Civilization IV

[stoutfellow]

Just a few quick notes gleaned from my latest round of Civ IV playing:

• The new Great People system is excellent. I haven't really found much use for Great Merchants as yet, but Great Prophets, Great Scientists, and Great Artists are all extremely useful, and Great Engineers are absolutely wonderful - in more senses than one.
• When you're playing one of the Mongol leaders - either Genghis or Kublai - and you can't find horses anywhere, it kind of cramps your style.
• I love the Philosophical, Spiritual, and Industrious traits; I can make use of Organized, Creative, or Aggressive leaders; but the proper use of the Expansive and Financial traits still eludes me.

Comments

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Great Merchants: I must confess that by the time I get a Great Merchant, I'm generally either pretty badly disliked by most of my neighbors or I've already set up trade deals that keep them constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, so I've never really been in a position to do a Trade Mission. I find them really useful when I have a city built in food-marginal terrain (generally sited specifically to harvest multiple different special resources). When a Great Merchant joins a city as a superspecialist, you get a sizeable money boost *and one free food*. That can make the difference between a city that can't grow to meet its full production/commerce potential and one that can.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip; it's come in handy in my last couple of games.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way: I don't think the status of your neighbor's treasury impacts Trade Missions. The inflow from those is huge - much larger than any plausible estimate of their treasuries.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I'll keep that in mind, the next time I have a Great Merchant, Open Borders with someone reasonably far away, and no driving need for that oh-so-alluring "free food".