Civilization 5

[Myth]

Anyone playing this? I'm a civ game fan, although by far the most time I've spent with Alpha Centauri and its immersive tech tree and secret projects (aka. wonders). I installed Civ 5 with all the DLCs (very good changes for BNW) and was pleasantly surprised at how much better it is than I originally thought when I had played vanilla.

And then.... I had several of the moments where I just play and suddenly look at the watch to see that it's 5:30 AM. Wow! I haven't been so drawn in into a game since I was a teenager! I'm loving every bit of it! Anyone else playing?

I started on Deity (of course) and one of the best moments (after a few dozen restarts and reading posts/wikis) I had was defending my only city as Morocco, which also happened to be the Holy City for my religion. I had gotten the holy warriors upgrade, as well as Desert Folklore and Petra. Boudicca's hordes of Catholic troops (and Great Prophets! I captured 5 haha!) melted before the vallant defenders of the Holy City (desert negative combat penalties, my unique tile upgrades and that my city was situated between two rivers also helped a lot!). The AI has insane bonuses on the last difficulty setting, and that makes it all the more satisfying to stalemate it in a war when playing from behind tech wise.

[Hax]

I started a game playing as the Byzantines, sharing a continent with Carthage, Russia, and Arabia. So far I've founded Christianity and also five cities. It's definitely a fun game. Are you using any mods?

[Myth]

Nope, I'm still exploring the main game. I'm a reluctant mod user. The only type I really enjoy are total conversions like Stainless Steel and Third Age for M2. Mods that mess up my original game I generally I am against.

I do like fan patches for games which were not supported enough before the creator stopped/got bankrupted etc. Civ is getting patch love from its developers so I'll trust their judgment for now.

[naut]

The two expansions (G&K and BNW) converted it from a dud to really quite an enjoyable game. I play, both SP and MP with my mates. I'd have to say though that the unit mechanics work much better for SP than MP. Being unable to stack units means very long and slow turns when you've got 3 or 4 people in the same game. Micromanagement hell.

Also. Since BNW the Piety tree owns. Get as many holy sites (gold, faith and culture) as you can, +25% city gold from temples, reformation belief purchase any type of great person for faith.

[Sp4]

It's a fun game but so far everything I have done has degenerated into a click fest which has me give up out of frustration.

[Myth]

Erm yeah I've been experimenting a lot with religion. I tried wtih Boudicca, and also with the Shoshone who can trigger piety boons come turn 20 from ruins. I think I will save a couple of my closest ruins for this since I can go 30 Piety > Pantheon > Prophet (around 80 piety) from ruins. I also managed to snag Stonehenge from the AI even at Deity if I focus on it because the dumb lemmings all go for the Great Library first, and then split off into Hanging Gardens/Mausoleum of Halikarnassus/Pyramids etc.

My favorite bonuses are Tithe or World Church (depending if I need more gold or culture), Pagodas or Cathedrals (or Monasteries with Wine/Incense and Goddess of Festivals) and the preachers that add 30% conversion range.

Sp4: With BNW you are no longer forced to defend rabid AI attacks unless you really ask for it and have 0 standing forces or you don't play nice. Or like me, you end up as Nebuchadnezzar between Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Harald Bluetooth. If you end up near more peaceful AIs like the Shoshone or Austria you can go through most of the game with just a few units as garrisons. Not sure what click fest do you mean. Later on the turns become more tedious as they become slower though.

[HopAlongBunny]

Picked it up on a Steam sale and then added G&K's on another Steam sale.
One more turn!!!!...oops:p

[Myth]

@HopAlongBunny add Brave New World to it too. It makes it into a stellar TBS game.

[Buzghush]

I'm playing Civ 5 too. It's one of my favourites games. If you guys have time, we can play together, what do you say?

[HopAlongBunny]

Still waiting for BNW to go on sale :)
Gah! The Mongols on Domination are an exploit!!! (Yay!!!!)

[Myth]

The Mongols are great, especially in G&K where you don't have the humungous warmonger penalties from BNW. Try England as a warmonger race too. It's what I'm playing and experimenting with now.

I feel that early game warmongering is unwarranted on the map sizes I enjoy (Large&Huge). As England. you have the luxury of early game development (1 or 2 tall cities, going for National College around turn 80ish) and then spamming Longbowmen midgame and crushing so much face! When the Renessaunce kicks in you have Ships of the Line which just tear coastal cities and enemy navies apart! By the Industrial Era you should have captured several hugely populated AI cities and possibly some that contain wonders.

The extra spy helps you keep up with the tech, especially since you want to branch off into the "war" tech tree which slows down your Education line.

My preferred build so far:

Start on the coast. Settle next to a river, on a hill. At least 2 fish resources and some nice land resources is key for me. Depending on how much forest I have I might try to steal a worker and chop trees to rush Stonehenge, thus securing my religion (religion is awlays nice). I was lucky last night and started with a faith mountain NW closeby thus getting a religion with God of the Sea, World Church, Pagodas and Mosques (which is basically the best you could get as England IMO). I might try getting a desert start to go for Desert Folklore and Holy Warriors for faith purchased Longbows and SOLs. That would make for an insane warmongering strat.

The only early wonder I beeline for and get 100% of the time is the Great Lighthouse. Nothing says naval dominance like a ship of the line with 8 movement points.

Longbowmen are tied with Keshiks for the best Medieval era offensive unit. They outrange cities. When they get Logistics they outperform Chu Ko Nus. But they upgrade to 2 range Gatling Guns which makes them better than Keshiks for later on IMO.

Also, England is more flexible for a hybrid build and Elizabeth doesn't fall so much behind due to her extra spy. City capturing with masses of longbows and later SOLs is a pleasure.

[naut]

What difficulty do you guys play?

Has anyone tried the Communitas mod?

[Hooahguy]

I used to play a lot but when I started getting dizzy from the lack of sleep I stopped.

[Sarmatian]

Civ V is a disgrace to the series and anyone playing it should have a hole in his socks.

Civ IV is infinitely better than that garbage bearing the sacred name.

[Myth]

Civ V is a disgrace to the series and anyone playing it should have a hole in his socks.

Civ IV is infinitely better than that garbage bearing the sacred name.

Vanilla sucked hard. Vanilla + Gods and Kings + Brave new World + Fall Patch = playing until 5 AM on a work day.

I play only on Deity but I'm OCD with game difficulty, I always play on the highest or I feel like a wimp. It's an ego thing.

[easytarget]

This thread has convinced me to watch for BNW sale and play a new round of Civ V.

[easytarget]

Civ V is a disgrace to the series and anyone playing it should have a hole in his socks.

Civ IV is infinitely better than that garbage bearing the sacred name.

Meh, like I said above, I'll give it one more spin when I find BNW cheap enough to convince me it's worth the trouble. As for hating on it, that's easy and predictable. Save that gem of brilliance for the Civ Fanatics forum. Nothing in terms of pure fun about this series has improved beyond the 1st one, which for it's time was the best thing going. Adding ever greater complexity and decisions may play to OCDs, but you'd have a hard time arguing any game that turns into a franchise has succeeded often in retaining it's original creative drive. Creative types rarely make the same thing five times, as in this case, and argue this was the path to true creativity. haha

[Myth]

I'm a rabid Alpha Centauri player which followed the old Civ model. I loved it and still love it. But one unit per tile and the inclusion of true ranged units actually makes combat fun for me, rather than clicking like a madman to move my 25 (axemen/tanks/impact rovers - whatever) to fight.

It's the main reason why I played super tall, 100% builder pacifits in Alpha Centauri until I got to Controlled Singularity, where upon I would switch to Space Elveator-ed infantry supported by uber Deathspheres to conquer the map (since Transencednce victory was boring). I simply wanted a few but powerful units for tactical victories, not massing cheap stuff like a madman.

Civ 5 has remedied that and even though the current patch makes warmongering harder (and somewhat sub-optimal) I still enjoy the tactical aspect a lot more.

[HopAlongBunny]

Thank for the heads up re: England; longbows and SoL's makes them a beast!
I find they are much more map-dependent, but once you get your two babies you are unstoppable :)

[Myth]

Had the unfortunate idea last night to attack Washington instead of Nebuchednezzar. I started off with Com. Bowmen whom I upgraded to Longbowmen. But the Minutemen stalemated me, despite heavy american losses. They are just too strong and mobile. Sure, they can't take me out, but neither can I progress towards Washingon DC. I think I have to go for Babylon and only take Boston with my ships. Bottom line: sometimes Longbowmen aren't enough.

[HopAlongBunny]

Neighbours can be a "pita"; I aborted a game where I was stuck between Washington and Attila :)
For sheer mindless play its hard to beat Arabia. You get so much money rolling in you can almost do anything. The biggest problem is focus (or lack thereof)

[Myth]

Arabia is pretty darn good. For focus you can do the usual.

Prioritize growth. get National College ASAP (turn 60ish), get 3 more cities. Fill out Tradition, go tall. Get money. Get Uniersities, work the specialist slots. Go into Rationalism. Tech up to Flight and make use of your abundant oil to conquer.

Or, get Desret Folkore, spread your religion like the plague. Use your religion to bolster your preferred victory type.

Worst start like that for me was this: I was Babylon, Attila was to my west, Genghis Khan to my east, Harald Bluetooth to my south. Fun times.

[xploring]

Civilization 5 Complete Edition (includes Brave New World) $10 USD @ GMG

Use the coupon 726B15-MPNMO3-FJLGSJ to bring down the price to $10 USD.

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/au/e...e-edition-mac/