Difficulty Levels in Comparison to Civ 5s (Especially Ger-something)

[Selereth]

Well, when everyone in Europe gets to start playing before I do since I'm in North America, a short summary of what the AI is like on each respective level is like would be greatly appreciated since I'm not sure how to levels compare to Civ 5s, and I don't want to pick a level that's too easy.

I know already that Apollo would easily kick my butt, so right now I'm leaning towards Ger- something which is the "Hard" difficulty. If anyone happens to pick this difficulty then please let me know what it's like.

 

[Ryika]

Gemini.

Well, Soyuz (second-hardest difficulty) is a joke. Played Civ 5 on Deity, but just doesn't really say anything here... I rushed through the game just expanding like crazy, loosing interest after 70 turns or so and from that point on started sending trade routes to random loactions, spamming random buildings, with automated workers and without touching the city-focus once again. Also forgot spies half of the time. Was still winning when I decided that this is just too dumb.

So I'd assume that anything below that difficulty would be rather easy for anyone - no matter what difficulty you were playing on before.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I played one below Soyuz and it was like sandbox for me. The AI declared two wars during the game and attacked with half a dozen units each time, immediately making peace after the first wave was beaten. Past turn 200 I was leading the score board twice the points of the second AI.

 

[Camikaze]

Keep in mind when comparing to Civ5 difficulty levels, that Civ5 vanilla difficulty levels were also one or two rungs less difficult than Civ5 BNW difficulty levels.

 

[Light Cleric]

Keep in mind when comparing to Civ5 difficulty levels, that Civ5 vanilla difficulty levels were also one or two rungs less difficult than Civ5 BNW difficulty levels.

Unfortunately part of that was also caused by the fact that vanilla Civ 5's AI was so horrible that it was barely functional. I hope the two AIs aren't comparable.

 

[Aeson]

Even Apollo feels pretty easy. ~Emperor level in III or IV. I think playing without Trade Routes (or 1 per city, no internal) or some other self-imposed limits (always war? always piss off the Frenzied Aliens?) might be necessary to get a "Deity" challenge.

Game is fun though. I'm having a blast.

 

[Ryika]

A really crappy start can also give some challenge. Spawned in a small rift between a huge mountain ridge and the ocean, two alien nests in the north, one in the south blocking the way in narrow ridges. Got one expansion and once I had made enough room to plant my third expansion and was ready to start spamming expansions myself I realized that the Slavic Federation was spawned somewhat isolated and had expanded to roughly 12 cities at that moment and had pretty much taken up all the space that was available. x) He got purity 8 when the second-best AI was Harmony 5 or something and ... well ... let's just say he wasn't willing to be a good neighbor. Holding ground against units that are a whole tier above yours seems pretty impossible in this game.

So when really EVERYTHING goes wrong the AI can be quite difficult.

 

[Gamewizard]

My first game I started in the middle of tundra, non-river with 4 tubers nearby and a firaxite dump. The tundra, no river made the beginning really slow and I fell behind quickly as my neighbors REXed like mad, especially Polystralia. It is almost turn 200 and he has atleast 12 cities and conquering more with Harmony lvl 8 and researching the xeno-titan. I have 3 cities, just captured a 4th from weak Franco-Iberia with Supremacy 5 and 1 lvl each of the other affinities. Atleast I am friends with him...for now.

I'm thinking I can conquer Franco-Iberia's 2 other cities, but I don't think there is anyway I would be able to stop a Polystralia victory.

The problem was I needed to go supremacy but the tundra made me travel north in the tech web towards harmony techs.

 

[Magean]

Keep in mind when comparing to Civ5 difficulty levels, that Civ5 vanilla difficulty levels were also one or two rungs less difficult than Civ5 BNW difficulty levels.

I'm not sure of that. Well, I can say much about Vanilla's difficulty since I didn't play it enough to reach a good level.

However, what I'm sure of is that BNW sank difficulty, as compared to G&K. In G&K, I quite often struggled to beat King and, consequently, never tried anything above it. As soon as BNW was released, I started steamrolling King, so I jumped to Emperor, won multiple games easily, and had to go to Immortal in order to find again roughly the challenge of pre-BNW King level.