Install Bc4000 from AppStore to your iOS devices. Take the role of tribal leader in 4000 B.C., move units on the map, build or improve new cities and units, and choose technologies to research to enable new building skills turn by turn.
BC4000 is a single player, turn-based strategy game for iOS platform inspired by the Sid Meier's Civilization series.
Most graphics, music, map and text materials come from public domain licensed by Creative Commons License or General Public License. The core data structures, file formats, encyclopedia text and game engine algorithm made by Freeciv are licensed by the GNU General Public License.
Player take the role of tribal leaders in 4000 B.C., compete against AI opponents to found cities, support military and economy, and finally to complete an empire that survives all encounters with its neighbors to emerge victorious. To construct new city buildings and deploy of new units, new technologies should be discovered. You can wage war on one another or form diplomatic relationships with AI opponents.
Achieving success requires a balance between economic expansion, military strength, and technological development. Not only must you develop all three in concert to both expand and successfully defend your empire, but any of the three may provide victory over your opponents:
While every game is different, there's a basic strategy which most players follow, especially at the start of the game.
In general, the steps are:
Start the game by wandering around BRIEFLY to find a good place to build the first city. Don't feel tempted to investigate any yellow-roofed villages yet - they might contain barbarian tribes. Build the city close to resources and perhaps close to the sea. Keep in mind that the city you build first will be your capital! The idea is to balance the quality of the site you find against getting your first city established as early as possible.
After the capital city has been founded, it will start producing a warrior unit. These units can be used to rove around exploring the countryside. Remember, it is risky to leave a city undefended, so perhaps keep the first warrior in the city, and use the following one to explore. If you started the game with an explorer unit, use that to explore, obviously!
At this point, defend your cities by always leaving a warrior unit in them. As your civilization develops units with a greater defense strength, replace the obsolete units with new ones to ensure your cities have maximum defense. The units most often used for defense are (in order of strength): Warrior, Phalanx, Pikemen, Musketeers, and Riflemen.
Keep in mind that with some types of government, military units inside or outside cities can reduce or create unhappiness. Also remember that when a land unit is inside a city, it gets a 50% defensive bonus, as if fortified. When a new city is built, the city starts to build the best available defensive unit from the above list.
After building one or two Warrior units, start building Settlers. Settlers take city population, but if you picked a good city site, your city should be big enough by now. Settlers are best put to use founding new cities; while they can also build agricultural improvements (see the next section), it is better to use Workers for this when available, as unlike Settlers, Workers do not consume food from their parent city. Keep in mind that a large population increases both the amount of productivity and your civilization's research rate, not to mention that cities secure land for your empire, so founding new cities should be a high priority initially.
Each city has an area of land around it that can be used for growing food, producing goods, and generating trade. This output can be increased by using Workers (or Settlers) to improve the land close to your cities. The land can be improved with irrigation (increasing food), roads (allowing units to move faster and increasing trade), and mines (increasing production), among other improvements.
The best location for a city is a matter of taste. A city which is placed near the sea is easier to spot by opponents, but can also serve as a port for sea-going units. (They also usually need a coastal defense later on.) The best strategy is to build a few of both, but keep in mind that your opponents will find it harder to locate your city if you don't build it by the sea.
Every city has a band of citizens. The number of citizens depends on the city's population. When you tap on a city, you can see how the land around the city is being used. You can assign your citizens to the land, or they can be specialists that contribute to your civilization in other ways. Especially at the start of the game, care should be taken to ensure that the citizens are employed so that they maximize growth, trade and production.
If too much food is being generated, a citizen can be taken off the land by tapping on the occupied land tile. This citizen can then be transferred to the other duties mentioned previously.
If you tap on the central tile of the land, the citizens will be rearranged to maximize food output.
The golden rule of taking care of a city is that there should be at least as many happy citizens as unhappy citizens. A city where this is not so falls into disorder; such cities are labeled with a raised fist or a lightning bolt (depending on the tileset). Take care not to let this happen to any of your cities, as cities in disorder produce nothing, and are prone to revolt.
When one of your units first meets a unit of another nation, or finds one of their cities (or equally if they find you), a basic contact is established between the two nations. This provides each with basic intelligence about the other, which can be accessed from the 'Nations' report.
This communication will lapse after a set number of turns with no contact. Establishing an embassy will give a more permanent communication channel, as well as more advanced intelligence such as details of technology. Embassies are one-way - the nation hosting the embassy receives no benefit - and once established, cannot be revoked.
If you are in contact with another player, then you can arrange a diplomatic meeting. From the 'World/Diplomacy/Status' report, this is done by tapping on the nation with whom you wish to meet and selecting 'Meet'. A treaty dialog will pop up.
In this dialog you can negotiate an exchange of assets (maps, vision, advances, cities, or gold), embassies, or binding pacts such as a cease-fire or peace. There is no need to trade like for like; you can trade, say, an advance or city for gold - you can consider this buying and selling. Each player builds a list of offered items. To remove an item from the list, tap on it. When both players indicate satisfaction, the pact is concluded.
Pacts affect where your units can go and what they can do, and a pact with one nation can affect your relations with others. Under authoritarian governments such as Monarchy you can break a pact at any time, but the representative governments (Republic and Democracy) have a senate which will block the unprovoked cancelation of a treaty; unless a foreign Diplomat or Spy sparks a diplomatic incident, the only way to dissolve a pact in this situation is to dissolve your government. The details of pacts are described in the Diplomacy section.
A couple of notes:
After you have fortified your cities with troops, build Triremes in the cities near the sea. Use the Triremes to map the world in search of opponents and new lands. If you are on an island, you should spend less on military and more on expansion. Or if you are located close to an opponent, it is truly a good idea to make a peace treaty and share the advances you have made. Diplomatic units are very useful here, and WILL pay off later.
These basic concepts will allow you to play the game pretty well, especially in the beginning of the game. But to improve, you need to study the various units and advances, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
To use this guide, one must have a firm grasp and understanding of the mechanics of BC4000. Make every turn count, for placing a unit in the wrong place and time can bring the end of your civilization. Follow these steps and win every time. This guide only accounts for winning by military conquest, not by reaching Alpha Centauri.
By default you should start with some settlers, workers, and an explorer. Your explorer is key to the first moments of your nation. It'll help scope out for good land to settle on, find other AIs, and enter tribal huts. Try to make this unit survive as long as possible, and if you come across a friendly mercenary Legion, use them to enter huts for some contain barbarians that'll kill the unit.
After moving the Explorer, select a Settler and place it on a good settling spot to build a city. A good place to put a city would be on a special tile, in an area with many specials surrounding it, on grassland, or on the coast. After building your first city, immediately start producing Settlers. If the production of Settlers out paces it growth to becoming size 3, then produce coins until building settlers matches the number it'll take to grow. In the Research page, set the technology goal to Alphabet. Wait to see if there are other players on your continent before choosing a higher technology to research.
Continuously build settlers until most of the available land is taken. If you are not alone, use your explorer to block other settlers away form unclaimed land until you build on it. After building as many cities as possible, use other settlers as workers to change the land around cities farthest away from the capital.
Use the workers to irrigate plains and grasslands around cities, then build roads to add trade points. After that, use them to change Swamps and Jungles into either Grasslands or Forests. If a city has many forest tiles around it, turn them into plains then irrigate them. Having two workers on the same tile speeds up the transformation. After all the work is done and you decide to move the workers to another city, have them build a road on the way to the city. Building roads along Deserts, Plains, and Grasslands are faster than on hills, forests, and Mountains.
If you are on a small continent or island, set Map Making as the very first goal. Build Triremes to find more land to settle on.
If you come in contact with another player at this point, go ahead and set the tech goal to Monarchy. If otherwise skip the next section and research Trade.
Becoming a Monarchy is key if you start a war with other nation early in the game. Monarchy governments were built for war, and have a slightly higher Tax Limit, allowing for more research.
If neighbours around you have a friendly attitude towards you, skip to the next section and research trade. Otherwise, after establishing the Monarchy, set the new tech goal to Iron Working.
The key here is to eliminate all hostile nations for the sake of your existence. Try to make a war end as fast as possible for it can give the enemy time to catch up technologically and hinder your progress.
Go to Tax Rates and set Science to 70% once the new government is established. Then set the tech goals as followed:
Iron Working -> Mathematics -> Chivalry
Legionnaires act as defensive and skirmishing units, able to withstand an attack from enemy Archers and have high enough attack points to destroy them. Catapults will be your main attacking force against walled cities. First amass a group of 5+ Catapults before sending them to attack an enemy city. Be sure they are defended since by Knights or Legions for they have a very low defence. Once Chivalry is discovered, stop producing Legion and start producing Knights, for they have more movement points.
Have your frontier cities and the capital walled and build Barracks, for they will be the ones building the units. Other cities far from the action should produce coins as to not go into debt.
If the war ends or you discover Chivalry, go on to the next section. Make sure to disband all military units after all hostile nations have been taken care of.
This is the period of time is about establishing trade routes between cities and building a strong economy as to ease the Burden of low Tax and Luxury percentages. While researching Trade, make Currency a priority. It'll allow for Marketplaces to be built in your cities, increasing gold and luxuries in the city. By the time all cities have built a Marketplace, Trade should already be discovered.
Tap 'City Control' / 'Trade Route Overview' to show the trade routes established by each city and tell you when the city will reach its max trade limit (4). Have half of your cities produce Caravans and others produce Coinage or Temples (if allowed). By Producing trade routes and entering a city's marketplace, you gain gold and research points. A trade route cannot be established with other cities up to 6 tiles away.
After Trade is researched, set the tech goal to Republic. Once Literacy is learned, have the city with the highest production to build the Great Library Wonder and other cities build Caravans to help build it.
Make sure that during the era, your cities do no grow too big. The more the city increases, the more unhappy citizens there will be and higher chance of there being a revolt. Slow down or completely stunt their growth by going to the City page. On the small map where it shows the resources being used by the city. Reallocate workers to tiles that produce more shields than food, or just dont choose another tile at all. By doing the later, those workers who would otherwise be working become entertainers and help keep your citizens happy and satisfied. Don't allow a city to grow beyond 6, unless they have a temple, in which case the limit is 8.
Once you have researched Republic, immediately change your government to the Republic. Set science tax rates to Max once again and set the Tech goal to Democracy, having Banking as a priority. If a city reaches its trade route limit, have it build banks and other cities build Caravans to reach their limit.
Do not build Aqueducts, Colosseums, or anything with a an upkeep of 1 (except for temples) yet. Try not to get into any Alliances or wars, Be as peaceful as possible until the Modern Age.
- Building Up
Once Democracy is discovered, do not start a revolution just yet. there are 3 significant wonders that'll put you ahead for the rest of the game. Those would be Michelangelo's Chapel, J.S Bach's, and A. Smith Trading Co.
Set the goal to either Theology or Economy first. Build the wonders as soon as they are available, and have surrounding cities build caravans as to complete it as fast as possible. Once all three are built start to build up.
The Chapels make unhappy citizens satisfied, allowing for your cities to grow. Build aqueducts where they are immediately needed, build Libraries where it isn't the case. A. Smith's will allow buildings with an upkeep of 1 to be free of cost, taking a heavy load off the small tax burden.
Set the goal to Industry once Economy and Theology are discovered.
Once Railroad is discovered, start replacing connecting roads with Railroads. Also start building the Darwin's Voyage wonder, but don't build Caravans to help advance its production.
Once Industrialisation is discovered, do not start building Factories just yet. Set the new Tech goal to Electricity. Darwin's Voyage should be built during this time, so you'll be able to learn it quicker. Once discovered, build the Hoover Dam Wonder as fast as possible.
After completion, start building Factories in the biggest of cities and work down. Set the new Tech goal to either Explosives or Recycling. Pollution will soon pose a serious problem so be prepared for it.
Change your government to a Democracy when ever you please, but note that you can not change the Tax Rates to have max Science. Also it is a lot harder to appease the people, so after the revolution, it would be best to set Luxury rates to 10%
It is very Important that you control the pollution that your cities produce. Having too much pollution will cause global warming and can flood precious tiles or turn tiles into useless ones like Jungles or Swamps. Keep your civilisation clean by building Mass Transits, Recycling Centers, and later, Solar Plants. Also have Workers or Engineers on alert to clean up pollution as soon as it pops up. Place these units on the railroad connecting your cities to address the problem as soon as possible.
After Explosives have been discovered, upgrade all workers and start amassing an army of Engineers. Concentrate all Engineers on one tile to transform Deserts, Hills, Tundras, and Mountains around the cities into Plains that can be irrigated. Leave one Engineer to work on the transformed tile while the others transform more tiles.
Set the Tech goal to Refrigeration. Build Sewer Systems where needed. Have Engineers turn irrigated land into Farmland when available. Build the Supermarket as soon as you can. Build Offshore Oil Rigs in cities on the coast.
During this time, your population is going to skyrocket. Not only that, but all of the buildings mentioned in this section are very expensive. Both tax and Luxury percentages may have to increase in order to accommodate the growing population. To keep the research going at the same pace, build Universities and Wonders that increase science.
Once Engineers have flattened the land around all of your cities, disband all but a few in order to keep up with some pollution
By now, you should be a thousand years ahead of all most all players. Once all necessary technology has been taken care of, it's time to start building a massive army.
Set Tech goals as follows
Combined Arms -> Robotics -> Rocketry
While researching these goals, lower the science tax rates little by little and put it into Luxury . Research speed will hardly be effected, and people will start to celebrate at around 30% Luxury rates. Having happy citizens is crucial to building an army in a Democratic state. Build Wonders like the Cure for Cancer or Shakespeare's Theater to help keep people happy and satisfied. Build the Statue of Liberty so that way you can dissolve the Senate and declare war on who ever you please, then return to a democratic state on the same turn.
Build Barracks III in all cities, Airports in a few and Port Facilities in others. Bomb enemy cities with bombers carried by Carriers, invade them with a helicopter if there isn't a unit left in that city. Have transports carry armies of Tanks and Howitzers to enemy territory and start a Blitzkrieg.
After Rocketry, let the research handle itself and put the science rate at 10%. Once you start researching Future Techs, set science to 0%
At this point, you will be able to conquer the world and be the only player left standing. Note that Playing BC4000 is very tedious, sometimes requiring many days before finishing. Be patient and make careful decisions.