I've started playing Civilization 4 and some things have occurred to me. First, having a Huge map with 18 nations is massive overkill since it seems I never have enough time to conquer them all(and that's what I usually like to do), especially if there are large bodies of water separating nations(perhaps turning off timed win will help with this)

I've also noticed that the AI seems more competent than in Civ3. Before I could send my massive army in and take a country over city by city with impunity as all the enemy units would either turtle into the cities or vainly crash against my army. First time I tried that in Civ4 I got wave after wave of enemy cavalry rushes into my flanks and cities. It was not good times.

What nation/leader do you prefer to play as and how do you typically like to win? I usually play as either China(the non-Mao guy) or Bismarck of Germany. And I usually go for Domination.

I prefer Bismarck and a secluded area and wonder rush my way to either space victory or culture victory, whichever is closer.

The AI is really good at launching aquatic attacks where you least expect it.

My favorite aspect of the game is the inital exploration. It just never gets old uncovering the perfect spot for a city or finding that once resource that will balance my empire or whatever.

I've never played the civ games. Is it one of those where you start off in the stone ages or something and gradually progress in technology as you take over the world?

Do you have vanilla or beyond the sword?

If you have BtS, try playing the Rhye's and Fall of Civilizations module, once you get a solid hang of the game. http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=204 You can either update the one that comes with BtS or download it if you have the original game or warlords.

In a nutshell, it's a realistic Earth map featuring just about every civ on it; civs spawn on the map when they would historically. The AI is better, and some things are tweaked, but the big feature is the addition of stability. Just as religion added a whole 'nother layer to civ 4, Rhye's brings it to a new level with your empire's stability. Poor choices, and the cities you conquered might declare their independence as you descend into civil war.

There's a new version of it coming out in a week or so, so you might want to bookmark it and come back to it once you win a few games.

I have Warlord and BotS. This is definitely an interesting find and I'll make sure to look into it.

I found it a lot less in-depth than Civ2 (particularly in city management), combat seems less nonsensical though.

Is it no longer possible to gain technology by capturing enemy cities?

And is it not possible to build/buy something in a city using cash? Maybe I've missed the button, but the only way to build now seems to be to let the resources accumulate.

form of government "universal suffrage" in the english version I think

[and doesn't it display the requirements if not yet met in the tooltip]

Or of course there's good old fashioned slavery - you can sacrafice some population to build things faster.

I like the French as Louis XIV and going for a cultural victory. Louis gets Creative which obviously helps creating culture and Industrious which means all you need is one or two gold mines and you can build enough wonders to be pumping out great people every 2-3 turns. They also start out with agriculture which immediately puts you ahead if you're lucky enough to start near some cows.