What is your game play style?

I tend to fluctuate between Warlord and Prince, depending on circumstances - how long has it been since I played, how many games have I completed lately, confidence etc. Mostly on Warlord I'm looking to have a laugh.
I fare best when building a tall empire, love being a bit of a wonder whore and getting Cultural wins. My highest scores have been Culture games, especially proud of those with Hiawatha and William lately.
Love playing as Arabia and especially Persia nevertheless - warmongering when you've built up a significant tech lead is a hella lot of fun!

Let me start off by saying that I have scaled back to Prince level, just until I feel comfortably adjusted to the different nuances that the patch brought along with it.

I like to think that it's actually pretty neat to think that on Prince level, when I lose, it is not because the AI's had an advantage over me from the start, but that I had been sleeping on the job and was just outsmarted by some clever scripting

I don't really have a standard approach on how I play the first couple of turns, or about anything really. I enjoy myself by exploring all off the different aspects the game has to offer a player, who isn't afraid to do something he never tried before, just to see how it might turn out for him.
This way I have come up with many different personal strategies, that allow me to stay versatile en unpredictable when I get to test those acquired insights on my game-buddies, when we are having our bi-annual LAN-party, which mainly features Civilization V as you may have already correctly assumed.

The last few weeks I have added a little extra flair to my single player games, because I wasn't really satisfied any longer by seeing all those boring Victory screens each time I managed to continue playing a game, way after the moment where I had gotten the impression there was no way I was going lose anymore.
What I did was, I came up with my own achievements, which you wont find anywhere among those shown on my steam account. I will give you some recent examples, so you won't think I am crazy

Example 1: When playing Arabia: Try to get as many Camel Archers running around over a huge map, and see how far you can push this, before losing your mind... I got pretty far with this little experiment. It seems when you go for the desert folklore on a huge map while playing Arabia, who seem to start in a desert about 99% of the time, you don't just start in a desert, you'll start in a huge mother of a desert! Combine this with the holy warriors belief and you will realize how easy is to spam those holy camels until you are up to your armpits in camel dung

Example 2: When paying Egypt: Try to figure out if it is possible in a game with fairly standard map settings, to build all the unique wonders before anyone else can.
This game has amazed me probably the most. It took some time before I had figured out how to maximize my wonder production as swiftly as I could manage, without have to lose Thebes' capacity for growth. I will share some of the insights I gained during this project with you:
Start by building a worker, and worry about exploration later. In this case it was more important to defend the terrain improvements that allowed the capital to bloom against the pesky barbarians, that had become much more of a nuisance since the November patch. I only felt like exploring when I needed to trade the huge pile of salt that lay around Thebes, for some nice investment capital.
Another move I would not consider a bad one was going for the wonders that gave me my beloved Great Engineer points first, and backtracking for the rest later, and immediately switching over to building the Hanging Gardens once inventing Mathematics, regardless of the fact that I was 2 turns away from completion the Mausoleum (meaning I was halfway there). It was crucial to combine the highest possible growth while maintaining maximum productivity.
When my first Great Engineer appeared he was immediately sent along with a settler, who I found a wonderful place to settle by, three tiles east from mount Sinai. After having this GE rush Petra in Memphis, I felt my project was going along rather well.
I ended up in turn 159 with 14 unique wonders in Thebes (standard game speed, standard mapsize, but in all honesty with the option of legendary start wholeheartedly embraced) as well as 4 of those in Memphis. You may assume that during those short periods in time where I was waiting to get to a tech that would allow me to build another unique wonder, the Nationals ploppped into being without ever making an Egytian laborer break a sweat.
I could share many more of these wonders hogging maneuvers, like my choice for the craftsman pantheon instead of the +15% wonder bonus on building wonders I was already halfway through in completing anyway, and going for the Tradition policy growth bonus before the +15% wonder building bonus. It is no use increase the productivity of tiles you cannot put your citizens to work on.
Anyway... it was in turn 159 when I realized a fatal flaw in the whole experiment, but which I knew could have easily have been corrected earlier in the game by Building Memphis on the coast one tile north west of where I had built it, instead of settling by that invitingly refreshing river that ran between my two wonderful cities, allowing me to enjoy the benefits of a watermill, which would not turn out as a crucial building to have in the grand scheme of things. You can probably guess why this screwed up my personal goals, because this way there was no way I could claim the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse, which were snagged from my greedy little paws by Theodora and... I forgot who the other one was...
However, when I got to the point with Thebes at 29 citizens and no indication this was going to slow down any time soon and it no longer really mattering whether I had 89.7 production while on food focus or 97.6 on production and just deciding to go for the little extra growth, you might imagine that I felt it wasn't that much of a preemptive decision to call the experiment successful, with the exception of the coastal Wonders I had foolishly neglected to find a suitable location for. I also lost focus a little when I found out the location where Cerro de Potosi lay had not yet been settled by any rival and just couldn't help but send a settler and two workers there, quickly followed by a missionary to spread the word of Rha.

Example 3: The Army of "Deutches Doom", or any cheesy variation on that idea has served as a title for this new project I am enjoying myself with. This one is actually rather easy to explain. I wanted to gather a horde of converted barbarian as large as I could manage and just see how far it would get me along the path of Domination Victory. To make matters interesting I handpicked all of the most aggressive opponents I could think of and added Ramsess just for fun.
This game is getting better each turn. With three or four units approved by the German production authority, I managed to double, tripple and eventually quadrupple that number, while in the meantime rising in popularity among the city states without ever having to change my strategy.
I could not believe my eyes when I learned that all those free spearmen cost me only five gold each to transform into brave landsknechts that would form the backbone of my invasion army I would send against the toughest rival on the map: Augustus Ceasar, who had managed to stay ahead one or two techs the whole time, and snatched away wonder after wonder just when I reached the tech that would allow me to start construction myself. But I thought to myself, these guys aren't made for building wonders, but they are perfect for conquering them for themselves, by throwing their very bodies against the walls of the enemy and even in death providing their inexhaustible numbers of brethren with a means to scale those walls, by making a nice little ramp with their mangled corpses.
This game is still in progress, so I will see how far I will get with it soon. Even though the Romans have muskets, they have no way of teaching their new recruits how to use those properly as fast as the landsknechts are able to replace those that fell in battle before them.

I hope you like my approach to the game and that it may inspire some of you to set your own goals. They won't show up on your steam achievement list, but I guarantee you, they will be much more rewarding, simply because they are uniquely your own!

Greetz to ya'll and happy gaming!

I would just like to add quickly that if people would like to see with their own eyes how I managed to mold the Egyptian people into crazy little wonder building madmen, who allowed me to achieve so much splendor during my Wonder Building Bonanza, I will consider going through my saved games and adding the one where I left the game in turn 159 to this thread.
Not because I feel I need to provide you with evidence, but only so those who may be interested might figure out how I did it, by reverse engineering the game in their own minds.

I'm a Cultural Victory player who also likes the perks of religion; my usual level is Chieftain, though I'll sometimes go for Warlord when I want a challenge. (Yeah, yeah--I know that makes me a wimpy girl-geek who has trouble surviving combat...*braces herself for abuse*) I also tend to run the game like a simulation, making research and building choices based on my civ's real-life history.

With those preferences in mind, here's how I typically go for a win:

1. Enable as many non-conflicting mods as possible, provided they make sense for the civilization and era I've chosen. (Playing as Denmark and wanting opponents the Norsemen actually knew? Don't enable mods for the Iroquois, Japanese, or Polynesians. )
2. Establish my capital, preferably on a coastline so I have access to marine units/buildings.
3. Build a Shrine as soon as possible, so I can rack up Faith first.
4. While I'm waiting, add a few Workers and combat units.
5. Pick my first Pantheon belief--preferably something that lets me defend my capital while it's growing.
6. Build the other essential structures/units as soon as I have the technology; the Great Library is usually my first wonder unless the AI beats me to it.
7. Earn a Great Prophet early on, either through wonders or through saving up Faith--and found a religion to match my chosen civ. (Thank goodness I have enough mods that let me choose historical faiths, and select from a larger belief list!)
8. Try not to get into fights with other civs, except for barbarians...trade is always a big help if I'm planning a cultural victory.
9. After Great Prophet #2 helps me enhance the state religion, look for a good spot for my next city; by now I have enough Gold to BUY some of the basics that don't come free.
10. Spend Faith on Inquisitors to protect the state religion, and Missionaries/Prophets to convert your own cities. Don't convert the foreigners unless (a) I get a city-state quest or (b) I'm looking for trouble!
11. Found a few more cities; boost as much Culture and Faith as I can in them, but don't leave anyone defenseless. (Stack a combat unit with my workers, religious units and GPs, if there's enough room...)
12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 until I qualify for the Utopia Project, then select and wait.

isnorden said:

I also tend to run the game like a simulation, making research and building choices based on my civ's real-life history.

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I like the way you have managed to make the game more fun and interesting to play for yourself, which is exactly what I was talking about in my previous ("wall of text" I'll admit) post.
Even though we apparently have very different ideas on how to gain more amusement from playing this game (which I have spent, also including the period in which for reasons of temporary personal poverty steam could not keep track of my in-game hours yet... an estimated eight-hundred hours with) you seem to play the game with your own set of rules and in doing so make it much more your own unique Civilization experience.

Kudos to you!

1) I always settle in place (99.9% of the time).
2) I focus on the economy first, and the military second, I'm always famed as having the best economy.
3) I almost never war in Medieval or earlier techs, unless:
a) There is another civ in my direct vicinity, and/or;
b) I'm playing as either Alexander, Attila, or Darius, and/or;
c) I'm playing a rare, but plausible Domination/Conquest game.
doing so will result in a rage-quit.
4) I try to go for the Great Library, and usually will beeline Writing, especially when playing as Babylon or Korea.
5) I always beeline to techs for workable resources first.
6) The score is very important to me. It shows the progress that one civ has going through and usually the most powerful and all-around superior civ has the highest score. Being last in score will result in a rage quit (about 95% of the time).
7) I should trade more. Usually, when I am ready to trade, no one has worked on their resources yet, and when they do, I forget about trading.
8) I mostly go for siege and about 60% of my military builds are siege weapons, they are so overpowered and broken.
9) I almost never play on a regional or water maps. Water maps are frustratingly annoying to me.
10) There are more advantages than disadvantages in running a somewhat religious game. I utilize it.
11) I usually play a default game (standard map size on standard speed), but I scale speed with map size (Quick on Small to Marathon on Huge).
12) I almost always go Liberty first unless:
a) I'm playing as Ghandi or Haile Selassie, and/or;
b) I decide to play on a water map; water maps stifle progress.
13) I play on Prince usually, but known to play Emperor or Immortal difficulties if needed to be challenged.
14) I rage-quit when DOWed (99% of the time).
15) I hate the fact that they made Civ V is a war game, especially when warring in Civ is so indistinctly tedious to me.

I think that's all of them, I might post again if I think of others.

I just try to never play the same game twice.

My style changes dramatically and comes and goes in phases but right now I'm a big fan of coastal play and I will try to dominate entire coastlines of continents if possible. The best scenario is when you get a bunch of either whales/crabs/pearls and fish + God of the Sea pantheon + Commerce harbors and seaports production bonus (+ Colossus if you're lucky). When you discover oil near your shores (tends to happen if you own a lot of coastline) then you're talking about a 6 production tile on top of everything else. Oh baby

Usually playing an immortal game on fractal, all standard. After the patch I went back to emperor a few times but I could do whatever I want and always win without any challenge.

My approach is usually: Found 1 up to 3 cities in favorable places as fast as possible so that the expansionist ai cannot take these places. It likewise makes step two easier because the ai usually has less cities (because I already sit there ). Step two is perform a rush on the closest ai in the classical age - therefore I usually head for mathematics quicky. Obviously, it is preferrable to be attacked than to attack first. Therefore, I do everything to destroy the relationship with that ai. If it is not willing to dow, I ll do it instead though - just leave one city of his unconquered. There is always a couple of ais that are willing to forgive me or havent found me yet. When I am sure that I ll win that war without further reinforcements I start to pump out libraries to get the academy. Afterwards I basically beeline research buildings. I believe this strategy has become more effective post-patch because the closest ai will steal all nearby land if you let it.

Excess happiness is nothing more than wasted expansion for me. When I have more than, say, 20+ it is time to wage war to the next civ. Usually my game end arround turn 300 with science victory, if I win. It is just the quickest possibility usually, because I am always bored arround turn 200 at the latest.

I usually play a peaceful game. It's just not in my nature to start wars, although I will fight hard if I'm attacked. My aim is almost always a peaceful victory -- usually science, occasionally diplomatic, rarely culture, which I find toughest of all. Tech is usually a top priority for me.

just won my first game on King, so now I'm trying Emperor, and at turn 200 my score puts me in the top 3 civs (out of 8). Not bad, but I could do better; my beakers per turn is low, and I still have trouble judging how big a city will grow, whether it will be a production powerhouse, etc. I also have trouble figuring out how to use Specialists, other than those I put in Universities and other science buildings.

Hello everyone.
I'm in difficult with Prince setting, but maybe it's because i don't think a strategy on starts and I let optimize according the match.
My weakest point it's wonders construction, maybe because I love build normal build.
I settle in place, and I explore with the warrior.
Monument it's my 1st build, after this I try to get a worker and colonist for expand as quickly as possible...
Usual policies: liberty, commerce and rationalism.
Any help? Thank you.

I play everything between Settler and Immortal.

Settler to beat my best score (which most ppl here would say boring as hell) Like continents and only 2 players, me and the AI. 53000 is my best so far I think and I feel stupid now But it's sort of relaxing for me, playing those games between serious games.

Immortal to win. I lose all the time though now, after the patch, so I suck on that level.

Levels in between, most likely just a choice if I have time to complete a game. Then I chose a random Civ on Fractal and go with it, no matter what.

I usually play Emperor, Large maps.

Playstyle depends on the Civ, but I always start peacefully. I enjoy going wide, which usually means Scout > Monument > Scout at the start of the game and using the Liberty tree to get my first Worker and Settler. I'll usually tech according to what luxuries I have available: Pottery, Mining and Calendar are usually the first three but I occasionally go for Writing instead of Calendar if I'm not interested in Stonehenge, have no Plantation luxuries or just want to get my science going in a hurry. I build or buy Shrines as soon as I can.

I try to get my second city up as quickly as possible to enable me to focus on wonder-spamming in my capital. On Emperor you can usually get at least two of the Holy Trinity of Ancient/Classical wonders (Library, HG, Oracle) if you plan it right, but I find myself increasingly going for Stonehenge as I like a strong religion in my game and on Emperor the pantheons go pretty quickly. Generally though, Stonehenge means no Great Library, so it's a question of deciding what I most need at the time.

Of course, on Emperor if you attempt to go wide early - especially post-patch - the AI will hate you for it, so usually around turn 120-150 I have a war on my hands. By then I should have Masonry and Walls and a handful of Archers, one of which (if I'm lucky) is an upgraded Scout. After fending them off, I go after their cities, while continually building more of my own. The game generally ends with me having a couple of Civs' worth of puppeted cities and a Science victory in the early 300's (I'm working on getting it done earlier).

I am the happy builder. I like to be big with as much built as possible. I will delay development so I can build some of the useless national wonders because I want to build everything! Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!

woodshadows said:

I play Deity exclusively and haven't watched any Madjinn videos or read long strategy guides which is to say I lose a good deal of the time, but have a blast while doing so. I pretty much default to playing tall, simply because on Deity there isn't a lot of room to go wide even if i wanted to, nor would it probably be advisable, as the only way I can often manage to stay at tech parity is running a very small army through the early game. I generally turtle up early game until medieval, when I'll make a push out.. generally I'll have some epic battles, conquer a couple of cities or so, feel I'm making good progress when suddenly I'll realize that the other civs in the game are two eras ahead of me and have decided to bring their great war infantry armies to kill my musketmen. What follows is a slow painful death, fighting off hordes of advanced armies with my weak old units. With favourable geography and some other lucky circumstances it can sometimes conspire that I'll win and those victories are very satisfying, because they are rare and involved a lot of humbling at the Ai's hands on my journey to earning them.

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Maybe watching MadDjinn could help you out. I am just kidding, you stick to your guns in any situation. That's how it should be.

Lately, in my games I have building culture and concentrating more on production. I've noticed I can spread out faster, while still keeping extra happiness. Growing slower and grabbing as many luxuries as possible works wonders. When I go to war it ends where I am in a position of strength. Never except peace unless it is to your advantage.

I am now playing on Immortal, after a long time playing Civ. I won my second game a few days ago, as the Incas, so I really just moved up from emperor (not because it was boring, but because I needed a challenge). I first won as Science with Rome and then as Domination with the previously mentioned civ.

I tend to get 3-4 cities up and running and then:

a) Conquer everybody in the way, starting at the classical era (specially if I'm Byzantium/Carthage/Celts/Greece/Persia/Huns/Babylon)

b) If failed to conquer a whole civ (which happened on my first level 7 game as Rome, because the Huns had too many Horse Archers), I usually go for a defensive 8-10 cities science victory. So far, it has worked well, and I like it that I focus on economy right when I'm going into negative If, though, I feel like I'd be able to get my own continent, I try doing that (not so successful...)

c) Decide not to conquer people and stand at 3 cities for a long, wonder whoring cultural victory

d) If I don't feel like going into a full conquering spree, but yet, want a nice war, I decide to wait for the AI to come and to get a single capital - Atilla's Court, I'm looking at you. Once I get it, I only involve myself in defensive wars and keep expanding until I have a huge trade network outcome. Result = diplo victory.

At the end, I can say that my victories are usually:

40% Science Victories - I like them now (I didn't before). You get the tech lead, you get the game

25% Diplomatic - Mixes a good science output with gold and CSs that gives you bonuses. I also like to follow the patronage tree. Usually, gold focused civs (Netherlands, Carthage, Arabia) and CS oriented civs (Greece, Siam, Sweden) make me want to go for it. Usually I can do it easily as Carthage, getting ridiculous amounts of gpt.

25% Domination - I like it, but it requires a LOT of work. I'm not such an agressive player, but what defines if I'll go or not for it is against my will: I won't go if I failed in my early conquering spree, if I'm really behind in tech or if I'm India.

10% Cultural - not that it's boring, it is because it takes too much time. I really like to play it, but on Immortal, getting wonders is much tougher and I dislike getting into wars when going cultural - exception is the Aztecs. I feel like playing this as Siam or any other civ (except for the Incas, Rome, Carthage, Netherlands or Polynesia, because I just played/played too much with some of them and because I don't feel like playing as Polynesia.

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By the end, I can say I develop my empire until late classical era, when I'm "paired" at the tech tree with a runaway such as Persia, when I decide to rush a neighbour/turtle up and see what happens, usually going for science/keeping the conquering spree/buying CSs and aiming for Diplo. Agressive by early to mid game, "peaceful" and hopefully rich by the end

I currently play Deity with overcrowded maps (ie : duel map + pangea + 22 players). The game is quite different and except for the first 50 turns when you are DOWed by everybody, it is more or less equivalent to an Emperor difficulty in a standard game.

Mintaka said:

I currently play Deity with overcrowded maps (ie : duel map + pangea + 22 players). The game is quite different and except for the first 50 turns when you are DOWed by everybody, it is more or less equivalent to an Emperor difficulty in a standard game.

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How can you even fit that many people on a duel sized map?!

I mostly play Emperor games but since the fall patch hit I've been having a rougher time so I'll switch back to King if I'm playing a civ I'm not very comfortable with.

I like to switch up map types to keep it interesting, but I pretty much always do small or standard size. Large is alright, but I feel the land-to-civ ratio is a bit too large, giving the aggressive settle-happy AI an advantage. I've only ever played one huge game, and it was fun till about the 1800s when I had to wait 20-30 seconds between turns, and then I said never again. Duel maps can be fun some times, though.

Always play standard speed but I am looking forward to branching out to epic and marathon soon. Focusing on beating the game with every civ on King or above first (just Ottomans and Greece to go).

Used to always win by domination and occasionally science but as I entered the higher difficulties I found myself winning more games diplomatically or through science. I never win a culture victory by accident; it's always something I set out to do from the start. Domination gets tedious to me after about 2 conquered civs. The AI just has way too many units on Emperor and I get sick of the uphill struggle.

Favorite vic types are probably science and then diplomacy. I like to play moderately between tall and wide, with about 6-8 of my own settled cities and whatever puppets I capture. I focus mainly on developing my infrastructure in the early game unless there is a nearby civ that I know will be a threat. Most times I end up engaging offensively in wars right at the turn of Industrial, with a lead in tech and the first artillery units.

My favorite Emperor build involves a Liberty start with a Great Library jump to Philosophy (think that's the National College one), finishing the National College before my second city hits the ground, and then going for Notre Dame to supply me with happiness to begin more aggressive expansion. It's slow to start, but usually sets me off well for Medieval and Renaissance.

I've been using City States much more often recently. I used to write them off all the time but after playing a Siam game I really felt how powerful they can be and love to earn friendships with them. Still have to refine the finer points of my gameplay. I forget about diplomacy with other civs a lot and forget to make trades or instigate wars between them. I also don't have a strong military until about mid-way through the game, which sometimes gets me in trouble. I refuse to give up whenever I lose a city or two, and I love the thrill of pumping out units and planning a tactical offensive to take back an old city while outnumbered or out-teched. I can be vindictive if someone attacks me, and will usually stop at nothing to wipe them out if they ever succeed in capturing one of my cities. Very often I will end up playing a game for an hour or two longer than I mean to just because it becomes personal.

Zezima said:

Focusing on beating the game with every civ on King or above first (just Ottomans and Greece to go).

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Same. There is something rewarding about winning with every civ. You tend to learn a bit as well (for example, i completely bombed with Polynesia for god knows how many games and then one day they clicked for me and they ended up becoming one of my favorite civs. The same happened to me with Iroquois and Sweden, except they didn't end up becoming favorites)

The only civs I have left to win with are Austria, Denmark and Huns. (I can never get myself to finish a game with the Huns. The other two I straight up barely play with, no real reason why)