How did you learn to play Civ (5)?

[JoshFiveO]

Hey guys.

I am pretty new to the game, only played 4 a little (less than 100 hours) and have just bought civ 5 a few days ago.

So, what I have been doing in order to hopefully speed up the learning process is try to win one game with each victory type.

How did you come by learning the game?

 

[docbud]

I started playing a few months ago. I saw it on the Mac App Store, and Civ V was one of the top sellers, so I bought it.

I had no idea how to play, so I bumbled badly through the first few games. Then I read more of the manual, and started hitting Civ V forums (like this one).

I did a lot of reading and still do.

There are some scenarios you can try, but I never went that route.

 

[TallNSturdy]

Lots of trial and error. First couple games at the low skill level to learn how to move and how to control things, then once I figured out those mechanics it was time to figure out how to use them and move up the skill ladder when it was to easy. Start at settler and playing in Emporer now with ~300 hours of play time.

 

[smallfish]

Watching and reading quite a few posters here helped improve me a lot (still a long ways to go, but way better than what it was last year).


Here are some recommendations, just top off my head:

MadDjinn: Watch his Rome Deity game, see how he goes up against a modern atomic runaway with nothing more than artillery and Riflemen/Infantry

wainy (in particular, his American Stealth Bomber rush)

There's also DaveMcW, but he is more of a show-than-tell minimalist. Amazing games to learn from (I like to think the Denmark DLC was retroactively made in response to his Songhai OOC Domination).

Then there's snarzberry with Korea/Babylon Rifle Rush and Stealth Bombers. Him and wainy taught me the love of Stealth Bombers, and why they are an absolute must when facing runaway civs!


My absolute favorite ('coz it makes up 90% of my strategy these days): the Tabarnak or Four Cities Sword Rush


Then finally, there's The Pilgrim and his Turn 200 Deity Science Victory. Amazing stuff, especially the way he handled negative gold per turn and science rates to get all those RAs/infrastructure cooking

 

[DevilHell]

I learnt by playing my first game on Settler and paying attention to everything, I skipped Chieftain because Settler had been like a Tutorial, and played Warlord
I lost like 1 of 10 games in Warlord, so I almost instantly moved up to Prince, and there started I to learn things and test different victories and civs, and of course, I started to read, read and watch games in this forum or another is really useful, you learn patrons and different approaches
Now I am stuck on Emperor because I'm in exchange in Germany and cannot play too much, or either well, because the computer I have isn't very appropiate but I try to play when I can and read the forums and watch videos it's a real obssesion

 

[cain3456]

Played the Demo. Went from noble to king, did well. Now that I bought Civ5, I'm trying it, but I am not doing so well. I'll have to lower the difficulty until I figure out how to get through the renaissance era.

 

[The_Quasar]

I'd played Civ I, II, III, IV and SMAC, so it was fairly easy...

Played my first game on Prince, and won easily...

I now play mostly on Immortal (which I find fairly easy) and Deity (which is more of a challenge)... which I play depends on my mood at the start.

 

[DemonMaster]

I have played every Civ game and Civ like game that is so that type of games comes fairly easy. But I must agree with smallfish above. The clips are very good and you can (I did) learn a lot from them.

 

[Heerlo]

I learnt by playing my first game on Settler and paying attention to everything, I skipped Chieftain because Settler had been like a Tutorial, and played Warlord
I lost like 1 of 10 games in Warlord, so I almost instantly moved up to Prince, and there started I to learn things and test different victories and civs, and of course, I started to read, read and watch games in this forum or another is really useful, you learn patrons and different approaches

That's kinda how I did.I played my first game on settler, and it was so easy that I skipped chieftain and went straight to warlord.And I did pretty good on it.

Now I mostly play on prince.

 

[Sherlock]

Look for a fairly recent thread called 'This game is kicking my ass'.

Lots of really good tips for beginners.

 

[notadummy]

by trial and error, reading the forums, and watching lots of deity lets plays

 

[Ghonasiflaids]

I got the hang of it the first game.

Didnt play any civs before but civ Rev.

 

[joncnunn]

Learning how to play Civ V?

You start a game.
You play it and make mistakes.
You learn from them.

 

[Lrd Dread]

trying and failing mostly

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i played initially with the romance of building an historic civ. i like sci/diplo/cult vics and i learned awful habits doing that. it took quite a bit of time to unlearn them for domination and im still rather terrible at them.

 

[Glassmage]

I watch Youtube for fun but to learn I really did have to go from difficulty 1 to 8.

 

[Securion]

How i learned to play Civ? Well....

Civ 1 cost me grades.
Civ 2 cost me my first girlfriend.
Civ 3 cost me my first job.
Civ 4 cost me my first marriage.
Civ 5 cost me 40$

(I hope Civ 6 costs me the rest of my life... btw. Instead of just 40 bucks)

I think i have picked up a few things about Civ on the way...?