(P)REVIEWS - Civilization IV Preview by Solver
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
Here lies in a huge difference between CivIV and its predecessors. In previous Civ games, bigger was usually better. If you had the largest amount of land with the most cities, then you were the strongest civilization out there and would win. In CivIV, size still has its advantages. However, if you are the biggest, that still doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I have played games where a smaller civilization won - and this happened with both me being that smaller civ. and an AI civ. in that role. If you have 7 cities and everyone else has over a dozen, you can still be the tech. race leader. One possible way to do that is to have fewer cities which emphasize specialists and in turn produce Great People regularly. There are also other strategies that will let you do similarly well. One of these has me particularly excited.
I have seen smaller AI civs compete and win. An AI civ. can run only 4 or 5 cities and still be competitive. Another notable thing is that wars in CivIV tend to be fewer. The AIs are often smart enough not to enter wars that they don't really feel that they can win, and it's therefore possible for a civ. to remain peaceful and gain the lead while the rest of the world is fighting. War is costly - your cities are producing units instead of infrastructure, and you are running aggressive civics instead of those that boost your economy.
Obviously, a civ. with 20 cities is probably going to have a larger army than a civ. with 10 cities. Then again, the changed combat system makes it possible for a builder to defend against a numerically superior force. Clever use of promotions, siege weapons and the city defense (which, incidentally, is also boosted by culture) will make it quite possible for a smaller nation to repel the invasion of a bigger aggressor. This is not to say that being aggressive is a losing strategy in CivIV - it is most definitely not, but it's not that easy either. Don't expect that building an army early on and conquering whoever is unfortunate enough to start near you would give you an outright lead for the entire game.
Another reason why more cities isn't always better in CivIV is city specialization. To reliably generate Great Persons at a good rate, you will need a significant amount of specialists and Wonders. Of course, this is better done in existing big cities. Since such a city can have a lot of commercial and industrial power, you will very often prefer a specialized city to several medium size cities.
Even in war, bigger isn't always better in CivIV. Forget about the owner of the largest army winning every time. Thanks to the intelligently designed and versatile combat system, numbers are not going to be your biggest advantage at all times.
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