I searched for civ4 variants, but could only find the PETA variant. So, here's a
thread with some of my ideas.

Secularism: you may never found a religion. You may never allow a religion to spread to one of your cities. If you capture a city in war with a religion, the city must be destroyed.

What this basically means is:
1. No open borders. A missionary might come in and spread a religion.
2. No foreign trade routes. Mercantilism must be adopted quickly. You should also avoid contact with other civs.
3. Theocracy should be adopted, so no religion other than the state religion is spread. And since there is no state religion, no religion is spread at all (I'm not sure if this is entirely true).
4. No benefits from religions.
5. You must defy resolutions that would allow a religion to spread.

Genocide: when you declare war, you must always destroy captured cities. All improvements must be pillaged before a city is taken. Before the civ is destroyed, all of their units must be destroyed (so you will have to devote enough espionage points to know what all there units are and where they are. This is the time to use the military advisor screen, too). Only after all their units have been destroyed (including captured ones) may the last city be taken.

Early Xenophobia: you must declare war on the first civ you encounter. Follow the rules of genocide when purging this civ. You may never enter into peace with this civ (so defy all resolutions requiring you to do so). If the civ exists at the end of the game, you lose this variant. Interact with other civs normally.


Feel free to post your own variant ideas (I'd love it if you would). Also, tell me what you think and share stories, too. Have fun:D.

Theocracy prevents non-state religion automatic spread as well as spread by foreign missionaries. The only spread allowed is by your own missionaries, which can't happen if you have no religion.

As for the other two, enabling "Require Complete Kills" will require all cities to be captured and all units to be killed before the civ is destroyed.

Here's another idea:
No Research: Beeline Alphabet; After Alphabet is researched, lower science as much as you can (slider to 0, no specialists that provide science, no science buildings). Techs should only be acquired through trade, stealing with a spy, and great people.

As for the other two, enabling "Require Complete Kills" will require all cities to be captured and all units to be killed before the civ is destroyed.

"Require Complete Kills" is supposed to be off. You can't take the last city until all other units are gone. Nice variant you posted, though.

I forgot to post this one:

Anti-Intellectualism: No Great Persons. Upon acquiring one, destroy the unit. You cannot use it or give it as a gift. The unit must be deleted.

Optionally, no specialists at all (other than laborer, if the city is overcrowded), not even free ones.

I've got another one:

Anti-Fun: Turn on lowest graphics, automate all workers, listen to the in-game music (disableing it costs a settler).

I have an similar idea to Circuit's secularism variant:

Religious Supremacy: You must found one religion and spread it to all of your cities. Adopt it as your state religion for the rest of the game (you can use any religious civic except Free). You may not allow any other religions to spread to your cities. All cities with religions other than yours (even if yours is present as well) must be razed. Cities with no religion must be converted ASAP (bring a missionary with your stack), or razed if you wish. Like the secularism game, you will need to adopt Theocracy very early on.

When you win the game your religion should have 100% influence, as shown on the Religions screen. If you choose Christianity as your religion (which you probably will since you need Theocracy early) you can call it a "crusade".

Warriors of honor:
From the start of the game, all the way to the end, build only warriors and see how far you can go.

Warriors of honor:
From the start of the game, all the way to the end, build only warriors and see how far you can go.

Tough. That must mean avoiding techs that upgrade warriors, and avoiding buildings that produce technology.

If you want some ideas, just go into the succession games forum or the strategy and tips forums :)

Primitive Society-Keep the starting civics the entire game. Once you have every tech in the ancient era, drop to 0% research and don't run any scientist specialists. Don't trade techs with other civs.

Internet Challenge: You may ONLY research the techs that are necessary for building the Internet. For Vanilla: Click Fiber Optics in 4000 BC. For BtS: Click Computers on the tech tree and don't touch it again until Al Gore says it's ok.

You'll miss out on some basic techs, but there is nothing more satisfying that getting 15+ techs for free in a row. A good way to get access to 'forbidden' improvements is to conquer some land and take their resources. You might not know hunting until you discover the Internet, but your neighbor has probably set up some nice fur camps and and deer camps for you to claim as your own. Bronze Working is on the tech path to Internet (hint hint).

Bonus points if you name all your cities after computer stuff.

Click Computers on the tech tree and don't touch it again until Al Gore says it's ok.

:confused:

:confused:

What I meant is that your main goal of the game is to build the internet. The Internet (Project) has that picture of Al Gore on it (no, he won't actually say anything when you complete it, I was being funny). Go to the science adviser, look at 'the big picture' and select the tech required for Internet. Beeline for that and don't touch the tech tree again until you reach that tech (Computer/Fiber Optic). I didn't mean you shouldn't touch Al Gore. Go right ahead.

So you should beeline for that tech and build the internet. After that you get all the free techs that two other civs have (which are a lot if you beelined and bypassed archery and other dead end techs).

After that you can win however you want.

^^ I like that. Can you trade techs for the ones you can't research?

Can you trade techs for the ones you can't research?

The point of this variant is to see how many free techs you can get when you complete the Internet. Trading for techs would defeat the purpose.

Toku's Greater Asia - this is the easiest option though there would be variants. Choose an Asian leader and conquer or vassalise every other Asian civ in the game (by that I mean every. Kicker - you have to actually win peacefully as the head of a mighty Asian bloc. I would probably go into the Custom Game screen, put in Toku as yourself, then all the other Asian civs, and then one or two other civs just to make sure. I didn't get very far with this since Toku is not suited to my play style, but then again I had the idea while playing the Khmer and ripping through Korea and China but leaving the Europeans alone, which was fun, so I decided to go with Tokugawa/Japan largely due to historical accuracy rather than anything else (:(:(:(!). (Asian civs = Japan, Khmer, China, Mongol, Korea - all that have the Asian ethnic units with kimono'd swordsmen and "coolie" workers.)

Colonization - all the Native American civs (i.e. Aztec, Inca, Maya, Native Americans) and all the colonial powers (Spain, England, Portugal, The Netherlands and America). For extra spice play as a Native civ and try and colonize the Europeans. For best results actually this should be played as a Big-and-Small so you can access the "new world" before Astronomy and all the natives should start on one continent and all the colonizers on the other. I tried it and had the Maya, who I was playing, vassalise Portugal.

The point of this variant is to see how many free techs you can get when you complete the Internet. Trading for techs would defeat the purpose.

Indeed. However, if the tech is on the direct path to the Internet and you would have researched it anyway, then I suppose it wouldn't really matter.

Try this. I gave it a shot in the last game, and lost.

Cheap-Skate: only research the least expensive tech. No paths.

Warriors of honor:
From the start of the game, all the way to the end, build only warriors and see how far you can go.

"Not very" is how far you will go.