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[AnotherNils]

See, I consider myself to be a pacifist at heart; I always start out trying to go for a cultural or diplomatic victory. And then things like this happen, and then everyone has to die. I've completely rebelled against the diplomacy model at this point. I'm still going for a cultural victory, but this time I'm playing as Montezuma, and I've got to get my sacrificial captives from somewhere.

I'm a little more devious. If I'm strong I try to get defensive pacts with the weak, so when they get declared on I have the moral high ground to wipe someone off the face of the map.

---

Not really related, but in my latest game Austria has been fighting some hate since it took over a city-state early on (Also, WTF Austria? You can marry city-states but for the second game in a row you're attacking them?). At one point I had three civs approach me to declare on her in a single turn. Sadly I didn't have the army to help so I declined, but I made sure to denounce her to stay on their good side. A little bit later 5 civs declared on her in one turn (out of 8, 6 is you don't count me and Austria). The saddest part is, the AI is so incompetent they didn't take a single city off her (Though I imagine she lost some serious military strength).

Later on down the line she finally slipped up and declared on an ally (defensive pact) and I pushed her off his land, razed a city she tried to offer in peace and the bombed her capital so hard she gave me back the city-state which I promptly freed. Eat that.

 

[Architechnophile]

I'm a little more devious. If I'm strong I try to get defensive pacts with the weak, so when they get declared on I have the moral high ground to wipe someone off the face of the map.

---

Not really related, but in my latest game Austria has been fighting some hate since it took over a city-state early on (Also, WTF Austria? You can marry city-states but for the second game in a row you're attacking them?). At one point I had three civs approach me to declare on her in a single turn. Sadly I didn't have the army to help so I declined, but I made sure to denounce her to stay on their good side. A little bit later 5 civs declared on her in one turn (out of 8, 6 is you don't count me and Austria). The saddest part is, the AI is so incompetent they didn't take a single city off her (Though I imagine she lost some serious military strength).

Later on down the line she finally slipped up and declared on an ally (defensive pact) and I pushed her off his land, razed a city she tried to offer in peace and the bombed her capital so hard she gave me back the city-state which I promptly freed. Eat that.

It's kind of funny how Civ V promotes that sort of cold politicking. If I could accuse Alexander of stockpiling WMDs, you can bet I'd be falsifying satellite photographs of uranium factories the next turn.

 

[dapperbandit]

For those that want to change the menu music, here's a suggestion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvru5jEQSOg

 

[GungHo]

See, I consider myself to be a pacifist at heart; I always start out trying to go for a cultural or diplomatic victory. And then things like this happen, and then everyone has to die. I've completely rebelled against the diplomacy model at this point. I'm still going for a cultural victory, but this time I'm playing as Montezuma, and I've got to get my sacrificial captives from somewhere.

Unfortunately, every game I play goes this way. I end up sticking to 4~6 core cities and just kind of carve out a block of coast and maybe a little inland (to get the observatory improvement near a mountain) and just kind of hang out and mind my business, occasionally building wonders and other things while just researching my science. After some time of me ignoring opponents, one of them will offer friendship and I'll usually just say no, but sometimes say yes if I think they're compatible. And then someone will start screwing with the city states and say "ha, I bullied your favorite city state and you ain't gonna do shit", and I'll be quiet and say, "ok, yeah, you did, that was kinda shitty, but we're cool this time", and then they'll start asking for open borders, which I'll say "fuck off" to... why do you need open borders anyway... I'm on a coast/peninsula... there's no where to go over there except for ocean. Then they start demanding uxuries and strategic goods and I'll say "sure, you want some copper, you can give me a city" which they'll get offended about. Then they decide to do something real stupid and send a few swordsmen or whatever the unit du jeure is and test my defenses. Bad idea. You poke the bull you get the horns. So, I make a beeline for their capital, take it, and then pick apart everything else. If I'm feeling conciliatory, I'll leave them a city or two that can't really grow well because I have it more or less surrounded. I bombard every city I can, pillage every improvement, and try to set them back a few dozen turns out of sheer spite. Then, when I've crotch-chopped and teabagged them into humilitation, I'll make them an offer of peace. Woe be onto the opponent that decides to get greedy at this point (they always get greedy), because then they're gonna die. And then all their friends say that I'm "the bad guy" and then they start calling me a warmonger when the other guy started the war and they want to start fighting with me too. Sooner or later, I end up with everyone's capital and everyone's all butt-hurt about it.

You'd figure after doing this a few times the computer would remember "hey, he really likes just hanging out and maybe doing nice things for other people in the world congress... maybe we should see how that works out for a few games". Nope... every game, same dumb shit. Same result. It's almost like they enjoy the genocide.

 

[Esch]

I always take the DoF. There's no reason not to.

 

[Dylan]

I always take the DoF. There's no reason not to.

Not true I don't think? For example if you are planning on declaring war on that civ, or if every other civ hates them and you want to stay in their good books.

 

[Esch]

Not true I don't think? For example if you are planning on declaring war on that civ, or if every other civ hates them and you want to stay in their good books.

I meant if you're playing peacefully. It disincentivizes war and lets you negotiate research agreements and open borders which are vital to science and culture victories. Even if you have a DoF with a civ another civ hates it isnt necessarily a huge hit to me, though I dont know the #s behind it.

 

[AnotherNils]

Yeah, this last game I've been much more reluctant and choosy about DoFs and I'm now at turn 300+ and even though I 'backstabbed' William and denounced Austria several times, I'm now on Friendly terms with everyone.

(Of course, the entire world hates Maria Theresa, so her trying to be super friendly isn't surprising)

 

[hypersheep]

Is there anything I can do in this situation: Declare friends with Netherlands. Later on down the line he sends a prophet and convert one of my cities. I ask him not to and he says sorry I won't do that anymore.

A while later, I spot a prophet off the shores of my capital. He comes ashore and converts my capital. No option to bitch again, so I denounce the fucker and kill the prophet (WHile I was at it, I also raze a tiny settlement he jammed in between me and the Iroquois).

I'm apparently a backstabber now because I denounced a friend, even though he didn't live up to his promises. No win situation?

(Also, while we were at war I killed like 4 embarked prophets of his and when we made peace I saw another three. Holy crap how could he afford that any?!)

To discourage great prophet bombing, buy a few inquisitors and park them in or around your cities. This will generally discourage the AI from converting your cities,

 

[ST2K]

I don't get Austria. Is there a particular way to play them that I am just not seeing?

 

[Angst]

I don't get Austria. Is there a particular way to play them that I am just not seeing?

To use their UA you need to gobble up city states by using diplomatic marriage.

On the other hand, I'm currently playing as Austria on a archipelago map and haven't used diplomatic marriage once. I'm doing pretty good - so far I have wiped out Sweden and stolen the capital from the Celts. For some reason I started a two-front war with Boudica and William. Boudica only has one city left but William is the point leader. My plan is to steal three cities from him and thus get access to uranium and diminish his lead. Last night my task force consisting of two carriers, five battleships, three destroyers and two subs is making its way across the ocean. Unfortunately his meager excuse for a navy was at my most remote location (Stockholm) when I declared war, but I think I can fend him off with one battleship and a sub. His navy consists of 5-6 embarked units and 5 Dutch Beggars.

William is at war with Isabella as well and I thought I could ally with her, but she wants nothing to do with me... :/

 

[jonnyp]

Holy fuck I HATE the shitty menu music from BNW.

How can I remove it? Fucking infuriating.

edit: also, fuck multiplayer. Crashes. Disconnects. Glitches. Lag. Resetting settings. All of that and 300 turns into a great game and we hit a point where we can no longer continue. Game gets stuck at the end of a turn and that's it. Fucking shit devs

I hope you didn't buy the game at launch like I did. It was unplayable even in singleplayer for several years until patches and DLC made it playable...

 

[Angst]

I hope you didn't buy the game at launch like I did. It was unplayable even in singleplayer for several years until patches and DLC made it playable...

"unplayable" as in crashes? Or as in balance and stupid AI? As I mentioned earlier, I didn't like it on my first playthrough, but had no issue with crashes as far as I remember.

 

[Cromat]

I don't get Austria. Is there a particular way to play them that I am just not seeing?

They have a really fun (and quite good) UA.
Make a solid empire for yourself (probably by opening with tradition and build 3 solid cities). Go to Patronage so you're good with the various City States (Consulates which makes you friends with every CS for Pledging to Protect them is amazing anyway), get a few CS allies and when you have cash start buying them off and puppeting.
You're getting cities often with a population of 11-12, a large standing army and valuable resources. Many of them also have Natural Wonders within their borders. You can use marriage to get a good landing spot for an invasion across the ocean.
As long as you manage your happiness (don't marry Mercantile city states, keep them as allies for the happiness bonus) you can gobble up city states one by one, helping yourself while harming your opponents (find a city state an opponent has, send a spy, perform coup, pay gold, marry, ruin their day).

In general I think the Civs that have City State related bonuses are quite strong except Sweden. Greece, Siam, Venice and Austria are excellent. Mongolia is excellent for different reasons.

 

[Dylan]

Civ V, I hate you but I love you!

It's the little tiny bugs that really get me during a long ass game. For example, I completed the World's Fair project with the Gold trophy on a turn that just happened to also provide a cultural policy through culture generation.

For some reason, I was only able to choose one cultural policy, the game didn't recognize that I should have been awarded two. Sucks!


Also I really don't understand why when you are a few points away from a Golden Age and then receive a free Golden Age from either a Great Person or a Wonder, then your GA requirement shoots way up after the end of your first GA when really you had already earned another one.

I keep playing though. Why? Because Civ.

 

[MMBosstones86]

Civ V, I hate you but I love you!

It's the little tiny bugs that really get me during a long ass game. For example, I completed the World's Fair project with the Gold trophy on a turn that just happened to also provide a cultural policy through culture generation.

For some reason, I was only able to choose one cultural policy, the game didn't recognize that I should have been awarded two. Sucks!


Also I really don't understand why when you are a few points away from a Golden Age and then receive a free Golden Age from either a Great Person or a Wonder, then your GA requirement shoots way up after the end of your first GA when really you had already earned another one.

I keep playing though. Why? Because Civ.

You didn't get one on the next turn? Last two times theres been a 'world project', i've gotten the rewards on the turn after the project is completed.

 

[Jintor]

I feel weird about choosing Empires that don't do a lot to help me on a turn-to-turn basis... chose Rome because I figured the production bonus would help with a wide empire, but 25% ain't all that much really... eh...

but I should stop endlessly restarting games, so I guess I'll fight this one out.

 

[ST2K]

They have a really fun (and quite good) UA.
Make a solid empire for yourself (probably by opening with tradition and build 3 solid cities). Go to Patronage so you're good with the various City States (Consulates which makes you friends with every CS for Pledging to Protect them is amazing anyway), get a few CS allies and when you have cash start buying them off and puppeting.
You're getting cities often with a population of 11-12, a large standing army and valuable resources. Many of them also have Natural Wonders within their borders. You can use marriage to get a good landing spot for an invasion across the ocean.
As long as you manage your happiness (don't marry Mercantile city states, keep them as allies for the happiness bonus) you can gobble up city states one by one, helping yourself while harming your opponents (find a city state an opponent has, send a spy, perform coup, pay gold, marry, ruin their day).

I guess I just underestimated the ability to add cities to the empire on a whim. Being able to bolster your army almost seemed more useful. I kinda want to see a game with good players playing both Venice and Austria now, heh.

I feel weird about choosing Empires that don't do a lot to help me on a turn-to-turn basis... chose Rome because I figured the production bonus would help with a wide empire, but 25% ain't all that much really... eh...

but I should stop endlessly restarting games, so I guess I'll fight this one out.

Rome is one of the civs that has been a victim of power creep, I think. Their UA is actually cool, it's the other stuff that's unfortunate. I don't see the use of the Ballista in a world with Battering Rams and Siege Towers. The Legion's road-building ability is cool, but swordsman have really lost a lot of their usefulness.

That being said, I think the obsolescence of other civs are more clear. Japan, America, and Germany come to mind. I hope they update them a bit someday.

 

[Geido]

Rome is still one of the best civs out there imo. The amount of hammers you will save because of that 25% is crazy.

My Siam game is taking a strange turn by the way. I've annihilated Ghengiz while Greece was destroying Brazil on my continent. I had figured to go after Greece now, but they're my biggest friend at the moment. They also took Order, etc. At the end of my session yesterday they asked my help to attack fascist Ethiopia on another continent and I agreed.

Immortal seems to be pretty doable though, I thought it would be a bigger challenge. The sieging of cities is somewhat more difficult because of the increased number of enemy units, but the AI is still really dumb. I took down Mongolia at the top of their game, keshik and Khans everywhere, too stupid to use them. Having Nasurean Elephants helps tho, one of the best anti-Keshik units in the game.

 

[xenist]

Nobunaga is such a twat.

"Oh, it seems I bullied one of your allies. I hope you don't mind."

"It seems I attacked one of your allies. Such is life when you're a weakling."

What's the matter Nobby? I thought we were cool. So now it's now it's time for me to make his life miserable. I have civs denouncing him almost every turn. They want silk? It's cool I have silk to spare. They want money? That's OK too. They want me to declare war on Sweden? I can do that too. And I take his cities. One at a time. I will only leave him with Kyoto and maybe one other miserable city. It seems I'm literally incapable of being peaceful.

 

[Jintor]

In my experience to date you should just treat Nobs like he's always out to get you, no matter what that shiteater says.

 

[marvelharvey]

I was watching a historical drama about Nobunaga the other day. He was ruthless backstabbing bastard in that too.

 

[Mengy]

In my experience to date you should just treat Nobs like he's always out to get you, no matter what that shiteater says.

I was watching a historical drama about Nobunaga the other day. He was ruthless backstabbing bastard in that too.

Yep, he is one of the civs I never, ever trust. Just a few weeks ago I was playing a game as the Shoshone where Nobu and I were friends for the entire first half, as we were neighbors. But knowing how he is I always kept up a good military (even though I was playing as peaceful in this game) and sure enough, out of nowhere came the surprise declaration of WAR and then immediately 7 or 8 of his units marched towards my northern most city. My ranged units decimated his armies for dozens of turns, leveling up and getting stronger and stronger, until finally he asked for peace. I never even left my territory, lol. This went on for the rest of the game, he would declare on me and march to his death, then sue for peace, wait a bit and do it all over again. Eventually the other civs turned on him due to his weak obliterated military and Greece eventually wiped him out.

But yeah, never ever trust Nobu. He lives up to his reputation.

 

[Meteorain]

Don't you love those games when you get the Incans and there are absolutely no mountains next to you?

I blame the Dutch for starting next to me. For their failing to provide me mountains I took Amsterdam.

 

[roddur]

sometimes the civs are confusing. in the last game brazil suddenly declared war on me which is in a different continent. there was no single battle between brazil and me. when pedro offered peace it came with one of his cities. he had only his capital left. few turns after gahja mada captured it. i mean when you're in dire situation why offer a city then?

 

[AnotherNils]

Decided to go try Prince again after a few more pretty clean wins. I know more about happiness, social policies, and religion now that I might be half competent.

Since I previously got euthanized pretty early, I decided it might be interesting to make it a game of teams, so there's 4 teams, 2 civs each. This was my first mistake. The ai is too unpredictable, making for an unstable partner. My second mistake was not specifically picking who that partner would be. I'm also a little surprised that my partner still tries to dick me over with 3-for-1 luxury trades.

My biggest hurdles the last time I tried were constant happiness and gpt problems, so I settled in this game with a clear strategy to expand slowly and closely monitor my happiness, using religion to reinforce it. This I've been successful at.

The bad news is, I ended up getting sandwiched between Attila and Dido, and they're both on the same team. Problem #2: I've developed a bad habit of deprioritizing making military units early game to focus on development. So what I've done is entice two known warmongers even further.

Worse, Washington isn't nearby and he's psychotically expanded to 4 (then 5) cities in a small area, then tried to Annex India (Making us look like warmongers as well). He also seems to handle all our negotiations.

Despite my terrible (Rank 7) army, I still managed to repel the first invasion of my land. I was starting to refocus when the second happened and so I repelled that as well. Oddly, however, Washington (who is nowhere near these fucks) declared war on them in the last instance and I'm currently trying to fend them off and likely to lose my just founded third city.

This is where it gets weird. Best as I can tell from the notification log, another team, England and Sweden, got sick of our shit and declared on us. They weren't really near either of us so it really wasn't a problem though. Then, one turn, we declared peace with them and declared war on Attila and Dido. I can't negotiate peace for 27 turns with them now. So best I can tell, Washington traded us going to war for peace with England and Sweden. Horrible.

Which leads me to my other observation of AI: I really hate their military strategy. They declare war, don't get results, peace, 15 turns, repeat on the same Civ. If they keep failing they should take longer between declarations trying to build up forces. The way it is now it feels like a crappy holiday you have to celebrate every year.

But yeah, lesson hopefully learned – stop being the worst military presence on the map, especially if you're near warmongers. I just have trouble producing military units early game when it feels like i'm going to be spending 7-15 turns standing still.

 

[GungHo]

Nobunaga is such a twat.

"Oh, it seems I bullied one of your allies. I hope you don't mind."

"It seems I attacked one of your allies. Such is life when you're a weakling."

"It seems I entered the editor and turned all your tiles radioactive. Maybe you should remember you're a computer machine and I'm a human being and I have no problem being a much bigger bastard than you."

 

[Architechnophile]

Decided to go try Prince again after a few more pretty clean wins. I know more about happiness, social policies, and religion now that I might be half competent.

Since I previously got euthanized pretty early, I decided it might be interesting to make it a game of teams, so there's 4 teams, 2 civs each. This was my first mistake. The ai is too unpredictable, making for an unstable partner. My second mistake was not specifically picking who that partner would be. I'm also a little surprised that my partner still tries to dick me over with 3-for-1 luxury trades.

My biggest hurdles the last time I tried were constant happiness and gpt problems, so I settled in this game with a clear strategy to expand slowly and closely monitor my happiness, using religion to reinforce it. This I've been successful at.

The bad news is, I ended up getting sandwiched between Attila and Dido, and they're both on the same team. Problem #2: I've developed a bad habit of deprioritizing making military units early game to focus on development. So what I've done is entice two known warmongers even further.

Worse, Washington isn't nearby and he's psychotically expanded to 4 (then 5) cities in a small area, then tried to Annex India (Making us look like warmongers as well). He also seems to handle all our negotiations.

Despite my terrible (Rank 7) army, I still managed to repel the first invasion of my land. I was starting to refocus when the second happened and so I repelled that as well. Oddly, however, Washington (who is nowhere near these fucks) declared war on them in the last instance and I'm currently trying to fend them off and likely to lose my just founded third city.

This is where it gets weird. Best as I can tell from the notification log, another team, England and Sweden, got sick of our shit and declared on us. They weren't really near either of us so it really wasn't a problem though. Then, one turn, we declared peace with them and declared war on Attila and Dido. I can't negotiate peace for 27 turns with them now. So best I can tell, Washington traded us going to war for peace with England and Sweden. Horrible.

Which leads me to my other observation of AI: I really hate their military strategy. They declare war, don't get results, peace, 15 turns, repeat on the same Civ. If they keep failing they should take longer between declarations trying to build up forces. The way it is now it feels like a crappy holiday you have to celebrate every year.

But yeah, lesson hopefully learned – stop being the worst military presence on the map, especially if you're near warmongers. I just have trouble producing military units early game when it feels like i'm going to be spending 7-15 turns standing still.

7 doesn't strike me as so bad, but I'd never spend 15 turns making a military unit unless I really had nothing else to build. I tend to get to my military as my last focus, unless doing so provides immediate side benefits (like Montezuma's massive sacrificial captives + Honor culture bonus). The AI is slow to fully mobilize in the early game, and most zerg rushes can get repelled with a couple well-placed archers.

Try to use production in other areas to fund your military. Get a lot of gold and buy units when you need 'em. Get a ton of hammers in your capital so that you burn through all the building construction you need and then move on to quick-building units. Or get Holy Warriors and make insta-armies when you've got the faith for it. Or ally with militaristic city-states for their periodic bonus units.

Usually works pretty well for me.

 

[AnotherNils]

7 doesn't strike me as so bad, but I'd never spend 15 turns making a military unit unless I really had nothing else to build. I tend to get to my military as my last focus, unless doing so provides immediate side benefits (like Montezuma's massive sacrificial captives + Honor culture bonus). The AI is slow to fully mobilize in the early game, and most zerg rushes can get repelled with a couple well-placed archers.

7 out of 8 people. Around turn 100.

Try to use production in other areas to fund your military. Get a lot of gold and buy units when you need 'em. Get a ton of hammers in your capital so that you burn through all the building construction you need and then move on to quick-building units. Or get Holy Warriors and make insta-armies when you've got the faith for it. Or ally with militaristic city-states for their periodic bonus units.

Usually works pretty well for me.

Production is always my number one focus. I suppose my placement this game wasn't very helpful in that regard, making things a little harder than normal. I'm also conservative about spending gold, but usually I can't afford more than 2 weaker or 1 strong units in an emergency. I do spend it on a worker after founding my second city just because 20+ turns for a worker is dreadful. Oh, I think I bought emergency walls one time, too.


I did take defender of the faith an my second enhancer to help stem invasions. Its probably why I did so well defending my second city against literally 5 catapults and some land units last night with just the city, a trebuchet and crossbowman. (My tech may be my saving grace here. After Attila's bloodlust became evident I refocused on military tech. But gold to upgrade units is getting harder to come by).

Still, the important thing is that the move to Prince is having me make hard decisions which is far more interesting and challenging, as opposed to my last couple games where my hardest decision was who to do DoFs with as I built the vast majority of wonders.

 

[xenist]

Oh Nobby, you cad! You're so funny!

Here I am, pounding the snot out of his units and city with my artillery protected by riflemen. Cavalry waiting in the wings executing everyone that makes it close to my army. All his approaches are covered by my navy. He can't even go around me because the place is covered by my allied city states. And he sues for peace. By asking for SIX of my cities. All of my cities excluding my capitol. And gold.

What.

I'd leave him a shadow of an empire as I usually do but fuck it, I'm gonna wipe him off the map. I will even delete any unit of his that I capture. And I'm gonna raze any city he makes his capitol until he's out completely. I'm gonna get all Mongol on his ass.

 

[razgriz417]

Anyone love bribing other civs to go to war against each other then swooping in and hitting someone from the other side? God I love starting conflicts in civ, some civs are so easily bought out, "Sure germany, I'll give 2 luxury items and 5 horses if you start WWI for me "

 

[Geido]

Yeah it is nice. But it sucks having two Marias in Civ. Bribed Ethiopia to go to war with Maria I in stead of Maria Therese. Therese is a runaway, Maria 1 has 2 cities...

And it cost me way to much.

 

[SaskBoy]

Finished my domination victory with the Shoshone on King. I might have overdone it when taking the last capital (the Iroquois). I nuked it about 5 times and by the time I took it the population had dropped from 30+ to 2 :|.

I'm lucky I had such an advanced navy and his capital was a coastal city. On his continent my army was surrounded by his cities and there was fighting on about three or four different fronts. But i was able to just waltz right up to his capital with my huge navy and level the city with nukes and take it easily with destroyers. He didn't even send his navy to defend his capital :|. His battleships kept bombarding my land units on the other side of the continent.

 

[Architechnophile]

7 out of 8 people. Around turn 100.

Production is always my number one focus. I suppose my placement this game wasn't very helpful in that regard, making things a little harder than normal. I'm also conservative about spending gold, but usually I can't afford more than 2 weaker or 1 strong units in an emergency. I do spend it on a worker after founding my second city just because 20+ turns for a worker is dreadful. Oh, I think I bought emergency walls one time, too.


I did take defender of the faith an my second enhancer to help stem invasions. Its probably why I did so well defending my second city against literally 5 catapults and some land units last night with just the city, a trebuchet and crossbowman. (My tech may be my saving grace here. After Attila's bloodlust became evident I refocused on military tech. But gold to upgrade units is getting harder to come by).

Still, the important thing is that the move to Prince is having me make hard decisions which is far more interesting and challenging, as opposed to my last couple games where my hardest decision was who to do DoFs with as I built the vast majority of wonders.

Buying workers?

Find a nearby city-state, hold 'em by the ankles and shake 'em for their lunch money and their workers. Then stand them back up, give 'em a hard slap on the back and say "We're cool right? Yeah, we're cool." And just walk on back home with their stuff.

Don't bother with siege units unless you're going to be sieging somebody. Archers are cheap, eminently upgradable, and do better damage against units attacking you. Properly placed, you only need a few upgraded ones to fend off much, much larger forces.

Also, drop a citadel or two in bottleneck areas. The AI doesn't really "get" citadels, and they'll tend to mill about them, hemorrhaging HP because of the automatic -30 per turn or whatever it is. A polearm unit fortified in a citadel, and an archer to cover it, is Civ V's version of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Either wage a little play war early to get a great general or two, or get the one from the Honor tree.

 

[AnotherNils]

Buying workers?

Find a nearby city-state, hold 'em by the ankles and shake 'em for their lunch money and their workers. Then stand them back up, give 'em a hard slap on the back and say "We're cool right? Yeah, we're cool." And just walk on back home with their stuff.

Good tactic, not sure its for me, though. On one hand I don't like being a dick to City States (or Civs, either, unless they piss me off). On the other hand, it feels like a bit of a exploit since the AI is dumb.

Don't bother with siege units unless you're going to be sieging somebody. Archers are cheap, eminently upgradable, and do better damage against units attacking you. Properly placed, you only need a few upgraded ones to fend off much, much larger forces.

You're right. I just read someone opining yesterday that early siege units had been nerfed to the point of making them worse than archers.

Also, drop a citadel or two in bottleneck areas. The AI doesn't really "get" citadels, and they'll tend to mill about them, hemorrhaging HP because of the automatic -30 per turn or whatever it is. A polearm unit fortified in a citadel, and an archer to cover it, is Civ V's version of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Either wage a little play war early to get a great general or two, or get the one from the Honor tree.

Word. Waging war increases you chance of getting a great general? I can't say I've picked up on how the great person stuff works yet.

 

[SaskBoy]

Word. Waging war increases you chance of getting a great general? I can't say I've picked up on how the great person stuff works yet.

You get points towards Great Generals whenever a land unit gains EXP. Great Admirals are similar but you get points from EXP for naval units.

Other great people are created from points from certain buildings and wonders.

 

[roddur]

Buying workers?

Also, drop a citadel or two in bottleneck areas. The AI doesn't really "get" citadels, and they'll tend to mill about them, hemorrhaging HP because of the automatic -30 per turn or whatever it is. A polearm unit fortified in a citadel, and an archer to cover it, is Civ V's version of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Either wage a little play war early to get a great general or two, or get the one from the Honor tree.

the game i was playing last week gahja mada built 3 citadels in 3 consecutive tiles to get closer to London to attack. it's on king difficulty. i've never seen any AI did anything like that.

 

[SaskBoy]

the game i was playing last week gahja mada built 3 citadels in 3 consecutive tiles to get closer to London to attack. it's on king difficulty. i've never seen any AI did anything like that.

Deadly. Does the damage from the Citadels stack?

 

[AnotherNils]

You get points towards Great Generals whenever a land unit gains EXP. Great Admirals are similar but you get points from EXP for naval units.

Other great people are created from points from certain buildings and wonders.

I've read wonder descriptions about +1 Great x points" but I had no clue what it means. Your description makes sense, however.

 

[Geido]

Also, all specialists in your cities give you Great Person Points. Put two citizens in a university and within no time at all you'll have a great scientist.

When you figure out the city management screen, it will totally up your game.

 

[AnotherNils]

Also, all specialists in your cities give you Great Person Points. Put two citizens in a university and within no time at all you'll have a great scientist.

When you figure out the city management screen, it will totally up your game.

I've got a decent grasp on city management but honestly, I don't want to get involved as I feel like it'll devolve the game into micromanagement and be a time sink. After Endless Space I'd like to avoid that.

 

[Architechnophile]

the game i was playing last week gahja mada built 3 citadels in 3 consecutive tiles to get closer to London to attack. it's on king difficulty. i've never seen any AI did anything like that.

Whoa. Most I've ever seen is Elizabeth put a couple down in totally avoidable areas (perhaps to steal some territory).

I played a single city challenge game as Japan once, where I lucked out and started out flanked by two 3-tile-long mountain ranges that left only one tile exposed to my north, and two 1-tile-wide channels that ran along the sea on my east and west. I put a citadel down at the end of both the east/west channels, and fortified a unit in the gap to the north.

I successfully defended a simultaneous attack by 6 separate armies at the same time. It was glorious.

 

[Jintor]

I hate settlers moving into territory you consider yours but haven't gotten around to blocking off yet

 

[pilonv1]

the game i was playing last week gahja mada built 3 citadels in 3 consecutive tiles to get closer to London to attack. it's on king difficulty. i've never seen any AI did anything like that.

I've had Catherine place one 4 tiles away from one of my cities on Prince. But it's the only time I've seen it.

 

[DEO3]

I hate settlers moving into territory you consider yours but haven't gotten around to blocking off yet

If I see a settler coming for my lands I almost always declare war and kill it before it gets the chance to settle - and this is coming from someone who generally plays peacefully. A settler coming for territory you consider yours is something that generally only occurs in the early game, and by the mid game, after you've settled your lands, the AI has generally forgotten all about it.

 

[Jintor]

Does the AI still know where coal and aluminium are before they reveal them on the map?

 

[roddur]

Deadly. Does the damage from the Citadels stack?

i actually dont know damage stack or not. but i think it does.

 

[AhmazingArab]

At the normal difficulty level, if you get an allied civ to declare war on another a rival civ, does the allied civ commit alot of effort behind their offense? I can never see their units, so I'm not entirely sure if they commit to war or they half ass it.

 

[roddur]

I've had Catherine place one 4 tiles away from one of my cities on Prince. But it's the only time I've seen it.

for me AI almost always build citadel. montezuma built 2 of them once and really crippled me.

 

[Geido]

At the normal difficulty level, if you get an allied civ to declare war on another a rival civ, does the allied civ commit alot of effort behind their offense? I can never see their units, so I'm not entirely sure if they commit to war or they half ass it.

It depends. When they share a border, it's almost certain some skirmishes will be fought. If one or the other takes a city and they have a similar strength army, it will probably go on a while.

But sometimes a civ will do almost nothing and make peace after ten turns.