Civilization vs. Age of Empires

[flambers]

Sounds like an interesting game... for a new player which edition should I try to find in Calgary?

[worth]

I think Civ 4 is the best one to start with. I think it's the most balanced and fun, and it is the easiest to get into if you're a beginner.

[Dan02]

btw rubecube i hate you for starting this thread, I've wasted about 3 days i could have been doing something somewhat productive playing. gonna have to delete it from the comp again... well maybe after 1 more turn.

[rubecube]

Yeah, I've slowed down a bit because if I start then I end up staying up until at least 2 AM.

[theJuice]

Thanks alot for the tips guys, answered alot of my questions.

Just loaded up the game earlier today, but I gotta admit, I was pretty clueless. Is their any kind of tutorial system or anything, I just loaded up a random mission and was kinda clicking random buttons and upgrading random stuff, basically if it sounded interesting. Gonna probably play some more, and hopefully pick up some stuff just through trial and error.

I suppose it gets easier as you go, though it was actually sorta intimidating when I just started clicking random options and the total wealth of info and tables that popped up was pretty crazy, looks extremely complex.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by theJuice

Thanks alot for the tips guys, answered alot of my questions.

Just loaded up the game earlier today, but I gotta admit, I was pretty clueless. Is their any kind of tutorial system or anything, I just loaded up a random mission and was kinda clicking random buttons and upgrading random stuff, basically if it sounded interesting. Gonna probably play some more, and hopefully pick up some stuff just through trial and error.

I suppose it gets easier as you go, though it was actually sorta intimidating when I just started clicking random options and the total wealth of info and tables that popped up was pretty crazy, looks extremely complex.

There is a tutorial for Civ4, yes. It's pretty basic, but a good way to get started.

If you're starting from scratch, the best thing I can recommend is to pick the type of victory you want before you even play your first turn, and then work towards it. For newbies, generally speaking, follow the advice of the minister that is in closest accord with the goal you've set (ie if you want a conquest victory primarily follow the advice of the military minister).

There are lots of tables and it may indeed seem like you are inundated with information when you're not used to the game. But there are a few general areas that warrent most attention: economy, military, culture and technology. Economy ties pretty well everything together, but the latter three are necessary of emphasis depending on which victory you want. Focus on technology if you want to win the space race, military for conquest and domination, or culture for cultural victory. For a diplomatic victory, just make friends with everyone and keep yourself strong enough militarily so no one decides that you're easy pickings (which is also true when aiming for a cultural victory).

For ecomony you're biggest expenses are cities. Avoid buliding (or capturing) too many cities too quickly or your economy will hit the toilet fast. A large army is also expensive, but if you're aiming is to wipe everyone out very quickly, it can be worthwhile.

If you're going for the conquest victory my best advice is beeline for powerful military units when selecting technologies and hit the enemy hard and fast before they can launch an adequte response. If you're going for the domination, I like to tech up really fast in the beginning of the game and then hit the enemy with powerful units when they have weaker ones (such as tanks vs. calvary or calvary vs. riflemen). I find a domination and a diplomatic victory to be pretty similar strategies. If going for diplomatic, just elimate any civ that doesn't like you and then trigger elections by building the UN.

For a cultural victory just build all the cultural buildings and wonders as quickly as you possible can since their effects are cumulative over time. Personally, everytime I go for cultural victory, I get a crap score, so I may not be the best to advise on this. I love going to war, so its tough to restrain myself.

The last advice I have is to specialize your cities. The effects of different improvements are cumulative and you can't build everything in each city so this just makes sense. Take a finanical city -- I recommend to take a holy city with the appropriate holy building -- and build banks, markets and grocers and cottages. The holy building will generate 1 gold for each city that carries that religion plus it will get increased by 50%, 25% and 25% for each of the listed buildings.

Also select a city with high production (the hammer symbol) to build military units in. The faster they can be build the better. Also be sure to build barracks, West Points, Iron Works, etc in this city. Basically anything that increases production or unit experience (used to promote units).

Lastly pick a science city and build an academy, library, university and labratory in this city. Each one will increase the cities scientific output, allowing you to discover new techs quickly.

I could ramble on and on about Civ, as you can probably see, as its my favourite game of all time, but I think the above is enough advice to get you started. Feel free to post any questions. And, most importantly, have fun!

[onetwo_threefour]

I'm the opposite, I get kick ass scores when I go for cultural victories, and do poorly when I try for military dominance. Having said that, i also have a different strategy for cities. I like to build a bunch of cities fairly quickly and not too far apart but keeping a close eye on the nearby resources. Cities can be expensive, but if you can get them to grow fast and have a good resource base, the productivity really helps build the Wonders quick. If you also manage to set up decent trade routesm, you can get cash quickly and buy competion of wonders. I've played a few games where I've built almost every wonder available.

[CaptainCrunch]

I really enjoy targeting cities with wonders with a nuclear barrage. There's just something about destroying a civilization with nice things.

[Sainters7]

Just a question regarding the two. From everything I've read, both on here and on the comp, Civilization IV is better than AOE III. But the one thing I keep coming across is them saying Civilization is a much more confusing game to pick up. Aside from dicking around briefly with my buddy's AOE II for like an hour one time, I've never played either of these games. Will I be hopelessly lost with Civilization IV?

EDIT: Nevermind, just saw BlackEleven's solid and lengthy reply above. That's all the info I needed. Man I can't wait for Reading Week in just over a week, I'm gonna crack out like Darryl Strawberry.

[rubecube]

Man, stupid game keeps crashing at one point in my space race.

[worth]

Thanks to this thread I probably played 4 hours of Civ IV yesterday after not playing for probably 6+ months. Now I think i'm addicted again.

[Bobblehead]

BTW, just in case anyone is wondering, I have Civ IV working flawlessly on Vista64.

For some reason when I tried to install it, it initially said it needed to install DirectX 9.0c (which Vista ships with, and the installer didn't work), but running the DirectX webinstall from microsoft's site seemed to fix any issues, and the it installed and ran with no issues.

[mykalberta]

Strange, I didnt have any issues on my Vistax64.

Runs Civ4 and 3 as well as the 4 expansions very well.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Strange, I didnt have any issues on my Vistax64.

Runs Civ4 and 3 as well as the 4 expansions very well.

Seeing this thread, I decided to install it, and the installer failed. It said I needed to install DirectX 9c, and then would fail when it tried.

As I mentioned, running the DirectX web updater cleared up all issues (which is the common fix on all the Civ IV/Vista issues). This Vista64/Sp1 install is less than a month old, so I have no idea what the issues may have been.

Then the first time I tried to run it through the "Games" start menu listing, it mentioned that issues had been reported with this game. But I ran it a good 2 hours and didn't notice a single hiccough.

Edit: BTW, I think this was the one I used that worked http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

[octothorp]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet in this thread, but my favorite of the 'Age of...' series is actually Age of Mythology; it's one of the few games I never get tired of playing, along with Civ III and Transport Tycoon. There's just something very satisfying about unleashing Ragnarok on an Egyptian civilization.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

I just bought the gold edition of Civ 4 a couple weeks ago, so I've been playing with the Warlords expansion. Holy hell it seems so much harder! I just can't seem to overtake anyone in the Warlords edition. Basically, if I don't go to war with something, then I get very quickly overtaken by every other civ. And then when I do go to war, the civ I'm destroying will vassal with a more powerful nation and plunge me into war with them as well. It's just mass destruction all around!

[rogermexico]

Originally Posted by theJuice

Thanks alot for the tips guys, answered alot of my questions.

Just loaded up the game earlier today, but I gotta admit, I was pretty clueless. Is their any kind of tutorial system or anything, I just loaded up a random mission and was kinda clicking random buttons and upgrading random stuff, basically if it sounded interesting. Gonna probably play some more, and hopefully pick up some stuff just through trial and error.

I have really, really fond memories from a long long time ago of doing exactly that with Civ 1 - basically just rambling through it with no idea of how it was supposed to be played. There were a lot of late nights of trial and error. I don't know about the later editions, but learning the original game by trial and error was a blast.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by rogermexico

I don't know about the later editions, but learning the original game by trial and error was a blast.

Agreed. Learning all the little tricks like continuing production on already-built Wonders so you can instantly build the next one available, using the specialists, selling all your unneeded buildings for a quick cash influx, using units to block friendly "enemies" from cruising through your territory...

Good times. They've taken a lot of the stuff out of the later editions, but who are you really going to find to pay cash for a set of City Walls anyway...?

[Sainters7]

How the hell do you use your nukes in Civ IV??? I finished the Manhattan Project, and no more than 20 years later my much lesser and more primitive neighbour decided to declare war on me. I want to nuke him out of the sky but I just can't find the option to do it in the city I created them. I dont have time to play around with it either, as the longer I sit and look around for it, the more my soldiers are destroyed.

[Cliche]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

How the hell do you use your nukes in Civ IV??? I finished the Manhattan Project, and no more than 20 years later my much lesser and more primitive neighbour decided to declare war on me. I want to nuke him out of the sky but I just can't find the option to do it in the city I created them. I dont have time to play around with it either, as the longer I sit and look around for it, the more my soldiers are destroyed.

Do you have ICBM's? Those are the most important items for nuking your neighbors in Civ 3/4. I don't recall if you could drop nukes using the bombers though.

also, good lord, this thread won't die, it's like one more turnitis.