Other Enjoyable Civilization V Games (Immortal and below)

[vadalaz]

You can go in any direction you want but there is a secondary target: build as many wonders yourself as you possibly can

Nice, I like that challenge. Lower difficulties are great for doing things you normally wouldn't try on Deity. Haven't come up with what I want to do in #2 yet, so I'll play this one first.

I suppose a delayed DomV is the easiest way to secure as many wonders as possible, but to make it more interesting I'll try to get a peaceful CV with the only source of tourism being World Wonders + Hotels/Airports and the % modifiers.

 

[zxcvbob]

I just finished #3. Barely eked out a science victory on turn 244. I built 21 wonders; let's see if I can list them all, Artemis, the Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens, Parthenon, Borobudur, Petra, Oracle, Machu Picchu, Great Wall, Notre Dame, LToP, Red Fort, Himeji, Forbidden Palace, Globe Theatre, Cristo Redentor, Uffizi, Statue of Liberty, Sydney, Neuschwanstein, and Pentagon. And I captured Terracotta Army. I got way too many engineers in this game, which slowed my science down a little. Social policies were Tradition, Patronage opener, Aesthetics, Rationalism, Freedom(12).

Spoiler :

Dido built the Great Lighthouse, and Rome built most of the rest of the wonders. Rome was also ahead of me in science and started building the spaceship before I did, but I caught up and bought the last piece instead of building it. Rome also just had one piece left to go, so it was a kind of exciting finish

I took Nippur in the peace deal after an early join war along with Dido and never got around to annexing it. Askia and I declared a joint war very late and I captured Akkad and Babylon; Askia didn't contribute much, but he did capture the last city Sippar after I bombed it to zero health then quickly signed a peace treaty (so he got all the hate for it)

 

[Nizef]

As a teaser, there will be a game with the Ottomans on Prince/Standard/Standard within a few days and after that probably something with Germany.

 

[Caracal]

I was going to replay the OECG#1 Russia map for a Science Victory - It's such a awesome map and start. But who doesn't like wonder spamming!! I'll give it a go.

 

[vadalaz]

Finished #3 with a T146 CV. No tourism from religion, no archaeologists and only one great work from Parthenon. The endgame tourism was higher than I expected at 530 tpt and that's without IG or World Religion.

Spoiler :

4-city Tradition opener -> Collective rule -> Finish Tradition. The idea is to snipe the Great Library and quickly build one-city NC. Collective rule timing works pretty well there and you can get 3 settlers out very quickly after NC. Liberty also unlocks the Pyramids which is nice both thematically and functionally. The plan for the capital was then to build HG and Petra and grow into an absolute powerhouse of a city.

What I didn't expect was that I'd manage to get all the early wonders - GL, ToA, Stonehenge, MoH and Pyramids. My aggressive early game must've helped - I DoWed all three nearby AIs for workers and caravans. I bought a War Chariot and a Spearman early for CS tributes and barb control as well.

Spoiler T50 :

Trad/Lib mix helped with the early wonders too - the expos can skip monuments and build wonders first, then Granaries/Watermills, Aqueducts and Libraries boosted by the Liberty bonus hammers.

I played a completely peaceful game afterwards, focusing on WWs in the capital and infrastructure in the expos. No coastal city, so no GLH or Colossus, and I also lost Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza to Ashur, but you can't have everything. I founded a wonder-focused religion with +15% production and +2 faith per world wonder.

Spoiler T100 :

Congress proposals were Cultural Heritage Sites and International games, but I won before I could complete IG. Filled out Rationalism and Freedom to Media Culture, started building cultural buildings and saving up for Broadcast Towers and then I remembered that I could just engineer CN Tower instead. Culture to beat was ~3.5k from Babylon and Rome.

Spoiler Victory :

Wonders (29):

Spoiler :

1. Great Library - T25
2. Hanging Gardens - T43
3. Petra - T50
4. Temple of Artemis - T52
5. Stonehenge - T54
6. Pyramids - T57
7. Mausoleum - T58
8. Oracle - T63
9. Great Wall - T67
10. Parthenon - T71
11. Borobudur - T76
12. Hagia Sophia - T81
13. Alhambra - T90
14. Notre Dame - T99
15. Angkor Wat - T107
16. Globe Theatre - T110
17. Sistine Chapel - T112
18. Taj Mahal - T113
19. Leaning Tower of Pisa - T115
20. Porcelain Tower - T122
21. Eiffel Tower - T127
22. Himeji Castle - T130
23. Statue of Liberty - T132
24. Red Fort - T135
25. CN Tower - T139
26. Broadway - T141
27. Cristo Redentor - T143
28. Uffizi - T143
29. Brandenburg Gate - T144

 

[Nizef]

Finished #3 with a T146 CV. No tourism from religion, no archaeologists and only one great work from Parthenon. The endgame tourism was higher than I expected at 530 tpt and that's without IG or World Religion.

Spoiler :

4-city Tradition opener -> Collective rule -> Finish Tradition. The idea is to snipe the Great Library and quickly build one-city NC. Collective rule timing works pretty well there and you can get 3 settlers out very quickly after NC. Liberty also unlocks the Pyramids which is nice both thematically and functionally. The plan for the capital was then to build HG and Petra and grow into an absolute powerhouse of a city.

What I didn't expect was that I'd manage to get all the early wonders - GL, ToA, Stonehenge, MoH and Pyramids. My aggressive early game must've helped - I DoWed all three nearby AIs for workers and caravans. I bought a War Chariot and a Spearman early for CS tributes and barb control as well.

Spoiler T50 :

View attachment 571059

Trad/Lib mix helped with the early wonders too - the expos can skip monuments and build wonders first, then Granaries/Watermills, Aqueducts and Libraries boosted by the Liberty bonus hammers.

I played a completely peaceful game afterwards, focusing on WWs in the capital and infrastructure in the expos. No coastal city, so no GLH or Colossus, and I also lost Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza to Ashur, but you can't have everything. I founded a wonder-focused religion with +15% production and +2 faith per world wonder.

Spoiler T100 :

View attachment 571061

Congress proposals were Cultural Heritage Sites and International games, but I won before I could complete IG. Filled out Rationalism and Freedom to Media Culture, started building cultural buildings and saving up for Broadcast Towers and then I remembered that I could just engineer CN Tower instead. Culture to beat was ~3.5k from Babylon and Rome.

Spoiler Victory :

View attachment 571062

Wonders (29):

Spoiler :

1. Great Library - T25
2. Hanging Gardens - T43
3. Petra - T50
4. Temple of Artemis - T52
5. Stonehenge - T54
6. Pyramids - T57
7. Mausoleum - T58
8. Oracle - T63
9. Great Wall - T67
10. Parthenon - T71
11. Borobudur - T76
12. Hagia Sophia - T81
13. Alhambra - T90
14. Notre Dame - T99
15. Angkor Wat - T107
16. Globe Theatre - T110
17. Sistine Chapel - T112
18. Taj Mahal - T113
19. Leaning Tower of Pisa - T115
20. Porcelain Tower - T122
21. Eiffel Tower - T127
22. Himeji Castle - T130
23. Statue of Liberty - T132
24. Red Fort - T135
25. CN Tower - T139
26. Broadway - T141
27. Cristo Redentor - T143
28. Uffizi - T143
29. Brandenburg Gate - T144

I got the impression from your report that you had a really good time!

 

[vadalaz]

I got the impression from your report that you had a really good time!

Yeah, that was a lot of fun and it reminded me of a time before I joined Civfanatics, when I used to play OCC on Emperor almost exclusively, just going for all the wonders.

 

[zxcvbob]

I played the Egypt one again. Peaceful Autocracy culture victory on turn 215. I had no idea how much is at stake with the Cultural Heritage Sites resolution; I knew it supplied a lot of culture but didn't know that converted to tourism.

Spoiler :

This time I went Liberty to Collective Rule, then full Tradition, Patronage opener, Commerce opener, Rationalism, Autocracy (I had a coastal city), Aesthetics opener. If I take the Tradition opener first and then switch to Liberty, that delays my first settler by just a few turns but they are crucial turns and I get beat to a good location or two. My national college was kinda late even though I built the Great Library because I didn't want to delay getting my expos settled, and they had more important things to build than libraries (the Pyramids, Halicarnassus, and Great Lighthouse) Wasn't long before Dido and Nebuchadnezzar declared war on me because I was "settling cities too aggressively." That was just as Thebes was finishing the Great Wall. I don't think I saw any Carthage units, but I killed lots of Babylonian warriors, spearmen, catapults, and bowmen. Askia decided that was his chance and he declared war too. This was about the time the others were getting tired of fighting, and I settled peace with them (took a city from Babylon in the peace treaty, and some GPT from Carthage) So I could focus my attention on Askia. His initial assault was better than theirs and his pikes killed several of my composite bows but never threatened my city. When he started running out of units to feed the meat grinder and retreated, I pursued him back to Gao and captured it, putting him out of his misery. (I captured it with a scout because the scout got there faster than my horseman) That was the last war I fought. I'm not sure anyone even denounced me after that. I quickly blotted out the Songhai religion and went back to my wonder building. I built about 30 this time, plus the 3 I captured in Gao. And I was building Great Firewall, Pentagon, and CN Towers when the game ended. The International Games were being voted on next turn.

 

[Nizef]

OECG#4: Sail away

As promised, this will be a game with the Ottomans. We play on Prince level on an Archipelago map with Standard size and Standard speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. You can go in any direction you want. I just enjoyed the possibility to build and do all the things that you can´t do on Deity and I was in no hurry to end the game. I built a crazy amount of wonders and took Athens just for fun before winning a very unfocused CV on t271. The map is quite average but I am sure you will enjoy this one anyway. Finding ruins very late in the game is also fun, albeit not very important. Enjoy!

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#4: Sail away

Looks like an awesome start. Hmmm... Settle in place, or on top of the silver? (probably the silver) Ottomans are fun on water maps. Thanks!

 

[Nizef]

OECG#5: How many flood plains wheat do you have in your capital?

This was not supposed to be part of this series at all, but the start was just too good! Here we play as Germany on Emperor level on an Hellblazer´s Pangaea map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. You can of course go in any direction you want. However killing five enemies on Emperor is not a complicated task. Instead I hope that you go for CV, DipV or SV. The start is so crazy that you can even do OCC here, if you want to. Or maybe you want to build the biggest capital in your civ5 career? Or maybe you settle 10 cities and grow them like crazy? I know I just the other day said that Hellblazer´s maps are balanced but this is perhaps the exception to that rule. Move your Warrior two tiles to the NE and go from there... I settled only on t2 and then went on the route towards Hanging Gardens and Petra. I settled two expands around t70-75, mostly to increase my production capacity (at the end I was number 2 in hammers. England had 30 hammers more than me on 13 cities compared to my 3 (Stockholm was still in resistance)). Thankfully a couple of AIs actually had a great journey as well, which made the game last a little longer. I didn´t want this one to end at all. I had three GMus ready for use but I didn´t even bother to use them... Well, my game ended in a CV on t196 but the turn count is not important here, just build what you want and as much as you want and enjoy the ride to the max!

You will need the Hellblazer´s map pack (v8) for this one. Here is a link to get it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KiFTUkF8zxbRdN_AmQ-jIwdUAjnriO2wYNGBuqphcCM/edit# Make sure that you save the files in your MODS folder and after restarting Civ5 it will appear among your mods. So, a little bit of preparation, but the reward is fantastic. Enjoy!

 

[mbbcam]

You will need the Hellblazer´s map pack (v8) for this one. Here is a link to get it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KiFTUkF8zxbRdN_AmQ-jIwdUAjnriO2wYNGBuqphcCM/edit# Make sure that you save the files in your MODS folder and after restarting Civ5 it will appear among your mods.

If you install in the Maps folder (as per the instructions) instead of the Mods folder it does not appear as a Mod, and I believe other users will not need to install the map script.

 

[Nizef]

If you install in the Maps folder (as per the instructions) instead of the Mods folder it does not appear as a Mod, and I believe other users will not need to install the map script.

You are probably right. However, putting it in the mods folder definitely works as well.

 

[zxcvbob]

Took me about 350 turns for a culture victory on #4. Would have been faster if I had taken-out Alex. Or if I had given him a city so my late-game musicians didn't have to swim so far. I paid GK to to kill him for me, and he did a good job of harassment but didn't take any good cities. (it would have also helped if anyone but me had contributed to the International Games) I settled 5 cities; Tradition, a little Patronage and Exploration, and full Aesthetics and Rationalism. Autocracy again because I usually do Freedom, and Gunboat Diplomacy for my 6th tenet. Built too many wonders of course, but tried to be selectiveabout it, and any that didn't have great works slots I tried to build in my expos instead of Istanbul.

I played mostly peacefully, but did declare war on Boudicca because Edinburgh had lots of oil (and aluminum, but the aluminum didn't matter so much.)

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#5: How many flood plains wheat do you have in your capital?
You will need the Hellblazer´s map pack (v8) for this one. Here is a link to get it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KiFTUkF8zxbRdN_AmQ-jIwdUAjnriO2wYNGBuqphcCM/edit# Make sure that you save the files in your MODS folder and after restarting Civ5 it will appear among your mods. So, a little bit of preparation, but the reward is fantastic. Enjoy!

I ran the installer; it put the maps in my ../maps directory. I tried loading the game and it failed. I'll try moving them to the mods directory and see if that helps. (might have to be in mods just because you had it in mods when you created the game) If that doesn't work, I'll sit this one out.

Edit: I can create a new game using the Hellblazer map script but can't open yours. I haven't tried moving the folder yet.

I don't have a ../MODS folder, even tho' I have subscribed to a few mods. Gonna play with the new maps on my own to see what they are.

 

[Nizef]

I don't have a ../MODS folder, even tho' I have subscribed to a few mods. Gonna play with the new maps on my own to see what they are.

Well, if you have some mods, then you have a folder for them as well. In my computer they are directly in ...Sid Meier´s Civilization 5/Mods. I hope you get it to work because the starting area is a very rare one and I would love to read about your journey. But no pressure.

 

[zxcvbob]

I haven't tried moving the map scripts yet but I did find the mods folder; it's C:\Users\MyName\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\MODS It's not in the Program Files(x86) tree at all.

 

[raider980]

Looks like an awesome start. Hmmm... Settle in place, or on top of the silver? (probably the silver) Ottomans are fun on water maps. Thanks!

I'm starting this one. If that silver is coastal, definitely settling on the silver.

 

[zxcvbob]

I got the Germany game to load after I moved the map script folder from the program files tree to the documents tree. I'm about 30 turns in.

Spoiler :

I settled close to Mt Sinai and worked it for one turn to secure Desert Folklore. I'm already getting pissed at France because he has warriors stalking around my capital killing "my" barbs. (Tradition opener plus Honor opener.) He's probably not there for the barbarians. Pretty sure I'm gonna have to kill him, and that will setup the rest of the game.

 

[zxcvbob]

I finished it a few days ago, and don't remember a whole lot about it because I've been playing with the map pack. But here's my final screenshot, a science victory on turn 244. Let's see if I can remember anything about it...

Spoiler :

France and Spain were both annoying. Napoleon asked me to declare a joint war against Spain and I said yes. I was hoping he would kill Isabella, then I could denounce him and declare war on him w/o much warmonger penalty. I did not fight with Spain at all, and after 10 or 12 turns made peace, and she gave me a pretty decent coastal city. I think he did take a city or two, but he didn't capture Madrid. But England captured Madrid at some point, and Spain was gone. At some point much later, I did declare war on France. Napoleon captured my Spanish city (I killed lots of his units while half-heartedly defending and had no losses except for the puppet city itself) while I was laying siege on Paris. So I was able to liberate that Spanish city towards the end of the war with France.

I was friends with everybody for most of the game. The most frustrating thing that happened was before I could seize control of the world congress, my friends embargoed the city states. Massive hit to my production, and I couldn't get it back using Treaty Organization. Eventually I got that overturned, I don't remember how I took over the world congress. I do remember at the end of the game, I was building spaceship parts in only 3 turns so there was no point it taking Space Procurement and I took Media Culture instead.