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[SnakeswithLasers]

My gaming life has been dominated for about 6 months with a return to WoW--but that all crashed to an end when I decided to give up the game for 2 months.

I was remembering how much I enjoyed Civ Revolution on the PS3 and I noticed that Civ 4 is only $29 on Steam, so I picked it up on Sunday.

Man, this game is so awesome. How awesome? So awesome.

I won my first game (which lasted a couple of days), and I admit that I suck. I was playing in the beginner difficulty (the one right barely brain-dead) and won a Time Victory as Gandhi. I got rated as Dan Quayle.

I really wanted to win a cultural or diplomatic victory--but I didn't know how. I was about 20 votes away from the UN Victory (436 of 460 required) for the last 70 turns or so, but I couldn't figure out how to make that obnoxiously suspicious bitch Isabella vote for me. I think I put out too much for her--giving her free resources and cash--and she just took me for granted.

I also controlled the smallest amount of land, I only built 11 cities, but they were all close together. Near the end of the game I was pretty sure I was going to flip a few cities right next to me, but I couldn't seal the deal.

I was only engaged in one war--Isabella (it's like she has some sort of kindergarten crush on ol' Gandhi) declared war on me for no reason and I crushed her pathetic expeditionary forces. Galleon against battleship? Pikemen rushing Modern Armor? Check and mate, Ms. Isabella. She agreed to peace after a few turns of her wasted resources.

I have a lot to learn, but man, this game is awesome.

Any tips on pulling out a cultural or diplomatic win? I'm pretty sure the AI (on the difficulty I'm learning with) would be a complete pushover if I was going for a military win, but I want to figure out the finer points of culture and diplomacy.

"Your pokemans, show me them--or I'll declare a pointless war and refuse to vote for you as supreme world leader even though you have given me numerous hit singles and more in tribute than I made for myself throughout my people's history."

 

[SupahBlah]

Great game or Greatest game?

Did you get Warlords and Beyond the Sword?

 

[Proc]

When I made a thread like this Frag helped me out a lot and pointed me to some really helpful link to up my civ game: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632

Those forums are a great resource in their own regard.


Civilization 4 will never leave my hard drive. Too many boring afternoons saved by this game.

 

[arstal]

I'm just waiting for a Wolfshanze mod update to start playing again. That mod pretty much fixes most of what I don't like about Civ IV units.

Wolf Revolution allows you to add in the Combat Mod stuff, but you get a lot of extra junk with that. I'm unsure if Merged Mods is still around.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Great game or Greatest game?

http://gallery.nofactzone.net/albums/userpics/normal_stephen-colbert-interview-af.jpg

Did you get Warlords and Beyond the Sword?

I didn't. I was going to (it was a bundle on Steam), but I wasn't quite sure if I would ever play the other modes. Are they separate or do they just add-in stuff to the normal game?

 

[platypotamus]

I didn't. I was going to (it was a bundle on Steam), but I wasn't quite sure if I would ever play the other modes. Are they separate or do they just add-in stuff to the normal game?

They have both outside scenarios and maingame stuff. Warlords is skippable if you don't want the scenarios, as all the maingame stuff is also in BtS. BtS is the best expansion ever, and makes an already great game absolutely awesome.

 

[LCfiner]

After listening to the stories from Anthony on Rebel FM, I've decided to pick this up for the Mac next week.

pretty stoked to play it

 

[SupahBlah]

I didn't. I was going to (it was a bundle on Steam), but I wasn't quite sure if I would ever play the other modes. Are they separate or do they just add-in stuff to the normal game?

Did it come with Warlords and Beyond the Sword?

If so just start BtS, don't bother with regular Civ 4. BtS adds so much.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Any tips on pulling out a cultural or diplomatic win? I'm pretty sure the AI (on the difficulty I'm learning with) would be a complete pushover if I was going for a military win, but I want to figure out the finer points of culture and diplomacy.

Diplomatic-I find the best way to go is to get a religion (either one you founded yourself or from a neighbor) spread far and wide in the hope that a few countries will make it their state religion, which you will do as well. This gives a huge diplo modifier with those countries-from there trade and go to wars together and given them shit when they ask, you'll be BFF and they'll vote for you once you build the UN. You WILL need to pick some common enemies-think of them as the axis of evil to your alliance because the mutual shared struggle diplo bonus is so great. You'll get the votes to win, provided that you at the same time do a joob job expanding and having a high population in your cities.

Culture-Go with a Philosophical leader-one of the Greeks is ideal here-and focus on techs for religion and key wonder construction coupled with local economy for your three key cities that can support large culture/turn sliders in the late game when you turn off science after beelining mass media for the final run. One of the BtS corps is really helpful here.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Did it come with Warlords and Beyond the Sword?

If so just start BtS, don't bother with regular Civ 4. BtS adds so much.

I don't have BtS (the bundle was all the games for $50 (save $10 essentially), but I just picked up the base game because I wasn't sure. I'll go ahead and pick up BtS if it doesn't require Warlords.

Also--

When I made a thread like this Frag helped me out a lot and pointed me to some really helpful link to up my civ game: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632

Those forums are a great resource in their own regard.


Civilization 4 will never leave my hard drive. Too many boring afternoons saved by this game.

Yes! That guide rules. I'm going to try to print it out at work... Thanks man!

 

[SupahBlah]

I don't have BtS (the bundle was all the games for $50 (save $10 essentially), but I just picked up the base game because I wasn't sure. I'll go ahead and pick up BtS if it doesn't require Warlords.

Ah, sorry.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RHFZTM/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Diplomatic-I find the best way to go is to get a religion (either one you founded yourself or from a neighbor) spread far and wide in the hope that a few countries will make it their state religion, which you will do as well. This gives a huge diplo modifier with those countries-from there trade and go to wars together and given them shit when they ask, you'll be BFF and they'll vote for you once you build the UN. You WILL need to pick some common enemies-think of them as the axis of evil to your alliance because the mutual shared struggle diplo bonus is so great. You'll get the votes to win, provided that you at the same time do a goob job expanding and having a high population in your cities.

Culture-Go with a Philosophical leader-one of the Greeks is ideal here-and focus on techs for religion and key wonder construction coupled with local economy for your three key cities that can support large culture/turn sliders in the late game when you turn off science after beelining mass media for the final run. One of the BtS corps is really helpful here.

You need religion anyway for science, I find rushing for religion/code of laws helps a lot.

Definitely make enemies, you can't be friends with everyone. Making enemies means you'll actually have friends.

Also, don't expand too far, turn on the city radius planner in the options it helps a lot. Having a big distance between your cities can crucify you on maintenance.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

You need religion anyway for science, I find rushing for religion/code of laws helps a lot.

Definitely make enemies, you can't be friends with everyone. Making enemies means you'll actually have friends.

Also, don't expand too far, turn on the city radius planner in the options it helps a lot. Having a big distance between your cities can crucify you on maintenance.

Diplomatic-I find the best way to go is to get a religion (either one you founded yourself or from a neighbor) spread far and wide in the hope that a few countries will make it their state religion, which you will do as well. This gives a huge diplo modifier with those countries-from there trade and go to wars together and given them shit when they ask, you'll be BFF and they'll vote for you once you build the UN. You WILL need to pick some common enemies-think of them as the axis of evil to your alliance because the mutual shared struggle diplo bonus is so great. You'll get the votes to win, provided that you at the same time do a joob job expanding and having a high population in your cities.

Culture-Go with a Philosophical leader-one of the Greeks is ideal here-and focus on techs for religion and key wonder construction coupled with local economy for your three key cities that can support large culture/turn sliders in the late game when you turn off science after beelining mass media for the final run. One of the BtS corps is really helpful here.

thanks a lot guys--I'll pick up BtS too since I don't see anything out there saying Warlords is required.

 

[Zero Hero]

Civ 4:BtS is my personal GOTF. I have played it almost daily since it came out.

 

[DrForester]

I suck at Civ, but I enjoy rampaging through the world every few weeks one easy mode, subjugating all who dare assemble on my continent. Love the "next Epic War" mod from BtS, rushing some archers with cyborgs and a giant mech is very fun.

 

[Fragamemnon]

thanks a lot guys--I'll pick up BtS too since I don't see anything out there saying Warlords is required.

Not only is Warlords not required, but all of the core gameplay features in Warlords are in BtS anyway. At this point Warlords only exists to provide some additional scenarios, which is somewhat pointless since if you're not playing the core ruleset you should be playing Fall From Heaven 2 anyway.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Not only is Warlords not required, but all of the core gameplay features in Warlords are in BtS anyway. At this point Warlords only exists to provide some additional scenarios, which is somewhat pointless since if you're not playing the core ruleset you should be playing Fall From Heaven 2 anyway.

I've never tried any mods or anything...

Do they work with steam? I want to get decent at the normal game first--but seems like all the awesome is in mods.

 

[JoeMartin]

One of the best gaming investments ever.

And I've only ever won cultural victories, honest.

 

[KR3W]

My personal favorite PC game/series of all time. goddam.

 

[ghst]

the greatest game of all time.

the only way it could be improved is with better naval implementation, blockades, denial of passage and such.

 

[Clever Pun]

I've been playing a lot of vanilla civ 4 lately and loving it. What makes BtS worth picking up?

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

the greatest game of all time.

the only way it could be improved is with better naval implementation, blockades, denial of passage and such.

I have to say: Ya, the naval stuff (at least in the core game) is disappointing. I loved Civ Rev's navy. If your navy was parked on a coast next to the city you were invading, you would get a bonus to your attacks. I do like the ability for your navy to bombard defenses (maybe it's even more useful)--but I really liked having my cruisers just park next to coastal cities and help annihilate opposing forces actively with my army.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I've never tried any mods or anything...

Do they work with steam? I want to get decent at the normal game first--but seems like all the awesome is in mods.

I wouldn't say that all of the awesome is in the mods. As ghst pointed out and as I can reiterate, this really is one of the, if not the, best games ever made. I spent months and months over the years since its release getting good enough to bring down the AI on the higher difficulties and competing in the various casual competitions on an unmodded install.

Note that mods work fine with Steam as well, no issue there. Fall from Heaven 2 is something you should look at when you've had your fill with Civ4.

 

[Forkball]

It's a great game for sure. Every time you play it's a new experience. Even if I quit the game for months, I always find myself going back to it. There are a lot of good mods, though I prefer the more realistic ones (like Rhys and Fall).

For Cultural Victories, build lots of World Wonders. When you get a great person that gives you a culture boost, choose the city wisely. Those things are like culture bombs. They are especially useful if you have a city right next to the border, and another country has their city right next to the same border. Culture bombing them might influence the city to eventually flip to you.

I love the game, but I think it's a bit too combat focused. The AI still needs to be worked on, as the other countries hate you for no real reason. War is almost completely random, there should be more build up and better diplomatic methods.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

I wouldn't say that all of the awesome is in the mods. As ghst pointed out and as I can reiterate, this really is one of the, if not the, best games ever made. I spent months and months over the years since its release getting good enough to bring down the AI on the higher difficulties and competing in the various casual competitions on an unmodded install.

Note that mods work fine with Steam as well, no issue there. Fall from Heaven 2 is something you should look at when you've had your fill with Civ4.

Well that's good to hear. I just want to be able to play not retarded and compete with the AI above the first two difficulties.

BTW Frag--have you tried out Dawn of War 2? I didn't see you in the thread last time I checked and I think I remember you being a CoH fan.

 

[Zzoram]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/index.php

When I was obsessed with Civ IV, this forum was the best thing that could have happened to me. It's got the highest level of game mechanics analysis and they are generally friendly and helpful.

 

[Zzoram]

Well that's good to hear. I just want to be able to play not retarded and compete with the AI above the first two difficulties.

BTW Frag--have you tried out Dawn of War 2? I didn't see you in the thread last time I checked and I think I remember you being a CoH fan.

I never used a single mod and still think Civ IV is incredible.

The AI scales quite a bit.

Settler = Easiest
Chieftan = Easier
Warlord = Easy
Noble = Normal (Human and AI get no modifiers)
Prince = Hard
Monarch = Very Hard
Immortal = Extremely Hard
Diety = Harder than diamond

Below Noble, you get more free starting technologies, bonuses vs Barbarians (which are also less aggressive), upkeep is cheaper, you get a higher starting happiness and health, goodie huts have better stuff, you tend to get a better starting location (still random), units and buildings cost less production (hammers), technology costs fewer beakers (converted from commerce coins), and diplomacy is easier.

Above Noble, the bonuses you got below Noble are given to the AI, and on Diety, the AI starts with 2 Settlers and 2 Archers instead of 1 Settler and a Warrior or Scout like human players always do.

It's taken me about 200 hours of play time and reading CivFanaticsForums to be able to win Prince games half the time, and Noble games most of the time. I play with Normal for speed setting. On Quick, it becomes impossible to wage war properly (since movement isn't sped up but rate of building and research is, so you may start a war with Axemen and by the time you get to their capital they have Grenadiers). On Epic the games take too long and war becomes easier, making higher difficulties a bit easier to beat.

Normal is the ideal play speed, I can finish a Prince game in 10-12 hours on Normal. Epic games go for 20 hours and that's just way too long for me.

 

[arstal]

I've never tried any mods or anything...

Do they work with steam? I want to get decent at the normal game first--but seems like all the awesome is in mods.

Steam itself doesn't make mods fail, but Steam jacking with directories does.

One reason why I won't use Steam for non-Steam games.

I have to say: Ya, the naval stuff (at least in the core game) is disappointing. I loved Civ Rev's navy. If your navy was parked on a coast next to the city you were invading, you would get a bonus to your attacks. I do like the ability for your navy to bombard defenses (maybe it's even more useful)--but I really liked having my cruisers just park next to coastal cities and help annihilate opposing forces actively with my army.

You REALLY need to get the Wolfshanze mod- it really improves the naval side of the game with all sorts of ships, maybe WolfRevolution for the Dale's Combat Mod thing which puts that into the game.


The AI at Noble does get bonuses and penalties still- I wish there was a way to fix that, it's one of the few annoying things about this game to me- the poor AI.

 

[Fragamemnon]

BTW Frag--have you tried out Dawn of War 2? I didn't see you in the thread last time I checked and I think I remember you being a CoH fan.

Dawn of War 2 stripped out a lot of the meat that helps make mid level RTS multiplayer so much fun for me. It's not a matter of getting rid of the base building, its the fact that after only a few games you pretty much know exactly what your opponent is going to do and they know what you are going to do, and provided neither of you bone your planned build order it comes down to just microing for some map control at the point the game hits its crescendo. The node control and small map designs severely limit the ability for the meta game dynamics to shift on a map or per-matchup basis and even the micro is maddening with the pathfinding and inexplicable LOS issues.

I basically admitted to myself I'd rather spend my time being a D- newblar zerg or middle of the pack Ottoman AOE3: TAD player instead of trying to get up there with DoW2, despite playing TONS of DoW1, which was a great competitive RTS game in comparison to its sequel, even in spite of the terrible Tau/Eldar and lots of shit maps in the ladder for some matchups.

I still want to play DoW2 for the single player campaign since I'm totally hot for W40K, but ergh argh not gonna pay $50 for a single player RTS campaign.

Going back to Civ4 difficulty-Noble to Prince is a real hump, and Monarch to Emperor is also rough. I won with 50% on Emperor or so at my peak, which I was pretty happy with, though a lot of that had to do with starting positions.

Edit: Normal definitely is the best speed IMO. Otherwise axemen/macemen rushes just can CRUSH the poor AI since one of the things that's not changed on epic speed is the mobility of units.

 

[Minsc]

I finally bite the bullet and picked up the Complete edition for $20, seeing that it is out of print, didn't want to wait until prices skyrocketed. It includes BtS & Warlords, as well as the original game.

What's the best order to experience the game? Are the campaigns fun and worth playing, or is it best just playing random maps? Amazing they fit these three games on a single disc, 2 1/2 gigs. Based on the screenshots, I always assumed it'd be more because it looks so nice.

I still want to play DoW2 for the single player campaign since I'm totally hot for W40K, but ergh argh not gonna pay $50 for a single player RTS campaign.

$35 now, it's getting there

 

[Fragamemnon]

What's the best order to experience the game? Are the campaigns fun and worth playing, or is it best just playing random maps? Amazing they fit these three games on a single disc, 2 1/2 gigs. Based on the screenshots, I always assumed it'd be more because it looks so nice.

Tiles are awesome in that regard. The game looks great without needing a colossal art team to build it.

I would say that the basic game of BtS w/ the latest official patch, using the hemispheres map script and at something like Warlord difficulty to start out. Normal Speed.

There are some scenarios and what not, but the real meat of the game is random maps and building your own empire.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I finally bite the bullet and picked up the Complete edition for $20, seeing that it is out of print, didn't want to wait until prices skyrocketed. It includes BtS & Warlords, as well as the original game.

What's the best order to experience the game? Are the campaigns fun and worth playing, or is it best just playing random maps? Amazing they fit these three games on a single disc, 2 1/2 gigs. Based on the screenshots, I always assumed it'd be more because it looks so nice.



$35 now, it's getting there

It scales to smaller computers really well too.

I think either is fine, but my preference is for random, beginning from scratch scenarios.

I think this really might be the greatest game ever made. At times, I too have felt that it's too battle focused, I wanted to proceed without the rapaciousness of unfriendly neighbors, but some of that was my lack of knowledge at leveraging cooperation and part of it is the fact that humans are hostile

 

[Fragamemnon]

It's already for me filed with the likes of X-COM, Baldur's Gate 2, and Freespace 2-games where you go back years after playing and ask yourself "what could they have done better" and just come back dumbfounded, with no response.

As perfect as a game can get. I to this day love to read the end part of the manual where Soren explains in detail their willingness to slaughter the sacred cows of the series to make something truly better.

 

[Zzoram]

I finally bite the bullet and picked up the Complete edition for $20, seeing that it is out of print, didn't want to wait until prices skyrocketed. It includes BtS & Warlords, as well as the original game.

What's the best order to experience the game? Are the campaigns fun and worth playing, or is it best just playing random maps? Amazing they fit these three games on a single disc, 2 1/2 gigs. Based on the screenshots, I always assumed it'd be more because it looks so nice.



$35 now, it's getting there

I've barely touched the campaigns. I just play random skirmishes, Prince difficulty, Normal speed, the default map size, Fractal or Continents for map type (Pangea if I'm too lazy to micro a navy), and usually random leader so I get to play them all. Depending on start location and available resources/land/AI nearby, I will usually pick a victory condition to gun for, and work towards it.

The easiest way to lose in Civilization is to not pick a specific victory condition, because if you lose focus you'll lose horribly (on Prince and above difficulty, and even sometimes Noble).

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Dawn of War 2 stripped out a lot of the meat that helps make mid level RTS multiplayer so much fun for me. It's not a matter of getting rid of the base building, its the fact that after only a few games you pretty much know exactly what your opponent is going to do and they know what you are going to do, and provided neither of you bone your planned build order it comes down to just microing for some map control at the point the game hits its crescendo. The node control and small map designs severely limit the ability for the meta game dynamics to shift on a map or per-matchup basis and even the micro is maddening with the pathfinding and inexplicable LOS issues.

I basically admitted to myself I'd rather spend my time being a D- newblar zerg or middle of the pack Ottoman AOE3: TAD player instead of trying to get up there with DoW2, despite playing TONS of DoW1, which was a great competitive RTS game in comparison to its sequel, even in spite of the terrible Tau/Eldar and lots of shit maps in the ladder for some matchups.

I still want to play DoW2 for the single player campaign since I'm totally hot for W40K, but ergh argh not gonna pay $50 for a single player RTS campaign.

Going back to Civ4 difficulty-Noble to Prince is a real hump, and Monarch to Emperor is also rough. I won with 50% on Emperor or so at my peak, which I was pretty happy with, though a lot of that had to do with starting positions.

Edit: Normal definitely is the best speed IMO. Otherwise axemen/macemen rushes just can CRUSH the poor AI since one of the things that's not changed on epic speed is the mobility of units.

Great points on DoW. Maybe i'll just stick with Civ until there's a pricedrop.

I'm going to go home and try a game in warlord. I printed out the pdf guide and am curious to see whether I can hang. I'll probably try to be more aggressive with military instead of camping at home.

Is there a trick to flipping cities? I really felt I should have been flipping last night (my borders were basically entirely surrounding the opposing city) but they just kept holding on.

 

[Ledsen]

Dawn of War 2 stripped out a lot of the meat that helps make mid level RTS multiplayer so much fun for me. It's not a matter of getting rid of the base building, its the fact that after only a few games you pretty much know exactly what your opponent is going to do and they know what you are going to do, and provided neither of you bone your planned build order it comes down to just microing for some map control at the point the game hits its crescendo. The node control and small map designs severely limit the ability for the meta game dynamics to shift on a map or per-matchup basis and even the micro is maddening with the pathfinding and inexplicable LOS issues.

I basically admitted to myself I'd rather spend my time being a D- newblar zerg or middle of the pack Ottoman AOE3: TAD player instead of trying to get up there with DoW2, despite playing TONS of DoW1, which was a great competitive RTS game in comparison to its sequel, even in spite of the terrible Tau/Eldar and lots of shit maps in the ladder for some matchups.

I still want to play DoW2 for the single player campaign since I'm totally hot for W40K, but ergh argh not gonna pay $50 for a single player RTS campaign.

Going back to Civ4 difficulty-Noble to Prince is a real hump, and Monarch to Emperor is also rough. I won with 50% on Emperor or so at my peak, which I was pretty happy with, though a lot of that had to do with starting positions.

Edit: Normal definitely is the best speed IMO. Otherwise axemen/macemen rushes just can CRUSH the poor AI since one of the things that's not changed on epic speed is the mobility of units.

From what I've hears it's more of an action RPG than an RTS in single player. Like a cross between Diablo and Syndicate or something. Also it's supposes to be really long. So would you pay $50 for a single player action RPG?

 

[Zzoram]

Great points on DoW. Maybe i'll just stick with Civ until there's a pricedrop.

I'm going to go home and try a game in warlord. I printed out the pdf guide and am curious to see whether I can hang. I'll probably try to be more aggressive with military instead of camping at home.

Is there a trick to flipping cities? I really felt I should have been flipping last night (my borders were basically entirely surrounding the opposing city) but they just kept holding on.

Having the same religion helps. Having no hostile history with their people helps (too many years of war can make them hate you forever). Mainly just boost your culture around that city as much as you can.

 

[Zzoram]

From what I've hears it's more of an action RPG than an RTS in single player. Like a cross between Diablo and Syndicate or something. Also it's supposes to be really long. So would you pay $50 for a single player action RPG?

It's supposedly reasonably long, but really repetitive. It seems ok but not $50 ok. I don't like the multiplayer at all.

 

[johnsmith]

I love love love this game. I've probably spent more hours on it than anything else other, except maybe WoW.

GET BEYOND THE SWORD. It's a huge improvement over the normal game.

• Tons of new civs and new leaders with unique personalities and new traits. Hannibal of Carthage is awesome.
• Unique buildings for each civilization Carthage's replacement for the harbor gives you an extra trade route. The Maya Ball Court gives you 3
  
  instead of 1 for the normal Colosseum.
• Earlier diplomatic win options through the Apostolic Palace. I've won diplomatic victories as early as 1000 a.d. And you can force everyone into a religious holy war against the infidels.
• Vassal states lets civs you're owning capitulate to you instead of having to go around and taking all their cities. Do you really want to have to hunt down their cities on 1 tile islands or in the frozen tundra?
• Earlier and better espionage. You get tons of options which aren't in the base game. Stealing technologies, forcing a civic or religion switch, destroying buildings and spaceship parts.
• Corporations are good if you play into the modern era. Mining Inc. is awesome, and will turn even a crappy arctic city into one that contributes something to your empire by giving it a bunch of extra
  
• Random events and quests. Ok, these are a mixed blessing, having your cottages destroyed by volcanoes sucks, but you can also get some awesome ones. I love the one that makes every coal plant give you 4 extra
  
  .

As for tips. Well Diplomatic victory is the one victory that is always a bit out of your hands and you can't guarantee you'll get. It's often impossible to keep every civ happy because if you're friends with one, they won't want you to be friends with their enemy and you'll get constant requests to stop trading or declare war. So there's never a surefire way to get it except through war in the expansions. If you start taking over the world and start taking vassals, vassals have to vote for you when the diplomatic vote comes up. But that's really a cheap diplomatic victory and is just a slightly quicker way than getting a domination victory.

Things that increase relations
Same Religion
Gifting techs and gold (this is limited to +4 from "Our trade relations are fair" once you get to +4 you're wasting your time by gifting them more. There's another bonus from "you've shared your technology with us" but this one is hard to get even to +1 or +2 and usually not worth it)
Open borders for a long time.
Resource trading for a long time.
Fighting on the same side of a war.
Voting in their favor in the Apostolic Palace or UN.

Things that decrease
Not giving in to their requests for gold or techs.
Not giving in to their requests to stop trading.
Not joining in their war.
Trading resources or techs or having open borders with their worst enemy.
Different religion

Getting a diplomatic victory is sometimes easier in Beyond the Sword with the Apostolic Palace. What you do is found one of the later less popular religions like Taoism, and then build the AP, right before its completed you switch to that religion. The Pope is now a Taoist. You spread that minor world religion through all of your cities, and then to 1 city of every other civ. Once very civ has at least 1 city with the AP religion, the diplomatic victory comes up. As long as you have 1 friend who'll vote for you, it should be easy to win, as only you'll have a ton of Taoist cities, you should have the bulk of the vote. Pretty cheap way to win though.



As for culture victories, there are a couple of different methods. You can use the specialist method where you lay down farms everywhere and run the caste system civic to have as many artist specialists as you can, then use the great artists for culture bombs in your 3 main culture cities. Or you can run cottages and raise your culture slider as close to 100% as you can and turn all that commerce into culture. And if you are industrious or have stone and marble you can try to get a culture victory by building tons of wonders and with a combination of the other 2 methods.

But with all 3 methods you definitely want to try to get as many religions as you can so you can build cathedrals. You can build a religion's cathedral after building 3 temples and these raise culture output by 50%. These are very important.

Also you want to get to liberalism ASAP, not as much for the free tech like in a normal game, but to switch to free speech for the 100% culture bonus.

You really don't need any of the late game culture boosters like broadcast towers or corporations. It's pretty easy to win culture games in the 1600s or earlier.

 

[Minsc]

From what I've hears it's more of an action RPG than an RTS in single player. Like a cross between Diablo and Syndicate or something. Also it's supposes to be really long. So would you pay $50 for a single player action RPG?

Not when it is selling for $35. Just trying to save you guys some monies

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to install it now and give it a short run, I'll be putting off any serious playing of it for a while, still got Heroes V to finish. The last Civ game I played was Civ 2, which I loved. I think 3 got mixed reviews, which I ended up skipping, so I look forward to playing this one. Graphically there's no comparison between IV & II, hopefully the gameplay turns out just as addicting as I remember it!

 

[Micromegas]

Civ 4 blah blah BLAH!

Where the FUCK is the new-gen version of Alpha Centauri? Goddamn Sid Meir give us the game already!

 

[ghst]

Dawn of War 2 stripped out a lot of the meat that helps make mid level RTS multiplayer so much fun for me. It's not a matter of getting rid of the base building, its the fact that after only a few games you pretty much know exactly what your opponent is going to do and they know what you are going to do, and provided neither of you bone your planned build order it comes down to just microing for some map control at the point the game hits its crescendo. The node control and small map designs severely limit the ability for the meta game dynamics to shift on a map or per-matchup basis and even the micro is maddening with the pathfinding and inexplicable LOS issues.

balance remains illusive, as always, but the core design is sound. due to the increased number of situational, pieced-together variables that upgrades and abilities provide - along with the prior mentioned emphasis on micro, the cookie cutter strat based quagmire of indentikit battles is so far just not happening. despite what the small unit pool and linear teching might suggest.

i'm not going to tell you at length about why you might want to buy the game, i just thought you should here the contrary side from someone who's had a very different experience with it, having played a stupid amount of hours in retail too.

that said, balance is it's downfall. despite being as close to balanced as i've ever seen a rts at launch when the beta dropped, every patch seems to be one step forward, one and a quarter steps back. with some hilarious new game breaking bug introduced at each undulation.

my faith in relic's balance team is dubious at best, given their coh track record. but here's hoping.

but back to civ, how does naval warfare, blockading of trade routes and the like function in EU:III?

 

[HK-47]

Is there any place for good strats? I wish I was better but I really just have fun building all the wonders on easy. I've never liked the combat mechanics, and I dont really understand how best to set up infrastructure, wage war, or manage citizens. I feel like I'm missing out, but simple cultural victories are fun for me

 

[HK-47]

What is wrong with CoH's balance?

 

[sikkinixx]

I bought Civ 4 (disc copy) at BB a while back for $15 on some crazy sale. Damn it is worth it. I suck but it's still a hell of a lot of fun. I find combat really awkward and the game gets fucking daunting when managing a huge empire but I still greatly enjoy the game.

I still chuckle when my tanks are fighting dudes with muskets :lol


and I wish the Byzantines were in the game I wanna play as Basil II and blind some fuckers.

 

[dionysus]

One of my favorite games of all time.

Don't forget that the menu music in the original Civ IV is ridiculously awesome, so much better than the Beyond the Sword menu music.

 

[HK-47]

One of my favorite games of all time.

Don't forget that the menu music in the original Civ IV is ridiculously awesome, so much better than the Beyond the Sword menu music.

Babu Yetu

 

[epmode]

One of my favorite games of all time.

Don't forget that the menu music in the original Civ IV is ridiculously awesome, so much better than the Beyond the Sword menu music.

Yep. Good thing BTS actually allows you to replace the main menu with Civ 4's.

 

[johnsmith]

and I wish the Byzantines were in the game I wanna play as Basil II and blind some fuckers.

Get Beyond the Sword. Justinian of the Byzantines is one of the expansion leaders.

Is there any place for good strats? I wish I was better but I really just have fun building all the wonders on easy. I've never liked the combat mechanics, and I dont really understand how best to set up infrastructure, wage war, or manage citizens. I feel like I'm missing out, but simple cultural victories are fun for me

http://forums.civfanatics.com/ is your best bet. Fantastic forums. Full of friendly helpful people. Tons of good information. My favorite part is the sample games people post. They can be pretty entertaining and informative and you can see how there's people that can regularly beat immortal and even deity games (I can only do Emperor myself, been too afraid to even try immortal)






Oh, and everybody who plays Civ just has to download Blue Marble. http://www.civfanatics.net/bluemarble/

It's a graphics mod that replaces all the tiles with ones based on satellite pictures of Earth. Makes the game look so much better.

 

[HK-47]

Get Beyond the Sword. Justinian of the Byzantines is one of the expansion leaders.




http://forums.civfanatics.com/ is your best bet. Fantastic forums. Full of friendly helpful people. Tons of good information. My favorite part is the sample games people post. They can be pretty entertaining and informative and you can see how there's people that can regularly beat immortal and even deity games (I can only do Emperor myself, been too afraid to even try immortal)

See I'd actually watch a Civ IV deity game if they existed. I love LPs and speed/challenge runs.

Also I'll give a shout out to the wonderful Civ IV LP on lparchives. Creates the entire history of his nation as he plays. Great fun.

 

[Johann]

Civ 4 blah blah BLAH!

Where the FUCK is the new-gen version of Alpha Centauri? Goddamn Sid Meir give us the game already!

This can hold you over:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252829