Is it easier, or is it me?

I was like 12 years old when I bought Civ II. In those days I never read a game manual, and Civ II manual were HUGE. I know for instance that it took me several years before I figured out that the number on the city actually meant how big the city was. Actually I never understood the game mechanics at all. I just wanted to fight and build great wonders

Dekraa said:

I was like 12 years old when I bought Civ II. In those days I never read a game manual, and Civ II manual were HUGE. I know for instance that it took me several years before I figured out that the number on the city actually meant how big the city was. Actually I never understood the game mechanics at all. I just wanted to fight and build great wonders

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I remember starting to play Civ I and not knowing how to change what the city was building (we didn't own a mouse, so we played keyboard only). Playing with only militia units was *very* challenging.

Later on, I remember my older brother telling me that Despotism was the best government option in the game and that it wasn't worth it to switch. The game suddenly got way easier when I realized that was bad advice.

Listen, I've won on immortal once and just got my little self trounced on deity. I don't want to hear about this game being too easy.

In all seriousness, I think that the game settings are much more useful. Now you actually will attempt the higher difficulties. In civ iii and iv, I wouldn't even bother - it just wasn't fun.

Now I'm going to play a game on prince as Egypt, hog all the wonders, and regain my pride.

I think the difficulty feels easier as the only real problem the AI has, is to capture cities effectively. What I'm missing (haha, or not) is the feeling I had in previous games, that when a strong AI decleared war, and I saw them coming in hordes. I knew this was over. I'm not as afraid of a war longer.

Haha

I shouldn't have said that. "I never lost a city in Civ V." I played on immortal and came up with the Hunn as my neighbour. I didn't think of his horses special unit and his battering ram, so when he decided to backstab me, I was no more. He was quick, and effecient, I didn't feel a thing

Yes. This game IS easier. It is also more complicated though, and has plenty of difficulty levels so I haven't minded.

The reason I would agree with you is that after not playing any civ at all for 4 years of college I bought civ V and played 3-4 games without any outside help. Started on King and won. Then played emporer and won. Then played immortal and won my first cultural victory (previously science). I think I lost my second immortal game due to an early rush by Russia though, so that became my level. No other civ game have I had to immediately bump up to immortal level to lose. And this was BEFORE I really understood all the aspects of the game. I just kinda read the building/civ/policy descriptions in-game and winged it. I started on GnK so maybe it was easier then vanilla or BNW?

Regardless, after fine-tuning my game I beat my first Deity as only my 5th or 6th game. Not nearly as proficiently as some of the players and youtube videos I've since seen here, but it WAS a legit science victory complete with wiping out neighbor Korea at war--no turtling for me

This does seem strange to me though, because civ V feels pretty well polished and has more things to keep up with. My guess is the AI is just worse at grasping the new mechanics then we, players, are.

Primacide said:

Now you actually will attempt the higher difficulties. In civ iii and iv, I wouldn't even bother - it just wasn't fun.

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Well, the HOF tables are proof of the fact that all Civ games always have been played and beaten at the highest levels available (actually they were designed to be beatable) - and the people who did it obviously had fun doing so.
So the fact that you you (or me or whoever) is not able (or not having fun) to beat Civ V, IV, III or whatever on the highest level does not tell us anything about the game itself or whether it's too hard or to easy. It only tells us something about individual playing abilities...

Is easier. 1UPT makes things a lot easier, you can stop armies of 5x your power with some walls and ranged units. Also I think AI got more bonuses than ever, but that doesn't change the fact you can control them with military.

gps said:

Well, the HOF tables are proof of the fact that all Civ games always have been played and beaten at the highest levels available (actually they were designed to be beatable) - and the people who did it obviously had fun doing so.
So the fact that you you (or me or whoever) is not able (or not having fun) to beat Civ V, IV, III or whatever on the highest level does not tell us anything about the game itself or whether it's too hard or to easy. It only tells us something about individual playing abilities...

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It probably does. I read dan's post about beating the game on deity on his 6th game out and I just feel like a failure. I have been playing civ longer than many of y'all have been alive I think. I appreciate being gently called an idiot.

Ima buy out the company you work for, dude.

Dekraa said:

Haha

I shouldn't have said that. "I never lost a city in Civ V." I played on immortal and came up with the Hunn as my neighbour. I didn't think of his horses special unit and his battering ram, so when he decided to backstab me, I was no more. He was quick, and effecient, I didn't feel a thing

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Oh yeah, early on the Hunn ram unit demands respect, a couple of those can take an early city down in just a few attacks and the Hunns always send a lot of support with them. Never like them as neighbors, can recall the first time he strolled in and I was thinking, "eh, I have enough archers for this", nope lol. Didn't realize just how much damage to a city they can do.

It is too bad the ai isn't that threatening through the whole game.

In addition to all the 1upt stuff, wars are also less scary because of the changes to the pillaging rules.

The AI will still pillage all your improvements if they can't take the city itself. But it only takes 2 turns to repair pillaged improvements, and there aren't any slow growers like cottages which can be completely reset. You can bounce back much more quickly after repelling an enemy army.