Civ IV Tactics

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I'm looking for some strategies for the higher difficulty levels here. I am incapable of winning in any way other than the space race on difficulty greater than noble, and I can't win in any way at all on difficulties above prince.

Typically I go for a speedy expansion, and so I always play a civ that is organized, as you halve the upkeep costs, and I usually go straight for code of laws after getting the basic techs like the wheel, pottery, mining and achery for city defense. The only other techs I will pursue before going for code of laws are for special resources that I want to exploit immediately. For example, if I have pigs, sheep or cows in my capital's city radius, I'll pick up animal husbandry. If I have stone or marble, I'll develop masonry. Otherwise, I'll temporarily skip them.

I'm also a big believer in building revenue generating structures as fast as possible (market, grocer, bank). By increasing revenue, you can donate more for science. As a result, my favorite civ is typically the Americans with Washington as the leader, as he is organized and financial - the two that most fit into my playing style. I also like the Japanese - organized and aggressive.

 

IIRC, the gist of it was to trade with the AI. Sell out tech for gold per turn, make it with all 8 in one turn, and you get some major cash rolling in. Of course, since the AI cheats they will get the tech anyway, so this way you can at least get something out of their (limitless) coffers.

Then just more cash for research-slider and more units to the field.

 

Beating any Civilisation game at the hard levels becomes just an exercise in finding cheesey exploitive tactics.

 

Yeah, I never go above the level where the playing field is level which iirc is noble in Civ4. I actually have had a hard time coming to grips with Civ4 dont fully yet understand all the variables so I am not the right chap to give advice.

 

That's certainly true. The difficulty levels in the game are as follows:

1. Settler
2. Chieftian
3. Warlord
4. Noble
5. Prince
6. Monarch
7. Deity
8. Immortal

I do not think the Deity Level (never mind the Immortal Level) can be won with any consistency, no matter how good you are. Noble is the standard level in that neither you nor the AI receive any advantages or penalties, and that's the hardest difficulty I am capable of beating the AI. For difficulties levels below Noble, you are given advanatages over the AI, with bigger advantages the further down you go, whereas for difficulty levels above Noble, the computer gets the advantages. The advantages are as follows (note all civs start with a settler unit and either a scout or a warrior, so this is what the computer gets beyond that):

Prince - each AI starts with a worker
Monarach - each AI starts with a worker and an extra settler (so they get two)
Deity - each AI starts with two workers and one settler (so again 2)
Immortal - each AI starts with two workers and two extra settlers (for a total of three).

I can only defeat Prince level with a space race victory. Above that is Monarch, and I've never been able to beat that level in any way. If you notice, Monarch is also the level at which the AI starts with a second settler unit. So you're playing catch up from the start. Since the AI can build two cities in the first couple rounds of the game, while you only get one, there's simply no way you can compete. The fact that they don't have to build a worker early on is just gravy. Basically in the early rounds of the game, they can double your production and science output simply due to having twice the number or starting cities.

 

You probably have to do something dumb like make a custom map with your Civ starting on a resource rich island and your opposition starting in the snow or something.

 

Sounds good to me.

Hmm, I wonder what the game's scoring results would look like if you started on a custom map with a resource rich land mass while sticking the computer players on one hex large tundra islands in the middle of the arctic oceans.

 

Actually, a one hex large tundra island is not as bad as it sounds. The sea provides a reasonable bounty and you have a zero chance of being attacked until some sort of air or sea bombardment technology is invented. With all the bonuses the AI gets, they'd have boats before you know it and would have settled the continents.

 

I don't believe the computer takes into account things like starting location in calculating your score. I'd imagine your score would be exactly what it would be with any other game on that difficulty level.

Good point. OK a slight revision. We'll put the computer on one hex large tundra islands, that are surrounded from all sides except one by peaks. Meaning the computer will only have access to the tundra square and two sea squares. Actually, since tundra only provides one food, and sea squares provide one food and two trade, the city would be incapable of growing to size two until a lighthouse was built. And their production should be zero.

 

When I play on Noble or higher, I always make sure that I get some good resources at my first site. After that, its early expansion to get the military techs and rush the nearest civilisation.

Usually, I find that its easier to attack nearer civs early game, as late game they get some nasty units going. From there on, loads of pillaging or expansion is an option...

Also, another option is harassing your neighbours...I usually attack them hard and fast with a lot of units so that their cities' defences are destroyed within one turn of attacking. Loads of catapults help. After that...its just a matter of negotiating a peace cheaply. Rinse and repeat. Eventually, they get too annoyed and don't accept the peace but they are significantly weakened to be brought down into submission easily. Well, atleast easier than it would have been without wearing away at their defences.

Oh and I usually go for domination victories. Early land grabs, chop rushes etc really help to get you set up. With Civ 4 I find that a great start is half the game. After that, everything just falls into place.

 

I find that playing defense in Civ 4 is a lot easier than offense. If you boarder cities have three units in them, they are essentially impenetrable. I only build city walls in the boarder cities, and inside them I place one spearman, one axeman, and one archer.

Spearmen are for enemy mounted units. Spearmen are 4 +4 (against mounted) +2 (city walls) +1 (fortified), so even if you have 0% defensive bonus from culture and have 0 experience for your units, you're still defending at 11, meaning you're a huge favorite against horse archers, and a slight (but significant) favorite against ware elephants and knights.

Axemen are for melee units. I personally thinks it's silly that axemen get 50% bonus against melee units, whereas swordsmen do not, even though they are melee units as well. Regardless, the spearmen are taking care of mounted units, meaning melee units are your next priority. So axemen are 5 +2.5 (against melee) +2.5 (city walls), + 1.25 (fortified) = 11.25. So against melee, your spearmen are heavy favorites against everything until gunpowder is invented.

Since the only early game unit that isn't either melee or mounted are archers and catapults, having an archer in your city is strictly optional. However, they are useful as general defensive units. Even though they are a measly 3 base defense, the modifications are 3 +1.5 (inside city) +1.5 (city walls) +0.75 (fortified) = 6.75. Not great, but more than enough for early defense, and you're the favorite until macemen hit the scene.

Unfortunately, these odds work the same for the AI as well, meaning taking cities early becomes difficult. If you build barracks and have experienced units, the odds shift further to your favor. With a source of copper and just a few technologies, you should have great defense until industrial times (at which point you should at least be able to upgrade your archers to longbowmen and your axemen to macemen.

 

Two words: Axe Rush.

Get Bronzeworking ASAP and connect to the copper. Pump out axes and take out an early neighbour. This gives you expansion room and some firepower to deal with the next guy that crowds you in and talks tough.

For more tricks, visit this site: www.civfanatics.com

It has a very useful strategy and tips section that helped me progress from Chieftain to Noble level (even trying prince a couple times). Theere they detail things like specialist economies, cottage spam, tech trading, aggression...

For early aggression, take double to triple the number of axemen to defenders. The first few (start with the lowest exp first) will likely die, but will weaken the defender so that subsequent attackers will have an easier time taking them out. Once you get construction, then Catapults are mandatory to reduce city defences due to culture and city walls. Barracks, Feudalism and Theocracy let your units start with 2 promotions. CR I and II for your axes (then maces) and Catapults, combat I and Medic I for a spearman to accompany the stack, and CG I and II for Archers (then Longbows and Crossbows). Drill helps archers once they have CG III, Combat once the Attackers have CR III, and Spears would benefit from Medic II and maybe Shock if the axes and swords are coming hardcore.

Many players often skip Archers and swordsmen, believing Axes are the best early units period...

 

Yeah...when I was talking about early offense...I kinda assumed that you were building tons of Catapults...there's no point going offensive before that...unless you are REALLY early, have an Aggressive leader and the opponent only has the one city...

Civilisation isn't half as much fun in Singleplayer as it is when you have it going on a LAN... That's when your tactics can really shine...and in 90% of the cases, early offense and guerilla tactics work wonders.

 

Hmmm... That's interesting. I can see why someone would prefer axemen to swordsmen (although technically you're not "skipping" swordsmen as they are available after axemen). With their 50% bonus against melee, axemen can actually be a much more useful unit than a swordsmen (7.5 vs. 6.0). That's why I believe the Aztec unique unit is one of the worst in the game. You basically get nerfed swordsmen - why not just build axemen? Also, I think the power of the axemen is also why there is no nation that has a unique unit for the axemen. The only exception I see to the axemen rule is if you're playing the Romans. The Romans have a unique swordsmen that has a power of 8, making him clearly superior to the axemen, regardless of what you're attacking.

However, I do not see why someone would chose to forego archers. The only prerequisite to archery is hunting, and chances are, you're going to want to pick up that tech pretty early anyway for the ability to build camps. Not only that, but with their automatic 50% city defense bonus, archers are the premier defensive unit early on.

But by what I wrote in my previous post, I showed that even if you take the city defense down to 0%, with all the other bonuses your defensive units get, the defenders should still have the advantage. Or are you talking about actually attacking with your catapults as opposed to bombarding the city? I also think the samurai unit is excellent for fairly early conquest - basically a macemen with bonus first strikes.

 

@Aldeth: Two words...Collateral damage.

Catapults are great because they can attack melee units and cause damage to all other units on the tile, especially if you have an aggressive leader and a barracks in your city. Just get all the collateral damage upgrades, churn out say 10 catapults and bombard the city like crazy. The defences are 0 and odds are your enemies will have heavy collateral damage. Send in your Axemen and mop up.

 

Of course! I forgot about that. However, early in the game, the most experience a unit can start with is 4 points (from a barracks). I thought collateral damage couldn't be selected until you hit 5, because (and I stand to be corrected) that accuracy was a prerequisite to collateral damage.

 

Aggressive leaders and Barracks give you free upgrades...

 

Aggressive leaders give +2 experience to gunpowder and melee units only. Siege weapons, archery units, and mounted units are excluded from the bonus. So you'd still be stuck with only 4 experience points to start. Still, you'd only need one successful battle to get them to 5, and get the collateral damage upgrade. Once you get cannons, those (while technically listed as siege weapons) are also consdiered gunpowder units and get the +2 bonus.

 

Actually, Aggressive give Combat I as a BONUS. then at 2 experience you get a promotion on top of that...

Incidentally, to thrive at higher levels, you have to be able to go to war BEFORE construction. Often the research track starts with Mining (if you don't start with it) and Bronze Working. The only exceptions I can think of are Mali (Skirmisher instead of Archer) and Egypt (War Chariots kick ass).

Usually the first war would be with Axes (the occasional Spear if you have hunting). The second has Axes with Catapults and War Elephants if you have Ivory. The third would feature Maces and maybe Knights.

If you are going the military route, you don't want long turn around between wars. That's the mistake I make...

 

Hmm...I didn't know about that...I just assumed that Aggressive and Barracks gave you upgrades...because it seemed to work for me.

And how long does it take to get Construction if you have maxed out your research speed by increasing your scientist specialists?? IIRC harassing with melee units by pillaging their structures while you are building Catapults is effective.

Then again, I haven't played Civ 4 in a while thanks to Oblivion so I might be a bit rusty on the tech tree...