>>1823752
no.
/thread

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>>1824277
>/threading yourself

>>1823752
https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/

Cottages are essential for building wide. Slavery is based. Capturing cities requires using siege units as expendable first-line assault troops. When winning a war, take the AI as a vassal before they pledge fealty to another AI.

Use slavery and whip early production

>>1823752
>using siege units as expendable first-line assault troops
Note that in Beyond the Sword cavalry units now do collateral vs catapults, so if you encounter a huge stack with catapults or trebuchets in it sieging your city, use some sort of horse units to attack the stack and kill enemy siege units before they dismantle your defenses.

Should I micro my workers?

Combat is like a more complex rock paper scissors, every unit is strong to and weak against another unit. Cavalry beats siege, spears beat cavalry, axemen beat spears, crossbows beat axemen, etc.

There are two kinds of war: territory and pillaging. In a pillaging war, you use multiple small stacks of a horse unit, a melee unit, and optionally some others like spears or anti-air. You have them move around the opponent's area destroying their tile improvements and getting money for it.

Spies let you fuck up your opponents without declaring war.

Don't ignore diplomacy, a pissed-off AI will attack you. On the other hand, some AI characters will attack you even if you have good relations with them.

At the start of the game, decide which early wonder benefits you the most, like the Oracle, Great Lighthouse, Pyramids, etc., and chop down your forests to get it. You can also pre-chop; that is, have workers chop until the forest is one turn away from being removed, then cancel the order. The forest will continue to be only one turn away from being chopped, letting you save their production in advance.

>>1824856
Yes.

>>1823752
i dont remember the exact strat, but you can time your wonders and tech bulbs to rush China crossbowmen, they do splash damage and can absolutely wreck cities or stacked groups like a siege unit

>>1824340
>When winning a war, take the AI as a vassal before they pledge fealty to another AI.
fuck that conquer both

>>1825000
>i dont remember the exact strat
oracle metal casting, basic shit. using a gs/ge beyond that is just being a wanker.

My personal flaw is that I hyperfocus on building everything everywhere and leaving no research unresearched

>>1825071
Mine is to conquer everyone and raze all cities with non-state religions.

>>1824856
Yes, managing your workers turns is important on the higher difficulties.

>>1824340
>Capturing cities requires using siege units as expendable first-line assault troops
Normally yes, but if you do have the option of beelining the research of certain units that the enemy defense just can't deal with.

>>1823752
Crack the whip
Try to have useful tiles in your cities' first ring even if it means that they have less nicer tiles at size 20.
Food is king (see crack the whip)

How relevant are religion, corporations and espionage?

there are mod specifically for the map generation? I find that it's not so good, few rivers, luxury resources spam or none, weird 1 tile forever long islands...

>>1826654
Religion is good. It'll help you with happiness and will give you other perks with the right civics.
Espionage is a mixed bag, it can be helpful, but you can live without it.
Corporations are the worst of the three, mainly because they appear so late into the game and they tend to have maintenance costs

>>1826852
Plus state property is so ridiculously good.

>>1823752
The fun is learning it on your own. It's a simple game

>>1823752
I have been playing this pretty much since i came out of the womb and still don't 100% get it. Probably because im just too retarded but still.

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>>1826806
all handled by the mapscript, just download some

>weird 1 tile forever long islands
m8

>>1826852
sushi lol

What's the most balanced map? I like pangaea solid.

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Thoughts on Realism Invictus?

>>1832326
overbloated but it's a better option if you want to play civ 4 as a somewhat historically authentic gsg
playing civ 4 on immortal is just way better in terms of gameplay
RI is also set to marathon speed by default, and you'll find yourself burning away 30+ turna trying ti build a single early game building
that's just bad from a gameplay perspective

>>1826806
advanced civ has a nice version of perfect mongoose which you could probably use in vanilla BTS

>>1823752
I've been trying to enjoy this game but it just feels like absolute shit.
Nothing makes sense, nothing is explained, the micro is all ridiculous, tech is retarded, AI literally cheat (how do they all have fucking scouts on turn 3? WHAT?
Barbarians pump out axemen before I get any iron
Playing with american leaders has zero culture so early expansion is like impossible, you need to build fucking monuments to have ANY city growth whatsoever while other leaders just grow every city from the start for free

Civ IV sucks.

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>>1833152
>Nothing makes sense, nothing is explained,
There is a tutorial scenario in vanilla Civ 4.
>the micro is all ridiculous,
What do you mean?
>tech is retarded
Namely?
>AI literally cheat
On higher difficulties, yes.
>(how do they all have fucking scouts on turn 3? WHAT?
On higher difficulties AI has extra starting units and extra starting techs.
>Barbarians pump out axemen before I get any iron
First of all, axemen get available way earlier with copper. Second, axemen are hard countered by chariots which are fast, get available from early economic techs (wheel + animal husbandry if you have access to horses), and generally are great at clearing barbs.
>Playing with american leaders has zero culture
There is only 8 creative leaders in the game out of total 54 who get free border expansion without extra culture.
>you need to build fucking monuments to have ANY city growth
Not true at all. Growth is depended solely on the food your city can collect. If you got good food yield in your first city ring, you don't need border expansion.

Plan your settling path around free culture your get from the palace in the capital and choosing best locations you can get without waiting for border expansion. It doesn't mean you shouldn't take into account second ring resources but you need to set your priorities based on your civ bonuses/leader traits and terrain.

It's the same thing as if you started in the tropical area and instead of expanding towards plains/grassland, you settled right into the jungle way before you get iron working to clear the jungle.

>>1833181
>*10 out of total 54

>>1833152
have you considered the fact that you're dumb and bad and that there are many players routinely winning immortal and deity so it's a "you" problem?
unironically git gud or give up like a bitch
civ 4 isn't for the faint of heart

How is Dawn of Civilizations these days?

>>1833152
i wish we went back in time when internet was for nerds and wasnt full of low iq niggers, atleast should gatekeep it enough that people with mental capacity of a pigeon wouldnt proudly announce their shitty opinion to the world like it has any weight.

>>1833497
the internet was already full of normies in the late 90s, they just tended to congregate in places like geocities and AIM chat

>>1833181
>Not true at all.
I meant city territory, you can never upgrade from a 3x3 box without a monument (or library, or other culture building) and building culture as your production is something you can only do so late in the game after learning drama or music whatever it is.
>There is a tutorial scenario in vanilla Civ 4.
I actually looked for it and didn't find it.
Does it even cover everything? I got this to play with a friend and was told to just do BTS. Was years ago, had some things explained but forgot some. Re-learning is like impossible w/o wiki.

>>1833497
Except I'm not some low iq tard, this game is just legitimately dumb and requires tons of knowledge you can't efficiently get from playing.
Like the city screen shows a bunch of tiles to work, but you can't work the corners. Why? Where is that explained?

How am I to know what's better for promotions? Archers. +20, then +25 city defense? Or the first strikes?
Doesn't help the wiki for this game sucks.
Everything I look up some guy is on reddit trying to build a 500 page PDF guide and that's a god damn meme. I respect his effort and have used his thing but I am tired of trying to seek out information.
This is a game.
Tooltips should inform the player enough.

For tech trading sometimes civs offer a ~200research tech for a 1500 tech you have.
You can mouse-over and see the research costs.
Why are they not already presented in the trade screen to allow for easily knowing the value? Why is mousing over also lagged behind a ~1-2s tooltip pop-up delay timer? It's not even instant.

Why are there no patrol options?
If I have some scouts around my base trying to do what I'd consider barbarian busting (even though i have no idea how they fucking spawn because they'll spawn in ONE dark square on the edge of a map in a fucking corner if it isn't lit. I know I can queue up unit movement but that's not the same. Patrol paths should be part of the game so units can auto move in sentry mode from tile A to tile B.

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>>1833525
>>There is a tutorial scenario in vanilla Civ 4.
>I actually looked for it and didn't find it.
kek what the fuck am I reading

>>1833529
also that game has a 115 pages long manual in the main folder

>>1833525
install the bugmod everyone who plays civ4 nowadays uses it, it massively improves UI and even includes beginner tutorials and guides in the civipedia https://civ4bug.sourceforge.net/BUGMod.html

>>1833564
I don't play with this. Simply don't need it. It was made for zoomers who were getting filtered when trying to get into the game.

>>1833604

nobody cares about your mental illness you pretentious faggot

>>1832326
The classical era should be somewhat longer. That and make all scientists great works boosts current era only, bonuses can remain.
>>1833439
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/plans-for-doc-1-18.680067/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/large-map-and-new-civilizations-are-now-playable.689915/
Adding the new map and introducing new civilizations.

>>1823752
Found cities fucking everywhere.

Automate everything, don't listen to those civ 5 and 6 bitches with their neutered automation and insane amount of micro.

Fight well into the year 2100+, desertification will have taken over the planet and cities will be starving all over. Rename your capital "The Citadel". Bring everyone else to heel. Rule like Immortan Joe.

Any less is intense faggotry completely unbecoming of civ 4.

>>1833525
>How am I to know what's better
maybe start off at noble and play the fucking game, you absolute midwit?
you want knowledge spoonfed to you that is a result of experience. In terms of numbers and values, the game presents everything to you very clearly and cohesively

>game difficulty is solely expressed through handicaps for you and free resources for your enemies.

Is there an A.I. overhaul mod or something?

>>1833679
you were whining about no tutorial not so long ago, i doubt you even can beat AI on difficulty levels where YOU get bonuses.

>>1833529
Lol guess there is one, I don't know why I missed it.
For what it covers, it seems fine, but it only covers a drop in the bucket.

Things left unanswered are things like trade routes with forgien cities, navies, foreign relations(other than lol don't say head would look good on a stick when you meet ghandi) and things like hills providing more view distance vs plains, how diagonal crossing between "impassible" moujntains is somehow a thing you only learn through low IQ trial and error.. and the list goes on, including "Do enemy units get to use your roads?" and other simple shit that's key to success.
Answer to roads is no, they only benefit the civ owner, outside niche cases like commando promoted enemy units (which SHOULD be talked about, but isn't)

basically the tutorial exists but isn't good enough
I'm stupid for not seeing it existed but it's even stupider how it's so basic and the rest is not explained at all
and not having basic patrol functions that are present in even RTS games is pathetic

>>1833774
Read the manuals lil zoomie. Back when developers still gave a shit they made nice manuals that covered the sorts of topics you're asking about. People had the attention spans back then to read through them before playing a new game, or at least reference them when the need arose. For everyone else, they learned by playing.

>>1833794
Imagine shaka declaring war on you despite good relations and not knowing whether or not he can invade and move 2-3 tiles per turn with 1movement units
I mean that's something that the tutorial should cover
also BTS should not hide the tutorial most people literally say "just install BTS" online and say base game offers nothing.

Nothing really makes it clear that roads surpass hill movement penalties either which is a sign of oversight if not bad explanation.
I just wanna play the game, not do a deep dive into autistic shit that's obfuscated behind shit you can't really try during normal gameplay. These issues aren't like "how high can I jump? hit the spacebar" in an MMO or FPS game, the feedback loop on trial and error self testing in CIV is insanely long and that's the problem

>>1833812
>I just wanna play the game, not do a deep dive into autistic shit that's obfuscated behind shit you can't really try during normal gameplay.
You're the exact audience that nu-Civ is made for. Don't play older games, especially older strategy games, if you refuse to move away from this mindset.

>>1833816
I had my capital city razed by an axeman when ONE square in the corner of the map was explored, found empty, then left dark with a scout watching everything but that square.
It spawned in the square and made a b-line to my city that was not defended from that and was at war with other nations and eyeing up their offenses.

They don't even explain that barbarians can spawn advanced units with no city or applicable resource.
I accept that I suck at civ but to act like it is good game design is just hilarious.
It's very flawed and senseless.

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>Shaka filtering retards even after all those years
proof civ4 is truly the best civ

Shaka is my BVLL

>>1833820
>>1833812
>>1833774
>>1833525
>>1833152
I've been using this site for a decade now and you are, by far, the dumbest poster I ever encountered. Congratulations.
Or you're 10 years old, in that case you should be banned.

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>Play 4 after 5 and 6
>Literally unable to play 1UPT anymore and can't enjoy them

>>1834157
>"Boss, we're having a lot of trouble balancing doomstacks"
>"Just remove stacking as a mechanic lmao"

>>1823752
Why are you lying online, anon? Would it physically hurt you to say "I'm new as all fuck to this game, send help"?
This dishonestly is pretty much why all I have to say is "Fuck you, but have a nice day"

>>1834260
The actual joke is that they introduced in 4 perfectly fine anti-stacking mechanics... but Jon was too fucking stupid to handle them and wanted "muh tactical combat" anyway, so he killed Civ forever just to satisfy his bullshit idea of putting hexgrid combat into the game.

>>1834263
is it so unthinkable that I played vanilla civ 4 as a kid messing around in chieftain difficulty spamming a single mega city with every singe wonder, and as such I lack a deep understanding of the game and its expansions decades later?

Nah, fuck you nigger, I'm going to dig out my game box just to shut your mouth

>>1834265
Alpha Centauri solved doom stacking in 99 with collateral damage mechanic.

>>1834266
Lol this is kinda me. I've played civ 2 through 5 and a bit of 6. Call to power 2. Played Alpha Centauri. Still no fucking idea about a bunch of the concept's in these games because I don't give a shit. It's a map painter and diplo sim to me. That's my fun. Automate away the gay.

>>1834266
Yes, on the basic principle that the expansions don't change the gameplay in any truly impactful way, especially for someone claiming he doesn't remember much. On top of that there is the fact that if you played any square-based Civ and Civ-adjacent game, you pretty much know all there is to know when it comes to basic gameplay loop and at best need advanced guide to step up your shit.
But you didn't ask for step-up guide, you made dishonest thread claiming utter bull for sympathy, because you are a spineless cunt. And as such, you deserve being shit on.

>>1834273
... and IV put that into Civ, so your point is... ?
Genuine question, rather than sarcastic jab

>>1834277
Different anon, but agree. But to play devil's advocate in the same time, you don't actually automate in SMAC. That's because automated formers are simply retarded. Instead, you follow "automated" guidance of "plant forest on every single fucking tile below 2k above ground, farms+solars on tiles above". You unfortunately can't automate it into the game, but it's a brainless elevation check to know what to build on a specific tile.

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my brothers in christ, let's disregard resident 'tards and discuss some immortal/deity strategy
how the hell do you deal with "impossible" starts?
Like, I had a random fractal immortal game where I spawned as monty, semi-isolated on a small ass continent with Genghis. no marble/stone, no copper and there was a single iron near the bottom with no food resources nearby. Not a single floodplain, one tundra silver, no gold, not a single calendar source
like legitimately god awful start
I'm really convinced that some fractal starts are outright impossible to deal with and I say this as someone who beats immortal at least 75% of the time
no way you could pull off a horse archer rush with this god-awful economy. the only thing this start has is an abundance of food you can't efficiently manage due to lack of happiness resources
GL is a meme because coastal cities suck ass in this setup. I did get like 100 gold from fail building stonehenge for early teching, because I could grow easily and work many tiles
but I write this shit off as a loss

>>1834317
>how the hell do you deal with "impossible" starts?
You re-start
>Rest of the post
Ain't reading that

Lain Civ 4 Deity on YT played challenge maps picked by viewers in old civfanataics thread, won plenty of horrible starts.

>>1834293
Oh I was unaware it was the same mechanic in Alpha Centauri vs Civ IV. I have no point in that case.

>>1834297
Retarded or not it beats building farms/solar over and over again, especially if you're not really into that part of the game and are more of a conqueror.

>>1834317
i guess try to get to catapults even if it means settling a crap city for the iron to get some decent units
maybe share the eastern corn for some city to cottage those grasslands. not great but something

but i am only a semi-competent emperor player probably should try to move up to immortal

I think my biggest hurdle is how to prioritize tech research.

>>1835012
It's a pretty big thing especially early on to be fair.

>>1835012
The key techs in the early game are pottery (for granary, THE most important building in the game) and bronze working (for slavery and chopping, which are both a source of free production). But first, get the techs that let you start improving tiles. For example, if you have a source of pigs, you want to quickly get animal husbandry so that your worker will have something to do as soon as its built. After that, it kinda depends on your difficulty level. For mid difficulty levels, it's good to get monarchy pretty early for hereditary rule, which gives you a source of happiness by building cheap warriors (don't just build warriors though, make sure you start building stronger units once happiness isn't an issue anymore). Alphabet is another important tech, but mostly on higher difficulty levels. Currency is important, so is civil service. After those, there's a meta that practically all players use and it's getting liberalism for the free tech, and using it to unlock nationalism. From nationalism, you can do the famous cuirassier rush by quickly unlocking military tradition and gunpowder. HOWEVER, I'd advise against it until you're very experienced because it's easy to do it wrong. It's not some kind of instant win button (at least, not until you git gud), so skip it for now. Instead go for steel for cannons and start invading with a big stack of units that you've been constantly building (never stop building units) and then rifling for riflemen and go nuts drafting riflemen with the nationhood civic and mop up the rest of the map. The techs after that are up to you DESU.

>>1833679
K-mod or Advanced Civ are purely AI mods with some minor balance tweaks; either will knock you down a difficulty level or two so pick your poison. K-mod is very heavy on the
warmongering making pretty much every game cutthroat and intense, while Advanced Civ has more well-rounded AI in other areas besides war.

>>1838298
>if you have a source of pigs, you want to quickly get animal husbandry
wrong right from the get go, didn't even read the rest
this mentality will in principle kill you on immortal and deity because you'll improve that one pig, without having wheel and then your worker will stand around like a retard for the next 10 turns
think bigger, think deeper, there's no one size fits them all in terms of starts and openers, but there are considerations to be had other than "I see resource in my BFC, I'll get a tech to improve it"
sometimes, you might wanna mine that pig instead and go bronze or pottery for chops and commerce

>>1838298
Animal husbandry is the one that you can often skip unless your only food is one that requires it.
A very common play is to mine a hilled pigs tile.

>>1838860
>>1838952
stfu you half bald faggot i'm just giving him some quick tips

>>1838996
retarded ass dunning kruger settler difficulty playing nigger
your tips suck ass, same as your mom

i always overcommit on food in my towns and end up with a lot of pops on cottages and barely any production, tech progression is another great filter cause it has so many options, for me its often shot in a dark for stuff which looks good to find out later im missing random religion tech to unlock powerful unit ...

>>1839012
>no granary, no slavery, etc

great advice you fat balding faggot

>>1839015
retard
go back to playing on settler and watching your betters do it on youtube like a cuck

>>1839018
no need, i'm better than you

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>>1839022
yeah? prove it you sniveling midwit

>>1839023
imagine bragging about that shit lmao. fat balding loser

>>1839028
I accept your concession midwit loser

>>1839031
i'm not even at home you fat bald fuck kek

>>1839034
cope and cry seething midwit

>>1839036
no you fat bald faggot

>>1839038
kill yourself mad midwit
reminder that no one needs your shitty half-arsed "advice"

>>1839040
kek its always the fat bald real life losers telling others to kys on the internet

>>1839045
post hairline, loser
protip: you won't
project harder

Relax please saars

>>huy gives advice "just research AH so you can work pigs"
>>correct for 95% of starts
>cue massive spergout
kys

>>1839064
wrong
kys seething midwit

>>1834317
Fractal and especially tectonics are difficult for diety. You are right it is a challenging but not doomed start. Many diety players would reject a start without gold or ivory right next to the capital.
In this instance I would suggest settling two cities next to the capital, each to work the corns. These would grow fast and give a lot of production via whipping and could also grow cottages which you can switch back to the capital once bureaucracy comes around. You need econ this game as you pointed out. The extra prod from those two cities could help with a rush but honestly you may benefit more from genghis especially if tech trading is on.
Diplo is crucial here. You may have to cheese with a bribe or giving a city away. Definitely explore genghis's land.
I like your settles so far.
In iso you'll want astronomy quick for tech trading and overseas trade routes and especially resources.
For your happiness problem you may want to get hereditary rule sooner than later. Thankfully with no copper you can make warriors for a while :)
Hopefully genghis picks up a religion so you can convert and get extra happiness.

What was your tech path?

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>>1839755
I can't remember, I ditched that game because catching up would feel like pulling teeth out
If I had to guess I went agri > animal > bronze > wheel > pottery

funnily enough, my next game was also semi iso with fucking mongolia lmao
but I snagged GL and everything kinda fell into place from there on out
screenshot's a bit old because it's tied to a manual save prior to me whooping kublai's ass with cannons and oromos but I eventually went flight and assembly and memed on the continent because they were distracted and locked up in a four way war with gandhi

>>1833152
it does suck, its just boomers love to pretend its a super hardcore magnum opus of 4x games lighting in a bottle game

>>1839811
You won this game, so I can't criticize, but why so many unimproved tiles? Especially the grasslands around the capital.

>>1839865
I managed to snag an early collosus because I got metal casting via oracle
I figured it was too late to invest into cottages so I frequently worked water tilles and focused on expanding and managing barbs (so I was hurting for workers as well) and strained myself into lib and astronomy
farmed and workshopped the lot of it when I got gommunism though

One time, in a multiplayer game, I spawned isolated in the south pole, because a one-tile isthmus connected it to the mainland, but said isthmus was blocked by a mountain so I couldn't actually go anywhere.

now that i'm older, i cant tolerate anything but small maps, at least when i'm going for domination. i used to spend weeks playing a single game on huge maps, but i dont have the patience for that now. now i only play small and try to finish the game in a day. not just civ4 but all games. can anyone else relate?

>>1840741
I still have the patience for games that go on for days, but I don't have the time for it now. I find that Pangaea Small with 1 additional AI hits the spot for me.

>>1833152
>how do they all have fucking scouts on turn 3?
If your civ starts with hunting tech, you get scout instead of warrior. For example, HRE.

>>1840799
Interesting, guess that explains it.
Movement is so cucked at the start and I have been a few moves from a village only to spend multiple turns moving towards it and have a scout come from behind me and snatch it.
That's just not fun gameplay.

nobody plays with goody huts, disable them they are way too good and rng

>>1833525
>Except I'm not some low iq tard
every low iq tard ever

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>>1833812
>Imagine shaka declaring war on you
heh
good old times

>>1834273
civ 2 had collateral damage

>>1833152
>Playing with american leaders has zero culture so early expansion is like impossible, you need to build fucking monuments to have ANY city growth whatsoever while other leaders just grow every city from the start for free
No you just need to not be retarded with your city placement.

>>1844494
git gud

>attacking an enemy city (catapulted to 0 def)
>78% odds
>my war elephant dies
>80% odds
>another war elephant dies
>85% odds
>another war elephant dies
>85% odds
>another war elephant dies

really cant stand that shit. just gonna play with random seed from now on.

>>1845032
>just gonna cheat from now on
Why even bother playing then?

>>1845039
because rng-based combat is fucking gay

i've been playing around with removing collateral damage from catapults/trebs then severely limiting collateral damage in both damage limit and number of units affected for more advanced siege and it feels like it plays better. catapults get an attack bonus vs melee/archers (but not a defensive bonus so they still need to be on offense to really do any damage) then they're set to withdraw from battle whenever they do like 20% damage to the defender to make them far less suicidal and more about whittling down defenders like you'd expect a siege to do

>>1845032
you need to suicide bomb with pults

>>1845040
RNG is necessary in games like this, otherwise you have deterministic combat that is 100% predictable, which just turns the entire game into boring maths. What you're gonna do is even worse, because you're just going to find excuses to call bullshit every time you lose and reload until you win.

>>1845044
you better not be this guy >>1844522

>>1845051
No, I always play with the huts on. With random events on, too.

only faggots want game deciding RNG in their match