Civilization Thread!

[TKz]

Terracotta Army can be so OP it's crazy. I like to go for it even in my non-domination games because it can work as a great deterrent for war. Everyone leaves me alone when suddenly my army is double the size, which means I get to build all of the wonders whilst I pay for everyone to go to war with one another.

That's part of why Venice can be so easy. When you've got that much money, it's easy to keep everyone at war with cash and keep them too occupied to compete with my culture or science gains.

[Sousa]

It's okay, but the problem is that it's in the same period as a whole mess of wonders that I like better (Hanging Gardens or Pyramids, Oracle, Stonehenge, Petra is nearby, Statue of Zeus, Colossus, etc.). And at the time it appears, the units you're capable of fielding just aren't that great except for Composite Bowmen. I can see it being pretty good if you want to duplicate a whole mess of them, but I just don't care to war at that point. A few compies and some horses are all you really need for defense at that point anyway.

[Sousa]

Ugh, Denmark. Soren has got to be pissed about this.

[RoHitman Reigns]

Well I just picked up BNW last night so shall be interesting seeing how this goes for me.

[Plubby]

So I took a barbarian camp one turn too late, they'd spawned a new warrior and my guy had very little HP left. They spawned across a river, and between turns charged my unit that had one troop left on-screen. That one troop took down 62 HP worth of barbarian before dying. It was epic, he was just swatting down like six of eight guys in the on-screen battle. It was very Boromir-esque.

[TKz]

So I took a barbarian camp one turn too late, they'd spawned a new warrior and my guy had very little HP left. They spawned across a river, and between turns charged my unit that had one troop left on-screen. That one troop took down 62 HP worth of barbarian before dying. It was epic, he was just swatting down like six of eight guys in the on-screen battle. It was very Boromir-esque.

I bet he would've followed you to the end. His brother. His Captain. His King.

[TKz]

A lot of changes coming in the new patch:

http://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1nigxa/fall_patch_beta_notes/

Sounds like Germany might be worth a damn soon!

[stokeriño]

Tweaks to social policies sound interesting. Might make the Commerce route a bit more appealing for one.

Science victory made a little tougher with spaceship production. Okay.

Diplomatic victory made more difficult. Thank fuck (stupid AI always trying to sneak it in).

Great Works of Writing now available from antiquity sites, rather than just artifacts (aka art), which you can either store or use as culture bombs like the usual ones. THANK. FUCK. Might actually make the damn things useful at last.

Now there are 4 different levels of concern displayed by the AI about the player's warmongering. Added a tooltip to the city banner for each city owned by a civ you are at war with that shows the warmonger penalty and/or liberation bonus.

Interesting. Might make it a little more scientific than my usual approach of "well they're all going to hate me whatever I do, so what the hell".

[Sousa]

Samurai can build fishing boats.

Laughed out loud at this.

Seriously glad to see Germany and Japan get some help, but Denmark and the Iroquois really need something as well. The Zero's problem, though--at least as I see it (haven't played Japan yet)--is that the AI doesn't really use Fighter-type planes properly, so just making it available without oil isn't a huge bonus.

Plane stacking should've been in the base game, to be honest. Great War Bombers are ridiculous and basically assure that you win the game if you get them quickly.

I'll probably play Japan after I win with Denmark just to see how they do, but Bushido is now a lot better than the fairly useless ability it was before.

Might make it a little more scientific than my usual approach of "well they're all going to hate me whatever I do, so what the hell".

Yeah, I am outright dick when it comes to war. In the Denmark game I moved my Musketmen-né-Berzerkers right next to Berlin and Bismarck was all "YOU'D BETTER NOT BE THINKING OF DECLARING WAR HARALD" and I was like "no of course not" and then he was all "okay good" and my turn started and I was like "LOL JK EAT GUNTOTING VIKING FURY" and he was like "NOT COOL HARALD NOT COOL" and Ahmad and Gajah and Catherine were all "DICK MOVE HARALD" and Sejong was like "YEAH TOTALLY" even though he hadn't met me yet.

[METALMAN]

Yeah, I am outright dick when it comes to war. In the Denmark game I moved my Musketmen-né-Berzerkers right next to Berlin and Bismarck was all "YOU'D BETTER NOT BE THINKING OF DECLARING WAR HARALD" and I was like "no of course not" and then he was all "okay good" and my turn started and I was like "LOL JK EAT GUNTOTING VIKING FURY" and he was like "NOT COOL HARALD NOT COOL" and Ahmad and Gajah and Catherine were all "DICK MOVE HARALD" and Sejong was like "YEAH TOTALLY" even though he hadn't met me yet.

It just occurred to me that it would be absolutely fantastic to see a diary written in this manner.

[Sousa]

It just occurred to me that it would be absolutely fantastic to see a diary written in this manner.

I am actually planning a Civ V edition of U GON DIE! if I can figure out how to fiddle with TGA files. For some reason my computer doesn't want to.

[Plubby]

...So I moved two units into Kamehameha's territory to remove his city from fog-of-war (had open borders) then warred him. Because the open borders ended, the units were turfed out of his lands and now I can't fire...despite that because of the war they should still have been able to be in his territory. This is shit, now my siege engines are exposed.

[Lint]

It just occurred to me that it would be absolutely fantastic to see a diary written in this manner.

I am actually planning a Civ V edition of U GON DIE! if I can figure out how to fiddle with TGA files. For some reason my computer doesn't want to.

You should finish the hockey story first

[Sousa]

I will! Promise.

[stokeriño]

So Egypt is fun if you take their inherent Wonder-building bonus, add the Ancient Wonder-building bonus you get in one of the Tradition social policies, and then again add the third similar bonus that's available when you get your first religious pantheon...

Thebes is just Wonder Central at this stage. I'm hoping that I will be spewing out Great People (and also amassing culture for more fancy social policies) at such a rate in the mid-game that I can blast my way through to a nifty Industrial war before Korea and Brazil have chance to blink.

There was an amusing moment though when I had barely any military (like, one Pikemen and one Composite Bowman), due in part to all this Wonder-building, and I could see the Mongols getting antsy over this lucrative prize on their doorstep. I did nothing about it except make sure I had the appropriate buildings in place for production and troop-building...and of course he did just go WAR and swarm a dozen Catapaults and Warriors (yes, lol, Warriors. I mean seriously.) over my borders.

(At this point I really, really want to post a video clip of "WAAARRRIOOORS...COME OUT TO PLAAAAY", but am at work so I can't. )

Anyway, once they did this I could just churn a handful of Longswordmen and Knights in a couple of turns and absolutely dick upon them. I never even left my own territory but they still gave me a city in a peace deal, what with their military having been decimated and all that. I don't think I've ever seen the Mongols fail so spectacularly at war before.

[Sousa]

I should give Egypt another go. I tried them with Liberty and wasn't super-impressed with the wonder bonus, but that's when I was a newbie and was picking Liberty every time. Tradition is a much better fit (Tradition usually is the best to start with anyway), particularly with the way Civ V stacks percentages differently from Civ IV (something I wasn't used to at first).

[Sousa]

All right, the seven civs I've never given a proper go:

1. Austria

2. Aztecs

3. Huns

4. Fishing SamuraiJapan

5. Ottomans

6. Persia

7. Sweden

Somebody pick my next one!

[gunnar hendershow]

JAPAN!

Oda Nobunaga is really cool to study in a history class and I'm biased because I studied a lot of Japanese history in college. That is my reasoning.

I also did have an epic game as them.

[Sousa]

Except Japan, I'm waiting for the patch to do Japan.

[gunnar hendershow]

Okay fair enough.

Do the Huns then.