Just bought the game and downloading now

[paulcarri]

Hey all

I couldnt get the demo of civ 5 to play properely origonally, but after playing Civ IV BTS to death the last few months i found i didnt want to play it anymore - mainly because once i got past emp i had to play the same way everytime (agressive as heck)

So i had a tinker with the demo settings, and dx9 seems to work ok on my laptop, actually got it working on high settings aside from fog of war.. not sure how i feel about the look yet, i miss the smoking mines, moving pigs etc ..but it may well grow on me.

Played through the 100 turns without any real slowdown, so hopefully that means the full game will play ok too.


Anyway ive bought the base game for now, if i like the game ill get the expansions.

Can anyone recommend settings for a first game? Should i be sticking to the very easiest difficulty for the first game? Or will previous civ knowledge make that too easy?. I spent most my time on BTS playing emperor, when that got to easy i moved to imm, but although i won a game or too it was very 'gamey'

Also can anyone recommend a civ? i like naval games (loved archipeligo, or custom continents where everyone gets an island)...although i had to stick difficulty up for that as the ai played them so badly.

Finally has anyone worked out the best settings for lowish end laptops? I am running with dx9, all settings high except for fog of war and water right now, and it is playable, though i dont know how it will be when theres lots of units around.

Thanks

 

[paulcarri]

and we are off, sneaked in half hour in my lunch... england, archipelligo, got 2 x silver, deer, horses in my 'circle' ...and stuck on a small island, looking forward to trying it tonight

 

[sherbz]

I was a solid emperor player in 4 and had also beaten immortal. I started out on king and won easily, then moved up to emperor, stayed there a while, now play on immortal. Id play king if i were you. Civ 5 takes a bit of getting used to. The AI is pretty terrible and cant really deal with 1UPT. But other elements like social policies work really well.

 

[paulcarri]

thanks, decided to run through first on the default starting difficulty, i may quit and restart on king though..right now my only idea is to research worker techs first, then get out onto the water..and as my empire is likely to be small, tradition seemed a no brainer..

I have a vague idea that i will use the royal navy to disrupt competition, but im not sure how well blockading will work with cities having ranged attacks (i dont even know if blockading exists lol).. it will be fun finding out though!

thanks again.

 

[Yibbledorf]

Just so you know, the navy is very much improved in the first expansion, Gods & Kings. I suggest you grab the CiV Gold upgrade when it's on sale, as it'll give you G&K and all the other DLC. G&K also reintroduces espionage and religion. Second expansion BNW is great too, but if you're just getting into CiV it's better to get used to some stuff from G&K first.

You can blockade coastal cities you're at war with, IIRC. Their trade route will be broken unless they have a land route.

Other than that, looks like you're having lots of fun. Happy civving!

 

[VainoValkea]

Just so you know, the navy is very much improved in the first expansion, Gods & Kings.

I agree, expect for modern ship balance that now favors a single omnipotent ship (Missile cruiser) instead of a balance of more specialized ships...

 

[Yibbledorf]

I agree, expect for modern ship balance that now favors a single omnipotent ship (Missile cruiser) instead of a balance of more specialized ships...

I've never actually made it that far in a game to have them do much. Besides, you still need destroyers for capturing cities and sub hunting.

 

[paulcarri]

well i probably should have bought gold from the start, but wanted to save £10.00 initially in case i didnt like it..it will cost me £20.00 for the expansion now ;/

 

[VainoValkea]

I've never actually made it that far in a game to have them do much. Besides, you still need destroyers for capturing cities and sub hunting.

Against cities, yes, maybe, although one could bring an embarked infantry unit to do the exact same thing. As for subs, missile cruisers have a hefty 100% bonus against them in addition to having a phenomenal attack strength in general. You don't really want a destroyer to hunt subs with their lame melee attack when a missile cruiser can do that faster and cleaner with a far more powerful ranged one.

 

[Whiterussian]

As a older civ Veteran i was dissapointed in the Vanilla Civ5 to beginn with (but that was the same with Vanilla Civ4...).
If you like it as Vanilla, i can only recommend you to get the expansions as well. They improve the game dramatically IMHO.


@VainoValkea, you sure Missile Cruiser can see Subs? Hardly ever get that far myself either...

 

[VainoValkea]

Of course I'm sure. It's also right there in Civilopedia.

 

[Yibbledorf]

well i probably should have bought gold from the start, but wanted to save £10.00 initially in case i didnt like it..it will cost me £20.00 for the expansion now ;/

You can buy just the Gold upgrade for about 13 pounds. It's below the option to buy the full Gold package.

Against cities, yes, maybe, although one could bring an embarked infantry unit to do the exact same thing. As for subs, missile cruisers have a hefty 100% bonus against them in addition to having a phenomenal attack strength in general. You don't really want a destroyer to hunt subs with their lame melee attack when a missile cruiser can do that faster and cleaner with a far more powerful ranged one.

Ah, didn't know about that anti-sub bonus.

 

[Whiterussian]

All right, learned something. Too bad MC come that late in the tec tree
but they still lack indirect fire

 

[Walter R]

MC don't have indirect fire though - that really surprised me.

 

[Walter R]

If you're playing as England get yourself to Ships of the Line - they are awesome, the most powerful thing afloat in their era. Use them to bomabrd cities and coastal defences then send a privateer in to finish the job. Later on the SOTL upgrade to battleships, and they'll no doubt be heavily promoted by then.

 

[Walter R]

oops sorry, forgot you are on vanilla - SOTL upgrade to destroyers and there are no melee ships in vanilla, you'll need to use land forces to finish the job.

 

[VainoValkea]

MC don't have indirect fire though - that really surprised me.

Yeah, at least the power buffs to MC were realistic but I don't see the point of removing indirect fire.

Maybe I'll make a mod which makes MC less awesome and introduces specialist ships to the Modern Era. Not very historically accurate, since modern missile cruisers are very all-purpose, but I sincerely loved the earlier system gameplay-wise.

 

[paulcarri]

Thanks for all the advise guys, plan is to play two or three games, maybee try a european map..then get Expansions if i like it..im still not sure wether i should just buy both or just g&k next, but ill see how funds are i suppose..with a new roof, wedding and recent holiday i have to explain ALL expenditure to she who must be obeyed ;-)

 

[Yibbledorf]

You're married and starting up Civ?

Say goodbye to your free time.

 

[troublmaker]

The Ai is a bit wonky compared to Civ 4. I remember easily crushing AI in Civ 4 and then I got into Civ 5 and really struggled to move up in difficulties.