choice of weaponry

Throughout Civilization IV, you have the option of creating or updating your weaponry, as to protect or to prepare for war. The weapons start off very primitive, such as spears and axes but progress to weapons of today over the course of the game. A common misconception people may have while playing the game is that the newer, more advanced weaponry is the best for all circumstances. For example, players of the game druel over new muskateers and send them out to go fight though they were not used for that. They are better off staying in one location and should be used as a line of protection because they take so long to reload and are not necessarilly good to have on the move. Though you may have newly researched and acquired gun powder, prior longbowmen are much more suited to attacking than muskateers. I am by no means telling you to refuse upgrades on weaponry, but showing you that you should choose weapons carefully and that the more sophisticated weapons are not necessarilly the better ones; it all depends on context and use.

Writing

fairly early on in my most recent game, i decided to make a choice for experimental reasons only. when the game suggested that i start an alphabet and writing, i declined to do so. i did this just to see how much it would stall my progress of my civilization. i found that writing is a key to a society's development just as jared diamond stated in "guns, germs, and steel." diamond mentions that the lack of a writing system or alphabet early on could have been the major downfall of such civilizations. the lack of writing would present numerous problems for a sedentary society. there was not a development of writing in new guinea until really late and look how developed they are now; it is amazing the different lives that they live even today. in history, it is hard to determine whether or not people of mesopotamia would still survive and be as accomplished as they were if they did not create the first form of writing or alphabet, in a pictographic form. it is not possible to determine this but it did help them, without a doubt along with the many other up-sides that these people had early on. in the game, i could tell how much burden not having a written language had on my progress, as it seemed everything slowed down tremendously as compared to other scenarios that i played when i did research writing early on. writing allows for better communication and better for long-distances if a civilization is expanded to any degree. in more advanced civilizations, it helped with record keeping and helps people today understand fairly ancient history.