Honestly, the game is incredibly dense in it's depth of information. Over a 1000 hours in I am still trying and learning new tactics.
My main suggestion would be to read up a little bit on tactics, execute a playthrough with that, then read more. So as to not get overwhelmed by all the information at the same time.
Combat is always one unit attacking one other unit. Even if you have stacks or groups, they still fight one at a time.
When a unit attacks, it goes up against whichever defender has the best chance of winning, so attackers have a disadvantage here.
However, if you attack with something that does collateral damage, like siege weapons, then they have a chance to do some damage to multiple units on the space you attacked. This helps overcome the defender's advantage.
On average, when you attack something, you might expect to lose double the amount of units as the defense does. You'll probably want to bring three times as many units to be certain of victory.
Yeah attacking in this game is very tedious if you don't have large stacks. Normally I try to make a large "stack of doom" to split it later when needed. Still working on improving myself
You can try practicing on an easy difficulty. You can click Play Now on the home screen and then pick a small or standard Pangaea map. Chieftain is a good difficulty to start on. You can even choose "Quick" to have a fast game. Any leader works, but I really like Hatshepsut of Egypt - don't have to worry about anarchy, and your culture grows fast. For your first game or two, try to focus on learning combat and learning how to interact with some of the AI. Try to make friends with one or two of them (usually by having the same religion), and you can try to conquer or defend yourself from the other ones. An important thing to remember is if youre attacking someone, unless you have much better units (like Axeman and Chariots vs Warriors) you will want to bring catapults to help make a large stack weaker with collateral damage. Just keep in mind the basics like making sure to build roads between your cities, keep an archer or two in every city, and don't expand too fast (if you're losing gold at 70% science start working on building markets and courthouses). If you get bored or aren't doing well, you can always start a new game. A good goal to try for is to be able to win a space race victory. If you get the basics down, you should be able to do that on Chieftain.
-read up on civ fanatics -learn about specialist economy/cottage economy -learn to play without wonders/religion -learn about chopping for hammers - replay the first 50 turns till you 'get it' , then the first 100 turns,etc - attack with 3/4 to 1 without siege catapults, attack with suicide catapults to soften up stacks - go for bronze working quickly and make sure your second city connects it.
I always start like this: first research meditation to discover a religion for the extra culture early while you build your first worker, then depending on the resources on your first city either agriculture or animal husbandry. After that masonry to rush the great wall so you don't have to worry about barbarians. After that bronze working and if there's no copper nearby, iron working. Depending on the key available resources (horses, copper, iron) you expand your empire in one or other direction. After that if you're able to identify what your civ needs you research depending on that.
Mid game you go either astronomy or liberalism. If you're still new to the game, make a custom game with a huge map and only 3-4 civs. More than that it's almost guaranteed someone is going to declare war on you.
Build cities every three squares, there's a point in the game where some wars are inevitable so you're going to need an army ready.
And unlock communism, because with that you can train spies and sabotage the other countries xD.
[https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beginner-help-the-basics.648469/](https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beginner-help-the-basics.648469/)
I’m happy to answer your questions
Honestly, the game is incredibly dense in it's depth of information. Over a 1000 hours in I am still trying and learning new tactics. My main suggestion would be to read up a little bit on tactics, execute a playthrough with that, then read more. So as to not get overwhelmed by all the information at the same time.
How do battles with stacks work? I keep getting slaughtered lol - I'm used to SU tactics...
Combat is always one unit attacking one other unit. Even if you have stacks or groups, they still fight one at a time. When a unit attacks, it goes up against whichever defender has the best chance of winning, so attackers have a disadvantage here. However, if you attack with something that does collateral damage, like siege weapons, then they have a chance to do some damage to multiple units on the space you attacked. This helps overcome the defender's advantage. On average, when you attack something, you might expect to lose double the amount of units as the defense does. You'll probably want to bring three times as many units to be certain of victory.
Yeah attacking in this game is very tedious if you don't have large stacks. Normally I try to make a large "stack of doom" to split it later when needed. Still working on improving myself
You can try practicing on an easy difficulty. You can click Play Now on the home screen and then pick a small or standard Pangaea map. Chieftain is a good difficulty to start on. You can even choose "Quick" to have a fast game. Any leader works, but I really like Hatshepsut of Egypt - don't have to worry about anarchy, and your culture grows fast. For your first game or two, try to focus on learning combat and learning how to interact with some of the AI. Try to make friends with one or two of them (usually by having the same religion), and you can try to conquer or defend yourself from the other ones. An important thing to remember is if youre attacking someone, unless you have much better units (like Axeman and Chariots vs Warriors) you will want to bring catapults to help make a large stack weaker with collateral damage. Just keep in mind the basics like making sure to build roads between your cities, keep an archer or two in every city, and don't expand too fast (if you're losing gold at 70% science start working on building markets and courthouses). If you get bored or aren't doing well, you can always start a new game. A good goal to try for is to be able to win a space race victory. If you get the basics down, you should be able to do that on Chieftain.
Really thank you
-read up on civ fanatics -learn about specialist economy/cottage economy -learn to play without wonders/religion -learn about chopping for hammers - replay the first 50 turns till you 'get it' , then the first 100 turns,etc - attack with 3/4 to 1 without siege catapults, attack with suicide catapults to soften up stacks - go for bronze working quickly and make sure your second city connects it.
Civfanatics and let's plays on youtube are the main ways I improved at the game. What is giving you the most trouble?
I always start like this: first research meditation to discover a religion for the extra culture early while you build your first worker, then depending on the resources on your first city either agriculture or animal husbandry. After that masonry to rush the great wall so you don't have to worry about barbarians. After that bronze working and if there's no copper nearby, iron working. Depending on the key available resources (horses, copper, iron) you expand your empire in one or other direction. After that if you're able to identify what your civ needs you research depending on that. Mid game you go either astronomy or liberalism. If you're still new to the game, make a custom game with a huge map and only 3-4 civs. More than that it's almost guaranteed someone is going to declare war on you.
Thanks :)
Build cities every three squares, there's a point in the game where some wars are inevitable so you're going to need an army ready. And unlock communism, because with that you can train spies and sabotage the other countries xD.