Civilization Thread!

[Sousa]

I'm playing the Inca again, and they are much better than I thought they were. Roll for mountainous starts and Terrace Farms are ridiculous.

[Sousa]

For you, Empress Wu.

[stokeriño]

That's the song we walked out of our wedding ceremony to (some big joke of Stokerina's about how long it took me to propose )...

A big thumbs up for the Paper Makers, I take it?

[Sousa]

Paper Makers are very, very nice--probably the best UB in the game. Chukonus are amazing as well, even if I don't like the units they upgrade into. My kingdom for a chukonu that upgrades into Artillery!

EDIT: The simple joy of the China game was this. I was playing Small-sized (my computer chugs if it's any bigger) Pangaea and was on a map with (in order of conquest) Nebuchadnezzar, Nobunaga, Catherine, Ramkhamkhaeng, and Harald. On the turn that the war with Catherine started, she offered a proposal at World Congress to ban Porcelain (because this is just the sort of thing one would ban I guess).

The proposal didn't even come up for a vote when I took the Danish capital and won the game. I didn't even get the notice of the upcoming session before I won.

China is so good you guys.

[TKz]

Man, I take it you play tall rather than wide if you always play small? I have a hard time expanding on Large maps for wide, let alone on a small.

[stokeriño]

Even on small maps playing wide can be a bitch. Honestly, just because you're The Huns and can take out two Civs - lol Russia and England - before you've exited the Classical Era, doesn't mean you should be punished with minus eleventy gold and super unhappiness (even after the obligatory rage from the citizens of their vanquished and unrazable capitals has died down). That's just unfair.

On Prince difficulty, that is. On Warlord it's a piece of piss.

[stokeriño]

P.S.

EDIT: The simple joy of the China game was this. I was playing Small-sized (my computer chugs if it's any bigger) Pangaea and was on a map with (in order of conquest) Nebuchadnezzar, Nobunaga, Catherine, Ramkhamkhaeng, and Harald. On the turn that the war with Catherine started, she offered a proposal at World Congress to ban Porcelain (because this is just the sort of thing one would ban I guess).

"Ewww...porcelain."

[Sousa]

Man, I take it you play tall rather than wide if you always play small? I have a hard time expanding on Large maps for wide, let alone on a small.

I actually got six cities without much competition. I went Tradition (which I always do if there's not a crunch), settled the first three, got the National College, and then backfilled. Nabbed a ton of resources and planted a city right in Babylon's face--with a free Monument to boot.

It is possible to go wide on a small map, though; I got a ton of cities as the Iroquois running Liberty just because I was able to rush Settlers pretty quickly.

[TKz]

I'm so used to tall at this point that wide just feels so slow. If I end up taking cities from someone I'll either raze or puppet because I just can't deal with how slow the production side ends up being - the new cities all feel so pointless. I usually try and speed it up with production based trade routes, but then it comes down to extra money or being able to build that library a little quicker.

It's become a bit of a problem for me because it means I rarely play as domination based Civs, because generally the better ones require wide and I just love tall way more.

Unless you're Rome. That added production for having a building built in your capital can stack up something fierce.

[Benji]

The amount of punishment you get for going wide is insane, the game is incredibly unbalanced for it. Still more fun than diplomatic victory though,

[Sousa]

My plan with war is always to enter the Industrial Era with Industrialization, get three Factories up as quickly as possible, and then go Order. Socialist Realism (+2 for every Monument) is just so goddamn good that I want it as soon as possible. If you get to Order first and go Socialist Realism and Young Pioneers (+1 for Workshop, Factory, and various Plants), then you're out of the hole as far as happiness goes for much of the game. Wide wants Order in a big way, which is why I do most of my heavy warring after I get it barring a good unique unit (Keshiks, Camel Archers, Chu-Ko-Nus, Ships of the Line) pointing me towards earlier war.

The game suggests Autocracy for going aggressive, but I just never have that big a problem fielding and affording an army that's big enough for my needs--and, really, you don't need a huge army to war in Civ V, just a well-managed one with plenty of ranged and siege units.

But yeah, pre-Order, going wide is very hard. I try to settle land strategically at choke points, cut people off (I blocked off the Shoshone in my Iroquois game with three carefully placed cities and some Warriors filling in the gaps), and get National Wonders before settling the rest of the land. Circus Maximus is a must. If you can get Notre Dame, get Notre Dame. Then, once happiness is more stable, fill in the gaps (with roads already built for the free from city connections with Liberty). It's definitely doable, but it requires a lot more micromanagement to get a lot out of it.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've only managed to have really bad starts both times I've played China and have wound up getting obliterated early in the game. I know China's awesome, but man it's no use when barbarians are on my front step right away and I started in a desert.

[Sousa]

Oh man I love desert starts. Desert Folklore + Petra = desert starts are ridiculous.

Dealing with barbs is definitely the hardest part of the early game, though. I've found myself buying Warriors more times than I care to admit just to keep them at bay.

[stokeriño]

I know China's awesome, but man it's no use when barbarians are on my front step right away and I started in a desert.

If only there were a really famous solution to this problem...

[Sousa]

Does the Great Wall stop barbs in Civ V?

I went for all the distinctly Chinese wonders in my game but didn't get the Terracotta Army (I never seem to).

This also feels as good a time as any to mention that the Shoshone built the Terracotta Army in the Iroquois game... when they had an army made up entirely of Pathfinders. So Pocatello was basically crawling with Pathfinders the whole game because for some reason he never got around to upgrading them. It was awesome.

[stokeriño]

Does the Great Wall stop barbs in Civ V?

Sadly no. And yet I made fun, all the same.

[Sousa]

YOUR ADVICE WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD

[stokeriño]

My advice was based on real life!

(Where, in fairness, the wall did fuck all good either. )

[gunnar hendershow]

If the mountains weren't going to do the trick then why even bother with a wall?

What I ask myself every time I think about the Great Wall.

[Sousa]

Since I love war so much, the reasons why I build the Great Wall are pretty obvious--i.e., so nobody else can.