Specific Strategies Based on Leadership Traits?

[maxcavsm]

Took a long time off and now getting back into it.
About 500 points ahead of everyone in my first Noble game I'm winning ever after trolling here on the site (got lucky, usually not the case).

I start off with some pretty solid strategies, but I feel like I'm floundering around with very inefficient build/research (ooh, that sounds good- and off I go).

I also was hoping to learn various techniques based on leadership traits. Like, I have no idea how to efficiently use the financial (and the one civic where you can spend to build). I know no game is exactly the same " build this, then this, then beeline here"...but rrrgh.

I should be graduated past the "ooh, that sounds good" stage as the difficulty level increases, but I'm rusty.

And I'm rambling. Any links would be helpful, as I'm sure it's been addressed.

[ybrevo]

Hi Maxcavsm!

I am on Noble too right now and experimenting with different leaders/traits/strategies.

At the moment I am having a go at Louis of the French Fries (or is it Frogs?) which traits puts Wonder building and culture into focus. The problem is that I am hemmed in by the Romans and the Incans, and it has turned out to be difficult to push the culture borders in a positive direction. With only 5 cities at hand, Wonders has been too much of a luxury. I went for the Great Library, and now in late game I am trying for UN and the Manhattan Project. Mostly because I haven´t done that before - and since I am loosing badly anyway, at least I can use my tech-lead to nuke someone ...

Well, as you see, I am rambling too - but I have a feeling that a strategy should evolve during early game and not from the very beginning with the traits you choose. What if your UU does not have the resource to build them - to name an example - then "Aggressive" might not the best trait to sit with.

And yes - a link to some help will be much appreciated

ybrevo

[Krill]

Someone post a 4000bc save...

[snoopy369]

PHI: Doubles your great person points, so playing a strategy with great people (either the 'golden age' strategy where you try to set off as many GA's as possible, or just the 2-scientists-per-city strategy).

FIN: Cottage strategy typically gains the most from this, and expanding a lot (building a lot of cities) since you can afford them. Water cities work very well with FIN - ie, cities that are mostly just coast tiles - because you get basically a 50% bonus to their commerce.

CRE: You can ignore religions much easier with CRE since you don't need the culture. Also, build libraries everywhere and run the two scientist strategy here also.

EXP: Most any strat works with this, just lets you build your workers sooner.

IND: Build wonders, of course. That means things like the Oracle -> CoL run, early Pyramids, etc. Use this to your advantage, and if you can focus on hammer-heavy cities more than normal (say have 4 hammer heavy cities instead of 2-3) then you can build military with two cities and wonders with two. You can then adjust your strat based on the wonders - with Pyramids, swith to Rep. and then go 2-scientists-per-city, for example; with Oracle->CoL push for early macemen and expand rapidly; etc.

CHA: Usually best to go for fairly aggressive expansion/military with this trait, particularly if paired with CRE or FIN or ORG or some other commerce-helpful trait.

ORG: Expand more rapidly, rush to CoL as soon as possible and build courthouses everywhere. It can fund a good ESP game if you're in BtS.

SPI: Play fast and loose with civics. If you're in BTS, stay out of slavery unless you are slaving (a lot in the early game, not as much in the late game). Get into military civics when you are building military for war, get out once you're done.

That's a good start, maybe?

[Diadem]

In general you want to use your traits as much as possible. It is usually quite obvious how.

Financial gives 1 extra commerce for each tile that produces at least 2. So you want as much tiles like that as possible. Philosophical doubles your GP production. So you want to have as much GP production as possible, to get the maximum benefit from the doubling. Same story for Industrious and wonders. Build more than usual.

If you're aggressive, you want to go to war often. Same for charismatic or imperialistic. Organized wants a larger than average empire. Etc, etc.

The 'what' is usually quite clear. The how, that is the big question.

This is also quite game-dependent. Your strategy doesn't just depend on your traits, but also on your terrain, and your neighbours.

Generally though I find that traits don't give major changes in your strategy. A juicy neighbour in a strategic location still needs to be conquered, whether you are aggressive or not.

One major exception is your economy. You need either a cottage economy or a specialist economy. Or a combination of both. Obviously financial will push you hard into the direction of the former, while philosophical pushes you hard into the direction of the latter. Still though, in both cases a mix is probably best, with maybe a insistance on one or the other, depending on traits.

[Diadem]

Originally posted by ybrevo
Hi Maxcavsm!

At the moment I am having a go at Louis of the French Fries (or is it Frogs?) which traits puts Wonder building and culture into focus. The problem is that I am hemmed in by the Romans and the Incans, and it has turned out to be difficult to push the culture borders in a positive direction. With only 5 cities at hand, Wonders has been too much of a luxury. I went for the Great Library, and now in late game I am trying for UN and the Manhattan Project. Mostly because I haven´t done that before - and since I am loosing badly anyway, at least I can use my tech-lead to nuke someone ...

How can you be loosing if you have a techlead? I'd like to see a save of that. I'm curious what you've been doing!

[ybrevo]

Diadem!

Thanks for your interest in my game. I would very much like to post a save - if I only knew how to do it. Never did it before - and since I have a Mac, I am only playing the CIV4 Vanilla.

When it comes to the point ladder, I am next to last - but a good economy has helped me a lot from around year 1750 having 90% science and good relations to the AI has kept me out of wars. Primarily I am going for a diplomatic victory - just to find out how that works - but maybe the good tech development offers other possibilities.

So the basic - and probably rather stupid - question is: How do I post a save here?

ybrevo

PS. And thanks SNOOPY for good advice for us "ramblers"

[maxcavsm]

Nice list Snoopy.
I guess the question from there is to take it one step further.

Okay, you're charismatic and organized? Which techs are vital to research to beeline towards to really get the most of the traits? Which civics should I take it?

You're financial and spiritual...(I don't know if any of these combinations are possible, I'm just throwing them out there)? Which trait is more important to focus on?

Farming. The game I'm winning (I think), I more or less had an entire river spammed with farms. When do cottages come into play? Does it make more sense to strike a balance? High population for more specialists? I like the specialists route right now, as it seems to be more visible than $$ route is at times. I can't always use money outside of the sliders (you can't have more than 100%), but I can see my specialists are pumping out vials, hammers, spy tech, coin, etc.

Specialization of villages. I always seem to build everything in every village, based on immediate need. Obviously, this is more possible in the lesser difficulties, so...

More rambling. I can't believe this. I've got a half dozen brand new games I could be playing, the damn open beta with Warhammer, and I'm sitting here mentally grinding through forum posts trying to become a better strategist. Lordy.

Thanks all!

[Diadem]

Originally posted by ybrevo
Diadem!

Thanks for your interest in my game. I would very much like to post a save - if I only knew how to do it. Never did it before - and since I have a Mac, I am only playing the CIV4 Vanilla.

Simply use the 'attach file' option and attach the savegame. You should see this option to attach a file below the box where you're typing your text.

Don't use quick-reply btw. Use "post reply" or you won't find it.

[ybrevo]

Diadem!

Thanks.

I am attaching the latest autosave (and for some odd reason it reads as a "Alien vs. Predator" game file ) - hope it works.

And sorry I am coming off topic in this thread, but maybe others can use your advise.

ybrevo

[DaveV]

Re: Specific Strategies Based on Leadership Traits?

Originally posted by maxcavsm
Any links would be helpful, as I'm sure it's been addressed.

Try this writeup on CivFanatics.

[Diadem]

Hmm, for some reason I can't boot vanilla civ.

It says "This application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem".

Anyone know what causes this. And if there's a better fix than reinstalling?

[rah]

Yes, that's a good write-up.
I agree with almost all of it.

[snoopy369]

Diadem: I suggest reinstalling.

That's the MS Visual C runtime library. My guess is some other program install screwed it up, or else it just got corrupted. You can try rebooting and see if that works - otherwise, either google the file and download a copy off somewhere (risky if you don't know the source), or just reinstall. Usually the latter is safest and wisest (if this went wrong, what else might have?).

[Diadem]

Well I'm not really looking forward to installing all 3 versions of civ4 again, and all updates. Takes a lot of time, and the alot of crashes (because civ is stupid with firewalls. If you connect to the internet with a firewall on it keeps trying forever to connect without ever giving control back to the user so you can allow civ internet access).

There must be an easier way?