First Real Civ4 Session: Need Your Input

[Steve7811]

Hi everyone.

I am an avid civilization fan. I became a huge fan when the original MS-DOS version of Civ1 was released. A friend of mine showed me that game one day, and I played it for an hour. I was immediately hooked.

I have since played Civ2 and Civ3 as well, and enjoyed all of them. It seems that the game is getting more complex, and much improved. I welcome the change.

However, I haven't played much Civ for the past few months until Civ4 was released, and now I am back into it.

I played around for a while, none of them too serious, just to get the feel of the new system, as well as studying the various posts in this forum.

Yesterday I cranked up my first real session at Civ4. I chose Bismarck, because I thought his traits were interesting combination.

Anyways, I haven't played much because I started really late last night, so it is only upto 2040 BC at the moment.

I have 2 cities set up, and a settler ready to found a third city. If you check the saved game file, you will see that there is a huge chunk of land filled with jungles on top of my explored area and plenty of room for expansion to the south. I have made contact with Peter of Russia, and it seems that he and I might be the only ones on this continent.

This game is set on everything default. Noble difficulty on continents.

What I wonder first though, is where I should go for the third city. I noticed that it just might be beneficial in this game to try to expand to a wider area to grab as much landmass as possible. That is to secure easier expansion while blocking AI civ's expansion. Just my opinion though.

What I fear is that I do not want my cities to be so far apart at the start of the game. I have learned that expanding too fast can really hurt my treasury and science. I usually, in previous Civ games, liked to expand and plop down as many cities as possible in the early stages. In this game, that strategy doesn't seem to be the best way. And that nasty corruption... ugh!

In addition to the location of the third city, I would like any other inputs or thoughts you might have on this setting. Perhaps I could have done things a lot better by researching different techs, or maybe my 2nd city site isn't too good. I know I am taking a bit of chance with lack of warriors/archers right now, but I did this to ensure that I set up at least 4 cities as quickly as possible before settling down.

Copper seems to be way out of reach for now, and I have yet to get iron working, so I don't know if I am gonna get lucky with iron. But at least I have access to ivory and horses, which means war elephants and horse archers

Thanks for checking out my thread and my session. Any inputs will be most appreciated. And I am excited to have found such an excellent fansite for such an awesome game like Civ4.

[Cort Haus]

First, Steve, that settler is unescorted, which is not ideal at any time, and very risky in 2040BC.

He's already gone north now, but I would have sent him to one of the juicier sites east or west of the capital.

He could settle on the blue circle and get the food special (after an obelisk). That site could become a low-hammer commerce centre but it's possibly not the best early site. Further north with the Clam, Ivory & Silk looks much better, though it is some way from the capital and the settler has no escort.

You nearly have 3 cities, but only 1 warrior. I'd switch the settler build in the 2nd city to a warrior/archer and let it grow to size 2, so it can work the 2 specials, then finish the settler. The settler can then use the warrior for an escort, and the city will be stronger.

Your tech progress is balanced - you have all the worker & military tech you need for now and Mysticism will give you your border expansions with obelisks. Bud & Hind are founded, so I wouldn't bother with further religious techs for now. You have pottery, so you can get a couple of cottages down in the capital, and maybe pick up Writing for a Library in there. This will help to keep your tech rate going if you want a quick horizontal expansion. Grab fishing if you settle by those Clams & get a workboat on them after the obelisk.

Don't overdo it on the settlers though - you need units to back them up. First vs the barbs then vs the AI. Your chariots will be good against the early barbs, who might become numerous with all that space.

[ghen]

First and foremost, Welcome! With that gaming background you'll find Civ4 quite refreshing and interesting


My one change from civ3 to civ4 was expansion. In civ4 it just doesn't matter as much when you build settlers. Of course, the only problem there is in the land grab.. if a civ plops a city down in a decent spot near your capital TAKE IT!

As for maximizing land use, don't worry about it. Building cities in perfect formation so the 'fat cross' lines up with other cities just isn't as important as previous games. If it works out that way where you can plant a city to work the tiles perfectly go for it, otherwise having a few dead spaces between cities isn't the end of the world.. and getting that extra resource or blocking off AI expansion is much more useful.

Unfortunately I'm at work so I can't give you any specific ideas on city placement. You're definitely on the right track though from what I've read, and Cort Haus's suggestions seem very good from a readers standpoint.

[Steve7811]

Update: 675 BC

Hi there. Nice to meet both of you, and thank you for your kind replies.

I have since played upto 675 BC now. I don't get to play for a long session at one time, so my progress is slow. A little bit of update since last time.

Last time, I had 2 cities up with an active settler. It seems almost obvious that it is only me and Peter of Russia on this continent. I wanted to make sure that I grab as much landmass as possible in the early round, so I built 2 additional cities to the north and managed to secure a tight border. They are landlocked cities, but looking at the map, it didn't look all that beneficial to try to build coastal cities in that region. I have plenty of space to the south that I can later establish coastal cities. Plus, the 2 northern cities have vast network of rivers around them, so commerce should be good for now.

At 675 BC, I have managed to build the Stonehenge and the Pyramids in Berlin, the capital city. The Romans have managed to grab the Oracle. I immediately started working on the Parthenon in Berlin again, because I figured that I can always change production later. I just researched writing, and I am on my way to researching code of laws, which is so vital at this point, to reduce maintenance costs and encourage further expansion to the south this time.

The city of Zhou to the southeast was originally a barbarian city, which I used my chariot to capture. Pretty good spot I think and it is my first coastal city. I think I can mange to put down 4 additional coastal cities. And at this point, the barbarian threat is very minimal, so I am pretty safe with my improvements.

I am going to immediately change my civics to representation now for the happiness bonus and the extra research boost with specialists. I don't have any specialists out yet, and I still need LOT of practice with this whole concept. I realized how powerful they can be. I can build libraries now to put a scientist, and since my research rate is 60% (I feel so uncomfortable about this!), I need to get my science up fast. I am not sure if I grabbed meditation or not, but once I become the first to get code of laws (which I hope), I will soon have a great prophet ready to build the shrine, and be able to add monasteries in my cities to help the research effort a huge boost.

I also managed to get iron working and iron and horses are available to me for military, but I believe I have yet to research horseback riding. Not sure if I should make that a priority at this time, however.

Here is my latest save game file on 675 BC. Check it out and share with me your thoughts. All inputs are welcome. I like this map a lot, but I have yet to run into any kind of marble or stone on this continent, which is a huge minus. Other than that, all looks good, and if I manage to actually conquer the Russians, I can have this nice big continent by myself and be a strong power.

I am quite happy with Bismarck's traits. Expansive allows me to chop forests without feeling too guilty, and industrious helps me out a lot with wonder building. I don't think I would have been able to build the Pyramids if it weren't for industrious. Definitely the AIs would have grabbed it first for sure.

Anyways, thank you again and hope to hear more from everyone.