First of all to start this all off, the reason that I finally decided to make this thread was mainly due to two reasons.
1. With the recent patch, Civ 5 is finally coming at his rightfull place amongst the other civilization games. The changes make the general strategies that also applied to the other games viable, and even more important the one more turn syndrome is back
2. Because this is still a new game and after reading the forums, I think this version has drawn a lot of new players to the genre, or at least awakened the interest of older players.
Now in this small article my intentions are to give players general advice that has proven to improve your gameplay experience in other civilization games.
These will be helpfull if you start out fresh with the game, but even if you are a more experienced player and are having problems with difficulties below Emperor-Immortal.
Ok now on to the first advice and probably the most important of them all, and will be the basis of all the other advices.
Think Broad and Adapt
So this might be a vague term so let me clarify.
Because of the nature of civilization games, and the way every single map is randomly generated, there is not one clear strategy that is better than all others.
You see often questions like Is A better then B or X better then Y, or What is the best strategy. Most often the answer to both questions is neither or none.
Though the discussion of strategies is certainly engouraged, Civilization is not a game where things are black and white.
Also playing games with a playguide next to you or an excel screen that shows you buildorders does not only take a lot away from your gaming experience, it is also very detrimental to your learning experience.
This is actually one of the things that make the civilization series so entertaining.
Every game will be different than the previous ones, and you will use different strategies to get to victory.
So my advice and going into more detail later is this: Every 30-50 turns think of what your general plan will be and what you want to achieve in that time. Adapt to the different things that will happen in the game, and do not be afraid to make different plans at a given moment of the game.
When you start the game off think about what leader you are playing, and what that will mean for your gameplan. A clear example would be Montezuma and Askia are obvious choices for a military strategy because of their Unique Abilities and Unique Units. However sometimes the map generator throws dirt into your plans. If you are playing on an Archipelago type map there is a good chance you will never be able to wage war early.
Which leads me to my second point.
The map is your playing field
As mentioned before since every map is different from the other, your strategies will differ.
Obviously a Pangaea map will play out completely different then an archipelago map. Aside from this obvious example there are a lot of small things that can change your early gameplans, and even mid to lategame plans.
Check your starting position, and make sure you scout out your surroundings.
What kind of resources are next to your starting city, do they involve mining techs, animal husbandry + trapping tech, or calendar techs?
Do you have only 1 luxury in your capitals borders, or do you have 4 different one?
Is your capital coastal or not?
These are all different scenarios where your tech pattern should differ. Do not always go for the immediate writing for that National College, do not always go straight for that expensive Iron Working tech.
Limited luxuries will mean you want to build more cities that give you those extra luxuries.
Also how much other Civilizations and city states are close to you, and how close are they.
If your map has multiple civilizations all in a very tight spot with eachother this will often mean that land is valuable. You will want to grab those valuable strategic spots on the map before the other Civs do, and you should be wary of early aggression of other civilizations because you all are directly limiting eachothers growth and progess.
On the other hand, if you got a lot of open space, you will have more options on your directions. Quiet starts and peacefull economic strategies are most often superior then.
To move on to my third point.
Buildings and Improvements are your friends.
The changes that the new patch has offered us brings back a lot of the old keystrategies and rules of thumb from the older versions.
Civilization is partially an economic simulator, this means that improving your economy is one of the crucial things to playing this game. Unimproved tiles are often halved by its productivity then improved tiles. You want to have workers improving tiles that your cities are working.
If your city has a population of 5, you will work 5 tiles, and you want to have an improvement on those.
To give a general rule of thumb that also applies to Civ 5, you want to have at least a 2/3 ratio of workers to cities (some people even do a 1 worker for 1 city). So if you have 6 cities you want to have 4 workers, 3 cities 2 workers.
Also buildings are now crucial to improving your civilizations productiveness. Do not be afraid to make buildings, but also do not build every single building in your city. Which leads me back to the first advice. An obvious example would be if you have a grassland city surrounded by 4 cows, you want to build that stable as soon as possible. By building that stable it will double the production rate of that city. On the other hand some cities do not require certain buildings. Though markets and libraries are geat buildings. Building a library in a city with almost no food resources and 2 stagnant population is a waste, and a city without any towns or gold generating luxuries will make that market much less usefull.
Now because this article gets immense I will go on to my last point and advice.
You are not alone in this world
While an obvious statement by itself, it is funny to see people not apply this same rule to their civ games. Other civilizations (and city states in Civ 5) will drastically change the way the entire game plays out. Scout them out, talk to them, interact with them whenever you can. If you spawn next to Montezuma on a 20 tile island, you know you are in trouble. Do not go blindly into that granary into NC opening.
Make sure you are aware which civilizations you are playing against. Open those diplomatic windows. Check how much cities your opponents have, what kind of land they possess, do they covet resources you offer, do you want luxuries they offer. Do they have access to Iron or Horses, do they hate you or do they hate that civilization that is in between. As a general rule of thumb open the diplomacy screen about every 10 turns to make you aware of what is happening in the world, and what kind of advantages these can give you.
All these things can have dramatic impacts on your game, and should be things that can make you radically change your gameplans. If you simply enter yourself through the turns, and focus only on your own little empire it will make the game not only less fun, you will also lose out on great opportunities in the game, and it can even make you get steamrolled by the AI or quit the game because that Catherina really got too big.
Now to summarize and finish this article.
Think for yourself and change your strategies depending on what happens in the game. Think about your economy, and certainly do not forget about your friendly neighbourhood Monty.
1. With the recent patch, Civ 5 is finally coming at his rightfull place amongst the other civilization games. The changes make the general strategies that also applied to the other games viable, and even more important the one more turn syndrome is back
2. Because this is still a new game and after reading the forums, I think this version has drawn a lot of new players to the genre, or at least awakened the interest of older players.
Now in this small article my intentions are to give players general advice that has proven to improve your gameplay experience in other civilization games.
These will be helpfull if you start out fresh with the game, but even if you are a more experienced player and are having problems with difficulties below Emperor-Immortal.
Ok now on to the first advice and probably the most important of them all, and will be the basis of all the other advices.
Think Broad and Adapt
So this might be a vague term so let me clarify.
Because of the nature of civilization games, and the way every single map is randomly generated, there is not one clear strategy that is better than all others.
You see often questions like Is A better then B or X better then Y, or What is the best strategy. Most often the answer to both questions is neither or none.
Though the discussion of strategies is certainly engouraged, Civilization is not a game where things are black and white.
Also playing games with a playguide next to you or an excel screen that shows you buildorders does not only take a lot away from your gaming experience, it is also very detrimental to your learning experience.
This is actually one of the things that make the civilization series so entertaining.
Every game will be different than the previous ones, and you will use different strategies to get to victory.
So my advice and going into more detail later is this: Every 30-50 turns think of what your general plan will be and what you want to achieve in that time. Adapt to the different things that will happen in the game, and do not be afraid to make different plans at a given moment of the game.
When you start the game off think about what leader you are playing, and what that will mean for your gameplan. A clear example would be Montezuma and Askia are obvious choices for a military strategy because of their Unique Abilities and Unique Units. However sometimes the map generator throws dirt into your plans. If you are playing on an Archipelago type map there is a good chance you will never be able to wage war early.
Which leads me to my second point.
The map is your playing field
As mentioned before since every map is different from the other, your strategies will differ.
Obviously a Pangaea map will play out completely different then an archipelago map. Aside from this obvious example there are a lot of small things that can change your early gameplans, and even mid to lategame plans.
Check your starting position, and make sure you scout out your surroundings.
What kind of resources are next to your starting city, do they involve mining techs, animal husbandry + trapping tech, or calendar techs?
Do you have only 1 luxury in your capitals borders, or do you have 4 different one?
Is your capital coastal or not?
These are all different scenarios where your tech pattern should differ. Do not always go for the immediate writing for that National College, do not always go straight for that expensive Iron Working tech.
Limited luxuries will mean you want to build more cities that give you those extra luxuries.
Also how much other Civilizations and city states are close to you, and how close are they.
If your map has multiple civilizations all in a very tight spot with eachother this will often mean that land is valuable. You will want to grab those valuable strategic spots on the map before the other Civs do, and you should be wary of early aggression of other civilizations because you all are directly limiting eachothers growth and progess.
On the other hand, if you got a lot of open space, you will have more options on your directions. Quiet starts and peacefull economic strategies are most often superior then.
To move on to my third point.
Buildings and Improvements are your friends.
The changes that the new patch has offered us brings back a lot of the old keystrategies and rules of thumb from the older versions.
Civilization is partially an economic simulator, this means that improving your economy is one of the crucial things to playing this game. Unimproved tiles are often halved by its productivity then improved tiles. You want to have workers improving tiles that your cities are working.
If your city has a population of 5, you will work 5 tiles, and you want to have an improvement on those.
To give a general rule of thumb that also applies to Civ 5, you want to have at least a 2/3 ratio of workers to cities (some people even do a 1 worker for 1 city). So if you have 6 cities you want to have 4 workers, 3 cities 2 workers.
Also buildings are now crucial to improving your civilizations productiveness. Do not be afraid to make buildings, but also do not build every single building in your city. Which leads me back to the first advice. An obvious example would be if you have a grassland city surrounded by 4 cows, you want to build that stable as soon as possible. By building that stable it will double the production rate of that city. On the other hand some cities do not require certain buildings. Though markets and libraries are geat buildings. Building a library in a city with almost no food resources and 2 stagnant population is a waste, and a city without any towns or gold generating luxuries will make that market much less usefull.
Now because this article gets immense I will go on to my last point and advice.
You are not alone in this world
While an obvious statement by itself, it is funny to see people not apply this same rule to their civ games. Other civilizations (and city states in Civ 5) will drastically change the way the entire game plays out. Scout them out, talk to them, interact with them whenever you can. If you spawn next to Montezuma on a 20 tile island, you know you are in trouble. Do not go blindly into that granary into NC opening.
Make sure you are aware which civilizations you are playing against. Open those diplomatic windows. Check how much cities your opponents have, what kind of land they possess, do they covet resources you offer, do you want luxuries they offer. Do they have access to Iron or Horses, do they hate you or do they hate that civilization that is in between. As a general rule of thumb open the diplomacy screen about every 10 turns to make you aware of what is happening in the world, and what kind of advantages these can give you.
All these things can have dramatic impacts on your game, and should be things that can make you radically change your gameplans. If you simply enter yourself through the turns, and focus only on your own little empire it will make the game not only less fun, you will also lose out on great opportunities in the game, and it can even make you get steamrolled by the AI or quit the game because that Catherina really got too big.
Now to summarize and finish this article.
Think for yourself and change your strategies depending on what happens in the game. Think about your economy, and certainly do not forget about your friendly neighbourhood Monty.
