Anybody else finding the game takes ages after BNW?

[GoodSarmatian]

Actually think it's intentional that Science, Culture and Diplomatic victories are more difficult to achieve. CV is easier to defend against... if you keep an eye on other civs influence over you, you can take steps to counter with GWs or boosting culture output via other means - CS, buildings, etc. And Wide empires are a little more penalized in the Science game to avoid serious runaway games. I have no complaints over the changes, myself. Think it adds more to the game (then again never did care for a game that lasted less than 500 turns...).

One of the issues/complaints that BNW set out to fix was that there is very little to do after a certain point in the game unless you go to war, so it was indeed intentional to prolong the post-renaissance game. It doesn't take more turns than pre-BNW in my experience, but it gives you more to do per turn. I don't think I ever won a culture victory earlier than 1800 befoer BNW, but I've managed it a couple of times since.

 

[Browd]

But having my borders open to them doesn't help, does it? It only helps their tourism rate - or am I wrong about that?

I often find that if the AI dislikes me, they will happily pay for my open borders, but no amount of money or resources will get them to open their borders to me.

You don't want to do reciprocal open borders. You want the AI to open its borders to you, while you keep your borders closed.

 

[blackcatatonic]

You don't want to do reciprocal open borders. You want the AI to open its borders to you, while you keep your borders closed.

That's what I thought. Unfortunately the AI thinks the same way

 

[blackcatatonic]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice - I just won a Culture victory with France on T314

I was lucky enough to get all the GW theming Wonders in Paris (although I didn't manage to get the theming bonuses for Broadway or the Louvre before the end of the game), but I think the biggest help was not opening Piety and resisting the urge to spam non-essential Wonders. I had a nice start with a few sources of Silver and Gold, so with Religious Idols I didn't need Stonehenge or Piety.