Civ IV Tactics

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There's actually an article on the site that discusses a Musket rush strat. The idea is that with the wheel and either Agriculture or fishing, Gunpowder is 9 techs away from the start. Basically it goes Pottery, Writing, Math, Currency, Code of Laws, Civil Service, Paper, Education, Gunpowder.

They discussed this for France, the Ottoman Empire, and protective civs. They think it has merit because it does give access to Marketplaces, Libraries and Courthouses, and with the right great people, the techs you need can be lightbulbed along the way.

I tried it with Washington (Charismatic and Expansive). I had Greece declare war on me while researching Gunpowder, and while they pillaged my mines, I had to whip my cities down to squadouche to hold down the invasion waves, and eventually would have fallen.

This could work in a modified form, where you research Archery to defend cities and BW for axes and Spears. Deviations will be needed for worker techs like Animal Husbandry as well. Construction may not be too far off as well so Catapults can be used against stacks that move on cities...

 

I tried this strategy once, and ran into similar problems that you describe - specifically, you don't get any military units along the way. It can still work on lower difficulty levels where the AI isn't aggressive, but there's no way you can do this strategy on prince difficulty or higher without getting clobbered. At the very least, I would recommend getting both bronze working and archery for some offense and defense.

But even then this strategy has some flaws. In addition to not getting too many military units, your development is also seriously impaired. The only land improvements you get from that tech tree are roads, cottages. and the ability to either irrigate or make fishing boats. No mines, no pastures, no plantations, no development of jungle spaces at all, etc.

 

I downloaded four saves, identical maps but four different leaders, based on the ones that benefit most. The Ottomans (Janisaries), both French leaders (Musketeers) and Tokugawa (Agg and prot). The game was set to Monarch (three levels above what I'm playign now).

The first two attempts, I got hosed by barbarians too early, the third, I did get the Janisaries, but Stalin (Russian leader) had Riflemen...

I guess that won't work on higher levels...

 

This game is tough!

I've beaten it a couple times on Noble, but they were only time-victories.

Something which helps me quite a bit in this game is to---get this---stop playing! Seriously, the pace of the game can draw me into a non-thinking clicking routine which DOES NOT lead to victory. I need to step away sometimes...does me lots of good.

Edit...

Geography can have a HUGE impact. The last game I won, it was me (Roman) and the Germans on one continent, with the other five civ's on another! So I sacked the Germans and then rode things out till the end.

However, that game made it apparent that I am not developing my civ well, because I didn't have the techs necessary to build the space-ship...and I had everything going for me.

Great game!

 

If you weren't able to build any parts of the spaceship the only reasonable explanation for this would be you failed to build an Apollo Program. Some of the techs required for spaceship parts allow lots of other buildings/units as well, and should be priority items in late game research. Unless you mean there were some parts of the spaceship you couldn't build...

 

No, I could build the basic parts, just not the more complex ones. I even had some cities just producing research. It was on the normal game speed.

 

Normal game speed is way way too fast imo, I personally enjoy Marathan but not everyone might. Normal though must be too fastpaced for anyone isnt it? You can easily finish a normal game in a few hours.

 

That's why I prefer the TW series to be honest. Plus the fact battles consist of you clicking your unit, then clicking on their unit and waiting for the result. It can be a fun game though.

 

I play on Marathon because it lets you get the most out of your military. What good is beating everyone to Gunpowder only to have everyone else have it by the time you get your Muskets ready to fight?

 

I never played a game on 'Epic'. How much longer is it? Does it add turns, or just make everything take longer to build?

 

Both actually. The stuff takes longer and there are more turns. The numbers work out in a ratio, but if you are good with mircomanaging, you can speed up the research and production a touch. It's better for warmongering, where casualties are more costly and you get to leverage any tech advantage you gain for a longer period of time. Unique units become relevent for longer periods of time too.

 

It actually adds more turns to the game? You mean the time that elapses from one turn to the next is less? Like 20 instead of 40 years for example?

 

The difference between turns is less to fit more turns in the time frame of the game.

It triples the turns for Marathon IIRC...

 

OK - so I got both Civilisation IV and Neverwinter Nights 2 for Christmas and Civ IV won out for the first play.

So far, it looks pretty cool. My first newbie question is this:

What benefit do I get from 'founding' a religion? I have 'founded' Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. What do I do with this? I have the option of building temples in each religion. Plus, I keep getting messages saying things like "Judaism has spread in London" and I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

Otherwise, so much of it is familiar from the previous versions that I am having a ball (and having a hard time stopping and going to bed.....)

 

Seeing as Civ4 is a politically correct game it is in hte long run best to just cram as many religions as you can into your cities as they both allow you to build many culture and happiness generating buildings and in the late stages each religion supplies one happy face on its own.

The religion is tied to the civics and if you have a state religion make sure it spreads to all cities (by using missionaries you build in monastaries) and if you for instance the organised religion civic each city with your state religion will build buildings 25% faster. In the late game free religion is king and it is this civic that takes advantage of having many religions in each city.

As for founding a religion it means that you are the big boss man of said religion. When you get a great propher you can build a holy shrine which means that for every city in the world where for example hinduism has spread you get one gold piece. I also think there are diplomatic benefits of being the founder of a religion you have managed to get a neighbour to adapt. In short, founding religions is good, found as many as you can and then you can decide, roughly, what is to spread to the heathens. If you fail at founding it is better to adapt the religion of your neighbour than to go on without.

 

How do you know if you have a "state religion"? I seem to have 3 religions that are randomly appearing in my cities. Also, I seem to have ended up with some missionaries (I didn't build them). What should I do with them?

 

You choose a state religion, when the first religion appears in one of your cities you get the choice as to whether adapt it as state religion. After that you can change it it in the religion screen which you will find where you find civics and diplomacy. It is generally wise to adapt the first religion that spreads to one of your cities or that you found yourself. When your first city got a religion work hard to spread it in all your cities to get the benefits of for example organised religion civic and also the ability to build temples and monastaries.

You get a free missionary when you found a religion. Just send it to a nearby city.

 

So is it bad to have your cities having different religions (which mine do at the moment)?

 

The more religions in every city, the better - it increases your cultural output and by extension the happiness of your citizens. However, if you have a state religion, your people become unhappy when there isn't any presence of that religion in their city. In addition to a presence, the addition of buildings of those religions (temples, monasteries, and cathedrals) further increases that city's happiness.

 

I'm really confused now. A city can have more than one religion? What determines what religions show up in what cities?