[PB75] Newbfragar and Rusty's Beginner's Guide to Civ4

[naufragar]

Double-click on the .exe to open the application.

[naufragar]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Lesson Zero: The Pick Phase
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Trait Evaluation
  
• Lesson One: Tiles
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Opponent Analysis
  
• Lesson Two: Combos
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Great People
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Philosophical
  
• Lesson Three: Worker First
  
• Lesson Four: Forest Chopping and Overflow
  
• Lesson Five: Trade Routes
  
• Lesson Six: The Dot Map
  
• Lesson Seven: Civics
  
• Lesson Eight: Slavery
  
• Lesson Nine: Cloak & Dagger
  
• Lesson Ten: Cottages
  
• Lesson Eleven: Scouting
  
• Lesson Twelve: Granaries
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Granaries, Cottages, and the Whip
  
• Lesson Thirteen: Economy Sliders
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Libraries
  
• Lesson Fourteen: Roads
  
• Lesson Fifteen: Diplo Messages
  
• Lesson Sixteen: Currency
  
• TURN 100 STATE OF THE EMPIRE
  
• Lesson Seventeen: Golden Ages
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Intermediate Goals
  
• Lesson Eighteen: Stack Combat
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Why are You Fighting?
  
• Lesson Nineteen: Battlefield Movement, Part One
  
• Intermediate Interlude: Diplomacy
  
• Lesson Twenty: Civilopedia
  
• Lesson Twenty-One: Order of Battle & Collateral Damage
  
• Lesson Twenty-Two: Infrastructure & Rate of Return
  
• TURN 250 STATE OF THE EMPIRE, PART ONE and PART TWO
  

[xist10]

You forgot the first step.
Install the game.

[aetryn]

You forgot the first step.
Install the game.

A step I actually struggled with when I needed a clean install for PB72. Mostly because I couldn't find the Civ 4 DVD. I looked everywhere in my office for like 2 hours. Finally found it.... in the drive of the computer I wanted to install in to. Guess I don't use that DVD drive for anything else but installing Civ 4 these days!

[Amicalola]

This thread sucks, there are no pictures.

[naufragar]

Ha! I made the classic newb mistake of starting a spoiler thread before I had anything interesting to add. Hmm. What do we have in the bag...

You forgot the first step.
Install the game.

A step I actually struggled with when I needed a clean install for PB72. Mostly because I couldn't find the Civ 4 DVD. I looked everywhere in my office for like 2 hours. Finally found it.... in the drive of the computer I wanted to install in to. Guess I don't use that DVD drive for anything else but installing Civ 4 these days!

Well, here's the first beginner tip, I guess: a few months ago I uninstalled Civ4 and when I reinstalled it for this game, I couldn't remember how to make a shortcut to launch a modded version immediately. Now I know that you go to shortcut properties (via right click) and in the target field after ...Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword2015.exe, you add mod="CloseToHome_5.0.0" or whatever you'd like.

This thread sucks, there are no pictures.

Hmm. Ok. I've been playing a ton of this recently:


But I can't find a way to do a good demo thread because the game is static. This is a mobile game called Slice & Dice that is only available on itch. No steam or iOS versions. [EDIT: One year later there is an iOS version, and it's great.] A friend described it as rougelike Final Fantasy, which is the most succinct description.

You have a team of 5 heroes from 100+ different classes. Each class has its own die, so, for example, that sword with the two pips means my soldier (yellow hero=yellow die) can do two damage to a target. Monsters also have different dice, so that top goblin rolled a 4 damage attack. Between monsters, heroes, equipment, run modifiers, the game is super varied. I'm still thinking of doing a demonstration game of it, but hey, why take my word for it? There's a demo available here. I played through the demo exactly once before immediately buying the game. And now I'm addicted. I guess I'll take a break to play a few Civ turns. Maybe. We'll see. 

[Rusten]

This thread reminds me that I need to sort out my installation.  Not played or logged in to a PB on this laptop yet.

But I'm mainly here to check in and to celebrate getting 2nd pick.  We already know what to get.

[Miguelito]

This thread reminds me that I need to sort out my installation.  Not played or logged in to a PB on this laptop yet.

But I'm mainly here to check in and to celebrate getting 2nd pick.  We already know what to get.

Justinian, there's no other option.

[Rusten]

Justinian is nice, but what we have in mind is just straight up broken.

[naufragar]

We should get to some #content. I’ve taken roughly a six-month hiatus from Civ4 after some 5 years of Civ4 pitboss without a break. Pretty much every time one game ended, I joined a new one. Reading back through my last three games (PBs 62, 64, and 69), I had forgotten just how angry playing civ gets me. PB62 I played terribly, but PBs 64 and 69 were about the limit of my ability. Not the best civ possible, but probably the best possible by me. And I was still a seething ball of rage. So to try to regain my love for the hobby, I’m going to go back to basics (of love).



I’ll be writing this report as a beginner’s guide. The audience I have in mind is someone who knows of RB reporting and finds it interesting but doesn’t know Civ4 and is intimidated to start. My goal is to make this 20-year-old game seem fresh, so people can appreciate other reports on this site and maybe get into the game themselves. If you notice somewhere that I’ve painted with a broad brush, then you are already too advanced for this guide. I’ll leave it to Rusten to give insight into anything more advanced. Let’s get into it.

Lesson Zero: The Pick Phase
Most Realms Beyond multiplayer games involve the players choosing a combination of a civilization and a leader. The good news is that there’s no way to go wrong here. As another player (Magic Science) has written, picking a leader/civ is a good bramble. It could be raspberries or blackberries. Could be a little thorny, but no matter what, you’re getting something good. So in your first game, don’t worry about picking “incorrectly.” Pick something that sounds fun and then lean into it. The act of trying to lean into your civilization & leader will teach you a lot about the game. Let’s say that Rusten and I end up playing Stalin leading the Celts. Wild combo! We see that Stalin has two traits: Industrious and Aggressive. Industrious reads “faster production of Wonders.” Well, as we start playing, we start seeing super buildings available called Wonders. Our leader can build these faster, so maybe we should lean into this and build some. Our second trait is Aggressive: “Free Promotions.” Clicking through, we see that units get stronger with promotions, so we know that Stalin will have stronger soldiers. We can lean into that by building a scary army. Then the Celts. Each civilization in Civ4 has both a building and a unit that is unique to that civ. The Celts have a special wall that gives a free promotion to units built in the city. Already we can see a plan forming: Stalin gives free promotions and then the Celtic special wall gives another promotion. Hmm. Looks like we can create highly promoted soldiers with our combo. The Celts also have a unique swordsman unit that, hey!, starts with another free promotion. Oh yeah, it’s all coming together. (Of course, for this current game, we’re using a pick method that doesn’t guarantee that a player will get their preferred picks.) Now, for your first few games, it’s very important to not focus on synergy. You’re learning. Pick something that looks fun and play it, learning what it’s good at as you go. As you do, you’ll learn how to combine different strong things into powerful combinations.