Civilization 4 Players Thread

[Mr Silver]

I just got this game today and I am determined to get good at it. Not because of competitive reasons, purely for the entertainment and education that such a game provides.

The first game I played today was naturally an epic fail. I began as Rome, reasoning that the Roman Empire has traditionally been seen as the forerunners of technology and construction. However this was not the case at all, I soon realised that everyone was on equal footing and the development of your civilization depended largely upon which route of development you went down.

So, thread away. Can anyone give me some strategies that I can try out as a new player?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

CTRL-AWESOME:

I usually make sure to build at least a second city as soon as possible. My usual strategy has been:

1. Found your capital city on the first turn, no matter where it is. If you're in a less-than-ideal location, start a new game. I'm not convinced you can ever afford to waste even one turn before founding your capital.
2. Send a unit out exploring immediately. Hopefully you started with a warrior or scout or something.
3. Build a worker, then a settler, then worry about defense. It's unlikely you'll get owned this early in the game unless you play on a harder difficulty.
4. Build more cities using the above pattern! If you are in a real hurry, skip the worker and do the settler first.

Since I like to go for cultural victories, I focus on building Wonders, libraries, and theaters. Spreading religion also doesn't hurt, so found as many of those as you can. I find the best way to use a Great Person is the following hierarchy, from best to worst:

1. Build their special building, especially if it confers a desired advantage.
2. Start a golden age.
3. Add them as a Super Specialist to an appropriate city.

I think using them to complete a technology is a total waste unless it's a tech you desperately need right that second, which is unlikely. In the long run, the other options are way better.

So, I spread my people out all over the continent, keep things lightly defended and do whatever it takes to maintain peace. I find people are most trusting if you have open borders with them, and trade with them even if it's not particularly advantageous to you. Eventually you'll be butted up against their cities and your superior culture will absorb them. Building high-culture Wonders out on the frontier certainly helps with this. Anything that produces culture is good, but you especially want it out on the fringes where it will help you absorb neighboring cities.

If you play your cards right and manage your finances well, you can get the culture slider up past 50% and still be researching technology at a good clip.

I think the key to winning any Civ game really boils down to land control. The more land you have, the more resources will be accessible to you, the more cities you can have, the more leverage you'll have in trading. This is why I recommend explosive city expansion from early on.

In Civ II it was ridiculously easy to city-spam your way to victory. If you built the Great Wall, no one could even go to war with you, so you could leave your cities entirely defenseless for much of the game.

 

[Mr Silver]

I did send my warriors out exploring initially, however I was quickly overburdened with encounters from other civilizations who wanted to either go to war or create peace. I decided to just keep at peace with them for the time being and that worked out fine, until they got pissy with me for trading with their enemies.

I hate to say this..but I didn't actually know you could build more than once city!

 

[LitmusDragon]

I did send my warriors out exploring initially, however I was quickly overburdened with encounters from other civilizations who wanted to either go to war or create peace. I decided to just keep at peace with them for the time being and that worked out fine, until they got pissy with me for trading with their enemies.

I hate to say this..but I didn't actually know you could build more than once city!

Well there's yer problem. I'm sure that will make quite a difference in the next game.

I love Civilization and IV is my favorite of them all. I'm afraid to play 5 since I've read some bad things about it.

I've spent many, many hours on the game and usually play at Noble or Prince these days, though some games at those difficulties are just not winnable. How fortunate (or not!) your starting location is and who you have for neighbors makes a huge difference going forward.

I also always go for cultural or space race victory. I like to build.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Replying to the other thread:

I got a copy of Civilization 4 today on the cheap. Its something I've wanted to try out for quite a while. Anyone got any recommendations for what I should do in it as a beginner?

I would go to civfanatics.com and look at some of the Civs. Look at the trait combinations and see if there's anything that interests you. When you pick a Civ, start playing. Explore early, but also consider expansion. New cities cost money, so don't go into the red with expansion. However, you want to expand as much as realistically possible. I usually build lots of cottages to cover the difference, but you can also build roads to connect cities instead. The key to keep in mind is you can't do everything. I've gone through the ancient part of the game without building a wonder and I've built many. I've gotten two or three religions or I've gotten none.

If you want a religion, go for Hinduism. Buddhism will probably be founded first (ironically), so you have a shot at it instead. If you want a wonder, the Pyramids are the best, but Stonehenge might be the easiest. If you have a religion, spam it until all your cities and many of your neighbor's cities have it. If you don't, pick a close neighbor and adopt their religion to make them happy.

That's all the thoughts off the top of my head.

I usually went for conquest or space race victories. Diplo is the cheap way out in any Civ game. Culture could be a bit tough. Basically, it depended on how quickly I wanted to win. I'm a steady conqueror. Basically, I build, conquer, consolidate, conquer again, etc. I don't like constant war, but I do like quick successful wars until I've swallowed everybody up.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I still play Civ 4 whenever I can. Admittedly rubbish at it in that I barely manage above Chieftain mode, though.

I usually go for a Conquest or Domination victory, although I somehow end up with a Culture victory when I'm on the brink of crushing my final enemy. If it's a long game, then I try to push for a Spaceship victory, but if I get a significant religious following then I might go for the Religious victory from BTS - pretty hard to do, as no-one wants to vote for Pope Zion I.

Some thoughts I have, which worked for me at the easiest levels:

When starting, I usually try and work out how to use my specialised start civ to the best advantage, and aim to go to war when my civ's unique unit is in vogue. When other civ's unique units are at their height, I resort to out-researching the enemy with more modern units.

I try to get two or three cities under my belt as soon as possible, and sending out warriors and free scouts to explore the land. If the land is very small, I would research the seafaring techs sooner than later, and send out galleys and other boats. Placement of cities is always (at first) based on what resources are there - my priorities at first are iron, horses, ivory if possible, stone/marble/gold/copper (for boosting Wonder construction) and then luxuries and sea goodies. Later, make a beeline for coal, oil and uranium, although by that time chances are at least one of your cities will have at least one of those resources already on tap.

As for wonders, in BTS getting the Great Wall is a must - it means barbarians will be much less of a pain during peace time. I bother less with the Pyramids, although I do get the Colossus and Great Lighthouse if I have a coastal city that's doing very well. Being the warmonger that I am, the Statue of Zeus is another priority, as is the Parthenon for more great people, combined with the Mausoleum. The Oracle is something to get as late into the first phase of the game as possible for best results.

When starting a Golden Age, I usually do so with a Great Person if I have no other use for them (i.e. other than culture bomb, academy, trade mission, rushing a Wonder or getting an out-of-the-way and expensive tech), and then I start a second one with the Taj Mahal. I time my Golden Ages when I have a few cities and reasonable population all on the brink of going in the red, in order to see a big flourishing.

I like building navies in my games, and in long games it pays off immensely, where starting a Renaissance or Industrial era war is quite satisfying when you can recall a caravel or frigate patrolling some backwater and launch a surprise attack. Similarly, being the first civ with airships makes Industrial era wars much easier.

I like to put my civ through various phases depending on whom I want to go to war against and when. I go to either full-on growth mode with high science spending, building construction and Wonders, or full-on War mode with high military unit production, reduced science spending, suitable civics, etc.

The only other thing I can suggest is that if you see Isabella of Spain in your game, get rid of her. Quickly.

 

[Astraea]

Dump the base game entirely. I played through Civ IV a lot when it first came out, but haven't played an unmodded game in years.

If you play the Romans, you can usually rush and take out a civilization or two in the early game. Razing rather than capturing cities is often better early on because of maintenance costs - realizing that I couldn't expand as fast as I could in Civ 2 or 3 was a big shock, and it's a lot more important to keep your cities well-garrisoned.

I'm definitely a builder, so I usually go for cultural or space victory. Again, though, keeping a strong military is more important than it was in the earlier games.

If you don't have it, pick up the Beyond the Sword expansion pack and take a look at the mods that are out there. In particular, I love Fall From Heaven and all its modmods, particularly Fall Further; it's a fantasy mod that really differentiates religions and civilizations, and makes diplomacy a bit saner, so that you won't get completely random declarations of war based on the random number generator.

There's also an Alpha Centauri mod that's fun (although heck, I still like an occasional game of actual Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire.) Like I said, I'm a lot more partial to the mods than to the actual base game itself.

 

[TheGodBen]

I never won a game of Civ IV until I read a simple piece of advice on CivFanatics: research bronze working and adopt the slavery civic. Slavery allows you to sacrifice your citizens for the sake of production, which means that you can build things very quickly in the early game giving you a huge advantage. The drawback is that slavery produces unhappiness, but if you keep the populations of your cities low by using slavery then the cities shouldn't riot. Use slavery to whip up an army of axemen, conquer your nearest neighbour and you should start the game with plenty of breathing-room.

Another important thing I learned was not to rely too much on automation. The game default is to prioritise growth; cities will work food-producing tiles before the others and automated workers will prioritise the construction of farms. Growth is important, but too much growth too quickly leads to overcrowding in your cities which leads to unhappiness which leads to loss of production. With your first cities, you should be the one choosing which tiles a city works, or what improvements your workers make, don't leave those decisions to the computer.

Finally, know your neighbours.
Isabella: As ZR said, be wary of her. She's a religious zealot, if you don't convert to her religion then she will eventually try to kill you.
Tokugawa: Isolationist but also dangerous. He'll probably refuse to negotiate treaties with you so it's difficult to know when he's pissed off at you.
Genghis Khan: Very violent, if you are his neighbour then prepare to be attacked.
Shaka: Like Genghis, he's very violent.
Montezuma: Utterly insane. He will go from being your best friend to declaring war on you in the space of a turn.

If you encounter any of those leaders near you early in the game then try to wipe them out quickly. If you don't then they will almost certainly attack you.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Slavery is great. Chopping is just as good. Best yet, get Bronze Working and then Mathematics, so you can have boosted hammers from chops. I'll pop rush if it's something I need, but I'm not a fan of Axe rushes, so I don't do that.

 

[Mr Silver]

In my first game, Tokugawa was probably the most active NPC. He offered trades more than anybody else and got very pissy when I refused to break off trades with his enemies. I think he even became hostile at one point but ceased when I defeated his invading forces (which consisted of 2 warrior squads ).

 

[Lindley]

If your costs are in the red, don't be afraid to ask a friendly civ for some money, either once or "per turn". They accept surprisingly often.

 

[TheGodBen]

I'll pop rush if it's something I need, but I'm not a fan of Axe rushes, so I don't do that.

I feel that an axe rush against aggressive neighbours is the best option. If you let someone like Shaka live next to you then he will probably declare war eventually, often forcing you into a drawn-out conflict that you could do without. Destroying him while he only has two or three cities is the best option for stable growth.

 

[Mr Silver]

Well I just got off playing a near 3 hour long game. This time I decided to play as the Japanese and went for developing culture and technology above all else. Initially everyone was fine to stay peaceful so that was ok. Once I had began to build up resources I started to gift some of the other civilizations to avoid trading technology that I didn't need with them.

It progressed to the 1700's point and by this time I had electricity and was about to develop fission, until Montezuma decided he didn't like me and declared war. Because I hadn't focused on really developing my military, my entire civilization was soon filled with horse mounted archers and chariot warriors all pillaging and raising my cities. It got ridiculously and because Montezuma was so pissed off with me, I couldn't go for a cease fire or even try and bribe him to end the war. Eventually I just decided to end the game.

I have to say though that this game was much more successful than my first and if I had developed the military, the game would probably have gone on longer!

 

[Lindley]

It's usually a good idea to wipe out at least one neighbor early on to establish your street cred.

 

[Mr Silver]

It's usually a good idea to wipe out at least one neighbor early on to establish your street cred.

I'll have to give that a go, although it means putting all other development aside to focus on building an invasion force. I suppose if it was very early on, it wouldn't make much difference.

 

[Owain Taggart]

We should like totally set up a multiplayer game or something. I just got my copy from Robert

 

[Lindley]

I must admit I'm kind of curious how Civ play-by-email works. Presumably it wouldn't clutter your inbox with move spec? Is the game played in "real time" (so far as a turn-based game can be), or not?

 

[Owain Taggart]

From what I can see of Civ 4, all the players join a game in realtime and then turns are done using a countdown. Not sure if it can be played by email, but Alpha Centauri could, so I'd assume you could here as well. I know that with play-by-email, it stores everything within the file, so when you save the file after your turn is done, you're not inundated by every move since your last turn. I think it's likely only to show you what you have visibility to anyway. We certainly seem to have enough people here to get a good game going.

I do love taking over cities not due to battles but out of having superior culture to those around me. It's a pretty good feeling when cities belonging to another culture revolt because they want to be a part of yours.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I've been playing Civilization III since 2003, and though I have CIV in addition to its expansions, I've not "gotten into it". I've played a fair few games, but I still feel as though I don't know what I'm doing. Before the expansions, I won games via space race -- but now they've added more time restraints, so I'm stuck focusing on culture. Try as I might I can't get a diplomatic victory -- they'll vote for me as head of the UN, but never as the winner.

 

[Lindley]

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.