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Civilization 4 Players Thread

Civ 3 and Civ 5 are the only games of the series I haven't played at all. Although I didn't really put enough time into Alpha Centauri to really appreciate it.


I downloaded the SMAC demo once, but the graphics threw me off of it. It's worshipped over at Civfanatics, though.
 
I tend to be terrible at Civ, but if a multiplayer game is happening, I might be interested.
 
I'd be up for a multiplayer game, but not right now because I actually need to get better at it before I'm willing to humiliate myself against veteran players. :lol:

Anyone got any suggestions for which NPC is usually the best to have an alliance with or is it fully dependant on how the computer is playing in any particular game?
 
If you do a multiplayer game, there are two options. PBEM would work fine (saves aren't too large and you can always delete them). If someone can host it, go with Pitboss. Basically, there's a timer and you log on once a day. Either way, keep in mind these games are slow. At a minimum, I'd suggest Pangea so everyone can contact each other quickly.

Anyway, I'd be interested, just not at all this week. I'm very rusty, which would be an advantage for others.
 
To me it's just not a game of Civ if in the final days you don't unleash a nuclear apocalypse on all the other nations of the world. I'm willing to sacrifice a win in the name of armageddon if it comes to that :lol:
 
To me it's just not a game of Civ if in the final days you don't unleash a nuclear apocalypse on all the other nations of the world. I'm willing to sacrifice a win in the name of armageddon if it comes to that :lol:

I have done this after playing 6 straight hours in eight player multiplayer online. What I remember most is the other guy spazzing out about how many nukes I hit him with. He did win by rolling modern armors on me, but it was worth it to nuke each one of his cities about 5 times. I think I launched close to 50 ICBMs all within about 3-4 turns lol.


Civ:BTS is my favorite game of all time.
 
for me i love all the Civ's & i been playing for such a long time, i look at current world politics & see how i can improve upon the real world as if it was a civ game.


For me i love either playing the japanese, or germans above all others.


For all games i play i keep restarting the game untill i have a good restarting location(searching for the 1st turn to 4th turn maynot seem that important, but it is veyr important, you dont want to give enemies a heads start on you.


Once i got that started, i work towards making 4 to 7 cities while not hampering my capitals growth. i like to ring cities(closest i would place near capital is a min of 10 tiles away around my capital to allow for growth)& have roads(then eventually rail) linking all of them. i would keep some attacking units in def mode 3 to 5 tiles away from capital, with one open space in between each unit in def mode.for other cities i would keep units in def mode 2 or 3 tiles away facing away from capital.




If capital is on coast line, then i tech up to gallons & eventually steam ships. i always kept 2 or 3 attack ships patrolling the coast line near my capital. on land i do as much of a ring of cities as i can.


with other civilizations, i would make peace with anyone i come across(& maintain that peace as long as i can) & if i can make them my allies. if anyone dont make peace with me, i try to goad my allies into attacking other civilization while not trading with them & refusing said units into their land areas. I would have allies & civ's i was at peace with weaken themselves before i am required to act on enemies.






with the germans their specality is the panzer tanks. so when i play them i would keep my science rating 10% to 20% beyond the 1st 20 turns.






overall i tech up as much as possible(keeping science at a min of 10% & at time as high as 50%) & i put all wonders in my capital(with forbidden city i place that on other side of map in areas i control). my capital being heavyly defended having a min of 5 of my most tech advanced units in city for defence. & having another 10 to 20 with in 4 to 8 tiles away from capital to intercept enemies.
Once i have planes i keep 3 to 5 planes/bombers based in capital, while i have 2 to 5 planes/bombers based in my ring of cities around capital.


With roads/rails leading into other civilizations i keep 1 or 2 units in def mode at my borders on all roads/rails. By time i get panzer tanks, at most other civilizations have knights or riflemen.


untill i get panzer tanks, i play heavyly on the defense & making peace with everyone i can(& maintaining the various peace's as long as i can) & playing my allies against my enemies to weaken my enemies


At this point i will only keep my capital producing tech or wonders, all other cities(upto 15 at most here) will mas s produce panzer tanks or most advanved attacking units, which ever is quickest to get. once i have a min of 20 tanks( i like to have 40+ depending on how many enemies i have) i will place them near my enemies boarders & place them in def mode to allow for my slower units to catch up(which can be upto 30 units). by time all slower units are on enemies boarder, another 10 tanks have been produced.


At this point in time my allies would have been at war with my enemies while those who i am at peace with refusing to trade with my enemies for 10 to 20 turns.


Now i reintroduce slavery no matter how my citizens see it or how unhappy they get. if any rioting happens i wait for it to stop.


Now i do a blitskerg with my tanks( 30 tanks at this point minimum & 30 slower units minimum to act as backup to tanks), i focus on 2 cities at most attacking them & i take them over & move my slower units in to garrison them( a min of 4 per enemy city for a min of 10 turns). as i slowly mov e into enemy terrority i leave my rear guarded by 1 slower unit eveyr 3 to 7 tiles apart & having 1 tank every 5 to 10 tiles apart. Now i bring in 20+ workers to build rail lines in recently aquired enemy cities & upto this point the workers were building roads/rails in allied civilizations or ones i was at peace with with open borders. Now untill that 1st & 2nd city had roads/rails connecting them to my main civilization area of map, i would hold back 10 tanks from my attack to act as defence from enemy sending units to retake city(s) i conquered & to act as additional defence for my workers. from here i would mass attack all cities as quickly as i can with the single road/rail line open to allow units to move from main cities into enemy areas.


once enemy is completely conquered, i would start sacrificeing citizens of conquered citys to rebuild them as quickly as i can.


At this point i like placing 3 to 5 tanks outside of all allied cities & all cities of everyone i am at peace at with. once this is done, i suddenly attack ALL cities.
within 10 to 30 turns, i literally conquered the world & latest it was ever was 1400 CE
 
General comments:

Civ III and IV are a lot alike. I was originally skeptical that IV would be too different, but they basically took the mechanics of III and tweaked them (adding religion, for instance) and used a 3D graphics engine. They did change a lot of stuff but I think the differences between III and IV are much less stark than, say, II and III or IV and V.

Alpha Centauri is awesome and I still play it. The graphics are a bit weird but I enjoy their unique design. The ability to customize your units is still something that hasn't been ported to the Civ games. I really wish they'd remake SMAC.
 
I have, since I'm a semi-regular CFC poster. I think I participated in one back for Civ3, but it died before completion.
 
For all games i play i keep restarting the game untill i have a good restarting location(searching for the 1st turn to 4th turn maynot seem that important, but it is veyr important, you dont want to give enemies a heads start on you.
I've seen this strategy mentioned in a few other places, and I must admit that I don't really get it. I think that part of the fun and challenge of games like these is to make the best out of crappy situations, and see how well you can hold your ground, even when disadvantaged early.
 
Yeah, I never restart. I'll lose a turn if I have to (only one turn, though). After that, I make do. I had one game in Civ3 that looked next to impossible when I started (wish I saved a first turn just for reference). Essentially, it looked like Panama (only horizontal). It was jungle for about thirty tiles in both directions. It was narrow. I couldn't fit cities north of the capital. I had no production or food with all the jungle. I was also the Iroquois (which, in Civ3 had a mounted unit that became essentially useless with what I had to deal with).

I took the start, built a ton of workers, chopped all the jungle, and conquered my neighbors. I think I won a conquest victory, but I could have gone for space race if I wanted to.
 
I just got Civ 4 today.

I've started a game, and it seems alright, but there doesn't seem to be much to do each turn until I've researched a few more technologies. I presume it'll speed up a bit once I get a bit more civilised.

This is me, going in completely blind...
 
First few turns are slow. Build warriors and explore. Try to find goodie huts and other Civs. Once you get more techs and more cities, you'll have far more things to do. Look at the tech tree and see if there are things you want to pursue. Then plan ahead to get them (for example, if you want a wonder, make sure you have good production in a city and ideally at least two cities so you can build other things as well. That means you need to research mining so you can build mines. Also, if you have lots of trees, research the tech needed to shop trees and consider getting mathematics so you can get more out of each shop).
 
I started in a peninsular forest, so I think I may just want to do that. My first city was in the middle of the peninsula, so I got my second city as a port on the other side of it to access some sailing stuff.

I do feel quite defended where I am, and I've only met one other Civ so far.

I think I've got it now, I only did this on the easiest difficulty though, so this is just getting me used to the game. I'm enjoying it now.
 
Alpha Centauri is awesome and I still play it. The graphics are a bit weird but I enjoy their unique design. The ability to customize your units is still something that hasn't been ported to the Civ games. I really wish they'd remake SMAC.
I'd love a remake of Alpha Centauri. I played it before but I didn't quite "get" it for various reasons, but now that I look back at it I find many of the features of that game appealing. But apparently that wont happen because EA owns the copyright to the game and they have no interest in making a sequel. :(

I'd also love a true sequel to Colonization. Civ IV Col was a fun piece of nostalgia, but it was very much a remake with some Civ IV elements thrown in. I'd love a true sequel with more European powers (Portugal being the most obvious) a rudimentary technology tree, multiple victory types and a greater sense of influence from Europe than just tax increases.

I do feel quite defended where I am, and I've only met one other Civ so far.
Don't get too complacent. I often, foolishly, neglect my navy and find myself victim to a sneak attack that would put D-day to shame.
 
I do feel quite defended where I am, and I've only met one other Civ so far.
Don't get too complacent. I often, foolishly, neglect my navy and find myself victim to a sneak attack that would put D-day to shame.


Hah, I think I'm the opposite with my current game, where Alexander has decided to wage war against me, which is making me laugh as he doesn't really have the army to back it up. Just a few knights that are razing my villages, whereas I just researched gunpowder and have musketmen, canons, and I'm bombing his cities with my boats. I think the Greek Empire will soon fall :D
 
AI combat ability depends on difficulty. In higher difficulties, they'll have more troops. Since they basically just put them in a big stack and attack with siege first, they're quite good at that.

I don't find them really able to handle the coordination of a naval attack, though. Often they'll just land a couple of troops that are annoying. They usually don't have enough boats and don't make more than one trip.
 
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