1BC Civ Forums / Civilization IV Discussion / CivIV and CivIV:Warlords Discussion / Advanced Discussion

Which direction for a win?

ozwego — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:25:40 GMT

Hello everyone, Gumshu Oz here. Ive been playing Civilization for close to 10 years now, very much off and on. I always enjoyed kicking *** on the 1st and 2nd levels, but now im up to prince and ive noticed its an entirely new ball game. No longer may i sit around with archers in my land and not worry that there are musketmen on my boarders. No longer may i take a country with my eyes closed and not worry about the cost. One has to truely buckle down and learn the game.

My post is simple, im interested in advance discussion on city building, manageing, growth, and even politics if possible. Civilization provides the user with many tools to conquer and now i would like to learn how to use those tools.

What is the military icon for? What about the house icon which shows production, money, research, etc.? (TOT???WTH???) How come when I go for a culture win I only have 1 city that makes it and the other two are behind by 20k before a time or space victory occurs? Should I take into consideration the players on the board? Such as their aggressiveness, finanicial, spiritual attributes?

I have many more questions, but Id like to see the input from anyone before I get into detailed questioning. If it is unclear what I am asking, feel free to even ask me what Im trying to accomplish with this post. Thanks for your time :P:D

City positioning

Copy and Paste — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:26:05 GMT

I would like to initiate a discussion about the way each of you chose their city emplacement.

If you have rules, things to do, errors to avoid...
If you follow or not the program's advice for city emplacement.

Different factor that leads to a city positioning, maybe with some screenshots and actual examples.

Such as aggressive positioning to insure an area free for further growth.
Or grabing ressources.
Or avoiding city hindrance on same tiles.
Cases where cities can have common tiles and cases where it should not happen.

All the factors, all the tips, all the rules that you have in mind when looking for a city emplacement anytime in the game.
(from the second city to the city founded in AD 1945 for some advanced strategic reason)

Please tell us here your secrets.

On gaming the Game

-M- — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:17:25 GMT

This me set of philosophies, used to play @ Immortal/Diety level

Disclaimer: I normally play Standard, Pangea, 7 civ Maps, Marathon

General observations on playing on high difficulty

Konrad von Richtmark — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 20:05:51 GMT

This thread is about singleplayer games against the AI, on fairly normal settings, and a difficulty of at least Monarch. In other words, the AI has very significant advantages. This goes to you who have made well in such games, do you have any general observations on do's and don'ts? Anyways, here are some things I've found out:

*Don't get arrogant when it comes to tech. The research bonus of the AI is of such a magnitude, that one can be very satisfied with staying on par with it. Trade when you have the opportunity. Don't be squeamish about holding on to a tech you've just discovered if you can get something nice for it in a trade - chances are, the AI will soon get it anyway, and your trading chance is gone. Research techs nobody else has bothered to pick up, and use them to trade for a bunch of stuff from different players. AI players tend to choose rather similar research paths, know what stuff the AI tends to wait until later with. Metal Casting is one, Medicine is another.

*Don't base your strategy overly on any particular wonder. With the AI both being faster to research the prerequisite tech as well as building the wonder, chances are it will beat you to it. Making a dash for a useful wonder can be very worthwhile if you have a realistic chance of getting it first, but have a plan B in case you don't.

*Micromanage like there's no tomorrow! Smart management is one of the fields in which our human intelligence makes us able to compete with the AI.

*Be a political animal! Keep up good relations with as many as possible for as long as possible, but don't hesitate to burn your bridges when there's a chance to make a dash for it! As Machiavelli said, if you're going to harm someone, do it properly to make sure there will be no future retribution.

*Arms keep peace. Not even your best friend will let friendship get in the way of an invasion if your defences consist of guys armed with sharpened watermelons.

History in the Making Mod

Scipio Africanus — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:26:11 GMT

When I have any free time that I'm not spending on Matrix Games "War in the Pacific" (finally really understand this game and reckon I might try a PBEM after the new Admiral's Edition comes out) I'll play a few turns on one of the two or three games of Civ4 BTS with the [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=226568]History in the Making Mod[/url].

If you guys have not checked it out, you should. Best BTS mod I've seen by far.

My First Completed Monarchy Level Game

Locus Coeruleus — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:07:08 GMT

Warlords, standard settings. Random Climate, Random Sea Level. Random Civ. Epic Speed. 6 opponents, standard map.

Awarded Tokugowa of Japan.

I have completed victories on the Prince level, both in Dynasty with Ness and in Single Player games.

Let me first say that I tried several games at this level before this one, with random civ and same settings otherwise. In these games, I would either be quite distant from the AI and get over run with barbarians, or be surronded by AI, build four cities with my settlers, run out of room, declare war against a relatively weak opponent, then find myself at war against everyone else, and then just give up at that point.

In this game I was able to built 4 or 5 cities, capture a barb city, but was woefully lagging in technology the whole game. My economy was a wreck up until the point where I got Currency and my first Great Priest (to build the Hindu Holy Shrine). At that point I was so far in technology that it was only a matter of time before the Aztecs ran over my civ. I actually managed to survive until 1778 AD because my last city was blocked off by the friendly Inca, and the Aztecs would not/could not breach their territory. Eventually the front-running Turks stormed my city protected by longbowmen and axemen with infantry and artillery! :w00t:

I've read the following discussion for ideas:

[url=http://1bcciv.com/Topic2222720-76-1.aspx]The Tech Race at Monarch Level[/url]

But would like to revisit this discussion, since much time has passed since then, and see if anyone else with experience on the higher difficulties would have any advice for making it out of the initial stages in a good position for the long haul! ;)

Cheers!

Dealing with the AI

Locus Coeruleus — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:53:49 GMT

Still no internet at home, but I got the computer up and running with a nice new 20 inch LCD (the old monitor didn't survive the trip, but she was on fumes anyways)...the game never looked so good...! After a very hectic week of starting new job, unpacking, running around town to pick up various needed items like a refrigerator, tools, shower curtain etc. I settled in for an epic, monarch difficulty game, and having played the Rhye's and Fall mod for so long, after switching to epic games, several questions came to mind!

I'm just curious how people deal with the AI in their business transactions.

Specifically, in games where you're not the frontrunner, as in those where you might be playing higher degrees of difficulty, my question pertains to dealing with the frontrunner.

Do you trade technologies with them if the opportunity is there, and they offer a more or less fair deal. Yeah, yeah, I know, it can be quite hard to get a fair deal from the AI, but is closing the technology gap overall worth the cost of facilitating the front runner? What are others takes on this?

I'd imagine in trading goods, such as luxuries and resoureces the answer is a bit clearer and that these items go to the highest bidder regardless of position.

Also, concerning the lower rungs, do folks make a practice of giving away technologies to make friends and also bring the herd closer together to more effectively deal with the frontrunners, especially as the case may be that you would find your civ in the middle of the pack? These seems like a good way to conduct business in my opinion.

In the Beginning...

Locus Coeruleus — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:00:41 GMT

I am finding, as I inch up to the higher levels... currently on monarchy level... that new strategies are needed.

Specifically, I find it best to emphasize city locations for the first few cities where you can maximize production as soon as possible. The ideal location would have either flood plains or a food resource to facilitate fast growth, and a couple of grassland/hills or plains/forrest.

Granaries also factor in to the equation as a must have, early on, unless the city just has several floodplain and/or food resources, to boost the cities size in short order.

The reason for this is that, I find, if you don't have a few good cities that can produce military regiments in good time, you will find yourself getting run over either by neighbouring civilizations or, if there are none, barbarian whordes.

That's not to say commerce should be ignorned, definitely it is essential to get some cottages established early on, and this can be done concurrently, but in my book, production seems to be a greater need at the earliest stages of the game.

Thoughts?

Small Chance of Discovering ...

DumbDaddy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:16:08 GMT

Anyone ever dig a mine in a random hill and actually *discover* iron, copper, silver or gold? There have been times where I've been stuck w/o a critical resource, and before I wanted to go attack someone, I put holes all over my empire on the outside chance that I might dig up something useful.

Thusfar, I've been completely unsuccessful.

I would like to clarify this is *not* the case of "A new source of iron has been found near ..." I'm looking for surprise discoveries when you mine.

Prince Island

ozwego — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:05:11 GMT

Hey everybody! Ive been playing on the prince lvl and ive only managed to win my very first game...ive played 20 or so since :crazy:!!

Im getting better when im stacked on a continent with a few other civs, but when im on my own contient the other civs get to me much faster and with more advanced techs than I.

I play with Ghandi. Try to cover the Island. Get all the resources. Build as many archers as the city will be happy with. And try to keep research at least 90%. Also, I get all the science techs to try and keep up.

My question is...what would you do given my senerio? Ghandi, Prince, and your own Continent :hehe::hehe:

Trade Routes!

DumbDaddy — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:32:06 GMT

Finally getting a handle on trade routes. Finally understand that you can get routes to other civs only if you have open border agreements :p

Minor question -- do the buildings that affect trade production (e.g., airports, harbors, etc.) increase EVERY trade route it can, or just one?

As for which cities each city trades: Is it simply automatically the three most lucrative cities, based on your current civic/tech situation, (provided it can reach the trade destination)? Or are there other factors?

Finally, the biggie: is there any way to influence *which* city you're trading with? I understand you can spread religion with trade routes. Can I shift from one foreign city to another, after I've managed to infect the first with Taoism? :)

Civ 4 exp pack wishlist

mik1984 — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:02:21 GMT

As this is supposed to be a wish[b]list[/b], please write bullet points only about things discussed in the main forum. For entirely new ideas, open threads in the main forum and explain them there, so that we can avoid flooding this thread with 10 pages of text as usually happens.;)

1. Gunships operating above water
2. Improved naval warfare concerning the subs.
3. Advanced settlers
4. Stand off artilery bombardment against units(with proper balancing of course, not to make the arts overpowered)
5.More restricted stacking limits in modern age for units.*

*New, undiscussed.

The tech race at Monarch level

Ness — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 16:49:43 GMT

I find the larger the map (the more AI) the easier it is to keep up in Tech. If I play on a standard size mape with 7-8 AI, I find it almost impossible to stay on par in Tech. You eventually get to a point where the AI refuses to trade with you, giving the reason that the fear you are becomming to advanced. However, I will often be behind the AI 5-8 techs. If I can hold out into the modern era, I'm often able to catch back up. But the entire era between the ancient and modern I'm struggling.

However, if I play on a huge world, I can always find an AI or two who will be wiling to trade, and by teaming up with them I'm able to stay close to par with the rest of the AI (they will still usually be 2-3 techs ahead).

Does anyone have a stratagy to keep up in the tech race on Monarch with the smaller maps?

First Cultural Win

DumbDaddy — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:49:53 GMT

Decided to try for something new this time around. Great Artists creating great works came in right handy toward the end.

Gotta admit, though, it was kind of a let-down, with the exception of getting to watch a new end movie. Don't even get a very good victory bonus.

Meh. Guess I'll go back to space victory. Much better victory bonus, and a heck of a lot easier than conquest.

General Questions

Luis1279 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:39:21 GMT

Well when I originally bought this game, I put it away and just let it sit there. So I picked it up the other day and I was hooked again. So I have able to win in all the levels till Noble then I was having issues. I have an issue with the religion component of the game. Kind of not understanding what it does other than give you that cool little icon on the bottom of your city can anyone enlighten me?

Modding Competition @ Planet Civilization

Bismarck2990 — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 04:29:32 GMT

Anybody here mess with the mods for cIV much?

[QUOTE]The Prizes:

Copy of Civilization IV signed by Sid Meier and Soren Johnson
and the Official Civilization IV Soundtrack
Copy of Civilization IV signed by Sid Meier and Soren Johnson
The Official Civilization IV Soundtrack

The Rules:

The mod must classify as a mod. A simple map is not a mod, it must modify the game in one way or another and require custom XML, graphics, or Python work. The mod must be in a working condition (but not 100% finished, if that is even possible for a mod) and packaged in either ZIP, RAR, or EXE format, so that it can be installed by the user easily. The mod must be uploaded to Planet Civilization (see below for submission instructions).

Voting will start once we have enough mod submissions (watch this space for dates) and finish once we have 800 votes (or 2 months after the starting date, whichever occurs first). Voting will take place on the main page and every user has one vote.

Both new mods and existing mods are eligible.

Submitting your Mod:

You need to email the Planet Civilization Site Director stating that you wish to participate, even if your mod is already available on Planet Civilization. You have to submit your mod to Planet Civilization. If the file is under 25 MB in size, you can upload it here. If it is larger, contact me to arrange for the upload. If your mod is already mirrored on Planet Civilization and you cannot update it, contact me as well. [/QUOTE]

Immortal duels vs. AI

GKhan — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:36:54 GMT

More to come on this later.

I beat my first duel at Immortal. Most Civ players will find duels to be very easy up to Monarch, but Emperor and Immortal difficulty can be a good challenge for a more experienced player.

I have not tried the Deity setting yet. I will try it tonight and post my results in this thread.

With just 1 other Civ and a small map,(duel setting) essentailly with a heavy push towards military you can easily beat the AI, as it thinks about expanding first. When they expand they split their military towards the new city, leaving their capital open to an early attack. If you sack any civs capital by 2000BC or earlier, its pretty much a done deal for that civ, hence a win for the duel.

On Emperor levels the AI starts with a worker I have not tested this, but they seem to be able to build tile improvments from the 1st turn. They also start with an archer, or maybe two. Im not sure if they get those units regardless of if they have archery tech. or not, also possible they get a free 3rd starting tech. Im not sure, I will wait to see when someone takes the time to test out the AI advantages at those difficultys. Post info if you have/know it.

My game results thus far:

Monarch - Conquest 500BC - Score 38 000
Monarch - Conquest 40 AD - 28 000

Emperor - Conquest 700 AD - 41 000

Immortal - Conquest 1000 AD - 46 000
(Scores approx)

The score is modified heavily based on how early you win the deul. Stil need to learn more about how a score is calculated. If you know any of this information please post it for the rest of us.

Immortal AI on the duel setting is impresive and a challenge. This type of game plays far more like a RTS game, in that aggresion ussually wins the match. more to come soon.