Other Enjoyable Civilization V Games (Immortal and below)

[Nizef]

OECG#102: Push the Elephants

Welcome to Siam. We play as Ram on a large Fractal map with Standard speed. The level is Emperor. If I ever thought that the recent Byzantium start was crazy... this start is even better! You have space to found a good number of cities yourself, however, the idea here is to push the elephants and go for a Domination Victory. You can´t mess this one up. Just push!

 

[raider980]

Hmm, seems like I played Siam recently; was there a GotM with them? But a Dom Victory with Elephants will be different; and nice, especially with a great start. I'm going to have a really hard time not settling on that Silk. Its on a calendar resource, on a river, on a coast. And it keeps wheat in the 1st ring and the salt in the city radius, albeit one tier further. But still I think its worth it. I will move the warrior NE to see if there's anything I will be giving up by going to the silk.

 

[zxcvbob]

Hmm, seems like I played Siam recently; was there a GotM with them? But a Dom Victory with Elephants will be different; and nice, especially with a great start. I'm going to have a really hard time not settling on that Silk. Its on a calendar resource, on a river, on a coast. And it keeps wheat in the 1st ring and the salt in the city radius, albeit one tier further. But still I think its worth it. I will move the warrior NE to see if there's anything I will be giving up by going to the silk.

You're a better player than I am; is the gold from the silk worth more than the hammer from the hill, and the quicker expand to the salt? And I think you can chop the forest for the silk to rush something (I can't remember if a plantation always removes the forest/jungle) I do often settle on jungle or swamp resources because it takes so long to get those hooked up.

 

[Nizef]

You're a better player than I am; is the gold from the silk worth more than the hammer from the hill, and the quicker expand to the salt? And I think you can chop the forest for the silk to rush something (I can't remember if a plantation always removes the forest/jungle) I do often settle on jungle or swamp resources because it takes so long to get those hooked up.

I would suggest that it is more a playing style thing than anything else. For me personnally, I settled in place in this particular case. Coastal hills are strong in general.

 

[raider980]

You're a better player than I am; is the gold from the silk worth more than the hammer from the hill, and the quicker expand to the salt? And I think you can chop the forest for the silk to rush something (I can't remember if a plantation always removes the forest/jungle) I do often settle on jungle or swamp resources because it takes so long to get those hooked up.

I don’t know if the gold is worth more than the hammers; I don’t tend to try and calculate that kind of thing. To me, settling on a calendar lux seems to be better. Because
1. Gets early gold, can buy things early
2. I don’t have to have a worker spend time improving the lux (I’m usually slow to get workers)
3. Once that worker spends all that time improving the lux, it’s a tile I don’t even want to work and that’s annoying lol

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#102: Push the Elephants

I'm about 360 turns into this one. I went a mixture of Honor, Tradition, and Rationalism, plus the Patronage opener. I settled 4 cities pretty quickly. I tried to not build many wonders, preferring to capture them, but I did get Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens. Built lots of archers and city walls on my 2 cities closest to Monty. When I got composite bows I was going to attack Monty, but of course I didn't have to wait that long. He declared war and swarmed me with units. (they killed all my warriors and spearmen, which was annoying) My cities were never in danger and I destroyed his army with archers and a couple of newly-built composite bows. I upgraded all my archers and pushed back with a half dozen composite bows. I captured his 2 cities (razed Teotihuacan) with a horseman, who would later upgrade to my first elephant. Tenochtitlan had Stonehenge, and a religion with Holy Warriors. That was kinda handy when I had pagodas in all my cities, and I had enough inquisitors stockpiled and didn't want any more great prophets. BTW, inquisitors make great artillery spotters.

Maria was next, and Lisbon was easy to take down with composite bows and elephants. I upgraded to crossbows and puppeted Porto and razed Braga. William was ahead of me in tech and I didn't want to lose all my experienced units trying to capture Amsterdam because it was well fortified, so I beelined Dynamite while my caravels and scouts explored the world. At some point I saw that I could build Statue of Zeus in just 4 turns so I went for it. Also built Forbidden Palace, Notre Dame, the Oracle, and Brandenburg. I annexed Lisbon because the long road thru the swamps connecting the eastern and western parts of my empire was slow and annoying. [edit: I was mistaken about ND, Pedro beat me to it]

Science is moving along very fast in this game, but the AIs are keeping up with me. Brazil picked an ideology just a couple of turns before I did and he picked Autocracy. This was probably a good thing; I picked it too, and his tourism is keeping the Order civs (which also have a lot of tourism) from dragging me down. I did beat him to Prora. Anyway, back to the war effort: William had a *lot* of cities, and he was building riflemen almost as fast as I could kill them, so I don't think I took any casualties at all but the war took a very long time. And my artillery and cavalry (a mix of cav and elephants at this point) were really racking up the promotions. William was the only one who picked Freedom, so I left him alive with a couple of decent coastal cities so he could build Statue of Liberty. Eventually he did, and I declared war and captured his last 2 cities with a battleship and privateer built in Lisbon and my caravels that were finished exploring. The privateer even managed to capture a sea beggar. I razed the city that had no wonders, but at least it did build some polders that were within range of one of my other puppet cities so I grabbed them with a great general then built a trading post on top of the citadel.

My navy was on the wrong side of the isthmus to go after Indonesia so I built/bought another couple of battleships and submarines to attack Jakarta. I captured it with a tank (former elephant.) He put up a good fight too; I think I did lose a couple of units. I just finished wiping him out completely and now it's time to figure out who my next victim is. Probably a quick war with the Incas mainly to raze a city on the isthmus so I can plant a new city in the same place but where it's only 1 tile wide so I can move ships across from one ocean to the other without having to go the long way around. Make peace before pushing all the way to Cusco, then go after France or India next, then a second war with the Inca capture his capital, then Brazil and Mongolia (if Mongolia is still alive, I suspect Pedro will take him out.) I'm building lots of missile cruisers.

I still have 5 capitals to go. Y'all probably would have won by now. Domination on large maps is my weakest game because I try to keep my empire happy and positive cashflow as it sprawls. Pedro has hated me the whole game even though we have the same ideology. He also has the strongest military. I may move him up on the priority list but not eliminate him completely, just take Rio De Janeiro. It would also be good to start a war between him and Gandhi and let them nuke each other.

 

[zxcvbob]

I'm about 360 turns into this one. I went a mixture of Honor, Tradition, and Rationalism, plus the Patronage opener. I settled 4 cities pretty quickly. I tried to not build many wonders, preferring to capture them, but I did get Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens. Built lots of archers and city walls on my 2 cities closest to Monty. When I got composite bows I was going to attack Monty, but of course I didn't have to wait that long. He declared war and swarmed me with units. (they killed all my warriors and spearmen, which was annoying) My cities were never in danger and I destroyed his army with archers and a couple of newly-built composite bows. I upgraded all my archers and pushed back with a half dozen composite bows. I captured his 2 cities (razed Teotihuacan) with a horseman, who would later upgrade to my first elephant. Tenochtitlan had Stonehenge, and a religion with Holy Warriors. That was kinda handy when I had pagodas in all my cities, and I had enough inquisitors stockpiled and didn't want any more great prophets. BTW, inquisitors make great artillery spotters.

Maria was next, and Lisbon was easy to take down with composite bows and elephants. I upgraded to crossbows and puppeted Porto and razed Braga. William was ahead of me in tech and I didn't want to lose all my experienced units trying to capture Amsterdam because it was well fortified, so I beelined Dynamite while my caravels and scouts explored the world. At some point I saw that I could build Statue of Zeus in just 4 turns so I went for it. Also built Forbidden Palace, Notre Dame, the Oracle, and Brandenburg. I annexed Lisbon because the long road thru the swamps connecting the eastern and western parts of my empire was slow and annoying. [edit: I was mistaken about ND, Pedro beat me to it]

Science is moving along very fast in this game, but the AIs are keeping up with me. Brazil picked an ideology just a couple of turns before I did and he picked Autocracy. This was probably a good thing; I picked it too, and his tourism is keeping the Order civs (which also have a lot of tourism) from dragging me down. I did beat him to Prora. Anyway, back to the war effort: William had a *lot* of cities, and he was building riflemen almost as fast as I could kill them, so I don't think I took any casualties at all but the war took a very long time. And my artillery and cavalry (a mix of cav and elephants at this point) were really racking up the promotions. William was the only one who picked Freedom, so I left him alive with a couple of decent coastal cities so he could build Statue of Liberty. Eventually he did, and I declared war and captured his last 2 cities with a battleship and privateer built in Lisbon and my caravels that were finished exploring. The privateer even managed to capture a sea beggar. I razed the city that had no wonders, but at least it did build some polders that were within range of one of my other puppet cities so I grabbed them with a great general then built a trading post on top of the citadel.

My navy was on the wrong side of the isthmus to go after Indonesia so I built/bought another couple of battleships and submarines to attack Jakarta. I captured it with a tank (former elephant.) He put up a good fight too; I think I did lose a couple of units. I just finished wiping him out completely and now it's time to figure out who my next victim is. Probably a quick war with the Incas mainly to raze a city on the isthmus so I can plant a new city in the same place but where it's only 1 tile wide so I can move ships across from one ocean to the other without having to go the long way around. Make peace before pushing all the way to Cusco, then go after France or India next, then a second war with the Inca capture his capital, then Brazil and Mongolia (if Mongolia is still alive, I suspect Pedro will take him out.) I'm building lots of missile cruisers.

I still have 5 capitals to go. Y'all probably would have won by now. Domination on large maps is my weakest game because I try to keep my empire happy and positive cashflow as it sprawls. Pedro has hated me the whole game even though we have the same ideology. He also has the strongest military. I may move him up on the priority list but not eliminate him completely, just take Rio De Janeiro. It would also be good to start a war between him and Gandhi and let them nuke each other.

I finally finished this one. Turn 447. I bribed the Inca to attack India and let them fight a bit (no nukes, unfortunately), then I declared war on the Inca and captured a bunch of crappy cities and razed most of them. Then I made peace and he gave me most of his good cities (and I razed most of them, although I stopped razing Machu when it got down to about 8 pop -- down from 28) Meanwhile I declared war on Gandhi and took all but one of his cities. He did have atomic bombs but they were on a carrier which I found and sank before he could use them. While all this was going on, Pedro was on a rampage and wiped out the Mongols and all the French cities he could reach (there are I think 2 small French outposts left far away from Paris; one of them is next to Lisbon)

I waited for Machu to come out of rebellion before I declared war on Pedro because I wanted to annex it and buy a bomb shelter; it already had an airport. The war with Brazil took a while because he had so many bombers and quite a few nukes so one at a time he was killing my veteran units. My jet fighters would kill 3 or 4 of his bombers and he'd magically have 3 or 4 new ones. I finally took the hint and quit working on stupid stuff like the International Games and started building and buying stealth bombers. Also once his nukes were depleted (he even obliterated one of my cities with a nuclear missile) it was safe to bring my highly-promoted rocket artillery over and that really sped things up. I'm going to JOMT because there are a few more Brazilian cities i want to capture but that won't take very long at this point. Also I can probably stop razing Salvador and clean up the fallout...

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#103: Does it seem crowded in here to you?
I just finished a really interesting game. It's similar to the current GOTM in that it's Carthage on a small continents map, but the difficulty is Emperor and the map turned out to be really weird. I was at war for most of the game, although I only declared one brief war in the early renaissance to capture a prophet that travelled all the way across the globe to try to convert my holy city before I could generate an inquisitor. (that's all I did; captured the prophet to make a holy site, ignored the situation for10 turns, and settled peace) The AI's kept declaring war on me and each time I had to punish them for it; I ended up with 3 capitals besides my own, and friends with the AI I stole a prophet from. Eventually I got a science victory, but you might go in a different direction. I was also culturally dominant over all but one at the end, but I don't want to give any details because those would be spoilers. Enjoy!

Edited to add a clever title. There are only 7 civs on a standard sized map so there should be plenty of elbow room, but you'll meet a neighbor almost immediately. When I played it the whole game seemed crowded and everybody coveted each other's lands.

 

[venice]

I'm playing 102 now, and I think it's clear to settle coast hill, although I am biased by the fact that it's much better defensively against boats, which doesn't matter in single but does in multi. That being said, SIP still must be best here in my book because moving wastes a turn and moves you away from your growth tiles (the salt) which is really bad in general, but especially on a map size that practically forces you to go liberty to get the most out of your lands, as liberty border growth is very slow. Right now I'm pretty peaceful, around turn 120, I settled 7 cities and am planning on starting the frigate murder soon.

 

[venice]

Alright, I finished #102 Siam with a turn 234 domination victory. Pretty nice game, as I usually tend not to go domination on large maps like this, even when it's a quick and fun win condition. I went into this game with a plan, kill everything with boats, and I'm pleased to say that I was quite successful. I played peacefully early, took out monty with xbows, portugal, indonesia, and india with frigates, and the rest with a combination of +1 range battleships and cavalry, artillery, and by the end, rocket artillery. Lots of culture to go around this game as well, as I went full liberty with 3 points of exploration and patronage opener, before going full rationalism and autocracy mix to the end. Despite my natural urge to grow all of my cities massively for no reason, I managed to contain myself and pretty much stagnated my cities with trading posts around turn 150 or so, which, combined with a golden age that stretched from frigate era to nearly the end of the game, gave me the gold to end things quickly by airlifting about 10 units across the ocean to Mongolia's terrible second city so I could cut through brazil and france. Overall, nice map, lots of fun to play a naval focused but not naval exclusive domination game.

 

[venice]

I just played #103, Carthage to a turn 161 domination victory, with the 2 nearest capitals taken through comp bows, the next 4 through galleass, and the last through frigates. As is common in such games, I used multiple armies, capturing the last 3 capitals within 6-7 turns of each other after a slower early game conquest. Carthage's UA and UU really helped with happiness and gold, and early exploration respectively, as somehow the extra 3 combat strength triremes actually made escaping the barb galley and trireme swarms significantly easier, and city connections for free and phenominally good, and the harbors themselves gave me free happiness once I got my third point of exploration. Other than the slight annoyance of not having quick combat on, this was a pretty smooth game, with no capital unshootable by at least 3 2 range units, and a few +1 range galleass giving me a little bump near the end. Overall, a nice game!

Edit: It definitely seemed crowded early on, and with poor land for long term growth I felt like conquest and dom vic were my best shot