There was always something decidedly evil about Sid Meier, inventor of the Just... One... More... Turn...™ game mechanic.
Civilization IV
- Thread starter alasdairsim
- Start date
I have played Civ IV for many hours. I love the complexity of it.
Having said that, even with a few plays, I can't help but feel something is amiss. Either the AI does nothing, and effectively I'm just turn clicking a lot. Or it just attacks randomly, and I don't fend it off. The AI players aren't open enough to negotiation either.
I don't feel it's a game where it keeps me on my toes, spins me around or lets me choose many different ways to win a battle.
But I feel it's kinda there, I just haven't tapped it too.. hmm.
Having said that, even with a few plays, I can't help but feel something is amiss. Either the AI does nothing, and effectively I'm just turn clicking a lot. Or it just attacks randomly, and I don't fend it off. The AI players aren't open enough to negotiation either.
I don't feel it's a game where it keeps me on my toes, spins me around or lets me choose many different ways to win a battle.
But I feel it's kinda there, I just haven't tapped it too.. hmm.
I have it and all the expansions ... used to play it all the time with a friend. Now I find it quite tiring and repetitive. I much prefer strategy games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod and Dawn of War 2. That said, I can vouch for the quality of the CivFanatics Web site. It's very good and covers lots of detail...
If the AI is bugging you, I'd suggest downloading the smart AI mod. I'm not positive how much of an improvement it makes, but I know Firaxis incorporated some of those improvements into the patches they've sent out.
Thanks to this thread, I finally upgraded from Civ 2 to Civ 4. I've been playing a pretty straightforward global conquest as the Greeks----make peace with everyone, then declare war on one at a time until they're gone. Haven't even left my continent yet (there are two).
I can tell there are a lot of intricacies to this game. I'm leaving most of them (such as religion) until the next play-through----cities can believe whatever the heck they want as far as I'm concerned for now. I'm filthy rich anyway.
Funny thing----the guy I'm fighting now is still "Pleased" with me. Despite us fighting and all. I guess he really liked me before.....
I can tell there are a lot of intricacies to this game. I'm leaving most of them (such as religion) until the next play-through----cities can believe whatever the heck they want as far as I'm concerned for now. I'm filthy rich anyway.
Funny thing----the guy I'm fighting now is still "Pleased" with me. Despite us fighting and all. I guess he really liked me before.....
Are you playing the base game, or with expansions? If it's the former, you might check out your local Best Buy because the entire Civ 4 collection (along with Colonization) is available there in one box for $40. There are also some great sci fi and fantasy mods for the game if you check into them.
^^As far as I know, they haven't released Mac versions of the expansions yet, which really sucks, since I won't be running Windows on my G5 anytime soon. I've played the game w/ expansions on a friend's PC a bunch of times, and they really add a lot to the game. Oh well, vanilla Civ IV is still one of the best games I've ever played, so I'll continue dominating as the French even if I can't have Great Generals and Corporations. Creative/Industrial couldn't be better tailored to how I love playing. Cultural victory, please! 
Lindley, D Man - looks like Beyond the Sword is due out this week.
And Warlords is out too - either as part of a 'Gold Edition' game release or on the Apple site.
And Warlords is out too - either as part of a 'Gold Edition' game release or on the Apple site.
I've started playing this again recently. I've only just now figured out how to use civics and religion correctly. 
Helpful tip- if you want to go for a "builder" victory, try to found either hinduism or buddhism and spread it to your neighbors. Alternatively, you can place a city near your neighbors border and wait for it to "catch" their religion, then convert. I've never been attacked by an AI that had the same religion that I did (Noble and below).
Helpful tip- if you want to go for a "builder" victory, try to found either hinduism or buddhism and spread it to your neighbors. Alternatively, you can place a city near your neighbors border and wait for it to "catch" their religion, then convert. I've never been attacked by an AI that had the same religion that I did (Noble and below).
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You'll only need to get BTS, it has all the features of Warlords except for the scenarios, so unless you really want to play the love scenarios it isn't worth the money.
Hot Elizabeth on Napoleon action?
Tried an experiment in my second game: I thought perhaps it would be beneficial to advance as far as I could as quickly as I could along one particular line, rather than spreading out the techs.
Turns out that's a bad idea. For a time I was ahead of everyone, but I soon realized my cities couldn't actually build much in the way of improvements. Which left me not much to do except pump out workers and Swordsmen. Well, the Chinese were right next door, and I'd already bottlenecked them from spreading onto much of my continent, so I thought maybe we could fight a bit.
Well....harder than it seems, pre-catapult, and that's along an entirely different tech line. My efforts to catch up on the tech front were very slow-going.....by 100AD, I was ranked last in technology.
So yeah, don't do that. (Noble difficulty BTW.)
Turns out that's a bad idea. For a time I was ahead of everyone, but I soon realized my cities couldn't actually build much in the way of improvements. Which left me not much to do except pump out workers and Swordsmen. Well, the Chinese were right next door, and I'd already bottlenecked them from spreading onto much of my continent, so I thought maybe we could fight a bit.
Well....harder than it seems, pre-catapult, and that's along an entirely different tech line. My efforts to catch up on the tech front were very slow-going.....by 100AD, I was ranked last in technology.
So yeah, don't do that. (Noble difficulty BTW.)
^My tried and true tech development involves beelining for bronze working, then beelining for alphabet and currency. I then trade away both of them as soon as I research them to get the techs I bypassed. Most AIs stay away from these techs, so you can use that to your advantage.
Why would they stay away from those techs? Bronzeworking is one of the best early techs.
They don't stay away from Bronze working, but most stay away from Writing and the Alphabet for a bit. You need bronze working to attack them. You trade writing, the alphabet, and currency.
Civ IV is great although I must admit I prefer playing the "fall from heaven" mod (fantasy: Dragons, demons, monsters etc) to the standard game.
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