What makes you smile while playing CIV?

I've been playing this game for close to ten years and there are still a few things that always make me smile.

1) The religious wedding event where you have the option to troll the opposing civ by throwing an outlandish wedding in your religious tradition instead of theirs. It always starts a war when I do it, which is hilarious.

2) Bribing someone into starting a war which results in a domino-effect of bribes or friendly pleas that escalates into a global conflict that lasts for hundreds or thousands of years.

3) Beating an AI settler to a prime location by 1 turn. They do it so much to me that the payback is satisfying.

Let me know what makes you smile while playing!

4) Of late, I have been trolling Sitting Bull in every game he shows up in by sending a steady stream of Spies into his capital to poison his water. That always makes me smile.

Even if the Bullsitter is my friend in that game, I do it anyway on principle.

5) Winning circumnavigation by swapping Literature or Compass to some overseas AI in exchange for their maps (and whatever money they have on hand) is always satisfying, too.

6) Burning down the Apostolic Palace.

nuking people

-winning over a normally dickish AI or a known warmonger as my close ally. Having Alex or Monty as an ally solves tons of problems by having a leashed attack dog ready to occupy an uppity rival's attention, and simultaneously removes them as a threat to you at the same time. In the same way, actually managing to befriend Toku or Sitting Bull means you can flip them into your religion easier and make them a lightning rod of sorts against aggression, especially Sitting Bull who can just soak units for millennia if you turn your enemies at him first or he blocks anybody from getting to you over land. Not all civs work for this despite their tendencies; for instance Ragnar seems to be quite wise to being abused for your benefit and so remains obstinate, while Shaka is more difficult to control as he's not necessarily such a fanatic and will just go after people for simply being around.

-bribing in 1, 2 or even 3 AIs on my aggressor the turn he/she DoWs me in peaceful games where I have the tech lead. I just laugh and think of how screwed they must feel at that point; I only have to resist attack, but they have to fight a multiple front war!

-wiping out my continent in non-Pangaea/Archipelago maps, becoming one of the world super powers.

-taking on a peace vassal under friendly conditions (i.e. they are not in danger of war, they just like me/fear me that much). Huayna or Rameses usually do this to me if we start near each other in most of my games and I'm on the warpath. Though I know how central and important war is to gameplay in general, but I still enjoy feeling benevolent and working with the friendly AIs a whole lot too. One of the greatest things IMO was a game where I forged a Permanent Alliance with Brennus and we won the Space Race together, it was a cool feeling of camaraderie in the normally hostile environment of the Civ4 game world.

Great question. Perhaps the sheer unadulterated egomaniacal audacity of it all, to gain mastery of the globe after starting out in howling wilderness with the barest of means?

When I have the 3 oldest boys over for a family battle royal, and I hear from the kitchen "Boys, fresh cookies are out".

I always love playing the religious diplomatic game--e.g., founding Confucianism and spreading it to a hapless AI who will adopt it and be instantly hated by everyone. So much fun.

Biding my time and keeping the AIs at one another's throats until my forces are ready to strike is a very satisfying part of the game.

And, of course, a successful Impi rush. Doesn't get more delightful than that. Sadly I've yet to pull it off on Deity, though not for lack of trying.

About 20 years ago, whenever my young daughter would see me playing on the computer she'd crawl into my lap and ask me if I had named a city after her yet. Even if I'd forgotten I'd tell her I did but it was on the other side of the world that we couldn't see.

Wiping out an enemy stack 3 or 4 times bigger than mine because I have cannons and they don't

Having Ghandi demand of me to adopt pacifism and then when I don't having him threaten to behead me. You know, the pacifistic approach to solving differences.

Staler87 said:

Having Ghandi demand of me to adopt pacifism and then when I don't having him threaten to behead me. You know, the pacifistic approach to solving differences.

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That would never happen in an unmodded game, as his favourite civic is universal suffrage.

rah said:

About 20 years ago, whenever my young daughter would see me playing on the computer she'd crawl into my lap and ask me if I had named a city after her yet. Even if I'd forgotten I'd tell her I did but it was on the other side of the world that we couldn't see.

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awwwwwwwwwwwww :3

CaiusDrewart said:

And, of course, a successful Impi rush. Doesn't get more delightful than that. Sadly I've yet to pull it off on Deity, though not for lack of trying.

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Yes, that seems VERY hard to do on Deity. Bad odds against Archers in cities and no match for Axes. You don't like Keshiks?


For me it has to be war declarations by the "rabid dog" AIs. "Let's take this stack of Horse Archers and Swordsmen and take all those cities from Gandhi!" "Monty, it's 800AD already...you're a bit late to the party". And so on.

I also like succesful nuke wars a lot, but the planning before that is a pain.

And I like those wins where I am hopelessly backwards compared to the AI yet manage to win by sheer numbers. "Nice, you just got yourself some Grenadiers...how do they do against 50 War Elephants supported by 25 Trebs?"

tranx said:

awwwwwwwwwwwww :3

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Ikr.

It was funny because I'd be in Competitive MP game and guys would ask why I had a city named Katieland. I could never ever let that city be captured.

need my speed said:

That would never happen in an unmodded game, as his favourite civic is universal suffrage.

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It was a modded game. I was playing RI and his favorite civic is then pacifism.