How to play civilization 4. Squeeze juice out of your cities. Types of ground forces
Genre: Strategy, Developer: fraxis Games, Publisher: 2kGames
Civilization 4 game in the games database
There are few games that, having appeared to the world ten years ago, continue to live and exist to this day in new reincarnations, without changing their basic concepts and even their names. I immediately recall a couple of FPS, and among the turn-based strategy - the famous Civilization, created in the early nineties by Sid Meier, appears without fail.
Walking through the expanses of the gaming industry, the series gains more than it loses, positive moments and opportunities introduced not only by developers, but also by various add-ons and hundreds of user modifications. Today we will talk about the fourth incarnation of Civilization, created by FirAxis Games and released in the last quarter of last year.
About everything and a little
We will not dwell on drawing parallels between Civilization4 and previous series, this is a topic for a separate review. We confine ourselves to the general characteristics of the game and its description. key features which we encounter as we study it.
In the game, we are greeted by a beautiful video with an excellent soundtrack and a spectacular menu with a three-dimensional view of our native planet Earth. As usual, before starting we are offered to choose all the starting parameters of the game - such as nation, ruler, type of continent, difficulty, climate, number of opponents (up to 10) and so on. The initial discoveries, the direction of his policy and some other points depend on the Ruler, the complexity, of course, will affect the militancy of your neighbors, the number of barbarians and wild beasts that will poison the life of your civilization. However, the influence of complexity is not limited to this, starting from the degree of "monarch" any agreements and diplomatic negotiations will go with great difficulty, and the exchange of one of your important discoveries with a neighbor for a couple of scientific achievements of secondary importance will become not only a rare phenomenon, but in fact impossible. Not without "cheating" on the part of the opponent - for more high levels difficulties, AI will receive more units than you at the beginning, plus a wave will overtake you different problems, such as many times higher content of units, low level happiness in cities and an increase in the cost of discoveries.
The game provides a solid number of victory criteria - from the usual conquest and space race, ending with cultural or territorial dominance.
At the very beginning, we get one or two units. This is a researcher, with whom we can look around and find something interesting in local settlements, and a Settler, who, at your command, will create a city at a specified point. It should be noted that when selecting the Settler, we get brief description terrain in the form of symbols and symbols characterizing its fertility and other parameters.
Is the city a place to forge units, or something more?
As for the cities, from now on the tactics of playing with one city are practically of no use, except perhaps on the lowest difficulty. The larger and more numerous your Civilization, the faster and more dynamically it develops. Each city has a number of indicators - this is the health of the population, and the growth of the city, and cultural influence, and science, and income, what can I say - each city has its own unique weight in your Civilization, and not just serves as a means of stamping units. The influence zones of cities increase in proportion to its growth, and may even crowd out less prosperous neighbors. There are frequent cases of riots in neighboring cities of other civilizations that come under the wing of your Civilization.
You can direct the development of the future metropolis in the right direction by giving individual commands to the workers who improve the surroundings of the city. Need an industrial city? No problem! We are building mines, water mills and workshops, and soon the time for the production of units or buildings in the city will be drastically reduced and it will be able to cover not only its own needs, but also the needs of the entire Civilization. Do you need a powerful agricultural center that will feed half of the state? Please! Build farms and pastures. Of course, it’s impossible to just take and build the necessary element of the city’s infrastructure, for this the area must satisfy the necessary conditions or have a certain resource, which allows you to plan an approximate scheme for the development of the city even when choosing its place of foundation. Once all resources are connected by conventional or railroads, they become available in all cities for the production of units or the construction of buildings.
The management of the city is commendable - now we have the opportunity to single out scientists, merchants, religious figures, engineers, etc. from among its citizens. Various buildings and Wonders of the World built in the city provide it with Great People, who can later either be assigned to this city, or create their own unique building or Wonder. In general, the idea with Great People deserves approval, so, for example, it makes sense to "save" the Great Engineer in order to complete the construction of an important building or Wonder of the World at a critical moment. Or discover a new discovery by the Great Scientist. There are just a lot of variations, which are limited only by you and your imagination.
Religion has received great importance and development in the game. In total, there are 7 religions in Civilization 4, each with its own special missionary units and a number of properties that have a significant impact on your Civilization and on the world situation as a whole. Accordingly, there are a huge number of Wonders of the World, special buildings, temples and everything else that is connected with religion.
Army and its application
The game is replete with a huge number of different squads and units, characteristic of each era in which your Civilization is located. In addition, each nation has its own unique units, which, although they almost duplicate the usual ones, nevertheless have some original properties. The production of many units is tied to the availability of a certain type of resources and bonuses on your continent. For example, you can fully develop your science by making all the key discoveries, however, if you do not have Oil available, then you will have to chop down enemy tanks using cavalry and infantry, because. there will be no own tank formations in your state. "Se la vie" as the French say. But, as practice shows, if something is missing, then you can ask for it, buy it, or, in the end, arrange a small crusade for resources to the nearest neighbor.
The combat system has become more realistic, and now it does not depend much on the leveling of the unit and its experience. If we compare identical units, then the ratio of attackers / defenders will be approximately 3/1. That is, in order to destroy a detachment of axemen who have settled in the city, you will need at least three similar detachments. This is provided that the city does not have fortifications, because in this case the survivability of the defenders will greatly increase. In general, the war in Civilization4 has become a difficult and economically inexpedient business, as it really is. Tep er even at the initial levels of complexity to deploy a full-fledged conquest will be difficult. The maximum that can be done without greatly straining the country's production capacities is to drive the rapidly breeding neighbor away, up to its extermination. Although a defensive war can be waged indefinitely by placing in front of the border a large number of detachments.
If you decide to conduct a small blitzkrieg and capture a couple of cities, then it will take a long time to prepare for this, preparing the number of units that are at least three times the enemy army that you plan to destroy. Yes, and taking the city without artillery is either impossible at all, or possible - but with losses 5-7 times higher than the losses of the enemy. Artillery is used to bombard the city and destroy its fortifications. When the defense of the city reaches 0%, you can safely attack. However, this is not the main purpose of artillery. In addition to the "bombing" option, there is also a regular attack that damages a group of units located on the same cell. This leads to the fact that by launching a couple of kamikaze cannons on the city, we can cause damage to all its defenders and capture with fewer losses among the troops. However, the artillery is likely to die.
If you have become the object of enemy aggression, then you should not hope that the enemy will stupidly go to your capital and, hitting the capital fortifications of the city, will kill himself to death. No, the adversary's troops will slowly walk around the city, capturing workers and destroying the city's infrastructure. And after a few moves, your city will be left without resources and food, and the population in it will most likely rebel. Yes, and speaking of AI, I want to basically only praise him, especially for his fighting, which he conducts in a coordinated manner, involving both naval forces (if necessary) and artillery.
Politics and diplomacy
Diplomatic negotiations and political intrigues are, if not the main, then one of the very significant parts of the game. If you want to have a couple of strong allies or pit your closest neighbors against each other, you will have to spend a lot of time in the diplomacy dialog. Do not flatter yourself, for the usual "thank you" no one will even lift a sword to tickle even a sworn enemy. If you want to incite a state to war, prepare either an impressive package of scientific achievements, or a whole bag. From time to time, other rulers will come with a bow with a wide variety of questions - from the usual trade offer or, to sharp, threatening demands in an ultimatum form to change religion, form of government or pay tribute.
With an impressive range of free resources, you can create a powerful trading system with friendly states, in which, in addition to the missing resources, you can still get a solid influx of gold into the state treasury. Relations between the two states are influenced by many factors - for example, the same religions, the absence of relations with the sworn enemy of neighbors, similar forms of government - all this leads to a strengthening of relations and opens up new spaces in the field of diplomatic politics.
Graphic design and other goodies
And although graphic performance in games of this genre is not even put in second place, but somewhere in the back rows, FirAxis decided not to follow this principle, but paid maximum attention to the graphic component. Zooming in and out of the camera, with the ability to view the entire planet, honest and beautiful animation of the actions of the units, amazing detailing of the terrain and landscapes - everything is done on a solid five with a plus. Fights between squads are accompanied by a spectacular "collision" of the camera on them with further simulation of a short battle between them. Each Wonder of the World built is endowed with a beautiful video that shows the process of its construction at an accelerated pace. The sound design deserves the highest praise and varies depending on the era and some other factors. But I will immediately notice that the set of compositions is so large that the desire to turn on Winamp will not appear in you very soon. However, I consider it inappropriate to dwell on this in more detail, since all this must be seen and heard personally, but we can say with confidence that even the most demanding gamers in terms of graphics and sound will be delighted. Hit or not hit?
As a conclusion
The release of the game caused a mixed reaction from the fan community. Those who missed the second and third comings of Civilization, for the most part, were delighted with the continuation of the game. Admirers of the third part, spoiled by a huge number of modifications and changes created in more than two years, expressed mostly negative points of view regarding the game. However, there is nothing special about this, it has always been so. Suffice it to recall a similar situation with the third Civ, when crowds of admirers of the previous part in every possible way stigmatized the new one. Nevertheless, we can conclude that the game will attract a huge number of both new fans of the series, and will lure from the previous parts of the seasoned "old men" who ate more than one dog while managing their Civilization in different eras. Well, for those whose expectations the game did not meet, or those who lacked variety or have complaints about something else - we suggest waiting for modifications that, no doubt, will satisfy even the most demanding gamers.
Of course, in this review, we were not able to consider all the features of the game, and some even lost sight of it, however, even what is stated is enough to come to the conclusion about the uniqueness and success of the game, as well as its simply amazing replay value. If you want to know even more about her than described above, then I can assure you - better way to do this, except for direct acquaintance with the game, you will not find. And to fit even a brief description of all, without exception, aspects of the game - in one review is simply impossible.
Join the discussion of Civilization 4 in our forum
We were looking forward to Civilization 4. All conceivable and unthinkable awards were given to the game in absentia: "Best global strategy of 2005", "Innovation in the genre", "Breakthrough in the industry" - Western publications described the game with approximately such phrases in their previews. Russian press initially
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We were looking forward to Civilization 4. All conceivable and unthinkable awards were given to the game in absentia: "Best global strategy of 2005", "Innovation in the genre", "Breakthrough in the industry" - Western publications described the game with approximately such phrases in their previews. The Russian press was initially stricter about the project: my colleagues, like me, wondered what would remain in the new part from the previous one, and what would change. Immediately I want to upset someone, and please someone: the revolution did not happen. Civilization 4 is practically Civilization 3. We will build on this.
PRIVATE CIVILIZATION 4
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Official website of the game
System requirements: P IV-1.2, 256 Mb RAM, 3D video card (64 Mb)
Graphic beauty
The main difference between the new part and the previous one is the graphics. Frankly, I doubted that the developers would be able to qualitatively translate the isometric picture into full 3D. Usually global strategies only lose from the transition to the third dimension. By and large, they (the strategies) do not need it. After all, because the picture is in the same Civilization 3 would be three-dimensional, nothing would change. Because for global strategies graphics (just don't throw rocks at me!) are not that important.
But Firaxis decided differently. Kohl to change shape Civilization 4, then radically. And it turned out, you know, great! I have never seen a more perfect picture in strategies. But one graphics will not be full! The game should also have depth, let alone name Civilization 4 a superficial project will not turn the tongue.
Starting with this part (no one doubts that the fifth game will ever be released?) the map became scalable. Therefore, from now on, we can admire our continent both from a bird's eye view and practically from the ground. Moreover, you can consider absolutely everything: every building in our city; animals inhabiting the surrounding forests; workers stubbornly digging a new trench to bring water into the city. All this is so well implemented that it takes your breath away!
The animation has also become much more realistic. War elephants, people, equipment - everything looks like five points! The movements obey all the laws of physics, and forgive, of course, for weakness, but when I saw the tank tracks turning, a tear of emotion almost rolled down my cheek. The leap from the third to the fourth part is more like a revolution than an evolution. It’s even hard to imagine that the developers will prepare for the continuation…
Cities radically change their appearance from one era to another. Moreover, if earlier it was not so noticeable, now the appearance of the capital is simply striking. It became really beautiful.
At the dawn of humanity
But enough about the beauties, let's smoothly but confidently move on to the gameplay, because it was for him that we all fell head over heels in both the first and second and, of course, the third part of the game. Say that Firaxis brought to Civilization 4 some global changes are difficult. There were many small innovations, mainly related to micromanagement. But describing them is a stupid and thankless task. You can't remember everything anyway! Let's take a look at the most important changes.
The main innovation Civilization 4 became improved combat system. Remember how it was before? We order a unit, send it into battle, over time it turns into a veteran, and then on the rise. The system, as many reviewers have noted, is a little primitive. Now everything is different. Get ready, breathe in more air (no, this is not a Zadornov concert, what nonsense!) And read the following phrase: in terms of battle Civilization 4 turned into almost a real RPG. Yes, yes, you heard right. The most that neither is RPG: with experience, skills, characteristics. Now the process of producing units looks a little different: they ordered a warrior, built it, sent it into battle, earned experience points, distributed it according to characteristics, learned a new skill, sent it into battle again, and so on, until the death of the latter, of course. I think the general scheme is already clear. Moreover, it is extremely important to correctly select different skills for different types of warriors. For example, it is much better to teach the most ordinary warrior how to defend his native city than to add to his chances of a successful attack - anyway, after all, no one will involve primitive fighters in a war with neighbors. All in all, Civilization 4 makes you, like the previous parts of the game, constantly think, evaluate the chances of success and, like in chess, keep a few spare options.
The second most important innovation I would call the emergence of religion. This was really expected. At first, second and even third glance, the religion of your people does not play a practical role. So, pampering is one thing. However, you need to understand that if you, for example, profess Christianity, countries with the same religion will most likely willingly support you in the fight against Buddhists or Muslims. And vice versa. Sometimes, in order to attack a rival civilization and not incur the fire of "allies", you have to come up with a reason for war. And arguments like: “we were the first here” or “you yourself are gray, we are red, so you get it!” do not work. But organizing a crusade or, say, declaring jihad is the most correct option. Nobody will judge you for this. Even, perhaps, they will support in undertakings and provide all possible military assistance.
A very interesting novelty was the emergence of talented people. If your civilization is on the rise and the birth rate is high enough, get ready for the arrival of Mozart, Newton and other famous personalities. What do they bring to the game, besides nice little things like increasing the level of culture? Thanks to their presence, you have a chance to build something grand in the city. What we used to call casually simply: a wonder of the world. From now on, the construction of such objects is fraught with some difficulties, one of which is the presence of a genius. Is civilization developing badly? Well, then it’s not your destiny to surprise your people with another Copernican observatory ...
IN Civilization 4 diplomacy has moved to a new level of development. From now on, it has become much more difficult to negotiate with virtual opponents. In addition to the long-known "general hostility of some civilizations to others," a religious aspect has been added, and sometimes it becomes not only a stone - a stumbling block! Several times I had to change religion just to make a military alliance with opponents. Otherwise, I would not have succeeded in destroying my closest competitors. Naturally, constant changes in religion do not lead to good: try to restore order in the cities, and the number of citizens dissatisfied with life is increasing dramatically. You have to choose between two evils. And, alas, it is far from always clear what is better: to conclude a military alliance or to maintain peace and tranquility on the streets of the capital.
Enumerate the rest of the innovations of the game can be, as I already wrote, indefinitely. But does it make sense? It's better to see once...
Symphony of wonder
And about music separately. You know, I'm not a connoisseur of game music. I do not love her with all my heart, I do not digest, so to speak. But when familiar melodies by Mozart and Bach rushed from the speakers of my computer - shock, tenderness, joy. You can describe my feelings as long as you like. If earlier I just turned off the game music and put on my favorite classic tracks - now I don’t have to do that either. Everything is ready, everything is on a silver platter - please taste it! Indeed, in Firaxis geniuses work!
I apologize for the fact that I did not indicate in the review a single minus of the game. You see, they just don't exist. So it happened, so it happened...
Also read reviews of the following games:
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
F.E.A.R.
Black and White 2
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Myst 5: End of Ages
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7.5 from the editors
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23.09.2015
Civilization 4
- Publisher: 2K Games
- Publisher in Russia: 1C
- Developer: Firaxis Games
- Website: Official site
- Game engine: Gamebryo
- Genre: Strategy
- Game Mode: Single Player, Multiplayer
- Distribution: 2 CDs, 1 DVD
System requirements:
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- 1.2GHz
- 256 MB
- 64 MB with T&L support
- 550 MB
About the game
Sid Meier's Civilization 4 is the sequel to one of the most popular and successful series of global turn-based strategy games.
At the dawn of their history, people often fixed their eyes on the sky - where the distant stars shine icy. And one day, that power that sleeps for the time being inside a person promised that it would take him to this transcendental world. But in order to realize their dreams, people have to go a long way, thousands of years long, from the echoing dampness of stone caves to the well-tailored comfort of log villages, and then to the cold of high-rise giants made of concrete, glass and steel. Man will have to learn to speak many languages, create culture and overthrow the gods. Barriers won't stop him. There will be no doubt. Civilization is coming.
The plot of the game
In the game you are given the opportunity to manage one of the empires. You start the game in 4000 BC. e. with a settler and one warrior unit (or a scout if the initial technology is Hunting), you will also have a few more civilizations, native villages and barbarian tribes with you. Before the start of the game, you are given the opportunity to choose the type of map (pangea, several continents, island map, etc.), as well as its size, which determines the number of civilizations competing with you. Also, before the start of the game, a choice of climate and sea level is available, which affects the landscape of the generated map and the resources located on it. Each turn in the game is equal to a certain number of years, which depends on the speed of the game chosen by the player. In addition, there is a certain scale according to which the closer the player is to the present, the fewer years in one turn and vice versa. At low game speeds, in the recent past, present and future, one year can pass in several moves. In the game, you have several paths to victory. This is political, cultural, technological dominance or destruction of all other civilizations.
Multiplayer
Civilization IV is the first game in the series to be designed with multiplayer in mind. The result was that Civilization IV is the best game for a multiplayer than ever, the main features were the modes: simultaneous move (very similar to RTS games), move by time (to force kopush to hurry up with moves biggrin.gif), and move limit, where the leader in points at the end of this number of moves is declared winner. Many people worry when they have to leave Online Games- exit found! Turn on A.I. Absorption, and if that person leaves, the game will continue and the computer will replace the player. If the player decides to return, they can take control again at any time. The Firaxis development team and testers have been playing multiplayer for over two years and now this mode is great.
There are so many innovations in multiplayer that it required two entries in the list.
Team games are now well thought out, and teams have new ways to communicate with each other, from showing each other's screens (you can literally draw lines to show where to go, like they do in football) to making small calls to alert teammates. team for important events taking place around their map. Voice over IP support allows players to talk to each other while they're playing, whether it's for genuine communication and support or just casual conversation is a matter of taste.
But that's just the beginning of the multiplayer features in Civilization IV. The new mode "Destroy two cities" means that as soon as you lose two cities, you lose.
"One City" means you can only have one city.
"Always War" and "Always Peaceful" games limit you to one or the other. All of them can be mixed and matched to create the kind of game you want to play.
One in particular interesting game can be created by playing with teams and obstacles so that there are two teams: one with a single person set to the easiest difficulty level (providing that player bonuses in all areas) and another with multiple players on normal (or one of the more difficult levels, if you really want to make the game interesting) and try to beat him/her.
Fun: Really small map with lots of players. Games for Twelve people in Civilization take a lot of time when there is a lot of space. Put them all on a map the size of Rhode Island, and see how much it takes to grow, and how the battle for every cell grows.
Civilizations and Leaders
There are 18 civilizations to choose from in the game, each with its own unique features, units and leaders. Some civilizations have 2 (and in the Beyond the Sword addon even 3) leaders to choose from. These cute, almost lively "dummies" require us to conform to their social and religious views, and on occasion they will surely recall a dusty resentment. Diplomacy has become much more open - just hover over the name of the alien lord to "in numbers" see how he treats us and why. Espionage (yes, "Mata Hari Pedestrians" is back in business) is the lot of mediocre negotiators. Creating obstacles in the construction of wonders and the opportunity to "peep" the enemy's plans are not worth a hopelessly damaged relationship. The picture is spoiled only by importunate harassment of neighbors, painfully reacting to a categorical refusal.
Battles
Compared to the previous parts, the battles have undergone significant changes.
Now each combat unit has an experience parameter. By participating in battles, the unit gains experience points and, as they level up, they can spend it on learning one promotion, for which they receive a badge. Some buildings and paradigms also give experience. In later add-ons to the game, experience points during production can also be given by an outstanding personality - a general settled in a city. It doesn't matter if the squad was defending or attacking, in any case, when they win, they are awarded experience points. But it is worth remembering that air units do not accumulate experience (this was implemented only in the Beyond the Sword addon), nor is it given for bombing or in the case when the enemy unit retreated. Not every unit has all promotions, some can only be obtained by fulfilling a certain condition, while others can only use certain units.
- When the game first came out, some boxes contained two identical CD-ROMs and could not be installed.
- The game is open for modifications - the game files are mainly stored in XML format, and after the release, a full-fledged toolkit was released for the game.
- Mini-cuts with the Wonders of the World reappeared in the game.
- Each leader in the game has its own soundtrack in the diplomacy window.
- The title song titled "Baba Yetu" was specially written for the game. It means "our father" in Swahili.
- The game was composed by Jeff Briggs.
- There are no random events in the game at all. They only appeared in the expansion.
- Unlike previous games in the series, barbarians have their own cities.
- The game's AI no longer acts like it knows the map from the start.
- For the first time in the series, the religion system has changed. Now there are many of them and they are tied to the study of specific technologies.
- For the first time in the series, "great people" appeared. They give significant bonuses to choose from: the construction of buildings, an increase in the productivity of the city, instant learning of technology, and others.
- The voice of the game is Leonard Nimoy. Spock from Star Trek.
- There are 86 types of research in the game. Against 81 in the last part.
- There are seven different religious movements in the game.
- There are 32 types of resources in the game.
- The ranked game ends in 2050 if no victory conditions are met.
- The game was released for only two platforms: PC and Mac OS.
- The action of the game begins in 4000 BC.
- The game was released in ten languages: Chinese, Polish, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Russian.
- The music that plays when building a theater in the city is borrowed from Sid Meier's Pirates!, where the player dances with the governor's daughter in a luxuriously furnished room.
- When a player makes a decision that another leader likes, they will sometimes respond with "Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I wished I could be" from the song "Wind beneath My Wings".
- In the window for selecting the size and type of map for new game depicts a rotating planet with a seemingly random shape of the continents. It is actually an inverted map of the Earth, with the oceans in the form of terrestrial continents.
- Elvis Presley appears in every game in the series. In Civilization IV, he is referenced by the attire of the Great Talents in the industrial and modern eras and the "Rock 'n' Roll" marvel.
- In the window informing the player that Modern Age has been reached, Soren's digital clock shows 05:23. This is a reference to Soren Johnson, lead developer and AI programmer for the game, and 5.23 is May 23rd, his birthday.
- There are six pre-installed world scenarios in the game. One of them is the American Revolution.
- There are 33 Wonders of the World in the game.
- The chief game designer of Sid Meier's Civilization 4 is Soren Johnson.
- The latest version for Mac OS was released on June 30, 2006.
- There are 18 civilizations to choose from in the game.
- The game uses the GameBryo engine.
- There are a total of 41 different promotions in the game.
- Now each combat unit has an experience parameter. It affects the combat ability of the troops - they get special features, for example, pluses to damage when defending in cities.
- The game has six types of achievement of victory: by points, by conquest, by domination, by culture, by diplomacy and victory in the space race.
- The localizer of the game was the company "Logrus".
- The total circulation of the series, not counting the fifth part, has more than 6 million copies.
Food - "War is war, and lunch is on schedule" (approx. Translation. - An army marches on its stomach.)
Believe it or not, food is the main resource in ziv. Despite the fact that food has not so many functions, it is the basis for the production of all other goods. The functions of food are as follows:
- Spent on the population, allowing it to grow;
- Consumed for the production of settlers and workers (along with shields)
- Spent on shields or commerce, by creating specialists or processing "brown" cells.
(For the purposes of this article, “brown” cells are those cells that produce less than 2FP (food units) and therefore cannot fully support the population that works for them. “Green” cells are those that produce 2 or more FP.
Sources of excess food:
- 2 EP in each city (central cell);
— Food resources and floodplains;
- farms / paddocks / fishing boats;
Usually, increasing the surplus of food has to sacrifice other benefits. Food tiles rarely produce more than 1 coin or hammer (the main exceptions are cows (3 hammers) and fishing boats (2-3 coins). It is especially bad for a financial leader that "food" tiles cannot give a commerce bonus. For this reason, sea food is best friend financial leader. An abundance of sea food bonuses will give you the food surplus you need and at the same time will give 3+ commerce, this does not work with farms.
Shields - or should we call them hammers?
Hammers (shields) have only one specific function. They are spent on the construction of buildings and units. Like food, shields are very dependent on cell type. However, unlike food, it's not easy to have as many shields as you need.
Shield sources:
- resources;
- mines (usually in the mountains);
- engineers and priests (and townspeople, at times or recklessly);
- forests and plains;
- mills (water and wind) and workshops later in the game
- blockhead;
- acceleration of production.
Mountains will most likely assist in increasing the number of shields. Forests and plains only give one shield and usually no more. Meadow forests are not very valuable unless you put a cottage or forest policy (note - since we are talking about shields now, the sawmill the best choice). Plains in the early game will only give one hammer and consume (if no farm) food. The lowland forests will be better if you have food in abundance. Whatever the case, you will have areas with a chronic lack of shields until technology allows you to create improvements that will bring additional shields (guilds for workshops and replaceable parts for mills, to be exact). If you populated such locations in the Classic Era, you will have to speed up production by chopping wood or speeding up production (population). Such cities should never produce units or wonders until replacement parts and chemistry are discovered, which allow cities to reach a decent level of production through mills and workshops. They can be good sources of commerce if they are surrounded by cottages and have buildings that increase the level of commerce (market, groceries, etc.)
Commerce
Commerce is the resource that is the least dependent on cell type. It can be produced anywhere, and usually benefits your empire as a whole rather than the city that produces it. (unless the crop slider is set too high). If the city doesn't produce a lot of commerce, then don't worry about it, as you can produce enough of it elsewhere.
Sources of commerce:
- Resources (again);
- Cottages;
- Specialists;
- Marine cages;
- trade routes;
- River cells;
- Mills.
- In addition, gold (a related commodity that is equivalent to commerce in most cases) can be obtained through:
- churches (and certain miracles);
- looting / capturing cities;
- diplomatic deals.
Of the above resources, the most productive are cottages and specialists. Each civilization needs one of these two resources. Churches, trade routes and water cages are good economic support and should be used wherever possible. The commerce provided by mills comes later in the game and is smaller than cottages built in the ancient era, so these upgrades shouldn't look like major sources of commerce, they're more of a late game shield source that brings some commerce.
The main function of commerce is to pay for the maintenance of cities / civics / armies (gold) and for scientific research (flasks).
Other functions: — diplomatic deals;
- culture and happiness (culture slider);
- acceleration of production.
2. Finding good places for the city.
First indicator good place for the city, it is the availability of resources. Resources are needed early in the game to make a small city productive. As your cities get bigger, the value of resources decreases, but your first cities should always have a few resources (not just luxury items, as they can't be used until the Calendar).
good cells
Good cells are cells that can easily be productive. They include: grasslands, hills, floodplains and rivers. Excluding hills, these tiles produce at least 2 HP and can be crafted to give shields or commerce. For shields, look at the ratio of hills to rivers/meadows/floodplains and food resources. Hills without the support of surplus food will be useless, as the city cannot afford to farm them and continue to grow. For commerce, look for river tiles with lots of food if you plan on making the city a Great People (LL) factory, otherwise look for meadows and floodplains - you can build cottages on them. Forests and jungles can be cleared without special efforts, so their presence should not scare you away and force you to look for another place for the city. Forests are a very good helper for commercial cities - they can give you the shields you need to build a courthouse, a library, a lighthouse or something else if you are unable to do so due to the meager production of shields in the city.
Mediocre tiles - do not build farms on "brown" tiles!
Plains, lakes, and coasts are not particularly valuable in most cases and should not be the only available tiles within a city radius. A plain with a farm gives 2 FP to biology (enough to feed a villager working on it), 1 shield, and 1 commerce if located on a river. It's not particularly efficient given that he (the villager) can produce 2 shields or 3 commerce, plus VL growth units if he's a specialist. True specialists slow down the growth of the city, but if the plains are the best thing you have a large population will not be effective. Building cottages will give a lot of returns in the end, especially if you're not playing as the financier, but only if you have enough food supplies to farm the "brown" cells after you've already used the hills to meet your shield needs. Lakes and coasts are almost the same for non-financial leaders, better than nothing, but don't get too excited about it either. They give you 2 commerce and can never be upgraded with tech or civics. Financial leaders get 3 commerce from such spaces and should take into account such spaces, but still it is worse than meadows. Desert hills also fall into this category (mediocre tiles), and are the last resort for cities with no other source of hammers. It is also important to remember that as time goes by and you improve trade routes, civics, build wonders, city improvements, this gives you the opportunity to increase the return on very mediocre cells. So at first glance, the poor location of the city, in the end, may look attractive.
bad cells
Desert, tundra and mountain peaks. Ugh. Try to avoid them unless they contain resources. The forest tundra can become productive when you can build sawmills, cottages in the tundra are also viable, although you need a river to build them. That's about all there is to say about bad cell types.
Expansion stages
The first stage starts immediately (unless you have tricky moves up your sleeve like attacking cities with one warrior or unlocking all religions) and that's land grab. Here your goal is to take best places to found a city and establish defensible boundaries. Each city should have resources that it can use immediately and/or strategically important. Expansion should be paused before you reach the OCG (optimal number of cities) for your map (9-10 cities for standard map). You will deliberately leave a lot of unused space, as the price of colonization is too high.
The filling stage begins gradually as certain technologies are acquired that improve the efficiency of less important cells.
— Mrs. Service (farms on non-river tiles);
— Guilds (workshops give 2 shields);
- Calendar (possibility of using luxury resources);
- Machines (mills) and Replaceable parts (improved mills);
— Railway(additional shields);
- Communism (cheap maintenance, better workshops).
Building ships in each city is necessary to increase the number of your cities, and opening galleons will allow you to open previously uncolonized islands. The territory settled in this phase is the territory that belonged to you, but rejected because of its unproductiveness. Now this (as well as open islands) - vacant places for the construction of cities.
Overlapping (approx. - overlap, I don’t know under what name it is known among Russian civilizers) - Yes, this is good idea in this game too.
One of the vital lessons in the third civ that the player had to know was the overlap. In cv4, the overlap looks like a monster to avoid. I think this typical mistake. The days of CxC city placement (placing cities across a cell, where "C" is a city and "x" is a free cell) are considered the efforts of programmers from, but sometimes an overlap is possible and necessary. It takes a long time to grow a city with a population of 20 (the size needed to process each cell within the city radius). Happiness and health restrictions take their toll if you're trying to grow a city like this in the Middle Ages. In addition, not all cells of the city are worth using. Don't waste time moving the settler to get an extra plain space. Cities should be placed in such a way that their radius includes the maximum number of good cells that you can process as quickly as possible - a goal that is incompatible with the SxxxS tactics, or even with the SxxxS if it gives you an extra wheat cell.
Product management - we are seeing the growth of cottages. When deciding how to run a city, ask yourself what is limiting its growth? Growth can, generally speaking, be limited by food, happiness, or space. IN different time, cities will be limited in growth in different ways.
Food Scarcity and Population Calculation - Think before you face food scarcity.
Food is the most common and most confusing growth limiter. It does not allow you to create a specialist or craft a good cell, because this will lead to starvation. This very often happens with cities with a lot of hills and plains, or those with a lot of specialists. Thus, anything that produces less than 2 HP (specialist or hill) must be parried with something with excess food. For example, a mine on a hill/plain gives 1.33 shields, this requires two farms in the meadows to provide support. These calculations may be different if you have a floodplain farm. The exact numbers can be found using the following formulas:
(income)/(1+(2-food_a))/(3-(food_b))) (income) = basic income of hammers or commerce (food_a) = basic income of food (food_b) = amount of food best unused food sources, usually 3 or 4
(food_b) must be at least 3 otherwise the result is a division by 0. In game terms, this means that the city is not capable of producing excess food and is very limited in processing cells with food less than 2.
After analyzing with this formula Various types cells, several conclusions can be drawn. First, the ability to farm food-poor cages or hire specialists depends on the presence of floodplains. Don't classify a city with floodplains and a city with meadows as the same type. In a meadow city, it is more profitable to process cells in a way that is not profitable in a city with floodplains. Exists a big difference between cells giving 1 EP and 0EP. When supported by a meadow farm, a tile with 1 EP is 150% more efficient at producing shields than a tile with 0 EP, making a grassland hill more efficient. With the support of a floodplain farm, the difference drops to 133%, but if you have biology, the difference is 116%.
Population Limits and Cell Efficiency Calculation - Specialists finally useful.
It happens that in a city there is a lot of food in bulk, but its growth limits happiness, and you are unwilling or unable to do anything about it. For the most part, this happens before the invention of the calendar, the culture slider, or the religious buildings of other religions are not available. In this case, increasing productivity is a simple matter of choosing the best possible cells while avoiding food gain. Also, do not forget about the experts. Once food is not a problem, specialists are useful not only as extra VL points. And do not forget to change the processed cells when the bar of happiness rises.
Cage Upgrades - Demolish those farms.
Cities can also be stunted due to space. If there are no more useful cells in the radius of the city, assign specialists until the city stops growing. From now on main question it is what upgrades should be built to make the best use of the available food. Farms certainly allow the city to grow, but they are only needed if the goal of the city is to create as many specialists as possible. A grown cottage (gives 4+ commerce, depends on many circumstances) is probably a better option than a farm that feeds a semi-specialist. A cell that yields less than 2EP should only be processed if it produces a better result than the specialist.
Cottage or specialist? - Cottage if you don't know what to do.
This question should be in your mind when you are planning a commercial city of the city. Cottages give 1-4 commerce (no upgrades), 1-6 (+1 shield) with the right techs and civics. Specialists - 3, and 6 with Representation
So step by step, specialists win with the caste system and the control of happiness in cities. However, this is true if you have enough food to feed these very specialists. In the event of a food shortage, cottages produce as much commerce as specialists. When deciding how to use one population unit, consider the strengths and weaknesses of specialists and cottages.
Cottages:
Growth of cottages takes time;
If built on meadows, then it produces just 2EP;
Can produce gavels at the General Election;
You need 2 civics and 1 tech to get the maximum effect;
May become the target of looting;
No special buildings needed;
Specialists:
Immediately give the maximum effect;
Only one Civic is needed to receive bonuses;
Need additional buildings or cast system;
Cannot become a victim of looting;
Do not depend on cell types;
Produce Great People (VL).
VL is really a trump card for specialists. Pacifism, the Parthenon, the National Epic, and the leader's philosophical trait can increase the benefits of specialists. On the other hand, the cost of producing VLs will increase over time, making specialists less attractive at the end of the game.
It's worth asking yourself:
What VL will be useful for me now?
What are the characteristics of my leader?
Is there a place to build cottages around the city?
How many wonders are there in the city? How many will I build?
Is there another city factory VL?
What Civics do I plan to use?
Are my cities protected from looting?
Will the city's growth be limited by food, space, or happiness?