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

[MrHat]

Tried for a tri city cultural win.

Do not play for cultural win vs. Alexander and Ramses.  No city states and no wonders available.

[Tannhauser]

I'm trying to win with only one city so does anyone know if puppet cities screw that up?  Hiawatha got frisky and I had to punish him.

[Ingmar]

I'm like, 75% certain they do yes.

[Bzalthek]

Pangea with city states is annoying.  Will have to retry diplo victory again.  On the other hand, I was looking through the "achievements" on Steam and saw one for "constructing every wonder" and I went hmmmmm.

[Teleku]

I'm trying to win with only one city so does anyone know if puppet cities screw that up?  Hiawatha got frisky and I had to punish him.

I'm fairly sure they do as well, though not 100%.  I just burn all their fucking cities to the ground in wars when going for a cultural victory (IRONY).

Pangea with city states is annoying.  Will have to retry diplo victory again.  On the other hand, I was looking through the "achievements" on Steam and saw one for "constructing every wonder" and I went hmmmmm.

How so?  I usually only play Pangea, and have been taking a very city state centric approach since the expansion.  Its fun when going for cultural victories and you manage to get a bunch as allies.  Some vast empire can declare war on you, but suddenly they spend the next 100 turns trying to siege hard as hell to crack advanced city states ringing their borders.

[Bzalthek]

They're constantly in the way, hogging up all the resources.  I mean, I could rape and pillage them, but I was feeling non hostile.  Course I play random settings, so it's possible shit happens sometimes, but every time I turned around I was bumping into another.  There was something like 15 at last count.

Edit: So I retried the Pangea thing, and went city crazy for my Diplo victory.  I got it but fuck, I didn't realize the U.N was all the way down that tech tree.  Think next I'll try for all wonders!

[Shannow]

Pretty sure I'd kill myself out of boredom if I did single city.

I literally wiped out a 5 city Dutch empire last night because I was bored...got denounced by every other single empire on the planet but they're all too scared to DoW me. bitches.

Think I'll invade Polynesia, I hear it's nice this time of year.

[Merusk]

They only 'hog up resources' if you feel playing the Diplomatic game isn't a part of civs.  The people I've seen bitch about them the most were the hyper-aggressive combat folks.  I've always been of the culture/ science/ keep off my lawn approach to the point I nearly turtle. (Most civs I can recall taking out in a game is 3, all the way back in Civs2) 

They assist me greatly and I don't mind having them around as it means fewer spots to have to micromanage and worry about happiness. Toss some gold or do their diplomatic requests to keep them allied, get resources and food/ science/ culture (and religion now) in return. Win-win.

I'm trying a single city w/ Siam. Holy crap is it boring. So many "next turn" turns and so little gold compared to what I'm used to having.  My city's 27 but my bankroll is only 150 gold and 30/ turn.

[Cheddar]

Ok, glad I gave this another shot.  Playing king difficulty with random civ.  Havent won yet, but thats ok. I love how there is no one trick pony and every game feels different.

Religions and civic system keeps replay fresh.

[Bzalthek]

They only 'hog up resources' if you feel playing the Diplomatic game isn't a part of civs.  The people I've seen bitch about them the most were the hyper-aggressive combat folks.  I've always been of the culture/ science/ keep off my lawn approach to the point I nearly turtle. (Most civs I can recall taking out in a game is 3, all the way back in Civs2) 

They assist me greatly and I don't mind having them around as it means fewer spots to have to micromanage and worry about happiness. Toss some gold or do their diplomatic requests to keep them allied, get resources and food/ science/ culture (and religion now) in return. Win-win.

I'm trying a single city w/ Siam. Holy crap is it boring. So many "next turn" turns and so little gold compared to what I'm used to having.  My city's 27 but my bankroll is only 150 gold and 30/ turn.

Actually I'm more of a "leave me the fuck alone" player.  But yeah, I went diplo on the next go around and kept those fuckers allied and took their candy.

[schpain]

1. favourite civ would be a tie with Yanks and Germans.  war machine is <3, minutemen are amazing.
2. I can't get any non-military civ going which is interesting.  I usually start out with the intention of winning diplo/culture/science and end up getting war decked by some land hungry civ.  I don't accept territory loss in ANY way so my wars drag on a little, but then i tend to have to deal with allies and backstabbers and end up rolling out mid-game with a decent army and solid navy and end up grinding out a military vic.
3. I've won science and military, not diplo or culture yet.  i like to sprawl, so culture is a little hard.

[Bzalthek]

I was playing a 2 city game against a single AI and I was completely segregated from them, so I just teched out and was dominating it in everything and suddenly I lost.  I have no idea how.  I guess a time limit?  Dunno. 

[eldaec]

My first game where I think I broadly know wtf is about to come out of the renaissance, I've been trapped into one city but as Egypt, Thebes has become the greatest city there is or ever will be. City states are providing a steady stream of units so I can maintain the forever war with the aztecs, while I churn out wonders.

That said, I only have 4 city states and I suspect my science isn't strong enough through industrial.

Given upkeep and build times I'm not sure how military victories would even work.

[eldaec]

BTW, does religion do anything except the belief bonuses? My +15  and +10% growth is nice enough but not sure if it was worth the fuss.

[Spiff]

Mid-late game you can use religion to buy great people if you get the corresponding culture upgrade, so for instance getting Order allows you to buy Great Engineers with faith, which is quite nice.
Fairly expensive however; starts at like 1200 faith and then increases with each one, but a nice bonus if you're not going all zealot and spewing out missionaries.

[eldaec]

I've spewed out enough missionaries so my religion dominates the continent. A couple of other holy cities are stuck at 49% for me, but other than that I dominate the continent. Sending missionaries to other continents seems like a fuss for one happy per city. Possibly I chose beliefs poorly.

As you suggest, guess I just use it for great people.

[Flinky]

I was playing a 2 city game against a single AI and I was completely segregated from them, so I just teched out and was dominating it in everything and suddenly I lost.  I have no idea how.  I guess a time limit?  Dunno. 

By default a game ends at 2050AD (~500 turns?) with the Civ who has the highest score at that time achieving victory. You can turn this off by going into the advanced options at game setup and unticking the Time box under the Victories heading.

[Merusk]

Religion is a long-term strategy feature. Look at what will support your playstyle the best.  Here's what I go with:

Pantheon: I typically pick +10% growth or 15% border growth.  The rest are too small and too useless long-term IMO, except maybe the food one.  I lean on city-states for that, though.
Founder:+1 gold per 4 followers or +1 culture per world follower vs. the 100 bonus on first convert.  Maybe +15 w/ city states if I'm playing a civ that really shines with city-state abilities like Greece or Siam.
Follower: 1% production or 15% growth if not at war
Enhancer: Typically any one of the 'enhance spread' picks, which varies depending on how the game looks at that point.

[Ingmar]

I was playing a 2 city game against a single AI and I was completely segregated from them, so I just teched out and was dominating it in everything and suddenly I lost.  I have no idea how.  I guess a time limit?  Dunno. 

Time limit, or maybe they finished 5 cultural trees and built the Utopia project.

[Megrim]

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. 

1. Probably either Byzantine (for the music) or Babylon (for the beard). Or possibly Egypt.

2. Can't think any off the top of my head, although I seem to recall getting tanked as Carthage once or twice.

3. Diplomatic easiest (focus on gold -> buy out all City States -> build UN), Cultural hardest (haven't quite managed to get a win yet).

4. About average. Sometimes they can be useful, most often as buffers or force multipliers against particularly troublesome neighbours, other times I might engage with one for an entire game.

[Cheddar]

Last game played as Egyptians and was pumping out wonders left and right.  Grew my empire to 4 cities and spread my religion across the land- then felt froggy.  Attacked my neighbor under the assumption my other neighbors would back me up (hint: they didn't).

Damnit, political mistake and decided to start over.  Going with Ghandi this time around and debating on sticking with 1 or 2 cities and trying for a win that way.

[eldaec]

My first game where I think I broadly know wtf is about to come out of the renaissance, I've been trapped into one city but as Egypt, Thebes has become the greatest city there is or ever will be. City states are providing a steady stream of units so I can maintain the forever war with the aztecs, while I churn out wonders.

That said, I only have 4 city states and I suspect my science isn't strong enough through industrial.

Given upkeep and build times I'm not sure how military victories would even work.

So Carthage forced me into a proper war, I discovered my military was way stronger than I thought, and now I get it, a dozen puppet cities are shitting out gold so fast I can barely get all the units I bought in range of a civ before it dies.

[eldaec]

Cultural victory! Thank christ for that, I can carry on with my life for a while now.

[Tannhauser]

Heh congrats.  Did they come for you when you got close?  I think I'm going to hold off on a Culture win until the xpac arrives. 

[MrHat]

Cultural victory! Thank christ for that, I can carry on with my life for a while now.

No kidding.

I had to uninstall it!

Looking forward to the xpac though.

[eldaec]

Heh congrats.  Did they come for you when you got close?  I think I'm going to hold off on a Culture win until the xpac arrives. 

Didn't seem like the ai reacted to the almost complete social policies, but my neighbours did appear to get aggressive in response to the general development in my territory, my overall score, and the possibility of sacking Thebes (the greatest city there is or ever will be).

AIs on the other continent were totally nonplussed, I didn't move to threaten them, they didn't seem to mind me so long as I stayed over here. By the end I'd wiped out the Aztecs, Carthaginians and Austrians on the slightly larger of two continents, France was similarly dominant on the second land mass. They seemed to be going for a science win.

[schpain]

Heh congrats.  Did they come for you when you got close?  I think I'm going to hold off on a Culture win until the xpac arrives. 

Didn't seem like the ai reacted to the almost complete social policies, but my neighbours did appear to get aggressive in response to the general development in my territory, my overall score, and the possibility of sacking Thebes (the greatest city there is or ever will be). (City of the Living).

AIs on the other continent were totally nonplussed, I didn't move to threaten them, they didn't seem to mind me so long as I stayed over here. By the end I'd wiped out the Aztecs, Carthaginians and Austrians on the slightly larger of two continents, France was similarly dominant on the second land mass. They seemed to be going for a science win.

Fixed it for ya.  Qarth is the The Greatest city that is or ever will be 

[Shannow]

Really wish the military part of this game was up to the standard of the rest of it.
Anyways, heading towards end game and the Iroquis (sp) are ahead of me so I solve this the only way I know how...brute force baby!
4 Carrier battle groups, several divisions of rocket artillery and assorted tanks and infantry parked off his coast line. 6 turns later I've captured 4 of his cities, including one of his core (where he was a cpl of turns away from finishing the CN tower..heh) and he gives me a peace deal thats too good to refuse. That's alright, gives me 10 turns to heal up and ship in more units to take his capital.

Rumors abound however that the Inca's have finished 4 culture trees and are working on the 5th...That shit needs to stop, Greek defense industries are selling me on the wonders of new Stealth bombers....Also nuclear weapons....which I might throw in just because I can. (whole world hates me anyway so whats a few atom bombs between friends).

[Ragnoros]

So I'm really having fun with this. I skipped it on release due to bad word here and a lackluster demo. Have a story!

My first non-tutorial game I played as America on the world map. I started on the Siam peninsula and ended up taking Indonesia and Australia, but Greece grabbed all of china up through Siberia before I realized what was going on. By mid game I was falling behind to all four major empires, France of the Americas, Arabia of Europe, China of Africa, and of course Greece. I was not really making any great progress on victory conditions, so I figured it was time to take back what was rightfully mine from Alexander. After punching my way through china and into Mongolia he offered me a sweet peace treaty for 10 turns, and with my forces depleted it seemed wise. Feeling smug and armed with seemingly endless ranks of artillery I rolled back up on him 20 years later. Turns out he was ready. Every world power promptly wardecs me as the first shells begin to land on Sparta. This is going to get interesting.... Actually no. China sends like two tanks out of Egypt, and Arabia fly's a couple bombers into my AA, then both promptly give up. The mighty Napoleon never even sends a ship my direction.  So I finish mopping up Greece and have control of all of Asia and Australia. Everyone knows that's GG in Risk, so after another couple hundred years of bombing Arabia into the stone-age (fiction meets reality...) I get board and call it.

[eldaec]

In risk its gg when someone has austrailia. Never mind Asia.

[Sjofn]

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.

This is how I play too, and I am also terrible at Civ. <3 I do tend to bulldoze any civ that gets particularly uppity with me, because FUCK YOU I WAS JUST TRYING TO BUILD UP MY CITIES IN PEACE, NAPOLEON/CATHERINE THE GREAT/GHANDI

[Ragnoros]

Despite what some people here have said, it would seem that the AI is still very bad at maps without large land masses.

Playing on Normal (Prince?) last night random map/civ I started on a small island as Carthage and executed what seems to be a very effective three city / tradition start. Boy Howdy. Thanks to like 10 fish sites near my coast + fertility rights + tradition the only limit to my explosive growth was happyness. By the late 1800s I was pumping out 1k+ social a turn, had 25k gold in the bank, and was in a state of permanent golden age (56 turns in the bank when I won).  I managed a cultural Victory in my solar powered 1928 while most of the rest of the world was still trying to work out steam engines. Scores were something like 2000 (me), 800, 700, 600, 550, 450, 300. 

Was I mistaken in my impression from this thread that the AI is better at naval maps these days? Or did something just go fubar?

[Ingmar]

Watery maps IMO tend to be about one difficulty step easier than land maps - so a game on Prince ends up like a game on... whatever is right under Prince, etc. It does seem to be somewhat dependent on the AI leader too.

[Merusk]

I tried a 4-city Tradition start with Germany over the weekend and didn't get as awesome as you.  I blame the fact that the island I started on was all wonky and half of it was desert.  Something I didn't get to find out until I was already 15 turns in so I just decided to push through.  I'm still winning, just not as much as I should be.   Powerful line, Tradition.

Watery maps IMO tend to be about one difficulty step easier than land maps - so a game on Prince ends up like a game on... whatever is right under Prince, etc. It does seem to be somewhat dependent on the AI leader too.

England will wreck shit on watery maps. They seem to rotate in fairly infrequently, though.

[Tannhauser]

Lost a game playing as Germany/King Difficulty/Renaissance Start/Large Map/Continents.  As per usual, the AI put an over-achieving nation (Egypt) on the other continent AND happy go lucky Genghis right on my border.  Mongols tied me up and I was trying for a Diplo victory.  Egypt landed men on the moon while I rolled out my WW1 era tanks. 

Just couldn't get over there because I had one port and two nations between us.  Plus I left them unhindered all game.

So map type is very important if you need to attack a hyper-successful nation.  I don't know any other way to defeat a nation far ahead of you.