"For sale: French rifle. Never fired, dropped once." -or- "Isabella is kind of a ho"

[control_group]

Hokay, so:
I have begun playing Civ 4. I've completed one game, am dominating a continent on Terra circa AD 1300 in another, and have taken a stab at multiplayer. It should not surprise anyone, then, that I am about to ramble on about Civ 4 for a bit. After all, I'm always thrilled to natter on about subjects of interest to no one but me.
The

Comments

[_guy_incognito]

How do you manage upkeep costs of having a larger army? Doesn't having a decent army make it more difficult to balance the budget and keep up on tech as aren't you spending gold to keep their upkeep?

Also how can one ever afford the exorbitant price of upgrading units or the time to build new up to date versions of your army? Do you ever disband armies or do you always upgrade?

...I guess I'm mainly asking if you know how it works, or what approach to take.

Keep in mind I've only played 1 game of Civ 4 (not finished yet) and I never got the hang of it in the few games of Civ 3 either (which, I know I had the problem in)

on another note of the game...
any thoughts on what's the best use of great leaders? between (depending on the type of leader) hurry production, joining the city, building a building (academy), discovering a tech, creating a great work (I really liked this as I was playing for cultural dominance, but is it better than having them join the city?) I have no idea what's best...is it situational or is there just a best?

Also, the Golden Age I started when I got two at once didn't seem to be worth the cost of two great leaders, thoughts?

I don't know if you get emailed comments so you may never see this...I'm also going to be posting similar questions to all in my lj in a bit in case you'd rather answer there...