Help me learn Civ V

[mrt309]

Hello everybody,

I am an experienced civ IV player and want to learn how to play civ V. I played civ V on the day it was first released and didn't like it. After i had read positive comments about the last expansion i decided to buy and give it a try.

I got it last night. Now need some tips since i don't have enough knowledge about it. I wanna play a game, post screen shots and save files here on the forum. I hope i will learn and like it. Feel free to play a shadow game and give some advice which i will desperately need.

First of all which settings do you suggest me to play on?

Civilization: Which one is the best? Which one is easier to play?

Map Type: I'd like to play pangea first. Then i may try some water heavy maps. Which one do u think is the most fun?

Map Size: Standard? My pc can handle it.

Speed: Standard i guess cos it's normal speed.

Difficulty: Prince? I think king is okay too. I play Civ IV on immortal usually.

Everything else will be default. All victory conditions will be enabled.



This is the first game i've been playing since this morning:

Spoiler :

Pangea, Standard size and speed, King difficulty, the leader is Napoleon.

 

[Syntax Error]

Good job on getting the GL! I'd have settled Paris one tile East of where it is and would have settled Orleans somewhere else. Having only one fish tile makes it a bit of a waste. Probably somewhere near the marble is better. Have you scouted that area yet?

 

[mrt309]

Yeah, i've scouted and the desert seemed kinda useless. I always try to settle near food and stay away from yellow/brown tiles while playing civ IV. I think settling and expanding strategies are more different on Civ V.

Should i go for food or luxury resources? How many food resources are enough for a city?

 

[Syntax Error]

Unlike in Civ 4, you can build farms even if there's no fresh water around, so food is not a problem. However, the tech to give farms adjacent to rivers/lakes/oases additional food as opposed to the one that gives bonuses to farms that don't is earlier in the Tech Tree (Civil Service as opposed to Fertilizer).

Food is more important than luxes in the long run. Usually, if I can get two Cows in the long run, that would be enough. Best food tiles are:

Riverside Grassland Wheat - 2 Food base tile, +2 when improved (1 from the farm, 1 from the resource bonus), +1 when there's a granary, +1 with Civil Service

Cows - 3 base food. Gets +1 production when improved. Gets another hammer when there's a stable.

Bananas - 3 base food. Gets +1 when improved, +1 with Granary. Improving this removes the jungle. Jungles can be useful here in Civ 5. They provide science when you get universities. Left untouched, Bananas become 4 food, 2 science.

Fish - 5 food when improved and if there's a light house. Food is quite abundant in water maps since both fishes and water luxes give food.

For me, two cows and a river is enough. Usually, even just a river would suffice. Factor in Maritime City States and you'd have no food problems.

 

[sammoraj]

simple way to win on deity. hold out until you get aircraft and then simply bomb the enemy out. There are no stacks of doom and the game is weighted to let little civs stay with it in tech. plus aircraft can kill units like in civ 3 so its nearly too easy. civ 4 and 3 and much more difficult

 

[mrt309]

All right, played a little bit more and it's 325 BC. Japan became hostile i don't know why. I'm planning to attack them. They are gonna attack me eventually. I want to upgrade my warriors but i don't have iron. I have 2 warriors, 2 composite bowmen and producing a horseman and a catapult now. I am going to buy 2 more units and attack as soon as possible. Do you think it is enough? How many units should i train and what kind of units should be in my army?

Some pictures:

Spoiler :

 

[Syntax Error]

If you have no iron, get Civil Service. Pikes are stronger than swords, and doesn't require resources. That said, they can't upgrade to France's UU, but you can hold off invasions or invade yourself with them. Use that to secure Iron. If Japan has Steel, then Medieval warfare becomes harder for you, since Samurais are more powerful Longswords and allows Japan to get more Great Generals. That and all of their units keep dealing full damage, even when wounded. Assuming they have native Iron, of course.

ALSO:
For the best teching, get Philosophy ASAP if you don't plan on going wide. It allows you to get the National College, which is the first crux for a leap in beakers.

 

[smallfish]

Get 4-5 composite bows and some horsemen, then conquer Japan. Take out all of his units before moving into Kyoto

 

[mrt309]

Tnx for the advice. I went for civil service and produced 2 pikes. Attacked and killed his all units. Then captured his capital. Catapults seem very good against cities and horses are very fast. I liked both of them.

Annexing Kyoto caused some unhappiness but it can be handled i think. I am building a courthouse in Kyoto now. He gives nothing for peace. Japan has 2 cities left as far as i know and they both have iron. I want to annex them too but i am not sure if it is a good idea. Should i annex or puppet them?

Screenshots:

Spoiler :

 

[Question]

Hint : When the city is in resistance (zoom in till you see the red fist icon and mouse over), just puppet it first. It generates less unhappiness and you can't build a courthouse till the resistance is over, which can take some time. When the resistance is over, THEN annex it and purchase a courthouse.

 

[Syntax Error]

It's quite possible that they now don't have anything of value because you captured their most valuable city. That, or Oda is just being a miser. Kill more units and see how it goes. Although you HAVE taken a capital (usually an AI's best city), so that's a great reward in itself.

 

[AiTenshi1]

I looked at the map and one word came to mind...

... Petra!

As for Oda, he's just crazy and expansionist no matter what. Best to put him out of his misery (and puppet or raze the cities, don't annex).

 

[mrt309]

Petra would be nice but someone else already built it. What if i raze both of them and found a new city between the banana and fish hexes (1SW of Osaka)?

Edit: Also thanks for the other advices, i will definitely do the puppet -> annex and purchase courthouse thing.

 

[Crafty Bison]

If you kill both his cities you'll get a bigger diplo hit for eradicating him and trading will be harder. Osaka looks good where it is cos u can work more desert for faith (I'd annex, you get decent culture anyway), and the gold can be traded. You can't settle where you suggested cos its too close to tokyo (not in 3 tiles radius). After that, then sue for peace and see what he has left. If you explore more you'll find civs to trade and get money from (I imagine you have a load of copper doing nothing at the moment?), and then you can pick your next target. As you're france (and therefore going for lots of expansion via war), you'll eventually get a warmonger hit no matter what, but use the good trading rates to the fullest while they last. Lux resources v important.

In terms of what you did earlier, worry more about lux's than food cos as france you'll be going very wide, and getting 30+ pop cities isn' gonna be your thing in this game. I'd Plant Paris east northeast on the coastal river hill. This means you auto get the +1 hammer and +1 gold straight off, important for a good start, which france is great at (you took the liberty policy tree, right?), and you can also build the observatory in your capital. then orleans can be placed on the hill coastal tile and still get the wheat, fish and copper. I'd have this spot as a 4th city though, your third city is in a good agressive spot for a second city (did that induce japan to dow you? it would save the diplo hit) with lots of lux's. The third city I'd put somewhre to the east near the marble.

At the moment, the best early unit with which to rush is the composite bow (so much change, sigh. Defensive unit my foot!), though as france you should go standard melee heavy (which requires iron, so take osaka) so you can upgrade to your UU's. Otherwise a good distribution of everything is the most efficient way. For lower difficult levels, you'll mostly be taking cities so siege is good and mounted/armour bad, but this changes as the difficulty rises cos the AI makes more units. Warring takes a bit of getting used to from civ 4, but is one of the biggest advantages you have over the AI, so in general warring is a strong tactic in civ 5. It's a little late now, but if you'd allied antwerp as your mercantile civ (maybe you have enough money anyway) you'd have got their 6 iron, so swords could have worked earlier, and not required the extra pikeman build. Now you've done it you've got your army in place so not a bad thing, but if you had anything else urgent to do (like build a petra? )

It terms of strong civs, they all play differently, you should say your preffered victory condition, and map type, and whether you like tall/wide/puppet empires. How much do you focus on religion/diplo/golden ages/city states? For beginners, france is a great choice cos the UA isn't tough to use and and UU's are strong but fairly straightforward. Same true of America. Both play expansively and agressively. For a poll on the best civs see the civilization elimation thread in the GnK section.

What social policy trees are you taking? - are you gonna get a religion? what are you thinking of doing with it?

Hope you take something from this

Edit: Only just noticedwhere you've put troyes... What an amazing spot for a non capital...4wines!. Explore and trade (think about buying the marble tile too). Not sure abput tours though - I'd probably put it on the coast northof the maya first - it'll piss him off and provide a good second base camp for when you declare war (if you haven't got him to do it already). Can't see from screenshots but might be something useful along there as well . palenque is a good city to take - usually has 2 or 3 great tile improvements cos of mayas UA. I also noticed you built one of the extra ancient wonders in paris - I don't have that expansion so can't tell which it is from looking - statue of zeus would be v helpful for france - if it's temple of artemis, why u no built more bowmen? They're a strong unit line, and when they upgrade to gatlings in the industrial they blow everything out of the water. The food bonus for the 1 city aids tall civs more than france, hammers better spent elsewhere. I forgot what the mausoleum does.

 

[mrt309]

Tnx for the reply Crafty Bison. I did surely learn many things from your post. I will probably annex Osaka and puppet Tokyo. I should explore more. I am using a trireme for exploring. Is it good for this purpose or do you suggest another unit? I keep making deals with the ai, selling copper, trading for luxuries. Now i have 1 available source of copper and noone wants it.

I need to learn city placement since it seems more different than civ 4. I got a free great person from the policy i completed but i had no idea which one to choose and how to use. So i checked the available wonders and liked the temple of artemis. I guess i had to get a great scientist instead of a great engineer.

I will go for a domination victory. Religion is not a priority. Trying to be friend with city states. Which policies are better for warmongering strategy?

By the way combat seems fun so far but diplo really sucks.

 

[mrt309]

Played a little bit more.

Spoiler :

I will annex Osaka after the resistance is over.


Oda has only 1 city left. He is offering his all gold. I think i will finish him off.


Paris building an aqueduct, a missionary is the next.


I founded a religion to see how it works. I am gonna spread it. Got production and happiness bonuses.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Trireme is a good exploration unit, upon reaching astronomy this upgrades to a caravel, whixh isthe first standard unit to be able to go into ocean. Scouts are cheap so depending on borders you can explore by land also (better to do this early as there'll be fewer borders in the way, now may be a little late).

Social policies - liberty is a good starting policy, even if you're going for all out war cos the policy intended for war is honour but it's weaker in general. Still fine for a second tree though. Later in the game, the other big one is autocracy, though domination games rarely give you enough social policies to complete it, and some take order (the second going wide policy after liberty) anyway. Miss piety (it's for religion/culture), patronage will be important for you as it aids with city states. commerce not great for you, though if you plan to have a big navy consider taking the left side of commerce. rationalism isn't especially for you, but is strong in almost all games so think about that one too - it's about science. Freedom is for tall empires, avoid.

The great engineer from the liberty finisher is fine, though the great scientist is a passable second choice. for wonders, important ones for you are statue of zeus, brandenburg gate, possibly great lighthouse if you will war by sea, great library always important if you can get it. As you'll have a lot of cities I'd consider getting the oracle, almost always a strong wonder, but especially if you're going wide - the exta policy can be so useful. Another good choice for most games is Leaning Tower of Pisa, you'll not get that much from the bonus but you get a free great person of your choice, getting a great engineer and using it on another wonder means you get a wonder 'for free'ish. Might be others, I probs forgot some. You can save the GE till there's a wpnder you want bad . A lot of them you can steal from other civs, so prioritise those that give you one time benefits like oracle/leaning tower. If someone else builds them you'll not get the benefit when you capture.


A note on national wonders - in civ V they're really tough to get unless you go super tall. The most important one is national college, but if you don't get it early it'll really scupper your domination game and is probaly not worth it (you need a library in every single city before you can begin it, and the cost goes up with each city you have. If you then capture a city with no library while building you can no longer build ). Unless going tall, don't worry about the others (possibly oxford u if it's possible but i doubt it). Actually going wide, spending the GE on this would be fine.

Lastly, diplo is quite different from civ 4 and many are not a fan. Feels very random to begin with. Can be fun, but I probably wouldn't worry abt it at this stage too much.

 

[Syntax Error]

Diplo has a certain amount of unpredictability to it, but it's good since it's not as "game-y" as in Civ 4. You'll get to see more of the personalities when you get to play around more. Some of them are jerks and douche-y and hard to trade for full prices with (I'm looking at you Augustus).

For example, in every game I play where Russia is present, Catherine is a great friend to have, because she has a tendency to expand like mad, until the landmass is so dotted with her cities to the point that she has the #1 Land score. Then she starts conquering people. Better stick to her good side.

 

[mrt309]

Played until 1000 AD.

Screenshots:

Spoiler :

So, what should i do now? I'm gonna attack Pacal. He is already at war with China. I'm researching techs for better units. Trebs and knights may do well. How can i know Pacal's tech situation? I know he has pikes and longswords. Is it a good time to attack or should i wait until i get something like cannons or my UU's?

I also have some general questions about the game. Everyone talks about wide and tall empires. On a standard map how many cities and population are the limit for a tall empire? Is domination possible with a tall empire on a standard map? How can i solve the happiness problem while capturing cities?

 

[Syntax Error]

Since he has long swords, you know he has Steel. And because he has Steel, your Composite Bowmen are in dire need of an upgrade.

Looking at the Demographics, he is the military leader. But don't fret. The Ai can't wage an effective war. Proper positioning and making sure that you can bring down a city in two to three turns (meaning one turn to get set up, and two turns to capture) will let you get his capital. Do note that people will hate you if you go on ahead and keep capturing capitals.

Also, I can handily win Domination OCC in Emperor, if that counts for anything. Just get Dynamite and literally blast through the Pangaea. Water maps, the first to battleships (or the one who can make better use of Privateers) can easily start taking over the world.