Civilization V at Gamescom Cologne
Hey there, I had the opportunity to play Civ V at the Gamescom in Cologne yesterday and I´d like to share some thoughts and impressions about it. As there weren´t that many people there on Thursday morning I could start 3 games and watched some other guys play the game, too.
It took me a few minutes to get used to the new interface. I searched a bit find the options and menus, like switching off the tile yields display. Also the unit commands are now on the left side instead of down below, which is unusual. Every button and indicator is much smaller than before, definitely harder to find and identify what your looking for, thank god they had 25 screens there. But after about five minutes I got used to it and could concentrate on the gameplay, the same old key binds helped, too.
Hex tiles: As others have stated before, its easy to grasp and use, its like Civ (should) have always been. Unit movement is quick and simple, you can swiftly decide where your worker turns should go, where to buy new city hex tiles, and even find reasonable good locations for new cities. Road building is simple, too, just pave towards the approx. target direction.
Social policies: They seem really fun and improve the game quite well, as these policies add varied, meaningful choices and give culture some much needed excitement. The first one comes after 25 turns (eight for France), where you can choose between three big policies (extra settler production, better fighting against barbs or extra food in the capital), which may set the tone for the rest of the game. But if you don´t focus on culture they become quite infrequent later on, because the costs increase fast. Even in my game with the Aztecs, which get extra culture when winning battles, and a start in classic times I got only three policies in like 100 turns.
Buildings: There seems to be more buildings compared to previous titles, but they enhance the specialization of cities even further. For example watermills gives two extra food like the granary (100 hammer), if the city is on a river for 120 hammers, or the blacksmith (15% extra hammer for units) and the workshop (20% extra hammers for buildings) help specialize cities.
Overall terrain requirements like river/fresh water for the garden (25% great person generation), horses nearby for stables, a mountain for citchen itza, or gold/gems for the mint add an extra strategic layer for your city placement. For example you can choose between a food heavy, great person route, a gold heavy city with lots of trade posts, a military route or a science city.
City States: One of the best additions to the game, if not the best. One the one hand you can set your sight on capturing one of them and experience a limited early game war without ruining diplomatic relations for the rest of the game. Or you can try to befriend them for powerful boni. You need 30 influence to become friendly with them and for example get 1 extra food (two in the capital) from maritime states or gifted units from military ones. At this point you can also declare to protect them from other civilizations. And with another 30 influence you ally with them and these city states share all their resources with you. They even give nice, small side quests like requesting help against barbs, destroy a nearby city state or find another civilization they have heard of.
Happiness: I must admit I neglected this at first, but got caught up on that pretty fast. If your people are unhappy, growth is seriously stunned (-75%), at which point you will switch your cities to production to churn out those theatres and colloseum.
Overall I got the impression of a constant change between phases of rapid growth, where your population seems to explode, alternating with phases of stagnation, where buildup/hammer and gold are encouraged. I really liked that, because it adds some nice historic touch to your civilization, simulating real ancient empires.
Note that excess happiness accumulates towards a golden age, and if its negative the counter is decreased.
Workers: Their build times are between Civ IV normal and epic speed: roads and chopping takes three turns, farms, plantations and mines take 6, and that is increased on tundra by +33%. Removing forests gives 20 hammer, but doesn't change the tile yield on plains (1food/1hammer), so it just gives more mobility and extra hammers without drawbacks, so there may be some mass deforestation early on?
Golden Age: They give the usual boni to hammers and gold, and its really helpful, because these are harder to come by than food and therefore more valuable compared to Civ IV imho. In my first game I got a great general by taking out a nearby city state and his GA gave a huge boost to my economy. The length of Golden Ages can vary greatly as the first Great Persons starts one for 8 turns, and the following ones are reduced by 3 (?) turns to a minimum of three turns. My only Golden Age through accumulated happiness took also 8 turns, and there is a 6 turn golden age through the reformation social policy.
Miscellaneous:
Mini quest: All cities want a specific luxury, if you acquire that one the city celebrates We love the king days and receives +25% growth for 20 turns, after that the citizens want a new luxury.
Rush Buy: You can only buy full the complete unit/building, there is no more partial rushing.
City growth is 15/22/30/40/51 food for the first 5 pop, so the formula is around pop + (1+pop)*7.5 ?
Its a steeper curve than before, that makes it a difficult choice between many small cities, or a few big ones with powerful modifiers, which is good.
Hey there, I had the opportunity to play Civ V at the Gamescom in Cologne yesterday and I´d like to share some thoughts and impressions about it. As there weren´t that many people there on Thursday morning I could start 3 games and watched some other guys play the game, too.
It took me a few minutes to get used to the new interface. I searched a bit find the options and menus, like switching off the tile yields display. Also the unit commands are now on the left side instead of down below, which is unusual. Every button and indicator is much smaller than before, definitely harder to find and identify what your looking for, thank god they had 25 screens there. But after about five minutes I got used to it and could concentrate on the gameplay, the same old key binds helped, too.
Hex tiles: As others have stated before, its easy to grasp and use, its like Civ (should) have always been. Unit movement is quick and simple, you can swiftly decide where your worker turns should go, where to buy new city hex tiles, and even find reasonable good locations for new cities. Road building is simple, too, just pave towards the approx. target direction.
Social policies: They seem really fun and improve the game quite well, as these policies add varied, meaningful choices and give culture some much needed excitement. The first one comes after 25 turns (eight for France), where you can choose between three big policies (extra settler production, better fighting against barbs or extra food in the capital), which may set the tone for the rest of the game. But if you don´t focus on culture they become quite infrequent later on, because the costs increase fast. Even in my game with the Aztecs, which get extra culture when winning battles, and a start in classic times I got only three policies in like 100 turns.
Buildings: There seems to be more buildings compared to previous titles, but they enhance the specialization of cities even further. For example watermills gives two extra food like the granary (100 hammer), if the city is on a river for 120 hammers, or the blacksmith (15% extra hammer for units) and the workshop (20% extra hammers for buildings) help specialize cities.
Overall terrain requirements like river/fresh water for the garden (25% great person generation), horses nearby for stables, a mountain for citchen itza, or gold/gems for the mint add an extra strategic layer for your city placement. For example you can choose between a food heavy, great person route, a gold heavy city with lots of trade posts, a military route or a science city.
City States: One of the best additions to the game, if not the best. One the one hand you can set your sight on capturing one of them and experience a limited early game war without ruining diplomatic relations for the rest of the game. Or you can try to befriend them for powerful boni. You need 30 influence to become friendly with them and for example get 1 extra food (two in the capital) from maritime states or gifted units from military ones. At this point you can also declare to protect them from other civilizations. And with another 30 influence you ally with them and these city states share all their resources with you. They even give nice, small side quests like requesting help against barbs, destroy a nearby city state or find another civilization they have heard of.
Happiness: I must admit I neglected this at first, but got caught up on that pretty fast. If your people are unhappy, growth is seriously stunned (-75%), at which point you will switch your cities to production to churn out those theatres and colloseum.
Overall I got the impression of a constant change between phases of rapid growth, where your population seems to explode, alternating with phases of stagnation, where buildup/hammer and gold are encouraged. I really liked that, because it adds some nice historic touch to your civilization, simulating real ancient empires.
Note that excess happiness accumulates towards a golden age, and if its negative the counter is decreased.
Workers: Their build times are between Civ IV normal and epic speed: roads and chopping takes three turns, farms, plantations and mines take 6, and that is increased on tundra by +33%. Removing forests gives 20 hammer, but doesn't change the tile yield on plains (1food/1hammer), so it just gives more mobility and extra hammers without drawbacks, so there may be some mass deforestation early on?
Golden Age: They give the usual boni to hammers and gold, and its really helpful, because these are harder to come by than food and therefore more valuable compared to Civ IV imho. In my first game I got a great general by taking out a nearby city state and his GA gave a huge boost to my economy. The length of Golden Ages can vary greatly as the first Great Persons starts one for 8 turns, and the following ones are reduced by 3 (?) turns to a minimum of three turns. My only Golden Age through accumulated happiness took also 8 turns, and there is a 6 turn golden age through the reformation social policy.
Miscellaneous:
Mini quest: All cities want a specific luxury, if you acquire that one the city celebrates We love the king days and receives +25% growth for 20 turns, after that the citizens want a new luxury.
Rush Buy: You can only buy full the complete unit/building, there is no more partial rushing.
City growth is 15/22/30/40/51 food for the first 5 pop, so the formula is around pop + (1+pop)*7.5 ?
Its a steeper curve than before, that makes it a difficult choice between many small cities, or a few big ones with powerful modifiers, which is good.
Just like me 
(and in german it's either bonuses or boni, but boni is more popular nowadays)
