Choosing civilizations..

Random leader, shuffle map type. It's always fun to see what you get, and try to make a go of it.
 
Random leader, shuffle map type. It's always fun to see what you get, and try to make a go of it.

I did that last night, got greece on a continent with no CS (or other civs) and the nearest one was so far I needed optics before I could get a traderoute to them. :sad:
 
I did that last night, got greece on a continent with no CS (or other civs) and the nearest one was so far I needed optics before I could get a traderoute to them. :sad:

Some people would say that's a horrible start and reroll. Others would consider it a fun challenge to overcome. I'm curious, did you play it out?
 
I haven't played all of the Civs yet, but so far I've found the Zulus to be the most dominant. Not to say that they're the most fun, but I almost feel like playing as them makes it too easy.
 
I like to play as the harder to win as Civs. I like a reasonable challenge.
A few off the top of my head:
America
Denmark
Byzantines
Songhai
(Id play India if they got rid of the first sentence of the UA)
 
I like playing as Byzantine simply for the extra belief. It is a two edged sword though as every AI city you convert also gets all the beliefs.

Basically I work my way through all of them. I think I'll try Dido next.
 
So how do you make their UA good, exactly?

I never really understood how to optimize theming. For one thing, it's really hard to do. And the bonus culture seems paltry.
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You are talking about two different versions.

Postal in vanilla/gods and kings is saying france has excellent culture (+2 per city and nice units (musketeer/foreign legions).

Timally/Theologia are in BNW which has tourism theming bonuses, and tiny culture bonuses from Chateaus.
 
The Civs I have played recently that I really enjoyed were The Ottomans and Shaka. The Ottomans's UA will let you build up an amazing navy that is pretty cheap and since the AI isn't very good with naval warfare you can completely control the seas. While Shaka and those damn Impi are just insane. Having that spear throw before you actually attack along with the UB can make your units lethal
 
Some people would say that's a horrible start and reroll. Others would consider it a fun challenge to overcome. I'm curious, did you play it out?

If it was SP I would have rerolled by turn 20. However it is MP with a bunch of friends, so I will not wuss out and show them what Ironman gaming is all about. we haven't played since the first couple of hours yet, but I will prevail however painful it is. I am sure I will eventually find those city states, take patronage and recover.
 
The problem with Liberty is not happiness. Meritocracy is decent for that, and a free worker always helps with faster luxes. The problem is gold, wonder construction and food.

In Liberty you get cheaper policies (makes up long term for 3 culture in cap), happiness (meritocracy) free settler/worker, and faster of them (so technically more production) and production.

Tradition gets food, gold, happiness, culture, production (free monument/aqueduct and wonder production) and defense. Also, food gives you more everything.

So Liberty loses food, gold and defense. Tradition has all of liberty plus more. Also, Hanging Gardens is better than Pyramids.
 
I just finished a France game. Had to say, it was a pretty good time. Standard map, and 4-city Tradition got me a comfortable amount of space at my end of the continent. I managed to build Paris up pretty well and had quite the number of Chateaus all over the place.

The Wide vs. Tall balance is fun for France. Do you try and cram as many Wonders into Paris as possible to maximize the UA, or do you just take it for granted that you'll put a Hermitage, Oxford, and Museum there while going broader for Chateau spam? Either generates huge amounts of tourism later: going tall and adding a few puppets can do both.

Warring is rather optional: the Musketeer gives you an obnoxiously strong frontline if you make the most of it (an extra 4 strength from the Musket's 24... 28 is almost a 20% increase that multiplies with promotions). Still, if you don't do much with the Musketeer it doesn't feel like a big loss. The Chateaus provide a hidden benefit: they're also a fort! The lands of France are hard to attack into as you've got nice patches of +50% defense all over the place.

I've had a couple France games where well-placed Chateaus helped shore up the defenses against the neighbors. And remember: who cares if the neighbors dislike you? That's what being French is all about!
 
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