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**yin26** · December 28, 2005, 01:42

Jeje:

Sorry to hear your impressions are so negative. I hope you will give the game a full try, perhaps once the first X-pack is out? There are indeed a lot of new things to learn, and I bet some great strat guides will be out later that will make sense of a lot of things.

Thanks for posting the review, though. I hope for (demand?) a follow up some months from now, however!

**Jeje2** · December 28, 2005, 06:02

Yin: Yes I do also belive this game could have more to give than I got.
But as stated - I didn't get any "just-one-more-turn" (That have had even in Civ3 a couple)

Question for you is that how do you recommend me to change the style. (I'm pretty stuck on my current one - makes fun short games in RoN)

And yes I'm already regretting that didn't try diplomacy to it's fullest. It woud have deserved a chance.

Couple more things to the like list:
* In diplomacy - things that not willing to trade on in red

* Unit hitpoint system - Now you just don't win anymoore - even in victory you can expect damages requiring many turns of healing

(Needed a pretty large army of "modern armors" + some medic units)
* UN resolution against nuces - this one just blew me on the head like a nuke. (Was building Manhattan wonder at the time)

**yin26** · December 28, 2005, 09:26

Jeje:

I'm finding that Civ 4 almost requires you to set a specific victory path (you can always change as needed, of course) in order to begin to enjoy the mechanics. For example, try a game in which your goal is to get an early religion (or 2 or 3!) and convert as many neighbors as possible. And/Or shoot for a cultural victory (though this might be bugged in the current patch, but expect it to be fixed). Another tip is to pay close attention to tile improvements, workers, etc., to try a mini-game of maximizing your productivity. You'll find that your cities really are better off becoming specialists.

And that's probably how I would describe Civ 4 at its best: Specialization. Go for a specific strategy that maximizes some of the new mechanics. Specilize your cities to make maximal use of their nearby terrain and resources. Specialize your units through promotions to execute the strategy you need.

I still think the end game needs more work with pacing, AI behavior (no real sense of World War, for example), but the early to middle game really is fun once you take the game off auto-pilot, pick a goal, study the most efficient way to get to it, and go! "Just one more turn" really does come back when you approach the game that way.

A better tutorial and manual could have made all this good stuff easier to appreciate for those of us with not a lot of time to discover everything on our own, but by the time an X-pack comes, there should be some great strategy guides and threads around to take care of that.

**MightyTiny** · January 5, 2006, 16:41

Re: Much ado about nothing

I think your judgement might have been a bit hasty - I recommend giving it another try after visiting the civfanatics forum (another good forum), and reading this EXCELLENT thread there: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135764

I think you'll find that thread very helpful in discovering how to enjoy the game.

Originally posted by Jeje2
2. the boooooooring automated game begins (Automate the workers after road between cities in games 2&3). Make sure no open boarders and just play from turn to turn – Enter most used (As wants to now when turn ends - And mostly just hit Enter after Enter – whit some new building instructions in between)

A MAJOR mistake. Automating your workers I mean. First, if you automate your workers (and I strongly recommend against it untill at least all the squares around most of your cities have been built on), make sure that you have the "workers not allowed to cut forrests" option checked. This is because if you don't have that cheked, you'll lose all your forests, and can't build woodmills when you get the tech for them. In addition, forests in your city squares reduce health problems in your city.

The main reason why automating your workers early on is a bad idea is that they build farm after farm after farm! Farms everywhere! You end up with too big, highly poluted cities, and very low commerce.

And commerce is what drives your research! More coins/money bags in city squares translate into faster reasearch.

Which of course means that you want to have a good number of cottages built - I typically would say that my farm/cottage ratio is about 20% / 80% - if you automate your workers you tend to get farms anywhere where a farm can be built, and cottages only on the remaining, non-hill, non-forest squares.

So keep manual control over the workers, it makes a HUGE difference. This is doubly so if you are playing a leader with the "Financial" trait... then it should be cottages all the way!

3. End game – take out a minor opponent (If want to) and rush for victory
With this strategy the game isn’t anything to mention. This play style is what I prefer, but unfortunately it’s just not working.

I recommend trying all sorts of different tactics - try, for example, starting a game with an early conquest in mind. After all, why build settlers, when you can let your neighbours build cities for you!

Or, try concentrating on religion - try to found many religions, build their shrines, spread your religon and see your gold coffers fill up!

Or, make a custom game, taking up the one-city challenge. This is in fact what I would strongly recommend you try, because I found it a great way to learn about the game, in addition to it being a great challenge. After all, since you are looking after only a single city, a fixation to expand fast to get a nice area for yourself will never get to surface. After all, in Civ4, fast expansion comes with a hefty price, and may not be worth it - and in fact isn't really necessary; focusing on a smaller number of cities in a smaller area is a completely viable strategy. Search the forums for tips for playing the one city challenge.

Try different maps - for example, I get the feeling you'd like the "Hub" map; you get your own "corner" in that every time.

Also try the marathon mode with a small map - that slows things down, so that your units aren't obsolete before they get to that enemy city; it actually makes very early wars feasible and fun.

Other dislikes
* If not at war – units move into same square. (Game 1.5 ended when this way AI built a city behind my outer city line – though had a unit guarding the only possible tile through which the AI then walked behind my lines…
* The AI’s constantly asking for open borders –trust me NO DEAL!!!

You seem too fixated on area - first of all, I recommend trying accepting those open borders, they open up opportunities for other useful trade and better relations with neighbours. Plus of course a chance to do reconoisance before you ambush your "friend"....

* Not using raging barbarians, but still they where very very frequent. (Game 2)
* Barbarians not against the AI, but only me.

I disliked this too in the first few games, but once you know that they will be coming, they actually encourage you to build up an army that will be sufficient to withstand attacks... very useful. In addition, they tend to build cities pretty near your towns (just follow the stream of barbarians if they seem to be comming from one direction very frequently, and you'll find a town for sure), which aren't too hard to capture, at which point you gain a city, and often one or two workers too!

And the barbarians ARE against AI too! They contend with similar problems. If you have open borders, and walk around their cities, you'll see barbarians charging in the same way they attack against you.

Verdict
(Everybody hum from the musical Chicago the song “Razzale Dazzle”

.....

MUCH too premature for a verdict, I suggest!

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