Yant!

[BeBro]

...aka Yet Another N00b Thread or "Boy do I suck at this game"

So I own Civ4 complete for ca. a week now. Started some games, but managed to win none. I feel rather humiliated by the AI - I had no difficulties to beat all previous Civ parts even at higher levels, but here in Civ4 I got owned in most games so far, at rather low or moderate levels. They changed quite some things it seems, so experiences from perevious games aren't worth that much. Ok, something new. Presentation is overall really great for a civ game though (I really love the wonder movies).

The second game I played (as Krauts) went rather well (acc. to the score), but shortly before I could retake the lead again some evil dutch guy managed to score a cultural win when I was in the process to wipe out my opponents.

However, in most games I start well, then lose track somehow in the midgame and AIs start to get ahead. Then at some point everyone loves to gang up on me. Oh well, looks like I have to optimize my playing style...

Just had to get this off my chest

[Sarco]

About the cultural win: press F8 every once in a while (or click the red fist up to the right). Keep an eye on the victory conditions.

In what ways did the AIs get ahead? Production or technology? Don't just look at the scores, you can be in a winning position while being quite far down the points chart.

[Unimatrix11]

BeBro - i know what you need: Start your games via ´Advanced Start´ (´Eigenes Spiel´) and turn ´no tech brockering´ (the one, that allows tech trade only with techs one has researched oneself) on - you will see the game follow quite a different direction.

Without it, the AIs will brocker techs quite a lot among each other. Not only does that grant them an overall tech-lead over you (if you dont participate in that a lot as well), but it will also enhance their mutual relation each time a deal is made. Hence they gang up on you. Both is solved with the ´no tech brockering´ option and you might even want to level one up instantly when you try it.

[Unimatrix11]

EDIT: Just noted the poll-thread. What´s said there...

[BeBro]

About the cultural win: press F8 every once in a while (or click the red fist up to the right). Keep an eye on the victory conditions.

In what ways did the AIs get ahead? Production or technology? Don't just look at the scores, you can be in a winning position while being quite far down the points chart.

In my first game, I was behind in both tech and production

Second one was cool, however. In the next I was losing ground in the midgame again.

Uni, I'll try that tip about tech trading next time

[Metaliturtle]

I got beat by a sneaky cult win in one of my more recent games. I should've attacked India instead of Greece.

[Blaupanzer]

Suspect the Indian win wasn't so much sneaky as unnoticed. As indicated, click on the red fist periodically. The first page tells you who is doing the best culturally in their three cities (and shows your own totals for 3 cities as well). The speed you are playing affects the number of musical notes necessary in a city for it to go legendary: 50K @ normal, 75K at epic, ~100K at marathon(? - haven't played marathon in a couple of years).

[Metaliturtle]

Marathon, the reason my friends and I have been playing the same hotseat game since 2006...

[BeBro]

OK, some questions:

1. Is there a simple way to start without the intro movies (not only the game intro itself, but also the annoying stuff from publishers etc)? I tried just to delete/rename their bik files, doesn't seem to work here. Well, actually they aren't displayed then but you get an error msg about "movies not correctly installed" or so. The game still loads afterwards, but simply going right away to the main menu without pressing ESC a few times would be nicer.

2. What world settings would be best to avoid maps with large areas of deserts/tundra/snow?

[ColdPhoenix]

I play using the BAT mod and it has the intro movies turned off. Don't know how they did it though...

[BeBro]

Hm, just looked a bit around, found this in the Civ config file in my Civ IV folder:

; Set to 1 for no intro movie
NoIntroMovie = 0

But after setting it to 1 I still get the intro

Edit: ahh, stupid me, it works when you edit the config file for the version/XP you're playing (so for me not the one in the Civ IV main folder, but the one under BTS)

[Blaupanzer]

You can just hit escape at the beginning of each movie to get rid of them. I usually let them run while I take care of business and get a refill on my Mountain Dew.

[Unimatrix11]

Hey, but BeBro´s way allows for deletion of the intro-binks, right ? Save some disc space...

[BeBro]

re Blau: Yeah I know, I'm just quite annoyed esp by the various small intros showing up first before the main intro (esp. the 2K Games thing I get, so I wanted it gone without pressing esc)

[Willem]

Edit: ahh, stupid me, it works when you edit the config file for the version/XP you're playing (so for me not the one in the Civ IV main folder, but the one under BTS)

You don't want to edit anything in the game's main folder. You should only change files that are in your (My)Documents/MyGames/Beyond the Sword folder. There's an ini file there that is used.

[BeBro]

Well in my installation the .ini under BTS folder is actually just a shortcut pointing to Documents/MyGames/Beyond the Sword/ so I suppose it's ok.

[BeBro]

How do you deal with a civ that is stronger than you? In my last two games I always ran into the same prob that one AI managed to race ahead while I couldn't stop them cuz the other kept me busy:

1. First one was as US (Roosevelt), noble, on two continents, I shared one with Bismarck and Mao, the other had two Frances with two De Gaulles (selected the second by mistake ), Ghandi, and dunno who else. I managed to dominate my continent, but still I wasn't strong enough to take out Mao or Bismarck completely.

When I got contact with the guys overseas it turned out that one De Gaulle dominated his continent. I tried to build up, and beat him in the space race, but stupid Mao and Bismarck even attacked me when they actually couldn't win, which slowed me down, so De Gaulle won the space race. I sabotaged parts of his space ship once, but it costed several 1000 pts each try, so I couldn't stop him. As I see it, going to war against him earlier was no option, since those guys took any chance to declare war against me.

Usually it went like a) Mao attacked, lost one or two cities, made peace. Then b) one or two turns later, Bismarck attacked until I forced him into peace as well. Then it was Maos turn again. It was fun to battle them in industrial and modern times, but at the same time the leading De Gaulle had enough time to build up. There wasn't a single war on his continent for several centuries....

2. Second one is noble as well, pangaea, space race turned off. I'm the Romans, took out Brennus. Right on my borders however there are Persians and Greeks, both a bit below my strength, but also the Egyptians, which didn't waste time while I defeated Brennus and are quite ahead after the reduced Hannibal and some other guy to ca. 1-2 cities. I'm not strong enough to fight them directly, but I fear when I'm going against the other two the Egyptians will sneak attack me from behind.

[Blaupanzer]

I generally play at Prince, but lose or quit a lot. Almost every game at least one AI out of my immediate reach takes off in science while another builds massive armies. So, beating that challenge is key to every game. A bit of an edge comes from the things I change at the start by loading thru "custom games" at the start. I turn on Aggressive AI and raging barbs to keep things even at the start and so the AI WILL be a challenge. In custom games, I also click "no tech brokering," so the AIs and I can only trade techs we actually researched, and "no vassals," so that the military guy doesn't end up with 5 or 6 guaranteed allies, all of whom I must beat if I fight him. Lastly I turn off diplomatic victory to prevent an exploit with the Apostolic Palace. The tech and vassal modifications should help you avoid some of the events in the two endgames you describe. Only solid aggression, good city planning (city by city, as in this one's tech, this one's money, this one's science), wise city placement, and a little luck (most especially with the placement of copper, horses, and iron) will give you a reasonable chance to win. Good luck, sounds like we both need it, but we simply must win the tech and military races simultaneously.

[BeBro]

Lastly I turn off diplomatic victory to prevent an exploit with the Apostolic Palace.

I had a game recently where AI Bismarck got an "Religious Victory" by voting with the Apostolic Palace...is that the exploit? I never had the option for something like this before, if I built the palace myself or not (otoh I can participate always in the elections for UN gen. secr.)

It was shortly before winning a nice domination victory (I had enough population, just needed another percent of control over land) and then that