Advice on my first shot at an SE game?

[Cliftor]

I tended to be a builder even in past games and while I had Civ4 vanilla too, but I just finished my first BTS game on my new computer and I'm in the mood to be shook up even more (most of the new changes were really fun).

I did a standard builder CE game, but now I wanna try a warmongering SE game with sights on an earlier win. I've read JackOfClubs guide.

My simple questions:

1) Do you think I should do Epic or Marathon speed to allow more turns for early warfare? The tendency for early wars to last "centuries" really bugs me.
2) I am really psyched for Imperialism and Great Generals now that I've tried them. For picking my "n00b crutch" leader for my first SE game, think I should go Phi/Agg or Phi/Imp?
3) Standard size Pangaea with 13 civs advisable? I've also never tried that map.

 

[zbelg]

1. I'd say Marathon, it's probably a personal preference but if you can stand the wait I think as many turns as possible is better for war. Even in Epic I tend to feel rushed to attack before my enemies can outtech my army.

2. I'd think Phi/Imp would be much better. Aggressive is a good trait, but Philosophical and Imperialistic have great synergy to produce Great Generals, and it'll help you expand early. You won't be able to get a barracks up as fast in captured cities, but with all the generals you'll have, losing that extra promotion shouldn't matter too much.

can't help you on 3 much, as I don't really have a platform to speak on, I play fractal almost always. I guess it'd be better if you don't want to focus on a navy, but I've always really liked taking undefended coastal cities by surprise when I play aggressively.

 

[Gwynnja]

I tended to be a builder even in past games and while I had Civ4 vanilla too, but I just finished my first BTS game on my new computer and I'm in the mood to be shook up even more (most of the new changes were really fun).

I did a standard builder CE game, but now I wanna try a warmongering SE game with sights on an earlier win. I've read JackOfClubs guide.

My simple questions:

1) Do you think I should do Epic or Marathon speed to allow more turns for early warfare? The tendency for early wars to last "centuries" really bugs me.
2) I am really psyched for Imperialism and Great Generals now that I've tried them. For picking my "n00b crutch" leader for my first SE game, think I should go Phi/Agg or Phi/Imp?
3) Standard size Pangaea with 13 civs advisable? I've also never tried that map.

I'm no expert on the SE, but I think that a Phi/Spi would help you out more than an aggressive leader or imperialistic leader. IMHO, Charismatic is a better warmongering trait than Agg or Imp. Alexander is the Ag/Phi leader, his UU is an ancient era guy, but I don't really consider it that much better of a unit than a regular axeman unless you happen to be warring with someone with horses, in which case, bring a couple spears. Phi/Imp is Suilieman, his unit isn't enabled until gunpowder. Gandhi's UU is a worker. lasts all game but it's value is in the early game when every worker turn counts towards a resource being hooked up or forest chopped that much sooner. I love the spiritual trait; being able to switch into and out of slavery every five turns to prevent that nasty slave revolt event is money, not to mention switching from theocracy to OR before and after wars is nice too. I vote Gandhi.

 

[lovetramy]

play the turks Suleiman that what you like . He is Phi/Imp , UB provide +2 happiness and health so you can have bigger city . UU is Jan , very good for war if you have gunpower first . Better is if you do SE you likely have Lib around 400-600 AD , pick Nationalism for free tech then you have Jan like 700 AD . Just draft evey city except ur main scientist city maybe , built some cat already and go for total ownage

 

[MrBrown]

There's no absolute reason to use Philosophical with SE. If you're going for warmongering over teching, I'd rather use a good offensive leader, do 1 or 2 science cities (depending on map size), and the rest as production cities bumping out units. You might not out-tech the AIs, but you will out-produce them... and that's what counts in wars. My picks would be Tokugawa, Stalin or Genghis Khan.

 

[Sisiutil]

1. Marathon rocks for warmongering, but I find the early turns to be tedious. If you play Marathon, I recommend playing with an advanced start.
2. While I agree with MrBrown, since this is your first attempt at a SE, I'd nevertheless recommend a Philosophical leader. You're bound to make some mistakes/non-optimal moves, and being Philosophical will be more forgiving. Combine that with one of the warmonger traits: Aggressive (Alexander), Imperialistic (Suleiman), or Charismatic (Lincoln). Note that each of these has a UU that emerges in a different era, so you may want to partly base your decision on when you plan on warring: the Greek Phalanx is available early, the Ottoman Janissary in mid-game, and the American Navy SEAL comes late.
3. I think you'll find 13 civs on one standard sized-land mass to be awfully packed, complicating your diplomacy, especially if you start in the middle of the land mass, surrounded by potential enemies, rather than in a nice easily-defended corner. I'd keep that # of civs and go to a large map, which would also suit the higher turn-set you're thinking of.

 

[TinkerJohn]

When I first took the SE plunge, I found that reading the SE guide on these forums was very helpful. After that I set myself a couple goals in my games to optimize my success.

Build the Pyramids
Build the Great Library
Have small cities where its OK to just have courthouse/library/granary then just build research.
Commit myself to bulbing every scientist until I have Liberalism

When I started a game with these 4 goals in mind (as Ghandi. Spiritual later is so freaking good with the flexibility of a SE economy) I found I had a much tighter and more successful game then trying to juggle many things at once and experiment with SE.

Oh, and for leaders, Lincoln as Americas is basically not having a UU or UB at all. Alexander's UU is ok, but nothing amazing. Only Suleiman has a UU that really rocks the pants off other units for when it appears. As far as traits, I'm not sold on Aggressive, but Imperialistic or Charismatic would be awsome, especially late game when you can produce super soldiers. I love having a city able to crank out Special Forces quality troops of all levels later in the game.

 

[Iranon]

How early do you want to win? Peter has impressive SE traits, and his UB fits extremely well even though it also comes very late.

If you think the game is over before you got much out of Research Institutes, Suleyman is indeed attractive... Janissaries are a force to be reckoned with if you're the only one with gunpowder.