Share Your First BNW Experiences Here

[Falconiano]

Nebucha, deity, continents.

Grabbed all my continent soon; not without problems because I had to face a runawaying Sejong in Medieval who spammed rockets/turtles. But I managed it fine.

Industrial, I get to choose ideology first because I built 3 factories and that somehow triggered ideology.
Fantastic, I pick order. The production boni are incredible, all my cities have huge production.

On the other continent, Alex became runaway. He picked Autocracy, no surprise there.
We started warring, my GPTs went from +150 to -100, and -12 unhappiness due to tourism.
I was about to give up when I got angry and decided to make a last push.
Sent 90% of my units right to Athens. Lost a good portion as it was a mad push, but he went from 2000 score to 1200.

I became the ideology leader finally, got my GPT fixed and demanded Alex to not settle, not spy, not even look at me in the eyes.
Gave him a free settler and told him to go settle on snow in exile and never show his face again.

PS: For some reasons, I had a TON of culture. I'm not sure why. This is not G&K-like. I always suck at culture usually.
Admittedly I focused a couple cities on the whole archeology / great people stuff to try it out, maybe that's why.

PPS: Opener was full Tradition, right side of Honor (2 SPs since the third is nerfed -_-), 2SP left side Ration, then just Order.
One city GL (double-chopped) + NC. No oracle

 

[Stonecutter9]

So I loaded up BNW at midnight and was playing by 12:21 AM (EDT). I was going to choose Morocco but at the last second I switched to Brazil, for the tourism boost, as I was aiming for a Cultural victory.

I loaded up the game and rerolled a dozen+ times due to being swamped with jungle. I gave it one more go and I rolled a decent seaside start (my first) with spices, ivory, horses, and bananas. I started w/AH for the caravan. Cape Town would be both the first CS I met and the first trade route I made (by land) The peninsula I began on was at the SW of my continent, and occupied by a slew of CSs. While this meant a lot of trade possibilities, it meant less room to settle.

I settled Sao Paulo to the NW in some mountains, while Salvador was on the western edge of the continent. Brasilia was founded between Salvador and Rio. It was meant to be a 'bridge city' between two bigger cities but blossomed into a great city in its own right.

By now I had met all the other civs on my continent. Casimir, to the east, was nearest to me, and Warsaw was just about the center of the continent. Ahmad was to his north, and Dandolo to his east, on the opposite shore. Ashurbanipal finished it off far to the NE.

Rio would be the powerhouse city, and it started with the Parthenon. That GW so early would generate xtra tourism for a time before it was joined by others. That little bit of tourism got me up to 15-25% influential ALL BY ITSELF! The Writer's Guild also went up there, in addition to the GL, the Colossus, Chichen Itza, and Borobudur. The first sea route was established with Ragusa to the SW.

Casimir had founded Krakow FAR too close for comfort, just east of Rio. I needed that room to expand and so I DoWed Casimir about t125. Krakow fell easily, but I was sated. Casimir, fearful, offered to cede me Lodz, further to the east, in exchange for peace. I gladly accepted, knowing this would split his empire in two, and Poland ceased to be a major power for a long time. Unfortunately, both cities were in good locations, TWO tiles from the shore.

Meanwhile, Morocco had founded Islam in Marrakech, and this would be the sole religion for some time. News came that an unmet player had lost their capital.
Sao Paulo built the Artist's Guild, and the Polish territories were slowly connected with roads and improved. More GWs were created, largely in Rio and SP.

Catholicism was finally founded in Rio, and would come to dominate the continent @ 36 cities. Building on my Oral Tradition Pantheon, I picked World Church for the culture, and I raked in 63 CPT from that alone by the end. I picked Pagodas and Feed the World as Follower beliefs, and Itinerant Preachers as my Enhancer. THe crown jewel was my Reformation Belief, To the Glory of God. With the 94 Faith I pumped out each turn I ended up with 35 GWs.

A single Caravel was sent out, and it struck the southern continent at its westernmost point, the CS of Samarkand. First I ran into The Shoshone, and then...The Zulus, who had overrun Portugal entirely! This was unfortunate, as I didn't meet Portugal until two days later in my next game. The Zulu would also nearly destroy Indonesia, but they lived as a pathetic puppet of Shaka.

Religionwise, Protestantism (The Zulus) and Hinduism (Indonesia) were the main competitors. Pocatello's Buddhism and Casimir's Confucianism were largely irrelevant. Moroccan Islam was squeezed out by dedicated missionaries, and Assyria and Venice became staunch Catholic allies. Their crusades against Christian Poland would not pick up steam until the closing turns of the game, but Assyria would topple Venice, exiling Enrico to three puppeted CSs inland.

Having finished Liberty and Piety, I cleaned out Aesthetics and Exploration; the former was great, the latter was underwhelming. Commerce was a prelude to the Freedom ideology. Unfortunately, no one else picked an Ideology, so I didn't get a good feel for that.

Speaking of new mechanics, I was the founder of the WC and its host for the entire game; I won the World's Fair and passed a few Culture resolutions, all of which passed. The AI majority leaders simply wanted to enact world religions or ban luxuries, very few of which went over well with other civs.

Rio continued to churn out wonders when not contributing to the WF; among them the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Eiffel Tower, and Broadway; it also got the NE and GT National Wonders. The Polish conquests were fully functional by this time; Krakow built the Globe and Lodz Oxford. Lodz also built the Musician's Guild. One of them earned the 'Rock the Kasbah' achievement outside Marrakech.

Archaeology was a lucrative process until others complained about 'stealing our cultural heritage', but I filled up quite a few museums that way.

Fortaleza, my final city, was founded on the shore south of Lodz; it was an entrepôt for sea trade, esp. w/Venice (until they were conquered). Lodz, improved with a caravansary, eventually played host to most of my land trade routes; Morocco and I were esp. good partners. Sadly, buddy Ashurbanipal was too far for any TRs.

It was a smooth ride to victory; Casimir denounced me but I was already Influential with half the world; Morocco proved hard to tame but I finally corralled them for a Culture victory in 1964 AD, t252.

 

[Txurce]

Thank you, Txurce. Is the DV out of range because of the city-states?

You mentioned that Austria was active, so I guessed your options were limited there. Which way to go depends on what you want to learn this game. In a way, an SV is the most cautious approach, doing something you already know how to do in a game in which you are still getting used to a lot of new stuff. But you could say been there, done that, and see if a tricky combination of warring and fundraising allows you to pull off a DV.

 

[Buccaneer]

Your stats sound a lot like my first game, and so does that sense of drift. I missed the old sense of knowing I was steaming toward victory, even though out of context I much prefer a longer, more complex game.

.

Yeah, I know what you mean.i was a pretty good Immortal player and could win all of the VC. now, except for domination, I just don't know how yet. But I'll use this game to learn -seeing how it plays out and will eventually get it. Also, I'll play on a less difficult map.

 

[JustinianIV]

Finally finished my first full game. Shoshone, Standard, Pang, Prince.

Decided to try prince just to get a feel for it. My main curiosity was how accurate the lack of aggression label was. I got mixed results.

The AI did DOW, and there wasn't a single AI civ that didn't get into at least three wars. However, no one dared to even think about attacking me. I quickly began to dominate on all fronts around Classical and my power grew exponentially throughout the game until I won a DV at turn 340. One turn later and I would have got a CV.

Needless to say it was a very easy game.

Pro:
-Much more complex.
-Civ V now truly gets a "relationship" feel with other civs
-second half now more interesting (mission accomplished).
-Much more options for soft warfare.
-AI now work to DoW in alliances, a la the real world.


Con:
-Just too easy. I know it was on prince, but I really don't remember it being this easy. Felt more like role-play than strategy, and I didn't even know the mechanics. After turn 150 I didn't even need to build units because my CS just gifted them, and the others had almost nothing in comparison. Why can't the AIs team up against me like they did against other AIs?

I'll now go back to playing on Emperor. I look forward to it, but I really hope for more of a challenge.

 

[darden]

my very first BNW game: found myself on a small continent right next to Ghengis Khan. he had me boxes into a tiny corner by settling 3 cities near me, after which I said "screw it" and started a new game. lol

my second game, I won a cultural victory as the Shoshone. pretty boring game and an easy win.

third game was Venice, but I gave up... I probably could have won, but I was finding their playstyle to be pretty boring (and the overall empire hard to defend)

currently playing a pangea map with Poland, aiming for another cultural victory. I've got Genghis on my border again, but I'm a little better situated now. accidentally settled my second city 4 tiles away from his capital, which forced all his additional settlements further away from me... he's perpetually at war with Carthage and the Iroquois while I build up my army and prepare to surprise attack the capital once I've got a bunch of trebuchets.

 

[Dostayer]

Well first post here, and first full experience (with Venice, which I find quite fun to manage).

After two failing Brazil Attempts (which ended me getting bankrupt and without any happiness) I went for Venice, and it was kinda fun game, in the start it was really rough (the Brazil case) and my neighbors were Dido and Parachuti (the first is traitorous person , the other is kinda friendly), but after I finally found Florence (enabled the trade with the Arabs later on and with the Incas earlier) and Omrus (trade with the celts early on, and with Morocco and Egypt after astronomy), and pupped them, it became much easier, after I've researched Astronomy and gained 3 MOFs, I Pupped Kathmandu (Trade with Siam, Spain and Jerusalem), Buenos Aires (Trade with Siam, Spain and Russia, it is also Isolated on an island of its own in the northern area midway between the continents), and Almaty (More resources-wise).
I took those CS for their resources, and for their positions, when playing as Venice I find it very health to treat the CS as Trading Posts rather than regular city, whivh isn't that far away from truth.
Well, from time to time Dido DOW on me (after being friendly) but I signed peace without any problem few turns after every time, I did tried to go for CV, but in the end it was time victory.

But I did successfully influenced by the end on Carthage (and snatched her 2nd city after a revolution took place because I went for freedom and she went for order), Russia (reached Influential in the 19th century, By the end of the game it was dominant), Arabia, Spain, Inca (The only other nation the take freedom), might even Egypt ( I do remember there was a revolt going on).
And I did a lot of Archeological digging and in the British museum fashion (took all of the artifacts back to my cities) .
Some notes:
In the end of the game I reached a GPT of somewhere between 300 to 500, the Extra Trade routs really helped (I don't think I even maxed them out), and it made purchase things in the CS easier and effective.
But, and that is a big but, the whole world was in a scientific lag of an Era by the least, (getting an Airport only but the late 1980's says it all), and it did a repeat at my second game (and this time much worse).

Overall it was fun, but the technological lag is a serious problem.
And playing as Venice is Cool .
And as Venice, the only thing that is interesting is GPT (and Tourism for me) .
And Morocco is a Cultural Beast, It was a race between me and them to the influence (they managed to get 2 civs).

 

[Buccaneer]

Apart from playing on a difficult map on Immortal, I'm just not finding an edge anywhere. My techs are good but so are four other civs; I'm getting good gold but the AI has thousands; I have a good hold on a few city-states but no chance at any others where the amount influence needed are in the 70-100 range; one civ is long gone but no one is fighting anyone; I'm the WC host but the vote for even my safe World's Fair proposal is a long ways off; and I'm going to get hurt by tourism/culture where even Archaeology will not help unless I go digging in other lands. I don't know how the AI will push to win, if they do at all, but I'm thinking now that I'll have to play on a much easier map or drop down a level.

 

[Leugi]

Ok... I know this isn't a First Experience per se, as it is my second serious playthrough... But still, it was fun enough that I should post it.

Large Continents map, 10 Civs 20 City-States, Prince.
The Civs were (randomly): Inca (Me), Spain, China and Venice on one continent. Germany, France, Denmark, Brazil, Assyria and Japan on the other continent.

So, this time around I chose the Inca, because they are still one of my favorite civs (Slingers, Terrace Farms, less mantenaince on improvements, what's not to like?)... Went for a cultural victory, after my awful defeat with the Shoshone against Poland. It was also interesting to use the new mechanics with an old civ.

Thanks to randomness, I managed to get quite a lonely corner of my continent, with two maritime city-states next to me. I went straight to Animal Husbandry, so I could get trade with them. The only issue with my corner was that it was also terribly infested with barbarians... Good news about it is that I was more ready and also made a little army to protect my caravans... (Slingers mostly)

The good part of that, is that Panama, one of the city-states, continuously had the quest of killing Barbarians near them... so little by little I build up a lot of influence... Panama was my ally through all the game.

South, on the other corner of the Continent was Spain, and then between us China, and on the Western corner, Venice, with 3 city-states near it (oh the horror). As expected, there were not many problems before Medieval Age, though China went to war with Spain a couple of times, but not taking any city. In the meantime, two messages of "An unknown civilization has lost its Capital!" appeared, so I feared what might I encounter on the other continent.

I chose the technologies and buildings betterly to make some early tourism. Also, I managed to found the World Congress, as I was the first to actually meet the new Continent. That helped a lot, I remained host during all the game.

The other continent was a disaster. France hated Germany, and Denmark hated France and Germany. Japan hated France, but had almost no relationship with anyone else. Assyria... hated everyone. Brazil lost Sao Paolo to France, so he also hated them. But France was a Militar and Cultural powerhouse, and no one would be able to stop them.

I started a more aggressive cultural game... As I was the host I managed to propose both the World Fair and the World Games, and using internal trade routes I won them both. With all the boosts, I managed to influence most of the civs quite easily... The biggest problems were China and France.

China got Order, and I also wanted Order this time, so I got the tenet that increases tourism to other Order civs, and that helped with China (though it was still a bit slow)... But France... France was a huge issue.

France decided to go Autocracy... (so did Assyria), and Germany went Freedom. So my tourism wouldn't affect France as much... I did all I could, but France simply had too much culture...

So, I decided that the only way to win this cultural game, was destroying France... as soon as I got Infantry, Bombers and Artillery, I embarked to the other continent and started the Civ war I enjoyed the most thus far... France only had one coast (which used to be from Denmark), so that was mostly bombers and ships, and I managed to liberate it... then started the hard part... I had built a nice navy before that, but I couldn't use it because France was land-locked... I had to get all my troops to Riba (the city I liberated from Denmark), and that took time... So... I convinced Japan and Assyria to join my war, in exchange of luxuries!

Assyria's troops were great, and the combination of the three managed to get rid of France little by little. Thanks to order, I also got Free Courthouses, so I annexed pretty much every city (that could not be liberated). But, turns before defeating France, something terrible happened...

I had proposed the resolution that allows civs to get a tech bonus for techs already researched by other civs. Well, China was going for a science victory... And although we shared the same Ideology, and were friends all the time, China started to hate me and start being hostile... They had the strongest military and highest tech of the game, but I couldn't do anything to avoid the declaration of war.

So the final part of my game was defeating France (on another continent), while China started a massacre on my cities (on my own continent)... It was amazing...

I managed to defeat France, and 6 turns later, I had enough cultural influence on China, and got a Cultural Victory!

So... My conclussion now:

Cultural Victory is seriously the more complete of all.

• You need good tech so you can get Wonders and special Tourism buildings and all that early.
• You need good diplomacy with city-states, so you can propose and get good culture and tourism resolutions on the World Congress.
• You need production, for said Wonders, and also for World Projects awards which usually help a lot in cultural games.
• You need a lot of Great Persons, so you can fill Great Works and also get special improvements.
• You need good trade routes, as they influence other cultures.
• You need a strong religion, as sharing religions is a great boost for tourism.
• AND you also need a capable enough military power. Its the only thing that will stop extremely strong cultures (like France or Poland), otherwise, you'll have to wait 400 turns before your cultural power becomes Influential.

 

[Hak]

Finished by first BNW game yesterday. Brazil, Small Pangaea.

Started off with a decent amount of Jungle around me, while not having too much to hinder my growth/production (I wanted to avoid chopping down Jungle for the Brazilwood Camps). Started with a Scout, which discovered that I was pretty far away from both Civs and City-States. Nearest neighbor was France.

Had a lot of trouble deciding what to build in the early game, and it made me miss some crucial Wonders like Chichen Itza. Wonder-building Sejong eventually had a lot of them, and became a runaway around Industrial.

Settled 2 more cities, one on the coast and one on a perfect spot for Brazilwood spam, my path to cultural victory started after Acoustics, where the Camps pumped my Culture to insane levels. To boost this even further, I chose to build the World Fair. Pumped out a lot of Production, got the first place, and ended up with a Carnival and the 100% Culture boost. Had around 350 Culture per turn around turn 220, which I had never had.

I was the first one to get an Ideology, took Freedom, and filled it extremely quickly. Sejong (which was a runaway around this time) took Order around the same time and he managed to make his Ideology the World Ideology. I was scared for a moment, but then realized that his influence couldn't touch my Freedom (although I was stuck with -6 Happiness for the rest of the game).

Eventually won a Cultural victory by spamming Pracinhas and attacking France for Carnival points and buying an insane amount of Great Musicians during the Carnival. I sent four of them off to Korea and another one to France to perform a concert and giving me an Influential level over every Civ.

I do find the Cultural Victory very fun now!

 

[Txurce]

Apart from playing on a difficult map on Immortal, I'm just not finding an edge anywhere. My techs are good but so are four other civs; I'm getting good gold but the AI has thousands; I have a good hold on a few city-states but no chance at any others where the amount influence needed are in the 70-100 range; one civ is long gone but no one is fighting anyone; I'm the WC host but the vote for even my safe World's Fair proposal is a long ways off; and I'm going to get hurt by tourism/culture where even Archaeology will not help unless I go digging in other lands. I don't know how the AI will push to win, if they do at all, but I'm thinking now that I'll have to play on a much easier map or drop down a level.

Your map does sound difficult, but otherwise your first game reminds me of mine. You reach the middle and find... a mid-life crisis! After so much time, you're not that good at anything, and you don't really see anything that's likely to satisfy you, despite the game having a long way to go before ending. That's why I suggested going for a SV. You may be embarrassed by how long it takes, but odds are good you will win. After learning whatever you do learn, consider trying Poland following tommynt's guide, which is not just good (naturally), but gives you a structure from which to get a better grasp for the game. It's a sure SV - much faster than your current game - but also an excellent platform from which to shoot for a CV.

 

[Buccaneer]

Your map does sound difficult, but otherwise your first game reminds me of mine. You reach the middle and find... a mid-life crisis! After so much time, you're not that good at anything, and you don't really see anything that's likely to satisfy you, despite the game having a long way to go before ending. That's why I suggested going for a SV. You may be embarrassed by how long it takes, but odds are good you will win. After learning whatever you do learn, consider trying Poland following tommynt's guide, which is not just good (naturally), but gives you a structure from which to get a better grasp for the game. It's a sure SV - much faster than your current game - but also an excellent platform from which to shoot for a CV.

Thank you, I already have that printed out, as well as Deau's guide. I'll chalk up this game as my personal tutorial.

On the other continent are the five remaining civs. The Huns are there wanting to stir up trouble but it is jolting to see so many screens popping up saying the "friends of friends" thing.

I'm first to Archaeology (thanks to a couple timely GS) and I am building museums and archaeologists in my four cities. That also means that Ideology is coming very soon (I'll be the first to choose) and that could change things, I think. Gold is not a problem, getting 100+/turn and selling stuff all over the place. But I will take your advice on SV and plug away at it.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I provoked Alex into declaring on me in my last game. I settled two cities (for a total of six) into him after NC and sent a prophet to Athens, holy city of Eastern Orthodoxy or whatever that new religion was. I also pledged to protect his surrounding CSs. Finally he came for me with Longswords, Knights and Comp Cavs. However, he had only settled two cities and was actually spamming trading posts in the woods surrounding Athens. Come on, he used to expand like crazy and declare as soon as he had his UUs going. Even on Prince I expect three very quick cities from him, nevermind Immortal.

I also was disappointed with Alexander's performance. In previous games if he started next to me prepare for war because it's coming. This time nothing. Only two cities and few units. Took him out just because I could.

 

[glider1]

I am next to Alex in my game on immortal continents+. He expanded very well and very quickly, grabbed CS left right and center and then DOWED me with a significant army and used the CS to help. He couldn't capture my city because he doesn't know how but the intention was there.

It's situational.

Be-careful what you wish for when it comes to the AI DOWing. Brave new world has successfully managed to conceal the huge gaping problem with this game, the childish combat AI. If the AI does DOW we can see the elephant in the room of this game in action. Combat is really weak.

So enjoy the less combat oriented BNW we have now. We got our money's worth in what is a broken combat AI.

 

[Cyanfunk]

I finally got a game where the AI is back to their "Goddamn VIOLENT" selves.

Rolling Brazil for either a cultural or diplomatic victory.

Oda declared war on me three times in a row at the start of medieval for reasons I'm still not certain of. Meanwhile the rest of the world is slowly fallen apart because I instigated the world ideology of FREEDOM. Dido has already had two cities just up and leave her.

Something I've noticed: Wu Zetian is a science MONSTER. I'm very certain that if I don't pull off my victory, she'll zoom off into space.

 

[ptoss1]

I finally got a game where the AI is back to their "Goddamn VIOLENT" selves.

Rolling Brazil for either a cultural or diplomatic victory.

Oda declared war on me three times in a row at the start of medieval for reasons I'm still not certain of. Meanwhile the rest of the world is slowly fallen apart because I instigated the world ideology of FREEDOM. Dido has already had two cities just up and leave her.

Something I've noticed: Wu Zetian is a science MONSTER. I'm very certain that if I don't pull off my victory, she'll zoom off into space.

Oda is a supermonger. In every game all the civs hate him and ask me to declare war with them. It's ridiculous. He doesn't even do anything and people hate him.

 

[Buccaneer]

I am next to Alex in my game on immortal continents+. He expanded very well and very quickly, grabbed CS left right and center and then DOWED me with a significant army and used the CS to help. He couldn't capture my city because he doesn't know how but the intention was there.

It's situational.

Be-careful what you wish for when it comes to the AI DOWing. Brave new world has successfully managed to conceal the huge gaping problem with this game, the childish combat AI. If the AI does DOW we can see the elephant in the room of this game in action. Combat is really weak.

So enjoy the less combat oriented BNW we have now. We got our money's worth in what is a broken combat AI.

But what some of us wish for in this context is to play at King, not at Immortal. Imagine having your game on King level and then that would give us a true challenge of what Immortal/Deity could be (which, as you said, would have combat that would be really hard to beat). That really is my dream game: the far superior mechanics/features of Civ5 with the difficulty of Civ4. Developers have been trying for decades to have a great hex-based wargame AI and Civ5 is among the best, which is not saying much. But I don't know if people care anymore; there are not that many wargamers left nor people that would love hard strategy games.

 

[glider1]

Buccaneer that is my dream as well. I know what you mean and I play a lot of Eador which is really doing what you are talking about.

BNW is great if you set it up correctly. Immortal can be king and king can be immortal depending on the setup of the map. That is the problem with BNW in some sense. King players can be discouraged when their king game was actually immortal in difficulty and like wise immortal players think they did well when actually the map setup was only a king difficulty setup.

BNW can still be a great challenge come what may because we are playing against multiple AI's and so it is like trying to squash multiple flies with one swipe. Not an easy task even if each individual AI is combat incompetent. This is the secret to BNW's popular success.

 

[Buccaneer]

Buccaneer that is my dream as well. I know what you mean and I play a lot of Eador which is really doing what you are talking about.

BNW is great if you set it up correctly. Immortal can be king and king can be immortal depending on the setup of the map. That is the problem with BNW in some sense. King players can be discouraged when their king game was actually immortal in difficulty and like wise immortal players think they did well when actually the map setup was only a king difficulty setup.

BNW can still be a great challenge come what may because we are playing against multiple AI's and so it is like trying to squash multiple flies with one swipe. Not an easy task even if each individual AI is combat incompetent. This is the secret to BNW's popular success.

Well said and by extension, Civilization's popular success.

 

[Buccaneer]

I hate it when it's my turn to make a proposal, esp. if I don't have the most delegates. Either I will piss someone off or nearly everyone gets far more benefits than I. I love making hard choices!