I've been playing a bit of this lately and was wondering if others could share some of their wisdom here for us aspiring Leaders. And for those that do not have Civ4, it is such a great game and the multiplayer has finally been done right.

Things like the setting you use; technologies you always grab or avoid; what resources are best and for what; basic strategies; settings; etc.

I keep it so I see the 1-3 person units (good to keep an eye on strength).
I always have the grid on.
I keep the resource display on.
I turn on the right mouse button option.

I dominate PBEM games.

I played the hell out of it in the first few weeks, but then I moved, and I don't have access to a good computer any more.

In my limited time playing the game, I was very impressed with the fact that my strategy seemed to be VERY dependent upon what Civilization I had (my Civ's bonuses) and the terrain surrounding me. It made for a very dynamic game experience. Things I tried to do more often than not:

--Found a religion, build Stonehenge, and get the eventual Great Prophet to build the Religious Temple. The added benefit of 1 Gold per turn from any city with that religion can get huge if you proactively spread the religion. I specifically avoid Stonehenge unless I found a religion, however -- too much production cost for too little benefit, and in my opinion, Prophets are useless unless you need that religious building.

--Get cottages going early -- when they start developing to towns and villages, the gold benefit is nice.

--Mining-Bronze Working-Iron Working -- these are still quite valuable, especially because you can't find the corresponding resources until you discover the technology. Securing a source of Iron in the early game can be crucial to survival.

Go for Civil Service early.

I like the French (in the game). They get that extra cultuer and I'm not really a war mongerer. I always try and be the first to found 2 religions (Judaism gives you lots of bonuses). Never try for Buddhism (or is it Hinduism).

I have found getting to music first is also very handy. A must have if you are going for culture victory, which I find the easiest at the higher levels.

Anyone regularly use the rush to Bronzeworking, getting the Slavery Civic, and then actually using its ability to sacrifice population to build stuff tactic?

Anyone regularly use the rush to Bronzeworking, getting the Slavery Civic, and then actually using its ability to sacrifice population to build stuff tactic?

I'm doing that right now. Just got Bronzeworking, and will probably sacrifice for a settler.

Last night I was playing on Large Continents, Noble (medium diff) with 6/7 AIs (whatever is default) and me as A.T. Great. I rushed to bronzeworking and things were going well. Then I swear the game got mad at me and started throwing Barbarians at me like rotten fruit at a bad act.

I didn't mess with the Barbarian option at all (i always leave it on) and I had barbarians coming out of the woodwork. I was in such a hurry to settle that I had 2 unescorted settlers get whacked and 2 border towns were barbushed and I had to waste time recapturing.

I still find it very useful to build as many cities as I can cram on a landmass (i've heard a lot of talk about that being bad).

Rush-to-bronzeworking then pottery seems to be a great opening gambit.

Just wait until you move up to higher difficulty levels. The barbarians are crazy good there. Some times I wish I could pick the barbarians as my civ as they kick some butt.

Bonegavel - that seems to be a very popular strategy, since it aids you wheter or not you want to be a warmonger or a science-fool. Depending on the resources that are immediately available, I'll go for Bronzeworking, swich to slavery, and then it's "Pop and Chop" - chopping everything is sight and sacrificing popluation to get the improvements out ASAP.

If I want to concentrate on science and technology, I'll grab writing which gives me a library and convert 2 population to scientists so they can get wotking on my Great Person. I forego horizontal-expansion (building cities) and conventrate on vertical (buildng my infrastructure), paying specific attention to creating wealth - lots of cottages - since they pay for tech research. After writing, I go for Code of Laws and start biudling my oracle. In the meantime, my Great Scientist should pop, he builds an academy. After Code of Laws, when my Oracle is done I use it to take Civil Service so I can switch to Beuracracy wich gives your capital a major research boost. After this, your capital should have a big - I mean HUGE advantage in research and this will shoot you past the AI and you'll be discovering technologies very quickly. This is commonly called the Civil Servie Slingshot.

But, if you want to wage war, then the Pop'n'Chop will let you crank out troops real fast. Here, I like to make sure I have a few cities in production, and have a bronze mine working. You can crank out 1-3 Axement per turn - or Quechas or Praetorians if you're the right Civ. Waltzing a line of 12-15 Axemen into a foreign city only defending with archers is like shooting fish in a barrel and you should be able to wipe out another civ with ease. After that is done, your empire should have doubled in size without having to build another settler.

I forgot to answer yor original questions:

* I like to use the single unit display, but I display a health meter for strength.
* I keep the grid and resource display off, but I'll toggle the respources a hundred times during the game so I know where to settle/attack/plunder
* I am a cottage fiend. I noticed that when you attack the AI, he's always got cottages everywhere and very few farms. All of the gold they produce is a real bonus.
* I found the cottage way of making money more suited to my style than religion. I prefer to be neutral, but sometimes you need the happiness bonuses of religious buildings.
* I tend to play with the Time Victory off.
* I love nukes - they can soften up your enemy at the end game for an attack, or they can quickly cut enemy population when you need the voting power in the UN. The animation is pretty dope, too.

What speed do you play your single player games at?

I usually use Quick, but tonight I tried Epic and all it really did was throw me off as far as how long things should take.

Finally.

Playing on Noble, 6 other AI, Large Continents.

I am no longer fighting for last place. This is my first time as England (usually play Katherine or A.T. Great), so I don't know if that has changed things, but I finally made the bronzeworking/slavery thing work well along with a huge heaping of chop (bye bye forest, hello hammers) which is what may have been the missing piece.

I was never a de-forester, but I was amazed at the speed of production utilizing this. I was never a tree-hugger, and now when I look at a tree in RL, I see a big hammer transposed on top of it.

I actually have other Civs giving me stuff and being able to refuse them Peace. Sweet.

dola,

All I am saying.... is give War a chance.

-- BoneGavel the Great

Love the Chop...It's also nice that any unuses hammers carry over to your next item, so early units come out very very quickly.

And Normal speed is just right for me. Slower speeds thrown me off in terms of research time.