Sid Meyer's Civilization

[factotum]

And later on he declares war on me and I realize just how far ahead of me he is in tech because I go to the other continent to defend my city-states and realize that I brought an aircraft carrier full of fighter jets and he just has Cavalry, Musketmen, and a couple of Gatling Guns.

Er...did you mean how far ahead of him *you* were in tech? Because the two halves of that sentence, as written, contradict each other!

[Cikomyr]

have... to... hold strong..

Computer.. disabled.. Can't play new expansion... WANT TO..


Surviving with... Let's Play... Quickly becoming bald for tearing out my hair in frustration at the player's lack of attention or detail-minutia....



I NEED MY FIX

[Studoku]

Also, it's really funny when you realize that upgrading Chu-No-Ku to Gatling doesn't remove their ability to attack twice. Makes me wish I could still produce Chu-No-Ku and pay gold to upgrade them to machineguns, or that the abilities you'd get by doing that were just added into anything that promotes out of them.

Longbowmen also do this- they keep their range promotion when they're promoted. Range 2 Gatling guns.

Almost everything keeps special unit promotions on leveling- you can get some really scary units out of it.

[Cikomyr]

Longbowmen also do this except they keep their range promotion when they're promoted. Range 2 gattling guns.

Almost everything keeps special unit promotions on leveling- you can get some really scary units out of it.

The hardest of which to acquire is the Scarcher.

[Qwertystop]

Er...did you mean how far ahead of him *you* were in tech? Because the two halves of that sentence, as written, contradict each other!

Yes, that.


Again, is there any way to do replays? I searched it and found a few complaints about the replay system being buggy, but nothing on how to make one.

[Studoku]

The hardest of which to acquire is the Scarcher.

Scazooka. I've never seen one but it's possible.

[Qwertystop]

Scazooka. I've never seen one but it's possible.

Scazooka-no-ku.

[Cikomyr]

Scazooka. I've never seen one but it's possible.

You just need to have a ruin upgrade a Scout into an Archer.

And from then, just keep upgrading the Archer. You end up with a ranged unit that can move in all terrain without penalty.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Hardest unit is to get a Chinese Scout to high enough level to get the +1 movement promotion, then make it an archer on a ruin, then level it up to get the +1 attack promotion, then upgrade it to a Cho-ku-nu so it can use its +1 movement to actually make 3 attacks (attacks cost movement points, so otherwise a Cho-ku-nu can't stack +1 attack promotions since it has only 2 movement points).

The Pracina Foreign Legion is pretty nasty. Requires Brazil to get free foreign legions with a Freedom policy and then upgrade them.

Since military city states can give unique units there are some very nasty things you can do by promoting unique units into other unique units. Any of the many cavalry replacements make very nasty German Panzers for example.

[Cikomyr]

Hardest unit is to get a Chinese Scout to high enough level to get the +1 movement promotion, then make it an archer on a ruin, then level it up to get the +1 attack promotion, then upgrade it to a Cho-ku-nu so it can use its +1 movement to actually make 3 attacks (attacks cost movement points, so otherwise a Cho-ku-nu can't stack +1 attack promotions since it has only 2 movement points).

The Pracina Foreign Legion is pretty nasty. Requires Brazil to get free foreign legions with a Freedom policy and then upgrade them.

Since military city states can give unique units there are some very nasty things you can do by promoting unique units into other unique units. Any of the many cavalry replacements make very nasty German Panzers for example.

While it's all good in theory, I personally believe it's just putting WAY too much work into a single unit in practice.

Devote your energy to something more productive. Like.. a 2nd archer. There, problem solved!

[Cikomyr]

Please, I'm suffering a craving of Civ V, BNW. 1 week until I get a hold on a computer that could run the game. Can someone tell anecdotes, or anything of the like that could help me temporarily sate me?!

[Qwertystop]

Please, I'm suffering a craving of Civ V, BNW. 1 week until I get a hold on a computer that could run the game. Can someone tell anecdotes, or anything of the like that could help me temporarily sate me?!

If someone would tell me how replays work I could provide one.

[Luzahn]

Well, nothing too interesting, but I did have one thing with an archaeologist.

Myself as England and Carthage are located next to each other, with a little wilderness area on a peninsula between us. So my archaeologist is just minding his own business, digging up an antiquity site in that wilderness when Carthage goes to war and starts moving troops near him.

Hurrying to finish the excavation, I move troops in to try to hold Carthage off, and manage to get the artifact extracted right before the site would have been overrun.

I now have a set of Carthaginian beads sitting in the London Museum as testament to my success. And to annoy Carthage.

[Cikomyr]

Well, nothing too interesting, but I did have one thing with an archaeologist.

Myself as England and Carthage are located next to each other, with a little wilderness area on a peninsula between us. So my archaeologist is just minding his own business, digging up an antiquity site in that wilderness when Carthage goes to war and starts moving troops near him.

Hurrying to finish the excavation, I move troops in to try to hold Carthage off, and manage to get the artifact extracted right before the site would have been overrun.

I now have a set of Carthaginian beads sitting in the London Museum as testament to my success. And to annoy Carthage.

Man, an archeologist doing his duty in the face of incoming army? I hope you have nicknamed him Indiana Jones?

[factotum]

I hope you have nicknamed him Indiana Jones?

Sadly, archaeologists get consumed creating the dig site they get the artifact from, so there wouldn't be anyone around to bear the nickname!

[Mx.Silver]

Please, I'm suffering a craving of Civ V, BNW. 1 week until I get a hold on a computer that could run the game. Can someone tell anecdotes, or anything of the like that could help me temporarily sate me?!

Well, last game myself (Austria) and Elizabeth spent most of the industrial era using the world council to annoy Sejong and Nebuchadnezzar, (banning Whales and forcing everyone to except Judaism as the world faith). Eventually managed to win cultural victory thanks both to Monty being Monty towards Pedro and my tourism strategy that I dubbed 'All The Ancient Relics!'.
The new cultural system is actually good, probably the best one implemented in the series. Ideologies are fun too, although some of the choices I saw do make me wonder what, if any, leader preferences are in effect.

[Qwertystop]

Well, last game myself (Austria) and Elizabeth spent most of the industrial era using the world council to annoy Sejong and Nebuchadnezzar, (banning Whales and forcing everyone to except Judaism as the world faith). Eventually managed to win cultural victory thanks both to Monty being Monty towards Pedro and my tourism strategy that I dubbed 'All The Ancient Relics!'.
The new cultural system is actually good, probably the best one implemented in the series. Ideologies are fun too, although some of the choices I saw do make me wonder what, if any, leader preferences are in effect.

Hm. That makes me wonder... Would there be any advantage in delaying your technological development by getting all the Ancient stuff before moving on, so as to increase the number of Ancient Great Works and Artifacts for lategame culture? Or is the delay in Age progression not worth it?

[Mx.Silver]

Hm. That makes me wonder... Would there be any advantage in delaying your technological development by getting all the Ancient stuff before moving on, so as to increase the number of Ancient Great Works and Artifacts for lategame culture? Or is the delay in Age progression not worth it?

I wouldn't think so, since you have to advance the age to unlock the next level of culture specialists, and getting a whole new level of said specialists is probably worth more than the theming benefits (not to mention that getting theming bonuses requires multiple slots in one structure of which the only non-wonder example is the Museum). Holding back also delays getting archaeologists, and may lead to other civs nabbing relics before you can get to them (and relics/artifacts are likely going to be your most common source of theme bonuses anyway). Factor the delayed trade roots (which are really helpful for winning the culture game) and tourism boosting buildings in the later eras and I rather doubt that the, fairly small, theming boosts would be a worthwhile trade-off. Maybe if you're going France, but then again their unique improvement won't start contributing to tourism until you're into the later eras so again there's more incentive to advance.

[Luzahn]

Sadly, archaeologists get consumed creating the dig site they get the artifact from, so there wouldn't be anyone around to bear the nickname!

Well, it's not as if he would die! All archaeologists built in London are now secretly Dr.Jones. Senior, of course.

[Cikomyr]

Well, last game myself (Austria) and Elizabeth spent most of the industrial era using the world council to annoy Sejong and Nebuchadnezzar, (banning Whales and forcing everyone to except Judaism as the world faith). Eventually managed to win cultural victory thanks both to Monty being Monty towards Pedro and my tourism strategy that I dubbed 'All The Ancient Relics!'.
The new cultural system is actually good, probably the best one implemented in the series. Ideologies are fun too, although some of the choices I saw do make me wonder what, if any, leader preferences are in effect.

I really hope not. Ideology picking should reflect a civilization's strategic inclination, not an arbitrarily picked side.

I mean, unlike Alpha Centauri, each of the leaders do not actually stand for something beyond their people. And even if some civilization might be more warmongering (Shaka, Monty) and other are more peaceful (Ghandi), it's only because of some POV hisory of a single leader. India hasn't been especially peaceful, and I doubt the Zulu held world-conquering ambitions.

....maybe Aztecs were sacrificing monsters.



Oh, since I am getting home in less than a week, I am starting to wonder who I should be playing in my first game. I was wondering whether I should just pick "random" and spin with the civ the game gives me.

The civ I liked playing the most was Monty; simply because I love the Culture-bounty on kills bonus. It's such a fun mechanic to encourage beating your ennemies while not crippling their production capacity. I do war for War's sake

But maybe I should play something different...?

[Closet_Skeleton]

The new cultural system is actually good, probably the best one implemented in the series. Ideologies are fun too, although some of the choices I saw do make me wonder what, if any, leader preferences are in effect.

Ideologies are mainly based on what their current friends and enemies have already chosen. So Germany in my latest Aztec game went Freedom because I'd already done so and was a distant friend and their neighbouring rivals Shoshone and Rome had gone for Autocracy and Order respectively, even though Germany had a lot of cities and was mostly a conquering military power. The AI also prioritises the free early adopter tenant, which can result in a power late to ideologies picking up something rare that makes them lots of enemies.

The first AI to get an ideology may base it off a preference, then more factors come into it.

Hm. That makes me wonder... Would there be any advantage in delaying your technological development by getting all the Ancient stuff before moving on, so as to increase the number of Ancient Great Works and Artifacts for lategame culture? Or is the delay in Age progression not worth it?

Yes, but not at ancient. You never need any ancient artworks, there's no special benefit for ancient artworks and ancient artefacts will spawn in roughly the same amount no matter what you do. It is worth delaying in the renaissance and modern eras because of the Globe Theatre, Sistine Chapel and Broadway theming bonuses which need multiple works from the same era and civilisation. You do sometimes want more artworks of the same era but since they can be any era you're better off b-lining to the classical era and never having a single ancient work. Often you want different civilisations but the same era in which case there's nothing you can do since its up to the AI unless you're playing co-op.

Ancient landmarks are very valuable but you have to be so ridiculously lucky to get those without deliberate late game expansion that you can't worry about that.

But maybe I should play something different...?

I don't have favourites because I don't have all the 'win as x' achievements yet and I want them all. So I'm always trying something different.

I played Aztecs last game because their unique building gives a 10% growth bonus and I wanted to stack that with the temple of artemis and fertility rights pantheon and the tradition policy finisher along with food caravans to have the largest population a 3-4 city empire could muster. I went to war very rarely and even had the 'Swords into Ploughshares' belief for another 15% growth. I fought a single hundred years war with Assyria over the 19th century so I could clear the land to place my fourth city. After going from musketmen to jetfighters and modern armour in a single war and comitting genocide by burning down 3 assyrian cities to replace them with 1 aztec city I sent 4 food cavarans to my new city and bought a floating garden there. That city was merely 40 years old by the time I won a science victory but was already bigger than any city any other civilisation had. My millenia older 2nd and 3rd cities were slightly bigger and were full of unemployed people due to lack of specialist slots and tiles while my capital was ridiculously huge at over 50 citizens but due to having more room around it had no unemployment.

[GungHo]

Yeah, I lost my whole weekend to this game and now my wife has banished me to the couch.

Thanks Sid.

[Cikomyr]

Yeah, I lost my whole weekend to this game and now my wife has banished me to the couch.

Thanks Sid.

.... you do know that the couch means you can play more without fearing to wake her up?

[factotum]

I don't have favourites because I don't have all the 'win as x' achievements yet and I want them all. So I'm always trying something different.

I played Aztecs last game because their unique building gives a 10% growth bonus and I wanted to stack that with the temple of artemis and fertility rights pantheon and the tradition policy finisher along with food caravans to have the largest population a 3-4 city empire could muster.

My first couple of games I played as Elizabeth of England because, you know, it's where I'm from, but I found you can do some sick stuff with her on a map that's got a lot of ocean. Ships that move twice as fast as normal? Easily achievable! Since you can take coastal cities using ships alone in Civ 5 you can rapidly gain total control of the ocean. (Which I suppose is kind of the point... ).

[Cristo Meyers]

Please, I'm suffering a craving of Civ V, BNW. 1 week until I get a hold on a computer that could run the game. Can someone tell anecdotes, or anything of the like that could help me temporarily sate me?!

I had a game as Carthage that I'd planned on doing peacefully, something that rarely happens in my games because...reasons.

This one was no different.

Good island to start on and I start expanding rapidly, more rapidly than I usually manage. This, of course, makes me no friends. I've got China on my southern border with a city-state in between acting as a buffer, agitants like Germany on the other continent, England, Russia...yeah. I'm popular.

So I embrace the philosophy of Teddy and start building really big sticks.

China falls into line pretty quickly (aside from constant espionage ), England and Russia start quibbling with each other, and Germany...Germany starts poking the tiger.

You see, I've put most of the city states under my protection. But Bismark being Bismark he just has to start bullying them...and then bragging about it to me. Probably thinks that because there's an ocean between us that he'll be okay.

I'm Carthage...we like boats...boats like destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. Most of his cities are coastal.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

4 or 5 razed cities later and he never bothered my protectorates again.

Then I get the Great Firewall built, cutting off China's espionage. Wu immediately declares war on me and starts pushing north only to get stopped cold by my other fleet and my city state ally.

After that I pretty much decided that these people can have this stupid planet and launched for Alpha Centauri.

--------

Finally got around to playing a game with BNW as the Shoshone. Damn those pathfinders are handy. I pulled out at least 2 free techs, upgraded them both to composite bowmen, and got a massive boost in faith that allowed me to get first dibs on founding a religion. You don't always get to just choose tech over and over, but if you're diligent about hunting down ruins you'll probably end up with the option at least twice.

No idea what victory I'm going for, if any in particular. Morocco is my southern neighbor and he won't stop grousing about China (it's sad when the peaceful [well, the civ is peaceful-leaning in game, anyway] Moroccans are being more belligerant than the freakin' Songhai). There's already been one war that resulted in two lost Chinese cities and one razed one, but since I wanted to be the nice guy I bought them back from Morocco and gave them to China. Now everyone on continent is just one big happy (dysfunctional) family...except for the Dutch, 'cause they're jerks.

[zabbarot]

I played a game as Morocco yesterday. I ended up going with a cultural victory, though I did manage to get 35 delegates the turn before I won. As far as Ideologies go I feel like there is some preference by leader. Shaka Zulu went for Autocracy at least. I think the decisions might be more intelligent now though. Germany was my closest neighbor and picked Freedom shortly after I did. It surprised me at first, but if he had chosen anything else half his cities would have flipped to me. The weirdest part was I only went to war once in the whole game. Right before Germany succumbed to my culture they declared war on me. I was hugging the top of the tech tree but I had infantry to fight off his rifle men, so the war only lasted a few turns before he suggested a reasonable peace treaty. Usually I spend most the game at war with someone.

I really like how trade routes push religion and culture. That was pretty well though out. Towards the end of the game I was using trade routes to aggressively push my culture on other civs.

[Cristo Meyers]

I think they've also made it so that civs gravitate towards whatever religion they historically had. Usually you got a grab bag of Jewish India, Sikh America, and Zoroastrian Shoshone (I like the icon...)

This game Songhai nabbed Islam, Greece Eastern Orthodoxy, England Protestantism, and China Taoism.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I think they've also made it so that civs gravitate towards whatever religion they historically had. Usually you got a grab bag of Jewish India, Sikh America, and Zoroastrian Shoshone (I like the icon...)

This game Songhai nabbed Islam, Greece Eastern Orthodoxy, England Protestantism, and China Taoism.

They haven't really changed it. The problem is that everyone only has a single favoured religion to found and no back up or secondary choices and half the civs want Christianity. So once Christianity gets founded most of the Civs turn to random. Christianity was broken up in the expansion to stop everyone gunning for it. Only reason India would ever pick Judaism is if a Christian or Islamic preference Civ was forced to pick Hinduism as a second choice before India could get a prophet.

Really they should make it so anyone that wants Catholicism will pick Protestantism as a second choice, Daoist preference will pick Confucianism as a second choice, Hinduism preference will pick Buddhist or Sikh as a second choice, Islam preference will pick Sikh or Zoroastrianism as a second choice, Japan will pick Buddhist if someone else took Shinto just to annoy them, Ethiopia should pick Judaism as a second choice etc rather than Austria turning Hindu just because the Aztecs already founded Catholicism. But no, its 'our sole preference or random'.

Favoured religions are also odd in that they're sometimes based off dominant modern religion in the area they once inhabited, so Egypt, Babylon and Carthage both prefer Islam despite the religion coming into existence hundreds of years after their destruction and pretty much all the American civs want a form of Christianity. Only oddities are Persia and Mongolia going for their respective historic religions of Zoroastrianism and Tengri and Indonesia preferring the Hinduism of Gajah Mada's era to the more modern Islam despite Indonesia being a modern country that has always been majority Islamic.

[Ashtagon]

My favourite Civ story is from Civ One.

I was playing a cooperative game with my brother at the time. We were losing badly, on a small island, and under siege form the winning computer player grand alliance (don't they always do that).

We had a diplomat (and a few phalanxes). He had a battleship and an entire economy behind it.

"How much for that fine battleship of yours?"

That one move turned the tide. It gave us enough time to fortify and develop ourselves while his transport ship waves got sunk by our fine battleship.

[Cikomyr]

My favourite Civ story is from Civ One.

I was playing a cooperative game with my brother at the time. We were losing badly, on a small island, and under siege form the winning computer player grand alliance (don't they always do that).

We had a diplomat (and a few phalanxes). He had a battleship and an entire economy behind it.

"How much for that fine battleship of yours?"

That one move turned the tide. It gave us enough time to fortify and develop ourselves while his transport ship waves got sunk by our fine battleship.

You should be careful using "his" or "he", 'cause I have no idea if you are talking about your brother or the opposing computer.


So, you brought a whole new meaning to the expression "Gunboat Diplomacy"?