My worst loss so far was with the Indians. Playing the Earth scenario it starts you out more or less where the civilization really existed. I was stuck between the Persians and China. Both of them decided to settle towards me instead of in the opposite direction. By the time I had built 3 cities I was running into both of their borders. China demanded tribute and then declared war on me a few turns after I refused. They captured one of my cites and then either convinced the Persions to attack me as well or the Persians saw the blood in the water. <i></i>

Something that can give a nice advantage early on using Victoria is working towards if your cities are more coastal based is getting The Great Lighthouse built asap. The bonus gold on ocean tiles triggers the civ bonus for squares with 2+ gold in effect providing +2 gold for free on every ocean tile. <
>
<
>
The English special unit is also pretty powerful. As a general trend before regular infantry become availible, riflemen are the mainstay of almost every civ. In city seiges when the city defenses are 0, the 16 strength + the 25% modifier to gunpowder units is extremely effective at destroying a cities garrison. If your also planning on alot of fighting, be sure to have each unit being created with a barracks and under the social option that provides +2 experience giving you the second free promotion. Getting the Westpoint wonder can be an enormous advantage provided you can get it relatively early. <i></i>

Yeah just wiped out 2 civs with a mass army of redcoats and a few cannons last night. Ok random question: what's the first thing you guys build in your first city? Do immidiately go for a new settler or a worker or a warrior or what? I never know whether I should wait a few turns and let my city grow a bit before getting a worker or build one immidiately. <i></i>

I usually do: warrior: settler: worker<
>
<
>
But it depends on whether or not any villages found give me something (like a settler or worker). <
>
<
>
I'll usually set the 2nd warrior to roam as well, unless there's danger nearby, in which case I'll control them and just clear the map near my first city so I can pull them back quickly if needed.<
>

<
>
Keep my head from exploding?... You can help!
<i></i>

tarot: did you ever get the strat guide? is it any good?<
>
<
>
my impression when I thumbed through it was crap <
>
My Profile - Oryx<i></i>

Yeah I got it. It's okay. I learned some things out of it, and I don't regret buying it, but it's not THAT helpful.
<
>
Keep my head from exploding?... You can help!
<i></i>

the first thing you do in ANY civ game.<
>
<
>
Focus on discovery. <
>
<
>
Some civ's get scouts. They are invaluable, although get them to close to a barbarian clan and the advantage is fucked.<
>
<
>
but having 2 or 3 warriors doing nothing but exploring will be the one singular startgame advantage that will set you apart from any other civ, bar none. <i></i>

I usually do the same thing as Tarot starting a new game; Warrior - Settler - Warrior unless a villiage gives me a setter. I think that in Warlord and higher difficulty you can't get units (warriors, settlers, or workers) from villiages, but you can still get gold, exp, tech or maps. <i></i>

Quote:Some civ's get scouts. They are invaluable, although get them to close to a barbarian clan and the advantage is fucked.<
>
<
>
<
>
Aren't scouts only useful when you're dealing with large numbers of agg. barbarians because they can do the village without conflict? <
>
<
>
I mean basically they're *fantastic* to use for exploring, but after that they're useless. Though I usually end up losing my warriors at some point during exploring so it's probably not a big waste to make a couple scout units.
<
>
Keep my head from exploding?... You can help!
<i></i>

The main benefit for scouts is 2 movement instead of 1. This can really help early in the game to grab a couple villages before the AI CIVs can get them. It's less of an advantage when the map has alot of hills, forest or jungle, though, since the scout will only have 1 movement on those spaces. <
>
<
>
Getting experience from a village early with a warrior can actually make the warrior better than the scout on some maps. If you kill a couple animals and get an exp village you can train the forest/hills defense upgrade twice which gives that warrior 2 movement on hills and forest. The warrior will still only have 1 movement on flat lands but on a heavilly forested map and early in the game before the forests are cleared an upgraded warrior unit can be a big asset. <i></i>

I used to do settler first till I realized you get no city growth while 'making' one. Now its always warrior first, then settler. <i></i>

<
>
oh man, it's 8am and I just finished my first noble Civ4 win-- the vast majority of of my playing to this point has been multiplayer.<
>
<
>
Anyway it was tight all the way to the end, where I won with a space race victory with 20 turns to go in the game. I also had the highest point total, but Hapt was threatening to win with a UN diplomatic victory (no one liked me much!).<
>
<
>
This game was an experiement-- I took Frederick (Philisophical / Creative) and I went 100% for culture and great person production. My goal was to flip some cities of opponents near me with culture, and work my way to an eventual culture win.<
>
<
>
I did manage to flip four cities, and a fifth was getting very close. Getting a city to change sides peaceably is a very satisfying thing to do .<
>
<
>
Even so, I did get into one war in the mid game, when a jealous, aggressive foe with a small tech edge decided I was a worthy target. He even got his buddy to declare war on me as well, and at one point I even lost a city. After taking it back and begging for peace, I spent the rest of the game back to working on culture.<
>
<
>
It became clear near the end that I wasn't going to win on culture before the time ran out, and I was seeing my opponents slowly building their spaceships. With 50 turns left in the game I saved it, and then switched gears 100% to beat them on the space race.<
>
<
>
I finished the Apollo project (which starts your space race) as two of my npc opponents were on their last 3-4 pieces. It was tight-- that last 10 turns were nailbiters. I had Hat and Cyrus one piece short of finishing the space race, and Hat using the UN to try to get a diplomatic victory. Everytime I hit the enter key it was with my heart in my throat, boring holes into the screen with my eyes, as if the strength of my will would keep Cyrus and Hapt from finishing their spaceship before myself.<
>
<
>
After I won the game, I kept playing to see when they would have finished their space race.<
>
<
>
I couldn't have cut it any closer. Cyrus finished his spaceship on the next turn.<
>
<
>
<
>
What a great game! And even better, now my Thanksgiving is fucked because of an all nighter I never should have done .<
>
<
>
<i></i>

question regarding pbem-<
>
<
>
friends of mine are trying to play it with free email accounts (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc). can this be done? we keep on getting error messages that it cannot send the game to the next person. not sure if we are doing something wrong, or if it cannot be done period.<
>
<
>
also, do you need the smtp information for pbem? we have not tried just entering the email addresses, not sure if we can do this or not. has anyone tried?<
>
<
>
thanks in advance. off to the busiest work day of the year in retail.<
>
<
>
-cc <i></i>

Just enter the smtp information of your ISP. Every ISP has one even if you use Hotmail to receive it will work. <i></i>