And my noobishness plauges me...

[Farae]

Ah, Civilization. No, not indoor plumbing and electricity, I mean the series. ^_^

I was SO excited when my friend told me it was out, that I went and started to drool over it on Game Spot. I begged my parents for it, and was able to procure jobs from them to get it. When I FINALLY got it, I installed and tried a peaceful game as Russia (on Cheiftain). I loved it. I won a Diplomatic victory as well. ^_^

On some of my other games, I seem not to do as well. For example, on Civ Fanatics, I made an SG where we have to win via culture. Now, we are being invaded by Mansa Musa who has elephants and the like, and we are being owned quite frankly. We are on Noble. @_@

Apparently, the biggest problems I make are these:

1 ) Not a big enough military.

2 ) My tendency to decide to switch to Christianity from Hinduism when I have 3 Hindu allies. >_> Damn you IRL religion bias, DAMN YOU!

3 ) My total failure to succeed at war. At all. My skills at war in this game are a sin against Sid.

4 ) My ineptitude at diplomacy. You see, I am not a bad diplomat in negotiations, I just *accidently* trade with an ally's worst enemy who proceeds to PMS all over me.

>_>
<_<

Tips? Advice? Training games? I would appreciate any help, any educational comments, and any advice whatsoever. Thanks in advance.

P.S What really sucks is when I was Eygpt and I was doing awesome, I was always top in score, but barbarians kept attacking me until I got horse archers and slaughtered them. Then Alexander declared war on me and he had swordsman. *sobs*

[Drasca]

Hehe sounds like fun.

Small military? Outdated military? Use slavery and turn down your research for a few turns.

If you want them to be allies, great to be their religion... they don't have to be friends though--nor are necessarily friendly. HOWEVER! You may convert your enemies to christianity with enough effort. Build missionaries to send to every one of your ally's cities. This works as long as your ally doesn't use the "Theocracy" civic.

War... it never changes... I mean. Read other people's games for war tips.

Diplomacy--who needs that? Whack'em over the head! Best diplomacy is done with a big stick, and your allies/enemies will recognize if you have a large or pitiful army backing your words, and their demands turn into requests with a larger army.


Swordsmen are not so bad. Realize their weakness... they are slow and axemen (5 str, +50% vs melee) eat them up. You can usually outmanuever most swordsmen, or defend your cities/hills/forests with archers.

You'll learn about military and promotions later on, but if you really need great military. Slow your research, use military +exp civics , slavery/nationhood/universal sufferage (pick one) and buildings (barracks especially). Build military early and often. Don't skimp when you need war machines.

[vmxa]

It takes time to get the feel for when you have to get ready to fight. When it is coming, have barracks. Those XP's are a big help.

If you have the civic for extra XP switch to it when in military mode.

Match units str to weakness, if you can hold your promotions until after the the battle so they can partially heal. This lets you use them again in a bind.

Try to have mobile forces in key spots to help out.

My choice is to cut forest at the front, if it is has a road. The reason is I dislike attacking a unit and not being able to retreat. If you have a forest it slows them, but exposes your counterattack.

Pay attention to having national wonders in the right town, so it can get the boost for troops.

Use cats to drop a town to zero defense. Use them to do collateral damage. In order to preserve some of them give them promotion other than collateral damage. This lets me have some survive the attack. You get Cd anyway. I also like to pit them against units that can retreat. So they will retreat and let me keep my cat.

[Drasca]

I also like to pit them against units that can retreat. So they will retreat and let me keep my cat.

Withdrawel only works for attackers, so your thought would only work if the catapult is defending... which would not do collateral damage.

[vmxa]

All I know is I attack with them and at times they survive and so does the nit I attacked. So I presumed they retreated.

[Rowain]

That happens when your Cat retreats.
If you look at the log you will see a message about it.

[vmxa]

I did not look at the log, but I did see a case where I attacked and they had LB and Spear and my cat survived and none unit dies on either side. So I was not sure if there was a limit on the number of rounds or what.

Guess it does not matter, all I wanted was to increase the odds of having cats survive. Weither using different promotions is the key I cannot say at this time. I will have to see more test.