my first game review

[phillip1882]

i played as Washington, warlord difficulty, small map. yeah i know, but i like getting my feet wet before taking on the harder challenges.
any way thought I'd discuss the pros and cons of the game.
i'll start with pros.
the graphics are nice. good detail. the armies now actually look like armies.
i found the hex tiles and 1 unit per tile a cool challenge, make you really think about each move, especially placement of units.
the slow pace at which cites expand their borders is a bit annoying, but you can easily purchase more land. i found this to be the primary thing i spend gold on.
cons:
AI very rudimentary it seems. many times cities weren't garrisoned. even in civ 4 ai at least built an archer in every city.
city states don't add much to the game. very easy to capture, almost no benefit from not doing so, other than not being seen as an aggressive civ.
tech tree, fairly rapid. i was playing on normal, but nearly had all 4 of the primary worker techs; pottery, mining, masonry and animal husbandry, by the time i had my first worker. i did build warrior first, but combined, that was like 25 turns. tech seems almost a secondary issue.

well that was my first impression. i'll try the game on a harder difficulty, see if it gets any more difficult.

 

[GoRy]

I played a game as Washington, warlord difficulty, small map. Yeah, I know, but I like getting my feet wet before taking on the harder challenges the game has to offer. Anyway, I thought I'd discuss the pros and cons of the game as I see them.

Pros.
- The graphics are nice, good detail, and the armies now actually look like armies.
- I found the hex tiles and 1 unit per tile a cool challenge, it really makes you think about each move, especially placement of units.
- The slow pace at which cites expand their borders is a bit annoying, but you can easily purchase more land. I found this to be the primary thing I spent gold on.

Cons
- AI is very rudimentary it seems. Many times, cities weren't garrisoned. Even in civ 4 the AI at least built an archer in every city.
- City states also don't add much to the game. Very easy to capture, almost no benefit from not doing so, other than not being seen as an aggressive civ.
- Technology tree advancement was fairly rapid. I was playing on normal, but nearly had all 4 of the primary worker techs; pottery, mining, masonry and animal husbandry, by the time I had my first worker. I did build a warrior first, but even combined, that was like 25 turns. Technology seems almost a secondary issue.

Well that was my first impression. I'll try the game on a harder difficulty and see if it gets any more difficult.

Fixed.

In reply, tech certainly seems to start faster but there seems to be more of it. If you want to crunch hard through the tech tree you really have to go for science all-out and not treat it like it's a secondary and self-sufficient part of the game.

Also, apart from the fact that technically cities don't need garrisoned - If a cities defence is reduced to 0 with a garrison present, the city can be captured regardless of the garrison - I've not noticed this. 5 complete games and the AI does indeed garrison regularly at Chieftain and above.