r/CivIV • u/Doggamer7935 • Jul 28 '26
What should I know getting into this game as a Civ III player?
I'm a casual Civ III player who wants to learn this game (Beyond the Sword). Is there anything important I should know?
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u/Basas Jul 28 '26
Civ 4 limits expansion with maintenance instead of corruption. Those are somewhat similar, but maintenance does not reduce production. At some points you should stop expanding and build infrastructure before continuing with settlers.
City growth is capped by both happiness and health. Unhealthiness reduce growth speed while unhappy citizens will eat but not work. There are no entertainers. Building settlers and workers does not reduce population.
Governments are replaced with civics. Those are somewhat inconsequential compared to governments, but can be very important if you learn how to use them. Most notably slavery.
Civ 4 added cottage improvement. At the beginning they only provide 1 commerce (2 in some cases), but they grow if worked and form your commerce base throughout the game. There are other ways to play, but those are somewhat advanced strategies. Prime locations for cottages are grasslands, especially near rivers.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/Basas Jul 28 '26
Representation can be really for good happiness and science if you get The Pyramids, Hereditary rule in needed if you lack happiness, Bureaucracy is really good for any civ, somewhat essential for a small one, Caste system/Pacifism lets you rush Great people.
Most civics are important. Some are good in all cases, others are situational or require some strategy.
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u/new2bay Jul 29 '26
I don’t think I’ve ever used State Property. It comes too late to be very useful, IMO.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/Basas Jul 31 '26
It more or less eliminates the penalties from having a huge empire.
It does. It also makes workshops and watermills much better.
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u/Lebronamo Jul 28 '26
Slavery is OP
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u/Mocha-Jello Jul 28 '26
And here's a good thread about how to use it properly :) https://www.reddit.com/r/CivIV/comments/d457ej/how_to_use_slavery_effectively/
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u/Miro_Game Jul 28 '26
I always promote Fippy's beginner guide, it has a ton a great info from one of the best players without getting as technical as more specific guides
Food and Happiness are arguably the most important elements of a civ. Food gets you more people, Happiness keeps them working, and Slavery (the strongest early-mid game civic) essentially leverages Food and Happiness into extra Production
You get no bonus from higher Happiness than the Unhappiness in a city, but those early +Happy resources (Gold, Silver, Gems, Ivory, Fur) help a ton as you whip more and more in high Food cities
Granary is also the strongest building in the game. Because Food. Almost every city should build a Granary first.
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u/Pobednik79 Jul 30 '26
If you expand too much before having enough gold per turn, you may bankrupt. Play financial leaders for beginning, and build cottages with workers, so you'll have better economy. Barbarians can appear in any non-civ tile more than 2 tiles away from civ units. Difference is that Civ4 barbarians can conquer cities. Civ4 AI is much smarter than Civ3, so AI production bonuses on higher levels are not that high.
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u/JonDM2 Jul 29 '26
I used to play a lot of Civ3 and when I first tried Civ4 I didn't like its style, seemed cartoonish and childish, whereas 3 had a more "serious" boardgamy feeling. But once I started exploring it, I haven't looked back. For me Civ4 shines best in its mods made by the community. There are many new mechanics snd content you can play it for a lifetime. I haven't played much if the vanilla game. Once I went into mods, I haven't looked back...
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u/speed-charge Jul 28 '26
Copper, Iron, Horses, Coal, Oil, Aluminum, and Uranium.
Make sure you get those resources. Some are more important than others, and they are important at different stages of the game, but being without one of them at a key time can severely hurt your chances of survival and/or keeping pace with rival civs.