Others say...

"3 1/2 really. Some very good advice, but not complete."
`Civilization IV Playbook' by Quitman Gregory is a very good introduction to how to win at Civilization IV, the basic game, with a few annoying aspects which steal a fifth star from my overall evaluation. First and foremost among the good points, the author doesn't take a lot of space rehashing what is in the manual. The text is dedicated almost entirely to strategies and tactics needed to win with the various victory conditions. Another excellent aspect of the book is that it explains a lot of things which happen in the game which tend to be quite mysterious, such as why a computer opponent should revoke their open borders agreement (it's all about money). The author is also diligent in reminding us, in case it slips our mind, that the computer players (the AI) deal exclusively with the pluses and minuses of relative strengths and economic advantages. Nothing, such as historically minded human players tending to play Greece against Persia or France against Germany will happen when you compete with the AI. And, that is the computer's one big advantage. It knows all the numbers and will never forget to take some subtlety into account. The very best thing about the author's approach is that he gives both deep strategies and a great number of quick hints. I also happen to like the quarto page size (business letter size) and the very good color screen shots.
There is one big problem about the book which is is not the author's fault. This is the fact that he is presenting a very recent build (Version 161), while there are many copies on the market, such as the one I just recently bought, which are based on an earlier build, and therefore are lacking many of the features Mr. Gregory discusses. While my version is not really `buggy', there are a large number of things which feel like oversights, and they are remedied in Mr. Gregory's version.
As good as the book is, it is definitely too short. This is probably why it is subtitled `The Unauthorized Guide to the Game Part One'! There are several strategies I was looking for, and could not find. For example, I would have really liked an analysis of which combination of leader qualities and civilization starting technologies give the greatest edge. This is comparable to an analysis of chess openings. Another tip of this sort is what are the best first 20 to 50 moves? The author gives some tips along these lines, but possibly not enough. Another thing I missed was an analysis of how to attack a city or a large stack of enemy units. This is not as easy as it was in CIV III, even though there seems to be a bit less `combined arms' action going on in Civ IV. The tips there are making much use of `redoubts'. Unfortunately, this feature simply isn't in my copy.
The author must be something of an amateur student of warfare, as he includes two things which may simply be worthless for even the advanced CIV IV player. The first is a discussion of the Lancaster Combat Model and the second is an appendix discussing tactical combat techniques such as defilade and enfilade, which simply are not realized in Civ IV (at least not in my build).
Another tip I miss is a strategy for using great people. Is it better to save them all for Golden ages, use them all for technology advances, or use them all for academies and super specialists?
The last thing about which I have some concern is that it seems Mr. Gregory forgot to run his Spelling and Grammar checker before sending the book to press. I find several sentences which are simply ungrammatical (although no misspellings!).
The book is certainly good enough to anticipate Part Two and provocative enough for me to hunt down a later build for my favorite PC game.



"The greatest rip-off in the history of game books? Yes. "
Just got this in the mail. Am sending it right back. I'm astounded. If you exclude the 'appendixes' this is what, 50, maybe 60 pages of VERY large print. Almost no content here whatsoever. This isn't even a pamphlet. And this covers CIV-IV AND the two add-ons? What a joke. The text, what little there is, is lifted nearly word for word from the gameplay manual. This is pathetic.