I played all the way through on Prince with the Christmas-mod.
I couldn't really tell the difference between the terrain types, I irrigated the desert a time or two while fumbling around in early B.C. Used my usual strategy... so unfortunately, no campaigns full of santa-chariots, pretty much the only units to sport their x-mas hats were diplomats and caravans (such as the caravans' hats were...) prior to my battleships popping out around 700 A.D. My 40,000 colonists were ready to go by 1300 AD but I had to hang around another 20 turns before I could launch my 15-year spaceship for 1505 arrival.
I had forgotten how easy this game is on Prince compared to Emperor... mind you I've been winning most of my Emperor games lately. (I play totally without cheats / exploits, I don't even manipulate the shield box.) I found my strategy over the past year has drifted closer towards what Carniflex described, though I stumbled into it on my own.. which is bee-line for Republic, making peace with neighbors and expanding rapidly with minimal military expense (barbarians are the biggest risk early game, and thus the biggest risk of the whole game)... Try to switch to Republic by 2500 or 2000 BC, have around 6 to 9 cities and build Bach's cathedral by 1500 BC, then more WLTK day and markets, banks, and colosseums before doing a bee-line for Theory of Gravity and Newton's College by around 900 BC, then build universities.. and watch how many techs come in before 1 AD. In the past year is when I really started playing this way, on account of doing trials of the first 4000 years over and over again... at first it was a delight to get Railraod in B.C... then I realized Industrialization is just a little further.. then I realized Electronics or Steel is just a little further.. then I realized Computers are just a little further. So now when I play on Emperor, unless someone beats me to Isaac Newton's (which can happen!) I usually get tech somewhere between Railroad and Computers by 1 AD. This time with my Christmas celebration playing on Prince, I got twelve cities and Computers just before 1 AD but was really not playing carefully. Then on to Hoover Dam, Women's Suffrage, and Factories before exploring the world by battleship... meeting triremes and sails. I figured the quickest way to finish my x-mas game would be build a spaceship -- I don't usually finish the spaceship when I'm still in the 20-year turn range! So I had forgotten about that actually but it worked out.
Thanks for the hoilday diversion, it was fun and the x-mas theme was a good excuse for a quick game on lower difficulty. Thanks Theov and, as always, Darkpanda!
Jarvis
P.S. Hey Darkpanda, there's just one more thing I've been tempted to ask you ... something from the pandora's box, when or if you may have time. That is -- may as well remove all the mystery... Just how is it that Wonders are awarded to the computer players? To give you an idea how silly my playing has become, I have a rule against opening the City View since finding out about luck manipulation. Yet, I have no problem opening City View for a legitimate (unavoidable) purpose, namely when a city builds something or celebrates. So if I am racing to build the Colossus in B.C... (I build Bach's first, but if I finish Bach's and Colossus is still available, I figure I may as well see if I can grab it quick.) Well, if I'm itching to build the Colossus with every turn a risk of the computer nabbing it out from under my nose, I find myself building a "Temple" or something just to reset the random-seed to something hopefully "safe", with no idea if doing so is effective or not! So, my question -- if you choose to humor it -- is how algorithmically are Wonders awarded to the computer Civs? How many rand() calls are made (i.e. whether the computers play their turns first) before the Wonder awards are given would be a relevant factor.... I would be curious just to know, but if I don't get a response from you on this anytime soon, I don't feel bad. Merry Christmas -- and (to quote Theov) -- a Happy Cived New Year!
