I... suck!

[Epistax]

I don't know what it is. I was AWESOME at Civ 1, Good at Civ 2, OK at Civ 3, and Civ 4.. I reek!

I've read the strategies and understand most of it. I usually enjoy being an (MY traits, not game trains) expansive industrialist. My previous strategy was to expand rapidly then build an infrastructure, allowing myself to get behind in unit count and technology, only to ramp up before middle ages due to my backing and take over.

Apparently, something mysterious in Civ 4 is preventing me from doing this at any difficulty level. Everyone seems to have infrastructure equal to or greater than what I have, even if I have worker bonuses, and the tech race seems hopeless.

I haven't played in a year, and now I want to try again...

Wish me luck. If anyone has any specific advice for me, I'd gladly take it!

[notyoueither]

Yes, yes you do.

Try fewer, better cities early.

[Jaybe]

Use the mouse to hover over the maintenance costs when in the city screen and use the F2 and hover over the city maintenance costs. This way you will get an understanding how city spamming doesn't work in Civ4 as it did in Civ3 -- it is one of the major improvements in the game.

When the gold runs short (and, in the early game, even when it hasn't run short), use science specialists to increase research. Put some priority in writing (library), currency (marketplace & "build gold") and code of laws (courthouses) techs.

[vilemerchant]

What the hell are worker bonuses?

[Epistax]

Originally posted by vilemerchant
What the hell are worker bonuses?

Hmm I was under the impression than industrious helped but I suppose not-- just for Indians with their Fast Worker. My bad.

[gdijedi7]

Yeah. Unfortunately, the designers killed what they call "Endless City Sprawl. That makes it very hard on conquerers like me.

I remember when I could rule North and South America, Ireland, Hawaii and Austrailia, but now, aside from the horendous lack of a decent usable World Map, I almost never have more than five cities I actually built because of the maintenance fees.

[Kuciwalker]

Unfortunately, the designers killed what they call "Endless City Sprawl.

1) Infinite City Sprawl (ICS)

2) Fortunately

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by gdijedi7
Yeah. Unfortunately, the designers killed what they call "Endless City Sprawl. That makes it very hard on conquerers like me.

I remember when I could rule North and South America, Ireland, Hawaii and Austrailia, but now, aside from the horendous lack of a decent usable World Map, I almost never have more than five cities I actually built because of the maintenance fees.

If you only have five cities you built yourself, either you're doing a lot of early conquering, or you're not building enough cities

[John-SJ]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Unfortunately, the designers killed what they call "Endless City Sprawl.[/q]

1) Infinite City Sprawl (ICS)

2) Fortunately

Unfortunately.

Those who don't like ICS are not forced to use it. Those who do like it lost a valid playstyle. I will never understand the logic behind removing play options that players find fun. This is one of the reasons that CIV is my least favorite version of Civ.

[Kuciwalker]

do you understand it at all? It meant the game was fundamentally broken because there was never a reason not to found or take a city, and runaway expansion was easy.

[vilemerchant]

Originally posted by John-SJ

Unfortunately.

Those who don't like ICS are not forced to use it. Those who do like it lost a valid playstyle. I will never understand the logic behind removing play options that players find fun. This is one of the reasons that CIV is my least favorite version of Civ.

This is plainly ridiculous.

[joncnunn]

5 Cities is actually a bit on the low side to have if that's what you indeed top out at on a normal map. There are multiple national wonders in which you need 6 buildings in order to build them and in addition the Forbiden Palace requires you have at least 8 cities on top of the 6 Court Houses for the FP.

What your probably not doing is building enough courthouses everywhere and also building enough gold multiplers in the heavy commerce cities & holy shrine cities.

Also note that BTS gives Courthouses an addition reason to build: free epispage points.

[LzPrst]

economy management is more important in civ4. you cant merely toss up more cities. a good strategy is to have at least 1 of your first 3 cities on a river-area with cottages only. that will give you an economic base for continued expansion.

[Robert]

ICS is still possible, just make sure you're able to fund the new cities.
Caste System with a lot of Merchant Specialists can fund quite some expansion. And if you have a lot of Prophet Specialists as well you don't really need to be any higher then 0% on your science slider.

I always grow in leaps.
First city builds Great Wall first (to avoid barbarian problems)
Then first bump, 2 settlers.
Then I build some workers and improvements, and of course the needed wonders (pyramids, parthenon, great library)
Then there's the 2nd expansion leap (3-4 new cities)
Then there's the huge worker expansion, build many workers and start improving the lands. Build courthouses and libraries. Build a defense.

Most AI's won't attack you before this moment anyway. (save Monty, who's a pain).
Make sure that your border cities are well protected.
then there's the 3th (or 4th?) leap, build another 4-5 cities, maybe on surrounding islands, to fill some gaps, etc.

After that you're done expanding naturally. You can either focus on improving your economy / research, or build a huge army and invade your next neighbour.

Build many farms so you can assign many specialists (only merchants and scientists count, the engineers, ie. come in handy only later in the game)

Farm everything that can be farmed, build cottages elsewhere. Let cities expand in leaps as well. First let them stay at a certain nr for a while, focussing on either merchant or scientist specialists, then send all the specialists to the field to let the city grow a couple of numbers, only to get back to specialising again.

Never let cities be angry or sick. That's a waste of specialists.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by snoopy369
If you only have five cities you built yourself, either you're doing a lot of early conquering, or you're not building enough cities

I rarely build more than 5 cities, Much more fun to conquer the enemy cities than building them yourself