By george, I think I've got it!

[Crossfire]

Civ 4 is my first ever Civ game. I came from the Total War side of the world and although I still miss being the general in battle, the complexity of Civ is amazing. Anyway, I have been playing since the day the game came out and last night it finally all clicked. It is now the mid 1200s and on Prince my score is about twice any one else's. Yeah!

I started as Frederick and researched Bronze, did the settler chop rush and then started building piles of Axemen. I took out my nearest neighbor and then settled down and did a CS beeline. I am piling GPs into my capitol and have built all the wonders in the world except for Stonehenge! My capitol is pumping out almost 250 beakers a turn and I am now beelining for rocketry after getting all the free techs and free GP's along the way having just gotten railroads. I was first around the world and have now found another small continent that I am settling. Everyone is afraid of me but not a single soul is annoyed with me. Civ life is grand!

Now if only I wasn't so tired from going to bed at 3:30 last night I would be perfect. Thanks to you all for teaching a newb how to play this great game.

[Shaka II]

I love Rome Total War/Barbarian Invasion. Civ is a bit more layed back, but I love the deeper strategy thinking. Like playing chess on a nearly infinite playing board.

Sounds like you're ready to move up a few levels. Try monarchy next.

[petey]

Dude, you didn't get Stonehenge? Sounds like the games a write-off and you should restart.

[cal_01]

Originally posted by petey
Dude, you didn't get Stonehenge? Sounds like the games a write-off and you should restart.

[Crossfire]

Ok master, I will try harder next game.

[Hauptman]

Heh, actually, 80% of my games i build that. without fail. Im a culture whore what can i say.

[Crossfire]

Fredrick does get culture so it isn't very important. I might get it with other civs.

[Shaka II]

Originally posted by Crossfire
Ok master, I will try harder next game.

You have done well grasshopper.

[Enigma_Nova]

The main problem with Frederick is that he is not Bismarck.

[Diadem]

And the main problem with Bismarck is that he is not Ghandi

But what we seem to have here is a specimen of the rare species of intelligent newbies. One who not only reads the forums and uses what he reads there to play the game, but one who can even make his own adaptation.

That's cool!

[Addled Platypus]

have you tried ragging barbarians?

[Bobby Chicken]

And the problem with Ghandi is, um, I don't know.

[Livebythesword]

Gotta join this thread, just because the penny's dropped in my current game. I too have never played any civ games previously, but have been lurking here seeing how the game mechanics work.

So, I started on settler level and achieved a spaceship victory, building nearly every wonder on the way (nice animations ) - always on continent maps too.
On to the next difficulty and I achieved a cultural victory (with Quin - Japanese dude)
On to the next level and I achieved a domination victory with the Inca leader (the Quecha rush obviously helped)

And currently attempting a diplomatic one on noble with Catherine. Initially I didn't found any religons, but opened borders asap as Isabella was next door to me. China and Greece were south and east respectively, and America below these three. Isabella's religon came quickly to my capital, which I adopted. Time passed and Greece snuck 2 cities on my northern peninsuala, but Isabella wanted war with him, so I wiped those 2 cities off before peace was declared. Isabella's religon spread to Greece, China and America, and after a while everyone was friendly and I had defensive pacts with them all. One continent full of leaders with the same state religon and defensive pacts should be quite formidable against opposing leaders. I am 1 point away from a diplomatic victory...

Then I discovered India and Germany doing well on seperate continents (Germany and India 2nd and 3rd behind me). Given that Germany was pleased with a few of the of AI's leaders on my continent, and everyone hates India (who is Buddhist, we're Hindu) I'm planning on lauching a continental religous war. My spies are already there sabotaging resources...

Gotta say the diplomatic method (but not conquering 60% land area to vote yourself in) is the most interesting, followed by the cultural. The warmonger path seemed a little flat in comparison; the spaceship one a get out clause.

Great game though, so much better than RTS's and FPS's

[Crossfire]

The problem with Gandhi is he isn't....

Maybe Louis? Too bad Louis doesn't start with mining. But what he does start with is good. I am really starting to like Louis.

[thyrwyn]

Louis is great - Creative/Industrious with move 2 gunpowder troops to keep up your Cavalry.