Suggestion for next civ to play?

Well denmark is not exactly a top tier civ, so I'd say you are ready to move UP. You probably will manage about the same on Emperor. The AI is a little bit more dangerous, but you can still get away with not building units (against most civs, but there are some exceptions like the huns ). There are wonders that are hard to get, but other then that its mostly the same.

Domination on deity isn't as hard as you make it sound. You can always count on taking out at least half of the capitals with XB provided you reached the window in good time. Frigate/Artillery can finish the job. Rarely do you need anything later unless you have purposely delayed the start of war.

Diplo is still the easiest VC, even easier than SV, all you need is rush globalization and pay at least 500g on each CS.

Culture is hardest, no offense, but I don't know why you rank it 2nd. Sure conquest makes it easier but usually it's strictly more optimal to go DomV if you have a force capable of taking out high value tourism capitals. And the other problem is you have to completely eliminate a civ to remove the need to influence them. The other problem with dom assisted CV is that another AI may launch or get close to launching by the time you dealt with the culture threats.

Cv could be difficult to achieve since others also go for cv. DipVccould be hard if someone else is rich and pays off your city states until you're without gold and they still have gold.

claudiupb said:

Well denmark is not exactly a top tier civ, so I'd say you are ready to move UP. You probably will manage about the same on Emperor. The AI is a little bit more dangerous, but you can still get away with not building units (against most civs, but there are some exceptions like the huns ). There are wonders that are hard to get, but other then that its mostly the same.

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Maybe, but in those four games, I did only DomV (Poland, Denmark) and SV (Maya, Ethiopia). I'd like to get at least one CV on King(even though it's my favorite victory type, it's the one I struggle with most), before I tackle Emperor.

Entilzha said:

I'm somewhat curious about that statement; I recently upgraded to King from Prince and to me, the difficulty didn't seem to increase at all. I played four games (Denmark, Maya, Poland, Ethiopia, in that order) and none of them were any problem at all. I got less wonders than usual and I had to fight a few more wars, but overall, I didn't really notice the increase in difficulty. Admittedly, I lost the fifth game I tried, but if you start right next to the Huns and don't build up your military early, you get what you deserve. So that one was completely my own fault and had nothing to do with difficulty.
So what I'm asking is, is Emperor really not much more difficult than Prince even?

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For me (and it seems many others):

Prince->King: quite noticeable. Prince level means that the AI has insignificant bonuses which can't come close to the major human advantage of free will. Prince->King is the jump when the game becomes less about fantasy role-playing and more about the strategy of your choices
King->Emporer: not noticeable. The small advantages that Emporer AI has over King AI is not significant enough for the player to notice. Haven't played at this level in a while, but I imagine all King-pertinent strategies are directly applicable to Emporer and vice-versa.
Emporer->Immortal: a big change but something that you've already learned to compensate for. One of the big adjustments made from Prince to King is learning how to compensate for not having wonder bonuses and setting up your core cities earlier. Having already learned this, you're ready for Immortal. The big difference between emporer and immortal is that the AI's bonuses on immortal allow them to jump ahead of you a little bit, and that can be scary if you're used to being the most powerful all game, but using the tricks on this forum will allow you to leap ahead during the renaissance era and run the game as you see fit from there on.
Immortal->Deity: massively different, may as well be a different game (Civilization5.1; Masochism and fear of the next turn button) Immortal prepared you for dealing with a brief period when other civs were ahead of you; in deity this is going to be the case for the entire game. Deity is about being the last-placed civ being the first to acheive a victory condition. Each AI starts out with several additional units, including a worker and a second settler from turn 0 as well as 4 free techs including one second tier ancient era tech (the wheel). Even more intimidating is the deity-level Liberty AI... AI (regardless of difficulty level) play the game at cheiftain level rules, which means they get a higher base happiness and an extra happy per luxury resource. This means that the main reason why human players need to put a low celing on their number of cities is considerably less of an issue for the AI regardless of difficulty level. Deity AI using liberty starts with 2 free cities, gets a third from an SP, and has a bonus to building settlers IN ADDITION to a deity AI production bonus, meaning that they can spit out cities as soon as they uncover the spot for it. When this expansion capability is applied with less expansion cost to a civ that's programmed with expansion tendencies, you get Deity AI Hiawatha with 14 cities in the first 150 turns spitting out 5 or 6 units every turn. Not only do they make units faster than you can make units, they make units faster than you can eliminate their units.


The way that I tested whether or not I was ready to advance a difficulty level:

Play a civilization that's designed for a specific victory condition aiming for a different victory condition (example: Brazil for anything other than tourism victory, say domination) on a map that they aren't well suited for (put Brazil on a donut map where there's no jungles) and hand-pick AI's that are good at stifling that victory condition (for difficult domination AI's, don't just include Shaka, Genghis, Attila and all the warmongerers because they make it difficult to overcome their large armies, but also include Pocatello and Sejong who will actually try to win the game via other methods while you're dealing with the warmongerers. Complete this task and you're ready to move up a difficulty levle.

Man feels like a lifetime since I posted on this forum. I might as well inform everyone about the recent developments.

I tried my hand at Byzantium again on Archipelago but I soon got bored with it around the medieval/renaissance era. No enemies around to fight and the Archipelago map I landed with did not really give me many options to work with. Since I am in my last year of graduate school and my thesis is taking some time away, I've fallen away from Civ overall. So, I'm kinda struggling with where to go.

I had a few civs on my mind, though I wanted to get other people's thoughts first.

1. Aztecs (either for military or cultural victory)
2. Russia again (played them once for domination, want to try again with a space victory)
3. Poland (not sure which victory to try)
4. Germany (either military or science)

Also I wanted to play with a few mods. Particularly, I'm anxious to try out the Enlightenment Era mod and the Events and Decisions one too. Does anyone have suggestions for a good civ to play when you are looking to get back into it?

The Aztecs are my all time favorite civ, Germany dominates early game and then late game after Hanses get really good. Floating Gardens are very wonderful. Poland also very very fun, can pretty much go any victory route. Russia's also quite good, best suited for domination, but also good with space race.

Would recommend upping difficulty playing on any of these civs though if you're comfortable with that, it seems like you're quite the capable player and all these civs are pretty powerful

I am thinking then I will try the Aztecs. I had been playing on Prince for the longest time, so maybe it's time to upgrade to King. I was feeling gunshy, but to hell with it. Better to take a chance and lose than to just wimp out.

Will play Aztecs with Enligtenment Era and Events and Decisions mod. Wish me luck, everyone.

Any good civs I should play against as Aztecs? I'm looking for a good war to get into periodically.

In terms of making the game interesting, sure you could try a bunch of mods, which looks to be your preferred approach. Good luck with that, but you may only get what you pay for.

Or you could just play the game as-is, and bump up the difficulty level. My own experience is that the game is not interesting unless there is a real chance that I will lose.

A few personal favorites:

Celts: almost guaranteed the first pantheon on any level, and usually the first religion too if played right, also have +3 happiness on their opera house. Both combine to give a unique and powerful synergy that can benefit large empires.

Aztecs: love the culture from kills jaguar and the sweet woodsman promotion. Perfect for stealing neighbor-workers and harassing early game. Late game the floating gardens makes you a powerhouse on growth and science.

Inca: so fun to play with their unique terrace farms and maintenance-free hill roads. It can let you survive and settle in some marginal areas which make your empire incredibly defensive. Due to their bias you'll usually get an opportunity to use them this way as well.

Maya: free great people regularly and early science and extra faith from the cheap shrine will mean a decent religion and great early science boost. Can also be used to support a very wide empire that stays scientifically competitive if you are playing a larger map.

India: 1/2 unhappiness from citizens is a big game-changer. If you like giant cities these guys are fun. Elephants and culture-castles are nice uniques as well.

Shoshone: the extra borders on settling is a great way to grab more land than your neighbors. The pathfinder ability lets you basically pick your bonuses for fast growth, science, culture, and religion. If you can find a few ruins you'll have an incredible start. If you want a religion try saving a ruin till turn 20 for an instant pantheon.

Favorites are:
1. Aztecs - All three of their bonuses are ones I find very enjoyable to utilize, with good hammers in capital you can build Jaguars instead of scouts which have higher combat than scouts and heal upon killing units. The culture off killing does eventually add up, especially on quicker speeds; can get very quick early game policies, synergy with one point into honor which can feel wasteful but is worth it with raging barbs. And Floating Gardens, the best Aztec bonus, make Aztec science competitive with Maya or Korea science.

2. Russia - Cossacks and Kreposts are whatever, but Siberian Riches is ridiculous. I like to play wide and the hammers off of this UA are obscene, settling on iron hills gives your expand 5 hammers with republic, working a wheat plains tile or a deer gives it 6. That's the amount of a hill capital at the start of the game working a good growth. Russia's hammers are ludicrous all game, and double frigates or chariots gives Russia key strategic advantages at crucial points in the game.

3. Zulu - Mind, these five are my personal favorites, not the best in the game. I prefer Zulus slightly more than other popular domination civs like the Huns or England because Ikandas and Impis take slightly more expertise to optimize but when used properly Impis are some of the most fun uniques in the game, very enjoyable.

4. Arabia - Probably one of the most consistently favorable civs in the game that's in my top 5, people love camels and so do I. Camel archers are debatably the best unique units in the game, with a nearly game long window of usage and the ability to validate upgrades from chariots. Aside from camels, though, which everyone knows are great, I find the Bazaar to be one of the most underrated UBs in the game; turning every lux you have into a trade lux and having an extra raw gold off a crucial gold building early are huge for wide play. And double oil is neat for bomber rushes, tank rushes, etc.

5. Denmark - Probably the least well-liked civ in my top five, I really love Berserkers a lot. I've actually never used a Norwegian Ski Infantry except as a standard rifle, though I'm sure they have useful nice bonuses in certain context. Playing wide I usually get to workshops sooner than most builds anyway, but Denmark gives a reason to do so before even going civil service. Berserker rushes can be more effective than impi rushes or horse archer rushes, the three movement and synergy with Viking Fury makes Berserkers quite the force to reckon with. Usually you can take down two neighbors with the right timing, a 3 move, 21 strength unit in roughly the late classical early medieval is ludicrous. They come out before crossbows, Knights, and sometimes even pikes, meaning they'll be fighting comp bows, chariots, and spears, all of which they crush like eggshells.

inthesomeday said:

5. Denmark - Probably the least well-liked civ in my top five, I really love Berserkers a lot. I've actually never used a Norwegian Ski Infantry except as a standard rifle, though I'm sure they have useful nice bonuses in certain context. Playing wide I usually get to workshops sooner than most builds anyway, but Denmark gives a reason to do so before even going civil service. Berserker rushes can be more effective than impi rushes or horse archer rushes, the three movement and synergy with Viking Fury makes Berserkers quite the force to reckon with. Usually you can take down two neighbors with the right timing, a 3 move, 21 strength unit in roughly the late classical early medieval is ludicrous. They come out before crossbows, Knights, and sometimes even pikes, meaning they'll be fighting comp bows, chariots, and spears, all of which they crush like eggshells.

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I just posted a Denmark map for the CDG in Strategy and Tips, please show how to work them -- I don’t think I am rushing Metal Casting enough!

Not necessarily rushing, but definitely prioritizing. I'd usually pick it up before civil service, probably tech it right after national college. Sometimes even before national college. I often go engineering before philosophy because I play wide and the trade route is useful, and if I'm Denmark and I'm feeling violent then i might go iron working into metal casting. You still need basic science up first, libraries and markets and usually NC, but usually you can enter medieval through metal casting before even getting horseback, drama, or optics.

historyman101 said:

I am thinking then I will try the Aztecs. I had been playing on Prince for the longest time, so maybe it's time to upgrade to King. I was feeling gunshy, but to hell with it. Better to take a chance and lose than to just wimp out.

Will play Aztecs with Enligtenment Era and Events and Decisions mod. Wish me luck, everyone.
Any good civs I should play against as Aztecs? I'm looking for a good war to get into periodically.

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Aztecs are my bar-none favorite civ; have been since vanilla and the devs haven't changed them at all.

They're also a great civ to move up in difficulty with. Growth is the base factor of technology, and also factors into production, gold, and situationally culture and faith, and no one grows vertically like the Aztecs. Tip: you want your capital to be preferably riverside or at least adjacent to a lake. All other cities are better when they can build a FG, but don't compromise a superior settling spot to get it.

how about playing Iroquois i have heared that they are realy good

Update: I'm currently playing Aztecs, and am loving it. Doing it without any mods, and have to say it's better for it. I have a decently sized empire (4 cities, not sure if it's worth expanding anymore) and have fought my fair share of wars. Currently it's 1410 AD and trying to decide how to play culturally with the Aztecs.

Current game plan is to just keep the peace for a few decades unless someone tries something; I'm suspecting that the Huns will be a likely foe. In the meantime just need to get my happiness back up.

For people who have played Aztecs, would you say a cultural victory in BNW is harder or easier? Also which policies should I go for? I'm close to maxing out Honor and I have already completed the Liberty tree. My aim is to get a culture victory with Autocracy. Is it possible?

Vanilla culture victory is a million times easier than BNW culture victory

Of course it is. I just meant that for Aztecs, is it possible to pull off a cultural victory in BNW?

historyman101 said:

Of course it is. I just meant that for Aztecs, is it possible to pull off a cultural victory in BNW?

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Yeah, it's not too bad. I won a cultural victory on immortal a month ago with them. And I wasn't even investing that much into it. I just sort of noticed by 1700 AD that I could so I did

The ease of the cultural victory really depends on your contenders. If someone else went all-out culture they can be hard to overcome but in general you can win with any civ. The AI do not beeline archaeology or internet as you should know to do, generate theming bonuses through trading, or put everything into international games so you usually have the edge. And I assume you know to save most of your GM's to play concerts late-game when your tourism is extra high? Culture victories are further made easier by the fact that you can also just conquer whoever is resisting you the most. I kinda wish that didn't work but it does and a lot of players do it for an earlier victory.

It's possible but they don't get any specific advantages.