Civilization Thread!

[Sousa]

Oh I was gonna say, 186 beakers and still researching Metallurgy in 1720 AD? BE BETTER THAN THAT, GUY PLAYING THAT GAME

[Mick]

Now this is scary (if you catch the reference )

[Sousa]

I just gave America another try (patch gives them Golden Age points for Minuteman kills). Still not great, but definitely better, especially now that I've learned that Minutemen keep their bonuses as they get upgraded, which basically makes them super-mobile early Pracinhas. Still not top-tier, but out of the bottom, I think.

Then again, my capital ended up five tiles away from Mt. Kilimanjaro, which turns Minutemen into RIDICULOUS HILL-RUNNING MADMEN and makes them lap even the Inca running uphill, so maybe it was just a lucky roll.

[Mick]

I've been toying around with a few mods for the game. So far, here's what I've been using:

Civ IV Diplomacy: I can finally trade more shit with the AI and get Vassals!

Perfect World: This creates a map based on climate and environmental factors. It reminds me of how maps were generated in Alpha Centauri, and gives the game a much more real flavor.

Some funky religion mod: All this does is adds an assload of religions into the game, as seen in my screenshot above. It's just a personal touch, but it's nice.

Some mod that shows you city limits for settlers: Gives you an idea of what you'll have access to.

Infographics: I finally get to see everyone's opinion of everyone. Hey, I like to scheme like crazy, and this helps me do it. Oh no, someone's pulling ahead? HEY SHAKA, HOW DOES ALL THIS CRAP SOUND TO DECLARE WAR?!

[Plubby]

Those last two sound like cheating

[Pizza]

The last one maybe. Depends on what the info is. It'd be nice to see who's willing to pay the most for my luxuries without checking every single opponent. Streamlining stuff like that is cool, giving information you aren't supposed to have not so much.

[Mick]

Here they are:

City Limits (settler thing) and Info Addict

Oh yeah, I forgot these two:

Civ Names By Policies, which changes civilziations names based on their policies, as well as the title of the leader . For example, if Gandhi goes Order, he won't be "Lord Gandhi" or "Gandhi the Pious" etc, but rather "General-Secretary Gandhi" or "Chairman Gandhi".

And finally, one that pretty much is cheating, Strategic Resource Buildings. You can't run away with resources with it, though, since you're limited to how much you can build and each building only produces about 3 of a resource.

[KevinStorm]

Civ IV Diplomacy: I can finally trade more shit with the AI and get Vassals!

Perfect World: This creates a map based on climate and environmental factors. It reminds me of how maps were generated in Alpha Centauri, and gives the game a much more real flavor.

Do these work with BNW?

[Mick]

Civ IV Diplomacy: I can finally trade more shit with the AI and get Vassals!

Perfect World: This creates a map based on climate and environmental factors. It reminds me of how maps were generated in Alpha Centauri, and gives the game a much more real flavor.

Do these work with BNW?

Yep.

[Benji]

Do mods still affect achievements?

[Mick]

Some do, some don't. On some of them, saving before you do something that should effect an achievement, disabling the mod and reloading can work. For others, I'm not quite sure how it would interact.

[TKz]

Yeah, you can use stuff like the IGE or different maps, then reload as a single player game. That'll let you get achievements still.

Basically, if it changes something fundamental to the game, you can't get achievements. But if the game could in theory be like that in a regular single player game, it should be okay. That's why it's mostly map modification stuff.

[Mick]

Diplomatic Victory as Rome in 1946.

I decided that for a change of pace I would go wide, and I ended up with about 10 cities, not including ones I conquered. I was more or less minding my own business all game, hoping to win via space, but then....

Askia sent in a Great Prophet. I asked him to stop, he said no. Then the Gatling Guns opened fire. He sued for peace after he saw four Frigates and two Ironclads off the coast of Gao, and he promptly gave me a coastal city in the peace settlement. The ships were upgraded, and I bought the mercenaries, upgrading them to the helicopters, and after the treaty expired I proceed to just wipe the floor with him. Thanks to a mod, he's left with one city and offers to become my vassal.

The second that happens, enter Alexander the Nominal Guy In Charge, making a daring assault with...pikemen. They didn't last too long as I cut a swath through the Greeks (he was going wide as well, except...not as well), and once again, another vassal.

Then the game ended .

Still, it was pretty fun. Not sure who I want to go as next. I think I'm done doing Culture victories, the only way I can see a challenge coming from it is if Brazil part of the game, and has some sort of parity. Other than that, it's no contest. Of course, figuring out other cheap tricks (like closed borders) makes it even easier.

[edcq]

I wish they would release a console version of this game. I loved Revolution.

[Mick]

1915 Domination Victory....

As AUSTRIA!

Yeah, I wasn't quite expecting that one myself . While it seems cool in theory, it's really not that great. The Coffee House is okay, but I wasn't pumping out great people like I thought I would.

Anyway, My first neighbor was Monty. I knew damn well how that was going to work out, so I build a city in front of a land bridge, and sure enough, he declares war, only for me to old the line, and he makes peace.

Soon I encounter Dido and Neb, with the final leader being Hiawatha. Hiawatha was a dick, spreading his religion when he said he wouldn't. So....I went to war. He was the first one to lose his capital. This was followed by campaigns against Monty (that fucker stole my land with a General first, and had the nerve to get pissed when I stole it back!), Neb, and Dido, who I betrayed to secure victory. I was hoping to go for a peaceful game, but Hiawatha fucked it up for everyone. Diplomatic Marriage has it's uses; in this game, Vienna was just in a horrible spot for generating trade routes, so a purchased city-state on a central island (ironically enough, it was Hong Kong) served that purpose pretty well. I really wish Austria worked out better, but I suppose there's worse civs to play as.

[Benji]

How the heck are you getting through games so fast?

[Mick]

How the heck are you getting through games so fast?

I'm playing on standard speed.... :\

[Benji]

How many Civs?

[Mick]

Five, standard size map, continents plus (most of the time). I've been doing this so I can start practicing strategies and what not for going wide. I've got tall down pat, but wide adds a bit of variety. I intended to play Austria tall, but ended up wide thanks to conquest and buying a couple city states. The weird thing was I didn't take any liberty policies.

[Benji]

Huh, maybe five makes the difference then, I suppose that would make the difference in time it takes to take more caps. I just standard everything, so 8 Civs (including myself), standard map size, and map type depending on my Civ, and less Civs means less time between turns.