winning the game

[Light-Giver]

I just got civ 4 cor christmas and my old stradigy for civ 3 dosnt work well, i used to expand like crazy then build up my citys, then win a conquest victory, in civ 4 you cant realy focuse all on expansion because your citys dont increase in pop when they make a settler so it hurts my core citys doing that, any new stradigy i should follow? that civics thing is kool but i bankruped my country 1 time by geting 1 that was too expencive, i couldnt pay for my units even with 100% of my income going to paying for them and none to science, i had a single barbarian unit out causeing havic and whenever i sent a unit to intercept him my unit disapeared to pay for my negitive income, another game i had 3 citys all defended by warriors, 1 with 2 warriors, then i was attacked by about 5 barbarian units all at wonce and they conquored all my citys... I need some help cause i cant make it off the starting block.

 

[spankey]

You need to expand your civilization much more slowly. Each new city costs more as a whole civilization and soon you are operating at 50% science and falling behind. Read a couple of the early strategy guides to help give you guidance.

 

[Refar]

The Endless City spam from Civ1-3 does not work well anymore - the halsted city growth is the lesser of the problems here, as it will be maintenance that eat you if you overexpand.

As i dont even know where to start - and i think random Tips like "do this" or "do that" will not do any good... Browse through Strategy&Tips forums, and look at the strategies and tips there. There are also game walkthroughs.

Perhaps start here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632 - its a beginners guide. It does not cover every strategy ir trick, but will give you a big picture.

 

[Johan^^]

A few rules which might help:

1. Dont build anymore cities if your science percentage is below 50-60% unless they new city got gold and a good food resource.

2. Dont keep all the cities you win by warfare, only the really good ones. You can always fill in some of the more crappy cities later.

3. Only found very good cities in the beginning and only found a few ones.

4. If you economy is hurting, build some cottages.

5. If you are lagging gold it is ofen a good solution to settle GP´s like priests/merchants in your capital.


If your still not doing well ... i´ll suggest that you read up on some of the guides and walkthroughs.

I can recomment the walkthroughs by obsolete... Just mix in some cottages and dont build that many wonders. Otherwise the ALC games are really good. (All leaders game challengen). You can find them by searching "walkthroughs" or ALC.

Good luck with the game

 

[Derek_Zoolander]

Like said, build cottages. Generally I build cottages on floodplains, cottages\farms (if i need farms to cover some of the hills) on grassland and mines on hills. If the city is still lacking in food, i convert the mines to windmills. I haven't played Civ 1-3, so I don't know what it was like, but a generally good starting build is worker>warrior>settler. This can be changed around depending on the situation, like if you have a sea food source, you might want to go workboat first. I also build stonehenge instead of a settler if I'm Egypt since it :
1) Gives all cities until Astronomy a free culture bonus to pop their borders due to the obelisk
2) The obelisk, the replacement for the monument allows you to put two priests as specialist. This helps pay for expansion, and also produces more Great Priests. Great Priests, when settled, give you 5 gold and two production in that city, allowing you to build 2-3 cities without major bankrupting.

If you need any help, just ask here.

 

[Zanttu]

For a fast recover from rapid expansion(REX), assign scientist specialists to produce more research and beeline to so-called "economical techs". Code of Laws allows you to build courthouses, which cut your city mainteance to half (most of your expenses are city mainteance), and Currency adds trade routes to your cities, which increases your commerce output. Other option for economy instead of running scientists is building cottages, but it isn't so powerful... Maybe just easier to use .

 

[Gliese 581]

There's some good tips in the previous posts. Also try a good(broken) leader, like Elizabeth, Hannibal or Huayna Capac.

 

[Beagle7]

I very good gold gaining stratagy is to find a religion and diligently spread it all around the world. Next once a great prophet emerges place them in the city that founded the religion and have them build that religion's special building. From then on you will get 1 gold per turn per every city that has your religion. So if 30 cities have your religion you get 30 gold a turn.

 

[Florian]

Zanttu,

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omhem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

Omhem? I think you mean omnem.

 

[Zanttu]

Whoops, a typo. Fixed now =P

 

[AlessioCerci]

Difference between Civ 3 & 4 - COTTAGES!!! Build them.

 

[futurehermit]

Civ 4 is all about things that start with C:

Cottages
Currency
Code of Laws
Courthouses
Controlled expansion
Construction
Calendar
Civil Service
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