The right place to post about a game is the actual game forum. That way, people actually interested in the game can easily locate all the threads with relevant information.

In this case, the game forum is: Sid Meier's Civilization series

My apologies. When I went to start the thread I didn't even bother to click on All Forums. Honestly thought General Discussion Forum was the place to go. I never really dabbled in the All Forums part of the community.

Well, it is heartwarming to see love for Civ IV. Hopefully you can find something interesting in the threads there. For example, there is solid advice about mods that improve the interface there.

Another thing that might be done (unless a moderator says otherwise) could be asking for advice in a thread in the general forum, but providing a link to the actual thread in the game forum. That way you might both catch the attention of people and also keep the advice accessible for other later. But better keep that for a desperate situation, I guess.

It is often a good idea to check the dedicated forums when starting with new games. For most of the games in GOG there are often lots of suggestions and even answers to the problems that you might have. Especially, for older games the game forums may often be pure gold.

Have fun!

Appreciate it. There's been a good amount of information shared, along with links to additional info.

The same as any civ... though i have to say, after buying the complete version not so long ago i did not realize it changed so much with all the updates. I had a shared version of IV back in the days but it was the 5th that really managed to grab attention. ( and VI i secretly covet to understand, that one is certainly way beyond anything you'd ever seen, and certainly with its expansions )

gl !

The BUG mod is a great addon for a fresh install of CIV 4, as mentioned here. It does not change gameplay. Instead it improves the interface and the terrain. Good stuff.

I've only played II, III, and IV. I've read IV is regarded as the best installment of the series, but that of course is personal preference. I hope GOG gets their hands on V and VI (V at minimum) but I feel like I'll be playing IV for very long time, especially having the expansions. I'm still very new to IV but already like it more than III, which I was a big fan of.
Appreciate it. I haven't tried using any mods yet. Still working on my first game :) .

In case you were not yet aware of this: you will find three executables: One for the original Civ4 and two for the big expansions. The one giving you the complete game is Beyond the Sword. However, there is additional content (scenarios and official mods) that come embedded with each of the three versions of the game. They are different! This means that if you want to play the scenario about World War II in northern Africa, you will have to start the original game, for example. There are jewels among those mods/scenarios. There is space war, there is WWII, there is even a squad based tactical game / light RPG. If you ever want a change, try them. Remember, each of the three executables comes with different mods and scenarios.

By the way, Civ3 was nice. I remember enjoying playing with the Persians. Nice bonuses for the new civs.

Have fun!!


PS: If you use Galaxy, right click in the game tab is your friend: the alternative executables will appear listed there, ready to go with a click.

If you do not use Galaxy, you will find them easily as well.

Thanks for the info Carradice. Quick question -- what did you mean by this comment?

Civ 4 is from just before the era of DLC, so every expansion pack was basically a completely separate release of the game. When you install the game via Galaxy, you will get all three versions of the game installed: the original without expansions, the Warlords expansion, and the Beyond the Sword expansion.

For all intents and purposes, Beyond the Sword is the gold version and has all the content from Warlords as well. The only thing that Warlords has that Beyond the Sword does not is a couple of scenarios that aren't compatible with Beyond the Sword - that's it. Unless you want to play those scenarios, there is no reason not to run Beyond the Sword since that's the edition with all the content. And unless you want to play the original version, there's no reason to run Civ 4 without the expansions.

So just launch Beyond the Sword, it's the complete gold version.

Beyond the Sword is the final expansion that includes the additions from Warlords. If you like having everything, that is the way to go. That is what I run when I want to play a regular game. You have more alternatives to war, essentially.

However, the intention of my previous post is letting you know that there are great official mods and scenarios that come attached to each of the three installments of Civ4. In order to access them, you have to run the right one.

Civ4
Warlords
Beyond the Sword

You can do that from Galaxy or manually.

These mods and scenarios are so good that many players have actually spent more time in them than in regular civilization games. Meaning, really good. I would start with the ones from the original Civ4.... Whenever you want a change, go for them... If you enjoy the likes of Master of Orion, there is a great mod in space, to name one.

Also, marines are handy for directly assaulting in amphibious operations, since they do not have the assault landing penalty that other units suffer. But that will come by itself as you play. Enjoy the early ages... The flavour of the game in the different stages is quite different. You can toy with game options and launch the one that gives you a more lengthy game. Then, the next step is the Marathon, that gives you a length for each era equal to a normal Civ game. The lenghtier the game, the larger you will want the map, probably...

Got it. Thank you for sharing.
My very first game of Civ IV was on Epic and Continents. I purposely tried to avoid war and went in with the goal to last till year 2050. I wanted to get a feel for the game, including all the eras, a lot of the techs, and just general planning of cities and game interface. I managed to accomplish it (and won haha) but the game took nearly 50 hours to play. I enjoyed it very much, but that was too long. I don't think I'm built for any speed beyond Normal haha.

50 hours, talking from memory now, but it sounds like quite a lot! :D I wonder how much was spent in the modern and contemporary era, where turns become so long.

I do prefer Epic because else the eras pass very fast. With Epic you have some time to savour each stage of the game. Normal is good as well. The good thing is that options are there to choose! :-)

A comparison with another game: The remake of Masters of Orion. By default, the game is set to play in a rushed way. Then, some (silly?) win condition comes out, tells you that you won and you are done. All too fast...

Most people did not like the result at all. If you play with the settings, it feels like a different game.

Not the same, but with Civ4 Epic improves the game, for me. Yet I also have played to death on Normal.

Another option, for those who want to get to the modern eras fast, is starting with the first cities and some technologies in place. The options are there! :-)

Honestly I'm not sure. I know the in-game time slows to a yearly basis at some point, but as far as actual hours spent in each era I don't recall.

I might be on an island here, but I LOVE the ancient-classical era and spending time building my empire from scratch. The industrial era and beyond, from a game standpoint, is probably my least favorite part of the game. Some of it is the micromanaging, but I think a lot is I'm so used to rarely getting that far into the game (speaking more so from playing Civ III) that it's still a bit new to me. I need more experience in those eras to make it more interesting.