Realistic Civ game variant, hypothetical

[sylvanllewelyn]

We all know CIV is a game that emulates alternate history. However, what would happen if we played exactly according to history? Like, the following "naturalist" rules:

- mod a civ that has no unique unit, no unique building, and no starting techs
- leader with no traits
- you must research all techs of one level before moving up to the next level (everything in the same vertical column on the tech tree table)
- by the end of the game, you must have used every civic, in chronological order, without ever moving backwards.

What's the highest difficulty you can play under these settings?

 

[Softnum]

- mod a civ that has no unique unit, no unique building, and no starting techs
- leader with no traits

I would assume this applies to AIs too. This wouldn't be too hard to follow...

- by the end of the game, you must have used every civic, in chronological order, without ever moving backwards.

This wouldn't be so bad, depending on what time limit you put on things. I'll point out that several of the Civic groups arnt' really a good->Better->Best progression, specifically Government / Legal / The middle levels of Reglion.

- you must research all techs of one level before moving up to the next level (everything in the same vertical column on the tech tree table)

Good luck with this one. I think if you made it ages instead of each column it would be more feasible. MC and IW before Alphabet? Machinery / Calendar / Currency before CoL?

 

[cabert]

We all know CIV is a game that emulates alternate history. However, what would happen if we played exactly according to history? Like, the following "naturalist" rules:

- mod a civ that has no unique unit, no unique building, and no starting techs
- leader with no traits
- you must research all techs of one level before moving up to the next level (everything in the same vertical column on the tech tree table)
- by the end of the game, you must have used every civic, in chronological order, without ever moving backwards.

What's the highest difficulty you can play under these settings?

this has nothing to do with realism!
give me one civ who researched one vertical column before moving to the next?
I'm pretty sure some civs in the world didn't go through all the stuff, and I'm positive that some civs new writing before mining (for instance).

I'm pretty sure some civs never run police state or caste system.
I'm pretty sure some civs never went through pacifism, and some others never used mercantilism...

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Haha, I guess Cabert has a point. Sort of... but then again, neither is mass media in the 14th century.

No, of course these rules do NOT apply to the AI. This is setup to let the AI's have a slight advantage. It's also very old-styled arcade-games setup, where AI's have "slight" advantages over the human.

But seriously though... is noble difficulty doable under these settings? I would've tried it myself rather than asking for opinions in the forums, if I knew how to mod so well.

 

[vale]

My gut instinct is noble would still be a cakewalk. If you want to give it a shot unzip this to your warlords custom assets folder. Washington is the gimped leader.

 

[Killroyan]

This could be a very fun succession game. Now you just have to find somebody who wants to mod this and run the game to find out what you can do. But without UU/UB/traits it is a bit more boring.

 

[Softnum]

I'm going to give this a go today.

I'll post screens, etc.

 

[Softnum]

So, WAS going to post Screens and such here, but there's not much to tell. Vale is closer to correct then I would have originally thought. It's actually _really really boring_ to play.

This came I picked continents, Standard, Epic, and the other options normal.

The continent I was on would turn out to contain Cyris and myself (bland Washington). This made it really hard, since Cyris would't trade techs (AIs won't trade unless they know two other people.)

The opening was basically the same. I got Great Wall / Colosis and Great Lighthouse, but I was beat to all the wonders I wanted after that. GL was gone before I even got there.

I'm in 1300AD conducting a rather successful Sword / Catapult war vs. Longbows. I'm afraid that I'll be so backwards once I meet other AIs tho, I won't beable to catch up.

The limitations severly limit your stratigic choices. I can't tech to Maces here because I have Drama and other techs to research first. SO there's little choice in what you do. Also it takes forever to get your economy going. I actually ended up with 1300 from a GM trade mission from the GLH that fueled my tech for a long time.

 

[Ecofarm]

I find that if you follow historically accurate paths of research/civics, you do well. If you want to improve your game with a particular leader, I recommend getting the History Channel episode of him/her, or doing some reading. For example: see Ghengis on History Channel for the best use of Karatorum. Egypt might not be philo, but with industrious and priest specialists, the pyramids + rep is quite strong (early rep is not exactly history though). Another example: Hannibal and elephants; his financial trait allows for fast research of construction; catapults + elephants is a great consolation prize if you lack horses (although I, personally, consider horses a decent consolation prize if I lack elephants). Saladin + religion (UB). Vikings + coastal. Alternate histories (of a specific civ) is probably not as efficient as running a realistic history.

To truely test this, you do not need a mod or hard rules. Simply do what that nation did in history (you are your own referee). Example: no axemen for Mongolia (delay bronzeworking - Ghengis did not allow torture in his empire, I don't know about slavery). Additionally, you should only build wonders that your civ is accredited with in real history. If someone else builds your wonder(s), you lose.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

My gut instinct is that this will anything BUT a cakewalk even on Noble, hence I suggested it. It's boring... well sort of, or not really. My gut instinct smells an incredibly belligerent game.