Sid Meyer's Civilization

[FidgetySquirrel]

Favorite Civ: English, except in Rhye's and Fall, then it's the Japanese.
Favorite Victory: Diplomatic in a big game, actually getting on that many good sides can be quite the task...
Games: IV
Highest Difficulty: Noble

As to Neon Knight's question, I usually just let the AI do it, unless there's a damn good reason for me to micromanage it.

[Dhavaer]

A question for the thread; do you micromanage what tiles and specialists each of your cities is running, or do you let the computer do it? I usually start out doing that, but as the game goes on and my empire tends to acquire cities I start to slack off and just toggle on the auto-assign.

I micromanage specialists, but not tiles unless there's a particular tile I want worked and the AI isn't cooperating.

[thirsting]

I micromanage everything. Always have, in all four civ games I've played (II - V). If there's a way to do something myself, I sure don't let the game AI do any decisions for me, no matter how competent it might or might not be.

[darksolitaire]

I micromanage specialist so that I can eventually have GP's I want. I micromanage tiles for cities which have under six citizens, after that I only lock some tiles and switch between foci when needed.

Edit: reloading old saves I never finished for finally getting the achievements from beating the game causes me to cringe. I had a game with Celts, with abundance of Wine and an Incense near my capital. Which pantheon did I take? Palace of the God-King (because hey, it will probably be awesome if I take it on turn 5, right?). Similar game with Arabia. Monument to the Gods (after all, nothing beats early wonder).

[Zrak]

After I make sure all the tiles I want worked are getting worked, I generally leave tiles alone until the turn before a city grows, when I'll usually switch as many tiles to production/gold as I can without delaying growth. Otherwise, I micromanage specialists for great people, like others have been saying.

In unrelated news, does the AI not require Uranium to build nukes on Immortal? I'd never noticed this before, but in the game I'm currently playing, it seems like Catherine is building nukes even after I stole all of her uranium in a brilliant surprise attack.

EDIT: Or maybe she settled a city on a uranium source and I forgot to check strategic view during the planning of my brilliant surprise attack. Everything turned out okay, though. Probably the smoothest Immortal victory I've had, but I was playing as Babylon and found El Dorado like six turns in, so it wasn't all my genius scheming.

[GPuzzle]

Any tips on playing Wide?

I wanna give it a shot with Mayans due to their rather good static bonuses from the Pyramid. Tradition is possibly the best opener but I will then move to finishing Liberty.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Tradition is not good for wide at all. Liberty and honour is a better combo. Piety isn't bad for Mayans either.

Pantheons are what will give you more culture in the long run if you're wide though. You'll never have enough culture for stuff that benefits wide Civs if you spend it on tradition.

[Mx.Silver]

Yeah, Tradition isn't your best bet. While it does give higher immediate culture yields these aren't enough to make up for the increased culture costs of later policies (which will get high if you're going wide), nor is it the most efficient way of generating culture for wide civs. You also don't want to delay Liberty too much because its policies are far less useful later in the game.

[darksolitaire]

Any tips on playing Wide?

Religion scales well with wide, since more cities means more faith generating buildings; Reformation beliefs like Jesuit Education or Pilgrimage are especially strong. Plopping down cities makes AI's hate you, so you're probably at war with someone for the best city locations.

[GPuzzle]

So, I tried an oddball strategy.

Germany, Diplomatic Victory, playing Tall.

Simple.

Use your UB and Treaty Organization. Spread your religion around with Papal Primacy, and Pledge to Protect every single CS out there. Build the Forbidden Palace. You'll be gaining loads of money, which you'll use to bribe your way to allying with other city states.

From there, it's a matter of making sure someone like Alexander doesn't steal your allies. Or Maria Theresa. Or Genghis Khan.

But you can always go berserker and shoot for a Domination victory.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

So, I tried an oddball strategy.

Germany, Diplomatic Victory, playing Tall.

Simple.

Use your UB and Treaty Organization. Spread your religion around with Papal Primacy, and Pledge to Protect every single CS out there. Build the Forbidden Palace. You'll be gaining loads of money, which you'll use to bribe your way to allying with other city states.

From there, it's a matter of making sure someone like Alexander doesn't steal your allies. Or Maria Theresa. Or Genghis Khan.

But you can always go berserker and shoot for a Domination victory.

I swear, Maria Theresa and Enrique are the WORST people to be up against when going for a diplo win. Their ability to permanently remove a CS is so annoying.

In unrelated news, Nerf Now had a great Civ themed comic today.

[GPuzzle]

Enrico Dandolo screwed me up with Morroco, but I was so far ahead I took him, Theodora and Augustus within 100 rounds, managed to get a Courthouse in all cities, and then started working on my science victory.

The good part about that strategy is that Germany is still very good with war, so you can get some cities and maybe wipe out the nasty Civs.

Also, Maria Theresa is annoying. Glad I managed to bribe Boudicca to wage war on her with me, and then went after Khan.

[Silverraptor]

I swear, Maria Theresa and Enrique are the WORST people to be up against when going for a diplo win. Their ability to permanently remove a CS is so annoying.

In unrelated news, Nerf Now had a great Civ themed comic today.

Here is another good Civilization themed comic.

Spoiler

Show

[OrcusMcP]

Also a classic. (warning, though, contains Downfall Parody with Hitler)

[Dada]

I'm trying to get yet another Civ5 multiplayer game up and running on Giant Multiplayer Robot. The thread is over here and I thought some of you might be interested

[Artanis]

So Beyond Earth is up for pre-purchase on Steam. I'm torn between not supporting the modern pre-purchase trend vs. getting the pre-purchase bonus for something that I know I'm going to wind up getting anyways regardless.

Thoughts?

[OrcusMcP]

So Beyond Earth is up for pre-purchase on Steam. I'm torn between not supporting the modern pre-purchase trend vs. getting the pre-purchase bonus for something that I know I'm going to wind up getting anyways regardless.

Thoughts?

I'm of the opinion that if it's something you are going to get anyway, and it's more convenient/less expensive to pre-order, and the developer has a history of good products and launches then there's no reason not to pre-order.

Some people have issues with 2K/Firaxis, for whatever reason they may have, and if you don't want to pre-order, it's no skin off my or anyone who is not 2K/Firaxis's nose. But they do have a long tradition of making solid games (even if they need an expansion or two to be complete) with pretty decent launches. And especially with Civ:BE they've been very open with the community about the dev/lore process, and explaining all the design choices that went into it and clarifying any misconceptions people are getting. I think that's worth rewarding with a pre-order.

I'm just annoyed that Firaxis still has to release its games on Mac through Aspyr. More power to Aspyr for all they do, but they shouldn't really be necessary anymore. But that's another topic.

If you don't pre-order, ever, never ever because a few companies abused it, that seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to me.

[Cristo Meyers]

I'm of the opinion that if it's something you are going to get anyway, and it's more convenient/less expensive to pre-order, and the developer has a history of good products and launches then there's no reason not to pre-order.

Some people have issues with 2K/Firaxis, for whatever reason they may have, and if you don't want to pre-order, it's no skin off my or anyone who is not 2K/Firaxis's nose. But they do have a long tradition of making solid games (even if they need an expansion or two to be complete) with pretty decent launches. And especially with Civ:BE they've been very open with the community about the dev/lore process, and explaining all the design choices that went into it and clarifying any misconceptions people are getting. I think that's worth rewarding with a pre-order.

I'm just annoyed that Firaxis still has to release its games on Mac through Aspyr. More power to Aspyr for all they do, but they shouldn't really be necessary anymore. But that's another topic.

If you don't pre-order, ever, never ever because a few companies abused it, that seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to me.

Agreed.

If you're already sold on it, why not pre-order and capitalize on Steam's discount/free stuff?

[Ailurus]

Agreed.

If you're already sold on it, why not pre-order and capitalize on Steam's discount/free stuff?

I agree in a general sense - if you like/trust the company and there's benefits to the preorder why not do it?

However, in the case of Beyond Earth, there doesn't seem to be that much benefit to preorder, since all you get is a few random map scripts. Which modders will probably (functionally) recreate rather quickly after release, and will likely show up for ~$2 or so on-sale several months after release (going off the civ v maps packs at least) if you do want to get them.

So, there's no convenience benefit, no real cost benefit to it, so I don't see any real reason to preorder now. I'll still probably get Beyond Earth at or near release date, but even steam's usual 10% off price would be more appealing to me than a few scripts. For now, I'll just keep an eye on the preorder for the 2 months from now to release to see if anything changes.

[factotum]

I agree in a general sense - if you like/trust the company and there's benefits to the preorder why not do it?

That works right up to the point where the company produces something you pre-order and you're not happy with it. I'm generally against pre-orders because you're buying the game blind with no idea what it will be like, and if you do that, you're just encouraging the publishers to rush the games out in any old state--after all, why should they care when they've made back their costs on the pre-orders alone?

[Artanis]

Just as a note, I was largely wondering if they'd done something that I hadn't heard about yet that might change my mind on pre-ordering.

[Cristo Meyers]

Just as a note, I was largely wondering if they'd done something that I hadn't heard about yet that might change my mind on pre-ordering.

Not really, just a bit of bonus DLC. Honestly this one I wouldn't bother, you're not even getting a discount.

Do I think it's going to be a good game? Yeah. But the incentive to pre-order just isn't there this time.

[GPuzzle]

Tell what you guys would do in this situation:

I'm playing as the Celts, playing Wide (5 cities), all conquered from Songhai which was getting very annoying.

There's also France and Shoshone with the Shoshone wonder-whoring really hard, like, I think they have over 25 wonders and this is Emperor.

I went Order, got to be the first to pick an ideology.

Now, however, I'm in doubt.

First and foremost:

Do I take the Shoshone's capital? All those wonders would be really freaking great.

Second: France is puny and in constant wars with the Shoshone. Do I gobble them up before the Shoshone goobles them up?

[Driderman]

Attack the Shoshone while they're fighting France, catching them in a two-front war? Maybe support the French with troops so they can actually put up a bit of a fight. Of course, not enough that they'll be a problem once you've conquered the Shoshone and look to French lands. Also, 5 cities is hardly wide. I don't really feel liberty is worth it until 7 cities or more but maybe that's just me.

[GPuzzle]

Attack the Shoshone while they're fighting France, catching them in a two-front war? Maybe support the French with troops so they can actually put up a bit of a fight. Of course, not enough that they'll be a problem once you've conquered the Shoshone and look to French lands. Also, 5 cities is hardly wide. I don't really feel liberty is worth it until 7 cities or more but maybe that's just me.

I sent some settlers to the western part of the continent and now I have 8. Barely had the basics in the cities I conquered, so I spent most of the time setting up the infrastructure (I HAD A RECESSION).

The French are putting up quite the fight but they're going way too freaking slow. Paris and Moson-Kahn are way too close to each other and I'm gonna have to go another way if I wanna get something like Cannons (I'm going for Archeology). I'm just praying the Shoshone choose Order and they're less happy than me. That'd be fun.

[Grif]

I don't feel like cluttering yet the subforum with yet another GMR thread so I'll just post here. Anyone interested in joining me and a few mates in a GMR game? Gods&Kings and Brave New World, with no DLCs.

[Dada]

What kind of game/map are you planning on running? What is the game pace and expected activity? What timezone are you located in?

I'd probably be up for joining, once I've expanded my available GMR slots

[Grif]

What kind of game/map are you planning on running? What is the game pace and expected activity? What timezone are you located in?

I'd probably be up for joining, once I've expanded my available GMR slots

Haven't decided on the map type, but probably a Standard map. Myself, I'm located at GMT+8, but I don't expect it to be a problem with GMR. Probably should be enforcing a timer though.

[OrcusMcP]

I could join in, but I'm running a bit on fumes. Is it likely to be a very intense competitive game or would it be a bit more relaxed? If it's the former I may sit out.

[Grif]

I could join in, but I'm running a bit on fumes. Is it likely to be a very intense competitive game or would it be a bit more relaxed? If it's the former I may sit out.

Relaxed. I just started playing a few days, and I am fully prepared to fail quite spectacularly.