How do you decide on what mix to play?

[TRJS]

Hi all,

I have been playing CIV4 for a couple of months now and have reached Prince level.

The other day I thought to myself have I really reached Prince level? Can I confidently win Noble in any situation. Naturally I answered yes and promptly told myself to get back to work.

Later that night, having beaten prince for the second time, once as Monty and the last time as Augustus, I decided I would see how strong I was on Prince. So I set most settings to random, leaving only the Epic speed and standard size.

The result was me playing as Mehmed on an island infested map. Needless to say, shortly in to the game having finally met another Civ I realised how poorly I had been playing and turned off the computer to finally go to bed.

So my question to you all is how do you decide what game to play?

Do you let the gods of randomness (yes, I know, this is not a word for all the teachers out there.) select your civ, map etc.

Or do you set certain parameters to defined settings each time.

Just to let you know, I started another game last night, decided to set map to continents and allow random civ to be selected. Guess who I was assigned, good old Augustus. Decided what the hell, those Praetorians are fun.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[Harbourboy]

I usually set everything to random, so that when I get the opening screen, I have no idea what I have, after receiving the first suprise of what leader I am playing. I can't even tell what size map I am on.

The only times I set anything are when I am trying something out for educational purposes, like when I tried playing as Cyrus to prepare for WOTM7 or as Ragnar for SGOTM7.

 

[DutchJob]

I don't. I just dig continental ad fractal maps. Large or huge. Other civs r always selected by the pc. I always end up dominating the world cause the grass always seems to look better where they speak differently. Even if I plan to reach the stars.

I guess I have the 'Pentagon-syndrome.' While tech-ing my army gets improved as well. Got to do something with it.

This all sounds boring. I'm gonna do what harbourboy does. Let the map decide everything.

 

[Jorunkun]

Like your approach of wanting to really master a level, with any civ, on a variety of maps. I think this is the best way to improve your game at large.

My settings are very similar to yours, I play:

- epic, to get more depth and variety out of every phase in the game (on normal, it hardly ever makes sense to build musketmen or ironclads, but on epic they sometimes come in handy).

- fractal/large for a good variety of "realistic" maps, from pangaea to continents to multiple islands. Large also nicely offsets the relative move advantage of units on epic.

- standard number of civs, all random (including mine); the only way to appreciate the nuances of different traits, uus and the many strategic challenges arising from combinations of AIs

Obviously, people's preferences vary, but I feel that with these settings you are getting the full civ experience.

 

[Sisiutil]

I usually play fractal maps; aside from that, I don't tend to leave much to chance. I don't play random leaders because I prefer to save my first experience with a new leader for the ALC games.

I don't use random maps because I've found my experiences on several maps to be frustrating. The archipelago/island maps require too much tedious ferrying of units, the inland sea generates too many barbs non-stop, etc. Fractals at least give you a decent-sized land mass to start with.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

random leader, let the computer pick the opponents, random map, standard size, normal speed, monarch, no other options.

this has been my standard all year. I'm playing very few games as of late.

 

[Yakk]

I've been playing:
Raging barbarians, redoubled by a custom mod.
Better AI dll mod.
Aggressive AI
Sometimes all victory conditions except domionation/conquest turned off.
Perm. Alliances, Vassal on, Tech trading on.
Epic/Huge.

All leaders random.
Random personalities. (so I have to learn who to trust)

Terra/Fractal/or something else.

Other settings are random.

Sometimes extra civilizations, or less civilizations. (with the barbarian mod, less civlizations is dangerous: the barbarians can wipe out entire civilizations).

 

[Harbourboy]

Can someone please explain exactly what Fractal is? I can never tell what sort of map I have been given. How is Fractal different from Shuffle?

 

[Yakk]

Fractal is one of the map scripts.

What type (vanilla or warlords) and what patch are you playing harbour?

 

[Otkell]

Can someone please explain exactly what Fractal is? I can never tell what sort of map I have been given. How is Fractal different from Shuffle?

IIRC, fractal give you 2 or three big continent plus some small uninhabited islands. Continent is different because there are no small uninhabited islands.
Of course, this depends largely on map size but you get the idea.

Shuffle give you either a pangea map, a continent map, an archipelago map or a fractal map.

 

[lilnev]

Random leader, opponents, climate, and sea level. Sometimes I pick a specific map, but mostly I play large shuffle.

 

[Ecofarm]

Only 2 things matter consistantly. Mapsize and gamespeed.

Larger maps + faster gamespeed = + builder.
Smaller maps + slower gamespeed = + warmonger.

Why? Because only 1 thing is not scaled to gamespeed - unit movement. The more time spent moving troops (due to distance and gamespeed), the larger the advantage to the defender.

The rest is neither here nor there, but fills the space between.

 

[LucyDuke]

Can someone please explain exactly what Fractal is? I can never tell what sort of map I have been given. How is Fractal different from Shuffle?

The best way to get a feel for what fractal will give you is to start a new game and check the worldbuilder. Regenerate, check the worldbuilder. Regenerate, check the worldbuilder. Don't play the game through, obviously, but that'll show you the type of map you're in for. Fractal gives some crazy random stuff, but it's definitely my favorite map type. Sometimes it'll give you pangaeas, sometimes continents, sometimes semi-archipelagos, all sorts of different things. If it's not anything, it's definitely not consistent.

 

[Morgrad]

Normal & fractal until I'm comfortable with the difficulty level, then large and shuffle.

Random leader, let the PC pick the opponents.

 

[axident]

My computer can't handle Huge or even Large maps that well once it gets into the Modern era, so I always go Standard / medium sea level (or Small / Low Sea Level). Normal/Epic/Marathon. Fractal or Continents. Everything else is random, but I re-draw a leader if I get someone that I've won the game a lot with already.

 

[cabert]

I was going to say random as much as possible, but on second thought, it's not totally true.

I play in one of the following configuration :
- at monarch level for fun, with random leader, random opponents, shuffle map, random climate, .... I consistently win those (which is not exactly the same as I always win those!).
- at emperor level, with preselected leader for a specific victory condition. I will set settings favorable to what I pursue (although I forgot to get back to normal speed for my cultural attempt with Isabella, after my military attempt with Augustus). Those are just a few games, so it's not a valid statistic. however I did win both games
- test games for WotM or SGotM. I obviously try to follow the settings of the game I try to test. Test games are rarely finished. Playing up to 1 AD is long enough.
- What I call the real games (WotM, SGs). The settings aren't at my own leisure there. Win some, lose some.

 

[CivSetä]

Always marathon speed. I never play faster speed if I don't have to (GotM, WotM).

Usually standard size, always high sea level. Sometimes large or small map.

I like few early contacts and few later contacts, hence usually continents or snaky continents. Sometimes fractal. I choose Pangea, Inland sea or islands just in special occasion, usually builder/warmonger game. My dislike for sea maps makes me very poor player on those map types.

Usually no regeneration unless starting site really sucks. I am happy with regular starts, I have learned to survive without huge starting bonuses.

I always let computer choose my opponents. I seem to get Monty and Izzy to my neighbours in every game, while Mansa and Hyuana are techning on the another continent...

I usually choose my civ in advance, depending on what type of game or victory I am planning for. Lately I have tried random option without regenerating, it's very educative.

Usually emperor level, sometimes I get back to Monarch if I want to build every wonder or try something new for fun. Once in a while I try my luck on Immortal, but I think I still need some practise to handle it.

 

[Ecofarm]

Normal speed (because slower is cheesy for warmongering) and small map (because larger adds 4 hours+ to a warmongering game). Random opponents. Pick a civ to warmonger with. 4 hours of bloody war later, it's time to reflect on strategy and tactics. If I have not fought in later eras for a bit, I'll go to standard map for that.

I usually add a couple extra civs to the map too, just to make sure there is early competition for resources and everyone gets into a fighting mood quickly. And Agressive AI.


There are still a few civs that I have not tried, including zulu and egypt. I'm going to throw them into the jaws of war soon.

Someday, I might look into the rumor that building/peaceful games are fun.

 

[Tyrant Roger]

I usually play pangea or lakes or fractal. I don't like continents because I have no knowledge or control of the civs on the other contintent. If its a love fest between tech civ's and my continent is all war mongers, I'm dead no matter what I do.

I often pursue domination wins because I find the other wins to be boring for the last hundred moves or so. With continents that means I usually need to mount an ocean invasion and that takes oodles of time and endless unit manipulation with gets tiresome after a while. Also the AI is so hopeless at ocean invasions that it is not much contest.

I like pangea because of the opportunities for multiparty diplomacy and tech trading. Domination wins are easier on pangea and more fun because the last AI or two you tackle usually has quite powerful units even if it doesn't exploit them very well.

The lakes map is fun for the same reasons as pangea, but I usually add some extra AI's so that there is not too much empty space. Empty space leads to too many barbs at the beginning and makes an early war very slow to launch.

I like choosing my own leader and leave the rest to random selection.

I play at normal speed because epic and marathon take too long.

 

[LucyDuke]

I usually play pangea or lakes or fractal. I don't like continents because I have no knowledge or control of the civs on the other contintent. If its a love fest between tech civ's and my continent is all war mongers, I'm dead no matter what I do.

I feel the same way about continents. It's nice to be able to avoid seafaring techs without worrying that the AI is going to pursue them and get a huge advantage, or like you said a Mansa lovefest.

I play at normal speed because epic and marathon take too long.

I thought the same thing for a while, but tried out epic for the hell of it once. Enough turns are just hitting enter that actually not much more real time is spent playing the game, and the experience is completely different (much, much different flavor to war, for one thing).