Civ4 is different

[kolpo]

Civ4 is different! That is my most important impression after playing on noble difficulty. I had near the end of the game the most cities(10+ on standard) and more then 1/3 of the world population. I also had the best score BUT I got horribly outteched by most empires, even the russian empire(only 4 cities and quite constantly in war) slightly outteched me. In civ3 would I had won that game hands down. The spanish beat me to a space race, while I even hadn't invented many parts of it. My size forced me to take state property and to focus on courthouses and money making improvements.

The spanish where both my biggest friends and biggest rivals. They where next to me and when they spread hindoism converted I to that religion. Thought the extra money I gave them this way(the spanish had the holy city) helped them win the game.

In the begining of the game did the mongols constantly bully me(I was not prepared for war then). I converted them to hindoism to stop this bullying. But by doing this singed I my own donwfall:
-I made the spanish even richer
-I gave them a military strong ally, meaning that if I would attack spain, I would most likely get the mongols against me. i knew I couldn't beat both at the same time.

In the middle of the game started the spanish to get a higher score then me, so I decided to build an army and invade germany(a mid sized empire with 6 cities). I took most of their cities(the greek took also 1 or 2). After the german war declared the Aztecs war on me(a big empire with outdated technology and a horribly outdated army), I quickly took some aztec cities and made peace again.

Suddenly saw I my empire heading to bankrupcy, I had to dramatacly lower my research(to 40%) and rush to the communism tech. While state property + courthouses allowed me to raise my research somewhat, couldn't I get it above 70-80%. From that moment started most empires to outtech me. I tried a UN victory then, but was not popular enough(even while most civilization where "pleased" with me), shortly after that lost I the space race.

Things I should have done differently:
-I shouldn't have taken hindoiusm as my religion, the extra money helped spain too much.
-I had won every war I fought, so maybe should I have attacked spain and brided the mongols to my side. Thought I am not sure whatever this would have given me victory or total defeat The spanish had a much better army, then the other empires I fought against.
-I shouldn't have taken the aztec cities, I should have just defended against them instead of expanding so much.

[Sartaq]

That's an interesting observation about giving heaps of gold to the other civs by taking their religion.
In my second game I expanded too fast and also experianced a struggle with finances at a critical time when I needed gold.
While CivIV does support less cities holding more space it's a balancing act for sure.

[kolpo]

Originally posted by Sartaq
That's an interesting observation about giving heaps of gold to the other civs by taking their religion.
In my second game I expanded too fast and also experianced a struggle with finances at a critical time when I needed gold.
While CivIV does support less cities holding more space it's a balancing act for sure.

Yes the gold from a holy city can really help, it can be that little extra gold you need to run at 100% with a little surplus. That surplus can then be used to upgrade a part of your army with gold so you don't need to rebuild the units.

In my second game went I with a spiritual civilization(India and again noble difficulty). I aggresively spread hinduism(I had holy city and holy building in it). I also tried to get as many other religions as possible(to reduce the number of civilizations with other religions). This time did I kept my empire smaller and focused on research. I won with a space victory

I got again in war with the Aztecs, even thought they had the same religion as me. The Aztects seems to be a very aggresive civilization who love backstabbing. After I took a few cities from them, understood they the importance of peace

[Mace]

I had a game where I had TWO holy cities (Judaism and Hinduism) and yet, because I was foolish and did not do much active missionary work, I had money problems and relation problems. By the mid and late game, NONE of the AI civs had Judaism or Hinduism adopted.

So is it safe to say, I had a goldmine there and did not know it?

[kolpo]

Originally posted by Mace
I had a game where I had TWO holy cities (Judaism and Hinduism) and yet, because I was foolish and did not do much active missionary work, I had money problems and relation problems. By the mid and late game, NONE of the AI civs had Judaism or Hinduism adopted.

So is it safe to say, I had a goldmine there and did not know it?

Yes and the trick for conversion is: do it early before a civilization has any state religion. Then is one missionary often enough to let a civilization take your religion as state religion. If you want to be on the safe side(so they don't flip to another religion later) convert then 2 cities.

remember that the "organized religion" civic allows you to build missionaries without monastries, allowing you to build them early

Later when your civilization stabilizes somewhat(after the early expansion fase), can you build more missionaries to convert all their cities At the same time should you make sure you get a great prophet(either with some priest specialists or some wonders who give great prophet points) so you can build the holy building in the holy city and get some extra coin

[Mace]

I think part of the problem with my game was, that, even tho I had 2 holy cities, I had only one other AI on my continent. Therefore, I could not go and convert the distant AI civs until Caravels, at the earliest...and that was too late.