Tips for a beginner? Yes, seriously...

[Elok]

I had a crummy computer in 2005 and only just now got around to upgrading it. I just got Civ4 Complete as well (I had played 2 for a long time, disliked 3, have no interest in 5). The sheer array of new features is still sort of blowing me away here.

I played a number of games that just went to crap real early because I'm so used to playing 2; it takes so much longer to build things in this game, I kept overestimating the impact of maintenance costs, and in one case I simply got stuck with a wretched starting position. I'm playing "settler" difficulty with mostly standard settings, except I turned off culture flipping and victory conditions other than conquest and domination. I never cared to win with spaceships.

So now I've got a pretty decent game going as the Turks, of all people--Mehmet II, or however they spell his name in this game. Ironic, since I'm Orthodox Christian, but whatever. I liked the combination of expansionist and organized. More cities means more options. Doing all right for a guy who hardly knows what he's doing. I have a couple of wonders and I wiped out the Carthaginians, now I just need ships to get off the continent we were both on.

Any general advice for what habits from 2 I need to unlearn for 4?

[wodan11]

Yeah... don't city spam. (REX). My rule of thumb is not to go over 6 cities before I have Currency and Code of Laws (Courthouses). Even after that, you have to keep an eye on city maintenance.

Also, if you have cities on other continents, there's a colony maintenance cost that can be a killer. The idea is that if you have 2 or more on some other continent, you should consider making a vassal/colony out of them. At minimum, put your Forbidden Palace over there.

[Krill]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=314007

[wodan11]

Krill and Dave McW, twins separated at birth.

[anhalibut]

Check out Vel's Strategy threads.
here's a link to one of them.
there's also a file to download, but the download wasn't working for me.

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/151801-Vel-s-Strategy-Thread-Volume-III

Edit - Here's his first strategy thread

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/142027-Vel-s-Strategy-Thread

[Elok]

Thanks! It's a lot to read...conquest seems to be a lot more difficult than in Civ2. Perhaps it's just that "cultural defense" thing, but technologically superior units don't smash through archers and such like they used to. It's kind of annoying how my Janissaries keep getting killed by axemen, actually. Is there an algorithms guide out there somewhere that will tell me, for example, just how many units I can actually support under X conditions?

[anhalibut]

I don't know about an algorithm guide, but one thing to make warfare go a little smoothly is to build lots of catapult/trebuchet/cannon.
Treat them as disposable and use them to wear down the enemy troops and cities. If you have a steady supply of replacement bombardment units then you won't lose many melee/archer/cavalry.
Also, conquering too many cities in one war can really tank your economy, so you may want to consider fighting shorter, limited wars.
You can really set the AI back just by pillaging improvements.
But it's probably better to read the guides than listen to me too much. I'm far from being an expert.

[Sirotnikov]

I'm actually in the same position
finishing up my first game of Civ IV
learnt as I went. haven't seen culture flipping.
the game is very enjoyable but war is tedious

[Sirotnikov]

Turns out I should have been running the BTS exe, not the regular one.

BTS is different. Amazing, but much harder. Other Civs are very mean to me, and are better in most parameters. And that's on freaking Noble. Must train well.

[wodan11]

Yes, there's no reason to run the normal or the Warlords EXE (but you probably had both installed, along with the BtS). Run BtS always.

Your 1st game on the normal (vanilla) Civ4 wasn't wasted. As you noted, it introduced you to the basic environment without the extra mechanics to overcomplicate things.

[Elok]

Note that you can turn off culture flipping, under "custom game rules" or some such. If it weren't possible to turn that off, I don't think I'd have bought the game.

[Sirotnikov]

i'm considering another run at a vanilla game in harder difficulty to get used to building up fast and learn the tech tree.

i played very little civ III

[Hauptman]

Just delve right into BTS. It's better in so many ways. No point toying with the older versions.

All these strategy guides are helpful, but will be wasted if you read first then play. Play a few games, look over every screen, then once you have a grasp of it, then read up to hone your skills.

[Sirotnikov]

from the (limited) games I played, there's a different level of depth.
BTS certainly feels much more complex..

played vanilla civ 4 again, this time slightly higher level.
it wasn't much of a challenge, but i decided to try the modern game warfare.
against the weaker AIs it was cool, especially if i had a slight tech lead.

against an advanced and powerful AI i got my ass kicked. my huge stacks got pounded, and I'm clearly doing something wrong with arty's and gunships.

[Sirotnikov]

Check out Vel's Strategy threads.
here's a link to one of them.
there's also a file to download, but the download wasn't working for me.

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/151801-Vel-s-Strategy-Thread-Volume-III

FIXED

here's the download
vel_s_strategy_c4.doc