Should I reduce the difficulty a notch for my first game?

[Rub'Rum]

I'm a plebe who plays on King in G&K.

The game is waiting for me at home when I'll come back from work. To those who have played games, did you reduce the difficulty for your first game? Was it worth it? Or did you just keep playing on the same difficulty? How did it go?

I have this dilemma of either going down to Prince for my first game or not. It's because I don't have that much time to play these days, and since a lot of the gameplay mechanics changes are later in the game, I don't want to waste time on a game that becomes too hopeless and where I can't experience the new stuff enough to my taste. But then I don't want a walk in the park either

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I played on my usual difficulty just for a bit last night. I'm considering taking it down a notch when I get home from work because it was a bit overwhelming with the new features. I also had a bad start, so I'm not sure yet if my problems were only a result of that.

 

[fat_tonle]

I'm going down to Emperor. I play quick speed and typically need an incredibly bias start to stay competitive in an Immortal game. Emperor is enough of a non-stressful challenge that keeps me engaged and competitive more often than not.

 

[ptoss1]

lol i never play above king and im proud of it

 

[Karmah]

I always restart on prince and climb up to deity playing random maps, then I stick to whichever level gives me challenge while no completely constraining my strat.For instance for GnK it was immortal. This process allows for a proper digestion of all those new features they gave us for dinner before we can cook our own strategies.

 

[Evanescence]

In my experience, it doesn't seem like a necessity. Do note however, that with the river and coast gold gone, it's somewhat tricky to balance your budget early... unless you're the Shoshone

 

[fat_tonle]

I don't see how you can execute a rush an maintain the army of you are constantly pumping units. You'd need to constantly pillage or something. Where else do you get the income unless you are consistently capturing cities?

 

[Rub'Rum]

Even in G&K I ran into crazy deficit problems when running early wars. I think the situations when an antique war will be possible are going to be few and far between. I don't really mind.

 

[adwcta]

I would go down a difficulty (I went down to Emperor). The change in the gold system will really affect your start. I eventually had to hard build a settler without having gone Liberty. It was... mentally painful. I think there's a very good argument now for going Liberty even if you plan on going tall.

 

[Zednaught]

Yeah, I think I'm going to bump it down a notch to Emperor for my first game. It's usually pretty easy for me, so I'll have some freedom to mess around and experiment with trade routes and culture.

I think the OP would be fine sticking with King. He/she shouldn't encounter too much trouble, and if they do find themselves in a hole, the added flexibility of the lategame could make for some interesting gameplay as you make a late-game comeback.

 

[black213]

I played my first G&K game on Prince just to introduce myself to the new systems. I'll try BNW on King since I've improved as a player (always Emperor nowadays).

 

[MantaRevan]

I'm exactly where you are. I play on king, but I took it down to prince for my first game, and I think I found it slightly easy. Play on a your usual difficulty level I would say.

 

[Jimjemael]

I'd of thought dropping the difficulty level would be a good idea especially if someone hasn't played the game in a fair while.

Haven't played yet but I hope to keep to the same level in the hopes I'll get a lot of 'hard learning' done my first game.

I guess the flip side of being in Europe, Australia etc is that at least by your first game you'll have learned a lot of the regular pitfalls for people starting BNW now.

 

[IAmOzymandias]

I won a BNW game on King, which is just at or below my skill level (I win consistently on King and lose more often than not on Emperor.) So unless you're shaky at your current skill level, you should be fine.