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[Arthea]

Religion also spreads gradually via 'pressure' from 10 tiles from any city that is considered to be dominated by any one religion

That explains some things happening, thanks. Gotta keep that in mind.

 

[Rentahamster]

Just tried out a Volunteer Army rush with Brazil on Large Continents, Immortal.

So basically, I teched to Industrial as fast as I could with 3 cities, rush bought 3 factories, got Freedom, then waited until my next social policy for Volunteer Army, so that I get 6 free Foreign Legion troops.

Basically, those are Modern Era units. Sorta like Great War Infantry, except 43 strength instead of 50.

I did it fast enough so that Alexander was still using musketmen when I went over and wiped him off of my continent. Even when he got to upgrade to riflemen ten or so turns later, it was too late to save his capital.

I think I might try it again sometime, and see how early I can get it down. I wonder what civ would be best for this kinda thing.


Oh, and this is Brazil, so those Foreign Legion troops upgrade directly into 70 strength Pracinas when you research Plastics. Unfortunately, I didn't even use them since I won a cultural victory before they got anywhere (turn 290 ish). I was waiting for the International Games to finish, but after two turns, I noticed it was going really slow since I was the only one contributing, so I just nuked the culture leader with a great musician I had hanging around in his territory to get it over with.


edit: whoops, wrong thread.

 

[_woLf]

It's essentially the same as playing single-player where you'd alternate with the AI anyway, I'm not sure how it picks who goes "first" but I think the order is determined when the game is started somehow. As far as the timer goes, when I last played it was split, so say the total is 12 mins, both players at war should get 6 mins whilst everyone else gets the full 12.

I agree that it massively sucks that you can't even browse demographics and other menus, (needs to be changed imo) but I also think it's better than having the game devolve into some BS rush to see who can move their units first. Of course you could always still select simultaneous when starting a game if you prefer.

The order was chosen when the game started, but when two players go into war it re-shifts it. I was moved from first between the real players to dead last and it's remained that way for the entire war. It should alternate who goes first so one player isn't at a constant disadvantage. It's more reasonable against AI but against real players it's complete garbage.

The way it's worked for me time-wise is that I haven't been able to take my turn until the person at war with me along with every other player has taken their turn. Then, suddenly, everything pops and happens at once.

 

[Fitz]

Sorry, late response here. If you mean alternate between wars, then I agree that would be a reasonable change, obviously alternating within the war wouldn't make sense as it would be the same but with each player taking 2 turns in a row. I think the only real issue is not being able to interact with the game whilst waiting for/having ended your turn during war, being able to simply view information would make the hybrid system as close to perfect as it can get imo. Other than that, and the first turn when war is declared, I don't see how it's any different than when playing against AI.

Not sure what to say about the turn timer, when I played recently I was able to take my turn as soon as the person I was at war with ended their turn, perhaps there is an advanced game option that changes how it works.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Bumping this since a ton of people (including me) just got this for free through the greenman gaming voting thing.

I read the OP but couldn't find it: is there some beginner advice/tutorial somewhere on how to start scouting or doing research efficiently? (like some good starting orders), since it takes so many turns to create a unit it takes a long long time to try what works and what is a terrible idea.

I tried the learn as you play mode in tutorial but as I sent my first warrior unit to scout and find the ruins etc, I ran into a barbarian camp 15 tiles away that I was told by the game needed 2 units to win against.
But since it takes so many turns to make another unit, by the time I get the second one , even if I don't make a worker unit first (and I don't even know if I'm fucking myself over by not doing this) it takes many turns for the new unit to catch up to the old one, is the old one just supposed to twiddle its thumbs meanwhile?

It's stuff like that that confuses me and I feel like I'm just blindly flailing about.

Never played a civ game before.

 

[leroidys]

Bumping this since a ton of people (including me) just got this for free through the greenman gaming voting thing.

I read the OP but couldn't find it: is there some beginner advice/tutorial somewhere on how to start scouting or doing research efficiently? (like some good starting orders), since it takes so many turns to create a unit it takes a long long time to try what works and what is a terrible idea.

I tried the learn as you play mode in tutorial but as I sent my first warrior unit to scout and find the ruins etc, I ran into a barbarian camp 15 tiles away that I was told by the game needed 2 units to win against.
But since it takes so many turns to make another unit, by the time I get the second one , even if I don't make a worker unit first (and I don't even know if I'm fucking myself over by not doing this) it takes many turns for the new unit to catch up to the old one, is the old one just supposed to twiddle its thumbs meanwhile?

It's stuff like that that confuses me and I feel like I'm just blindly flailing about.

Never played a civ game before.

I haven't played in a LONG time, but considering you're playing vanilla this might still be helpful:

Start out by immediately building a worker, 2 if you have enough resources to improve. Continue to scout with your scout (I usually just do auto-explore, i think its the E key?) Build a second scout if you're not on an island. Then, either build your second worker, or if you already did build a couple warriors. You don't need any military the first few turns, and barbarians shouldn't really pose a threat unless you're playing on the higher difficulties. It's imperative that you get your economy going first. Focus on getting three workers and a settler ASAP. Once you have two cities, start booming, build a granary, temple, water mill (build cities next to river tiles whenever possible).

 

[SneakyStephan]

I haven't played in a LONG time, but considering you're playing vanilla this might still be helpful:

Start out by immediately building a worker, 2 if you have enough resources to improve. Continue to scout with your scout (I usually just do auto-explore, i think its the E key?) Build a second scout if you're not on an island. Then, either build your second worker, or if you already did build a couple warriors. You don't need any military the first few turns, and barbarians shouldn't really pose a threat unless you're playing on the higher difficulties. It's imperative that you get your economy going first. Focus on getting three workers and a settler ASAP. Once you have two cities, start booming, build a granary, temple, water mill (build cities next to river tiles whenever possible).

Thanks,

 

[TCRS]

I got my copy today. I have seldom been so addicted to a game so quickly. Might be because I haven't played a strategy game for ages. I've been playing for hours now, I have conquered two city-states and built three more and now whole island/continent is now mine muhaha!

I'm at 178 turns and have started scouting other continents now and landed my first force on another one. Can't wait to get bigger ships so I can move explore even further.

This game is so good. I am playing on easy though because this is my first Civ game.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Meh, the aztecs bribed me not to attack them, but after the peace treaty ended I still can't declare war...
A quick google suggests it's a bug that's been around since 2010, was claimed to be fixed by a patch but actually wasn't and is still being reported a lot...

edit: and my workers keep cancelling build orders suddenly ,going back to idle every turn, there are no enemies near or anything like that.
Game is much too buggy for my liking

 

[FreddieQuell]

So I also just got the game from the greenmangaming promotion. What exactly is the straight up combat win condition? I just quit playing the tutorial after taking over all of my opponents cities, as well as his capital. There was one neutral city state left, but I thought you win if you take over your opponent's capital? Anyone have any insight for me?

 

[TCRS]

Yesterday I decided to build up my army and attack the Japanese. I thought I have enough troops but damn was I wrong. I also didn't scout enough and attacked Japan from the wrong side. I attacked Kyoto first and that had a defence rating of 26.

I had two Legions, one crossbow, one archer, one great general, 2x trebuchet, one longswordsman, one knight and two horses. All of that wasn't enough to even make a dent into Japan, they almost finished me at Kyoto. But my frigates were also bombarding Tokyo from behind so I guess that promted them to seek peace and we signed a peace treaty. Thank goodness or all of my troops would have been wiped now. Horses are useless, I'm just going to build legions and longswordsmen.

And while I was fighting a war against Japan the French fries decided to "invade" my island and set up a city between my capital and one of the city states I conquered. I was in no position to declare war against France so had to design an open border treatiy. Goddamn frenchies I'll deal with them first as soon as I have built up my army again. THIS CONTINENT IS MINE!! England is also sending scouts to my island, they're up to something...

 

[Trigger]

So I also just got the game from the greenmangaming promotion. What exactly is the straight up combat win condition? I just quit playing the tutorial after taking over all of my opponents cities, as well as his capital. There was one neutral city state left, but I thought you win if you take over your opponent's capital? Anyone have any insight for me?

The straight combat win scenario is a domination victory. You have to hold the capitals of all major civs. You should win if you chose that as one of the victory conditions. Not sure why you wouldn't get credit otherwise.

 

[Rokam]

The bugs in this game really piss me off. City revolted and joined me, but I didn't want it nor did I feel like razing it so I just gave it right back. Since I didn't pick a production I can't continue, stuck at "Choose Production" for that city with no way of getting past it. Going to have to start saving every turn.

 

[Geido]

The end of a 4000 year war against the assyrians and the lone archer that defended Kyoto for most of that time:

I was going for an autocratic culture victory with Japan, founded Kyoto and all was good. Until I discovered Assyria just below me. Within a small amount of time they colonized my entire island. So I built an archer. 2 turns later they attacked. And never let up. I ended up defending my small empire for the entire game against him, with just a small interbellum around the 1700's. It was epic. The archer in question leveled up like crazy and actually defeated the city of Nineveh single handedly (afterward I took it with a caravel).

It's a good lesson on how a chokepoint can completely stop a giant attack and that the AI truly sucks at naval battles and movement.

And I think I should start playing immortal as my standard difficulty.

 

[Ogimachi]

The end of a 4000 year war against the assyrians and the lone archer that defended Kyoto for most of that time:



I was going for an autocratic culture victory with Japan, founded Kyoto and all was good. Until I discovered Assyria just below me. Within a small amount of time they colonized my entire island. So I built an archer. 2 turns later they attacked. And never let up. I ended up defending my small empire for the entire game against him, with just a small interbellum around the 1700's. It was epic. The archer in question leveled up like crazy and actually defeated the city of Nineveh single handedly (afterward I took it with a caravel).

It's a good lesson on how a chokepoint can completely stop a giant attack and that the AI truly sucks at naval battles and movement.

And I think I should start playing immortal as my standard difficulty.

That's a really, really strong gatling gun lol. The AI is way too bad at naval warfare, makes playing in Archipelago maps too easy IMO.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I just started playing this game, and I must say it's the tits. I did all the tutorials and played an hour of a regular game. Great fun.

I played as the Mongols since I had just finished re-listening to the Hardcore History podcast series about them. I really screwed it up lol. I declared war on my neighbor Japan really early on, and I was doing pretty well and had my siege units take their capital down to 0 HP... but I didn't realize that you need to march melee units on top of a city in order to capture it (lol). So I was just bombarding the fuck out of the city and started losing units and had to retreat, wondering why I wasn't capturing the city. I accepted Japan's peace offering, rebuilt my army, and promptly re-invaded them in true Genghis Khan fashion. This time I figured out how to capture a city, and I razed a smaller city Japan had built closer to my capital. But once again I got pretty fucked up when I attacked their capital, so I had to retreat and accept another peace deal. I'll probably delete that save and start a fresh game when I get to play next, because I didn't know what I was doing so I built a lot of pointless stuff and my diplomacy is shot due to re-declaring war on Japan after making peace. It was a fun first game, in any case.

My co-worker recommended I not play as a super militaristic civ as a beginner, so I'm thinking Ethiopia, Rome, or Carthage because they seem pretty versatile.

 

[EMT0]

I just started playing this game, and I must say it's the tits. I did all the tutorials and played an hour of a regular game. Great fun.

I played as the Mongols since I had just finished re-listening to the Hardcore History podcast series about them. I really screwed it up lol. I declared war on my neighbor Japan really early on, and I was doing pretty well and had my siege units take their capital down to 0 HP... but I didn't realize that you need to march melee units on top of a city in order to capture it (lol). So I was just bombarding the fuck out of the city and started losing units and had to retreat, wondering why I wasn't capturing the city. I accepted Japan's peace offering, rebuilt my army, and promptly re-invaded them in true Genghis Khan fashion. This time I figured out how to capture a city, and I razed a smaller city Japan had built closer to my capital. But once again I got pretty fucked up when I attacked their capital, so I had to retreat and accept another peace deal. I'll probably delete that save and start a fresh game when I get to play next, because I didn't know what I was doing so I built a lot of pointless stuff and my diplomacy is shot due to re-declaring war on Japan after making peace. It was a fun first game, in any case.

My co-worker recommended I not play as a super militaristic civ as a beginner, so I'm thinking Ethiopia, Rome, or Carthage because they seem pretty versatile.

Carthage is a good expansion Civ, Rome is pretty much tied to early conquest so holding off on them might be a good idea. Ethiopia is a monster religion civ, so if you want to tackle that in your first game they're also a good choice.

 

[Ogimachi]

I just started playing this game, and I must say it's the tits. I did all the tutorials and played an hour of a regular game. Great fun.

I played as the Mongols since I had just finished re-listening to the Hardcore History podcast series about them. I really screwed it up lol. I declared war on my neighbor Japan really early on, and I was doing pretty well and had my siege units take their capital down to 0 HP... but I didn't realize that you need to march melee units on top of a city in order to capture it (lol). So I was just bombarding the fuck out of the city and started losing units and had to retreat, wondering why I wasn't capturing the city. I accepted Japan's peace offering, rebuilt my army, and promptly re-invaded them in true Genghis Khan fashion. This time I figured out how to capture a city, and I razed a smaller city Japan had built closer to my capital. But once again I got pretty fucked up when I attacked their capital, so I had to retreat and accept another peace deal. I'll probably delete that save and start a fresh game when I get to play next, because I didn't know what I was doing so I built a lot of pointless stuff and my diplomacy is shot due to re-declaring war on Japan after making peace. It was a fun first game, in any case.

My co-worker recommended I not play as a super militaristic civ as a beginner, so I'm thinking Ethiopia, Rome, or Carthage because they seem pretty versatile.

None of these civs are above average, if you ask me. There are much better choices for a non-aggressive run. In your case I'd recommend Korea, Babylon or Poland, for example.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Carthage is a good expansion Civ, Rome is pretty much tied to early conquest so holding off on them might be a good idea. Ethiopia is a monster religion civ, so if you want to tackle that in your first game they're also a good choice.

None of these civs are above average, if you ask me. There are much better choices for a non-aggressive run. In your case I'd recommend Korea, Babylon or Poland, for example.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the Civ5 Wiki says that Korea, Babylon and Poland are all DLC civs so I don't have them. :[ The only DLC I own is Gods & Kings.

 

[Ogimachi]

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the Civ5 Wiki says that Korea, Babylon and Poland are all DLC civs so I don't have them. :[ The only DLC I own is Gods & Kings.

Ok, so try the Mayans or Austria instead.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

^ Ok thanks, I'll try out Austria next time. Their ability to buy off city-states sounds pretty cool.

I deleted my Mongol game and started a game as Ethiopia. I thought their defense-oriented UA and UU were cool, and I wanted to try a game where I built tall. I played much smarter than my first game; instead of getting into pointless wars and spending almost all my gold on military units, I focused on making a bustling capital city with wonders and buildings. Because of Ethiopia's unique building I was also the first to establish a religion, and I've spread it across every city and city-state on my small continent.

Sweden is my neighbor and they are pretty strong so I accepted their declaration of friendship and open borders agreement. I also opened my borders to Songhai in the beginning, but I have grown suspicious of them because they've been building siege units so I did not declare friendship and did not renew the open borders agreement when they asked. I'm pretty sure they're planning on invading either me or Sweden, so I'm starting to focus on my military a little more. But I'm leading in science so my overall goal is to attempt a science victory. All in all, I thought I was doing pretty well.

I was telling my co-worker about it today, and he said I've basically lost the game because I only have 1 city and I'm in the gunpowder era already. I'm not sure if I've lost (since I'm on Chieftain difficulty) but he's probably right that I should have at least expanded to 1 other city. And since my capital is rapidly expanding I'm gonna share borders with Sweden in a while, which is a bit worrisome because their army is stronger than mine and I hear sharing a border makes a civ more likely to declare war on you. I still think that's a ways off though, so I'm gonna start saving up my gold in preparation for spending it on military unit production. I'm leading Sweden in science so I have access to better troops than them. If I can lure them into invading my big ass capital (with a great wall around it), I'm pretty sure I'll be able to win a defensive war.

This game is very fun.

 

[Fury Sense]

Anyone wanna get a 6 gaffer ffa going one of these days? GK+BNW of course

Should take 4-6 hours if we have turn timer on w/ "quick" timescale

 

[Ogimachi]

Anyone wanna get a 6 gaffer ffa going one of these days? GK+BNW of course

Should take 4-6 hours if we have turn timer on w/ "quick" timescale

I'm in. 6 players is a small map, I think we can get enough for a standard map with 8.

 

[Fury Sense]

I'm in. 6 players is a small map, I think we can get enough for a standard map with 8.

yeah 6 is a small map. i've never successfully had an 8 player game though. we'd need a really good host. i'm up for either

 

[Head of Vengarl]

^ That sounds fun but I'd probably be like a city-state in comparison to you guys. I'm still only on my 2nd game ever. My gf is going out of town so I'm free all night Saturday and all morning/afternoon Sunday this weekend (Pacific time).

Continuing my captain's log from my Ethiopia game:

Sweden and I have shared borders for many turns now, but we're still allies. We mutually declared war on Songhai (even though I had previously declared friendship with them, whoops) and after letting Sweden soak up all of the casualties while I picked off Songhai's units, I declared peace. I thought Sweden was gonna declare peace too but instead they captured Gao and turned it into a puppet. Oh well. They also keep spying on me even though I called them out on it, which pisses me off. I stole a technology from them but I'm so far ahead in science that it won't let me do that anymore, so I'm just using my spy to defend from theirs.

Militarily, Sweden still has a bigger army, but they are currently losing units in a war against a city-state, while I am absolutely swimming in gold and all of my units are superior to theirs. I had a missionary unit just sitting around so I sent it across the sea to scout out new continents, and I found a new one with Japan and Germany living on it. They almost immediately went to war with each other, and my military adviser says that both of them are weaker than me, so no worries there. I'll leave them to their own devices for now. In the meantime, I settled a new coastal city that has a mountain right next to it, so I'm building an observatory. I am well on my way to a science victory, pretty much all I have to do is defend myself from possible invasions. I really hope Sweden doesn't backstab me; our research agreements are really helping me out, and a war with them would cost a lot of gold. I'm pretty confident in my chances at defending — my Mehal sefari troops do bonus damage when near our capital, my UA gives me +20% combat strength since I have less cities than everyone else, Himeji Castle gives me another +15% combat power inside my borders, and my religion grants me another +20% combat strength near friendly cities that follow my religion. So yeah, invade me at your own risk, Gustavus.

*Edit: I just realized that Sweden's UA gives them and their allies a +10% boost to Great Person generation! Now I have more incentive to stay friends with them.

 

[Fury Sense]

Aw just join and have fun.

By the way, secret to being pro:

1. Rush Library
2. Rush National College
3. Rush Universities
4.???
5. 100 Science by turn 100

Another good tip is to practice the first 25-50 or so turns. Just restart after that. It'll help A LOT in figuring out when to use which policies from liberty and tradition.

 

[Mengy]

Anyone wanna get a 6 gaffer ffa going one of these days? GK+BNW of course

Should take 4-6 hours if we have turn timer on w/ "quick" timescale

Anyone ever do a play by email (PBEM) game with Civ V? I've done those in previous Civ games but not even once with Civ V. Heck I'm not even sure if it works well with Civ V.

A PBEM NeoGAF game might be kind of fun.

 

[Fury Sense]

Anyone ever do a play by email (PBEM) game with Civ V? I've done those in previous Civ games but not even once with Civ V. Heck I'm not even sure if it works well with Civ V.

A PBEM NeoGAF game might be kind of fun.

A patch added a multiplayer mode called Pitboss. I don't know how previous Civ games worked in pbem, but this requires a dedicated server and the instructions seem kinda complex: http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?272271-Pitboss-Instructions

If someone wants to set it up, I'm game

 

[Ogimachi]

A patch added a multiplayer mode called Pitboss. I don't know how previous Civ games worked in pbem, but this requires a dedicated server and the instructions seem kinda complex: http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?272271-Pitboss-Instructions

If someone wants to set it up, I'm game

It's not really hard to set up, but we'd need someone with a dedicated server to spare. Live game with hybrid turns is the best option, if you ask me.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Well I won my Ethopia game on Chieftain with a science victory. At the very end my spy revealed that my bro Gustavus Adolphus was plotting to invade me. Probably because I had 4 spaceship parts built. I amassed all of my troops along my capital's shared border with Sweden, and they chickened out. After I built the last spaceship part I nuked Sweden's capital and captured it, just to have Sweden nuke it back and kill a bunch of my units. I spent the next hour in an all-out war against my backstabbing ex-friend, with Giant Death Robots and stealth bombers and lots of nukes. Meanwhile, Germany had decisively conquered Japan and was just chillin with an entire continent to themselves.

Aw just join and have fun.

By the way, secret to being pro:

1. Rush Library
2. Rush National College
3. Rush Universities
4.???
5. 100 Science by turn 100

Another good tip is to practice the first 25-50 or so turns. Just restart after that. It'll help A LOT in figuring out when to use which policies from liberty and tradition.

Thanks for the tips. I started a new game as China on Warlord and basically did that. I even got the Great Library. Warlord is definitely harder than Chieftain, but still, I absolutely dominated the game after the Medieval period. I had a really cool thing happen when I defeated Japan — two of their cities were in the middle of the continent and lined up perfectly with my two coastal cities on the north and south of the continent, giving me a huge portion of the continent's territory once I annexed them and they all joined borders. Byzantine and India were left with just slivers of the east and west sides of the continent. I ended up winning another science victory after spending some time on another continent putting the smackdown on Napoleon's army.

Science victories seem to be the easiest way to win. It's actually the only way I've won so far. The closest I've been to a cultural victory was my last game as China where I had 4 out of 5 trees completed. But still, that isn't that close. How do you win a culture victory before it's too late?

 

[Geido]

Anyone wanna get a 6 gaffer ffa going one of these days? GK+BNW of course

Should take 4-6 hours if we have turn timer on w/ "quick" timescale

Sounds like fun! Although it might be difficult to plan if we all live in completely different timezones.

I'm also going to plan a lan with some friends soon. We've never been able to end a game in the dozen or so MP games we've played. So that will probably be an entire weekend or something.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Brave New World is 75% off for the next 21 hours:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/235580/

I started a new game as Attila the Hun and man I really like him. Those horse archers and battering rams are absolute murder early on. I went to war with Sweden and my battering ram one-shotted a smaller city of theirs lol. I defeated Sweden and France and now I own a whole continent to myself. Which is cool but now I'm broke and my civ is unhappy. And I don't have any of the naval techs so my conquests have grinded to a halt for now.

 

[Woorloog]

Is there a way (config, command line) to cap framerate to 30?
Have overheating problem (laptop issue), capping framerate might help.
(The cause is most likely shadows but other shader effects might be the cause too, tweaking the settings until i won't have this problem will take long as some settings require restart and the game loads forever)

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

What exactly are the penalties of having many cities? I know that

- policies cost more
- people get unhappier
- world wonders are more difficult to make

Is there any other consequence of having many cities?

 

[Sibylus]

Production of a Settler halts growth in the city that is producing it, so expansionist civs will tend to have smaller, more undeveloped cities that make use of less of their production potential.

 

[Taffer]

I only just noticed (playing again because of the sale on BNW) that research costs increase by 5% per city as well.

 

[Ogimachi]

Production of a Settler halts growth in the city that is producing it, so expansionist civs will tend to have smaller, more undeveloped cities that make use of less of their production potential.

Science generation makes it worth it, though. As long as you can keep your empire happy, that is.

 

[Geido]

I've started to experiment with a large empire this last round, about 7 owned cities and 3 puppets. Had a difficult couple of turns after my two major wars with massive unhappiness and economic problems.

I'm going along swimmingly now though, I did not expect going wide to work this good after BNW.

The only thing is research, although it's up to par to 3-4 cities. It's not better. I've entered the atomic era around turn 300. Which is pretty late.

 

[Sibylus]

Oh, and forgot to mention that the cost of National Wonders goes up the more cities you have (you have to build the precursor buildings in all of them to unlock the National Wonder). So that's another thing you have to account for going wide.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Production of a Settler halts growth in the city that is producing it, so expansionist civs will tend to have smaller, more undeveloped cities that make use of less of their production potential.

Well, after not too long you can make a settler in just 2-4 turns anyway.

Oh, and forgot to mention that the cost of National Wonders goes up the more cities you have (you have to build the precursor buildings in all of them to unlock the National Wonder). So that's another thing you have to account for going wide.

Yeah I mentioned that. Well, I just said "more difficult" but that's what I meant ;b

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Hi again Civ-GAF. I'm trying to learn about good vs. bad starts, so I started 5 games and took screenshots of my starting areas. Can you guys tell me which of these are good starts, which are bad, and why?

Start #1

Start #2

Start #3

Start #4

Start #5

If I were to guess, I think #3 might be the best? I see that I spawned right next to a mountain, and I'm on a hill and I'm next to a river. So that seems pretty good. But I'm sure there's a lot more to look for than that.

 

[Cromat]

Yeah #3 is very good. You're on a hill, next to a river and a mountain, with four luxuries of two different types in the area and the deer as well.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Think I'd take 5 over 3.

 

[CyclopsRock]

So, I'm playing a game of Civ BNW and I'm England. I'm doing that world type where you all start on "Eurasia". The weird thing is, I obviously have a bit of information here that the computer players don't seem to have; I know that I'll find "America" off to the East or West (doesn't matter which of course) and that it'll be ripe for plunder, with just a few City States and a shit load of incredibly weak Barbarians. Now, aside from this basically being a pretty good proxy for what really occured, I'm in a bad place. London and York are strong, but I quickly got boxed in, thus my dash for the new world. York, especially, is very strong, as the city has 4 Luxury Resources on four adjacent tiles (spice, citrus, whales and bananas) so I am currently combing the coast of "America", looking for a good spot. I was literally, using my inner monologue, thinking "Hmmm, I need to find a new York..."

 

[Crazy_maniac]

Just bought this one together with the gf. I was playing the tutorial level and it seemed very slow (more so than I thought it would be). I felt like I barely did anything per turn and that I had to go through so many turns (7 - 10) to accomplish anything.

Am I supposed to just go to war with everyone? Trying to be allies doesn't really accomplish much since it takes forever to get the gold to get them on my side and after 2 turns they're already neutral again.

It's also a little bit annoying that I couldn't save during the tutorial. I only got through three ages but I had to leave. Should I start over anyway or just start the actual campaign?

Any other overall hints are very welcome too!

 

[Rentahamster]

Just bought this one together with the gf. I was playing the tutorial level and it seemed very slow (more so than I thought it would be). I felt like I barely did anything per turn and that I had to go through so many turns (7 - 10) to accomplish anything.

Am I supposed to just go to war with everyone? Trying to be allies doesn't really accomplish much since it takes forever to get the gold to get them on my side and after 2 turns they're already neutral again.

It's also a little bit annoying that I couldn't save during the tutorial. I only got through three ages but I had to leave. Should I start over anyway or just start the actual campaign?

Any other overall hints are very welcome too!

If you got that far in the tutorial, then you might want to just jump into the regular game on easy difficulty. On easy, the other nations won't really attack you, so you have some breathing room to figure out the rest of the game mechanics.

If you don't know about something, check the in-game guide called the Civilopedia to see what stuff does. It's pretty detailed.

I'm not sure which expansion you have, so I can't really give specific advice, because the game changes depending on the expansion, but most of the fundamental aspects are the same.

If you like learning stuff about the game yourself, then I'd suggest you feel it through on your own for a bit first. If you're short on time, then you can check these guides out.

This video guide seems ok for Vanilla Civ5:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I__9ZlOUG4E

This guide seems good too, but it's tailored for people who have the first expansion pack: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121059162

This guide has good tips too: http://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1enm6r/civilization_5_ultimate_faq_and_guide/

 

[Geido]

Just bought this one together with the gf. I was playing the tutorial level and it seemed very slow (more so than I thought it would be). I felt like I barely did anything per turn and that I had to go through so many turns (7 - 10) to accomplish anything.

Am I supposed to just go to war with everyone? Trying to be allies doesn't really accomplish much since it takes forever to get the gold to get them on my side and after 2 turns they're already neutral again.

It's also a little bit annoying that I couldn't save during the tutorial. I only got through three ages but I had to leave. Should I start over anyway or just start the actual campaign?

Any other overall hints are very welcome too!

It is a slow game, and especially in the early game, there are turns were you're doing absolutely nothing. It picks up later though, especially after going to war or when you have a sprawling empire with lots of management to do.

And you should just start a normal game on settler. Experiment a bit.

Some basic tips:

Pick a victory condition at the start of the game and work towards that. For instance, if you want to do a Space victory, focus on science. So prioritize technologies that grant science bonuses, pick the rationalism tree, set up some high production cities, etc. You can let this depend on your civ as well. The Zulu are perfect for a domination victory, but Culture doesn't come as easy for them.

Science is always important. Whatever you're doing, never let yourself fall too far behind.

For your first couple of build orders try: Scout, monument, shrine, settler, library. With the techpath: Pottery, writing. That will set you up quite nicely for any sort of victory. Further early techs should be based on resources nearby, Choose Liberty or Tradition if you want a lot of smaller cities, or 4 big cities (respectively). Oh and steal a worker from a city state (declare peace right after).

And you should probably read the entire civilopedia. Even though you won't (and I won't blame you, it's huge).

 

[Crazy_maniac]

Thanks for the tips! I got the complete edition so that includes all the expansions as far as I know. I had already started a new game before I saw these hints so I've just been experimenting a bit more. Putting points in liberty and honor so I can expand quicker and be more efficient in combat. Trying to bring down a city is still a bit too optimistic, going in with 2 catapults and a bunch of archers won't do the trick. Luckily I made a quick save before attacking.

I don't really understand how certain cities can get to the classic era so much quicker than me, as they haven't really expanded as much as I did. So in my next play through I'll try out this order of building you suggested.

I feel like I have to try to play slower but it's hard not to get tempted when you have these small (seemingly) undefended cities just sitting there nearby.

 

[Rentahamster]

I don't really understand how certain cities can get to the classic era so much quicker than me, as they haven't really expanded as much as I did. So in my next play through I'll try out this order of building you suggested.

Advancing in tech depends on how much science you generate. In the early game it's mostly dependent on your population. Later on, you'll get buildings that boost science, as well as the ability to assign citizens to science slots, which boost science too.

I think that beginners to the game might have an easier time starting out with a "tall" strategy. In Civ 5, there are two general ways of playing, "tall", and "wide". "Tall" means that you have very few cities (sometimes only one city), but those cities have huge populations and are really strong. "Wide" means that you have more cities, but each individual city is less effective. You can achieve a wide strategy by either expanding a lot yourself, or through conquest, or both.

It's not necessarily the case that expanding = faster advancement, since there are drawbacks to having lots of cities. It takes a bit more familiarity to be able to effectively manage all those cities, so that's why I'd recommend a "tall" strategy with the "Tradition" policy to start out with.

Also, since you are still playing on easier difficulty levels, you might want to try the "Great Library Rush". That would be to build the Great Library wonder as fast as you can, and then use the free technology bonus on something expensive.

 

[zero shift]

I finally decided to upgrade to this during the last sale. After playing this, do yu guys think that the complaints against Civ 5 are unwarranted now? When I started back in vanilla fans hated this game.

There have been a lot of good upgrades since. For example the A.I. is reasonable now.