Civilization IV

[Camus the Noble]

This is the topic for discussing the PC game Civilization IV. But you could probably figure that out from the title...

So, what civs do you tend to favor? And what mods do you use, if any?

[Parallax]

Oh man...I haven't gotten a chance to play Civilization IV yet. In fact, I didn't even know that it was out. The last time that I really played was Civilization II...for some reason, III never really clicked with me. I seem to remember there being a couple of random spinoffs that didn't really strike my fancy either, but I could be wrong about that...I kinda liked Alpha Centauri, which reminded me a lot of Civilization II, but also kinda not...despite the degree of customization.

How would the people who've played Civilization IV rate it? Worth picking up? I'm always looking for new things to do, after all...might as well ask.
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[Camus the Noble]

Well, I love Civilization IV, but I'm not really sure how it measures up to the others, seeing as it's my first Civilization game. It seems that the reviews elsewhere generally consider it to surpass the others, though, so that's good.

On a side note, does anyone else find it hard to type the word "Civilization?" I always have to slow down on that word, otherwise I type something like "civialzation" or "civiliation."

[eXistence of Fly]

no i say it properly and at normal speed...must be my uberness ^_^

I bought it on the release date here and basically fell in love with the execution of civics and religion, so with going along with that trend i adore Ghandi and the Indians as i get no anarchy (Spiritual) and the only fully upgraded unit from the start in the Fast Worker, Industrious also helps with rushing wonders like the Pyramids and U.N.

The only problem with the Indians is that they pretty much cant attack unless they throw all their resources at their opponent.
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[Calupict]

I have play Civilization IV. It's quite heavy for my laptop, too bad.
My favourite Nation are Egypt, France (Louis XIV), India (Ghandi), and Arab.
My favourite Civics are Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, State Property, and Free Religion. I more to cultural player rather than expansionist player.

You can get the easier cultural victory by using Louis XIV from France. His industrious trait makes easier to build wonders and he also creative which means add valuable cultural value.

I don't recommend to build Stonehenge as first wonder because its lack of significant value beside the culture. I recommend to build The Oracle for its free technologies.

Another note just search so many religion as possible. If the religion spread to another nation, the another nation will send you some number of potch no gold every turn (I read it somewhere, at GameFAQS if I'm not wrong.).

My biggest weaknest at playing Civilization is to make the soldiers :roll: that's why I don't really like to have certain religion because some countries will mad to us even the other favor it. It's important to have good diplomatic skills.

Ah yeah don't ever trade the techs that useful at the space race. You wouldn't want another country beat you just because you give him the key, no.

[eXistence of Fly]

free religion sucks compared to organised religion as you dont get the added 25% build bonus for a state religion, so with any industrious leader you therefore go from a 50% increase to a 75%, which helps with the various monasteries in setting up for a cultural basis early on.

usually i go universal suffrage ( from pyramids) free speach, serfdom (50% worker speed on fast workers) after emacipication does its work, state property and the organised religion.

You still get a nice culture push with the increased speed at which things are built which enables you to then specialise your cities (as Ghandi i got a culture win on Deity with 3 cities, only with 2 line of perimiter defence around the improvements) Each city was producing great people almost constantly and with the amount of missionaries you can send out due to organised religion you can easily have the world religion.

And yes gamefaqs is right they give you tithes as well as are less likely to war you for being heathen.
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[Calupict]

Ah yeah I forgot about emanicipitation. I usually go to serfdom before choose emanicipation.

I'm using organized religion at first even the cost quite burden the cash.
But anyway I'll try your adivice when I play the game again.

[eXistence of Fly]

well since all emancipication does is increase the growth of the cottages and such, it gets pretty useless when theyre all fully 'upgraded' which then allows you to either link your cities with road-railroad on serfdom or fortify an outlying perimeter defence with fortresses.

And in the case of switching civics so much its nice to not have to worry about the 1 turn of anarchy, though by all means if you found success another way then disregard everything ive said, as each player has their own playing style.

Im in agreement with you about stonehenge though, i find it almost totally worthless and only really get it so myopponents wont :P
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[Calupict]

The best upside from Civic IV compared to Civic III is we don't have longer time of anarchy which I found damnly annoying. That's why I prefer Egypt at Civic III.

I try to change more than 1 civics at once so I save anarchy time.

You know what I'm rarely to build units. Always scored latest at power meter or something.

I also build stonehenge just to not my enemy build it first than me. I prioritize Oracle though. If you're lucky enough you can pick 20+ turn techs which means damnly valuable.

Ah yeah I also try to research the techs like physics which give you free techs if you found it first.

[Deloseth]

J'adore Civ IV. I spent more hours than I'd care to count playing Civ III, but Civ IV surpasses it in almost every single way. Favourite Civ so far would be just about any Civ with Financial as a trait, though I'm in favour of one of the English just for the Redcoat UU.

As for civics, well, it all depends what I'm doing in the game at the time.

Government, I tend to go with Representation no matter what. The happiness bonus is just that, a bonus, and the upkeep is low.

Legal, in the early game, I'll go with Bureaucracy during peace and Vassalage during war. This all changes when I get Free Speech though, then it's that instead of Bureaucracy.

Labour, I go with Caste System or Serfdom as soon as I can and stick with one right until another Civ switches to Emancipation, then I'll switch too unless I'm not too fussed about the relationship hit.

Economy will vary between Mercantilism and Free Market, depending on how I feel that game >_>

Religion, it tends to be Organized Religion, because, like eXistence mentions, the 25% increase in cities with your state religion is great. When I'm at war though, I'll switch to Theocracy. Combined with Vassalage, you get 4 experience points for new units right off the bat. Throw in a barracks, The Pentagon and West Point and, damn, you're going to have some pretty hardcore units running about.

As for wonders, I try to get The Pyramids as soon as possible, just to get all the government civics. Then it's The Oracle for the free techs, then whatever else takes my fancy.

Finally, for mods, I use Blue Marble Terrain (couple of screenshots here ) and that's about it. It's a texture replacer that's (kinda) based on the NASA satellite imagery of Earth. Looks much better than the vanilla Civ IV textures if you ask me. We're still waiting for the SDK to be released, I imagine the amount of mods available will vastly increase after that. And I'm betting a WWII scenario will be one of the first...

Edit: Oh, I forgot, Culture bombs are, like, the best things ever. Gotta love Great Artists.

[Camus the Noble]

My biggest problem playing is that I usually go with my own political beliefs rather than choose the Civics that would actually be most effective. For instance, I rush Liberalism so that I can have Free Speech and Free Religion as soon as possible. It doesn't make too much of a difference though, as the game isn't that hard.

As for wonders, I usually hit Stonehenge for the free Obelisk and Great Prophet bonus, then the Oracle (in the same city) for the free Technology and Great Prophet bonus. After I found three or four religions that city is pumping out Great Prophets, and after I build the Holy Buildings and spread the religions, I'm making a massive profit on religion. Especially if I can convert other nations to my faith, then I get big money AND a huge diplomacy bonus.

By the end of the game, I've got at least three religions in each city, so Free Religion gives a significant happiness bonus, and the health of my people is covered by Environmentalism and Recycling Centers, which allow me to build as many Forges and Factories as I want.

On average, I conquer one other nation per game. So I have the largest country and thus the most population. This allows me to go for the Cultural, Domination, or Diplomatic Victory.

As for mods, the Fall from Heaven mod over at CivFanatics is extremely fun. It's a fantasy-based mod, so there are mages and golems and whatnot. It even has custom religions!

[Equus]

I very much like this newest edition of Civilization. I think they made some nice changes to the game, since they could have very easily rested on their laurels and just pumped out something attrociously similiar to past edition. It ran like oatmeal in winter on my old computer, but now that I have a new box it runs well.

I'm not sure I have a favorite Civ. I think it usually kinda depends on what I want to try to work toward. I haven't played for a little while, but my last few games were attempts at seeing how viable the Cultural victory was for me. It seems the last few times I've TRIED to go for a cultural victory, I ended up having to win via Space Race instead or the cultural win came way later. That's considering that I've played as England the last few times, which is pretty well geared toward a cultural win, if I remember right.

Also haven't tried the mods. I guess I haven't really had enough time or motivation to really explore the options in the normal game, so I haven't felt the need to get a mod. Nice that the option is there though. Another big plus for the game in my book since it allows for much more value out of the purchase.
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I can run faster scared than you can mad.

[Calupict]

Well Camus actually it's good to reasearch religion as many as possible. If you stick at organized religion you'll get all your cities have same religion and you don't have to worry with another religion even at its holy city.

Free Speech and Free Religion (if you don't stick at certain religion) are good. You only need to change civi while engage at war especially when you are the one who attack the enemy first.

[Camus the Noble]

[eXistence of Fly]