Forkandles
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2009
- Messages
- 71
Hi, long time mostly lurker since the Civ 4 days here. I have been playing Civ 5 endlessly the past few weeks and after reading so much useful stuff posted by Tich and Tommynt decided Id share some stuff of my own in the hope it can be of some use to someone 
Feel free to add any tips of your own for Civ 5 BNW.
1. The Worlds Fair. I first read this detailed elsewhere by Tich so have a search for his post to get the low down on the game breaking massive culture bonus. In brief, at the first World Congress propose the Worlds Fair. Once it passess immediately put all your citys on that project with a production focus; your aim is to win it. 8 turns in to the 100% culture bonus blow your great writers, you should have 1-2 by now if you got your guild up around the same time or just before the unis went up. In a perfect game youll get 4-5 policies out of this and be able to drop most of them in your ideology of choice.
2. You can renew Declarations of Friendship once they have 30 turns remaining. Most Civs are unlikely to backstab you so this can help guarantee good relations for another 50 turns. It can be good to do this before you know something that is likely to affect relations is about to happen eg just before you choose your ideology.
If the civ accepts the renewed declaration you know all is well. If the civ refuses to renew then you gain the knowledge that they have started to plot against you whilst also having 30 turns to do something about it. There also seems to be a bug here in that even if they decline the new declaration the diplo screen now shows 50 turns remaining instead of 30 anyway. I havent tested yet whether this is a display error or if its a really bad bug and they have been forced to renew anyway.
3. When trying to gain a resource to satisfy a City State quest, or to start WLTKD in one of your cities, dont be afraid to trade away the last copy of one of your resources. You lose 4 happiness but you also gain 4 happiness so the net effect is the same but you have also satsified the quest / gained WLTKD.
If you are lucky whilst your resource has been farmed out, it will become the subject of a new City State quest or WLTKD demand and you can then complete those without any effort when your resource comes back.
4. Sometimes Civs will trade away what looks to be the last copy of their resource for a reasonable price. Presumably they are getting it from an allied CS as well. Usually it will cost you 3 luxuries of your own or 24g per turn so its a deal I only usually make at that price if I think its key. However sometimes they offer it at a normal price (1 luxury of yours or 8g per turn) so it can be well worth checking.
Linking in to that if I am getting a lux that I already have from an allied CS that I think will be mine for at least another 30 turns, I will trade my lux away too.
5. You can sell your World Congress votes to Civs that have a diplomat in your capital. If you are going to vote a certain way anyway why not get paid for it too. I have received as much as 500 gold for my vote so it can be not insignificant.
6. If a Civ shows as 'Friendly' but the only reason for their 'friendliness' is that they have an embassy in your capital then they are thinking hard about attacking you.
7. Civs which have a declaration of friendship with you will pay lump sums of 45 gold for a strategic resource and 240 for a luxury for 30 turns.
8. Other civs will pay 1 gold a turn for a strategic resource and 6 gold a turn for a luxury. Any Civ that will only pay less than this is certainly not friendly despite what the diplo screen may say.
9. Spies are extremely useful. I usually send the first out to gather a tech or two and hopefully get promoted and not KIA. I find the best targets are the warmongerers who are not top of the tree. Montezuma is one of my favorites. They dont need any excuse to attack you anyway so if you have to take a diplo hit with someone for spying it might as well be them. They are also most unlikely to have their spy on counter-espionage.
Once the spy is noticed or the time to steal a tech is ridiculous (20+ turns on normal speed), I usually promise not to spy anymore and start to focus on the City States on my borders. If you can ally the states which are next to you it makes defence of the realm so much easier. They make excellent blockers and cant then declare on you if war does start. You also of course get the benefits of their resources / culture / faith / units / food etc
Level 1 spies will succeed in organising coups as long as there isnt a spy from another civ trying the same thing and you have a reasonable amount of influence already (I usually aim for 60). If you leave your spy in an allied CS organising coups they will be yours for the game most of the time.
The AI generally only organises coups in Military City States in my experience so I tend to avoid those or put my promoted spy in if its a key CS eg location, has coal etc. Even then Im not optimistic they will succeed however.
Once you have enough spies to cover the City States on your borders and any other key CS I tend to move my promoted spy back to the capital and build a constabulary. The level 1 guys can do the coups as noted above. By that stage of the game I should have a tech lead to protect and its fun watching the really aggressive leaders come wringing their hands and apologising for the misunderstanding after you killed their spy.
10. Spies again. A spy or diplomat in a neighbouring Civ that you are pretty sure is thinking about attacking you can provide early warning of trouble. Any warnings from your spy or other civs spies that they are plotting against you isnt too serious. A warning that an army is marching to attack city x should always be heeded however. If your spy reports that the civ is plotting or attacking another civ however you can share that tittle-tattle with the target for a minor diplo boost. I usually tell-tales on everyone for the diplo bonus unless I really hope the attack will succeed.
11. Education is a ridiculously important tech. It pretty much doubles my beaker count on my typical tradition 4 city start. Usual tech path is to get all or most of the luxuries hooked up then bee-line philosophy - civil service - education. Get the Universities built assign the scientists and be looking for a beaker count of 120 at turn 120. It usually looks hopeless 10 turns before but once the Unis are in and the specialists at work its magical
Feel free to add any tips of your own for Civ 5 BNW.
1. The Worlds Fair. I first read this detailed elsewhere by Tich so have a search for his post to get the low down on the game breaking massive culture bonus. In brief, at the first World Congress propose the Worlds Fair. Once it passess immediately put all your citys on that project with a production focus; your aim is to win it. 8 turns in to the 100% culture bonus blow your great writers, you should have 1-2 by now if you got your guild up around the same time or just before the unis went up. In a perfect game youll get 4-5 policies out of this and be able to drop most of them in your ideology of choice.
2. You can renew Declarations of Friendship once they have 30 turns remaining. Most Civs are unlikely to backstab you so this can help guarantee good relations for another 50 turns. It can be good to do this before you know something that is likely to affect relations is about to happen eg just before you choose your ideology.
If the civ accepts the renewed declaration you know all is well. If the civ refuses to renew then you gain the knowledge that they have started to plot against you whilst also having 30 turns to do something about it. There also seems to be a bug here in that even if they decline the new declaration the diplo screen now shows 50 turns remaining instead of 30 anyway. I havent tested yet whether this is a display error or if its a really bad bug and they have been forced to renew anyway.
3. When trying to gain a resource to satisfy a City State quest, or to start WLTKD in one of your cities, dont be afraid to trade away the last copy of one of your resources. You lose 4 happiness but you also gain 4 happiness so the net effect is the same but you have also satsified the quest / gained WLTKD.
If you are lucky whilst your resource has been farmed out, it will become the subject of a new City State quest or WLTKD demand and you can then complete those without any effort when your resource comes back.
4. Sometimes Civs will trade away what looks to be the last copy of their resource for a reasonable price. Presumably they are getting it from an allied CS as well. Usually it will cost you 3 luxuries of your own or 24g per turn so its a deal I only usually make at that price if I think its key. However sometimes they offer it at a normal price (1 luxury of yours or 8g per turn) so it can be well worth checking.
Linking in to that if I am getting a lux that I already have from an allied CS that I think will be mine for at least another 30 turns, I will trade my lux away too.
5. You can sell your World Congress votes to Civs that have a diplomat in your capital. If you are going to vote a certain way anyway why not get paid for it too. I have received as much as 500 gold for my vote so it can be not insignificant.
6. If a Civ shows as 'Friendly' but the only reason for their 'friendliness' is that they have an embassy in your capital then they are thinking hard about attacking you.
7. Civs which have a declaration of friendship with you will pay lump sums of 45 gold for a strategic resource and 240 for a luxury for 30 turns.
8. Other civs will pay 1 gold a turn for a strategic resource and 6 gold a turn for a luxury. Any Civ that will only pay less than this is certainly not friendly despite what the diplo screen may say.
9. Spies are extremely useful. I usually send the first out to gather a tech or two and hopefully get promoted and not KIA. I find the best targets are the warmongerers who are not top of the tree. Montezuma is one of my favorites. They dont need any excuse to attack you anyway so if you have to take a diplo hit with someone for spying it might as well be them. They are also most unlikely to have their spy on counter-espionage.
Once the spy is noticed or the time to steal a tech is ridiculous (20+ turns on normal speed), I usually promise not to spy anymore and start to focus on the City States on my borders. If you can ally the states which are next to you it makes defence of the realm so much easier. They make excellent blockers and cant then declare on you if war does start. You also of course get the benefits of their resources / culture / faith / units / food etc
Level 1 spies will succeed in organising coups as long as there isnt a spy from another civ trying the same thing and you have a reasonable amount of influence already (I usually aim for 60). If you leave your spy in an allied CS organising coups they will be yours for the game most of the time.
The AI generally only organises coups in Military City States in my experience so I tend to avoid those or put my promoted spy in if its a key CS eg location, has coal etc. Even then Im not optimistic they will succeed however.
Once you have enough spies to cover the City States on your borders and any other key CS I tend to move my promoted spy back to the capital and build a constabulary. The level 1 guys can do the coups as noted above. By that stage of the game I should have a tech lead to protect and its fun watching the really aggressive leaders come wringing their hands and apologising for the misunderstanding after you killed their spy.
10. Spies again. A spy or diplomat in a neighbouring Civ that you are pretty sure is thinking about attacking you can provide early warning of trouble. Any warnings from your spy or other civs spies that they are plotting against you isnt too serious. A warning that an army is marching to attack city x should always be heeded however. If your spy reports that the civ is plotting or attacking another civ however you can share that tittle-tattle with the target for a minor diplo boost. I usually tell-tales on everyone for the diplo bonus unless I really hope the attack will succeed.
11. Education is a ridiculously important tech. It pretty much doubles my beaker count on my typical tradition 4 city start. Usual tech path is to get all or most of the luxuries hooked up then bee-line philosophy - civil service - education. Get the Universities built assign the scientists and be looking for a beaker count of 120 at turn 120. It usually looks hopeless 10 turns before but once the Unis are in and the specialists at work its magical
