I`m still in my first game, but it went far enough that i can share some thoughts.
Prince (i usualy play King, toned it down to learn the ropes) ,Huge Continents, randomized, 18 civs (i like it when its crowded and i heard a lot about AI being too peacefull, so i tried to counter that with high competition), 30 CS's (same as with civs), Epic speed (i never play normal, as eras just fly too fast for me to enjoy them), Poland
Started out between two rivers on a large plains i north east corner of my gargantuan continent. I was pretty much blocked from the sea by mountains, snow in the north and Lhasa on the east, my southern border was a medium sized desert with some lakes on it and Indonesia right behind that. West i had amazing grassland with loads of cattle (ducal stables = i like cattle) but it was actualy a natural land for the Netherlands that were my closest neighbor. To the north i had a militaristic city state (dont remember right now wich one) and to south-west i had mountains and Polynesia beyond them.
Besides my immidiete neighbours, there was Spain to the south west of Polynesia, Mongolia to its east, Then a line of city states, Siam and the Ottomans, and even further south Portugal and Sweden, both of which were pretty much locked away in their own southern corner, not playing any part in the world until the XVth century (i didnt even discover them until like XIIth).
With my twin rivers and large plains (and the lovely grasslands of the Netherlands) i decided to go tradition first and focus on population, though later i also took liberty, despite knowing i wont use it to full extent, as i planned on around 7-8 cities. Amsterdam was my obvious first target, even though it was also a natural trading partner i wanted those grasslands and i wanted the Netherlands out of the way. Still, no option for a realy early agression, as i was barely able to support any army at all due to lack of gold. So i went straight for Writing, snatched Great Library, took Drama and Poetry for free and jumped era for a free socpol. Still had no trade routes, still had little to no gold, so went for Maths to get Hanging Gardens, while working on ducal stables to get some cash from pastures.
In the meantime William, who went heavy Piety as it turned out, founded a religion and gave it a reformation belief (+2 tourism from religious buildings, pagodas in this case), so i decided to completly skip religion and just steal it from the Netherlands. By the time i got the Gardens up i had three cities, composite bowmen, and CS trade routes to fuel up more units, pumped two catapults and spearman. I became best buds with Siam, mostly because Indonesia was a rising military power (1st in Army size for like forever) and the cultural-playing Siam felt threatened.
Finally, around -300, the first war started: Indonesians took Istanbul form the Ottomans BUT they left Suleiman with a city right in the middle of indonesian territory (???). That was a signal for me, that its time to start. I took Amsterdam with little to no problems (Will was so focused on religion and trade he barely had any units, I guess he though his Goddes of Protection city strenght bonus will suffice. It didnt.
Then things changed. Suddenly, becouse of the Warmonger thing, i became a pariah of the world, no one except Siam would talk to me, denouncements were flying at me left and right. So i actually spared William, left him with a city tucked away in the snow, to avoid getting even more hatred from the world. Instead i started focusing on the new culture game. Made it for a late Parthenon, and started pumping some tourism.
Now, i actually thought that tourism will not matter at all untill modern era, but as i accumulated more and more it quickly turned out i was really getting high influence with the broken Netherlands (shared religion, Trade routes) and Ottomans (no bonuses, so slower progression, but they sucked at culture. Spain, Polynesia and Siam as it turned out also went for culture, and my best friend Ramkhenhang (or whatever that guy's name is) soon denounced me out of the blue when i built yet another culture wonder (Globe Theatre). At that time i was on my own and the entire continent was hostile or at least guarded.
Fortunatly trade routes dont need acceptance, so i made ton of money with my caravans running from Warsaw and Amsterdam to Honolulu and Jakarta. My army was solid, culture and socpols greatest in the known world, tourism rising steadily (Netherlands on Influential at around XIIIth century, Popular with Ottomans,Indonesia and Byzantium). My biggest problem was the fact that i was still completly landlocked. No ships to explore, no sea trade routes. I was starting to worry how am i going to get influential on the other continent without it and what would world congress do to me. Unfortunatly the only sensible location for a city was, well, the location of Lhasa. The world hated me anyway.
Took Lhasa surprisingly easy, in one turn, and i finally had a port. I quickly sent trade ships to Edirne (to get fast Influential with Ottomans), pumped out some caravels (that i just teched) and sent them on an exploring spree. That is when, finally i met Sweden and Portugal, and since Sweden did not know me when i commited genocide in Amsterdam and Lhasa, they quickly became my friends, as i started to create a coalition against my former friends in Siam, who, after conquering the entire (two cities) Mongolia, became even more hated, then i was. Soon i had good relations with Sweden, Portugal and Indonesia, enough to be quite secure, and the Swedish GP bonus was a nice addition. The byzantines were a bit schizophrenic, DoF-ing in one turn, Denouncing in anotther, then DoF-ing again after the denouncement faded.
The hatred towards Siam brought on a period of warfare on an unprecedented scale, as Spain, Polynesia, Indonesia, Byzantium, Sweden and Portugal all fought against the Siam-Ottoman alliance, with... shall we say "mixed" results. Spain failed utterly as it had throughout the game, accomplishing nothing, signing an early peace and enjoying being locked away in their corner (and they didnt even properly colonize that). Byzantium failed twice, once against Siam, as they too signed a worthles peace, and for the second time when they lost a city to Indonesia in a 5 turn war. Polynesia got what they wanted and took Muang Seluang, Siams city bordering their territory, after which Kamehameha withdrew. Indonesia crashed repeatedly against Siams capital, but were just unable to breach the walls, no matter how hard they tried. The true victor of the war was Sweden. The far-south nation took most of Siam's original cities (4), leaving just the capital and the post-mogolian puppets. Suddenly Gustavus rose from a leader of an unimportant southern weakling to one of the greatest powers on the continent.
The world entered Renessaince, and then Industrial era (well, i did at least) and yet... still no World Congress! I finally found the other continent and found Venice, Babylon and Egypt on its western shore, all three being best friends and not hesitating a minute before telling me how happy they are that i became friends with their best friends. Still no Congress though, and it was already XVIth century. Finally! Polynesia found that one civ (the Inca) that got stuck landlocked and coused such trouble! Now we know that the last civs are: The Inca, The Celts, Persia and England! No, scratch that, next turn England is done for, as the Celts march triumphantly into London. So there's 16 of us now.
That almost brings us to were I finished, with just a couple of final acts: The fall of Ottoman culture, as it completly succumbed to polish influence, and the polish industrialization (3 factories) that led to the rise of the first ideology: The Polish Freedom. I hope to see how history goes from here on tonight, after i can finally get back from work.
Now, quick notes on BNW: Love it. Adore it. Its awesome. Simple changes such as Piety available from the start, realy give a lot of additional depth in both immersion and tactics. Trade routes are vital and incredible, giving the game a whole new layer. Reformation beliefs and revamped piety realy did good things for religion. The Culture system is awesome, and its great, that it can be usefull even in mid game.
I do have a couple of, bigger and smaller, dislikes though.
First and foremost it does seem to be true (even though i know its too early to tell with not even one full game) that AI agression is too low, and even though i get why, especialy in the very early game, i would prefer to see a bit more warfare in classical era, once you actually can field some units.
Second (a small one): i`d like to be able to see all the trade routes, not just my own, and that does not seem to be possible (i know, i see them when i get a coursor over a caravan or a cargo ship, but i mean without it).
Third: Open Borders. They used to be almost automatic, now they seem to be realy hard to get. Okay, its fine. But the problem is, that that interferes with World Congress. A civ with one or two landlocked city, and suddenly its realy hard to find, since no one wants to give OB to anyone (this time it was the Inca)
Fourth: I really think that Influential should... well do something. The culturaly dominated Civ should have a high positive diplomatic modiffier, a forced alliance or something. Right now its just... Yeah, okay, theyre mine. And thats it. No actuall effect. That seems just... underwhelming and breaks immersion, at least for me.
And fifth: I kinda feel like in mid to late game trade routes give a tad too much gold, i think either other sources should be nerfed further or trade routes should be scaled down a tad.
TLDR: Loads of fun, love it.
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Time to tone down to prince.
