Could You Win This Game?

As promised, two hours of video play time
This is my first actual recording, it does have some obvious mistakes here and there that come from trying to talk and play at the same time, but nothing game breaking.


http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcD3FdQc1MC4XczHzXuiMp6oYFVJnNvl4

I nearly won again!

Again putting the advice of this and the last thread into practise, I began a game as Greece on Standard Pace, King difficulty, and on a small fractal map.

It soon became clear that the other Civs were going to block me in and stop me from expanding for a long time. This was a problem. But as I played, remembering all that you guys had told me, I found myself very far ahead in technology. I had electricity in the 1600's, which is unheard of for me. I had only two cities, but I was the most advanced civilization on the planet by a mile.

I think my mistake was sticking to just two cities instead of seeking out new lands when the opportunity presented itself. Since I had such an advantage in science, I decided to go for the Apollo victory. Besides that, while the peninsula my civilization was spread out on was restrictive, it would also be easy to defend. I could just turtle there while I researched my way to victory. Not exactly exciting, but "n00bs" can't be choosers.
Unfortunately—probably due to my lack of cities—I soon found others civilizations catching up with me in science, and so it became a race against time.

It was thrilling towards the end. I ended up having nuclear exchanges with both Babylon and Pakistan, but my peninsula proved as easy to defend as I thought. I was ONE spaceship part away from winning, and I could have done it, if only I hadn't squandered my money buying off Babylon's city-state allies for fear that they'd help him become world leader.

It was very funny towards the end. Ever see The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage? That's what my Athens was like towards the end. Holding everyone around hostage with a missile while I furiously worked away at my last spaceship part. Alas, Babylon completed the Apollo project first, and I lost the game on turn 489. But hey, at least I'm competitive in every game now.

Screenshot of Alcatraz at the end... I mean Athens: http://i.imgur.com/7E8reXd.jpg

Going to watch your videos now, Joshua! Looking forward to it.

David McMurdo said:

I nearly won again!

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Wow that sounds like it was really close. Don't give up. From what I can see in your screenshot, did Athens get nuked?! That usually means game over, so the fact that you came so close says you are getting better.

Keep focusing on science, especially for going after science victories. There is a great science victory posted on Youtube by MadDjinn as Poland. He also has a war in that game, so it might help you improve your game if you want to watch that.

kamikazees said:

Wow that sounds like it was really close. Don't give up. From what I can see in your screenshot, did Athens get nuked?! That usually means game over, so the fact that you came so close says you are getting better.

Keep focusing on science, especially for going after science victories. There is a great science victory posted on Youtube by MadDjinn as Poland. He also has a war in that game, so it might help you improve your game if you want to watch that.

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Yeah, Athens got nuked Was kind of funny, because I nuked a Pakistani city first and accidentally clipped a Babylonian unit in the process, thus starting a war. Babylonian revenge was immediate and came in the form of a nuke on top of Athens. The next few turns were me desperately holding off his gigantic army. It didn't hamper my production at all though.

By the way, what exactly does fallout do? After the war I had my guy running around cleaning it up and repairing stuff, but I didn't actually see any negative effects from it.

kamikazees said:

As promised, two hours of video play time
This is my first actual recording, it does have some obvious mistakes here and there that come from trying to talk and play at the same time, but nothing game breaking.


http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...iMp6oYFVJnNvl4

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I didn't have the room to say much on YouTube, but that was really excellent. I learned so much from those videos, and isn't Civilization V the ideal game to smoke with?

I had absolutely no idea you could still build on and utilize resources that were beyond a city's work range. Always wondered what the point of the border expanding beyond that was. I also had no idea that it mattered what tile you settled your city on. I assumed that the terrain was made the same when you settled, so a hill and a plain were the same in the end.

What I really loved about watching you play was how much attention you pay to details I never give a second thought. I've never built more than two workers in any game I've played, I pretty much ignore city-states unless I'm doing for a diplomatic victory, I always wait for the AI to offer trade, if I find myself short of a resource I need I forget about it and move on... just so many differences to how I play. I guess this is why I can easily finish a game in a few hours and you guys are talking about them lasting a whole week haha. Was nice seeing you savour every aspect of the game.

I had to laugh when you correctly guessed the reason that my technology progression seemed aimless: fear of the AI. You're absolutely right. I'm paranoid that if I don't have rifles or what have you, they'll see my weakness and pounce.

Thanks very much for the videos, they were extremely helpful. Going to start a new game right now.

One question: what is the benefit of making cities puppets as opposed to annexing them? One reason that I'm slow at war is that I annex every city, so I can't capture city after city like you did without my happiness hitting rock bottom.

David McMurdo said:

By the way, what exactly does fallout do? After the war I had my guy running around cleaning it up and repairing stuff, but I didn't actually see any negative effects from it.

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Fallout is a nasty tile "improvement" (more of an "unimprovement" really). I think it is -3 , and to the tile. There's also a combat penalty and movement penalty to the tile.

David McMurdo said:

One question: what is the benefit of making cities puppets as opposed to annexing them? One reason that I'm slow at war is that I annex every city, so I can't capture city after city like you did without my happiness hitting rock bottom.

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Puppets cause a little less unhappiness but also do not increase your social policy costs. You get benefits from the and and such that the city produces, but cannot control what it builds.

Annexed cities become your cities, but have larger unhappiness until you build the courthouse.

I typically only annex really good cities, or capitols. Even then, I puppet them first until they are out of resistance (ie start building again), then annex them. I keep other cities as puppets if they have something good in them (a wonder, a unique luxury, a large population); otherwise I just raze them. I raze a lot of cities.

kamikazees said:

Fallout is a nasty tile "improvement" (more of an "unimprovement" really). I think it is -3 , and to the tile. There's also a combat penalty and movement penalty to the tile.

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Don't say that, might have been able to win that last game if I'd told my worker to clean up the production tiles first haha.

Thank you for the kind words. I had a lot fun making the video. I am going to get a series of Immortal level LP's going that will be aimed at players trying to step up in difficulty so they will have a lot of discussion on dealing with various maps depending on intended VC. I am BTW a lazy player for high level play. The really top players pay a lot more attention to things than I do.

Just because you are not researching military techs, does not mean you are neglecting them. For example, doing a bee line to education takes every tech you need for CB's except construction. So researching construction serves no purpose in a peaceful game. Simply putting a spare warrior or archer 8ish tiles from your border will give you enough warning to switch to construction when you see an army incoming. The same holds true for researching machinery. There is only an awkward time when then AI gets rifles/GWI's and you still have x-bows.

Every city you found will increase the cost of social policies and national wonders that require that every city have a basic building (the national epic is a good example). Annexing a city slows policies. Razing a city does not add to policy cost, but it will interrupt wonders like the national epic. A puppet will increase science cost (I believe this is the case, might mis-understand the mechanic though), but it will produce science and culture at a reduced rate. If I capture a city in a defensive war, I will only keep it if it is well placed, close by, and has something I find desirable like universities. If it just has the usual pile of stuff like granaries, I just raze it unless I want to prevent the spot from being resettled.

When war-mongering, it is best to accumulate ~20 excess happiness so you can just raze as you go. This is why I was putting so much emphasis on ideologies, you get a ton of happy from the right ones. I will only annex a city when it starts producing stuff that I do not want, or if I want to build units closer to the battle front.

Either way, just focus on growing tallish very early. I use a rough benchmark of 16pop by the time I have universities up (T110ish)

I just saw a video, how does your city interface look like that? It's different, pop area looks bigger, and production area also looks a little different? I know this question is a little out of subject, but I had to ask .