Other Enjoyable Civilization V Games (Immortal and below)

[zxcvbob]

I am trying OECG#5 again, settling in place and then beelining Hanging Gardens because that hill doesn't have fresh water. The spot by Mt Sinai is awesome, but I wouldn't have moved my starting settler if you hadn't told us to go NE. I'll settle my second city there and try to get Petra. (the AI's must have really good production too because they are building wonders impossibly fast) Tradition opener, left side of Liberty, finish Tradition, and then I don't know what; maybe finish Liberty. I'll enter the Renaissance via Banking to build Hanses.

Spoiler :

Not as impressively huge cities this time, but I settled more of them. I stole a settler from France pretty early, then harassed him a bit and looked for another worker to steal, then made peace. Eventually I declared war again and took Troyes and Lyon (I think Troyes was in the peace settlement) but stopped short of Paris because I wanted to stay friends with everybody. Played peacefully after that, until much later when England declared war and tried to capture Frankfort. My nuclear subs beat her navy soundly and I captured Coventry, then took a bunch of GPT and luxuries in a peace settlement and continued focusing on my spaceship.

After I won, I "just one more turn"d and built up my air force. Theodora captured Paris and I declare war on her immediately and captured it, then nuked my own territory (NE of Paris) so her units couldn't rush in and retake it. Then I captured Orleans (I think it was Orleans) because it had Prora, and the Byzantine war continues. I will have to wipe her out completely. Unless I get bored and abandon the game.

My ideology is Freedom and everybody else is Order, and the world ideology is Order. I control the UN, but even with all the CS's as allies don't think I have enough votes to overturn the ideology. Maybe I should have liberated Paris because he would have voted to overturn it too. I could declare war and capture Paris later. It's also handy having someone you can gift high-pop but useless cities to

 

[Nizef]

Here is a list of the OECG series so far:

1. Russia (King, Pangaea, Quick speed, Small size, Unmodded)
2. the Mayans (Emperor, Great Plains Plus, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded)
3. Egypt (Emperor, Pangaea, Quick speed, Small size, Unmodded)
4. the Ottomans (Prince, Archipelago, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
5. Germany (Emperor, Hellblazer´s Pangaea, Quick speed, Small size, Modded with Hellblazer´s map pack (v.8))

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Hello everybody,

Looking back at what has been achieved in the neighbouring Enjoyable Deity Games thread, it just struck me that maybe there is interest for something similar on other difficulty levels as well. For this first experiment I chose King, since it is a nice casual level. I will not be uploading as regularly as in the Deity thread, but I would like to read about your thoughts on a thread like this. Do we need it or not? Please leave some feedback!

What do we have here? The map is an unmodded Pangaea map with Quick speed and Small size and the civ to play is Russia. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled. In a way, I wanted to copy some of the features from the multiplayer environment, albeit in a single player format. You can obviously go in any direction you want but the designed VC is Culture Victory. You have a fantastic starting location and a nice nearby NW to settle with your first expand. Even if this game is unmodded (and I also submitted my game), the vicinity of the nearby NW looks odd. Three tiles that looks like plains tiles are actually mountains. Otherwise, I think you will enjoy this map. There are pictures from the starting location and from my win and obviously you will also find the game save to play down below. Enjoy!

As a comparison, I won my game on t167, using a very straightforward strategy. I had two expands out very quickly, didn´t go for GL nor SH. Instead I built ToA and Hanging Gardens. 3 city NC on t57 and I reached Education on t73. I settled one more city after NC. From there on I think I more or less built all wonders in the game and the tech path was Printing Press-Acoustics-Industrialization-Archeology-Refridgeration. Out of sheer boredom, I also conquered Ankara and Edirne from the Ottomans and eliminated Enrico alltogether. He had to go since he converted one of my cities and showed me the finger when I asked him to stop. I needed just two GMus into english territory to win and the easiest way to do so, was to gift Kathmandu to Elizabeth and then declare war to get my GMus inside her borders.

Turn 127 CV. I liked vadalaz's Sacred Sites strategy so I tried to emulate that. Went piety first then used my remaining policies on Liberty. Got first religion with Earth Mother and Mt Kailash, grabbed Pagodas and Mosques as follower beliefs, Ceremonial Burial as my founder, Religious Texts for my expand, and obviously Sacred Sites for my reformation. Then I just went about spamming cities and grabbing my faith buildings. Stole most of my workers from city states, and took one city from China. Everyone hated me but I didn't really care. England had a lot of culture so I founded a few cities nearby for trade. I locked all my cities except for two at 3 pop because I get 3 happiness for free from my faith buildings, so I can have them grow that large to build the important buildings without worrying about happiness.

By the way, I just wanted to say how much I love this thread! I only did the first one so far but the other games look like they'll be fun! And it's great that there's enjoyable games being put out for those of us who can't handle Deity games.

OECG#3: Keep those wonders coming

Once in a while I just have to go down the wonder spamming route. There is probably not many better civs to do that with than Egypt. Again I chose a Pangaea map with small size and quick speed. We play on Emperor level and the AIs were handpicked, mostly for some resemblance of regional relevancy. You will have a nice starting location and two-three wonderful places for expansions. All VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. You can go in any direction you want but there is a secondary target: build as many wonders yourself as you possibly can. As a benchmark, I built 17 wonders (Broadway, Christo, Eiffel, Forbidden, GlobeT, Great wall, Hagia Sofia, HGardens, LToP, Louvre, Machu, Notre Dame, Oracle, Sistine, SoL, Taj Mahal and Uffizi) in the capital and 2 (Porcelain and Red fort) in Heliopolis, so 19 in total. I won a CV on t188 without trying to finish, I just wanted to build and have fun. In addition I kicked Askia out of the game. I am sure you will enjoy this one!

Turn 224 Science Victory, although I was probably 3 turns out from Culture and could've won Diplo if I cared to try.

I built 35 wonders and stole 2 from Askia. I also built at least one in every city! I built 18 in the capital. I only built one in Heliopolis, and it was the Great Mosque which I only built in the Modern Era since nobody opened piety. The last wonder I missed out on was the Globe Theatre. Rome ended with 5 (Pyramids, Colossus, Kremlin, Alhambra, Globe Theatre), Babylon built Notre Dame and Terra Cotta, and Assyria built the Statue of Zeus. The Songhai built Stonehenge and the Great Lighthouse but I took them when I conquered Gao in the Classical Era. Nobody built Prora.

Note: Screenshots 47-50 are from the Russia game, 51-60 are from the Egypt game

 

[Nizef]

OECG#6: To OCC or not to OCC, that´s the question

Here is another fun and easy game. We play as Ethiopia on King level on an unmodded Pangaea map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. Do absolutely anything you want. As an example, I played with the capital only for the first 69 turns, until I reached Education and had built most wonders I wanted. Then I changed style and killed my northern neighbour and settled three cities myself. Unfocused but really fun. Once again, I didn´t want this to end at all. At the end I chose to win by CV on t208. As a hint, the vicinity of the Silver to the S of Hanoi is an awesome spot for a city. Have fun!

 

[zxcvbob]

That was a quick game. Unfocused culture victory on turn 230. (the International Games were underway) Totally peaceful...

Spoiler :

even tho' I was surrounded by warmongers. (I probably should have been the warmonger) I sold them luxuries, mostly salt, really cheap. Shaka hated me for some reason, but he was way over there and not a threat. Tradition, Aesthetics (I almost never take Aesthetics), Rationalism, Freedom(9), and Commerce. I settled 2 cities very quickly (but didn't see all that salt to the north until after I'd picked a pantheon), and a third coastal city very late. I intended for it to build a navy and cargo ships, but it mostly just built wonders because it had good production. I think my entire navy was one caravel (that I bought just before researching Steam) and one submarine. They were both out auto-exploring.

I think Autocracy would have been faster, especially if I could get Cult of Personality to work. OTOH, I wouldn't be able to keep open borders with everybody (except Shaka) if I was at war a lot, even if I didn't take any cities. Maybe you just use CoP for the last holdout.

 

[zxcvbob]

I tried the Ethiopia game again. Settled more cities (mostly ignoring the Spirit of Adwa combat bonus) and went Autocracy instead of Freedom for Futurism because I hadn't built the music guild or artist guild yet. Still played peacefully, even tho' there were wars all around me. (I had the Great Wall, a respectable military but not the largest, and I had large cultural borders. Nobody wanted to mess with me) Culture victory in 194 turns this time.

Spoiler :

I really thought I was going to have to take Carthage to slow down Dido's rampage but I never did. The last one to fall under my influence was Shaka because he was too far away to send a trade route. Liberty opener to Collective Rule, then switched to full Tradition. Aesthetics was next, mixed with Rationalism when I got to the Renaissance until I filled both of them. Also Autocracy, but I didn't put much into that other than Futurism, Universal Healthcare, Third Alternative, and unlocking Prora.
I like the little triangle on the map from where my knight was out auto-exploring.

 

[Nizef]

OECG#7: The No Coal Challenge

Here is slightly more demanding game. We play as the Incas on Emperor level on an unmodded Frontier map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to win a CV or DipV in a mostly peaceful fashion and it is not allowed to go for Secret Sites! Everything else you need, you will find, except for Coal. Plan on doing without it for the entire game! I liked the starting location, I mean Pearls is not that bad on Emperor. On the contrary, I found it enjoyable. I only settled three cities myself but they were huge as a nice compensation. At the end I won by CV on t196. I am sure you will like this one. Have fun!

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#7: The No Coal Challenge

Here is slightly more demanding game. We play as the Incas on Emperor level on an unmodded Frontier map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to win a CV or DipV in a mostly peaceful fashion and it is not allowed to go for Secret Sites! Everything else you need, you will find, except for Coal. Plan on doing without it for the entire game! I liked the starting location, I mean Pearls is not that bad on Emperor. On the contrary, I found it enjoyable. I only settled three cities myself but they were huge as a nice compensation. At the end I won by CV on t196. I am sure you will like this one. Have fun!

What does "mostly peaceful" mean? If I never declare any wars, but when some moron shows up on my border with a huge army and gets froggy, can I annihilate him? (You-know-who is on my borders right now trying to decide whether to jump. I have the Great Wall, that border city has a castle, and I can build muskets in one turn) Or do I have to just play defense? It will be just defense for a while, until he runs out of units and retreats...

 

[Nizef]

What does "mostly peaceful" mean? If I never declare any wars, but when some moron shows up on my border with a huge army and gets froggy, can I annihilate him? (You-know-who is on my borders right now trying to decide whether to jump. I have the Great Wall, that border city has a castle, and I can build muskets in one turn) Or do I have to just play defense? It will be just defense for a while, until he runs out of units and retreats...

Yeah, you can declare offensive wars. However, clearing a map with just five AIs is of course no match in itself and that is why I hope for "mostly peaceful" journeys. You can even wipe out one entirely but let most of them stay alive. The grey zone needs to be vast, after all the idea is to have fun and we all interpret it in different ways.

 

[zxcvbob]

Well, he finally jumped. I've been at war for a lot of turns now (I haven't been counting.) I haven't lost a single unit and I'm killing at least 2 of his every turn. And yet, he is staying #1 in military strength and I'm a close second. He must be diverting all of his production to replacements. The only thing really annoying about it is he has several CS allies, and eventually I'll have to achieve peace one way or the other to get the diplomatic victory. I got Freedom passed as the world ideology before anybody cared, so that's good, and I built the Forbidden Palace. I'm pretty sure he would accept a fair peace offer, but I'm not interested in a fair settlement anymore. Maybe wait until he's willing to give up his best city, then raze it

I'm not letting the war distract from teching as fast as I can to Globalization and staying friends (research agreements) with everybody else. But maintaining such a large military is getting kind of expensive.

Spoiler Diplomatic victory on turn 245 :

Washington finally offered me all his gold per turn and luxuries for peace and I accepted. Then started working on winning over his city state allies. One had about 200 influence to overcome, so rather than spend that much gold I just bough the city with a merchant of Venice. I did not have enough for the first world leader vote so had to wait for the second vote. The International Games just completed and I'm only a few turns away from a cultural victory also.

I played just one city for a long time, mainly from not enough new luxuries. Because Custco had no fresh water I beelined Hanging Gardens. When I did finally settle some expos (I think it was after I built Notre Dame) they grew fast because Tradition finisher and ToA. Tradition, Patronage, Rationalism, Freedom(9), then started working on Commerce.

 

[raider980]

OECG#7: The No Coal Challenge

I love the Inca, going to give this one a try.

Spoiler EDGE115 Japan spoiler :

No Coal Challenge? Just like the Japan EDGE115 game I'm playing - seven cities and not a single coal anywhere. Had to spend 1000G for a CS to build factories.

 

[zxcvbob]

@raider980: There's no coal at all. So no factories, nuclear plants, or even solar at any price. OTOH, production is pretty good on this map and the AI's don't get coal either. (but they still like taking Order for some reason)

 

[Nizef]

@raider980: There's no coal at all. So no factories, nuclear plants, or even solar at any price. OTOH, production is pretty good on this map and the AI's don't get coal either. (but they still like taking Order for some reason)

There should be some near Karakorum.

 

[zxcvbob]

There should be some near Karakorum.

You're right! I didn't look at the map carefully enough after researching Satellites. Looks like all the AI's have reasonable access to at least a little coal, but you don't.

 

[Nizef]

OECG#8: Living next door to A

This is a modded game. We play as the Papal States on Emperor level on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to win a CV in a mostly peaceful fashion. As in #7 there are limitations: you can´t use Sacred Sites nor Futurism and try to win without the concert tours of Great Musicians as well! And one more rule: If Isabella sends Great Profets your way, you must declare war and take every single one (don´t bother with the Missionaries)! The start is fantastic but otherwise your lands are average at most. You have three neighbours nearby, make the most of that. All AIs were handpicked for their connection to the Mediterranean sea. The map is interesting and offers a surprise or two (or three). It took me until t206 to win. I am sure you will like this one. Have fun!

You need the modded civ the Papal States https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=80377476 for this.

 

[Nizef]

OECG#9: Just do it (Great Library challenge)

We play as the Shoshone on Immortal level on an unmodded Pangaea map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to have fun but also here there is one particular task: you have to build the Great Library, otherwise you have lost! It will most likely be enough to build it on t23. After that you can go in any direction you want. I fooled around without focus myself and finished only on t235 with a CV after waging war with most AIs. Good luck and have fun!

 

[zxcvbob]

OECG#8: Living next door to A

This is a modded game. We play as the Papal States on Emperor level on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to win a CV in a mostly peaceful fashion. As in #7 there are limitations: you can´t use Sacred Sites nor Futurism and try to win without the concert tours of Great Musicians as well! And one more rule: If Isabella sends Great Profets your way, you must declare war and take every single one (don´t bother with the Missionaries)! The start is fantastic but otherwise your lands are average at most. You have three neighbours nearby, make the most of that. All AIs were handpicked for their connection to the Mediterrean sea. The map is interesting and offers a surprise or two (or three). It took me until t206 to win. I am sure you will like this one. Have fun!

You need the modded civ the Papal States https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=80377476 for this.

Never played this civ before. So I dived right in, and it took me about 260 turns to win because I didn't understand that you can build more than one chapel in each city; I thought it was 3 total for a while, so I only settled 3 cities and built the chapels in the wrong order. Anyway, played it a couple of more times and can't get below about 231 turns because the International Games never comes up (and I never had quite enough votes to propose it.) If it did, I think I could knock 30 turns off my game easy. In my 260-ish game I did win the International Games (too early for maximum affect) and it helped quite a bit. Full Tradition, full Aesthetics, then Rationalism and Freedom. I'm delaying Rationalism by a policy or two to finish Aesthetics while everyone still likes me and gives me open borders, then I zoom thru the whole Rationalism tree in just a few turns. If I time the Worlds Fair right (I usually get a say-so on that one), I can use the Rationalism finisher to take Radio for free and unlock an ideology -- save Oxford for something like Plastics, Refrigeration, or Internet.

Also I did not like the map surprise, although it doesn't seem to make any real difference.

It was fun. Thanks.

BTW, the Swiss Guard is supposed to give tourism once you research Radio. I was gonna wait until then and buy a ton of them. It doesn't work; I bought one and nothing happened.

OECG#9: Just do it (Great Library challenge)

We play as the Shoshone on Immortal level on an unmodded Pangaea map with Small size and Quick speed and all VCs are enabled and QM and QC are turned on as usual. The task is to have fun but also here there is one particular task: you have to build the Great Library, otherwise you have lost! It will most likely be enough to build it on t23. After that you can go in any direction you want. I fooled around without focus myself and finished only on t235 with a CV after waging war with most AIs. Good luck and have fun!

Guess I'm done. GL went on turn 17. I don't think it's possible for a human to get it that fast at Immortal unless maybe you get Writing free from an ancient ruin. (I got Animal Husbandry from an ancient ruin) I was going Liberty for the extra hammer because I think it's a bigger boost that early than +15% from Aristocracy.

 

[zxcvbob]

Not sure why those 2 msgs were merged. I've tried OECG#9 about a dozen times. I can get pretty close, but I am always beat to the GL by at least 2 turns. Best attempt was settling on the riverside copper and going Tradition. Ancient ruins were technology (AH), culture, +1 pop, unit upgrade. Build order was pathfinder, prebuild a worker for one turn, shrine (God-King pantheon), granary, GL. If I'd gotten Pottery for my freebie it woulda worked. I don't think stealing a worker from Panama would have helped. Only thing else I can think to do is skipping the shrine to get the granary up faster for quicker growth even on production focus. But this is not fun; think I'm going to give up and wait for the next one.

Okay, that worked. Got the GL on turn 22, and still managed to found the last religion with 2 cities.

 

[Nizef]

Good. I was already worried that I had made the challenge a little too rough...

 

[zxcvbob]

Good. I was already worried that I had made the challenge a little too rough...

If it's too rough for me, other ppl might still enjoy it. I don't have to like all of them