Learn & Love Civ5 - Game 01 - Washington (America)

[Nunya]

There's no point in allying with Almaty until you want to use them as a forward base into Persian lands, but you'll want to save up 500 gold for when that time comes.

However, you might not want to bother with allying them at all. If you look at the picture above you can see there is a 1 hex chokepoint leading towards Pasargardae. If you aproach from the north you'll only be able to attackthe city with 1 sword and 1 catapult. Then again, I took cities that size with a warrior and two archers, so it should be easy enough. Especially if you add in naval bombardment.

For technology I'd suggest a fairly even spread between naval techs and working you way up towards Gunpowder.

 

[Lyoncet]

Mmmm... that sounds so tempting. I haven't taken Monarchy in ages (probably since my first 3-city culture win, actually), but now you've got the expansionist land-grabber in my all psyched up!

 

[JesusOnEez]

There's no point in allying with Almaty until you want to use them as a forward base into Persian lands, but you'll want to save up 500 gold for when that time comes.

However, you might not want to bother with allying them at all. If you look at the picture above you can see there is a 1 hex chokepoint leading towards Pasargardae. If you aproach from the north you'll only be able to attackthe city with 1 sword and 1 catapult. Then again, I took cities that size with a warrior and two archers, so it should be easy enough. Especially if you add in naval bombardment.

For technology I'd suggest a fairly even spread between naval techs and working you way up towards Gunpowder.

Yup, I've played a game as Washington on a Pagea map and am running amok with Longswords & Trebs...I expected this game to be a walk in the park militarily but after playing the Pangea map I was very suprised at just how easy it was whe compared to Warlord on Civ IV.

I've said I was never the best Civ IV player in the world, but for a good amount of the game on Warlord, the AI would be a perhaps one military tech behind, but I'm a builder by nature more than a fighter. Note that I use the BetterAI mod in Civ IV so it's probably closer to Vanilla Noble.

Perhaps that's why I'm having a hard time getting into CiV. It seems buildings have taken much of a step back and on the Pangea game, I'm at about 600 AD and have built very little but units...couple of Libraries and Barracks here and there but that's about it. It goes against my Civ IV nature.

We went for the CS Slingshot in this game, and I also did in the Pangea game, but from what I've been reading, with a Pangea game, you may be better of going for TP spam and getting your food from City States than farming for the Civil Service bonus on rivers...although it does open up Patronage as well, and Pikes for a good early game unit.

Perhaps in the next game I'll bump it up a difficulty level or two and try the TP spam approach with Maritime City State deals. I don't think this method would work for Arch Islands as you don't meet the City States very quickly.

Still, we shall persevere as this map is quite interesting from a landscape perspective, and it'll be a good intro for "noobs" and long time players who are a bit crap like me.
I'll continue exploring, de-fog Darius southern lands and see if I can approach from there...hadn't noticed the one hex choke. Nice catch.

 

[Nunya]

In Civ IV I was playing on Prince and slowly advancing to Monarch and I find the Prince difficulty in Civ V to be pathetic because the AI really can't handle combat. I'd suggest bumping up the difficulty of your next game to King.

If you want to be more of a builder, play Rome. You get a 25% bonus to constructing any buildings that you've already built in your capital. Or try to complete Ghandi's Bollywood achievement (cultural victory with 3 cities or less so you'll only need enough troops to defend yourself).