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General provisions

• The most important resources at the initial stage are: copper, horses and iron (for the army); stone and marble (for miracles); gold and silver (for your economy and happiness).

• The best orders for construction in the city at the initial stage are Worker, Warrior and Settler. Any of them could be your first building in the city for various reasons and for different needs:
  • Worker. The worker can cut down forests to speed up the completion of other buildings (after you unlock Bronze Processing). If the next build is a Warrior, then this unit will be able to accompany and protect first the Worker and then the Settler on the way to the new city, in which it will become the first city defender.
  • Warrior. Many players choose to build a Warrior (or Scout if you're starting with a Hunt) at the beginning, managing the build time by having the capital's only resident process various city tiles so that the unit is built on the same turn when the city grows to a second inhabitant. The Warrior then joins your starting unit in exploring the map, while the next building (usually the Worker) comes up faster because you now have not one, but two villagers farming the city tiles.
  • Settler. Building a Settler allows you to establish a second city early in the game. However, you should research a technology that unlocks strategic resources (Animal Husbandry for horses or Bronze Processing for copper) to determine the location of the city.

• The best path forward for technology varies, but Bronze processing s is one of the most valuable early technologies and should be one of your priorities, if not your most important priority. This is because (a) it reveals the map location of Copper, which is used to build Axmen, powerful early military units; (b) gives you the ability to cut down forests to speed up production; (c) gives access to the Slavery civic, which allows you to sacrifice population to speed up production.

• Other valuable early sciences are "worker technologies" (such as Farming, Animal Husbandry, Wheeling, Mining, Pottery, Fishing and Hunting), which allow you to improve the tiles around your cities ( and also within your cultural boundaries; roads can be built outside cultural boundaries - note, GobblinS).

• Application for Warlords/BtS. Since Chariots receive a 100% bonus when attacking Axemen in these expansions, Animal Husbandry is a more valuable early technology in Warlords, especially for fending off barbarian attacks. Remember, however, that Chariots also require learning the Wheel.

• The best early military unit is the Axeman; Chariots can also be used since they are relatively cheap (and, as noted above, have gotten better in Warlords/BtS). Other important units are Unique Units (UU) of civilizations in which they are early (Rome, Incas, Aztecs, Mali, Mongolia, Persia; in Warlords: Carthage, Celts, Zulus; in BTS: Mayans, Indians, Sumer).

• Once you unlock Pottery, your Workers should build several cottages to generate commerce. This is called “cottage spam” (literal translation – approx., GobblinS). The best cells for cottages are meadows (especially near the river) and floodplains. Note: in order for cottages to grow, they must be cultivated by city residents.

• Take advantage of your opponents' weakly defended cities if the opportunity presents itself to you. If this fails, then look at the possibility of "stealing" the enemy's Worker. This will be a serious blow for him, and if the Worker gets to your territory alive, he will give you a bonus. This tactic requires a declaration of war.

• In early wars, it's usually better to destroy all conquered cities except capitals, holy cities, and wonder cities (otherwise the cost of upkeep will ruin you).

Territory exploration

• You start the game with a Settler and one of two basic units: either a Warrior or a Scout if your civilization starts the game with a Hunt.

• Moving an exploration unit to a hill without forest or jungle will open up most of the surrounding tiles.

• Scouts vs Warriors. Warriors are stronger than (2) Scouts (1), receive a +25% defense bonus in the city and can attack other units (Scouts can only defend). Scouts, however, move faster (2 squares per turn versus 1 for the Warrior).

• It usually doesn't make sense to research Hunting if your civilization doesn't master the science, even if you want to build Scouts. The only exception is if there is a resource near your cities that requires a Camp (Ivory, Fur, Deer).

• Remember that in the forest, jungle and hills all units move at the same speed ( the exception is the “pumped up” units Forester II and Partisan II, which receive double the speed of movement through forests and jungles for the first and along hills for the second - approx., GobblinS).

• Scouts will never spawn Barbarians from tribal villages, unlike other units, including Warriors.

Barbarians

• While exploring the map, pay attention to the Barbarians. At first they appear in the form of animals, then in the form of military units.

• If you think a barbarian unit is likely to attack, your best bet is to retreat if you have a Scout, or fortify if you have a Warrior.

• Try to move your explorer units so that they end their turn in a forest, jungle, hill, or better yet, a hill with a forest or jungle to get a defense bonus.

• Barbarians appear in the “fog of war” - in any darkened cell on the map, even if you have previously explored and opened it. The exception is when this place is the cultural borders of another civilization, then the Barbarians will not appear there.

• Animal barbarians cannot enter your cultural boundaries.

• Barbarian military units will be included within your cultural boundaries. First of all, they will destroy your cell upgrades and then attack the nearest city. Take this into account and build roads to your terrain improvements so that city defenders can move quickly to attack; also build units like Chariots and Horse Archers, which can move more squares per turn, especially along roads, and attack barbarians before they reach your terrain improvements. You can also strengthen units on particularly important early resources such as copper, horses or iron.

• To prevent Barbarians from spawning, build and place sentries—commonly called “fog busters”—on open areas of the map. Archers with upgrades for additional protection on the hills (Partisan) are well suited for this. They are relatively cheap and once established on the hills will clear away most of the fog. Any Barbarians that spawn will usually attack these particular units and are unlikely to win ( It is best to place such sentries close to your own borders on the hills so that they can see more of the darkened area; Thanks for the addition IL2T, - approx. GobblinS).

• Remember that fighting Barbarians gives your units experience points for further advancement. So it's not that bad. Barbarians also sometimes found cities, which you can conquer and keep for yourself if they are well located.

• If the Barbarians are ruining your game, you can Create a custom game and turn them off. However, then you will lose the benefit of gaining experience when fighting them and the opportunity to conquer their cities. Alternatively, in Warlords/BtS you can build a wonder of the world - the Great Wall, which will forever block the access of barbarians to the territory of your cultural borders ( It must be remembered that the Great Wall protects against barbarians only on earth, i.e. not from the galleys, and only on the piece of land on which it was built; Thanks for the addition Lexad, - approx. GobblinS).

• Each city has a maintenance cost that reduces the income it can generate for your civilization. The cost of maintenance increases with the population of the city, and also increases due to the distance of the city from your capital.

• The cost of maintaining cities was introduced by the game's creators to reduce the effectiveness of REX (Rapid Expansion - rapid settlement), which was used by players in previous versions of Civilization, when the key factor in the game was to build as many early cities as possible until there was no free space left.

• Trying to use REX in Civilization IV will cause your upkeep cost to increase, your research will drop to 0%, and your treasury will be empty. Your units will periodically go on strike - which means the game will start automatically disbanding units - since you can't pay them. As other civilizations continue to discover new technologies and equip their armies with more modern units, you will become an easy target.

60% rule

• To cope with the cost of maintaining early cities, limit the number of early cities you build (usually 4 to 6).
• Or build cities until research drops to 60% to preserve budget surplus (which usually happens once you've built, presumably, 4 to 6 cities).
• Later in the game, do not expand (build or conquer cities) until your research level is 60% or higher.

Content cost management

• Build courts that reduce maintenance by 50%.

• Build the national wonder of the Forbidden Palace and the wonder of the world Versailles, which are the second capitals. Make sure you build them far enough away from the capital to increase their effectiveness.

• Increase your city's commerce output by doing the following:
  • Cottages and/or specialist traders.
  • Commerce enhancers such as banks, markets and groceries.
  • Technologies such as Money and Corporations, which increase the number of trade routes, and the Printing Press, which increases the output of cottages.
  • Use cheaper Civics or those that increase commerce (such as Free Speech).

Ideas don’t come out of nowhere: having exhausted the “fresh” limit in one go, then you will have to release dull add-ons year after year in order to somehow support the barely strengthened “original” creation. As a last resort, you can steal a couple of ideas from your own projects, which no one remembers anymore. Or most don't remember. Well, in general, some people don’t remember exactly. And, yes, here again you can build cities only on solid ground. What did you expect? Same

Sid Meier's Civilization IV

From the age of stone to the age of rocket

I run and stumble.​

The most powerful leap in the history of the official series for me at one time was the third part: state borders - well, finally! Now I don’t have to be angry at my neighbor’s scouts who wandered *as if* through my lands in , although in fact these were no-man’s territories. Now everything is strict, clear and logical. What revelation was I expecting from Civilization IV? The final solution to the religious question. Having taken on such a delicate moment, the developers, either for reasons of political correctness, or for other, less valid reasons, in my opinion, completed the task with an unsatisfactory rating.

But interesting ideas came from where I didn’t expect them. Although this has already happened with another, dare I say it, cult game from Firaxis, I did not imagine such a “remake” of ideas. Maybe you’ll still take on Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri 2, huh? But you don't have to choose. Very soon the full-fledged fifth part of the series will be released (exclusive for PC!), “1C” seems to be moving forward with the publication of the third part. In general, we live...

My Hinduism is stronger than your Taoism

Again you will have to get used to the new interface...
...to automate everything, everything, everything and sit at the screen, figuring out an important point:
can the AI ​​itself launch your rocket?..​

Our neighbors demand that we change our religion to the “correct” one; they are indignant when they discover that we cross ourselves with three fingers; in general, if there were a reason, someone would definitely start a war. However, the institution of religions makes it possible to pit potential competitors against each other. War in Civilization is always good and useful, but it is important that your opponents fight among themselves. And then preachers come to the rescue... It looks like this: we send Christian missionaries to the Jewish-Arabs, “convert” the entire caliphate to the faith of Christ, then send an ambassador to the Jewish-Spaniards: the Arabs now work on Saturdays! And, if you're lucky, a violent religious conflict unfolds. However, the egged on side can, for the sake of decency, resist - give it the secret of playing music, and the warriors of the true faith will invade their neighbors in small groups of one hundred thousand people...

Local fights

The opponents act somehow more lively.
But they still don’t have time to build some miracles.

Combat operations have also undergone significant changes. Although there are more types of great people in Civilization IV, generals have fallen out of the harmonious scheme. However, like armies. Why and why is unclear, because they were returned already in Civilization Revolution (a console exclusive and a very controversial game, but that’s a completely different story). In general, you will have to make do with what you have.

Units have abstract "strength" and movement speed. By gaining a new level, each soldier can acquire, say, a bonus to protection in the jungle, “strength” or to storming cities. Although during the next battle the balance of enemy forces is displayed in the lower corner, a larger number does not always mean victory - oddities are rare, but they do happen, and 19th-century mounted riflemen can still smash the “new” Marines to smithereens. Fortunately, the legionnaires will not be able to hammer the tank to death, but the defense must be given the closest attention: at high difficulty levels, the barbarians swarm in such crowds (and with such weapons) that a careless player can ingloriously end his ascent to the heights of human civilization already in the third century BC.

The tactics, in general, are simple: “pump up” your main troops, avoid daring cavalry attacks on hoplite detachments bristling with spears - and everything will be fine. The modern three-dimensional engine made it possible to look at battles as a very stupid action - something, but “Civilization” did not need this at all. Watching a crude model of a hesitant machine gunner receive a fatal blow to the head with an ax from an equally crude model of a hand-to-hand fighter gets boring after the first such incident. Alas, Mr. Meyer apparently likes such scenes.

I don't know any other country like this

War in the late stages of the game is a pleasure.
But usually in the XX-XXI centuries the player has no time for war...​

By the way, neighbors love to give useful (and not so useful) advice on improving the government system, but upon receiving a polite refusal, as a rule, they do not declare war. The AI ​​is still arrogant and cunning: it will not offer valuable technologies for exchange, but after a move or two it will crawl to your embassy and ask you to give it the secret of navigation. And try to refuse the impudent person if you had the temerity to organize a visa-free regime between your countries: his catapults have almost certainly already registered in the suburbs of your capital. In case of refusal.

However, the policy of carrot and other carrot, but a little less, still works. It is extremely difficult to please everyone (“You traded with our opponents, you scoundrel!”), but it is quite possible. Given the huge number of opportunities for victory, you can organize a world war in the last stages of the game, so that while your neighbors are tormenting each other with rays of hatred, you can assemble in your backyard a much-needed rocket for flying into space, simultaneously supplying your opponents with “useful” technologies. They may not love, but for a safe and happy life, future cosmonauts do not need the adoration of their neighbors at all. And there, you see, that’s all - goodbye, imperfect world, hello, Alpha Centauri! By skillfully placing your foreign policy accents, you can avoid clashing with anyone for the entire party, which is very good.

Each country traditionally has its own advantages, disadvantages, unique units and leaders. And if a Cossack is available under both Peter and Catherine, then the “state” bonuses for these kings are completely different. Countries with industrial leaders are the luckiest. Increasing the speed of construction of wonders of the world by 50% is no joke. There are other ways to achieve a similar effect, but they are usually very labor-intensive... like the need to provide the next construction site with a unique resource: copper, marble, etc. There are a great many of them on the map, which is why, towards the end of the game, the land turns into something completely deserted, dotted with endless roads, factories, quarries, mines, cities and towns.

The Cavalry Guard's life is short-lived

When I was riding on aircraft carriers, my neighbor
I was still trying to figure out what steel was.
Result: he shared his state with me, and
The area of ​​my state has doubled.​

The general appearance of cities has disappeared as a class: the engine allows you to see all the buildings literally with your nose buried in the city wall. Or, on the contrary, move away to the flight altitude of an artificial satellite and look around the entire planet. But the graphics cannot be called ideal - after all, the models are rough, and the general clumsiness (of both units and “busts” of leaders) is present, and the new videos marking the construction of the next wonder of the world are somehow not impressive. Undoubtedly, this is not the genre for counting polygons and measuring video memory volumes, but why make three-dimensionality for the sake of three-dimensionality?

Endless story

What's ahead?
Isn't it Alpha Centauri?​

Civilization IV is a mixed bag. A large number of interesting ideas and an equally large number of strange changes, but in essence - staying in one place for several years. How will stagnation end? Perhaps it will transform into Need for Speed ​​from the genre of global strategies, when the next game in the series will be spat on and the developers will be scolded for all imaginable and unimaginable sins. Perhaps the series will take the path of innovation. But I prefer the idea of ​​returning to Alpha Centauri. But these are just dreams, the reality is this: Civilization IV itself, two add-ons to it and a full-fledged, self-sufficient . This also includes the console bastard Revolution. There is a lot to choose from (now) in the last generation of “Civilizations”. But these are all completely different stories.

I carried out statistics, 2 years after the 10-year world war (1972-1982), only 15% of the population remained on the planet. There wasn't enough food. My cities died out quickly, the captured ones had the maximum level (3), and then only a few. The whole point was only in the ship and escape from this planet to a new world, which was done. The ship was built using seafood, which somehow fueled the cities.
This was my first and last experiment with world war. But now the consequences of this are quite visible)))
You could even write a book here.

Act 1:
It all started back in the Middle Ages, when the three Holy Byzantines and the Greeks attacked me. I didn’t have any strength to defeat this armada. The enemies at the gates of Moscow are superior to them 8 to 1. After the storming of the city, the ratio was reduced to 7 to 1, but there was nothing to defend with. 1 long archer, 1 knight and 2-3 mace bearers, after the enemy stormed the city, a miracle happened, at the last moment I mastered the crossbowmen, and also received a great general for experience points. The general's name was "Ivan the Terrible". I joined the new high-tech unit at that time - Crossbowman, and received Ivan the Terrible - Crossbowman. The Greeks were cruelly stupid that they did not bypass the city, but went straight to the capital, there was a river on the way. And the river gave a 25% bonus. Without a single loss, the Greek army was destroyed. He counterattacked the Byzantine army, and released the Holy Romans with the words, “I will take revenge on you again.” As a result, Ivan the Terrible became a national hero. About 700 years have passed since this event. Ivanka chops up enemies and swings, he has a student, Gaius Marius. Ivanka fought on the eastern front, the most dangerous against Byzantium, the Holy Romans, the Sumerians and the Portuguese at once. Guy then fought on the northern front with Keltom, then they were enemies, and Ethiopia was their ally. Having taken 2 cities, Guy settled in one captured city and signed peace with the Celts, all forces went to the eastern front, there were no forces to the north. After signing peace with the Celts, the Bulavonian Guy was besieged by the cultural boundaries in the city. But the city could not be given away, this would return power to the Celts again, and they bothered me for a long time. Ethiopia did not sign peace and 100 years later attacked that city with an entire armada. Guy was killed, the city was lost, but the Ethiopian army no longer threatened the “northern” outpost - St. Petersburg. Ivan (already a grenadier) I promise to take revenge.

Act 2:
100 years have passed. The fallen civilizations of Spain and Germany were liberated from the clutches of the Sumerians and Byzantium. But Byzantium still became very strong, they invented conveyor belts earlier and gained access to infantry earlier. The musketeers and grenadiers were powerless. Greece had long since fallen, and the Greek Republic served dutifully as part of the Russian Empire. The residence of Ivan the Terrible was Athens. This was his headquarters and the starting point for soldiers to the front. About 90 Russia and Byzantium did not fight. After the liberation of Spain and from Byzantium, they did not attack. But the arrival of infantry changed everything. Byzantium declared war along with Portugal and besieged Athens. Here Moscow History repeated itself, at the last moment I mastered airships. Ivan the Terrible could no longer restrain Athens, he was seriously wounded, the next battle would have been death. And then 2 airships bomb the infantry, thereby delaying the assault on the city for a turn, then for 2, and so on until the counterattack. Athens is saved, but the war is not over. And a few years later, by 1941, Constantinople was taken. The last city of Byzantium was at the south pole, by this time I was the first to master the atom, and the first atomic bomb fell on that last city. Byzantium fell, and at the same time its power was shown to the world.

Act 3:
1953 The enemies have mastered the atom. Ethiopia was the most highly developed state (outwardly it was an alternative to the USA, the president was black, and there was also a Statue of Liberty with Broadway and Hollywood). They created a mining company, which undermined the economy of the entire world. My science dropped by 2 times because of them. The Buddhist Union is my enemy throughout this game, constantly sharpening its teeth against me. And Ethiopia is also inciting Turkey against me. In general, in 1953 (in the real story, the death of Stalin, but in the game he was the ruler) There were conflicts with Turkey at sea, I had a lag at sea. I direct all the power of the shipyards to submarines with tactical warheads and send them around the world. The conflict with Turkey almost forced me to use them, but my plan was to increase nuclear potential. Begins in 1954 communist revolution, awakening of the beast. All institutions of power are transferred to the communist order. Of course, I lost the influence of Ethiopia over me, there are no corporations)) The Celts with whom we became good friends offered me an alliance, I signed it. In 1955, the attack on the Celts by the Buddhist Union begins. I automatically get involved in the war unprepared; some of the submarines were sunk by the Turkish fleet. Some fired charges at enemies, screwed on, to intimidate. The Sumerians were former allies, and now enemies were building SDI, and they were also in the Buddhist union. 1 turn before the construction of the SDI, I launch missiles at their cities. As a result, in 1955 the WORLD WAR begins. I didn’t get much success from it, after 15 years I advanced only 10 cells along the entire border, lost my entire fleet because of Turkey, my army, and fired all my warheads. And he did not free Japan from the 500-year Turkish yoke. Although the enemies were all mortally weakened, I was not in the best position, but I was the dominant nation.

Act 4:
I didn’t like the government that I created, the country is in a huge mess, hyperinflation, and there is no opportunity for development, all efforts go only to supporting life. There was an uprising in Moscow, Ivan the Terrible took advantage of this. Created a time machine, went back in time to 1953. I prevent the conception of the communist revolution and at the same time I prevent the war with the Celts, and most importantly, by creating the Aluminum Corporation, I prevented the outflow of money to Ethiopia and prevented the global crisis and the strengthening of Ethiopia. This delayed the emergence of jet aircraft in Ethiopia by 20 years. Everything was saved, the world was saved, the right economic move gave me a huge flow of funds for the development of high technologies, and most importantly, my spy undermined the construction of SDI among the Sumerians. The defeat of Turetsky made me a dominant figure, but it took time.

Act 5:
My country is the strongest militarily, but it lagged behind in technology; the construction of the Internet eliminated this lag. My power is the strongest, and its like since 4000 BC. everyone hates. The Turks are provoking again. But I flew into space and to the moon 1m. I mastered new technologies and brought intercontinental warheads to 50, tactical ones only to 40. The SDI that had been undermined by the Sumerians by my spies was again gaining danger. But in the 15 years from 1953 to 1968, many heights were achieved, and the Navy appeared (which did not exist in alternative history, and the Turkish fleet did not allow me to fish off my shores, besieging them). In 1970, India started talking about itself; they also had nuclear weapons. I didn’t fight with them, but during this time I had excellent trade relations. The Buddhist Union collapsed. Some accepted either religious freedom or Judaism from Ethiopia. And then Deja Vu begins. The Celts then propose an alliance. But this time I refused. And this, as it happened, gave the Celts of India to the Turks and Ethiopia to be torn to pieces. I had another plan, but it was foiled. Ivan the Terrible, who arrived from the future, did not prevent the Apocalypse, but only delayed it. In November 1971, the GREAT COMMUNIST NOVEMBER REVOLUTION began. The world enemy has returned again, the apocalypse was delayed only by 19 years. The communists took power in the country. When India used nuclear weapons in 1972. A new Russia with a new government began to act.
This is where it all started. I began to act, but these actions only led to me declaring war on them, and then on the whole world. The domino principle worked. And then something happened that my spies missed: the Sumerians also had nuclear weapons, and they struck Constantinople. Even though Byzantium is my province, this immediately freed my hands. The submarine fleet (in an alternative reality, sunk by Turkey even before the missiles were launched) In this reality, it worked flawlessly. Not far from Turkey there was a Portuguese city, it was captured, my Aircraft Carriers settled there, and for 10 years they bombarded India, Portugal, and Turkey. After tactical missiles, intercontinental missiles came.
From 1972 to 1974 there was a massive bombardment of the planet, which in 1976 led to massive global warming, and in 1979 the green plane in the picture from space became yellow and deserted. This delay will simply ruin the chances of preventing the extinction of nations. The Turkish fleet was sunk in the first years of the massive offensive in 1974. And if in an alternative reality that Fleet was drowned by tactical nuclear missiles off its shores, since there was nothing to defend itself from the sea. Now they were being sunk by high-tech ships and submarines. Ethiopia then suffered greatly, as Ivan the Terrible promised. Ivan himself then commanded the offensive on the northern front.
This story could also have been prevented, but for unknown reasons, during the assault on Svyatorim, Ivan went missing and took away the secrets of the time machine, and the optionists did not make a trip to the past. Many suspect that his death was staged; he did not please the new government. He died, but became a national hero.
By 1982, the planet was completely overrun. In 1983, the EMG was proclaimed - a single world state. But the occupied lands were contaminated and unsuitable. Mine have dried out due to the warming temperatures. The oppositionists were crushed. And there was no turning back. "After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the preservation from 1953 was erased." There was only one way left to build a ship, load the chosen ones onto the ship, and destroy the rest of the inhabitants of the planet, including our own.

Here's the story.
The moral of the whole fable is that one small event can change the entire course of history.

Genre: Strategy, Developer: Fraxis Games, Publisher: 2kGames
Civilization 4 game in the game database

There are few games that, having appeared in the world ten years ago, continue to live and exist to this day in new reincarnations, without changing their basic concepts or even their names. A couple of FPS games immediately come to mind, and among the turn-based strategy, the famous Civilization, created in the early nineties by Sid Meier, inevitably appears.

Walking through the expanses of the gaming industry, the series is gaining more and more than it is losing, positive aspects and opportunities introduced not only by the 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 long on drawing parallels between Civilization4 and previous series; this is the topic of a separate review. We will limit ourselves to a general description of the game and a description of its key features that we encounter as we study it.

In the game we are greeted by a beautiful video screensaver with an excellent soundtrack and a spectacular menu with a three-dimensional view of our home planet Earth. As usual, before we start we are asked to select 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 belligerence of your neighbors, the number of barbarians and wild animals that will poison the life of your civilization. However, the influence of complexity is not limited to this, starting from the “monarch” degree, any agreements and diplomatic negotiations will be difficult, and the exchange of one of your important discoveries with your neighbor for a couple of scientific achievements of secondary importance will become not just a rare phenomenon, but actually impossible. There was also some “cheating” on the part of the opponent - at higher difficulty levels, the AI ​​will receive more units at the beginning than you, plus you will be overtaken by a wave of various problems, such as a much higher number of units, a low level of happiness in cities and increasing the cost of openings.

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 a Settler, we receive a brief description of the area in the form of symbols and symbols characterizing its fertility and other parameters.

Is the city a place for churning out units, or something more?

As for cities, from now on the tactic of playing with one city has practically no benefit, 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 - population health, city growth, cultural influence, science, income, what can I say - each city has its own unique weight in your Civilization, and does not just serve as a means of churning out units. The zones of influence of cities increase in proportion to its growth, and can even displace 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 issuing individual commands to workers who are improving the city’s surroundings. Need an industrial city? No problem! We build mines, water mills and workshops and soon the production time of units or buildings in the city will be sharply 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 the state? Please! Build farms and pastures. Of course, it will not be possible to simply 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 the place where it will be founded. After all resources are connected by regular or railways, they become available in all cities for the production of units or the construction of buildings.

The management of the city deserves praise - now we have the opportunity to distinguish scientists, merchants, religious leaders, engineers, etc. from among its citizens. Various buildings and Wonders of the World built in a city provide it with Great People, who in the future can either be assigned to this city, or create their own unique building or Wonder. In general, the idea of ​​Great People deserves approval; for example, it makes sense to “save” the Great Engineer in order to complete the construction of an important building or a Wonder of the World at a critical moment. Or reveal a new discovery to the Great Scientists. There are simply a lot of variations, which are limited only by you and your imagination.

Religion received great importance and development in the game. In total, Civilization 4 features 7 religions, 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 is a huge number of Wonders of the World, special buildings, temples and everything else that is related to religion.

Army and its use

The game is replete with a huge number of different troops 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 still have some original properties. The production of many units is dependent on 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, but if you do not have Oil available, you will have to cut down enemy tanks using cavalry and infantry, because Your state will not have its own tank formations. "C'est la vie" as the French say. But, as practice shows, if you don’t have something, you can ask for it, buy it, or, in the end, organize a small crusade for resources to your nearest neighbor.

The combat system has become more realistic, and now does not depend much on the leveling of the unit and its experience. If we compare identical units, the attacker/defender ratio will be approximately 3/1. That is, in order to destroy a detachment of axemen entrenched 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, war in Civilization4 has become a difficult and economically inexpedient matter, as it really is. Heat However, even at initial difficulty levels it will be difficult to launch a full-fledged conquest. The maximum that can be done without greatly straining the country's production capacity is to drive the rapidly multiplying neighbor away, even to the point of exterminating it. Although a defensive war can be waged endlessly by placing a large number of troops in front of the border.

If you decide to carry out a small blitzkrieg and capture a couple of cities, then you will have to prepare for this for quite a long time, preparing the number of troops at least three times larger than the enemy army that you plan to destroy. And taking a city without artillery is either impossible at all, or possible - but with losses 5-7 times greater than the enemy’s losses. Artillery is used to bombard the city and destroy its fortifications. When the city's defense reaches 0%, you can safely attack. However, this is not the main purpose of artillery. In addition to the “bombardment” option, there is also a regular attack, which damages a group of units located on the same cell. This leads to the fact that by firing a couple of kamikaze guns at the city, we can cause damage to all its defenders and capture it with fewer casualties among the troops. However, the artillery will most likely die.

If you have become the object of the enemy’s aggression, then you should not hope that the enemy will stupidly attack your capital and, hitting the capital fortifications of the city, 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 turns, your city will be left without resources and food, and the population in it will most likely rebel. And speaking of AI, I basically just want to praise it, especially for its combat operations, which it carries out in a coordinated manner, involving both naval forces (if necessary) and artillery.

Politics and diplomacy

Diplomatic negotiations and political intrigue constitute, 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 to pit your closest neighbors against each other, you will have to spend a lot of time in the diplomacy dialog box. Do not delude yourself, for the usual “thank you” no one will even move a sword to tickle even a sworn enemy. If you need to incite any state to war, prepare either an impressive package of scientific achievements, or a whole bag. From time to time, other rulers will bow with a wide variety of questions - from a simple trade offer or, to sharp, threatening demands in the form of an ultimatum to change religion, form of government or pay tribute.

Possessing an impressive assortment of free resources, you can create a powerful trading system with friendly states, in which, in addition to the missing resources, you can still receive a solid influx of gold into the state treasury. The relationship between two states is 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 strengthening relations and opens up new spaces in the field of diplomatic policy.

Graphic design and other goodies

And although graphic performance in games of this genre is not even placed in second place, but somewhere in the back row, 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 detail of the terrain and landscapes - everything was done with a solid A+. Fights between units are accompanied by a spectacular camera zooming in on them with further simulation of a short battle between them. Each built Wonder of the World is equipped 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’ll immediately note that the set of compositions is so large that the desire to turn on Winamp will not appear for you very soon. However, I consider it inappropriate to dwell on this in more detail, since all this must be seen and heard in person, but it is safe to say 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 were, for the most part, excited about the game's sequel. Fans of the third part, spoiled by the huge number of modifications and changes created over more than two years, expressed predominantly negative points of view regarding the game. However, there is nothing special about this, it has always been this way. Suffice it to recall a similar situation with the third Civ, when crowds of admirers of the previous part in every possible way branded the new one with shame. Nevertheless, we can conclude that the game will attract a huge number of both new fans of the series and will lure seasoned “old men” from the previous parts, who ate more than one dog in managing their Civilization in different eras. Well, for those whose expectations the game did not live up to, or for those who lacked variety or have complaints about something else, we suggest waiting for modifications that, without a 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 were even overlooked, however, even what is stated is quite enough to come to the conclusion about the uniqueness and success of the game, as well as about its simply amazing replayability. If you want to learn even more about it than described above, then I dare to assure you that you will not find a better way to do this other than directly getting to know the game. And it is simply impossible to fit even a brief description of all, without exception, aspects of the game into one review.

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Perhaps the most difficult and deceptive period in Civilization IV is the beginning of the game, the ancient era. On the one hand, the player is given complete freedom: he chooses where and when to build cities, how to cultivate his territory, what to build and what technologies to research. On the other hand, it is very difficult to determine the optimal development strategy, and computer prompts often not only do not help, but are even misleading!

The slightest mistake made at the beginning of the game can lead to serious losses throughout most of the game, and enemies will not be slow to take advantage of this. Civilization has never been an easy game: winning requires patience and a sincere desire to learn the ins and outs of the game. From this article you will learn what you should pay attention to at the beginning of the game, what development strategies exist and what “control levers” are available to you. We'll look at the ancient and classical eras, as well as several key technologies from the Middle Ages.

The goals we choose

He who does not know where he is going will probably end up in the wrong place.

Lawrence Peter

In Civilization IV you always have to pursue several goals at once, but if you had to name one “most important” one, especially in the ancient era, you have to process as many cells as possible(not counting those that should not be processed) and improve these cells so that get as many resources as possible. In the later stages of the game it may be more profitable to make townsfolk specialists, but early in the game it is usually disadvantageous, if not impossible.

Since the first “Civilization”, processed cells can bring three resources: food (E), products (P) and commerce (C). Products have the fastest and most obvious effect: they provide troops, buildings and wonders of the world. The effect of commerce does not appear as quickly, but it is no less important: without money and technological development, your people will not live long. Finally, food in Civilization IV is needed not only to feed citizens and grow cities, but also to build colonists and workers (surplus food is not used for city growth, but as produce). So at the beginning of the game there are no extra resources: the bigger, the better! The success of your civilization in the ancient era can be assessed in one number - the amount of resources you receive per turn (the balance of resources is very important, but maintaining it is not difficult if you process many cells).

It is important: specialists give no more than three resources (scientists and merchants), and from most cells you can get the same, if not more. If you fail to be the first to build pyramids and establish an elected government, in which each specialist gives +3 science, you should remember about them only when there are no good cells left to process.

To farm the land effectively, your workers must build farms (requires farming), cottages, mines (requires ore mining) and roads (requires a wheel). Other technologies may be required to develop rare resources. Some technologies (archery and horse riding) are required to build troops. At the beginning of the game you need practically All technologies!

Very important found a religion, which requires you to be the first to research one of the relevant technologies. After this, one of your cities will become holy city new religion, and you will receive information about all cities in which there is at least a small proportion of co-religionists. With the help of a great prophet, a shrine can be built in a holy city that will produce culture and income. Over time, your religion will spread (this process can be accelerated with the help of missionaries) and its benefits will increase.

Finally, one of the key goals is build the most important wonders of the world. The most valuable wonders are the Pyramids [construction] (the ability to establish any form of government), the Parthenon [polytheism] (accelerates the emergence of great people), the Great Lighthouse [construction] (+2 trade routes in all cities), Stonehenge [mysticism] (free obelisk in each city) and hanging gardens [math] (+1 health and +1 inhabitant in all cities). Please note that most of these miracles are located on the same technology chain “mysticism - construction”.

Geology and Economics

We cannot wait for favors from nature: taking them from her is our task.

I.V. Michurin

Each city can cultivate land within the “grand cross” - a 5x5 square of cells, with the exception of the corner ones, if your cultural influence extends to these cells. Thus, each city can process up to 21 tiles, including the tile of the city itself. At the beginning of the game you will hardly have cities with a population of 20 or higher - this means that you will only be able to farm the best tiles. However, it is better to build so that the working areas of the cities do not overlap if you plan to finish the game.

Each cell, when processed, gives a certain amount of resources, depending on the base landscape, its features and your buildings. There can be several landscape features in the same cell: for example, a cell can contain both a forest and a hill. In this case, the parameters of all features are summed up. Thus, a wooded hill on a plain will produce 3P (1E 1P + 1P - 1E + 1P).

You must provide each city with enough food to feed all its inhabitants, and if you want the city to grow, there must be plenty of food. Feeding one resident requires two units of food (2E) per turn. If you want to process cells that provide little food, or make some residents specialists, then other cells must compensate for the lack of food.

The most profitable building is a house, which over time turns into a larger settlement if its cell is processed. If you build it on fertile land that gives at least 2E per turn, then the city dweller will be able to feed himself and at the same time provide you with solid commerce (2E 2K after 10 moves). When it grows to a town, you will receive 2E 4K from this cell - that is, as many as 6 resources per turn! The city's production usually comes from mines and, to a lesser extent, forests.

Since almost all buildings increase the production of one or another resource by several percent, in "Civilization IV" profitable to specialize cities. One city can serve as an "incubator", producing huge amounts of food and building only workers and colonists; the other is a “laboratory”, with a full set of scientific buildings and specialist scientists; the third is a “bank” that earns money for your treasury; the fourth - “arsenal”, and so on. Of course, the specialization of a city is determined by the cells surrounding it, so you will have to think about it when choosing a place for the city.

In previous versions of Civilization, it was common for new players to build cities in the wrong places, running out of food, and unable to grow. Therefore, now the program tells you in which cells it is most profitable to build a city so that it receives as much food as possible. In most cases, you can follow this hint, but don’t let the computer think for you: sometimes you don’t need rapid growth of the city, but the capture of an important resource or a barrier to enemy penetration.

On a note: the cell of the city itself almost always produces 2E 1P 1K, even in completely lifeless places like the desert or snow. Only on a hilly plain does a city receive an additional +1P. Therefore, oddly enough, it is better to build a city on"bad" cell than near with her.

One of the most important secrets of Civilization IV is the way it calculates your income and expenses. The exact formulas are unknown, but the game designers sought to make crazy expansion without proper development of the territory unprofitable, and they succeeded. As a result, civilizations that are lagging behind in the spread of civilization on the map gain an advantage over militarists and expansionists. You pay:

• for supporting troops: the first few units work for free, everyone else must be paid;
• for supporting cities (depending on their number);
• for the distance from the capital to each city;
• for each city building (the farther from the capital, the more - however, the courts reduce losses);
• for supporting the laws you establish (in proportion to the total population);
• finally, for inflation (slowly increasing throughout the game).

The main source of income is commerce, which is divided between gold and science. Since new technologies need to be researched as quickly as possible, you'll want to allocate as much as possible to science. Thus, high costs force you to slow down your research and fall behind in the technology race.

It is important: if you try to build a lot of colonists in order to quickly build cities and capture as much territory as possible, you will almost certainly lose: the cost of supporting these cities will be significant, and it will only increase with each turn.

Trade can also bring considerable income, although the exact formula is also unknown. Each city has several trade routes, which are automatically routed to the most distant and wealthy cities that can be reached from that city by road, river or sea. If you have an open border agreement with another civilization, then your cities can trade with their cities to mutual benefit. Optics research (and the construction of caravels) can increase trade income several times due to new trade routes to overseas countries.

In Civilization IV, not all buildings are worth building: often the effect of a building will not cover the cost of maintaining it. For example, a market that should be making you money may actually be taking it away! This is explained simply: the market brings +25% gold - in an industrial city producing only 10K, and with the usual distribution of only 10-20% of this amount to the treasury, your income will not increase. But you will have to pay for market support, and the further the city is from your capital, the more. Professionals recommend building in every city:

• barn(Granary) - accelerates the growth of the city, reduces the likelihood of famine, and also increases health if there is corn, rice or wheat;
• library(Library) - gives culture, speeds up research and allows you to make two citizens scientists;
• aqueduct(Aqueduct) - gives +2 health;
• forge(Forge) - increases production at the expense of health, allows you to make one citizen an engineer;
• lighthouse(Lighthouse) - only in coastal cities. Gives +1E on all sea tiles.

Whether it is worth building other buildings and in what order depends on the specialization of the city and the situation. For example, in conquered cities, the first thing they usually do is build a theater to increase culture and be able to farm the land. Factories and barracks are built in industrial cities, universities and laboratories in scientific cities, markets and banks in trade cities, not forgetting to make some of the townspeople traders.

Forests: to cut or not to cut?

I'll go, I'll go for a walk,

I'll break a white birch...

folk song

Forest is a very useful feature of the landscape: it increases the production and health of the city. However, the first thing brutal leaders of civilizations do is cut down forests, because this results in a significant amount of production for the nearest city (the base value is 30P; the further from the city, the less). Cutting down a forest takes only three turns, and even if you take into account the time it takes a worker to reach it, it still remains the most profitable way to speed up development. A worker costs 60P, that is, cutting down two forest cells allows you to get another worker!

So, should you immediately cut down all the forests around your cities? It is not that simple. At the beginning of the game, your civilization most likely does not yet know how to process bronze (Bronze Working), and without this you cannot cut down forests. If you first rush to research the chain of technologies “ore mining - bronze processing,” you risk missing out on other technologies, especially those leading to important wonders of the world (on the other hand, deforestation can compensate for the lag in the construction of a miracle). Quite often you will have to research agriculture in order to build farms and support the growth of cities (do you remember that when building colonists and workers, food is equal to production?).

It is important: when calculating the amount of production for deforestation, they take into account All advantages of buildings, leader, board and so on. Deforestation near a city with a factory will yield much more than 30P.

If there are enough hills in the working area of ​​the city on which to build mines, then the industrial value of the forests does not interest you: the mine produces much more product. But if they are not there, it is not worth cutting down all the forests around the city: without them, the city’s production will become so low that it will not be able to build even the most necessary buildings on time. A couple of forest cells near each city should be left at least for the improvement of the townspeople.

Almost everything your workers can build results in deforestation in that tile. For example, if you are building a farm, the worker will first cut down the forest and only then begin construction. You will receive the products for this forest only after construction is completed, so it is much more profitable to first give the order to cut it down, and only then to build a farm.

If there are a lot of forests, then first of all you should cut down those located on hills and rivers - in the first case, building a mine will give more products, and in the second, the forest does not allow you to get additional commerce from the river, and in general, the land near the river is highly valued, since you can build there wonderful farms.

This is interesting: you can cut down forests outside the work zone of your cities and even outside your cultural boundaries! True, in this case you will lose a significant part of the production due to the long distance to the city.

The strategic importance of forests should also not be forgotten. Firstly, all your armies in the forest receive +50% defense, which almost always discourages enemies from attacking them. Secondly, the enemy’s movement speed in the forest is halved, and you can build roads for the quick transfer of troops. If there are a lot of forests, you can train some of your troops as rangers, which will give them a significant advantage in strength and speed even without roads. Otherwise, it’s worth turning some wooded hill blocking the enemy’s path into a fortress: station troops there and cut down all the forests around. As a result, attacking enemies will not dare attack the hill's defenders (which have +75% defense) and will simply circle around the hill from which they can be attacked.

Keep in mind that while forests and jungles cannot be planted in Civilization IV, they will sometimes reproduce on their own: a new forest will appear next to a forest tile, but only where you have not built anything. This means that it is best to deal with the jungle once and for all, but a couple of forests, on the contrary, should be left. Whatever you say, in the distant future you will be able to build sawmills that produce very good products. And the “Green Party” will be simply happy!

Two thousand years war?

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

Carl von Clausewitz

War is economically profitable only if it is a blitzkrieg - you are far superior to the enemy, you can quickly achieve your goals and make peace on your own terms. This happens extremely rarely in Civilization IV, especially early in the game. You will have to spend a significant amount of time building troops; your troops will almost always move 1 square per turn, and you will have to wait for them to heal their wounds; dissatisfied people, tired of war, will appear in your cities; finally, a declaration of war leads to closed borders and sharply reduces trade. Before starting a war, you must have a clear idea of ​​what you want to achieve, how you are going to do it, and what the enemy is capable of. Without this, the war could indeed drag on for millennia, so that even victory in it would be Pyrrhic.

The parameters of the troops and their abilities were given in the January issue of LCI (2006), so we will not repeat them. At the beginning of the game, only archers, melee and cavalry are available to you; The only siege weapons are catapults, and the only ships are galleys and caravels. Cavalry moves quickly, does not receive advantages in defense and requires horses (a strategic resource). The best melee fighters require copper or iron (strategic resources), move slowly, but usually have a significant advantage against some kind of troops or when storming cities. Archers are not very strong, but they are cheap and have several first hits.

It is important: troops must Always build in a city with barracks, otherwise you will get useless cannon fodder on which enemies will train. Before mass producing troops, it is best to establish a vassal theocracy so that they gain even more experience. Experienced troops have a better chance of winning and gaining new experience.

You cannot fight with only one type of troops: the enemy will quickly understand this and organize effective resistance. It is worth sending cavalrymen to attack without infantry support - and the enemy spearmen/pikemen will easily kill them. Why? Yes, because they have +100% against cavalry, and your cavalry does not receive advantages to defense, and as a result, the spearman will have strength 8, and your horse archer will have only 6. While the enemy does not have cannons, it is most profitable to place several units of different types on one cell: when attacking such a group, the unit that can provide the best resistance will fight on your side. A group of pikeman, crossbowman and mace bearer can effectively defend against almost any attack.

The need to use multiple types of troops means that your invading army will move 1 square per turn, even if its main strength is cavalry. You cannot use roads located in enemy territory, but the enemy can, and this allows him to quickly gather troops into a fist anywhere. Therefore, one of the most effective military tactics is to land troops on the coast with galleys (Galley). Each galley can transport two units at a speed of 2 squares per turn (even faster once you master navigation), so a fleet of 3-4 galleys allows you to unexpectedly capture a coastal city or even several cities.

It is important: Wounded troops fight worse than whole troops - their strength decreases in proportion to the wounds received. So you will have to wait for them to heal. The medicine and march abilities are really worth taking, at least for one fighter in the strike group.

Since city defenders get a lot of benefits, they are quite difficult to storm, you should have a significant advantage, and your army will suffer heavy losses if it does not have catapults. A siege weapon turns a city assault from a bloody meat grinder into an organized event with a virtually guaranteed result. That is why the signal for the start of military preparations is usually the appearance of catapults.

Without catapults, the only thing worth doing is plundering the enemy’s territory, throwing him back in development, and even earning some money from it. In general, the economic aspect of war should not be forgotten: if you are greedy and capture a useless city instead of destroying it, this can lead to a sharp increase in costs and delay your technological development. Capture only those cities that can pay off, and be prepared to move the capital to the center of your empire after a successful war to cut costs.

Of course, you won’t always declare war - other civilizations can also attack you, and barbarians also appear from time to time. We must prepare to defend our territory - and specifically territory, not just cities! If you try to sit outside the city walls, your enemies will plunder your lands. Therefore, you need to place the most valuable buildings (villages) away from the border, build roads to it so that your troops can quickly intercept aggressors, and in the most suitable places for defense (for example, a single wooded hill) place spearmen or pikemen, who can easily destroy cavalrymen. Why them? Yes, because you will have time to intercept foot aggressors even without “border guards,” but cavalry can cause considerable damage.

The best thing, of course, is to try to be friends with your neighbors until you are ready to fight with them. To do this, you need to open borders and trade with them, exchange technologies and in every possible way pretend to be a “wonderful neighbor.” If you have not founded any religion, you can accept the religion of a strong neighbor, and if you have founded it, spread it with the help of missionaries. Don't let religious differences lead to unnecessary war. Let computer civilizations fight with each other, and not with you - maybe they will slow each other down so that you can easily defeat them when you are ready for it.

On the role of personality in history

No matter how great an individual person is, he is not able to determine the course of history. The true creator of history, the creator of all spiritual and material values ​​is the people.

Essay on the "five"

The February 2006 issue of LCI provides a description of the characteristics of civilization leaders and the strategy for playing for them. Nevertheless, it is always better to get acquainted with two opinions than with one, especially if they differ significantly. In my opinion, the most powerful leader would be a financier-industrialist (a huge economic advantage backed by the wonders of the world), but fortunately there is no such leader in the game.

It is important: The parameters of the leaders are given according to the localized version and published in Russia basic versions of Civilization IV. In the Warlords add-on, everything is somewhat different - and we will write about this in detail after the game is released in Russian.

J. Washington has a huge commercial advantage, which very quickly turns into a scientific one. It is especially good in an ocean world with many islands. Research the sail as quickly as possible and build beacons. It's worth building a Great Lighthouse, and if you have copper, a colossus, even though it quickly becomes obsolete. Maintain peaceful relations with your neighbors and trade with them until your technological superiority becomes overwhelming. Typically this occurs during the time of cavalry, frigates and galleons. However, with such advantages as Washington has, it is possible not to fight at all, but to strive for a diplomatic victory.

F.D. Roosevelt It is also not very suitable for a quick war, but its advantages apply in almost any world. This is one of the best leaders in the entire game. Playing as him, you can pursue almost any peaceful strategy. It is very beneficial to focus on specialists, since the wonders of the world speed up their appearance and increase their effectiveness. Try to build the pyramids and the Parthenon.

Queen Victoria inferior to Washington in large empires, but superior in early development thanks to cheap granaries and ore mining. As a rule, war should not be started until the redcoats appear.

Queen Elizabeth much better than Victoria, but still, George Washington is still winning in the financier competition. It is also better not to start a war until the redcoats appear.

Saladin, like all spiritual leaders, should try to found as many religions as possible and build many temples, for which great prophets should be sacrificed. This is far from the best combination of abilities, but the Arabs know mysticism from the very beginning, which gives some head start in the race for religions. The camel shooter is the only knight that does not require iron, so Saladin is practically guaranteed quality troops.

Montezuma- one of the weakest leaders. Spirituality doesn't go well with aggressiveness - you should probably just capture their holy cities instead of chasing religions. However, the jaguar does not provide any special benefits, other than not requiring iron. You can try playing with it in the humid jungle world.

Alexander- far from the best leader. Aggression goes very poorly with philosophy, and phalanxes are more defensive troops than attackers. You can fight an early war if you're lucky with resources, but it's best to wait until vassalage and theology to get very experienced troops. After the war, you may have level 4 troops, which will allow you to build a heroic epic. In general, Alexander gravitates towards the “one city” strategy - the police state, bureaucracy and heroic epic allow for the production of knights very quickly...

Hatshepsut is probably what Montezuma was supposed to be: a spiritual, early war-oriented ruler. At the very beginning of the game, war chariots are practically invincible, since they have strength 5 and immunity to the first strike. Even if the enemy has archers, “advanced” chariots are not inferior to them, but the technology of archery still needs to be studied, while the Egyptians know the wheel from the very beginning of the game. With early war luck, you capture enemy cities, and the creator ability quickly brings them into operation.

Mahatma Gandhi- a very good peace-loving leader if you manage to build the pyramids first. He is far from the best industrialist, since it is not necessary to change the way of government without war very often (except to “cheat” when building troops), but fast workers represent a serious advantage.

Ashoka- a candidate for those who are bored with constant advantages and want to get the most out of the governance settings. Build or conquer a huge empire (which Ashoka can rule as the organizer) and have fun switching laws to your heart's content! It has no special advantages other than flexibility in the way of government.

Huayna Capac- another lover of war at the very early stage of the game, although he is ready to fight almost always. The Quechuas become obsolete very quickly due to their small strength, but they can still capture a city or two, especially if the enemy defends them with only archers. Not the best of aggressive leaders, but still better than Alexander.

U Queen Isabella the abilities are worthless, but the Spanish national troops are quite decent: the conquistador is the only cavalryman who receives advantages for protection from terrain and the city, and besides this, he also has +50% against melee. If you are lucky in the initial stage of the game and you get to the knights first (or simply deprive the enemy of the necessary strategic resources) - the conquistador becomes the “king of the fields”, even the pikemen have no chance against him. Not a bad leader for beginners and low difficulty levels.

Mao Tse Tung prefers peaceful expansion. It's great for "cultural" city takeovers, where a great artist is sacrificed for 4000 culture in a neighboring city. The Chinese crossbowman (cho-ko-nu) is better than usual, but his collateral damage cannot be increased, and by the time he appears, the neighbors will already have horse archers with immunity to the first strike.

Qin Shi Huangdi much like Roosevelt - both industrialists, only one gets more commerce and the other pays less taxes. The Chinese are more profitable with a small civilization, and the American with a large one. Both do not like to fight and try to postpone the war until their technological advantage becomes decisive. Beginner players are better off playing as Qin Shi Huangdi, as Cho-ko-nu makes defending the empire much easier. And the Chinese have better starting technologies.

Mansa Musa- a flexible leader for experienced players who value the ability to quickly change the style of management and move from defense to attack. The Malian javelin thrower is much stronger than the average archer, allowing him to defend both his own cities and invading armies attacking others. Like all financiers, he is good on the archipelagos, but also has good chances on the continent: the starting set of technologies allows you to build mines, chariots, dart throwers and attack an unprepared neighbor at the very beginning of the game.

Genghis Khan inferior in effectiveness to many other aggressive leaders, especially Kublai. Expansionist is perhaps the most useless feature for those who like to fight.

Kublai- one of the best military leaders. Creativity allows him to quickly incorporate conquered cities into the empire, and in peacetime, to develop the territory faster and not be distracted by the construction of obelisks. If you want to capture an enemy city, and not just plunder its territory, the Mongol keshik will not help you much - you will still have to send slow defenders with it. But the Mongols really know how to rob better than anyone else.

Friedrich- the largest specialist in cultural pressure on neighbors: after all, great people also generate culture. At the beginning of the game, he receives practically no advantages, except for the rapid development of the territory and the ability to do without obelisks. Try to found as many religions as possible and spread them to reduce the likelihood of war. After the tanks appear, you will be able to recoup everything... if you live.

Bismarck- a fairly effective industrialist, since +3 health in all cities will help compensate for the damage of forges and factories. Build pyramids, establish hereditary power, and the defenders of your cities will bring them happiness. When there are enough defenders, focus on research. Use all the scientists you can assign and build all the science-enhancing wonders of the world. Your goal is tanks.

Cyrus- one of the weakest leaders. His only hope is the "immortals", who at the early stage of the game (before the appearance of spearmen) can cope with warriors and archers. However, to do this, the Persians still need to learn the wheel and ore mining, as well as get to the horses. Those who like to trample the world with chariots usually prefer the Egyptians.

Julius Caesar- a military specialist, ideally suited to train powerful and experienced troops. You can afford to support the vassal system and theology so that the Praetorians under construction receive as much experience as possible. Give part of the troops battle and shelter, another part - an assault on the city, and then they will earn experience for themselves. Success depends on the availability of iron, without which the Praetorians cannot be built.

Catherine- a very effective leader. It is in many ways similar to the Germans - it also waits for the national troops (Cossacks) to appear, after which it enters the war. However, Cossacks are available much earlier than tanks, and the “financier” ability significantly speeds up research and makes it easier to “digest” captured cities. And creativity is not at all superfluous for an invader. In the world of the archipelagos, Catherine is much stronger than in the “average”: her advantages mean more than the advantages of her enemies, and it is also easier to avoid premature wars.

Peter- much worse than Catherine: you will have to wait for the Cossacks without having any serious advantages. We must focus on specialists and try to avoid war.

Louis XIV- not the best industrialist, since the main effect of creativity (obelisks are not needed) is replaced by the construction of Stonehenge. The French do not have any special prerequisites for quick conquests, so the rapid inclusion of captured cities is also not required.

Napoleon, of course, loves war, but prefers not to fight from the very beginning of the game, since at this time he has no advantages other than aggressiveness. Build wonders of the world, discover at least one religion and spread it. French musketeers appear with the invention of gunpowder, but their only advantage is double the speed of movement. This means that by themselves they will not become a “weapon of victory,” but they will perfectly protect knights and later cavalrymen, keeping up with them.

Tokugawa- perhaps the most effective aggressor, in many ways similar to Julius Caesar. Unlike Mongolian keshiks, his samurai get "free" combat I and are usually far superior to enemy fighters. Moreover, his organizational skills allow him to maintain vassalage and theology, so that troops immediately receive 3-4 abilities! The lack of iron is even more terrible for Tokugawa than for Caesar.

Do you have a plan?

Our goals are clear, our tasks are defined. Get to work, comrades!

N.S. Khrushchev

A game in which there is only one “correct” development strategy would inevitably turn out to be boring: what's the point in doing the same thing in every game? And the result of a battle between adherents of this “correct” strategy would depend only on luck at the initial location. Fortunately, there is nothing like this in Civilization IV, and the optimal development strategy depends on many parameters.

• Features of your nation and leader. Each nation has several technologies with which it begins the game, as well as special troops that are in some ways superior to their standard counterparts. You simply won’t be able to play as the peace-loving Indians as well as the warlike Mongols. If national troops are available in the ancient era - their advantages can make early war profitable.

  Two peculiarities your leader - very powerful effects that can radically change the usual ideas about the profitability of a particular strategy: for example, for aggressive leader, early war can be beneficial, and organizer can found (or conquer) many cities and support them.

• Planet parameters. The development of civilization in the world of the ocean and rare islands cannot be the same as in the vast continents: in the first case, you need to build lighthouses and research navigation technologies, in the second, you need to seize valuable resources and protect your cities from barbarians and enemies. It is much easier to live in the jungle world than in the desert world - at least you can get rid of them.
• Starting location. You shouldn’t spend a lot of time choosing the optimal location for your first city: the game almost never puts you in a hopeless situation, and you will always receive some resources. However, in each game the set of resources will be different, especially rare ones, the extraction of which will require different technologies.

  If you have carefully read the entire article, then, undoubtedly, you have already decided which leaders you like and what kind of world your newborn civilization will live in. Moreover, you probably already have an approximate development plan, and you are ready to adjust this plan according to the situation. Now the future of your people depends only on you. Good luck!