Helpfull Hints

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Civ_4
Here is a save that I recently have played. I'm having a little of a hard time but not to much. This save is the only one I have played that is the closest to the beginning.

P.S. I've figured out some more good tricks and maybe I need alot more help on money on this save than I think.

A little hint - in the autosave folder there is a save of year 4000 - actually before the first settlement - it was that I asked for .

Looking at what you did post, I have a couple of comments.

You have way too few cities and they are too wide spread.

Your workers are improving tiles outside your cities - if that is for preparing env for new cities, it's good - if not - it's serious waste of labour.

You have build the Oracle and while it's nice to have, it can in no way be compared to the Pyramids. You might have discovered mysticism before masonry and may have started the oracle before, but when masonry is on you can freely switch to pyramids.

Well, I have messed around for a couple of rounds based on your save and I have squeezed in a couple of new cities. It's not as neat as it could have been since you already had build some. Though, it resembles much the pattern of cities I would have made. Don't worry much about cities sharing area - it doesn't matter a bit even after aquaduct. Squeezing your cities so thight gives you several things - research, unit support and faster environ development.

Edit : a small detail, you irrigated the wheat tile just outside Salamanca - don't do that in the early stages - shields are more important on a 2xfood tile.

[Civ_4]

When you build the Oracle, and it doubles the effects of Temples. Does that mean it doubles how much culture the wonder has??????????

[vmxa1]

It means it double the effect, that is the happiness. So instead of one citizen being made content, two will be content.

I do not build it, so I never tested it.

[Kloreep]

IIRC the culture doesn't double, just the happiness as vmxa says.

Not a wonder I really liked. It would be nice if it didn't expire so soon, but as it is I always preferred the luxury slider if it came down to that.

[Civ_4]

I found it helpful to irrigate at least 2 squares at the beginning and mine the rest for a while. For some reason it helps the city grow. I don't know how though.

Also get all of the huts you can in the beginning because It can give you a tech lead in the beginning but not always. It's good anyway because even if you don't get the extra techs, the extra gold can help support units, or get some higher ranking units or give your economy a slight boost to get it going.

[Kloreep]

Huts are good. Unless you get barbarians, of course. But it's generally worth the risk, though, as long as the hut isn't sitting right next to your undefended city.

Irrigation helps you grow since it adds an extra food to the tile. Just remember that if you irrigate a normal grassland under Despotism, it won't do anything until you get into another government. Despotism subtracts 1 from any resource (food, shields or commerce) that a tile would have 3 or more of. Grasslands give you 2 food, so adding irrigation takes it to 3, but then Despotism bumps it back down to 2 as if you'd never irrigated. So until you get out of Despotism it's best to just mine any grasslands you want to work (unless it has something like a wheat or cow on it that already adds food and thus lets you break through the Despotism barrier).

[Civ_4]

I found a good way to win over citys Cultural wise!

Settle your city in the middle of there citys or close to the middle and rush and/or build a temple/library fast.
It goes on very well. It is also a might be a fast way to do a Domination or one way. It's working good so far.

Also If your in a pickle and can't get a granary really fast and want to expand and can not get a settler out, try to irrigate one or two of the tiles, it works good to.

[vmxa1]

You are not going to be able to plant towns in the middle of an AI's land and rush a temple at any but the low levels Monarch or less, I would expect.

At DG or better you still would get flipped. Well that is if you did not get razed first. Flipping is not really a factor for the human.

You are not likely to get many at Emp or less and above that flipping will pretty much only be you getting flipped.

I prefer AW or Sid games and culture is something I won't have much off, and the AI will have it to burn. Most of my losses at Sid are due to not being able to get to within half the top dogs culture, before it get enough to win.

I have to be careful to not let the number two civ get eliminated before I can cover the double after they get to the level needed for the map size.

[Civ_4]

Anyone have any tips on any of the victory condiction that would help out.

[vmxa1]

Civ_4 can you restate what the game settings are and the conditions or better yet start a new thread. After a week or so, it is hard to recall what is going on.

[Civ_4]

Thanks for the post I will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[simspacey]

Also, on the higher levels, the folks are gonna start complaining about overcrowding and stuff even in smaller cities. Meaning you ll have to build more coloseums, not just temples, and also other stuff to deal with this!

Here is a great tip from me!

Know WHERE to build your cities! Dont settle (oh!) for the closest first tiles! Find a place with lots of hills for expansion to the mining industry! Also some cattle or whait is good for growth. Stay away from volcanoes as they eventually erupt and ruin surrounding tiles. Find rivers, or lakes. Sweetwater makes your city able to grow beyond 6 without the pricey aqueduct.

In general, try to stay away from jungles, deserts and too many sea tiles. Sea tiles are only good for gold really. No prod, low food.

If you also build lots of workers and get to monarchy/republic fast, you can benefit from irrigation and mining faster


Another tip! Know thy strengths. If i were to play with lets say the russians i would build a lot of libraies because they come at half price off. libraries are even cheaper than temples thus giving you a better way to expand cultural borders , giving the city 20 tiles avaiable instead of just 8 (this is why the temple of artemis is so great, not for cultural points or happyness really, in my opinion) Americans, industrious as they are should build lots of workers and benefit from that. And so on.

However, workers remain quite useless until getting rid of despotism.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by simspacey

However, workers remain quite useless until getting rid of despotism.

Yeah, workers are quite useless, they only makes your units move longer, let you have acces to luxuries and gives you gold, shields and food.

I think that even under despotism that is kind of a nice advantage

[vmxa1]

I gotta say workers are the key to the game. Every poster I have seen that is running into trouble can be traced to not having enough workers, soon enough.

[simspacey]

"Yeah, workers are quite useless, they only makes your units move longer, let you have acces to luxuries and gives you gold, shields and food.

I think that even under despotism that is kind of a nice advantage "

Oh do you ? i think having a lot of cities and settlers gives you kind of a nice advantage

Use the forests and grassland, some workers for roads...I prefer getting a lot of settlers out fast, to expand.


But the 2/2 grassland (mine on white stone) is good and cheap, ill admit. It doesnt cost as much as building mines on hills though... Infact, it costs half as many turns, menaing ONE worker can build a mine on grassland (giving two shields and two food) in the same time as TWO workers build a mine on the hills (giving only one food and two shields). Thats why i wait a while with building mines until i actually can use them. But sure, some workers are necessary for the roads.



As for the luxuries, you still need settlers to get the stuff within your borders unless building colonies (which is a waste of workers, but can be good if you need Iron fast).