I've finally been able to play some Civ IV (and now have some time to write about it)! I hope to eventually go back and revisit my Civ website, and create a Civ IV section (Kudos to Sulla and Kylearan, BTW! ![[Image: thumbsup.gif]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif)
), I took some screenshots along the way, but haven't had time to edit them or anything, so for now I'll just post some thoughts.
I didnât get the game when it first came out, my wife had pre-ordered it for me for my birthday (the 14th). I actually got it the 7th, I happened to be home the day it arrived in the mail, and talked her into opening it early!![[Image: rolleye.gif]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/rolleye.gif)
![[Image: heart.gif]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/heart.gif)
But with my current job, I couldnât really play during the week. I finally got a chance to take it for a spin over the three-day weekend, though.
I jumped in at Prince level (just above the break-even level), and found it was a decent challenge. I played as Rome, just because the first time a friend talked me into playing the original Civilization I had played Rome, and since then Iâve played my first game on each version as Rome. I had intended to go for a space race, so I could experience the tech tree. However, I quickly learned (well, not quickly enough) that diplomacy is more complicated now, which is probably a Good Thing![[Image: wink.gif]](http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif)
. I found that you can't just trade/buy whatever you need from the AIs and ignore their requests (which was possible in Civ III). It wasnât too long before they were all mad at me, and trading became difficult. Then, my neighbor to the south, Mansa Musa, invaded! He initially only had a few units, but he avoided my cities and started pillaging my pastures. Thatâs different. My first counter-attack was pretty bloody, as my axemen took some casualties before taking a couple cities. The good news is he had founded Judaism and Hinduism, because the bad news is I had been sidetracked on worker techs and missed the early religions myself.
I was already starting to get too big for my economy, and had to downshift my research a couple times, but I was able to get back on track. By the time I finally decided to finish him off, my Praetorians came in handy, and I had some Cats by then also, so I took less losses. However, the other AIâs took it personally that I was attacking their friends, and soon America invaded me too! So, I decided to turn the tables and go for an aggressive game. I eventually conquered my way to a Domination victory, destroying everyone except China (who was the only country who never attacked me!) and the Incas, who had a couple island cities.
It was a little tedious here, trying to slog my way through to the final victory. Even though I had over 70% of the world's population and far more production, I was still at 50% of the land mass, so I had to keep playing. I finally hit the threshold just as I researched flight, so I never got to try the modern units. I did have to squeeze out a couple settlers to fill gaps, but the culture slider did help in boosting my borders quickly.
I like the new combat system, in that at least it requires you to use combined arms, selecting different units and combinations of promotions, rather than a great stack of 15-20 Cavalry to sweep everything before you. The interaction of the terrain modifiers, unit bonus vs. certain types, etc gives more depth to the tactics. In general, I think it favors the defense, as the computer always puts the best defender on top. At least, it seems to help the AI out more on defense, they are always defending with the best choice, whereas on offense they often would attack even when I had a defender to counter that unit. That, and the changes with how culture reacts after conquest (the city dropping to only a single square rather than the surrounding 9) seems to slow down offensives. I was disappointed, though, that it seems the variety of later units (naval in particular) have been reduced, rather than expanded. But as I said, I didnât get to play with the late units much, and maybe more time to try out all the promotions would add the variety I was looking for.
), I took some screenshots along the way, but haven't had time to edit them or anything, so for now I'll just post some thoughts.I didnât get the game when it first came out, my wife had pre-ordered it for me for my birthday (the 14th). I actually got it the 7th, I happened to be home the day it arrived in the mail, and talked her into opening it early!
But with my current job, I couldnât really play during the week. I finally got a chance to take it for a spin over the three-day weekend, though.I jumped in at Prince level (just above the break-even level), and found it was a decent challenge. I played as Rome, just because the first time a friend talked me into playing the original Civilization I had played Rome, and since then Iâve played my first game on each version as Rome. I had intended to go for a space race, so I could experience the tech tree. However, I quickly learned (well, not quickly enough) that diplomacy is more complicated now, which is probably a Good Thing
. I found that you can't just trade/buy whatever you need from the AIs and ignore their requests (which was possible in Civ III). It wasnât too long before they were all mad at me, and trading became difficult. Then, my neighbor to the south, Mansa Musa, invaded! He initially only had a few units, but he avoided my cities and started pillaging my pastures. Thatâs different. My first counter-attack was pretty bloody, as my axemen took some casualties before taking a couple cities. The good news is he had founded Judaism and Hinduism, because the bad news is I had been sidetracked on worker techs and missed the early religions myself.I was already starting to get too big for my economy, and had to downshift my research a couple times, but I was able to get back on track. By the time I finally decided to finish him off, my Praetorians came in handy, and I had some Cats by then also, so I took less losses. However, the other AIâs took it personally that I was attacking their friends, and soon America invaded me too! So, I decided to turn the tables and go for an aggressive game. I eventually conquered my way to a Domination victory, destroying everyone except China (who was the only country who never attacked me!) and the Incas, who had a couple island cities.
It was a little tedious here, trying to slog my way through to the final victory. Even though I had over 70% of the world's population and far more production, I was still at 50% of the land mass, so I had to keep playing. I finally hit the threshold just as I researched flight, so I never got to try the modern units. I did have to squeeze out a couple settlers to fill gaps, but the culture slider did help in boosting my borders quickly.
I like the new combat system, in that at least it requires you to use combined arms, selecting different units and combinations of promotions, rather than a great stack of 15-20 Cavalry to sweep everything before you. The interaction of the terrain modifiers, unit bonus vs. certain types, etc gives more depth to the tactics. In general, I think it favors the defense, as the computer always puts the best defender on top. At least, it seems to help the AI out more on defense, they are always defending with the best choice, whereas on offense they often would attack even when I had a defender to counter that unit. That, and the changes with how culture reacts after conquest (the city dropping to only a single square rather than the surrounding 9) seems to slow down offensives. I was disappointed, though, that it seems the variety of later units (naval in particular) have been reduced, rather than expanded. But as I said, I didnât get to play with the late units much, and maybe more time to try out all the promotions would add the variety I was looking for.
)! I also rushed a couple settlers to backfill the last bit of open land in my area, so I wouldnât have to worry about him settling there.
, and the AI are all ahead of me in research. After looking at the Demo screen, I am number 1 in Population and Production, but DEAD LAST in economy. Iâve spent most of my worker efforts doing Civ III improvements, mining hills, farming grassland, and chopping forests, and roading everything in site (mostly for tactical reasons) 
. I have 3 cottages, and donât even have the tech for windmills yet! I also have no markets yet. I have some good military production cities, but I donât need more military! My capital is a decent GP producer (National Epic, as well as the Hanging Gardens I built before the war), but thatâs the only one. 
) 
