Helpfull Hints

[Civ_4]

Does the Luxury slider just increase happyness or does it do something other than that?

[Aabraxan]

Just increases happiness. Preventing civil disorder is very handy, though.

[Civ_4]

I think one of my favorite terrin tiles is either the desert or the plains because I seem to get better city research in the beginning of the game to build a worker or millitary units.

I also found out a good way to loads of money so you can trade. The trick is:

When you have more than two citys have as many as you need to to have wealth in order to have a plus one or so number on getting gold so you can build up one city than a little later have that city build wealth and the other city improved. It worker rather well but the only down fall is some of your other citys that are building wealth are not to good a researching than others.

So all in make it to were your expences do not out way your money.

[vmxa1]

Being on wealth with a 2 town civ is not a good plan. You need to be growing. In pop, towns and power. It may be ok for a turn or two to match the growth for a worker, but that is all.

The way to gain wealth is the hard way. You grow in size and have roads on all worked tiles. Trading is what you do when it makes sense.

That is not always going to be the case, but it is a nice adjunct.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Civ_4
I also found out a good way to loads of money so you can trade. The trick is:

When you have more than two citys have as many as you need to to have wealth in order to have a plus one or so number on getting gold so you can build up one city than a little later have that city build wealth and the other city improved. It worker rather well but the only down fall is some of your other citys that are building wealth are not to good a researching than others.

So all in make it to were your expences do not out way your money.

Rather than building wealth and buying stuff, make your empire grow and sell stuff to the AI where possible.

[Civ_4]

The good thing is about this strategy is that in general I end up having built too much and end up having a minus two or so gold. So this way I can get some money and have my reasearch so high that I get throught the tech tree faster so I can either do a diplomatic or spaceship victory.

Then once I have alot of gold I can quite making wealth and produce something. I may use some sort of strategy like this by building units instead of wealth but I don't know.

Also when ever I build my first city of a Desert, Food Plain or a regular Plain I seem to get better production in that city to build settlers, warriros etc. Or maybe it is that on my current game I have good tiles.

If so I like this Tiles

[vmxa1]

First understand that what you are reporting is a false picture. You just do not realize it. If you were to do as you say and I was to do it a different way, you would soon be very far behind me in all aspects.

You just cannot prosper as well sitting on wealth in the AA.

That you may end up building more that you can support, is not a reflection on the strategy of not being on wealth. It is a reflection of the over all strategy.

It is hard to say if you are even building "too much" or just not managing you resources as well as you could. More workers in the ealry stage would do a great deal.

More troops that you used to exppand your holdings would help as well.

Not building defenders or at least only what is truely need, would help. Not making structures that are not cost effecive would help.

That means delay that temple or skip it. Skip that cath and do not make a coloseum.

Get all tiles improved that are being work as soon as they are being worked.

These are the ways to prosper, not going on wealth.

As to desert tiles, they are just not a good thing to have in core cities, even if you are an AG civ. Fine in non core towns.

Flood Plains are very good for growth, but suck for production. If you have a couple that is one thing, but if you 4 or more that town will be hard pressed to build units or structures before RP.

We played a game as Egypt a few months back on a 250x250 map with 31 civs as AWE. Having so many flood plains and deserts make the game very hard for us.

It took much longer that it should have to get the upper hand and we had several tough turns. All of this was due to the lack of shields.

Of course Egypt is not a great civ for an AWE game with so many civs to deal with either.

[Civ_4]

Thanks for the post.

I'm a beginner so I don't understand everything.
My self I'm just exparimenting with the game and the eras so I don't have a all out stragety for now but I will get one.

[Aabraxan]

In addition to vmxa1's comments, a couple of comments:

First, what difficulty are we talking about? I'm going to assume Chieftain or Warlord, but it would be helpful to know.

Getting towns on the ground is of critical importance in the early game. The exchange rate for shields to gold in the AA is 8 shields to 1 gold, if I remember correctly. (It's dependent on a technology and I can't remember which one, but it's not an AA tech, I don't think). A town producing 8 shields can make a settler in 4 turns and it won't take very long for the new town to make up for any gold foregone during the 4 turns of building the settler.

You said you end up building too much and have a minus or two of gold. Too much of what? My hunch would be that you're building too many buildings. Try spending the AA focusing solely on expansion. Do not build any wonders whatsoever. (If you want an AA wonder, you'll have to go take it). Build a few barracks, but only in cities that will be your military production centers. Then build nothing but settlers, workers and military units. Expand as fast as you can until you run out of room. Then go conquer an enemy and expand some more.

Look at your F3 screen. That will tell you how many units you can support and how many you have. The number you can support is dictated by your government and the number of cities, towns, and metros that you've got. More towns = more unit support.

Build roads, roads and more roads. When that's done, build some roads. Make sure your citizens are working tiles that have roads.

[Civ_4]

We are taking about Chieftain the lowest and eastest setting in the game.

I've been thinking about trying a hight level of Difficulty but I have not tryed it Yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aabraxan]

Quit playing Chieftain. The AI is utterly handicapped at that level & it's to such a degree as to distort the game. Go ahead and kick it up at least to Warlord. At that level, the AI still gets a production penalty, but it's not as extreme as Chieftain. At Regent, neither the human nor the AI get production penalties.

[Civ_4]

Cool nice Reply. I may just go to warlord or Regant

[Civ_4]

Aabraxan
At Regent, neither the human nor the AI get production penalties.

So do you mean that in Chiefain and Warlord the player gets production penalties or not.

[Aabraxan]

At Chieftain and Warlord, the AI gets production penalties. At Regent, neither the human nor the AI does. Above Regent, the AI gets production bonuses.

[Civ_4]

Thank You that clears it up!!!!!!!!!