waytofailself
Chieftain
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2010
- Messages
- 74
Thanks for reading. I'll agree though, the end was pretty depressing especially after sitting so long through a marathon game. Unfortunately, I can't get the replay script posted elsewhere in this file to play nice in mac mode on my computer, so I'll have to upload it after I get home and get to play in windows for a bit.
Post Game Reflections:
If I had to give this game experience as a whole a score, I'd give it a 5/10. I was expecting some kind of PC resistance, and all I got was a cakewalk.
Positives:
+ Songhai's abilities are amazing. On marathon they're greatly amplified due to the huge amounts of gold created and the necessity of buying units.
+ Having all land meant pretty much everyone got a crack at a few ruins and resources but no one really got to scoop up all of theirs.
+ I thought my starting placement was pretty poor -- but the areas surrounding my start point meant with a few cities my land was pretty balanced.
+ 1UPT combat is still fun, even if your army vastly outguns other people.
+ Marathon games allow you to focus on unit movement.
Negatives:
- King difficulty was super easy this time around. This is my 3rd King victory -- but this one felt more like Settler.
- I'm not sure if it's my underpowered computer or what, but by the last turns the game would not just chug, it would stop for about 5-15 seconds in between turns. It never locked up, but something was struggling.
- The AI had no idea what to do on marathon. It kept trying to pump out wonders instead of working on units. It barely advanced in tech. It didn't seem to buy units.
- AIs hardly ever expanded. The most I saw was 5 total cities with a settler on the way by Persia, but most civs didn't get more than 3 cities when I could have easily had 10 (if I wasn't focusing on military).
- I was in the Renaissance era when my last two adversaries were still in the ancient era after 300 turns. Well, I know Ramses was, I'm pretty sure Persia was too.
- The strongest unit I had to fight the whole game was a spearman. Just sad.
What I've Learned about Civ V Through This Game
We all know about the big and small complaints about AI etc, so I won't go into those too much other than to say the AI has not been programmed with Marathon speed in mind at all. I could have taken out every civ with that early pikeman I got supported by a few warriors/archers. Maybe I should have. But I kept thinking that around the corner someone was building a force like I was.
Persia's complete lack of military was baffling. I didn't see them as being at war with anybody else. They just didn't have an army at all.
Furthermore, I chose Songhai on a whim literally because of the picture in the background. I paid no attention to the UU or UA or UB, but all of them are very useful and, used corrected, very powerful (okay, maybe not the UB -- but it's a free land-grab building which has nice utility). If you play Songhai, hit barbs early and hit barbs often. And pillage pillage pillage. He's great for at war. I never had a chance to test his embarkment UA, but I have a feeling that's pretty good too.
I really hope the AI is fixed/boosted/helped/something soon. Playing on Marathon seemed to expose some massive flaws: 1) not adjusting build orders/general strategies for slower speeds and 2) when the focus is more on using units, the 1UPT AI incompetence is extra exposed. Then again, in most cases it took me one turn to take out the entire enemy's army. I hope I don't have to play another game like that again.
You also might have noticed I had tons of puppet states. On marathon, puppeting might be a little too strong. I get the same benefits of tile production etc. but the risk of having to deal with lots of building maintenance never materialized -- I was expanding too fast for it to be a problem because anything with an upkeep took too long to build. By the time I ended the game, Beijing, my first puppet state, had only completed a Rax, walls, monument, and temple. It was working on an armory. All that time I had conquered 7 of the other 8 nations. Meanwhile, I was getting all the gold and beakers I'd normally get from cities (granted, things cost more and research took longer).
Four-corners is a BORING may style. Maybe it would have been more interesting at standard speed, but literally a square with some water blocking the way? zzzzz. Of course, it was interesting to see how the AI made some strange settling decisions (persia right next to the iroquois capital? india to the far northwest away from their capital in the middle?). However, while it gave me focus for how to attack and when, the map was completely as advertised -- four corners of the map. I was just hoping the land in the corners would be a bit more dynamic, but it was disappointingly blase, especially compared to some of the very interesting continent maps I've gotten from previous games.
My next game is going to be on a higher difficulty. I'm just debating whether to jump one or two difficulty levels. I have a few ideas for what my next story will be. Some themes are floating around in my head, or I could just go for a straight play-through on a higher difficulty. Who knows.
Thanks again for reading, and I'll post the replay when I can. You all have any other questions about my experiences?
