Civilization IV

[screwtype]

Thanks for the heads up Froggie. I d'led the patch and tried the game again on Marathon. It does seem to be faster and smoother, but I still got bored after a few hours. I mean, for the first thousand years or so there is nothing to do in this game but click on the end turn button!

[el_slapper]

Don't click, press the enter key, it goes MUUUUUUUUUCH faster.

Other than that, the game was rather unplayable before 1.52. Now it rolls - but I fear I'm not very good.

[SwordsMaster]

Just played my first game by redoing the Russians into the Galactic Empire (couldn't resist) and I like it a lot. The only thing that seems to be a bit over the top is the difficulty of taking cities, specially considering that the AI tends to guard them with 7-8 units... I probably wasted around 2 dozen units to capture one city, specially if the AI has a chance to reinforce it....

[Sigurd]

I love the music in the game... I can let it run in the main menu and just crank the volume... ahh the bliss!!

[econ21]

The opening music is bliss, especially when you realise the words are the Lord's Prayer in Swahili and not some meaningless Lion-King rip-off as I first feared.

Swordsmaster, you probably know this but the key to taking a city is artillery-type units. First bombard the city to get the defenses to zero. Then throw 3-4 artillery units at it in suicide attacks to cause collateral damage on a bunch of the defenders. Then hit the town with your best assault troops. Other things being equal, you may lose 2-3 artillery doing so but you should not lose dozens. Choosing your promotions wisely will help (city raider is a no-brainer, but note the trick of upgrading pre-gunpowder units with it, as any newly recruited gunpowder units are ineligible for the promotion; I used to get collateral damage for my artillery but am now wondering about city raider to allow them to actually win).

Sieges can be tricky in the late period, when railways allow easy reinforcement and counter-attacks. That is a good feature, as it makes isolating a city crucial (think Leningrad).

[Monarch]

I just managed to get Civ IV working (needed the patch) and quickly gave the tutorial game a go.

There are a few questions I have, being new to the world of Civilization.

How many cities are reccomended before you reach AD?

How spread out should the cities be?

How many farms, cottages etc should be built around a city?

Also all other tips are welcome.

[player1]

How many cities are reccomended before you reach AD?

When you maintaince starts to drop so that you are forced to have less then 50-60% on science then stop.
Larger expansion would hurt you economicaly

How spread out should the cities be?

4 tiles should be fine. Sometime closer sometime father.
important thing is too place cities near some of the bonus resources since they can give big boost to food commerce or production, after approprice tile improvement is built.

How many farms, cottages etc should be built around a city?

The key is too improve all tiles that your city population is working on (white circles). Don't improve unworked tiles of one city, if other city has worked tiles without improvement. Use your workers efficiently.

Also all other tips are welcome.

Try apolyton.net and civfanatics.com forums.

[econ21]

How many cities are reccomended before you reach AD?

On huge maps, I tend to build around 6 quickly and then have to slow down as I run into money and/or space problems. I would aim for 12 plus for your steady state, as you need that for some national wonders (Oxford University). You may find you get attacked and can double your kingdom through conquest, but for me that tends to happen well after AD (as England, it tends to be when I get redcoats!). As player1 says, quality is more important than quantity though - a nice mix of land types, ie at least two of the three essentials (food, production and commerce), and some specials is important if the city is to really thrive.

How spread out should the cities be?

I dislike overlapping tiles, so I think that implies 4 squares apart or more. More is ok if the intervening land is poor, as your culture will tend to absorb the gaps but you just can't work them (you can get the resources though).

How many farms, cottages etc should be built around a city?

Every worked tile should have an improvement. Some folk say cottages and watermills are the best (with mines on hills), but I often build farms to keep my cities growing.

Also all other tips are welcome.

I reload the starting game a lot to get a position I like - I don't like being stuck in jungles or tundra.

Go for bronzeworking as your first tech and a worker as your first build, then chop forests to give an early game edge while building settler/warrior/worker alternately.

Try to found and spread religions for money - Judaism usually is attainable for me.

Try to keep a tech lead - heading for alphabet and then tech trading whenever you get a discovery will help. Check the diplomacy screen and its tech tab to keep an eye on what other factions know and will trade.

Keep a strong military - the AI will.

Understand how great people are generated - often you'll get the majority from a single "great person city" that has most of your wonders and specialists. By choosing the type of the specialists in that city you can effectively choose what kind of great people you get - e.g. scientists for academies, prophets for holy cities, engineers for rushing wonders.

Enjoy - it's a fun and challenging game.