How Do YOU Play Civ? (No this isn't a noob asking how to play)

I used to play civilization very nicely and idealistically. I would NEVER get slavery. I would NEVER get any sort of autocratic civic if I didn't have. I immediately got the top tier civics even if it was entirely useless. Also, I was very nice to my vassals and treated them with respect. Then there was the darker side, despite my utopian civ, as soon as possible I would spam nukes all over the world and watch with a smile as empires crumbled in a second

Now I am much less of an idealistic player. I often run harsher civics and use slavery to its full effect. Also, I often times demand EVERYTHING from vassals in return for nothing. I still go a little nuke happy though, that hasn't changed How do you guys play? Ethically speaking?

I can't not play a sprawler. If I can expand, then I do expand. Usually with pointy sticks.

Same here. I love playing on earth maps and comparing my empire to real life. That just makes me happy inside.

I used to be idealistic, never running slavery, but now I use slavery mainly for settlers and workers, and only very occasionally for a building. I also like free market best, even if it isn't optimal game play.

I remember the good old days when I would play games idealistically as others have previously described...

...I never did win those games.

^^^I remember your good old days too, Wimp

I dunno if it's idealistic, but I do like being thematic. Like, I almost always play Byzantium, so I try to found Christianity (in Nicaea is always a plus), build the Hagia Sophia, focus on religious buildings, that kind of thing.


Which kind of excludes Slavery, because it doesn't work like anything, much less slavery. I guess it fits great with Aztec or Carthage...

Yeah I was very imperialistic . "I don't care if you're happy! You will have a free market!!"

I generally play as the peaceful neighbor. Except when I got Sitting Bull. Then it's Dog Warrior Factory and conquest

CaterpillarKing said:

Same here. I love playing on earth maps and comparing my empire to real life. That just makes me happy inside.

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Me too. It doesn't make sense but I like it. How much can India conquer?

Probably my main victory type winds up being diplomation. I own the world!

I used to be all 'say NO to slavery' and 'Save the (Rain)forest' but then I decided to step up my game and now much of my game revolves optimizing whips and chops (ain't nothing like rushing out 4 catapults and 6 elephants in the span of 5 rounds on marathon speed, the proceed the pointed stick style expansion). Funny enough, I've never been at the point where Environmentalism looks like a good call, and I'll probably never get there.. Then again, I rarely let my games go longer than the beginning of Modern age, mostly due to pointed stick style expansions earlier in the game


Although I completely turned around on slaving and woodcutting, and greatly favor expansion through pointed sticks, Police State has never been my flavor of game. I'm a Rev player recently returned to BTS and fiercely avoid everything that has stability penalties in Rev (because civil wars are a b*tch)

I'm an RFC DOC player and communist autocracy with supreme council is always the best

I play like a Boss ! xD ! haha - and I cheat ! Seriously don't fell bad about cheating - cheating is for peaople

Ataxerxes said:

Me too. It doesn't make sense but I like it. How much can India conquer?

Probably my main victory type winds up being diplomation. I own the world!

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I've always chosen some European State but it is not fair to choose Europe all the time - I mean alternate history - China or India, Supremacy ,Buddha Crusades ? :O

I play mostly with K-mod at Monarch difficulty, using the PerfectWorld2 map script, Epic speed, with a random leader, and 1 or 2 extra AI civs to make things a little harder / more interesting.

I do what I have to to win, so strategy will vary depending on leader traits, unique units, neighbouring civs, and crucially, what resources are available. If you're Industrious and have stone and marble nearby, it's obviously going to be a very different game to if you're Aggressive with iron and horse resources.

I think it's most interesting when you set the difficulty sufficiently high so that you are compelled to adapt your strategy to the situation. Picking the right strategies is what makes it challenging and fun. Having said that, I probably should be playing more Emperor games because I'm beating Monarch most of the time now. Keep challenging yourself!

One thing I've never done much of is building nukes, just because ending the game in a huge nuclear war feels dirty. Only in extremis when the Mongols have taken over half the globe and have twice my military strength!

I play large maps, low sea level, Epic speed. I tend to expand aggressively – I can’t remember the last game that didn’t involve conquering several neighbours.

I hate unrest – outside of the Slavery civic swap, I try to do most of my civic swaps in a Golden Age. Most of my GP are used for Golden Ages, except for the first Academy and occasional shrines. Duplicates are settled, and seldom bulbed.

I don’t reload but I do use MapFinder Express (a.k.a. worldbuilder).

I hardly ever use the religion civics because I seldom have a dominant religion and often don’t have a state religion at all. I happily abuse Slavery and State Property trumps Free Market every time. I have never run Environmentalism (defy, defy, DEFY!). Usually stay in Bureaucracy too long, especially if I have Representation to go with it.

I generally avoid Slavery, with the exception being when I'm being invaded and need the ability to pop-rush to get extra soldiers to the front and avoid being overrun. Serfdom, however, is usually on the table. 50% faster workers is nice.

I do tend to preserve the forests, as I like the shield bonus later in the game. And trees are nice. I rarely run Environmentalism, though.

Interestingly, I usually did chop down the forests in Civ3. I think the difference between the yield - 2 food, 1 shield in Civ4, versus 1 food, 2 shield in Civ3, accounts for a lot of it. In Civ3 I'd replace forests with mines for the extra food (to get it to 2/1); in Civ4 forests still provide sufficient food to maintain growth by default, so they tend to avoid the axe... literally.

I quite like serfdom. I use it more often than slavery because I don't have a use for it usually.

When I was just starting Civ4, I always wanted to build all the wonders. Yeah, it's a bad habit influenced by Civ2 and Civ3 days. Worse when I missed the wonder, I reloaded N turns "laboriously" until I got it (No, conquering other civs with wonders is wrong! You must build all the wonders yourself so not to lose the culture points)

Now, I see the error in my ways But there was some thrill to see your time wasted in your silly goals your cities culturally significant.

I'm still going for the "Deity Elite Quattromaster Challenge" from the HoF.

Requires me to play every leader, every map, every speed, every type of advanced starts and I need to achieve every possible victory-type, but it'd better be fast, because otherwise I'll get no #1 spot in HoF and a lousy Quattromaster ranking.
A special discipline in Quattromaster is the need to play at least 1 Major and 1 Minor Gauntlet, challenges that come up with intruiging settings like Large / Quick / Raging Barbs / Conquest Victory needed and such .

This means highly optimized playing up to the point where I myself cannot take it anymore.

The good part about it is, that I can remember every game really well, not only because I could always go into the HoF to look at the saves again and read the logs, but I also keep saves of every turn in a directory called "old games" .

It's amazing to see how much one develops over i. e. 30 games of Deity.
When I look at my first tries on Huge Marathon, I feel like a noob from a todays perspective. The gained knowledge has led me to conquer the faster speeds though I still enjoy Marathon the most, just because that speed offers the most options.

It's still a long way and I wonder if I'll every complete the challenge. Currently I still miss slightly less then half of the leaders, 1/4 of the maps and I still need to win my first AP-victory.

Have you tried the Boreal map yet? It is the only map type where a hunting civilization actually has an advantage.