Share Your First BNW Experiences Here

[Gucumatz]

So a few things: I won my first post-BNW NQ Multiplayer match via a Diplomatic win. Rigging the election with the Forbidden palace, resolutions, allies, etc. was incredibly fun. Its incredibly hard to win culturally. In both MP games I have done I have tried and you obviously have to sacrifice some science for it, but if anyone else goes culture, its incredibly hard to utilize tourism to win.

I also went through Freedom and got to the 3rd level, I really enjoyed getting those 6 foreign legions early, helped turn the tide of a war I was fighting.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

21) I expected the vote for a new host to be a resolution that had to be proposed. This would play off the proposal given by the host as a kind of chicken game to obtain your much-wanted resolution just before being dethroned. Instead it is a game of hot potato.

22) World leader vote. Broken system as-is.

Echo balance issue with food routes.
Otherwise, it's everything I dreamed it could be! And the above can be fixed.

 

[Cyanfunk]

Just got a Cultural victory with Portugal.

Incredibly uneventful game. The only real wars were the ones that Hiawatha stumbled into because he was a fascist on a map full of democracies.

I finally figured out how theme bonuses worked, so the Louvre was the hottest tourist destination ever.

Also, good tip if you want to do some decent expansion: Choose a map size and remove two AI players from it (i.e. play Standard with six AI instead of 8.) Makes the sheer exapansion-happiness of the AI in this expansion bearable.

 

[Cyanfunk]

23) You run out of resolutions you want fairly quickly

24) The AI needs to chill the hell out with the settler-spamming

 

[Bechhold]

• Workers are borked.
  
• Very little change in Diplomacy.
  
• No new resources that everyone has a chance to trade or work.
  
• Cs are still not Diplomatic players that can shape foreign policy with their own agendas etc.
  
• 25 turns till vote on Resolutions is stupid and a waste of time. No peace/war or even localized voting i.e. The Apostolic Palace

 

[werothegreat]

but if you're allied with them you'll have the delegates to never let that pass. Maybe I need to play with more than 11 civs

Honestly the WC felt real easy to just force your will upon once you got even a little ahead. I forced through world idealogy early (only 1 other civ had one) and just bought everyone's votes.

Venice gobbled up all the CS's! Either by eating them, or allying. The WC has been Venetian since the era after I founded it.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

FINALLY get to make a Casbah (Don't get to play too long at once). Bummed I couldn't plop one onto an oasis.

 

[meowschwitz]

Venice gobbled up all the CS's! Either by eating them, or allying. The WC has been Venetian since the era after I founded it.

I guess that's kinda what I'm saying, Once one player gets control of the WC it just ends up being too easy to control. The AI rarely seems to team up to vote properly. Do we know if they pay other civs for votes? It should be interesting in multiplayer, something I rarely try.

 

[Belzek]

25. Some of the old AI personalities seem to be having trouble reconciling new system - I just had one where Sejong was voting AGAINST the 'more scientists' resolution the whole game, sitting dead last in tech as well. Attilla was sitting in two cities not bothering anyone (none of his usual war spam). Alex was ignoring CS's (and wiping some out). Haille oddly enough was the early city spammer, plopping 5 homegrown sites near to me (which made him an easy target as he lost his 'small guy' bonus).

 

[Tyrvos]

I have Three criticisms from my first playthrough.

1) It's nice that Freedom has the perk that's influence based on trade, however I was getting over 300 influence and dominating the CS's was too easy.

2) The leader vote in WC is ridiculous, everybody just votes for themselves so it's easy to get a monopoly of it once you have it.

3) I don't know if this is just me, but it doesn't seem the AI does war at all (which it shouldn't be as random as before but it should still happen) or use spies. Within my 400+ game, I saw no coups of City-States and I turned my spy defending my capital into a diplomat because nobody was trying to take my techs even though I was on top of tech.

This may all just be because I was doing it on the low difficulty 4 though.

 

[meowschwitz]

I have Three criticisms from my first playthrough.

1) It's nice that Freedom has the perk that's influence based on trade, however I was getting over 300 influence and dominating the CS's was too easy.

2) The leader vote in WC is ridiculous, everybody just votes for themselves so it's easy to get a monopoly of it once you have it.

3) I don't know if this is just me, but it doesn't seem the AI does war at all (which it shouldn't be as random as before but it should still happen) or use spies. Within my 400+ game, I saw no coups of City-States and I turned my spy defending my capital into a diplomat because nobody was trying to take my techs even though I was on top of tech.

This may all just be because I was doing it on the low difficulty 4 though.

Yeah the CS are overall just easier to get and I think that a little adjustment to quest rewards and that ideology are definitely warranted. Yeah the AI doesn't seem smart enough to not vote against the guy with the most delegates for host or World Leader.

What they should probably do is make it that you can't vote against an AI for host or Leader if you have a Dof (so playing diplomatically is actually a plus) but that AI's that truly hate you will try to group up against you diplomatically to elect a less powerful host.

 

[Jdub97]

In my Current game as Morocco, my continent consisted of Byzantine, Austria, Ottomans, Portugal, China, Shoshone, and Arabia. Suleiman conquered Lisbon some time before Renaissance (luckily she had a city far away by China and Arabia), and China was taking over Arabia but failed to capture their capital.

Early game Austria settled RIGHT outside of my capital but I'm the only in Industrial by 1 tech and I'm building up to have her backstab me and then take her over.

Other than that England and Brazil have been neutral with each other the entire game and Russia and Venice got both their own continents, so pretty much no wars have been going on, just a major alliance with every country DoFing each other besides China and England, and a new research agreement every turn.

I've been figuring out the Culture and Tourism now and I've began to get familiar and nearly higher influence with my allies and the Ottomans, and combating China with tourism.

By the way, I had denounced Suleiman, tried to trade embargo him, and declared war on him once and we still had the Neutral and friendly statuses. Odd right?

 

[The Mad Russian]

My only criticisms are minor:

I still want Map Trading and Tech Brokering, other than, loving the game

 

[The_J]

[...]

Moderator Action: Merged with the general "first impressions" thread.

 

[Cyberian]

Only started last evening and played through the whole night (I'm in CET).

Emperor, Shoshone, Large Continents Plus, Epic Speed
picked all the new CIVs + france as AI

The Start
I am having an inland start for my capital so no coast but with 2 gems, silver and spices. I immediately build 2 Pathfinders and send them plus the starting one in different directions.

The first goodie huts give me:
- Culture for Tradition Opener
- Upgrade to Bowman (take early so I can upgrade my second later)
- Faith for first Pantheon
- Capital to Pop 4
- Calendar tech

I research Animal Husbandry, Writing, a bit later Ironworking. Mainly to locate best spots for cities and to build the Great Library. Trading Embassies for GPT does not work for me maybe because I play on higher difficulty, so I just trade Embassy for Embassy.

After my 2 pathfinders I build a worker and a settler. The scouting shows that I am on a continent not very wide but tall, to the North is Marocco, to the South Portugal. In addition to my capital there is even more gems on the map. Because of that I decide to do the Pantheon that gives +2 Faith on Gems and Perls.


Cities Two and Three
At the same time my settler finishes I get a DoF by Marocco. This together with an eralier GPT trade and the money from my gem tiles and scouting money lets me buy the second settler a few turns later. I let my Goodie Hut Bowman Return from Scouting and team him up with a freshly built warrior. They guard my settlers and go barb hunting. I build the two cities on the east cost of my continent, by some fish, sugar and more gems.They immediately start another worker. Meanwhile my capital worker skillyfully dodges the barbs until I have another unit there.

Library, Oracle, Tithe Religion, City 4
Basically what the title says. I buy another worker for my capital who chops some wood and such to help build the wonders. Somehow I get granary and watermill in between the wonders or before the first I don't remember. A second faith goodie hut finally gives me the first religion in the game tigether with all those years of faithful gem mining. I choose tithe for gold and that Belief that gives up to +15% production.
Now I realise that to the left of Portugal there is SHAKA. And Portugal does not seem to be able to stop him.

This is what makes me decide I put my 4th city next to SHAKA and Portugal. Someone has to stop him. I need some units there hope he does not declare to soon.

SHAKA annihilates Maria of Portugal
So Maria had 3 cities total as well as a The Great Lighthouse and The Parthenon. That did not stop her from being totally eaten by SHAKA He even razed 2 of the cities and only kept her Capital.

Need to get my Defense Up and saved by two Galleys
Meanwhile I had Civil Service and ChichItza up and my first 3 cities get more ressources which get sold partially for GPT and whatever lump sums Marocco still has. I start 2 trade routes to Marakesh and his second city. The high gold sums make me worry how nice it could have been if I had a coastal city instead. Even though my other cities are coastal capital inland does way more. I cancel my research for University and go to longswordman instead now fearing Shakas inevitable DOW. I get a wall in my 4th frontiercity. I don't have enough units at that city: 2 Pikemen, 2 Bowmen, 1 Horseman, 1 Swordsman.
When Shaka DOWed I rush bought 2 galleys after selling some ressources which even brought negative happiness (still some Collosseum/Circus in queue).
These galleys abolutely saved my city from the 20 units mostly IMPI that SHAKA fielded. 1 had one galley inside the city and the other behind. Having a Bowman AND a ranged Ship in the city is awesome.

Taking back Lisbon from the Zulu
After killing most of his army my city was nearly down (at 20% HP) and I got only the galleys and the bowmen left but some more troops on the road.
He wanted peace with 600 Lump 11 GPT and 2 luxuries. I accepted and waited 20 turns to get all those longswordmen, crossbowmen and trebuchets next to Lisbon. Then I attacked his be then rebuilt army again. This time not to puppet Lisbon with those two wonders.
Meanwhile on the other continent there are 2 civs slightly better then me, Polynesia who expanded like crazy and Poland who did some successful wars.

So I am now going to the renaissance now with still some tasks ahead but a nice foundation. Having a Blast.

 

[PhilBowles]

Yeah the CS are overall just easier to get and I think that a little adjustment to quest rewards and that ideology are definitely warranted. Yeah the AI doesn't seem smart enough to not vote against the guy with the most delegates for host or World Leader.

I've not had this, at least on larger maps - with so many CSes and so little gold, relatively speaking, you have to rely much more on CS quests, and it's not easy to manage that with all CSes.

Also, in my multi-civ game, so far in all elections for host and world leader, each civ has only voted for itself, so yes everyone's voted against the civ with the most delegates.

What they should probably do is make it that you can't vote against an AI for host or Leader if you have a Dof (so playing diplomatically is actually a plus) but that AI's that truly hate you will try to group up against you diplomatically to elect a less powerful host.

Why would it be a plus to discourage forming DoFs, as this would do, since it will never be in your interests to vote for an AI for host or DoF, and abstaining would still increase their chances?

One limitation I have seen is that the AI doesn't know how to use the "please vote for me" diplomatic option, or possibly doesn't know how to use diplomats. Certainly I've never seen an AI ask me for my vote (except in one case where I asked what they wanted for a deal, and Nebby threw in "vote Nay on science funding". Which did make me wonder if he really understood the point of playing as Babylon.)

3) I don't know if this is just me, but it doesn't seem the AI does war at all (which it shouldn't be as random as before but it should still happen) or use spies. Within my 400+ game, I saw no coups of City-States and I turned my spy defending my capital into a diplomat because nobody was trying to take my techs even though I was on top of tech.

I had very few wars until the modern era (Emperor), but ideology really seems to define this. Since adopting Freedom I've been at war with the neighbouring Netherlands (Order) and denounced by every other non-Freedom civ (including former friends Babylon and Assyria). Currently in an alliance with all four other "native" Freedom civs (to my surprise - since I didn't know that could happen - I got a notification indicating that a revolution had forced Shaka to adopt Freedom, but by now nearly everyone hates him).

No, the AI doesn't seem to use spies. I'm doing it a lot less, since diplomats really are valuable (I think spies should now definitely scale with map size - on a huge map the extra options but no extra spies make them very limiting), however I'm also actually making use of the diplomat option in a way the AI seems unable to. If it can't horse-trade for votes (with or without literally exchanging horses for votes), it should use spies more. Though I have had one tech-steal and there was one CS coup.

Also, I think possible intrigue should now include a possibility of learning a civ's voting intent, even if you don't have a diplomat (and if you do you can only figure it out for specific civs by the specific diplomats you have and the number of delegates in those civs, since the Congress tooltip won't tell you which civ is voting for/against a proposal).

24) The AI needs to chill the hell out with the settler-spamming

I've seen an awful lot of inexplicable archaeologist spamming, even with no antiquity sites available or with some of the accessible ones unexploited. Bizarre waste of AI resources.

21) I expected the vote for a new host to be a resolution that had to be proposed. This would play off the proposal given by the host as a kind of chicken game to obtain your much-wanted resolution just before being dethroned. Instead it is a game of hot potato.

How it's proposed is less important than the fact that it gives you no options to ask for votes for/against. So far the trade-for-vote idea is a good concept but appears not to work or be very relevant in practice.

22) World leader vote. Broken system as-is.

Should probably use the Civ IV system (i.e. two civs with largest number of votes only get to be voted for - which seems to be the way the rest of the resolutions do in fact work).

 

[Delodax]

• Workers are borked.

In what ways are workers borked?

 

[The QC]

Well, I only now realized that the demo is available in Europe, so I gave it a spin. I couldn't enjoy it much, because the late era start and the small map are just weird for me. There's not much space, there are no goody huts, you start with negative income... I also kept getting terrible starting areas that don't help the Moroccans much, including some with no desert at all.

On top of that, I found the trade routes range stuff quite confusing. I can't find any numbers linked to it. What is the base length of a route? Civilopedia says there is one, but doesn't bother to give a number.

One thing I noticed is that Morocco turns from dirt poor to swimming in cash with their first trade route. Presumably they get ridiculously rich quite fast.

 

[Bagi]

Anyone else notice they are falling behind in population? I would be the population leader in most games in G&K, but now I'm usually one of the smaller civs in BNW population-wise.

I guess happiness nerfs are a big factor, and also the fact that I mostly use my trade routes for gold instead of food.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Anyone else notice they are falling behind in population? I would be the population leader in most games in G&K, but now I'm usually one of the smaller civs in BNW population-wise.

I guess happiness nerfs are a big factor, and also the fact that I mostly use my trade routes for gold instead of food.

I've noticed that the AI has definitely developed a knack for city growth via trade routes.