How do you play Civ?

[6K Man]

(trying to shake things up a bit)

I never play scenarios. I always play a custom game, choosing my map type, water level, etc. I never play random leaders and never play unrestricted leaders. I very rarely choose my opponents.

I nearly always play Huge maps with lots of water and more AIs than normal.

I have BUG but probably don't use it well - mine are the default settings.

I play obsessively until I feel that my position is "secure" (meaning that I am not under attack by an equally strong AI, and not threatened militarily, within a tech or two of being first in tech, and middle-of-the-pack at least in score). Consequently I play for hours when I start a new game, and then suffer a bit of a letdown when I feel that the path to victory is relatively clear.

I don't play music when I Civ. I occasionally drink while playing. Often I give my girlfriend/wife running commentary, especially when she hears nonstop gunfire from my PC speakers for hours on end.

What about the rest of y'alls? What would you recommend to improve my Civ experience?

 

[KeloGBites]

I play usually Custom Game, always Aggressive AI and maybe 1/2 the time Raging Barbs. I stick to Standard-Large maps due to me favoring Domination victories, and with Huge they are just a slog. Speed is usually Normal or rarely Epic, I hate Marathon though. I find the most interest in the early and very late-game, Medieval ages are a chore to me.
I sometimes play scenarios and mods (RFC), and surprisingly don't use BUG though I probably should, just am far too lazy to download it.
I tend to avoid drinking when playing civ except maybe a few beers, no music as well (It is actually angering me if I don't hear the quotes upon researching a tech xD). I've played with Unrestricted before for some amazing warmongering games (Praetorians+Genghis Khan is a worthy enemy). And I never choose my enemies.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Up until now, mostly standard maps with no or minimal modding.

However, as of this post I'm online on my new machine, with a 3.0 ghz processor (2k bus IIRC), 1 gig graphics card, 4 gigs of RAM, and (somewhat sadly) Vista instead of windows 2k (wanted XP, but oh well).

So there's going to be a little more variety now.

 

[none]

Good for you TheMeInTeam, that sure is a nice beast.

These days I tend to play tectonics, huge, randomized earth (no old world start) with 18 civs. It's quite a fun setting.

I don't drink but tend to smoke too much and skip meals while playing. Bad habits die hard.

 

[Silu]

Standard/Large size, normal speed, random leader, default amount of random opponents, Fractal/B&S/Pangaea/Continents/Hemispheres/Shuffle(rarely), temperate climate, normal sea level. Tweaking/randomizing the script (to say, Tectonics, Archi or M&S) or the climate (cold, arid, etc) usually ends up making the AIs suck so I gave up doing that.

Those are the optimal settings for a challenging game that gives good learning experiences IMO. The human is too good in adapting to wacky environments.

I try to finish the games I start and am winning but lately that has become such a chore that I just lazily enterspam myself to space or quit the game. I guess I should do some SGs or something else that actually forces me to think about what I'm doing

Oh, and always sound off and having some relaxing music on that helps to get you in the zone like melodic death metal.

However, as of this post I'm online on my new machine, with a 3.0 ghz processor (2k bus IIRC), 1 gig graphics card, 4 gigs of RAM, and (somewhat sadly) Vista instead of windows 2k (wanted XP, but oh well).

A normal (32bit) XP doesn't support more than a little over 3GB of RAM so you're better off with Vista (W7 could have been better than that, though)

 

[Fredric Drum]

6K Man, you just described exactly how I play, except that I don't drink while playing. Scenarios turn me off big time. I want a huge world with a couple of extra civs compared to default. I play my own modded Marathon, or right now on Marathon Accelerated made by Avion (spelling). I hate it when the eras fly past so fast that you don't really get much done.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I got vista 64 home premium...it seemed to fit what I'd need for some time.

Edit: BetterAI has an autoplay feature built into the mod that will advance you x turns if you think you're so far ahead even the AI could win .

 

[Iranon]

My typical game is

Shuffle or RandomScriptMap, occasionally Tectonics
Default number of AIs or +/-1
Random climate and sea level
Default size and game lenght

 

[hunterai]

For me it is mostly marathon + standard + low water + Hemisphere + 2 extra AI
It's like a way to simulate larger map without taxing your machine too much.
But I will do quick small Pangaea map as well if there is not much free time.

For leader usually random unless there is something I read from the forum that I want to specifically try out.

 

[BufordTJustice]

At the moment standard maps, fractal,B&S, M&S, Continents, Hemispheres on normal speed. I am planning to switch to large/huge maps and epic, when I become good enough for some higher difficulty.

Also standard enemy settings. I always pick a leader to check out their traits.

I also use the BAT mod and love to play slowly, enjoying every turn. I'm sure TMIT would become nervous seeing me playing, but maybe with his new machine, he will relax his playstile a bit.

I also like to inhale an ordered pizza from time to time during playing, flushed down with a cold coke...

 

[Badtz Maru]

Custom game, Noble or Prince difficulty, with Standard Maps and normal game length, no one particular map type seems to dominate, and I use shuffle a lot. I usually play random leaders but occasionally I want to try a specific one. I usually play aggressive AI and raging barbarians, and often have a few more AIs than recommended for the map size (recently I did a standard map with 18 AIs that was wild). I usually turn tech brokering off, I used to play random personalities until I got used to my current difficulty level because it usually makes it easier. I usually enable all victory options, though my last few games I have turned spaceship off because that's how I've been winning most of the time and I want to force myself to use different strategies.

I usually rush an AI in the late Bronze Age but don't finish them off, then come back to finish them or vassalize them in Medieval or Renaissance. I usually have at least one other offensive war in Industrial times.

 

[fizikis]

When I am not playing xOTM, I usually play Huge Marathon Big&Small with a random leader. They take so long that I have brought only a couple of them to a conclusion. But I love to start them up over and over again, just never seem to finish them.

 

[Rooftrellen]

Custom game, on Prince (and actually winning now, so its not painful to see it, anymore), Marathon, with a random leader.

I normally play fractal maps, but I change it up from time to time. I allow choose religions, and every now and then, I go without barbs (very rare, normally after losing a warrior to a wolf attack and restarting because I drew a leader I'm not too fond of).

I very rarely go unrestricted leaders, mostly because I end up confused and the chances of getting some insane combonation of UU, UB, and/or traits is too high, but sometimes its fun to play as Churchill of the Celts (on highlands) or Hannibal of Portugal (on any water heavy map).

I rarely do scenarios.

I sometimes comment on things with my wife or her daughter, and we have a good laugh every time someone declares war (once they were around when a person with 3 vassels declared war on me with 2 defensive pacts, and then they proceded to run at least 100 outdated units into a machine gun defended city on a single turn).

 

[binhthuy71]

"How do you play Civ?"
Badly. No, wait. I tend to get into ruts, falling back on the same leaders, map type, strategies. So I'm on a run of selecting Shuffle for my map type and Random for a leader.

 

[bestbrian]

With fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Huge / Marathon / Emperor / 18 Civs. I've been playing LoR pretty exclusively over the last few months.

 

[Meester_henk]

Standard map with 7 civilizations, noble difficulty, random map type, climate and sea level and there must be seas to have naval game also.

Playing style is pacifist, but I might start a war if it's essential for my nations advantage. 6 - 9 cities, but rarely more. Usually I go for spave victory, but if technology is lagging, I try cultural victory if possible. Cities are built only in ultimate places.

I allways finish my games to the end.

I don't like playing anything when I'm drunk, but sometimes I'm high while playing.

 

[phungus420]

You must try Barbarian Civ (barbarian cities can settle and form new civilizations) and Start as Minors (start at war and can't engage in diplomacy until the discovery of writing) if you've never played a game with those options before. Completely changes the begining of the game, in a good way.

 

[WickedSmurf]

Emperor, Big & Small, huge map, marathon "speed", no vassal states, random personalities.

Try to adjust my style of play to the map, usually an early war for GG(s).

 

[kaltorak]

I usually don't play for winning the game, but for having fun. That doesn't mean I do wierd things and lose, but that I try to win with a strategy that I want to do for fun, instead of just the better and faster one for that specific game.

For example, if I feel like having a colony, I work for it even tho it may not be the best idea. Or even more so with diplomacy. I choose my allies and enemies considering what I consider more fun, instead of how I can get an easier win.

Also, I love to become powerful, and avoid space victory, since it looks like a waste of a powerful empire to me

 

[sparkuss]

LOL, I was just going to post a new thread this subject when I saw this one.

I have yet to win on Chieftain, probably because I'm still playing CIV like an RTS.

I play the same game every time, American, Huge-Marathon, Custom Conts (SmartMap) vs 4 Civs with 8 available continents, all isolated starts, only victory Domination.

I always try to get ahead of my enemies but usually make a mistake lategame and they catch up and my RTS style turns it into a long-tedious "waiting for other civs" grind. I learn a lot though, everytime I read new guides and threads here.

But...my current game, one Civ died of "natural" causes and I'm at 1896 and my privateers have limited the other 3 civs to their starting conts and Galleons and I have Seals and two of the available conts, and killing the Barbs for a third.

So..maybe I'll actually play CIV like most this time, and actually attack first for a change.