which civ should i be?

[couerdelion]

Best to fight wars alone. It's rare that your allies will do much. Sometimes they will take the cities that you want will more often they will just grab some gold from pillaging the improvements that you want to keep

[rah]

Agreed. Their pillaging is annoying.

[joncnunn]

The only reason I see to invite a neighbor to join an offensive war on your side is to ensure they don't join on the side of your opponent.

Now, if your fighting a defensive war, (say one not of your choosing) then getting allies will be better. (If you aren't going to be able to take a city anyway, then it's helpful for you for your opponent to get their city side pillaged.)

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I haven't had much luck with Civ4 allies. In wartime they never do much of the heavy lifting, pillage things you don't want pillaged, and whine for gifts all the time.

And normally my best buddy is the Civ right next to me (sharing the religion I founded), who is spamming out cities and taking up the good spots. Those friendships seldom last long (although I occasionally am lucky enough to have my "buddy" sneak attack me, and after I've gentled him/her up a bit, we can go back to being friends).

But then, I'm only playing Noble. I suspect that on the higher levels I'm going to have to grit my teeth and hand over gifts and bribes to avoid being overwhelmed.

As for what Civ to be - pick a Civ that suits your playing style. If you spam cottages everywhere, Financial could work well. If you're like me and can't resist building wonders, Philosophical (for the +100% GP rate) or Industrious work well. If you like early rushes, Rome is great, as has been noted. And so on.

[Ming]

It can always be fun to bribe somebody to go to war with another civ even though you aren't at war with anybody. If there are two or three major religions, you might even get others to join in. After they have all expended some units, then it's your turn

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Ming
It can always be fun to bribe somebody to go to war with another civ even though you aren't at war with anybody. If there are two or three major religions, you might even get others to join in. After they have all expended some units, then it's your turn

Ah, but the question is, does it really work out that way, often?

I'm not interested in giving someone several hundred gold and a tech or two so they can pull angry faces at another civ for a few turns, and then make peace.

Similarly, I seldom accept offers to join into wars, because my "ally" will frequently make peace with my new "enemy", and the enemy will refuse all communications with me. And I'm left watching my war weariness escalate...

Sadly, my diplomacy seems to consist of begging for gifts, demanding tribute, and selling surplus nonmilitary resources.

[couerdelion]

You can at least hope. If you know that the nations are evenly matched then at the very least they will expend units and pillage each others lands. They may even capture cities which, so long as you are still able to intervene, is a good thing because one civs is a city weaker while the other does not gain anything like as much as the first civ loses (even before allowing for military losses).

Also, when civs are at war, they will tend to adopt, sub-optimal civics (vassalage and theocracy) and building plans will change from commercial buildings to military ones. So technologically, they will both suffer.

It works much better if you are almost ready to go to war with one of the civs and your ally does not share a large border with you. The latter will mean that your target’s army will move to the opposite border allowing you to strike relatively unopposed after a few turns of the earlier war.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Dis
I still like Elizabeth of the English.

Right now, I'm playing through w/ each leader and Elizabeth is one who stands out as very effective. Financial & philisophical are a great combination. I also really enjoyed Frederick. Have about 14 leaders left to play.

[emperor]

There are a lot of very powerful leaders, but you have to harness them properly to get the maximum benefit out of them by adjusting your strategy accordingly. You get to figure them out better the more you play the game. Huayna Capac, Hannibal, Brennus and Ragnar are just a few of my personal favourites. But then again, I'll take pretty much any civ and make the most out of it.