civilization....

[NightTrain]

no you can not save online games......

Hate to Necro an old thread, but you can indeed save online games. All you do is save the game, then when you and your opponents are ready to resume the game, the host loads it, the others join and it launches again where you left off.

This is on a PC, of course.. I have no idea how the PS3 games work for Civ.

I play Civ IV now when I'm out of town working in a hotel against my brothers at night after work (cheaper than hanging out at the bar).

Civ is still by far and away the best world conquest game ever. Get the expansion packs for Civ IV and you'll have so many different mods it'll take you months to decide which is your favorite.

As far as beating it on Deity, I've never even come close. You either have your war machine ramped up and fall behind in technology or get your ass handed to you because they overwhelm your defenses with Chariots and Catapults. Finding the right balance is almost impossible unless you get lucky and land on a good size island at the beginning all by yourself.

A strategy that seems to work when you have an aggressive neighbor is to run your latest & greatest military unit up to the border so that the AI knows you have them. It seems to make them less likely to attack you if you're ahead in the military technologies department.

[Insein]

Hate to Necro an old thread, but you can indeed save online games. All you do is save the game, then when you and your opponents are ready to resume the game, the host loads it, the others join and it launches again where you left off.

This is on a PC, of course.. I have no idea how the PS3 games work for Civ.

I play Civ IV now when I'm out of town working in a hotel against my brothers at night after work (cheaper than hanging out at the bar).

Civ is still by far and away the best world conquest game ever. Get the expansion packs for Civ IV and you'll have so many different mods it'll take you months to decide which is your favorite.

As far as beating it on Deity, I've never even come close. You either have your war machine ramped up and fall behind in technology or get your ass handed to you because they overwhelm your defenses with Chariots and Catapults. Finding the right balance is almost impossible unless you get lucky and land on a good size island at the beginning all by yourself.

A strategy that seems to work when you have an aggressive neighbor is to run your latest & greatest military unit up to the border so that the AI knows you have them. It seems to make them less likely to attack you if you're ahead in the military technologies department.

The game is like crack. I hadn't played it in over a year. Decided to play for a bit a couple weeks ago. Played it for 10 hours straight. You just can't help it. You have to go one more turn.

[NightTrain]

If any of you are still playing Civ IV, my brother and I have been playing the Beyond The Sword expansion - we've both got some time off in the next couple of weeks.

The more, the merrier!

Shoot me a PM if you want to get in on the action.

[Insein]

Yea I have BTS also. My nephew and I usually team up against harder AI's. Too hard and it gets boring though cause they dominate you. I'll have to look you up for a game if I have some free time.

[NightTrain]

Sure, anytime! We're playing almost every day, the teams add a whole new element to the game.

My brother and I developed a few strategies recently that really boosts you and gives you leverage very early in the game while playing teams. First, we both play the Inca leader (Ind / Fin).

You found your first city, and set it to building warrior units until you have 4 or 5. You don't want to build a worker or settler anyway during the first few turns, because it halts city growth.

When you have your 4 or 5 warriors, you should have discovered at least one other Civ. Take out that city, thereby reducing his partner's Technology and Trade rates by 50%.

If you both take out a different rival civ, you're golden. When he'll talk to you again, make peace with him and get down to business developing and expanding as usual. More than likely the orphaned Civs from the destroyed partnerships will offer to be your Vassal State, which is mighty good for business and score.

Something to avoid, though, is taking more than one city that's isolated from your empire that early in the game. It really drags your economy down in a big way.

[Insein]

When I play and start the conquest, I usually just raze cities. Like you said, it cripples the economy and its cheaper just to build a settler and start one from scratch. No insurgency and no overpopulation.

I like Americans early on because they build wonders 50% faster. I get all the early Wonders and it carries you through the first 2 stages of the game.

[avatar4321]

Just started Civ IV again. Ive only got the Warlord expansion, but its just a fun game. I need some better strategies. Because i just seem to go with the flow most of the time and I dont really have a plan. Its fun to watch, but sometimes it gets me no where.

[NightTrain]

Avatar, get the Beyond The Sword expansion for Civ IV, you'll love it. More units and unique racial units and buildings, more technologies, more world and national wonders.

Also, there's 6 different corporations you can control that do different things like add culture, add production or add money to each city you expand it to (works like spreading religion via missionaries). I'm pretty sure the corporations were introduced in the BTS expansion... I could be wrong though.

Late-game is where BTS really shines, though, especially naval warfare. You have attack subs, stealth destroyers, and missile cruisers in addition to standard naval units like battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, subs, transports, etc. Stealth destroyers are very handy because only another stealth destroyer can see them - so a couple of these pillaging fishing grounds, offshore oil rigs and other resources is pretty safe unless you get unlucky and a battleship happens to run over you.

One of my favorite tactics lately against a powerful adversary is to make about 5 aircraft carriers, load them up with fighters and run them in a stack of 4 battleships and a couple of destroyers. I'll run that fleet up and down the enemy coast, using my fighters to carpet bomb the snot out of his countryside developments... suddenly losing all your food, resources and luxuries instantly cripples any civ trying to wage war and a size 30 city will be down to single digits in a few turns with this scorched earth strategy. At least two 'medic' promotions on a couple of your ships in your fleet will keep all of them repaired up unless you're really catching hell from a big navy, in which case add a few more battleships to protect those carriers.

Another good tactic I started doing recently is to park an attack sub off the coast next to a large coastal city and hit the 'Blockade' button. This prevents any water resources including overseas trade from going to any city within the sub's influence, which severely cripples the enemy's economy. A few subs in choice spots can bring an enemy's economy to it's knees. Of course, if one of his destroyers spots you, it would be wise to haul ass out of there with your sub.

My brother is a fan of nuking the hell out of a city he's about to assault and it works for him, but I don't like doing it. Too messy and takes a lot of cleanup after you take it. Plus it triggers global warming and I don't like having deserts appear back in my cities replacing farmland.

Anyway, BTS is definitely the best Civ IV expansion out there IMO.

[Noir]

I just got Civ 4 (i know a lil late to the party lol) i've been meaning to get it for agggggges as the last Civ game i had was Civ 2, but never got round to it, but i went on a bit of a game spending spree and finally picked it up,

One thing that keeps urking me (n00b question i know) is over-crowding in cities, there's like forever a -4 or -5 happiness level because of overcrowding, and the in-game help basically just says that over-crowding is bad, with no remedy, so how do i quell such a problem?