Hello. Me and a friend have recently discovered RI and are blown away by it. However, much to our despair we have been unable to start multiplayer game! We have both tried starting an internet game but are unable to see any active games in lobby. We would massively appreciate it if someone could help us with this issue, we are dying to play!

You need to use direct IP connection, which has been killed in the default Steam version. You'll need to roll back to original release in steam betas to re-enable it (which is a recommended action anyway if one uses Civ 4 mods).

Thanks alot for the reply, much appreciated

We actually tried this method too. One of us will launch a game via direct IP... and when the other one enters the hosts IP address, we are unable to "Contact Host". Am I missing something here or doing it wrong?

One other thing to try if simple direct IP doesn't work is establishing a virtual LAN and using direct IP there; I have a positive experience with using ZeroTier to play RI multiplayer (https://www.zerotier.com/).

Ok brilliant! I will download and try that tonight.
Is it straight forward to use... I just start a network via that site and I am given a network ip? How would I actually go about creating a game once I have started a network?

Forgive me for being an idiot

You have the other person join your network and then use your IP there to join a direct IP game (or vice versa if they host) - it's basically like a real LAN. The interface looks scary, but it's actually pretty straightforward.

Just wanted to say a big thank you for your help in this thread Walter. My friend and me successfully managed to get a game going after taking your advice and are absolutely loving RI so far!

I do have one question... when hosting a multiplayer game, Does the host have an advantage in that his starting position will have better resources and quality of land?

Glad to have helped!

As for your question, from my personal experience in 2-3 person multiplayer, no. While one player might luck out from time to time, we saw no bias towards or against the host. Moreover, you can take it a step forward if you want to and have NO player be the host by playing via the pitboss. Then even the person running the pitboss will be a client player - connecting to 127.0.0.1, but a client nonetheless.