Phantom

Is Civ IV worth $50 ?? I am looking for a new game to start up soon and I am weighing my options.

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Magnum50

IMO...hell ya... best one... tons of great improvements, great reviews everywhere... and I'm addicted like it's crack!

getting tired of losing thou, and being called "Dan Quayle"

heres more info, great site...with tons of info...
http://planetcivilization.gamespy.com/


I love the tactics part now... use to be, biggest stack wins... now it pays to have multiple stacks, archer types on hills, inf, marines with jungle bonuses etc ect... promotions, siege weapons that can do collateral damage... all sweet.

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Vulcan

yes this game is better than AoE 3 and any other current RTS/Sim out there.

Beware you will get addicted.

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CingularDuality

Definitely worth it!

I haven't really shopped around, but I know that newegg has it for $46.

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Addict

Lemme tag along on this question.

Right now I'm currently playing a lot of Rome:Total Warfar. I love the campaign part, and now that I've turned down the realism of the fighting, I'm kinda liking the RTS part.

How does Civ IV compare? Worth having both? Civ IV better? any comparison?

Tempus

That is my exact question! I finished R:TW (loved it) and am playing Barbarian Invasion. Will I enjoy Civ equally?

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-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

CingularDuality

Have you played any of the other Civ games?

It's not an RTS, it's turn based. You usually have all the time in the world to move all your units where you want them before you end your turn. There's no arcade style rush to move your guys before the enemy moves theirs. That said, there are multiplayer options now that place time limits on turns and/or have everyone making their moves at the same time...

I've never played Rome:Total War, but Civ isn't just about building armies and fighting, it's got more strategy related to population and resource management. More diplomacy. Choosing your gov't type and religion has a huge impact on how you can play. Deciding whether to build a large army or to go for tech advances is a major decision you have to make.

In short, Civ4 is the second best strategy game I've ever played. Why 2nd? 'Cause everyone needs to command a hydralisk rush every now and again!

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Mateo

Is AOE3 any good? I've shipped FEAR to Dr.Lily in exchange for it.

Vulcan

AoE 3 is ok for the first hour then you realize it's a cut down version of AoM. Sucks bad IMO.

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Addict

Heh. I played the original Civ, aWAY back when. Havn't tried one since(not that I was avoiding it, just havn't).

See, R:TW isn't really an RTS either. It has 2 parts, one is turn based, one is RTS. Frankly, I've never liked any RTS game (even Star Craft, sorry). Only one I *kinda* liked is Dawn of War, but that is because I like warhammer 40K, not RTS's. And I've only started to kinda like the RTS part of R:TW by turning down the realism(realistic battles take sooooooo looooong). Basically, until recently, I totally SKIPPED the RTS part by letting the computer auto resolve all battles.

Anyway, the turn based strategy part of R:TW is what I like most. And in a lot of ways, it sounds exactly like Civ IV. Population control, resource management, diplomacy. It's all in there. From reviews, I get the impression that there are more options in Civ IV, but sometimes more options is not a good thing, it just obsfucates the basic principles without really adding new options. (example, I love RISK, and really don't like Axis and Allies that much).

I'll probably LIKE Civ IV, but I'm wondering how much I'm just going to feel that it is the same as R:TW campaign play, so why did I bother to spend 50 bucks? THAT is the question I'm trying to answer.

feh. I hate RTS's...


Oh, and Tempus, how is Barbarian invasion, worth it for the campaign part(I would buy), or just new units for the RTS(I would skip)?

Vulcan

Addict, Civ 4 is a masterpeice IMO. Yeah it's got lots of options but it's perfectly balanced in my opinion. You can't become the ultimate leader in this game. You have to rely on allies.

There are so many units and so many different ways to use them that the military end can be very fun. You can auto your cities to bring in more food, production, gold, great people or even stagnate a cities population. Workers can be set to automatically build improvements and trade networks. This all means you get more time to strategize about how to direct your civilization.

In short i'd buy it and you won't be disappointed.

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Steeler

Yeah, the military aspect of the game is much more involved now. Civ II and III were mostly about city management and climbing that all important tech tree before your opponents could get musketmen. Now it's more about building and manuevering armies and specializing your cities to promote your current needs. Climbing the tech tree is still important, but it's easier to maintain a high research pace while doing other things, like smashing your enemies.

I haven't quite gotten my head around it yet.

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Tempus

The units mean nothing to me.. I bought it because they said it was harder and the AI was smarter.

I started a campaign as Western Europe (the hardest campaign) on Normal difficulty, and I'm having a very hard time. I am not sure that I will be able to win.

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Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

Addict

Heh. well crap, you've all convinced me. I guess I'll just have to get Civ IV AND barbarian invasion, and disapear from my wife and freinds for a few months!