X RAY VISION

[arkantos6690]

I've played Civ 4 for many years, thousands of times.

I'm not sure why I keep coming back. I've never won above Chieftan level. Sometimes I think I am winning at Warlord level, then suddenly lose.

Things I cannot understand, and might be my imagination:

1. When an AI offers a trade deal of any kind, or if I offer them a trade deal of any kind, they won't make the deal unless they cheat me. They will only agree if I give them ten and they give me two.

I cannot know, but it SEEMS as if AI trades with other AI fairly or favorably.

Where is the setting to change this obnoxious cheap attitude among AI?



2. I explore neighboring AI territory, and get a pretty good idea of how many cities, which resources they have.
Either they seem weaker than me, or about equal.

so, I play the game normally, keeping the peace, devoloping tech and cities, building army slowly.

Suddenly out of nowhere that AI neighbor shows up with a literally impossible stack. Mathematically impossible. I know this, because we are about equal, and I cannot build that many units that quickly.
I mean...so many in the stack that you can't scroll it. It goes off the screen.

I would like some kind of software that lets me SEE every single thing going on with the AI. I want to see the literal math that enables them to build 1000 times more units than I can, literally in five turns. I want an X ray machine.

3. I've been treating all of my neighbors really well, yet on Warlord, in every single game, suddenly ALL...and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE of the AI civs simultaneously declare war on me. All those hours of careful building in real time, down the toilet, and no way to understand WHY.

4. The AI nag me to join them in a war. Yet, when I ask THEM to help ME in a war, 100% of the time, they refuse, even when it would clearly be to their advantage.

5. After years of agony, I found out I could tell the game "No tech brokering" and that helps. It also lets me "reload random seed" but that is obnoxious.
The only way to even get a TINY amount of progress on Warlord is to cheat. Reload every village until you get either a new technology or a settler.

So, WHY hit us in the face with a baseball bat, over and over and over? WHY must I reload each village literally 57 times to get what I want?

Why not simply pop up a list and let me choose? Get on with the game.

6. If I play on any map size smaller than the top two largest maps, I am overwhelmed and out of the game inside of maybe eight turns. Seriously.

So I play huge maps, to have room to THINK AND BREATH without someone's hands wrapped around my throat at the very start.

Yet, I lose and lose and lose and lose.

I play a specific civ, and then set it to give me four, or sometimes five,random AI opponents.

I usually choose Pangea, becuase I despise having to build both an army and a navy, too difficlut...


7. The AI constantly NAG beg for gifts. Yet, in years and years of playing, NEVER ONCE has any AI ever agreed to give me a gift. How to fix this?

 

[lymond]

I'll say this simply, you do not know how to play the game or understand its mechanics. Civ IV is a very complex game and takes time to learn. It also takes the assistance of those who do know the game.

Huge maps are not an advantage to the human player, especially one who does not know how to play the game.

Most experienced players play without huts and events, so getting frustrated over huts and reloading because of results just does not compute us. (you should not have to reload turns to win at all)

There is so much to learn with this game. Even after 10 years or so, I still learn new things today. However, if you really want to learn the game I encourage you to spend time in the Strategy & Tips forum. Post a game with normal settings and maps and get advice. Just understanding a few basic concepts and you should be winning easily on Noble difficulty in a few days.

But be prepared to totally relearn the game, throwing out all your bad habits and preconceived notions about how the game works. Based on your post above you are way way off base as far as how to play to succeed...waaaaaay off

 

[AcaMetis]

1. When an AI offers a trade deal of any kind, or if I offer them a trade deal of any kind, they won't make the deal unless they cheat me. They will only agree if I give them ten and they give me two.

I cannot know, but it SEEMS as if AI trades with other AI fairly or favorably.

Where is the setting to change this obnoxious cheap attitude among AI?

This is only consistently true for strategic resource trades, which AIs will only sell to the player for an arm, a leg and basically your first born. But AIs don't check for resource value when trading with other AIs, so they'll happily sell each other Iron for a Cow. Also, specifically on lower difficulties, it's also frequently the case that AI resource trades aren't great, since AIs have very little GPT to trade with. On Noble, it's hard to get 4+ GPT out of a trade unless you abuse exploits/tricks. On Deity you can regularly get 10+ GPT out of AIs for a single resource, which is very much in the player's favor.

2. I explore neighboring AI territory, and get a pretty good idea of how many cities, which resources they have.
Either they seem weaker than me, or about equal.

so, I play the game normally, keeping the peace, devoloping tech and cities, building army slowly.

Suddenly out of nowhere that AI neighbor shows up with a literally impossible stack. Mathematically impossible. I know this, because we are about equal, and I cannot build that many units that quickly.
I mean...so many in the stack that you can't scroll it. It goes off the screen.

I would like some kind of software that lets me SEE every single thing going on with the AI. I want to see the literal math that enables them to build 1000 times more units than I can, literally in five turns. I want an X ray machine.

Long story short, the AI cheats on higher difficulties, and even on lower difficulties to a lesser extent. Them having giant unit doomstacks out of nowhere is actually incorrect, they will slowly build up an army as the turns pass, it's just that they don't pay the same hammer and maintenance cost on their army that players do and are able to build up their empire in the meantime better than the player can, since they cheat stuff like tech costs as well.

Mind you, using clever strategy and abuse of Slavery/Drafting mechanics the player is able to (effectively) outproduce and defeat an AI three times larger than the player, at basically tech parity. It'll hurt, but it can be done.

3. I've been treating all of my neighbors really well, yet on Warlord, in every single game, suddenly ALL...and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE of the AI civs simultaneously declare war on me. All those hours of careful building in real time, down the toilet, and no way to understand WHY.

Sounds like the Apostolic Palace called for a Holy War on you. Alternatively you got DoWed on by one AI who then bribed other AIs to declare war on you as well. AIs can bribe other AIs into war, just like the player can. They just never do during peacetime, which the player can do.

4. The AI nag me to join them in a war. Yet, when I ask THEM to help ME in a war, 100% of the time, they refuse, even when it would clearly be to their advantage.

AIs will ask you for whatever strikes their fancy at the time, with no regard for how much they're asking for and how much they reasonably could ask for. In contrast, there's very complex and intricate mechanics behind how much you can beg from an AI, and asking them to join a war simply costs too much. It's a mechanic that can be abused to the tune of getting hundreds of free beakers out of an AI, it just takes very deep knowledge of game mechanics.

5. After years of agony, I found out I could tell the game "No tech brokering" and that helps. It also lets me "reload random seed" but that is obnoxious.
The only way to even get a TINY amount of progress on Warlord is to cheat. Reload every village until you get either a new technology or a settler.

So, WHY hit us in the face with a baseball bat, over and over and over? WHY must I reload each village literally 57 times to get what I want?

Why not simply pop up a list and let me choose? Get on with the game.

Most people play with villages ("Goody Huts") turned off entirely, as well as Random Events and Random Seed On Reload for that matter. Basically, like @lymond noted, there's a ton of basic game mechanics you don't seem to understand and utilize. Relearning the game from square 1 seems to be the best course of action. It's entirely possible to run circles around the AIs on Noble difficulty with just a basic understanding of the game's mechanics.

For reference, playing without Tech Trading (or Tech Brokering) can actually make the game harder, as well. For starters it makes diplomacy more important than usual, since bribing AIs into/out of a war is much harder when you can't sell them any tech.

6. If I play on any map size smaller than the top two largest maps, I am overwhelmed and out of the game inside of maybe eight turns. Seriously.

So I play huge maps, to have room to THINK AND BREATH without someone's hands wrapped around my throat at the very start.

Yet, I lose and lose and lose and lose.

I play a specific civ, and then set it to give me four, or sometimes five,random AI opponents.

I usually choose Pangea, becuase I despise having to build both an army and a navy, too difficlut...

Huge maps can be much harder to play than standard sized maps, since huge maps don't have the same resource density as standard sized maps. You could end up with a starting area that's completely deprived of food resources beyond what's in your capitol, and that's a rough time even for a veteran player. In addition, removing half of the AIs from the game gives all the other AIs that much more land to expand into, and as a general rule the bigger an AI the bigger a threat they are. AIs with 15+ cities are a nightmare on any difficulty.

7. The AI constantly NAG beg for gifts. Yet, in years and years of playing, NEVER ONCE has any AI ever agreed to give me a gift. How to fix this?

Once again, there's very complex and intricate mechanics behind how much an AI is willing to "gift" a player. It can be studied and exploited, eventually you can get a feel for it, but it's very complicated stuff.

 

[arkantos6690]

I'll say this simply, you do not know how to play the game or understand its mechanics. Civ IV is a very complex game and takes time to learn. It also takes the assistance of those who do know the game.

Huge maps are not an advantage to the human player, especially one who does not know how to play the game.

Most experienced players play without huts and events, so getting frustrated over huts and reloading because of results just does not compute us. (you should not have to reload turns to win at all)

There is so much to learn with this game. Even after 10 years or so, I still learn new things today. However, if you really want to learn the game I encourage you to spend time in the Strategy & Tips forum. Post a game with normal settings and maps and get advice. Just understanding a few basic concepts and you should be winning easily on Noble difficulty in a few days.

But be prepared to totally relearn the game, throwing out all your bad habits and preconceived notions about how the game works. Based on your post above you are way way off base as far as how to play to succeed...waaaaaay off

Thank you. I can only repeat: small maps, and the game is over in five turns. I get spammed. It is impossible to play unless I am given TIME To build up and ROOM to go grab
the Horses and Iron. Cannot play, much less win, on anything but top two sizes. Mathematically impossible to survive.

Yes, it does make sense. I want those hut bonuses. I just don't want to have to reload thirty times per hut to get the Tech increase for each one.

I have played this for so long I don't know how long it has been. The only advice I've seen is, "turn the game into a boring frustrating grind of nit picking by hyper mega specialization and micro management"

So, you have to become a machine yourself to beat the machine. BORING.

Also have NEVER found ANYONE that explains EXACTLY in microscopic detail, HOW an inferior or equal enemy suddenly shows up with a stack of a thousand units, when I have
only been able to build ten. WHERE IS THAT THREAD?

It is NOT my imagination.......I have equal or better resouces but THEY can build a thousand times better and faster. HOW to turn this off PERMANENTLY?

 

[arkantos6690]

This is only consistently true for strategic resource trades, which AIs will only sell to the player for an arm, a leg and basically your first born. But AIs don't check for resource value when trading with other AIs, so they'll happily sell each other Iron for a Cow. Also, specifically on lower difficulties, it's also frequently the case that AI resource trades aren't great, since AIs have very little GPT to trade with. On Noble, it's hard to get 4+ GPT out of a trade unless you abuse exploits/tricks. On Deity you can regularly get 10+ GPT out of AIs for a single resource, which is very much in the player's favor.

Long story short, the AI cheats on higher difficulties, and even on lower difficulties to a lesser extent. Them having giant unit doomstacks out of nowhere is actually incorrect, they will slowly build up an army as the turns pass, it's just that they don't pay the same hammer and maintenance cost on their army that players do and are able to build up their empire in the meantime better than the player can, since they cheat stuff like tech costs as well.

Mind you, using clever strategy and abuse of Slavery/Drafting mechanics the player is able to (effectively) outproduce and defeat an AI three times larger than the player, at basically tech parity. It'll hurt, but it can be done.

Sounds like the Apostolic Palace called for a Holy War on you. Alternatively you got DoWed on by one AI who then bribed other AIs to declare war on you as well. AIs can bribe other AIs into war, just like the player can. They just never do during peacetime, which the player can do.

AIs will ask you for whatever strikes their fancy at the time, with no regard for how much they're asking for and how much they reasonably could ask for. In contrast, there's very complex and intricate mechanics behind how much you can beg from an AI, and asking them to join a war simply costs too much. It's a mechanic that can be abused to the tune of getting hundreds of free beakers out of an AI, it just takes very deep knowledge of game mechanics.

Most people play with villages ("Goody Huts") turned off entirely, as well as Random Events and Random Seed On Reload for that matter. Basically, like @lymond noted, there's a ton of basic game mechanics you don't seem to understand and utilize. Relearning the game from square 1 seems to be the best course of action. It's entirely possible to run circles around the AIs on Noble difficulty with just a basic understanding of the game's mechanics.

For reference, playing without Tech Trading (or Tech Brokering) can actually make the game harder, as well. For starters it makes diplomacy more important than usual, since bribing AIs into/out of a war is much harder when you can't sell them any tech.

Huge maps can be much harder to play than standard sized maps, since huge maps don't have the same resource density as standard sized maps. You could end up with a starting area that's completely deprived of food resources beyond what's in your capitol, and that's a rough time even for a veteran player. In addition, removing half of the AIs from the game gives all the other AIs that much more land to expand into, and as a general rule the bigger an AI the bigger a threat they are. AIs with 15+ cities are a nightmare on any difficulty.

Once again, there's very complex and intricate mechanics behind how much an AI is willing to "gift" a player. It can be studied and exploited, eventually you can get a feel for it, but it's very complicated stuff.

Thank you, that's a lot to take in. I'm sorry, but you can't just assume everyone is going to know what GPT stands for.

Ok, it is somewhat of a relief to have confirmed my deep angry suspicion that the AI cheats. now.....HOW DO I PERMANENTLY TURN OFF THE AI CHEATING ABILITY?

Again. No idea what DoWed means.

It took me years of play, but finally leaned that the stupid religous palace thing is essential to build yourself to keep from being ganged up on.

The trading mechanics may be "complex and intricate" but that doesn't help me.
YEARS of
"F**K you, I won't make a fair trade" 100% of the time is getting OLD.

As I understood the setting, I was preventing the AI from freely selling tech when I turned off Tech Brokering. I did not notice being kept from selling it myself. I thought it only prevented the one I
sold it to from then selling it to others.

It quickly became obvious on Warlord that one of the many ways the game was enraging me was that the AIs would give each other techs for nothing, resulting in everyone advancing at light speed beyond me.

I do understand that SOME big maps end up having the Horses and Iron too far away. I just reload the game.

I want to play a BUILD UP game, not a frantic, "everyone is down my throat simultaneously and instantly" game. This is turn based, not button mashing.

I want to play the whole planet, not just claustrophobic incestuous "europe just before world war one" map.

I cannot handle a game with more than five AI opponents, max. It's just too confusing and stressful. I mean ripping out hair and literally smashing furniture stressful. Literally.

 

[AcaMetis]

Thank you. I can only repeat: small maps, and the game is over in five turns. I get spammed. It is impossible to play unless I am given TIME To build up and ROOM to go grab
the Horses and Iron. Cannot play, much less win, on anything but top two sizes. Mathematically impossible to survive.

...I cannot puzzle out what goes wrong here. It's entirely possible to play standard or small sized maps to the end and win some kind of victory on Deity, much less below Noble, so I'm not sure what's amiss here. Barbarians don't even spawn by turn 5, so that can't be the issue, and I frequently settle cities before AIs do on Noble, so unless you're getting unbelievably unlucky with AIs spawning literally right next to you or spawning is garbage spots every single time you shouldn't get choked so early either. You said you're usually playing Pangaea, have you tried playing on an Inland Sea map before? It's one of the more balanced map scripts, basically it makes sure that everyone has a fair shot at getting their share of land, unless both your neighbours aggressively settle in your face. I've never seen that happen, though, in fact usually I'm the one going the aggressive face-settling.

I have played this for so long I don't know how long it has been. The only advice I've seen is, "turn the game into a boring frustrating grind of nit picking by hyper mega specialization and micro management"

So, you have to become a machine yourself to beat the machine. BORING.

Intense micro management should only be required on very high difficulties, and once you've gotten enough of it down to a habit it should be possible to win even Emperor-level games without heavy micro.

Also have NEVER found ANYONE that explains EXACTLY in microscopic detail, HOW an inferior or equal enemy suddenly shows up with a stack of a thousand units, when I have
only been able to build ten. WHERE IS THAT THREAD?

It is NOT my imagination.......I have equal or better resouces but THEY can build a thousand times better and faster. HOW to turn this off PERMANENTLY?

Well, as I said AIs do cheat, but on levels below Noble they actually get penalties rather than bonuses more often than not. As for the rapid buildup, every AI has a variable that determines how likely they are to build a unit if a city completes something (so Gandhi will build very few units, whereas Shaka builds loads of them constantly). But when AIs start plotting war, that variable is overwritten by a flat 90%, meaning that basically every city of the AI will pump out units non-stop, and if they're in Slavery they'll be whipping out those units too. Since you usually play on maps that has AIs reaching 15-20+ cities or so, they're able to pump out massive armies in a small amount of time, resulting in much larger stacks than you'd normally see.

Incidentally, do you use Slavery at all? It's one of the most powerful mechanics in the game, and a large reason why the AIs are able to pull armies out of nowhere like that. It's something the player can definitely do as well, going from 10 warriors and three archers to having 50+ Cavalry in the span of five turns.

Thank you, that's a lot to take in. I'm sorry, but you can't just assume everyone is going to know what GPT stands for.

Civ IV is a large and complex game. GPT is short for Gold Per Turn.

Ok, it is somewhat of a relief to have confirmed my deep angry suspicion that the AI cheats. now.....HOW DO I PERMANENTLY TURN OFF THE AI CHEATING ABILITY?

That is practically impossible, a lot of that is hard-coded into the game. You could, in theory, mod the game to take out AI bonuses to the extend that that's possible (for example, on all difficulties AIs get the same combat bonuses against Barbarians that a human player does on Settler difficulty, regardless if the player plays the game on Settler or Deity), but a lot of it is hard-coded, like the resource trades.

Again. No idea what DoWed means.

DoW is short for Declaration or War.

It took me years of play, but finally leaned that the stupid religous palace thing is essential to build yourself to keep from being ganged up on.

Not necessarily. The holy war thing can only be called for if an AP member, meaning anyone that has the AP religion in one of their cities, is currently at war with a non-member of the AP, meaning someone who doesn't have the AP religion in any of their cities. If you have the AP religion in one of your cities, even if you're not actually running that religion as your state religion, you're be a partial member, and you can't have a holy war declared on you.

Of course, building the AP yourself has it's own benefits.

The trading mechanics may be "complex and intricate" but that doesn't help me.
YEARS of
"F**K you, I won't make a fair trade" 100% of the time is getting OLD.

As I understood the setting, I was preventing the AI from freely selling tech when I turned off Tech Brokering. I did not notice being kept from selling it myself. I thought it only prevented the one I
sold it to from then selling it to others.

It quickly became obvious on Warlord that one of the many ways the game was enraging me was that the AIs would give each other techs for nothing, resulting in everyone advancing at light speed beyond me.

It's only complex if you're trying to beg something from the AI, since the mechanics to determine how much you can beg have a number of different variables in play. Straight trading is much more straightforward - the AI values your tech at a certain percentage of it's beaker value (I believe around 100% on Noble, I want to say 66% on Deity?), and will trade techs if they see a trade as being equal or better for them in value, and resource wise they'll usually just trade 1 for 1 if it's not a strategic resource, or however much GPT they have to trade otherwise. Noble AI very rarely have enough money to pay the full amount they're willing to pay for a resource unless you actively exploit gameplay mechanics, I assume the same is true for lower level AIs.

No Tech Brokering does prevent you from trading away a tech you didn't research yourself, yes. AIs will trade tech between each other, and like with AI resource trades, they don't do the whole "check to see if this trade is actually remotely fair" if they're not trading with a player. You could set the game on No Tech Trading, there's an option to turn tech trading off completely, but doing so complicates/limits diplomacy a great deal.

As for AI research speed, even on Noble with tech trading fully enabled and Mansa "anything for a tech" Musa on the board, it should be possible to run circles around the AIs, tech wise. Worst case scenario is that they'll get Gunpowder before you manage to start a Cavalry rush, usually they'll be one or two techs away from getting Gunpowder still by the time you pull the trigger, only facing Longbows and lesser units as defenders.

I do understand that SOME big maps end up having the Horses and Iron too far away. I just reload the game.

There are ways to "cheat" strategic resource trades if you rely on upgrading units, so you can get, say, Cannons without having Iron and without paying 50+ GPT on a strategic resource trade. It takes a Great Merchant or two to pay for the unit upgrades, though.

I want to play a BUILD UP game, not a frantic, "everyone is down my throat simultaneously and instantly" game. This is turn based, not button mashing.

That sounds like an issue with your diplo, since it should be possible to keep the AIs off your back at least most of the time, unless (or even if) you're sharing a map with Shaka, Monty, Toku, Ragnar and Boudica. By bribing them to go to war with each other, strategically giving into some of their demands and beg for 1 to get 10 turn peace treaties, it should be possible to avoid getting DoWed. Even the AP cannot call for a holy war on you unless you're already in a war with another member, during peacetime the worst it can call for is a stop trade.

I want to play the whole planet, not just claustrophobic incestuous "europe just before world war one" map.

I cannot handle a game with more than five AI opponents, max. It's just too confusing and stressful. I mean ripping out hair and literally smashing furniture stressful. Literally.

The issue is that gigantic maps with so few AI opponents actually makes the game much harder. AIs, especially Warlord AIs, normally aren't as formidable as you describe them. I've literally seen AIs on Noble DoW someone with a "stack" of like 3 units total, and those were too cowardly to attack a single Longbow defending a city. AIs getting like 20+ cities is what makes them much more dangerous and capable of building (and maintaining) gigantic armies, their inflated military strength makes them more likely to plot war on someone, and with so few AIs on the board, if they do start plotting war, there's far fewer potential targets to choose from, so it ends up being you more often.

Also, giant empty spots on the map means that you'll probably be facing Barbarians for a much longer time than normal, unless you draw a line somewhere and fog bust everything between that line and your cities. And of course manage to hold that line. AIs, like I said, get massive bonuses to fighting barbarians, so what few barbarians choose to bother them aren't going to accomplish very much.

 

[arkantos6690]

I have played maps that are mostly islands. I don't do this any more, because I find it impossible to build both an army and a navy.

I have tried the micromanagement of moving the little circles around cities, but don't understand what, if anything, this achieves really.

I have NOT tried the micromanagement of "every city must specialize".
As far as I can tell, every single city needs every single improvement.

As for cities, you've GOT to go grab resources, so there really are few options.

Long ago, someone sarcastically, said to me, "Yes, the game cheats: in your favor, with penalties on the AI"
Well, if I have the advantage, HOW do they build Stacks Of Doom?
I guess you explained it: cheating by the AI. Enraging cheating I'd like to learn to shut off.

For many years in real time, I refused to use Slavery. In real life, I despise the idea, and in the game I had NO CLUE how it works. Now, I always use it. In fact, often I never stop using it.

As for diplomacy, I've tried a few things. Mostly I ignore requests from both sides to join a war.....and, evidently, this turns BOTH of them into my enemy. I've tried open borders and closed borders, doesn't seem to make any difference. I don't see or understand how open border benefits me financially though iv'e read that it does.

In notice that I build up a lot of gold pretty quickly, and that the AIs are always stone cold broke.

I had no idea why barbarians did not seem to worry the AIs. More cheating by the game.

Your explanation of map size and war is clear. I understand, but may simply never play this game again. I'm really old, and probably have cancer. I don't want to waste the time I have left.
Thank you.

 

[AcaMetis]

I have played maps that are mostly islands. I don't do this any more, because I find it impossible to build both an army and a navy.

Building up a navy while building up an army is definitely a hammer sink that you will feel when the times comes to build up. It's one of the reason why the Dutch UU is appreciated in those circumstances, because it allows you to get away with building a smaller transport fleet.

I have tried the micromanagement of moving the little circles around cities, but don't understand what, if anything, this achieves really.

It changes what tiles a city works and what it'll generate from those tiles. A city that works tiles with a lot of will grow quickly, a city that works tons of will build stuff quickly but grow more slowly, etc.

I have NOT tried the micromanagement of "every city must specialize".
As far as I can tell, every single city needs every single improvement.

As for cities, you've GOT to go grab resources, so there really are few options.

City Specialization is more a question of what a city can't do, honestly. For instance a city that has poor food will never run many specialists, meaning it should be build as a production city. Where's a city with no hills can't generate any worthwhile production until much later in the game, so that city should become either a specialist or cottage city.

Long ago, someone sarcastically, said to me, "Yes, the game cheats: in your favor, with penalties on the AI"
Well, if I have the advantage, HOW do they build Stacks Of Doom?
I guess you explained it: cheating by the AI. Enraging cheating I'd like to learn to shut off.

Thing is, Warlord difficulty does cheat in your favor, to a point. For instance you get The Wheel as a free tech, you pay less for civic upkeep, inflation, city maintenance and unit maintenance, techs are 10% cheaper for you, etc. Conversely the AI pays 10% more for city growth and production, and their usual bonuses (which they kinda need, since AIs are...AIs) aren't as high as they normally are.

As for how they're managing to build stacks of doom, what tiles a city works can easily mean the difference between building a unit in 3 turns or 30 turns, and if you add in Slavery there's situations where you could feasibly pump out a unit every other turn for 10+ turns, and produce and extra two units in the process just from overflow. You seem to be missing very core, very basic mechanics of the game that causes your cities to not be able to produce anywhere, whereas AIs are whipping out an army.

For many years in real time, I refused to use Slavery. In real life, I despise the idea, and in the game I had NO CLUE how it works. Now, I always use it. In fact, often I never stop using it.

It's one of the game's most powerful mechanics, but it can't be overused either. Otherwise the stacks to high your cities won't work any tiles and be useless.

As for diplomacy, I've tried a few things. Mostly I ignore requests from both sides to join a war.....and, evidently, this turns BOTH of them into my enemy. I've tried open borders and closed borders, doesn't seem to make any difference. I don't see or understand how open border benefits me financially though iv'e read that it does.

Open Borders allows you to establish trade routes with that civ, which are worth more than domestic trade routes. It's not a large difference early on, 1-2 per city at most, but in some situation it can generate an extra 12+ per city. As for diplo, this is actually another point where limited tech trading, as well as lower difficulties, actually makes an aspect of the game harder - one of the biggest and easy to obtain diplo bonuses is +4 for Fair Trade, which is very hard to get when you're not trading techs, as well as +2 Shared Resources, which you get from trading resources to an AI regardless of whether you get something back in return. Of course on lower difficulties AIs are slow to hook up resources and never have appreciable amount of GPT to trade, so it's easy to miss that bonus as well. Maintaining Open Borders for long enough is also worth I believe +2, eventually, though it'll go away immediately if you close borders for whatever reason.

In notice that I build up a lot of gold pretty quickly, and that the AIs are always stone cold broke.

The AIs only show what gold they're willing to trade, not how much they're actually producing and spending on research. Honestly you shouldn't be building up tons of gold quickly for most of the game, usually you're hurting for gold to keep your research slider going.

I had no idea why barbarians did not seem to worry the AIs. More cheating by the game.

AIs, on all difficulty levels, get +70% vs. animals, and +40% versus human barbarians. Mind you, on Warlord you're also getting +50% vs. animals and +20% versus human barbs, as well as three Mulligan fights - basically the first three fights against a barbarian you cannot lose, on Warlord, even if you someone end up pitting a Scout against a Barbarian Tank. Also, I've no idea if the AIs get this benefit (quite frankly it'd be hard to notice, given their massive bonus).

Your explanation of map size and war is clear. I understand, but may simply never play this game again. I'm really old, and probably have cancer. I don't want to waste the time I have left.
Thank you.

You're welcome.

 

[vincentz]

I honestly think watching a few "Lets play civ 4" youtube videos would help, as it sounds like you are missing key elements of understanding pretty much every 4X games.
Also, isnt there a tutorial in base vanilla civ4? Maybe start there.

"I have tried the micromanagement of moving the little circles around cities, but don't understand what, if anything, this achieves really."
This speak volumes to me. Have you honestly played the game for years without understanding this?