(Re)discovering Civ 4

[berth]

After mrbadger's recentish thread on Civ 5, I decided to have another look at Civ 4 which I had previously bounced off. Now I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask about expansions etc.

The game I just finished was at Warlord difficulty and it was a pretty quiet affair. There were no wars between the AI other than one I organised and nobody attacked me either. I'm guessing that's down to the difficulty level. It was a good opportunity to acquaint myself with how the game works.

So what are the differences between the base game and Gods and Kings and Beyond The Sword? Do you reckon I should stick with the base game until I'm more familiar with the subtleties or go straight to BTS?

Background: I played a bazillion hours of Civ 1, several gazillion of Civ 2 but not much Civ 3. I've now come to the conclusion that 4 is more like 2 than I had originally thought which is a Good Thing™.
I do miss the throne room though

[thrangar]

go straight to BTS....and grab some of "red's Mods" make the game the best version IMHO

[Morkonan]

...
So what are the differences between the base game and Gods and Kings and Beyond The Sword? Do you reckon I should stick with the base game until I'm more familiar with the subtleties or go straight to BTS?

Go straight to installing and playing it with BTS. It adds a bunch of really nice features. I never saw the need for any other add-on for CivIV. BTS is also required for a great many mods.

Background: I played a bazillion hours of Civ 1, several gazillion of Civ 2 but not much Civ 3. I've now come to the conclusion that 4 is more like 2 than I had originally thought which is a Good Thing™.
I do miss the throne room though

You won't miss the Throne Room for long. IMO, Civ IV with BTS is the best in the series.

A couple of notes: There are so many mods for Civ IV that you can create any sort of game you want, with mods just for the base game, improved AI mods, simple new units and wonders to comprehensive mods that turn the game into an RPG instead of a 4X.

For all things "Civ", go here: https://www.civfanatics.com/

[Sorkvild]

Mods I can recommend.

- caveman to cosmos (very challenging and lengthy, single game can go up to 100hrs)

- fall from heaven II (fantasy mod, highly praised)

------

- realism invictus
- Rise of Mankind A new Dawn

These two focus on realism, accuracy, introduce improved graphics, etc
I really enjoyed A New Dawn. Nicely detailed and reminds of CIv 5 with one unit per hex rule. Both mods have detailed websites so you can check out them features.

[berth]

Cheers all. BTS it is then