I must be an idiot (Or, how the hell do I play Civ 4?)

[Cybren]

So i recently remembered that I can finally reinstall Civ 4 (processor issues), so, in trying to play it, I realize how horrible I am. I play on chieften, and while I win, I do so just barely by a space race victory.

[Rogue 7]

What was the situation? Space Race changed quite a bit, as I recall from 3 to 4. How good was your territory, were you lacking resources, etc? Ask questions and I'll give my best (Noble+ level) response.

[Leper_Kahn]

I suck too. Can't help you, sorry.

[Cybren]

What was the situation? Space Race changed quite a bit, as I recall from 3 to 4. How good was your territory, were you lacking resources, etc? Ask questions and I'll give my best (Noble+ level) response.

Like: How do I have a set up that allows me to go to war and defeat a foe (even taking only one or two cities, really) before I advance three eras?

[Justwar.]

That's the problem with civ. It acts like a war game but it is almost impossible to wage a war.

I mean why should spearmen have any chance against tanks? I have trouble constantly trying to imagine the ridiculous series of events that would have to happen for a tank to even take any damage versis spearmen yet it happens again and again.

My advice is to set the diffuculty low, change the play options to remove wins by time limit and always use a new random seed. Just be ready to reload often as your advanced units loose continually to warriors and the like.

[kpenguin]

Actually, the problem really has been fixed pretty well in Civ 4.

A spearman will statistically have a chance to beat a tank, but its negligible.

[Demented]

It's not like yer putting 1 spearman against 1 tank, and that he's only allowed to jab his spear against it. Chances are, the spearmen probably all dropped their spears and are probably using molotov cocktails and sapper tactics to mob individual tanks.

Then again, I've only played Civ2, where they put the even more ludicrous phalanx up against tanks. (THIS. IS. SPARTANK!) Though, it was mostly an issue with the difficulty tweaks. Barbarian tanks were hopeless against my well-fortified Phalanx, but an opposing AI's tanks rolled over my Phalanx as if it were a peasant rabble.

[Leper_Kahn]

That's the problem with civ. It acts like a war game but it is almost impossible to wage a war.

I always enjoyed the fact that at the beginning of a game, unless your troops are like RIGHT next to the enemy if you wage a war you will be in a war for 500+ years a turn... That's a damn long time for a warrior to walk one grid square.

[tyckspoon]

Like: How do I have a set up that allows me to go to war and defeat a foe (even taking only one or two cities, really) before I advance three eras?

I usually don't bother going to war unless I start out right next to another civilization. It's just not worth the lost time, and you usually don't have a good road network to speed up travel until you get some research done anyway.

Some general tips: You know how the AI civs put cities everywhere, even in places that will never be able to support a population of more than four or so? You have to do that too. You can be a little more picky about where you put your cities, but your focus should be on expanding your own culture before you start to consider going to war. Just make enough fighting units to suppress barbarians until you have a nice solid base of at least 7-10 cities. Try to make your cultural borders comprehensive over your space, too; you don't want the AIs running a settler around your coastland or through your borders and starting a city in the middle of your land.

I like to pick a relatively advanced tech and just sprint for it; Alphabet is a good pick, since it lets you trade techs. You can usually trade it around to pick up all the starting techs like Animal Husbandry and Hunting. After that, if you really want to fight people, try to out-tech them; being the first to get to the gunpowder age and setting up production-boosting buildings before the other civs can get you an advantage for long enough to overrun a weaker civilization.

When it's time to start a war: Do you think you have enough units? Build at least twice as many more. AI civs are always creating more combat units. The one thing that consistently stops my own attempts at taking over people by force of arms is running out of units. You need enough to secure your own borders as well as enough to securely garrison a captured city after half of them die trying to take it over. You can't have too many for this. (On a side note, I miss just buying out cities in Civ II.)

[Jimorian]

One thing they keep doing with each new version of Civ is take away the "tricks" people use to beat the game easily, so with IV, you're left with mostly a grind-it-out strategy.

One thing I like to do that works generally in all of them is a start/stop strategy for tech. If I have Republic/Democracy where I can rush buildings for cash, I'll stop my tech research temporarily while I build up cash, then rush build libraries/universities etc. This not only helps you advance faster with the tech when you shift back to research, but gives you lots of culture points for that race as well.

[Winterwind]

Haven't ever played Civ 4, but if it is in any way comparable to Civ 2, chances are you don't expand enough, for that is the sole mistake one could make while playing this game which would yield results as you describe. I tend to always have a new city build some defensive unit first and a settler team second (if there are no enemies nearby, sometimes even in the reversed order), so that each city spawns a new city soon - and basically keep it this way until it becomes faster to expand by conquest.
Also remember to build many settlers to construct roads and irrigation all over the place. Especially roads are quickly built, and increase your research and income manyfold.
Try to get to the better governmental forms and more benefitial Wonders of the World as quickly as possible, directing your research straight towards getting them.
That's about it... and I have no idea whether this advice still holds true in Civ 4. Wish you luck, anyway. :smallsmile:

[Yami]

So, my advice on Civ IV;

After you've walled yourself off with culture and gotten a guard unit or two up, I race for tech, so that I may crush my foes with impunity.

It often only works for the one or two people closest to me. Then the grind begins. I use subs to control the seas, with carriers about sos I can take out ground defenses with areial assualts. This allows me to to get a decent amount of ground troops to raze cities with.

You should have slaves following your army building railroad tracks so your units can be where you need them.

That's really all my strategy is.

[Ethdred]

Some good advice here. I haven't payed Civ since 2, but I think a lot holds true throughout the series

Explore lots - you need to know where the other civs are, and where the good city sites are. Also, with the resources I imaigine you need to identify them pretty early on as well. Then try to defend what you've found. You may not be able to plonk a city down (though I agree that building lots is a key to success), but if you find a good site or a resource, put a military unit there until you can use it. Also, once you've found the other civs, try to block off their expansion - often there'll be a chokepoint somewhere, where one or two untis can stop any enemy units walking past. You don't have to get in a fight, just encourage the AI to go the other way. Then you can fill in behind your 'wall' as you are ready.

Think carefully about where to put your early cities - since these are the ones that will be there the longest, you must give them room to expand. Unlike tyckspoon, I would say don't follow the AI practice of dumping them everywhere. Look for strategic points, resources, decent terrain, and think about things like having enough ports. And use the terrain to help determine if a city is going to be a pop factory or more of a manufacturing centre. Every city should produce a unit to help exploration in the early stages.

Be very clear when you start which techs you want to go for, and stick to that plan. Also, pick your wonders to build (probably not a problem for Chieftain, where you can build them all).

Try to avoid war as long as possible - I would say that you should have found all the other neighbouring civs in every direction before deciding who to attack. And then go all out - as has been said, war in Civ requires lots and lots of units. And probably a road from your cities to the front line.

What sort of opening builds are you going for? When do you start improving your terrain?

[Murska]

Actually, in Civ4, building loads of cities all the time takes a huge toll on your economy. If you do that, you'll have to plan it well, race for money-techs, trade and probably take a leader with the "Organized"-stat.

[Dragor]

Ah, but ICS (Infinite City Sprawl) still works. Sure, your economy will be rubbish and your research going at the pace of a slug, but economy is not as key in the earlier ages, unless you have unlocked the Universal Suffrage by building the Pyramids.

ICS however is a strategy which really comes into its own in the late Medieval age and from all time after that. You'll have so many cities so that you can churn out units, and when you're done building a massive army you can build beneficial buildings, most likely increasing your production and culture.

Also, keep close your friends. Feel free to shower them with tech, especially if they're sharing a border with you and you don't want war. Free Religion is a must, unless all your nations' friends share your religion. Make massive stacks of units if you want to win the war in one go. Don't fight to the bitter end if you're losing. Manually manage your workers.

That's all the advice I can give. Hope it helps. :smallsmile:

[EldritchExMachina]

1) Pick and choose your cities' locations for optimal expansion.
a) Focus on food for a settler-spitter
b) Focus on forests/hills for a production conglomerate.

2) Expand, expand, expand. While building multiple cities may take a toll on your economy, you need to keep moving forward to match the computer's production rates. On higher difficulty levels, the computer gets free support and even free units at the beginning. The AI ceased to stink as well.
a) Religion is good. You want a religion early on to better expand your culture as well as potentially have increased relations with other nations.
b) Improve that land! Use your workers and make lots of them (maybe 1 per city at least) to better keep your land improved. Don't let them make decisions for you! Connect your cities by roads for easier settler movement.

3) War is hell. Swamp your enemy with more units than you can comprehend.
a) Remember to use units with good mobility (knights, etc) to hit your enemy. I don't really consider a war until I have knights as it's otherwise too much of a pain to maintain the supply lines of troops.
b) Soften your targets. Cities with higher populations and cities with walls provide a greater defensive bonus. If you have a really tough nut to crack, raze/occupy the land about the city that's good for food to starve them out a little as well as use siege units to provide a health hit to your enemies. Taking out roads kills their supply lines. Taking out strategic resources removes their access to important materials they need to maintain their advanced troops.
c) All or nothing. Any damage you do to a unit defending a city will be healed next turn if you don't kill it (unless the city doesn't have a barracks for some reason). Make sure you have enough force to hit a city in a lightning strike.

[Artanis]

While spamming cities in every nook and cranny still sorta works, it isn't the end-all, be-all strategy that it was in previous games (especially Civ3). Between national wonders and city upkeep, the "default" strategy is to go for quality of cities, not quantities.

You're going to get more production out of one city with lots of mines, a factory/forge/powerplant, and Ironworks than you are out of three or four little crappy cities. You're going to get more cash out of one city surrounded by cottages, plantations, and a river and with a market/grocer/bank and Wall Street than you are out of three or four little crappy cities. You're going to get more Great People out of a city with an unholy number of farms and the Globe Theatre than you are out of three or four little crappy cities. And each of those will get up and running faster because of their focus: it's quicker to build just production buildings in one city and just econ in a second than it is to build production AND econ in each of two cities.

So pick out prime spots for your "big guns", and after that, think long and hard about whether you'll really actually benefit from a city being in a certain spot. An arctic fishing village that brings in 5 gold/turn at the cost of 6 gold/turn in maintenance really just isn't worth it.



*disclaimer: I haven't played any of the expansions, but this is general enough that it should still hold true.

[DeathQuaker]

I'm not great at Civ IV myself, but I can also offer what I know does work for me (and stuff I know I do wrong):

Things to do:

1. Build culture. Culture is good, expands your borders, and if you're really good, you can even absorb other cities with it.

2. When you have the ability to do so, assign specialists to your major cities--choose one kind per city (e.g. make one city produce lots of priests, one lots of merchants, etc.). The more specialists you have, the more Great People you generate. And Great People provide you with all kinds of advantages. And take note of what different Great people do: Great Artists are great for their "culture bombs" ("create work") -- expand your borders FAST. Great Merchants can get you a Wad of Dough really fast. Great Generals are extremely valuable for your military units. Great Engineers can speed Wonder production. A number of them create unique buildings which are very helpful, and most of them can help advance your technology research very quickly.

3. In line with that, specialize your cities. I know one of my weaknesses is that I want to give every city every building possible; I just like building stuff, I dunno. But look at what your city generates--make one be your primary science city, one your religious icon city (that builds religious wonders and pumps out missionaries), one your military unit production city, etc. Don't build a market in a city that's never going to produce much gold to begin with--but of course do build one that's on a river surrounded by towns.

4. Even if you're going for a peaceful win, like spacerace or culture or diplomacy, make sure you have LOTS of military units. There's a lot you can do to keep your neighbors happy, but eventually someone's probably going to attack you because you're in the way for their further expansion, or you've got a resource they want. This is my other weakness--because I want to build tons of other neat things and research tech, I don't build enough defensive units for my cities. Some rival nations will spam out military units in ridiculous amounts, and even if you have strong defense, eventually enough low-level soldiers will destroy your 1 or 2 high-tech city defenders.

5. Watch resources carefully--early scouting is good for this. If you're on a small continent and there's only one source of horses, by golly grab that horse, or later your enemy is going to be charging down your door with Cavalry. Other essential resources include Copper and Iron, and later in the game, Coal, Oil, and Aluminum. Uranium's good too, but I'd prioritize the others before I grab that. And of course all resources have their uses.... if you're in a jungle or floodplain and health goes low quickly, food resources that eventually help improve health via certain buildings will be invaluable.

[Darth Mario]

THIS. IS. SPARTANK!

Great. Now I have to add a 300 parody quote to my sig.

Nice going. :smalltongue:

[Rogue 7]

Been a while, but for a basic invasion, I'd try to do something double-pronged, even if that double-prong is 2 galleys full of infantry sent out to pillage the enemy's back territory. Will divert attention, split their forces for minimal cost on your part.

For a main ancient or so era war, I'd go with roughly the following in a stack-
5+ Swordsmen- very important, always get the city raider upgrade. Your main force for taking out the cities.
3+ Axemen- fend off the infantry assault.
3+ Horse archers- fast movement is necessary, and they're useful to pick on counterattackers without slowing up your main force.
2+ Spearmen- fends off cavalry assault- you don't need too many of these, as they're very strong.
4+ Catapults- mainly use these to take down city walls and defenses. If you have spares, go ahead and send them in on their every-unit-on-the-square damaging suicide runs.

Move the stack up to each city, on the best defensive terrain you can find. Get defenses down to zero, then take a look- if you've got a good chance of beating them with swordsmen, attack, if not send in catapults or something else expendable to wear them down. If enemy stacks appear, your preference should be defense- you have much better odds of winning with a 50% defensive bonus. If there are weakened units out in the open, attack with cavalry.

Once the city is taken, leave a defense force and heal everything up. Proceed to the next city. It's slow, but it works for me.

[mainiac]

It's been a while but here's what I remember:

Trade often.

Get alphabet lickity split. Trade all your tech but alphabet with an AI, accepting less then perfect deals if you need to. Then, trade all the techs you got with a different AI, suddenly your ahead. Do this until you have all available techs. In one turn you leaped ahead while everyone else moved only a little. And the AI probably likes you because you made more then fair deals to get them to accept.

Also, trade maps, open boarders, trade resources. Hold back in the short term when needed but do it all sooner rather then later.

Get as many resources as possible. Trade them with the biggest countries, they pay the best. Monopolies are very difficult to get in Civ 4, but some warmongering makes it possible. If you have a monopoly of the latest strategic resource, celebrate because you've been handed military supremecy, this is a good time to prepare for conquests.

When going to war, always carefully consider the views of the international community. Even if you wipe someone off the map, their friends will remember your aggression forever. So only declare war on people with no friends or friends who you are planning to wipe out as well. Think of the kid who bullied you in elementry school, he is your new idol. This doesn't matter if you're attacked, no one begrudges you defending yourself.

Plan out your offensive wars ahead of time and build ahead of time. You can wing the actual tactics, but know what you want to accomplish. Limited goals, like pillaging the countryside to slow down an opponent, can be worthwhile. Know what you want to accomplish and keep wars as short as possible.

Defense is harder, as the AI does build ups before attacking you. You can see every unit insider your culture however, use that to your advantage. Keep your units protect, strengthen border cities and bide your time. When you launch counter attacks have a few units set aside to gather the stack unless you can completely wipe out the enemy. If a defensive war becomes offensive, remember to plan out your goals. Know when you've got to abandon a city and know when you've got to surrender with a shred of territory. It's possible to come back.

Keep an eye on where religions pop up, they let you keep tabs on how the rest of the world is progressing technologically. Knowing your relative techs is key to wining the early tech race.

You can always change terrain improvements. Cottages are probably a sucker bet at the start unless you really need the tech. And don't go cottage crazy latter on, have some cities specialize in industry.

Culture flips are awesome, keep an eye out for prospective new members of your empires and churn out wonders if needed. If you build in other culture territory, make culture buildings there at first and let other cities worry about things like the military.

You want nearly all your cash going into tech. Before lowering research, ask if you can lower expenses. Don't invest your commerce in culture as a general rule.

Don't build buildings you don't need and concentrate on the wonders you think you can get.

[Om]

ICS however is a strategy which really comes into its own in the late Medieval age and from all time after that. You'll have so many cities so that you can churn out units, and when you're done building a massive army you can build beneficial buildings, most likely increasing your production and culture.Of course by this stage your competitors will be meeting your knights with panzer divisions :smallwink:

I find that the city sprawl that was key to success in CivII simply does not work unless you have some other way of keeping abreast of the tech race. (I forget, can you still steal techs in CivIV?) This is made all the more difficult by the AI's refusal to trade techs with human players on anything but gross inflated terms (while liberally disseminating advances amongst other AI nations). The latter annoys me so much that I always turned tech trading off in my games.


1. Build culture. Culture is good, expands your borders, and if you're really good, you can even absorb other cities with it. To my mind culture takes a definite back seat to economics and production. I'll stack a few border cities up with cultural improvements and wonders but I see/find little need in bothering to prioritise this for my interior cities.


Been a while, but for a basic invasion, I'd try to do something double-pronged, even if that double-prong is 2 galleys full of infantry sent out to pillage the enemy's back territory. Will divert attention, split their forces for minimal cost on your part.Against a human player perhaps. Against the AI I use one assault stack to move from enemy city to city while keeping a mobile reserve to deal with the inevitable AI counter-invasion. Once the latter has been dealt with its merely a matter of picking cities off one by one.

[Ominous]

Tech race to the modern era and develop ICBMs while everyone else is lucky to have knights. Then push the big red "I win" button.

[Rogue 7]

@ OM- the best thing you can do is probably cut off resources- if you deny them iron, they'll have a hard time of it, especially if you defend the square. Other than that, I think that's what I suggested.:smallwink:

[Malic]

If your on a map like "Real World" with two continents and no-one on the other try to get and explorere and a setler down there fast to take the best land. Like the area on the west coast of north amarica with all the gold.

Also try to focus on tech and culture more than war. If it's neccessary remember to have worker's build roads all throughout your terrain. Forget about forests unless you want to save them to use for large buildings also.

[Gralamin]

With the Beyond the Sword Expansion, you can start stealing Tech when you research Alphabet and get some spies.

[Wolfprint]

Go here (http://www.civfanatics.com), and look through the War Academy for excellent tips on how to play the game. I used to be really bad even on Chieftain level, but now it's a piece of cake. Look through the Strategy and Tips section of the Forums and learn from games posted by regulars. They come with screenshots, and are a great help.

But the problem with trying to pick up tips for higher level gaming is that it very quickly becomes very technical; playing Civilization IV becomes an exact science (my next city has to be placed X squares away from Marble so I get to finish my Oracle on exactly X number of turns before I manage to research X technology). You do run the risk of putting too much pressure on yourself for trying to gain as huge an early game advantage as possible.

Just my two cents.