Never Surrender!

[misterjoshua]

I'm playing a single player at the moment (the current GotM actually) and it's basically all over. I've been in a constant state of defensive war for over a thousand years, against multiple opponents, and my score has suffered irrecoverable damage. To give you some idea I'm currently in the 1700's and my score is below 400. The current leader has a score of over 1200. The thing is, I can't seem to stop playing and give up. Even in this pitiful state I seem to want to carry on, surviving by the skin of my teeth. I've had my capital down to red health but managed to survive, there has been fortuitous changing of city-state alliances, other wars going on at key times and I'm somehow hanging in and managing to avoid total destruction. This has now become my goal, to survive until someone wins.

I don't know if it's cos it's a GotM or because it's my first go on Immortal (or anything above prince) but I just want to see it through.

I was just wondering if anyone else finds themselves in positions like this? Is there any way to recover from such a way behind? All of the other Civs in the game hate me and seem to want to take turns sending armies my way. I know the game is over as a contest but still whenever I go to start a new game up I load this one instead and play a few more turns.

 

[nokmirt]

I'm playing a single player at the moment (the current GotM actually) and it's basically all over. I've been in a constant state of defensive war for over a thousand years, against multiple opponents, and my score has suffered irrecoverable damage. To give you some idea I'm currently in the 1700's and my score is below 400. The current leader has a score of over 1200. The thing is, I can't seem to stop playing and give up. Even in this pitiful state I seem to want to carry on, surviving by the skin of my teeth. I've had my capital down to red health but managed to survive, there has been fortuitous changing of city-state alliances, other wars going on at key times and I'm somehow hanging in and managing to avoid total destruction. This has now become my goal, to survive until someone wins.

I don't know if it's cos it's a GotM or because it's my first go on Immortal (or anything above prince) but I just want to see it through.

I was just wondering if anyone else finds themselves in positions like this? Is there any way to recover from such a way behind? All of the other Civs in the game hate me and seem to want to take turns sending armies my way. I know the game is over as a contest but still whenever I go to start a new game up I load this one instead and play a few more turns.

This sounds to me like you got the old fashioned CiV warmonger dogpile on your back. Typical of the game in its current state. You don't have even a single ally? Wow if thats the case its amazing. I usually had only one fool who stood by my side, at least to trade with for a bit of gold. My advice is to soldier on for as long as you feel its worthwhile, and take something from the game, which may help you later on. Gain valuable experience from it.

Hopefully, with the new expansion there are more groups of alliances on the map, instead of the world against one or two civs. I am sure there will people that will say that you did not follow certain rigid diplomacy rules. To that I say hogwash. Once this insane AI diplomacy is reworked the game will be much more immersive and fun.

 

[headcase]

You probably have no way of winning, but I think role-playing situations like this is what Civ is all about. I played a game with only Time and Domination on and had some fun with that.

 

[AxelRhodd]

to OP
I know exactly what u mean because very often I too play to survive.
I normally play on Deity and have never won but I am totally addicted to the survival aspect. Im def not a good player and normally get wiped out before I get to artillery.
Currently I am playing a game where for the first time ever in over 50 games on Deity was able to reach dynamite and get some artys happening. I think Im improving my gameplay
I play to have fun so I never rage quit no matter how bad things get

 

[misterjoshua]

Haha. I do actually know exactly where my diplomacy went wrong. I DoW's Gandhi after previously DoFing him. Being somewhat of a CiV novice I didn't realise quite what an impact this would have. I certainly didn't think it would cause all Civs to hate me for the next thousand years! I have had Allies from time to time so I've been able to do a bit of trading, but I've not had one solid ally. My closest thing to an ally at the moment is Alexander and he's previously waged a few hundred years of war on me (though apparently he doesn't hold a grudge, which is nice of him considering he attacked me and I didn't retaliate). I did have friendly status with Catherine and Suleiman for a long while, but Suleiman has now attacked me and Catherine is Hostile, though I haven't done anything to them, just the original DoWing a Friend. I haven't been openly attacked by 2 of the Civs but they're both Hostile and I've been in at least 3 simultaneous wars for most of the game.

Oh, and I'm hoping to get to Artillery and see if that lets me take a city or 2, though the other Civs have it already so it probably won't help. I'm about 20 turns away from it.

 

[steave435]

Yeah, sounds just like my current game was at that point. First time playing immortal, and after quickly rushing Japan and wiping them out (mistake) the rest of the world has been unwilling to trade with me, so during the entire game I've only managed to get like 2 research agreements finished, with constant wars against the entire world. I was still doing allright up until the point where I got access to minutemen and decided to train as many as possible before they became obsolete, but after that all those extra units meant I had a very hard time affording to upgrade them, so since then my melee units have been about 2 eras behind everyone else despite my tech level being about equal.
Meanwhile, England and Persia has been busy dividing the rest of the continent (Pangea map) and all the city states between them, and I've been at war with both ever since, fighting their infantry with minutemen and then their mechanized infantry with riflemen.
Luckily I've had a wonderful defensive position, the border between me and England/Persia consist mostly of a this stretch of water separating me from England (with city states allied with them on the coast, so they're not moving troops to me over the water there) and the remaining ~15 tiles wide land passage consist of hilly forested terrain with several mountains and a river that matches up with my defensive line for the last 5 tiles. By fortifying the melee units in forts or on hills behind the forests/hills closest to the front I now have LOS 3 tiles in front of the line (thanks to the american bonus) while they can't get LOS on me without moving in to that forest/hill directly in front of my line, where they quickly got killed by cannons and later artillery.
I've literally been defending that line (combined with some cannons/artillery in my other cities to fight units sent by city states surrounding me) against the rest of the world all the way from early renaissance when I killed Japan (their cities make up the front) until now, with everyone in the modern era without ever being able to take more then 1 single city (from a CS in my small part of the world, which I then lost to an another CS) and Persia has already won a diplomatic victory, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel - I've finally hit stealth, and now have 2 stealth bombers, with more in build, which should hopefully allow me to start attacking soon, and that's not a moment too soon now that Persian nukes have started landing on my border cities and defensive line. The latest "pointiest sticks" pop up had Persia at 55k and England at 45k against my own 4k.

 

[headcase]

My closest thing to an ally at the moment is Alexander and he's previously waged a few hundred years of war on me (though apparently he doesn't hold a grudge)

Alex and a few others like to act friendly while they wait for a good time to strike; in Civ 5 they can and often will lie about that. Also in this game, usually anyone who is friendly after a war is being deceptive. The silver lining is sometimes you can take advantage with friendly-level deals, and one fairly cheap strategy is to make a long-term deal where you take gold now, then declare before upholding your part of the deal.

 

[Proximus]

I find the game is a lot funner when I'm not in first place. The constant motivation to catch up makes the game much more enjoyable, imo.

 

[Ceijha]

Well that sounds like rather painful, but at least you got some fun with it same time.

If it's no trouble, I really would like to know what these abbreviations you guys used mean:

Gotm
DoW
DoF

The immortal stage I find honestly very difficult to even survive, such as in your case. I just lost a game in same kinda manner on 3rd place, but at least did survive and even captured the evil Egyptian capital.

Though as you said, they declare war from all sides whenever not expected and when friends with you, it's just like going into the pool and try to dry yourself off in there. Haha.

Anyway, good job to keep going against all odds.

 

[Proximus]

If it's no trouble, I really would like to know what these abbreviations you guys used mean:

Gotm
DoW
DoF

I don't know what Gotm stands for (game of the month perhaps?) but DoW and DoF stand for declaration of war and friendship respectively.

 

[headcase]

Yup, Gotm is Game of the Month. A game is set up and saved at the start, and challengers load that game and try to do well in it (is my understanding).

 

[Mat93]

I am somewhat stubborn in my games, i don't give up if it looks like theres a chance, however slim of winning, regardless of game type. Im much more likely to give up if i can't lose, than if i can't win.

I do think that games are becoming less of lost causes because of stealth bombers being overpowered, if you are able to rush to them you can always pull it back.