Civilization V- Might actually be good now. Stay tuned.

[eldaec]

Are they really charging 30 bucks for Gods and Kings? I like Civ 5, and would pay for DLC that would make it better but 30 bucks?!

Can you not get the gold upgrade - for me it seems to be £10/$15 for G&K and everything else ever.

[Teleku]

Let us know how you fare, good or bad.  I split time playing this and Civ IV.  IV when I want 'crunch' and V when I want an 'elegant board game' feel.  I've been playing Civ games since II and I do like now how V handles growth with the Happiness value.  Keep your empire happy and it generates a Golden Age which is, if I'm not mistaken, a 20% growth/production increase.  I also like how no wonders go obsolete.  Stonehenge (+4 Faith) took a bit of a nerf, but it is effective the entire game for instance. 

Not a big fan of Spying, but it's useful for Diplomacy wins (which are the hardest wins for me).  Religion is really well integrated but it tails off after the Renaissance (historical?).

Culture wins are a bit boring but are getting addressed in the xpac hopefully.  That's the first kind of win I'll be going for first.

I've had fun doing some single city culture win games, on high difficulty.  Name of the game there is to become allies with just about every single city state you can, which has become easier with the changes they made.  Was pretty exciting coming down to the wire of tring to get enough culture before the others got science wins, while fighting off giant armies with my mega city one.

[Tannhauser]

OK thanks, I may try that myself.  I was worried a one city game would be boring, especially for a culture win. 

[Shannow]

Are they really charging 30 bucks for Gods and Kings? I like Civ 5, and would pay for DLC that would make it better but 30 bucks?!

Can you not get the gold upgrade - for me it seems to be £10/$15 for G&K and everything else ever.

ahh yes a more reasonable 20 dollars on Steam..

[Teleku]

OK thanks, I may try that myself.  I was worried a one city game would be boring, especially for a culture win.  

Might be boring for some, but I enjoy it quite a bit.  In some games you're left relativly alone.  Other games you're surrounded by civs that auto declare war on you ever 10 turns because you're so much smaller/weaker than them, and you have to deal with waves of higher tech military units coming your way.  I managed to score a number of generals and built a veritable maginot line of citidels connected by forts all along the hills of my northern border to fight off endless tank attacks with my riflemen and cannons.  Good times.  

I was only ever able to win with the Egyptians, however.  Building as many wonders as you possibly can is vital to winning.

[Cheddar]

Interface feels awkward.  The graphics are vastly underwhelming.

I am enjoying the gameplay, sorta (though seems hard to track all the other civs military), but not sure if I am in for long haul.  Kind of feel like I wasted 50 bucks on a beta game designed for a tablet.  I really enjoy the religion aspect and how you can tailor it to your civ!

[Teleku]

Eh, give it time.  I really hated it when it first came out, after having played previous civ games so long.  But after trying several games, and then especially after the Gods/Kings expansion, it really grew on me.  You might still hate it in the end, but its really a game that benefits from additional play through's rather than first impressions.

[Cheddar]

I am done for now.  Too crowded, graphics give me a headache, and really felt like a crappy tablet application. 

There were some brilliant things (combat, religion, tons of great wonders) but they are overshadowed by the negatives.  This is the first Civilization launch where I did not feel like it took a step forward.

[Maledict]

How odd - I love the graphics in Civ 5 and its easily the 'cleanest' UI and visual implementation of a civ game to date. Different sorts I guess.

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, I really liked the feel.  That said, this was on PC and not a tablet.  I have no idea how it'd play there.

[Sky]

I loved the new interface and graphics as well. Shame it doesn't have FFH3 :p

[Merusk]

Yet another thing to blame Brad Wardell for.

[Shannow]

Gods and kings rocks.     Must play one more turn....

[Cheddar]

Gave it one more shot. Turning anti alias off made a huuuuge difference. Having more fun this go around, though not 50 bucks worth.

[naum]

It took a couple of years and an expansion to get to a state of a decent game.

Still, a lot of annoyances for me and then there is the simplified tech tree choices.

But I like the hexes and more modern art.

[Sky]

It took a couple of years and an expansion to get to a state of a decent game.

So, it's a Civ game.

I won't beat the drum (for now!) about you-know-what, but if it weren't for that mod I probably wouldn't have bought Civ V. Civ IV was pretty much dead to me, the gameplay is just so bland in vanilla. It is pretty, though. Lacking a stellar mod for Civ V, I don't see buying Civ VI until it's on sale. And has the expansion that fixes it.

[eldaec]

Got round to playing this properly for the first time last night. Then it was 6am and oh shit I feel like crap now.

[Bzalthek]

Got round to playing this properly for the first time last night. Then it was 6am and oh shit I feel like crap now.

Fucking ditto.  I sat down after dinner last night for a couple hours of fun and it turns into 8.  I overslept because my alarm could no longer be trusted as it started to divide itself.

[Typhon]

It took a couple of years and an expansion to get to a state of a decent game.

So, it's a Civ game.

I won't beat the drum (for now!) about you-know-what, but if it weren't for that mod I probably wouldn't have bought Civ V. Civ IV was pretty much dead to me, the gameplay is just so bland in vanilla. It is pretty, though. Lacking a stellar mod for Civ V, I don't see buying Civ VI until it's on sale. And has the expansion that fixes it.

Once they put in religion i was hoping for FF3, but Kael is the man in charge (or development) now at Stardock so that seems unlikely.  A pity, it's a great engine for FFH3.

[Merusk]

Someone else should pick it up and do a mod themselves.  Just for the irony of being sued for IP infringement of an IP that infringed all over the damn place.

[MrHat]

Got round to playing this properly for the first time last night. Then it was 6am and oh shit I feel like crap now.

Fucking ditto.  I sat down after dinner last night for a couple hours of fun and it turns into 8.  I overslept because my alarm could no longer be trusted as it started to divide itself.

I saw you guys playing and decided to play myself. 

[Tannhauser]

Quick Quiz!

1.  What's your favorite civ right now and why?

2.  What civ have you tried and just can't seem to do well with?

3.  What is the easiest victory condition for you?  The hardest?

4.  How important are city-states to your play style?  Valuable allies?  Ignored?  Ground underfoot on your path to victory?

My answers:
1.  Babylon.  Extra Great Scientist and a great science victory civ.  Also has buffed walls and a very good early archer unit.
2.  Byzantium.  Tried it twice now and I just seem to fritter away.  Special ships and extra religion don't seem that powerful.
3.  Science.  For some reason I always push science research.  Hardest is Diplomacy.  You really have to cater to city-states and spies are constantly flipping my allies CS's.
4.  City-states are medium to me.  I love their bonuses but only usually ally with one or two. 

[Ingmar]

1. Arabia is really really strong. Extra money is so good. I'm not going to say they're universally the best but you can play a lot of different win conditions with them, a lot of Civs are narrower in focus.
2. Spain isn't bad, exactly, but a lot of the time because their UA requires natural wonders you're essentially handicapping yourself by playing a civ with no UA. The luck factor in whether or not you get an early natural wonder makes me disinclined to play them much.
3. I usually have to deliberately try not to win diplomatically when I'm going for one of the others.
4. Depending on the victory condition I'm going for, they're either important, very important or crucial. Very, very rarely do I ever ignore them.

[Kail]

1. I really like Inca, they're pretty good for turtling in hilly areas, which is pretty much my preferred start.
2. I have so much trouble playing as Aztecs.  I always keep trying, for some reason, but the super early zerg rush gameplay is just not something I can pull off.
3. Easiest is probably Cultural, because I like to turtle and keep to myself, and Cultural works really well with a few cities in this game.  Hardest is probably Science, since it's so late game when I'm in a position to get it I'm generally militarily ahead too, and it's tempting to just go for a military victory at that point.
4. I generally ignore them, if I can, at least early game.  Late game I might smash them if they get pulled into a war with me, or befriend them if there's something I need, but I generally prefer to ignore them if I can.

I'm pretty bad at this game, though. Generally I play really passively, just expanding for the early game, fortifying and building my cities in mid game, and trying to keep peace with my neighbors as much as I can while working towards a cultural or scientific victory.  I dunno, I just don't like to warlord it up, I keep trying to be the nice guy, even against the AI.    Generally they start war deccing me, though, and then I'm perfectly within my rights to raze their cities and salt the earth.

[naum]

I don't think I've played a game to completion yet.

Have started so many, some abandoned after just a few turns, most others in mid-game… …enjoy random starts with random civs in random maps.

[WayAbvPar]

I hate city-states so much. Way too much spam, way too much relationship management, just a giant pain in the ass all the way around. I generally turn them completely off and then don't play as the civs with CS bonuses.

I am the same way with starts- they early exploration and setup is the fun part of the game for me. The late stage management of a sprawling empire is tedious. Tedious x100 if I am at war.

[Shannow]

I'm like Naum I haven't ever actually completed a game. This was due to the game grinding to a halt in the late game on my old pc. I'm hoping it will be better with the new one. Also plying with gods and kings.

I don't know if its because I'm playing the Greeks or its g&k I am loving city states (I really couldn't care for them before).  What's that Arabia? You want to declare war on me? Ok you get to fight me and my five friends..muah.

[Bzalthek]

Just did a 3 city culture victory.  I think this is the first time I actually played the game with an intention to beat it one way and followed through.  Much faster than science win too, which is cool.

[Flinky]

1. Russia. I loves me some high production cities. Double uranium is also 

2. Like Tannhauser, Byzantium. I've tried several times to get a game with Theodora off the ground as I find that extra floating slot for religion really attractive. Unfortunately I'm often hampered at the attempt to fast-track faith and her unique units are early and lackluster.
Special mention goes to William of Orange as I have yet to get a game going with more than a single tile of marsh/flood plains in my remote vicinity. I want my empire to look pretty, damn it!

3. Science. I always try to be on the cutting edge for Tech advancement but I tend to play defensively and dislike wars. Messy things. Have yet to achieve a Diplomatic Victory though I've also yet to actually try specifically for one.

4. I do not like City States, Sam-I-Am. I do not like playing against Siam. I will occasionally flirt with a cultural city state, otherwise I tend to ignore them. This is not possible with either Siam or Austria in the game. Consequently, they have earned my pet hatred.

[Teleku]

Just did a 3 city culture victory.  I think this is the first time I actually played the game with an intention to beat it one way and followed through.  Much faster than science win too, which is cool.

What civ did you use?  I've managed some 1 city culture wins, but want to try a 3 city route at the highest difficulty (tried a single city game at highest, got raped by angry aggressive AI).

I hate city-states so much. Way too much spam, way too much relationship management, just a giant pain in the ass all the way around. I generally turn them completely off and then don't play as the civs with CS bonuses.

I am the same way with starts- they early exploration and setup is the fun part of the game for me. The late stage management of a sprawling empire is tedious. Tedious x100 if I am at war.

Have you been playing since G&K?  You can pretty much ignore them (you only have to look at the spam if you click on the little icon in the bottom left) and still find yourself allied with a bunch of them.  They all give out cultural/science/exploration quests now, where they say who ever generates the most of a given stat in the next 20 turns will get a massive rep boost with them.  Same for simply adding certain goods to your trade routes, or if your religion spreads over to them.  I use to do what you did, turning them all off when I played.  Then I played my first game of G&K going for a single city cultural victory with heavy religious spreading.  2/3rds of the way into the game, I had been doing my usual thing of absolutely ignoring all city states.  Then I looked at the menu and noticed somehow I was fully allied with about 75% of them, and they were feeding me a shit ton of extra science, culture, and money.

Edit:  Err, I meant I tried a single city game at highest difficulty, but got raped.

[Maledict]

Re the Aztecs - oddly they aren't actually a rush civ. Their unique unit is so early on its best to build a lot then use them to hunt barbarians for culture rather than try to kill AIs and then upgrade them through the ages.

The Aztecs are actually an unbelieveably 'tall' cultural civ. Their unique building is one of the most powerful in the game, and allows you to grow cities of immense size very rapidly, and their unique ability encourages a massive puppet empire push to generate culture. The AI plays them in the traditional Aztec warmonger way, but the entire civ is actually set up for a long term cultural win. Very different to how they are presented and normally play in Civ games.

[Flinky]

Just did a 3 city culture victory.  I think this is the first time I actually played the game with an intention to beat it one way and followed through.  Much faster than science win too, which is cool.

What civ did you use?  I've managed some 1 city culture wins, but want to try a 3 city route at the highest difficulty (tried a single city game at lowest, got raped by angry aggressive AI).

I've done a 3 city culture victory with Songhai, admittedly on Prince. Mud Pyramid Mosques are the bees knees and I cannot overstate the joy felt when sacking Egyptian cities.

[eldaec]

Seen so much civ 5 being played this week. Almost as much forum inspired gaming as when someone mentions Deus Ex.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, my whole friends list has been lighting up with it. I'm trying to hold off so I don't burn myself out pre-expansion, personally.

[Bzalthek]

I'm gearing up for a Diplo victory in a little bit myself!