The newbie (but not only so) Guide to Civ4

[Shrapnel12]

I'm a newbie to Civ IV, but not to Civilization in general, yet one concept has been above my grasp in all versions of Civilization: Specialty citizens. It has always seemed to me, that citizens have always been more beneficial working tiles and I've never been able to use specialty citizens to my benefit. I did use them to some effect in Civilization II, but only when there were no squares left to work and in Civilization II, large populations are easier to manage then Civilization IV. The main reason for my dificulty is simple: food. I have a hard time managing the balance between supllying food and taking advantage of resources without food. Not only do I not use specialty citizens, but often heavy production squares go unused as well. I'd appreciate some pointers on the beneficial use of specialty citizens.

[dregor]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
I'm a newbie to Civ IV, but not to Civilization in general, yet one concept has been above my grasp in all versions of Civilization: Specialty citizens. It has always seemed to me, that citizens have always been more beneficial working tiles and I've never been able to use specialty citizens to my benefit. I did use them to some effect in Civilization II, but only when there were no squares left to work and in Civilization II, large populations are easier to manage then Civilization IV. The main reason for my dificulty is simple: food. I have a hard time managing the balance between supllying food and taking advantage of resources without food. Not only do I not use specialty citizens, but often heavy production squares go unused as well. I'd appreciate some pointers on the beneficial use of specialty citizens.

Best thing to do is study the civilopedia in game. You need to learn which tiles produce how much food, and which improvements increase the amount of food a tile makes.

1 population point (citizen) requires 2 food to feed it, so that's the ideal "minimum" you want to tile to generate. It's not always possible. So for example, a grassland tile generates 2 food, whereas a plains tile generates 1 food. If a citizen works the grassland tile, without and improvements, he be at least feeding himself and you'll have growth from the extra food your city tile produces, albeit slowly. But if a citizen works the plains tile, he's not working at least as much food as he's consuming, so he has to take a surplus food.

My general rule, but it's not always hard and fast, is to put a farm on a plains tile ASAP so it is generating the minimum 2 food. Sometimes I can't get a farm to a plains tile before Civil Service (farms spread their irrigation, so you can chain them) or Biology (can build farms without irrigation). I'll rarely ever put anything else on a plains tile unless it has a resource on it (ie. horses).

In terms of specialists, if you want to concentrate on a specialist city you want one with a high amount of potential food. Flood plains (3 food by default) and any food resources with the proper improvement (rice, corn, wheat, etc) are the best sources of food. If you pick a location with a large number of any of these, you'll have a lot of surplus food to funnel into specialists.

[Shrapnel12]

Another problem I have is that sometimes it just doesn't seem to do any good to turn a citizen into a specialist. For example, if I want a scientist, sometimes my total science goes down, not up (probably due to lower finances?). How do I determine when it is most helpful to turn a citizen into a specialist? Another question, what good are priests? They don't seem to give enough boon for what you have to sacrifice in working tile resources.

[Kuciwalker]

Say you're running 100% science and you have a citizen working a tile producing 4 commerce. That 4 commerce becomes 4 beakers. If you remove the citizen and make it a scientist, it'll only produce 3 beakers (and 3 great scientist points), which is a net loss. It also won't produce any food or hammers. So yes, many times you shouldn't turn a citizen into a specialist.

Priests are good when you want to get a Great Priest, in high-food low-production coastal or island cities, and when you have the wonder that gives +1 shields per priest.

[zeace]

A specialist citizen is generally less good than a citizen working an improved square. He's about the same as a working a forest, and generally much better than a basic square.

One important consideration is whether the GPP from the specialist are going to be useful or not. If this city is producing GPP faster or almost as fast as any other city in your empire, then this city will produce Great People fairly regularly. This makes specialists more valuable here. If a city is not making enough GPP to keep up with other cities then the GPP from specialists is pretty much wasted.

You'll see some people in the strategy articles advocate creating a single GPP farm which is dedicated to creating Great People. If you specialize one city like this, then no other city can keep up in GPP and you probably won't want to run specialists anywhere outside this city.

Conversely it can sometimes make sense to temporarily slow down GPP in one city long enough for another city to produce a GP. This of course wreaks of micromanagement but sometimes it's worth the effort...

[Provost Harrison]

An interesting gauntlet for someone to pick up...is there a way to allow religions to spread to other cities which already have a religion, albeit at a reduced probability?

[Kuciwalker]

Um, that happens automatically.

[dregor]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Um, that happens automatically.

I have never seen religion spread to a city that already had a religion without the use of a missionary.

[Krill]

It happens, except when the recieving city belongs to a civ in theocracy.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Um, that happens automatically.

No it doesn't.

[Krill]

IIRC, it does, so long as the shrine for that religion is built.

[Provost Harrison]

Once a religion has spread to the city, the only way to spread a further religion there is via missionary - there is no other route to do that.

[Krill]

really? Well, you know so much about the game Provost, that I suggest you quit your day job and go work for Firaxis. Because you certainly know how this game works better than the testers and programmers.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Krill
really? Well, you know so much about the game Provost, that I suggest you quit your day job and go work for Firaxis. Because you certainly know how this game works better than the testers and programmers.

And people who actually pay attention to the game rules rather than trying to infer them through experiment.

[Virdrago]

And Kuci strikes again...

Anyway, I've played many games, and have never had a second religion added to a city without
a) a missionary, or
b) the religion being founded, and all of my other cities already have a religion from before.

Also, yes, it's in the rules.