Civ V Beta 1

[CharonJr]

Just finished my first test from a suboptimal starting position (no river) and made some mistakes which slowed me down - in the end I finished in 1872.

IMO the key is puppeting some nice AI cities early on (which I failed to do till turn 200 ).

But I dare to say that beating 1700 will be next to impossible unless you get lucky more than once.

Well, will give it another shot this time with a good starting location, lets see where this might lead

CharonJr

 

[iggymnrr]

Had an idea on puppets. They do build universities so a jungle heavy map with puppet trading posts will help some in the science department. Not sure how much. But I'm playing through leaders and map types now so won't try Arabia for awhile.

 

[S.K. Ren]

I've been trying to figure this out, What is better: 1 City and a small handful of puppet states in key locations (Capitals, Resources, coastal for Trade Routes if on separate landmasses, etc.) or 1 City and a MASSIVE puppet empire. If I try to grab too many puppets, my economy crashes and doesn't recover enough to bribe city states. If I grab too few I start falling behind in the Tech race. So does anyone have a number you can put on this?

 

[iggymnrr]

^
Well I can cay from my Wu 2-city game that 19 puppets can produce 900+ beakers, 330+ gold, and 660 culture pre-GA. Problem was waiting for the AI to spam enough cities to puppetize and a delay in getting the 2nd city out. One city can surely out culture any setup with the problem of teching and production to solve while 2 cities is easier but waiting for the AI is painfully slow. 2 cities may be more workable on say emperor when getting a large empire is faster.

 

[JonoLith]

Well, here's my game. Win in 1969 (Aw yeah.)

Ultimately this was a pretty disappointing game for me. I really think I ended up putting far too much weight on the Cristo Redentor (Or however that's spelled) and wasted alot of great people trying to power up to it.

Major things I did learn though.

1) Until you start getting up into the Modern era it seems like 4 city states is about all you can keep in your pocket at one point. You might be able to squeeze in a few more if you get some lucky missions, but it seems like 4 is the sweet spot.

2) I did not know that the industrial era ups their yield. I wasted alot of time not getting to the industrial era, and it really hurt me.

3) There's an interesting technological bottleneck in the Industrial era where you can get Biology while ignoring alot of tech, but to get steam power and beyond you have to have everything else before it researched. I think I really hurt myself by powering up to certain techs and not getting others, making research pacts much MUCH less appealing to me.

4) Great Scientists and Great Engineers are just better then Great Artists for this. The amount of culture the specialists gives you are really sad compared to the abilities that the other great people have.

5) I can't wait to play with golden ages with the Persians. That should be nuts.

6) A Great Engineer won't finish some of the later game Wonders. It'd be really nice to know exactly how much production they do.

7) The Utopia Project is MAAAAAAASSIVE! It takes forever to build. This is appropriate, but geeze.

Anyway, I don't think I'll try this particular Challenge again, but I'm looking forward to next months!

P.S. I'm just happy to be in the top 10! (Crosses fingers!)

 

[Alraun]

Is there a secret way to regenerate map or did they really take out one of the most important features of this game?

 

[S.K. Ren]

^ Its called 'Exit to Main Menu', 'Single Player', 'Play Now'. Honestly its only 10 sec to actually do it. Also I have a Question: If I make a city and tehn sell it to another country and then conquer it, will I have the option to puppet it?

 

[DaviddesJ]

Is there a secret way to regenerate map or did they really take out one of the most important features of this game?

One might say, on the other hand, that the designers didn't think, "Make it easy for players to construct especially favorable maps," was, in fact, one of the most important features of the game.

 

[oPlaiD]

^ Its called 'Exit to Main Menu', 'Single Player', 'Play Now'. Honestly its only 10 sec to actually do it. Also I have a Question: If I make a city and tehn sell it to another country and then conquer it, will I have the option to puppet it?

It doesn't save any of your custom game setup though, so if you are changing some more advanced settings you have to fill them out EVERY time.

 

[Alraun]

One might say, on the other hand, that the designers didn't think, "Make it easy for players to construct especially favorable maps," was, in fact, one of the most important features of the game.

If it was something that hadn't existed before that they didn't add, you might have a point As it is, I spend more time trying to find a map than I do playing the game itself, which is something that makes me want to give up and get a refund. If you think they shouldn't care that people might want to get a refund on thier game, then you're insane.

 

[ohioastronomy]

One might say, on the other hand, that the designers didn't think, "Make it easy for players to construct especially favorable maps," was, in fact, one of the most important features of the game.

If you're doing a contest like HoF a good score between otherwise competent players is going to involve a good start. It will also involve some random luck, but you can at least make sure it's worth rolling the dice before you start.

I could do without hearing the blurb about the wonders of Arabia so many times, thank you

 

[DaviddesJ]

If you're doing a contest like HoF a good score between otherwise competent players is going to involve a good start.

Sure, no question of that, regenerating maps is very important if you are doing something like HOF. I just don't think the designers of Civ5 considered that supporting the tiny (but impactful) slice of HOF players was among the game's most important features. And I can understand why not.

It might (or might not) be possible to support some form of this in an HOF mod.

 

[Robert_Marshall]

If this is the 'official' stance of the people running the gauntlet, that this is a viable strat and will allow you to win the gauntlet, then I'm going to protest and respectfully not play in it at all. It's too bad, as I was hoping to really get into the fun competitive side of this site and forums finally with Civ 5, but not if exploits of bad game designing are going to be promoted as the way to do it.

I don't like it and hope it is fixed in a patch...I think. I am going to play, but not use it the first time. Then try the exploit to see what I think

 

[pagh80]

Sadly i forgot to save my game the first turn and the autosave got overwritten, so this game cant be accepted i guess.

I still want to post my result for those interrested.(Its rather long, so be warned )
Basically i won at turn 240 - 1650AD but with abit of luck(only 2 cultured city states ) and better use of great scientists it should be possible to shave 10 or so turns of that(maybe more)
I will do some changes in my next game that will hopefully improve the date.

Before i started i had the following plan:

• Make sure to have marble, one other luxury and a long river at your starting position, aswell as a good amount of hills(didnt care much about forrests. I only find them really usefull late in the game with my approach) Btw i had no wheat so that would be nice to have next game.
• Go with one city only and a bunch of puppet cities.
• Get allied with maritime city states first. The food bonus alone for your capital + puppet cities are just better than the extra culture you get from cultured city states. Big puppet cities means more research, more gold and from what i can see also more culture over time from the improvements they make... so id say ally with maritime states first
• For research i wanted to beeline to renaissance for the the full food bonus from maritime states, and unlocking the freedom tree. That would help my capitol grow big to complete wonders faster, get a nice culture bonus from constitution, and to let my puppet cities grow faster.

Now i had different stages i went through:
First was to get to patronage asap by completing great library and philosophy at the same turn(in the meantime make Stonehenge ofc) I got mining from a hub so i went to get masonry first to sell marble early.
Instead of going for civil service i went for theology. There is alot of reasons why i find that more efficient.
First of all you will be able to unlock the freedom tree and get the max food bonus from maritime cities faster, by going Theology -> Education -> Acoustics.
That is absolutely key as you want your capitol to grow big very fast very early.
Second of all: It will let you get to Archaeology faster also.(and astronomy to explore and meet the remaining AIs and city states)
Third of all you wont be able to really use civil service in the beginning anyway, as you want to focus on hammers, to complete library, oracle, national college.

I managed to get to patronage in 57 turns. And chose the city state bonuses. At this point i had saved up 1000 gold to ally with two maritime city states.
Also i tried to push my first golden age as late as possible by selling my luxuries.

At turn 84 i used a great scientist to invent acoustics the same turn i invented education.
At this point i went for consitution for the culture bonus.
I also picked Scolaticism as i would try to ally as many city states as possible, and that research bonus from them is just sweet.(accounted for ~40% of my research at turn 84 xD (with 4 allied city states)
Lastly i also picked Cultural diplomacy. The reason was that i needed that happiness to reach my 1000/1000 second golden age faster(just after chichen itza is completed). On top of that the extra happy faces would also help me puppet more cities. Its a good combo to have with my focus on allying maritime city states before cultured ones, bacause my empire will pump out more science, gold and imo culture also(your puppet cities seem to focus on making a few culture buildings like monument, garden, monasery, and putting specialists in them.)

After acoustics i got civil service. At that point you have the citizens to spare for food tiles, after you have made important buildings like library, oracle, national college and maybe temple(i didnt make it)
Also your capitol at this point is big enough to really earn a healthy food bonus from the river tiles(get your capitol to size ~10-12)

Finally after almost 100 turns i went to war. Made 4 horsemen and got one from a city state which was plenty to conquer 2 AIs. At this point i didnt want more than ~5-6 puppet cities with some different luxuries. More and i wouldnt be able to reach the 1000/1000 golden age in a decent time, less and i would reach it before i managed to finish chichen itza. Its kind of a balancing act, as you want the golden age to kick in abit before you get to arcaeology. This way you can prepare to get The hermitage fast, by making the prerequisite culture buildings.(or buy them)

After my fighting force was out i just spent the time growing my capitol and getting another great scientist for arcaeology. Actually In this game i didnt focus on culture accumulation at all until i reached my second golden age. I was just preparing for everything so i could build the culture improvement faster, and "explode" in a culture boom. The reason is that culture buildings and culture output from your city is rather low without consitution, and hermitage. It just doesnt seem worth it to make a temple early.

From here on it was just a matter of getting enough puppet cities and luxuries to keep myself around 0 empire happiness(getting below from time to time was ok aslong as i didnt got get below 10)
If i had too much happiness i conquered one city or two on your continent. If i was around 0, i just waited.

To get to christo asap I pumped out another 2 scientists, got one from the porcelain tower, and saved my oxford university. This way the same turn i invented Military science, i could get straigt to Biology -> Steam Power -> Electricity -> Telegraph.
Having managed to get a engineer out beforehand for chirsto it saved me quite some buildtime also.
I got to Telegraph at turn 197 - 1370AD

Took another 32 turns to complete the remaining policies and 11 turns to complete the utopia project(had 0.25 hammers too little to complete it in 10 turns..... QQ )

From turn ~120 -197 i was almost constantly in a golden age. This helped me greatly to pump out those extra hammers needed to make wonders faster.
1000/1000 golden age + 2 great generals + 3 artists + taj Mahal(from what i can remember)

Btw what a great thread. I have learned soo much from here about how i should approach this. Hopefully my second game will end well also so i can submit a valid game.

 

[subanark]

As a test I did India, OCC, Pangaea, no puppet states. Finished a bit before 2000. I had a good river and able to get a lot of research agreements done (didn't rely on city state culture very much). I ended up initially skipping piety and going for rationalism. Once I hit my tech goal, I dropped rationalism for piety (yes, finishing a tree and later dropping it counts for a culture victory) and finished it up. I had a GP lined up for pushing utopia though (did it in 17 turns).

Puppet states are nice, but don't underestimate research agreements. Its 1 free tech, and if you are lucky it can be an expensive one.

 

[Narp]

1966, for my first try I just went one city, never produced any unit except a single worker, I saved up some culture when I got stuck waiting for military strategies to finish to open up autocracy. I was terrified of France the entire game, they slowly expanded until they completely surrounded me.

 

[iggymnrr]

Wonder Whore!

1620 AD with no Christo Redentor, windmill or marble, but ... on settler, tiny archipelago, no barbs as Gandhi. Got a worker from a hut, no techs and build order was: monument, Stonehenge, Great Library, Chichen Itza, Oracle, war elephant, 2 horsemen with a granary stuck in there somewhere. Whole army set sail for puppets. I couldn't find a way to stop the second GA fast enough so built the wonder extender thingy asap. All early gold ($2000) went for CSs. Built 20 wonders, went commerce for fifth policy since it wasn't clear I'd get to industrial age but made it in time to have a settler ready for coal and rush buy a factory. It was harder than expected since cash was a problem at this level and with none from barbs available. I forgot to check OCC and got a few unwanted settlers from huts. Guess they came in handy at the end for coal. Some screens:

Spoiler :

Delhi


Wonders


More Wonders

 

[Jenarie]

2021 - obviously not contender but wanted to post 'cause I'm happy to have completed my first game, participated in the first HoF, and learned tons.

Continents were scary - there were four civs on my continent and we were all getting along fine most of the time but then suddenly unknown civs were being wiped out... I was worried I'd run into a super-power late in the game but apparently two civs survived over there so it wasn't too bad. I had three total cities and never went to war the whole game. The last hour of the game was just pretty much next turn next turn hoping no one attacked me.. I built units in between anything cultural that came available.

 

[Meatdaddy]

Postin' just because I finished it - 1994 I think it was. I had two cities until very late in the game (where I built more for points).
I had no cultural city states (lost two scouts to barbarians and didn't wanna build new ones).
I made some obvious mistakes though - I should have refrained from building certain buildings and gotten a puppet state or two.
I should have explored more so that I could have met cultured city states and traded luxury ressources earlier in the game.
And should have taken the technologies with the shortest finishing time so that my research agreements weren't wasted.

I have learned stuff and will try again.

 

[Robkun]

Hmmm. turn 307 / 1874AD.

Was trying to break the 1900AD barrier this time, so I'm happy about that. But I think 1800AD is possible with some adjustments to my tech path / build order, just the right start position, and some luck with the AI - city states relationships & placement. I based a lot of my mid-late game timing on my previous best 1930AD finish...which really threw me off. I had a GArt and GGen sitting around at the end, another GGen just gifted overseas, and a GSci about to pop. Saved them late for golden ages, but then I finished Utopia faster than expected.

Chose settings:
1) OCC...I think that only comes into play if you take a capital (auto-raze?) which I didn't. I never intended to have more than one city. Not sure why I would. I refuse to use that cheap exploit of multiple cities producing culture then raze late to bring down the culture expense of the policies.
2) non-biased start...still started near the desert but I had my little oasis with 3xCotton, 3xFish, 1xMarble, 1xFur, desert hills, desert, and a few green places to put artist monuments
3) quick combat...my antique computer is slow enough already

World: Continents - Standard - Hot - wet - 5bil years - high sea level
AI: America - India - Ottoman - England - Iriquois - China - Siam

England was a mistake since she became an absolute beast on the other continent and took out China + Siam + some cultural city states. But I'm not sure who to place in the 7th slot. I don't want a warmonger like Songhai or Greece. I don't want a wonder builder like Egypt to compete against either.

I'll attempt this again over the weekend with the lessons I learned and a better start position...not that this one is terrible.

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cas

Wow very nice victory. That's impressive lol.

I just gave it a try, I'm new to the Civ series, I was able to begin the Utopia Project in 2012 ... lol.... I failed bad.

I'm going to reroll until I get a good position, I didn't have any food resources around me and my strategy seemed to of failed badly anyways.

Any tips you could offer? Like is it better to just focus hardcore on Wonder building or should I get some of the mundane +Culture buildings first/simultaneously... and what about gold farming? I think I had way too little gold the entire game, I wasn't able to buy anything, only produce... And I stupidly played against Egypt who constantly beat me to the Wonders forcing a lot of reloads and reorganizing of strategy, I won't make that mistake twice

Thanks,

Robkun