Noble difficulty is too hard. Tried twice....the first time I fell hopelessly behind everyone else even with most of a continent to myself, the second time I went culture-heavy but still managed to get squeezed on usable land by my neighbors. Tried attacking them at key points to gain more maneuvering room with limited success; but then my captured cities started rebelling. Geez, such ingratitude.
Civilization IV
- Thread starter alasdairsim
- Start date
I wouldn't know about that; I mostly just play PBEM with my best friend, and aim for timed victories while wreaking as much havoc on the local world as possible.
We used to wreak havoc on the entire world, but we realized that it was a lot more fun when there wasn't just two of us left, each controlling half of the world, staring at each other and going "Yup."
Well, if you expand too quickly, you'll fall behind technologically because your economy can't support it. If you build only culture, you'll not be able to defend yourself. If you have culture and a decent amount of units in a city, they shouldn't be rebelling. I'd suggest building up a core group of cities, build a big army, take more cities, and then hold them.
Sadly, I can't win any kind of peaceful game. I'm only successful as a warmonger.
Noble difficulty is too hard? Bah ... try deity if you want a challenge!
My suggestion is to play as Julius Caesar. Research road, bronze working and iron working early. Then chop forests down to rush praetorians at the other teams. You'll find that if you're anywhere near other civilizations, they will all fall instantly to a praet rush. Once you've cleared out the nearby enemy civs, build up your cities (don't get more than four before you research code of laws) and THEN worry about culture.
Hint: Don't even worry about defensive bonuses or traits. I've seen a single praetorian march through a city with three archers and a 25% bonus and turn it to slag. Just do it early!
My suggestion is to play as Julius Caesar. Research road, bronze working and iron working early. Then chop forests down to rush praetorians at the other teams. You'll find that if you're anywhere near other civilizations, they will all fall instantly to a praet rush. Once you've cleared out the nearby enemy civs, build up your cities (don't get more than four before you research code of laws) and THEN worry about culture.
Hint: Don't even worry about defensive bonuses or traits. I've seen a single praetorian march through a city with three archers and a 25% bonus and turn it to slag. Just do it early!
Yeah, I'm figuring out the badness of over-expansion on my current game (Warlord level). My economy is fairly bad. So far I'm keeping it afloat by demanding tribute, asking for gold in my tech trades, and building wealth occasionally; but it isn't sustainable. Still, at least I've outstripped everyone else technologically using the above marathon-and-trade approach.
And Immortals are a pretty good early unit.
And Immortals are a pretty good early unit.
Noble is a big step up from the lower difficulties, Prince is slightly more difficult than Noble, and then Monarch is another big step. Noble is considered the normal difficulty because that's supposedly the level at which the human and AI are on a level playing field, on the other levels humans or the AI are given various hidden bonuses.
I was terrible at Noble until I realised that you have to match your early technologies to the environment around your cities. I used to completely ignore the agriculture-based techs because they seemed useless, but Animal Husbandry allows you to build pastures around most animal resources which provide a significant production increase. An early production boost like that allows you to build a small army to take out your nearest rival before they get too advanced.
Also, don't be afraid of slavery. It may sound horrible to sacrifice population as a means of production, but in the early game unchecked population growth will just lead to illness that cannot be effectively countered and that will be a disaster for production in your cities. Regulated use of the "whip" will prevent your population from growing too big while providing a production boost.
Something I find extremely helpful if I'm going for a builder victory is to bee-line more or less directly to Alphabet and then trade with the other civs to get your other technologies. You and the two or three other civs you do this with will jump way ahead in tech over the other civs. This trick works in the late game as well- beeline to Medicine, then trade it. Beeline to Liberalism, trade it.
Pick one civ out with your same religion and do most of your trading with them. It's important to have an ally, it will make the other civs less likely to invade you.
For a builder victory it's best to have three core cities spaced far apart so you can work all the tiles. For a conquest victory lots of smaller cities closer together seems to work better.
It's much easier to play to your civilizations strengths and plan for a particular type of victory early on. Ghandi or Elizabeth are great choices for cultural victory. Caesar or Hammurabi are great for military. The random number generator can be a bane- if you plan on a military victory but find yourself on an island in the middle of the ocean, it makes things much more difficult. Ocean warefare is tedious and expensive. If you plan for builder victory but find yourself in the middle of a desert or jungle, this puts you at a huge disadvantage.
Pick one civ out with your same religion and do most of your trading with them. It's important to have an ally, it will make the other civs less likely to invade you.
For a builder victory it's best to have three core cities spaced far apart so you can work all the tiles. For a conquest victory lots of smaller cities closer together seems to work better.
It's much easier to play to your civilizations strengths and plan for a particular type of victory early on. Ghandi or Elizabeth are great choices for cultural victory. Caesar or Hammurabi are great for military. The random number generator can be a bane- if you plan on a military victory but find yourself on an island in the middle of the ocean, it makes things much more difficult. Ocean warefare is tedious and expensive. If you plan for builder victory but find yourself in the middle of a desert or jungle, this puts you at a huge disadvantage.
Forget slavery ... too many bad consequences. Instead, choose your cities carefully because tile output is KEY. If you choose wisely, you can gradually grow them. And if you get into trouble, you can simply take them off the production tiles leading to the growth.
I play at noble mostly, and usually win most games with a cultural or spaceship, but not all the time. Basicly I get my first four cities up an running as quickly as possible and let them settle a bit before expanding. I never let my budget get below 50% on science, so that's kind of the target for expansion. When I can afford it, I get to six or seven cities and then quit expanding unless I really need to.
During all that I usually have one city that mostly just builds military units and sends them out to the other cities. I'm constantly checking my standing to make sure I'm always rated first in military power, that way the other civilizations usually leave me alone. I use Monarchy as my civic for a long while so I can control happiness with military units. Once my economy is finally going with all my cities, I can afford to divert 20% to culture and try and build as many wonders as possible that give lots of culture.
That works most of the time, but not always. Sometimes I have to fight, and if the fighting goes on for to long it gets a little to frustrating for me to continue. I'm not a war monger, I'm a builder, so that's how I play the game. I just use the military for happines and to keep my military rating in the game up.
Japan has it in for me for some reason. I think maybe I just don't have enough strength on their border. I mean, you can't do much to counter a stack of swordsmen and axemen when you don't have any iron.....War Elephants can only do so much. Don't have Trebuchets yet, so I can't really counterattack.
I may need to load a much earlier game to prepare an effective counter. That's seriously annoying.
I may need to load a much earlier game to prepare an effective counter. That's seriously annoying.
Japan gets an inherent defense bonus that is just insane. Most of the asian empires (Japan included) get the protective trait. Your best bet is probably to use the collateral damage ability on trebuchets before rushing in. Doing so basically takes down the main bonus and pre-weakens all defending units.
Chose a different tack----re-loaded a game from 30 or so turns before, turned my primary Wonder city over to spitting out 1 Immortal a turn, and rushed Japan before they could develop anything above an Archer. Most of their cities fell like dominos; only the capital gave me trouble. Still, threat eliminated.
Plus the other Civs seem to be less anxious to antagonize me now......
Plus the other Civs seem to be less anxious to antagonize me now......
Advance to the next era 
Disable the music and play your own music?
The others have it right, you should check out your surroundings first and then decide what to research. A coastal capital city with fish or clams? Go for fishing to up your growth and productivity. Any cows or such? Go for Animal Husbandry. If you're lucky there will be Horses nearby the AH will reveal, meaning you can now make an early army of Chariots which can be especially effective if you're neighbors are using Axemen due to the Chariot's vs Axemen advantage. It's how I conquered two Empires in the 1000+ BC era (as in, more than one city).
Of course, for early Imperialism you should focus on economic techs after the military ones needed to begin warfare because having too many cities early on will cripple the economy. Unless you're lucky again and have Gold and Silver mines from the conquests or in your original territories to begin with, and even then it'll be hard.
Of course, for early Imperialism you should focus on economic techs after the military ones needed to begin warfare because having too many cities early on will cripple the economy. Unless you're lucky again and have Gold and Silver mines from the conquests or in your original territories to begin with, and even then it'll be hard.
Yeah, early on in this game I seemed to be constantly in the red on a per-turn basis, but my money total kept going up. Must have been all that tech trading with gold thrown in....and a bit of pillaging on the side.
After destroying the Japanese, I decided that the Aztecs were being rude, so I took my stack and leveled them pretty effectively. And since Isabella of Spain was growling at me incoherently that whole time, I decided to take her on next. By this point I had a definite tech edge; although she did start getting Riflemen before my Cavalry had completely destroyed her.
Funny thing, though----through all this, I had been maintaining cordial relations with several of the other empires. So when one of my neighbors unexpectedly declared war on me before I was done with Spain, I traded Communism tech to two of the most powerful empires I was on good terms with to "Go to War" with the aggressor. Rather unexpectedly, the third civ I was a bit friendly with eventually decided to join in the fun.
So now we have four powerful civilizations descending upon the hapless Mali, and their cities are just falling like dominos. It's kind of funny. I'm capturing the ones I take, but the other civs often settle for razing....especially for cities which aren't near their borders.
Right now I'm looking at three stacks closing in on the (current) Mali capitol, including mine. I wonder who'll get there first.....
After destroying the Japanese, I decided that the Aztecs were being rude, so I took my stack and leveled them pretty effectively. And since Isabella of Spain was growling at me incoherently that whole time, I decided to take her on next. By this point I had a definite tech edge; although she did start getting Riflemen before my Cavalry had completely destroyed her.
Funny thing, though----through all this, I had been maintaining cordial relations with several of the other empires. So when one of my neighbors unexpectedly declared war on me before I was done with Spain, I traded Communism tech to two of the most powerful empires I was on good terms with to "Go to War" with the aggressor. Rather unexpectedly, the third civ I was a bit friendly with eventually decided to join in the fun.
So now we have four powerful civilizations descending upon the hapless Mali, and their cities are just falling like dominos. It's kind of funny. I'm capturing the ones I take, but the other civs often settle for razing....especially for cities which aren't near their borders.
Right now I'm looking at three stacks closing in on the (current) Mali capitol, including mine. I wonder who'll get there first.....
^Ah the joys of a good game of Civilization... 
Holy shit. I got bored waiting for the Spaceship victory, and decided to go to war with a neighbor who didn't like me anyway to pass the time. I figure what the heck, I've got Helicopter Gunships and he's still back at Cavalry.
So yeah. Turns out, advanced tech doesn't mean a damn thing when the enemy surrounds the city you just captured with like fifty cavalry. I'm not exaggerating...much. These guys sat out the war above.....I suppose they were just stockpiling!
So yeah. Turns out, advanced tech doesn't mean a damn thing when the enemy surrounds the city you just captured with like fifty cavalry. I'm not exaggerating...much. These guys sat out the war above.....I suppose they were just stockpiling!
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