Suggest New Game Settings for me...

[TM Moot]

I always go for the same settings when i start a new game and follow a familar path in-game.

Emperor Level
Continents Plus
Small World, Low Sea Level
Epic pace
Mayan

3-5 cities, get an early religion, spread it, rake in the money
Try to puppet my landmass, depending on strength of neighbours
Aim for Science Victory

But I fancy a change. I know I could just go Random, but I'd rather try out other ppl's favourite set ups.

Any suggestions??

Difficulty - Emperor
Size - Small
Speed - Epic
CIV - ???
Map - ???
In Game Strategy - ???

 

[regeneration64]

I always go for the same settings when i start a new game and follow a familar path in-game.

Emperor Level
Continents Plus
Small World, Low Sea Level
Epic pace
Mayan

3-5 cities, get an early religion, spread it, rake in the money
Try to puppet my landmass, depending on strength of neighbours
Aim for Science Victory

But I fancy a change. I know I could just go Random, but I'd rather try out other ppl's favourite set ups.

Any suggestions??

Difficulty - Emperor
Size - Small
Speed - Epic
CIV - ???
Map - ???
In Game Strategy - ???

Difficulty - Emperor
Size - Huge
Speed - Standard
CiV - England
Map - Archipelago, Small or Large Islands
Victory condition(s) - Domination only

I played my last game like that and was great fun (albeit I played on King and Large Islands). Go Commerce and puppet everything (annex when worthwhile) and the amount of gold you get is insane. Grab Big Ben for extra fun.

 

[sufficiency]

Standard Pangaea ... the only map I play.

 

[smallfish]

Songhai
Large Frontier Continents
Quick Speed
10 civs
10 CS
Low Sea
Abundant Resources
Raging Barbs

Handpick folks like Iroquois, France, Germany, Kamehameha, Sejong etc.

Enjoy

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

Tiny or Small Highland
Marathon Speed
Have only the Warmonger states and those with ability in the hills.
Mountain ranges long-choke points many....Seas high
Sparse resources
You Better explore the map fast...meet the CS's...expand to choke points and resources fast...oh and protect your ass.

 

[Ajuga]

Difficulty - Prince or King
Size - Standard (anything higher makes me lag otherwise I'd go huge)
Speed - Epic
CIV - Random
Map - Random
In Game Strategy - Because you never know what to fully expect you have to adapt to the world as you play. This is the best kind of play for me, everything is a surprise.
Sometimes I end up with a very harsh start, that with a unfamiliar world gives a whole different challenge from just upping the difficulty.

I actually had that in a recent game. Harsh start as the Iroquois, ended up with a snake-like continent. Had to deal with Germany, Arabia, Egypt, Byzantium, Korea, China and Sweden.
Before I knew it, Byzantium runs away with the game, Korea and Egypt following close behind.
Germany tried some early wars against me but was swallowed up by Egypt.
Byzantium attacks me and China, China almost died. Korea comes and finishes off Sweden, China and the remnants of Byzantium after I fought a long war with them that was really hard as they outnumbered me 3 to 1 on open fields.

Had to work really hard to secure good positions, ended up taking out Byzantium, liberating China and Sweden and now on my way to take out Korea. (Due to his size this war is taking multiple centuries.) I almost have Korea killed (which really means I took out all his puppets but not his tightly packed cities) but Egypt is right next to my capitol and might backstab me any second now.

It's just so exciting not to know what happens and end up with crazy situations.

 

[Homusubi]

If you want a different approach, then I'd suggest something dominating on pangaea, such as Japan or Mongolia.

 

[ahawk]

Playing on Standard, if you are almost always playing Epic, will be a good enough change on its own, IMHO.

Shuffle is great when you are really over-playing the same settings. Combine Shuffle with Random Civ to really see different set-ups and strategies.

Kick up the difficulty to Immortal. Changing the difficulty is the best way to have to re-learn your approach without changing any other settings.

 

[TM Moot]

cheers guys, good input

i generally go Small as my PC is pants...

i prefer Epic, but did try Standard speed and enjoyed a quicker game

i did once try Immortal, had a good start with Pacal but then found out i was waaaaaaay behind (despite thinking i was doing ok), i think i'll stick to Emperor

 

[Fawpo]

Here's a fun game setting you can try:

Be Monty
Pick your normal difficulty or perhaps one higher
Jungle map
All victory conditions enabled (but you are going for culture by slaughter)
Social policies = Honor + Autocracy + whatever + you + like
Build a ton of jaguars, play aggressively and get them promoted.

This is probably more effective and fun on epic or marathon, but standard should be fine.