Yesterday, I have played my very first MP match against random people. I think I can just add to this thread instead of starting a new one.
Some things I noticed:
Multiplayer with randoms people is very annoing. First thing that every leaves, usually people leave when you got one city from them.
That is so true. And, to my great surprise, this isn't even considered impolite by the community!
This is how it went:
Of course, I was suspicious and expected an early rush anytime. So I was relieved to see that the enemy warriors didn't go for my scouts on the first possibility. It wasn't a total war game. But then, one enemy had 2 warriors near my border - and as soon as one of my workers showed up, he sacked the worker, thereby declaring war on me. Some turns later, he got another worker (simultaneous turns makes protecting workers more difficult, beware!), but he didn't attempt to invade or anything.
Another neighbor was also in conflict with him. I asked him if we could team up, and he agreed, then apparently attacked our enemy right away.
Obviously, his rush failed, and then we had a disconnect - it was the player who just lost on his invasion attempt. I voted for "waiting for the player to come back", but immediately everyone jumped on me "psyclog, vote continue!"
So it was no big deal to the other players that somebody would disconnect without saying a word if something didn't go to well.
Anyway, we had two other disconnects by far-away players, both left without saying a word.
Meanwhile, I was dragged in this endless state of war with that worker-stealing neighbor. While I was initially leading in points, I had my entire economy focused on military. That state of war started in the age of bowmen and ended with grenadiers. I outperformed him in military production, but he had more experience in MP fights. That is a big issue! Enemy players will use any forests and forested hills to great effect: They can spy on your cities, threaten your supply lanes and make quick charges into the hinterland.
And I lost many battles due to being too slow in clicking. In critical moments, stack attack needs to be activated! It can mean the difference between taking an underdefended enemy city or losing against upgraded longbowmen.
Anyway, I eventually marched on his capital. He attacked my units fiercely, but I had more men. He then said something about having no hills and only desert. Then I conquered his capital, it was the first city he lost. Disconnect.
I asked the last remaining player if he could at least say something in case he should quit. It wasn't likely, since he had concentrated on development and wonders while I had been on total war for centuries. He was far ahead in score. I obviously knew my only chance was to attack him as soon as possible, which I did after teching for infantry.
He was a few turns away from infantry and had his borders cities poorly defended with outdated units. I razed a large border city. I was like "allright, now let's decide the outcome of this game once and for all >
"
He wrote something in Spanish or so. Then another line in English "have fun getting crushed by the AI,
". Disconnect.
For the record, I did continue playing by my own and got the score lead by the time I had modern armor. Technically, I won my first MP match.
My questions:
1) What's with the turn timer? How much time do you have on blazing?
I think I had on maximum 2 minutes per turn. More often than not, I wouldn't be able to finish my turn in time, preventing me from moving all my units. These short turns were the biggest problem for me throughout the entire match. On crucial moments, like when you are besieging a city, you just need to take your time, but you can't.
2) I eventually had a disconnect myself when my connection broke for a second.
How could I have reconnected to the server?
I understand there are competitive games.
http://league.civplayers.com/
3) What happens if a play in a competitive game and everyone else quits? Do I win automatically, or do I have to keep playing against the AI?
