Civ illustrated: New series of Strategy Articles under construction

[Dr.Null]

Nice write-up!

Spoiler :

Needs more swimsuit.

 

[Handel]

I would like suggest not to forget the empire building players too

 

[Doshin]

Looks good! I look forward to reading all 50 or so pages...

Spoiler :

I spotted two typos: 1. 'either you're with the good, or your with the bad.'; 2. 'aquire friendly status.'

 

[Seraiel]

Fantastic stuff! Can't wait to see the rest.

Thx

Clear, Concise, Comprehensive and surprisingly noob-friendly. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to the entries of some of the more ridiculous AI's.

More ridiculous than Alexander? Whom do you mean? Alexander is already one of the worst Warmongers in the whole game that can DoW extremely early because of the availability of Phalanxes .

Nice write-up!

Spoiler :

Needs more swimsuit.

Thx

Spoiler :

We'll work on that, but we are only allowed to use certain pictures from the game or from the site.

I would like suggest not to forget the empire building players too

What do you mean? The guide is about the AI behaviour, not about playing the leader onesself. The ways to deal with Alexander are mentioned, you either join his wars (and conquer the world) or you better keep him busy so he won't attack you (basically) .

Looks good! I look forward to reading all 50 or so pages...

Spoiler :

I spotted two typos: 1. 'either you're with the good, or your with the bad.'; 2. 'aquire friendly status.'

Thx! Will correct that asap (not in this post but in the final version) .

Sera

P.S.: As said, we're still looking for Contributors, so if this catche your eyes and you wanna work with other high-lvl-gamers and read anything first hand... .

 

[Handel]

What do you mean? The guide is about the AI behaviour, not about playing the leader onesself. The ways to deal with Alexander are mentioned, you either join his wars (and conquer the world) or you better keep him busy so he won't attack you (basically) .

Ah, I don't mean about this guide; I mean about the whole process of playing as "empire builder".

 

[Seraiel]

So you mean that we should write a guide on which buildings are needed under which circumstances?

 

[Pangaea]

Nice write-up!

Spoiler :

Needs more swimsuit.

We're looking for locations and a good photographer...

 

[MrKlew]

This does indeed look helpful. Those kind of diplomatic nuances and strategies certainly could help a lot of people up their level.

So you mean that we should write a guide on which buildings are needed under which circumstances?

If you guys do get a bunch of extra time on your hands and want to help us aspiring players out, I would like to see something like that. I mean I know your production cities get forges and mines and your Wall Street city is going to get commerce multipliers and cottages. But what do you do with that plains city you founded to claim the horses or that tundra city that got the whales and fur or that fishing village or...?

 

[Pangaea]

Would love something like that too. Feel I have been pestering Seraiel a bit about specialising cities guide in his replays and such, but I hope a guide about that will be forthcoming at some point. Think the current city specialising guides are too general and don't really say much about which buildings should go where, and in what sequence. More about "poor" cities would be great too. Do we kind of give them our middle finger and build wealth or workers or something like that, or do we try to make them into something more?

 

[Dr.Null]

So you mean that we should write a guide on which buildings are needed under which circumstances?

Actually that may be pretty obvious once the player knows what circumstances will come. I think it'd be better to show new players how to plan civics moves and why to do so, by showing them how to plan for specific victory condition, and therefore how to pick a victory condition and achieve it.

For example, the strategy of GA -> Caste System (to starve cities for Scientists) -> back to Slavery. It's a solid use of a civic that looks obvious after I read about it here, but it's not something to do just for its own sake. It's got to be in service of a victory condition.

 

[Handel]

So you mean that we should write a guide on which buildings are needed under which circumstances?

I know it is impossible to cover all the bases. I hope something like general guide of the basic of empire building. The steps up to gunpowder are discussed a lot in the forum. But after that maybe there are different possible routes for development, which I guess depend on the victory conditions, the map type and even the speed, the relative strength of the human player etc.

 

[Seraiel]

This does indeed look helpful. Those kind of diplomatic nuances and strategies certainly could help a lot of people up their level.

If you guys do get a bunch of extra time on your hands and want to help us aspiring players out, I would like to see something like that. I mean I know your production cities get forges and mines and your Wall Street city is going to get commerce multipliers and cottages. But what do you do with that plains city you founded to claim the horses or that tundra city that got the whales and fur or that fishing village or...?

First: The Wall-street city should always run 7 Merchants (if possible of course) , therefor, Farms are often a better improvement than Cottages (which have no effect at 0% slider) .

For that crap city I'd suggest, "work the good tiles rule" . If it only has 1 good tile, leave it at that size to let it not cause further maintenance. Use it to produce Workers, Missionaries, what ever you need that doesn't take huge .

Would love something like that too. Feel I have been pestering Seraiel a bit about specialising cities guide in his replays and such, but I hope a guide about that will be forthcoming at some point. Think the current city specialising guides are too general and don't really say much about which buildings should go where, and in what sequence. More about "poor" cities would be great too. Do we kind of give them our middle finger and build wealth or workers or something like that, or do we try to make them into something more?

A guide to city specialization will surely come (it has very high priority as many users suggested that already) and I already have an idea on how it will look, but that will remain a secret .

Actually that may be pretty obvious once the player knows what circumstances will come. I think it'd be better to show new players how to plan civics moves and why to do so, by showing them how to plan for specific victory condition, and therefore how to pick a victory condition and achieve it.

For example, the strategy of GA -> Caste System (to starve cities for Scientists) -> back to Slavery. It's a solid use of a civic that looks obvious after I read about it here, but it's not something to do just for its own sake. It's got to be in service of a victory condition.

I think for those kind of questions, the existing Writeups from single players or SGOTM are the best. I personally have very little experience with the different Victory-types, as I've only played for Domination, Conquest and Spacerace up to this point, but maybe I can write such a guide later (or others can help me) ? Strategies and Gambits will get its special Guide, that one's also already on the list.

I know it is impossible to cover all the bases. I hope something like general guide of the basic of empire building. The steps up to gunpowder are discussed a lot in the forum. But after that maybe there are different possible routes for development, which I guess depend on the victory conditions, the map type and even the speed, the relative strength of the human player etc.

I'm not really sure what the question is here. We try to write for medium skilled players that want to move up to high lvls. Covering the basics, that's stuff of the manual (I know, that the Civ manual is horrible, but I could also learn the basics somehow from it and especially by searching this forum, and there's the newbie's-questions thread) . I know that "seeing the big picture" is hard, but it's almost impossible to write a guide on that, that is only aquired through experience, or watching vids / reading writeups.

As with buildings, I try to stick to the "step by step" rule. What do I want? What do I need? What will benefit me best? Those are the questions that I ask myself when I have to decide on something like what to tech next, etc. I think for those kinds of questions, there is also very good advice in these forums here, or, I don't understand what you're asking me. There are guides on modern warfare and ahcos wrote about the techs after Cuirrs 1-2 months ago (can be found via search function) .

Sera

 

[Herodotus Rex]

I love it! Much easier to understand than the leader attitudes spreadsheet - that thing is intimidating for newer players. I like that you've emphasized Phalanx benefits for defense only - I think a lot of people miss that (as with chariot bonus only on offense). I might include a sentence about a decently high chance of an early DoW - only Monty early DoWs me more in my experience.

This might already have made it into an earlier sections, but We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced could be a litter clearer for less advanced players (After 5 Techs what?)

 

[Seraiel]

I love it! Much easier to understand than the leader attitudes spreadsheet - that thing is intimidating for newer players. I like that you've emphasized Phalanx benefits for defense only - I think a lot of people miss that (as with chariot bonus only on offense). I might include a sentence about a decently high chance of an early DoW - only Monty early DoWs me more in my experience.

Got me. I thought of that when writing about HC, about Shaka, but here I forgot. Likeliness of an early DoW from those comes from their early UU (AI DoWs more often if the Capital can build the UU) . Thx!

This might already have made it into an earlier sections, but We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced could be a litter clearer for less advanced players (After 5 Techs what?)

Again, thx for the critique, we'll add that .

Btw.: Didn't you want to be part of the team?

Seraiel

 

[Pangaea]

This might already have made it into an earlier sections, but We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced could be a litter clearer for less advanced players (After 5 Techs what?)

This has been discussed, so I'm delighted this view gets support from the forum too There are just WAY too many acronyms in use as it is, so it would be good to try to prevent that in the guide, so it's easier to read for people who haven't spent a couple of months on the forum.

 

[Seraiel]

ZOMFG 411 N00B5 PLZ G0 4|\|D D13

 

[Pangaea]

:WTH:

Inglesi?

 

[Heathcliff]

Nice post about Alexander.
I miss a section of how strong he is if you play him.

Personally I think he is one of the weaker leaders to play:
Worst starting techs. Aggressive. Weak UB.
The only things nice about his is Philosophical and the UU which can see some use either as part of workerstealing and messing with an AI early. The Axe can also be useful as a part of a Axepult attack before the AI gets horsearchers. Which could be done quite fast because of an early academy in capital thanks to philo.
But the biggest thing that makes him weak is the starting techs, two techs you can often skip and trade for. Because of this every rush you make, will likely become slower than if you did the same thing with another leader.

 

[Seraiel]

:WTH:

Inglesi?

U DUN K|\|0\/\/ 13375P33C|-| ?

Nice post about Alexander.
I miss a section of how strong he is in the hands of a human.

Personally I think he is one of the weaker leaders to play:
Worst starting techs. Aggressive. Weak UB.
The only things nice about his is Philosophical and the UU which can see some use either as part of workerstealing and messing with an AI early. The Axe can also be useful as a part of a Axepult attack before the AI gets horsearchers. Which could be done quite fast because of an early academy in capital thanks to philo.

I forgot the title of the 1st issue, it's called "Know your enemy" after the famous words of Sun Tzu. The guide was / is planned to only handle AI behaviour, because human game is oriented by the "play the map" rule. "Play the leader" is only true in some very rare cases, like Huyana Capac.

Meaining:

1. There'd be very little to write about how to play a specific Civ successfully. There is a lot to write though on how to adapt to a map, which strategies are strong given specific circumstances and for which gambits one can go.
2. We wanted to stick to the topic of the guide, further guides on strategies, tactics and gambits (which are mostly civ-independent, i. e. Elepult, Rifle-drafts, Cuirrassier-wars etc. ) are planned.

I agree with you that Alexander is one of the weaker Civs. His UB can be good for pulling of a Cultural Victory though and 2 early isn't that bad either imo . What I find ridiculous is that the Phalanx only gets defensive bonuses against Chariots and not against mounted and also when attacking. The Phalanx is legendary, but it's representation in Civ is just a joke.

Sera

 

[Krill]

So...is this all about single player strategy?