretty damn fun.

 

[Mizar]

My biggest mistake was a hundred years ago in Civ1 land, when I didn't understand how cities would grow.
So I assigned specialists with all overage food (which I thought was useless) and had therefore cities that didn't grow at all (zero food surplus) and those that did grow extremely slow (due to 1f surplus which I learned later).
Back than I thought cities grow randomly and I had like 30 of them on a world map, most of them between size 4 and 6.

To my defense I was 10.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Most of the above at one time or another.


In particular falling into temptation, with two many wonders.


Most recently what I call "failing to maintain the balance of power".

I.e. when the most powerful AI gets aggressive with another AI;
I used to feel relieved and think that while that war is going on
I can build improvements, research and develop my land.

The problem with that is that the powerful AI may vassalise its rival,
and then another AI and another AI to become unstoppable.

I.e. I hesitated when it was imperative that I attack the most
powerful AI before it defeats the target AI.

 

[Mark_Everson]

Forgetting that I was playing a Sprirtual Civ up until the Industrial Age!