TBS/RTS Advice?

[Murgos]

Picked up Civ IV (GOTY) yesterday.  I hadn't played a Civ game since I uninstalled the original after having it on my HD for, no shit, 10 years.  Looks great in 1680x1050.

It's pretty kick ass, completely relegated the final four to background static while I played.  So far I'm up to about 1868 on a map with all the default settings, I'm ahead on points but there is a civ that's larger and keeping pace with me technologically (I actually tend to trade with him pretty regularly to upgrade techs).  I'm actually only third wealthiest.

Of course, I just spent 40 years riding my cavalry and riflemen roughshod over the Russians (the weakest player and he had the temerity to establish a city in in between two of my cities expansion areas) and taking several large cities so I should shoot up as soon as I've indoctrinated his citizens and established myself.  At first I was a little annoyed when my most veteran unit of Cavalry (complete with black hats and handle bar mustaches) was mauled by a unit of Mace wielding Men-At-Arms but that's what I get for not building cannon, I think.  Cities apparently give HUGE bonuses to defense (+100% and more for veteran units).

Next up, APC's and tanks though I may play this out to something other than a conquest victory.

[Merusk]

Once you hit the APC/ Tank era, warfare becomes REALLLY expensive, so not going for the conquest victory is a good idea.  You are required to have a combined-arms force and move it around.  Each unit in the 'modern' era has a counter-unit, so building, say,  all-tanks means your foe just needs to make a few bombers to soften them up, then blow you to bits with Helicopters.   Helicopters are easily countered by Mech. Inf, etc.  Then you still run in to the 'uber defense bonus' of cities, so you need a huge army of all these units just to take a city.

  Even Nukes aren't the uber weapons they once were, as they still leave some units alive rather than wiping them all out.  So in addition to the popularity hit, eco-hazards (which are an even Bigger bitch in CivIV, since you can't plant forests) and radiation, you still have to fight for that city.   I only resort to nukes when I'm just so sick of some fucker attacking me from the 'neutral' country on a border.  It's still satisfying, even if it's not terribly effective.

[Murgos]

I ended up scoring a Space Ship victory with about 23 turns to go.  I think I could have finished significantly earlier (late 1900's so 30 turns earlier) if I had gone for conquest.  At a certain point I managed to piss off three of the four remaining societies, I didn't realize that they were all linked in a defense pact.  Weathering their initial strikes was touch and go for about a dozen turns and I lost a large border city but after that my production and some key tech upgrades were enough to take the offensive.  I ended up asking for peace after wiping out one of the axis coalition but I think that I had momentum and could have kept on rolling.

Modern Armor upgraded for city attacks with copious air and sea support for bombardment was making short work of huge stacks of rifle/infantry level troops.  Fighting World War II (wrapped up in 1955) with Jet Fighters and M1 Abrams is always good for a smile.

Probably took me as long to play from 1850 - 2027 as it did to play from 4000 B.C. to 1850...

[Strazos]

Doesn't time advance more quickly in the BC era?