Hey o/

I recently picked up Civ again after an about 18 month hiatus. Apparently this has been sufficient time for me to fall back in love with it all over again :D.

Previously I played almost solely multiplayer over on the ladder. I tended to get bored of single player. But I think really the game is better suited for SP and this time I'd like to take a good stab at it. I hope to have a go at some GOTMs and generally make it more of a communal experience so I stay interested! Also, I think it will be more interesting because there will be much to learn - in particular how to deal with the AI (as oppose to human players).

On lower difficulty levels you can play through and almost see what victory condition comes your way, or even just choose what way you would like to win. On higher difficulties I'm thinking I should have a victory condition in mind from the outset and should plan my game with it in mind. How do you tend to decide which to go for? Of course you should consider the map and your leader (especially your traits) and the difficulty level, and I also suspect this is something which comes with experience. But if you could give me some basic pointers on this (if that's not too vague), I'd really appreciate it.

Also, religion. In short MP games this was almost entirely neglected. I know how it works (well I'll need to remind myself - but the knowlegde is in there somewhere!), but perhaps someone could summarise why its so crucial for SP. I seem to remember that on some difficulty settings it can be impossible to get the early ones however. Once again this is vague, but perhaps you can comment.

Thanks for your time!

Hey,

sounds interesting. Quick comment: You don't need the early religions. Most Monarch-Immortal players seem to go for a later one and adopt a neighbours early religion for diplomacy plus with other civs.

Apparently this has been sufficient time for me to fall back in love with it all over again

I loved Civ 2, but then she changed to Civ 3 and I had to get divorced - Civ 4 for me is still more a dirty fling with some interesting new stuff, but no less fun for that.

.. but onwards...

My advice is from a humble, Standard, Normal, Prince rather than one of the Emporer gods, but I tend to have to take victories as they are given to me by the game.

By this I mean I can't just win by any means I like (in fact I only win abou 25% of my games but I don't reload or restart either).

Which victory you go for depends on a host of factors, not just your leader - I've won a cultural victory with Toka because I couldn't fight my way of of a corner that only allowed 6 cities. And I won a dominate victory with Ghandi :lol:

I think the critical factors are :-

1. Who am I - if I'm industrious maybe I can run for those wonders a litle faster.

2. Whose the AI - I can't grab cultural wonders so easily if Mansa keeps getting them first, or if Genghis is constantly on my butt.

3. What have I got - If I have marble that means oracle/Sistine Chapel and onwards. Similar for other resource/wonder pairings. If I have a well fed iron source that can grow and pump units, maybe some aggro is on..

4. What has the AI got ?? I can't reason this far out although I did win a long war once because I had oil and my neighbour didn't (ie, if he had, he'd have won).

I've been dreaming of making a checklist for different strats/victories, but it would be quite long and complex.

Which is why I play Civ at all ... :)