Tell us the story of your first 1.2 game

[Nikolai II]

Continuing my game into exploration tonight.

I love the game, but the limits on settlements are too limiting IMHO.

I ended exploration with 11/8 or 9 settlements, which were the max I could do without too much trouble. I could have taken the double easily the number of times I was dragged into wars, so I had to artificially limit myself.

Now I start exploration with 11/10 so I can't really expand at all in this age per now. And by the end I will proably get some 2-3 more on my limit? Hardly much to work with for a good colonial empire.

 

[MutilationWave]

Continuing my game into exploration tonight.

I love the game, but the limits on settlements are too limiting IMHO.

I ended exploration with 11/8 or 9 settlements, which were the max I could do without too much trouble. I could have taken the double easily the number of times I was dragged into wars, so I had to artificially limit myself.

Now I start exploration with 11/10 so I can't really expand at all in this age per now. And by the end I will proably get some 2-3 more on my limit? Hardly much to work with for a good colonial empire.

Could you not take Fealty as a legacy? I take it every time. But yeah I'm in complete agreement on the limit. I think a good compromise would be to double the limit in all cases and have towns cost 1 and cities cost 2, an idea I've seen on here before. Can't remember who to credit.

Who are you playing in explo? I'm doing my first time with Mongols and they get four (I think) settlement limit upgrades in their unique civic tree. I love playing them, they could be a good pick when you're that far over the limit. Also you don't have to play them only warring in homelands, you can play them however you want. Their military legacy path is significantly harder though, you have to do a lot of razing.

EDIT- I keep adding more thoughts. Taking a city takes too long and razing takes way too long. Why should it take seven turns to raze a settlement with no walls and no buildings? It should at least not count towards your settlement cap while being razed.

 

[Sagax]

Continuing my game into exploration tonight.

I love the game, but the limits on settlements are too limiting IMHO.

I ended exploration with 11/8 or 9 settlements, which were the max I could do without too much trouble. I could have taken the double easily the number of times I was dragged into wars, so I had to artificially limit myself.

Now I start exploration with 11/10 so I can't really expand at all in this age per now. And by the end I will proably get some 2-3 more on my limit? Hardly much to work with for a good colonial empire.

Actually, I’ve found Exploration to be generous on granting settlement limits:

+6 from tech/civic trees
+2 from Fealty Legacy bonus
+1 at minimum from civ trees
+1 from Military attribute tree (in the middle, achievable if you aim for it)
+1 from the Expansionist attribute tree (at the bottom, hard to achieve)
+1 from El Escorial wonder

So I’d say you can reliably get +9 settlement limit at minimum.

 

[MutilationWave]

Actually, I’ve found Exploration to be generous on granting settlement limits:

+6 from tech/civic trees
+2 from Fealty Legacy bonus
+1 at minimum from civ trees
+1 from Military attribute tree (in the middle, achievable if you aim for it)
+1 from the Expansionist attribute tree (at the bottom, hard to achieve)
+1 from El Escorial wonder

So I’d say you can reliably get +9 settlement limit at minimum.

Agreed, but not about El Escorial. I think the AI are prioritizing it more than they used to. And on deity there's little chance you'll even have the civic complete before it's built, even if you beeline it. Maybe I should say I instead of you in that sentence, because I have had a harder and harder time getting close to AI in science and culture until late exploration or even early modern.

 

[Nikolai II]

Could you not take Fealty as a legacy?

I did. Thus the 10.

Who are you playing in explo? I'm doing my first time with Mongols and they get four (I think) settlement limit upgrades in their unique civic tree.

Normans, from the Romans before. Mongols are great though, one of my best games were with them. Leaving the New World for the others while I obliterated the Old World.

 

[Sagax]

Agreed, but not about El Escorial. I think the AI are prioritizing it more than they used to. And on deity there's little chance you'll even have the civic complete before it's built, even if you beeline it. Maybe I should say I instead of you in that sentence, because I have had a harder and harder time getting close to AI in science and culture until late exploration or even early modern.

Hence I count El Escorial outside of the guaranteed +9. You get +9 from trees and Fealty alone.

I did. Thus the 10.

Normans, from the Romans before. Mongols are great though, one of my best games were with them. Leaving the New World for the others while I obliterated the Old World.

Funnily enough, Normans get the second largest amount of settlement limits increases in their civic tree: +3 against +4 of Mongolia.

 

[sixty4half]

Started another Modern Age game. Sugar and rice are amazing! I have 3 Rice and 3 or 4 Sugar; pre-Grocery my Cities are waiting 20 and 33 turns for their next Pop instead of 40 and 55. My towns are all going to Pop within 10 turns. Feeling much better, I just hope this doesn't mean Modern Age games are a constant string of Restarts until you find the right resources.

Going with Napoleon Prussia on Standard Fractal. I've already forward settled/boarder touched one neighbor and I'm killing off some IPs to piss of Tecumseh and gain short term advantages.

Modern Age Tips:
Buy a Settler in the cap before you settle one of the free towns. If you also want to, buy another settler in the second city before you settle any more of your free towns. Settlers are cheaper this way.

If you want 1 more Commander, buy him in one of your towns before you settle your last town. After the last town is placed the game begins and all your units spawn, including Commanders. It is cheaper to buy one before they spawn.

Spend your Attribute Points before you do anything else, including the above. If you go the economic route you can further cheapen the cost of those settlers and commander.

Going 3 deep in Expansionist tree gets a free Pop in your settlements. I feel like this is almost mandatory with the way growth works and the low # of rural tiles Mod Age Starts give.

 

[evonannoredars]

Thanks for keeping the thread alive guys. I've been unable to play so I'm like halfway through explo.

Do you get a commander when you capture Terracotta? I think the conquistadores are the most powerful great people. Super jealous of mausoleum, are you going to lean into it and go Bugunda?

I have another question, feel free to ignore. What does your name mean? I thought it was Latin at first but that doesn't seem correct.

Yeah, I think you do get a commander when you capture it. Unfortunately didn't unlock Buganda, went with Great Britain because I'd never tried it before and seems like an all-rounder (don't know yet what victory I'm going to go for)

It's my name in a conlang I made and now use as a pseudonym on a lot of social media lol

 

[James_Champagne]

I still haven't even finished the first game that I started in 1.0.1 on February 6 (which has hit the nearly 30 hour mark)! I did pick it up again today (after weeks of not playing and generally just ignoring it) and finally hit the Modern era . . . and again lost all enthusiasm when I had to switch civs again. Maybe I'll pick it up again in another couple of weeks.

But, hey, at least now the game tells you what your city just finished producing.

 

[noise36]

Been playing civ since civ 1 and won my first deity game, could have done it multiple ways but built the nuke in the end.

Leader Ashoka , Mississippians > Bulgaria > England

Felt like playing on easy mode, won a war in antiquity then just steam rolled through exploration age and modern Bulgaria pillaging is super powerful.

This is certainly the easiest civ!

 

[MutilationWave]

Been playing civ since civ 1 and won my first deity game, could have done it multiple ways but built the nuke in the end.

Leader Ashoka , Mississippians > Bulgaria > England

Felt like playing on easy mode, won a war in antiquity then just steam rolled through exploration age and modern Bulgaria pillaging is super powerful.

This is certainly the easiest civ!

Try going into Bugunda from Bulgaria for some serious cheese. I was building wonders in a single turn going Bulgaria into Prussia.

Game definitely needs to be harder.

 

[sixty4half]

First Antiquity start I go with Rizal. I figure if I'm going to get lots of Nar events i should go for Oracle too so I pick Greek.

My cap is in a poor production spot. Only two rough terrains for Mines and they have to be overbuilt for the Oracle and Parthenon. No spot with 3 adj resources although I do have a tile with 3 adj mountains... because mountains eat my third ring to the east. Coast on the third ring to the west.

Turns out I'm in the middle of a giant Hudson sized bay on the west side of continent. Great Barrier Reef is at the NW corner of the Bay so I start settling in that direction to build roads. Bolivar is up there and I'm sure he's going to DOW after I settle the Reef.

Everyone seems happy with me. Due to low production and rushing Oracle I have a small army of 3 Hoplits and 3 Archers defending 4 settlements. Bolivar asks for an alliance 4 turns after I settle the Reef. I had been endevoring him and accepting his at a detriment to my IP relations. I only got 2 IPs by end of age.

Bolivar got DOWd by Patch. So I took 66% of my units and went to help. Converted a City to pump out more units but they would be to late and to far away to do anything. Patch was pretty far away. But then Patch took Bolivars cap right as my Commander was walking by. There were only 2 slingers around so I took my allies Cap. That got me 1 Mil Legacy point. (It is stupid there is no liberate option, or a way to trade cities outside of peace deal. I'm not warring with my ally just to give his cap back). We peaced out after killing a few more units of Patch's.

Queen of Wa and Fred the Obtuse were very happy with me still. Then Fred starts to realize my army is small and our relationship deteriotes.

I'm so far behind on production I struggle to do much. 1 town got an Academy with 3 turns left in Age.

At 52% I decide to start going for Relics. I have 3 already. I doubt I'll get another Wonder and I'm not expanding fast enough or able to take cities to get Orbis points.

Bolivar declares on Patch and I bow out of the alliance because of army size. I send 1 of 3 cities into my production and rally what troops I have with intentions to re-ally and join the war in 5 or so turns. Patch has Mt Fuji and if I get that then the +2 gold per nat wonder per age momento will be worth it next age.

I've got my 2 commanders full and ready to go to war. Bolivar takes the Mt Fuji city....... so I decide not to go to war. Which was a great idea because next turn we hit 70% and get the barbarian crisis.

Fred got mad and denounced me at about 95%

I wipe out 3 camps so I get good Commander xp. However the age progressed so fast I end up with no golden ages and 2 turns from Future Civ. How disappointing. I had 1 point in Military, 2 points in Science and Commerce. 0 in Culture.

I have selected Hawaii for Exp

 

[Manpanzee]

Try going into Bugunda from Bulgaria for some serious cheese. I was building wonders in a single turn going Bulgaria into Prussia.

Game definitely needs to be harder.

Bulgaria is the most broken thing in the game right now. Pillaging yields in general should be turned down, and pillaging hammers should just not exist IMO

 

[Siptah]

I just had the first chance to play more than a few turns with 1.2 today. I love the new resources and growth formula! Antiquity feels better than ever.

However, for some reason, the age is taking forever. At 128 turns, it is still not over. I always played long ages, but this one is getting a bit stale. All paths are completed already (sovereign difficulty) and I have 3 fully unlocked. If this is somehow the new norm (but why?), I need to change to standard age length.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I just had the first chance to play more than a few turns with 1.2 today. I love the new resources and growth formula! Antiquity feels better than ever.

However, for some reason, the age is taking forever. At 128 turns, it is still not over. I always played long ages, but this one is getting a bit stale. All paths are completed already (sovereign difficulty) and I have 3 fully unlocked. If this is somehow the new norm (but why?), I need to change to standard age length.

Well, I'm playing on Immortal difficulty, standard age and I haven't noticed any changes in pacing.

 

[MutilationWave]

Well, I'm playing on Immortal difficulty, standard age and I haven't noticed any changes in pacing.

Agreed. I play long ages and they seem roughly the same.

 

[Nikolai II]

Yeah, if anything long ages are too short and close to normal age length.

 

[Yzman]

I just had the first chance to play more than a few turns with 1.2 today. I love the new resources and growth formula! Antiquity feels better than ever.

However, for some reason, the age is taking forever. At 128 turns, it is still not over. I always played long ages, but this one is getting a bit stale. All paths are completed already (sovereign difficulty) and I have 3 fully unlocked. If this is somehow the new norm (but why?), I need to change to standard age length.

I don't see how it can't be over with all paths completed?

 

[Nikolai II]

I don't see how it can't be over with all paths completed?

It should be. Long ages, at least unmodded, is 240 era points. 128 turns and all paths completed is way over that.

 

[Siptah]

It should be. Long ages, at least unmodded, is 240 era points. 128 turns and all paths completed is way over that.

I thought so, too. So, I encountered a bug.