Noobie to Civ4, first game on Warlord

[greenday_234]

I have been a longtime civer however I have found that Civ4 is nothing like, strategically, any other previous civ game. So I, honestly, started out on Settler, easy enough, moved to Cheiftan, even easier so then I decided to go to Warlord. I'm having a fairly easy time getting ahead on the score and tech screen however I've been struggling to maintain first place against Egypt for a good portion of the game, so before I move to Noble I feel I need Warlord locked down. Basically I have read the threads about building cottages and tech trading is there any strategies that I could use to get ahead in the early game and any other strategies that would help me maintain it. This includes, technology, expansion goals, military builds, military invasions etc. Any and all strategies are welcome here. Thank you.

[Fallenhero]

Your question is very large and it would be better to focus in on where you're having the trouble.

That being said, I would pick a leader that matches your style of play and stick with him/her. If you want to conquer the world, for example, take Ceasar and play him over and over untill you get the hang of it. With the Praetorian UU you want to get to iron working asap and if you don't have iron you have to go get it.

You also want to get Alphabet early as well so you can extort techs when the ai sues for peace.

There's so much more but I really feel by playing one style again and again you can streamline your play which is really the key to winning at higher levels.

Once you're comfortable with one style branching out to others is a lot easier.

[greenday_234]

Thanks for your response Fallenhero, in regards too this thread being too general I did that intentionally. This is more of an open thread idea where people could come and post any helpful knowledge and strategies that they may employ to keep ahead early on. i.e. I had problems with X and doing X seemed to help alot. In other words the main reason for this thread is to, hopefully, centralize some major and minor strategy ideas for noobies so that they won't have to dig through the miles of threads. I hope that this is an apprioprate way to do that.

Thank you.

[edit]: given my goal on this thread I have moved this topic to a new thread entitled: (Noobie index): a guide to finding strategys

[Crossfire]

Learn to beeline to appropriate techs. These can often give freebees that further your advantages,but can also be traded to several other civs for many other techs that you left behind.

Check out ALL of Vel's threads.

[Hermann the Lombard]

In several senses this whole forum is the answer to your question. As Fallenhero wrote you'll do well to browse the forum and check out subjects that interest you. A specific approach might be to "watch a master at work" and follow one of the Devel's Workshop threads. I'm playing through the "1a" thread right now, ringing a few changes on Vel's strategy.

Anyway, enjoy the exploration!

[Urban Ranger]

Warlord's pretty easy, at least for my play style. I generally expand rather aggressively in the early stages and I aim for horizontal growth. It should be even easier if I turn the "raging barbarians" option off

I think a better way to do it is for you to post a saved game so others can take a look at it.