Tell us the story of your first 1.2 game

[MutilationWave]

Hey all, I thought it would be fun to compare our experiences. Please tell us who you're playing, difficulty level, and any deviations from standard settings.

I picked Charlemagne and Rome, I have never played either. Deity on Fractal map with longer ages.

I'm on turn 31. The map seems much wider than what I'm used to. There are a ton of independent powers, nine so far, and eight of those are hostile. I deviated from my normal plan and tried to go scout, scout, scout, 2 turns in granary, settler, military, finish granary, settler. Nearly lost the game to barbarians, one of my scouts has been killed and I was literally one turn from Roma being captured when I got enough gold to buy a warrior.

I've met all four of my fellow homelands inhabitants and they are all blasting so far ahead of me on science and culture. The best culture one has double my culture, the best science is nearly three times mine.

My city seems to be growing slower than I'm used to therefore production is extremely low. I'm nine turns from getting my second settler built due to my wandering mind, and all other civs have two settlements except Augustus as Carthage of course, with three. I'll be settling my second in two turns. I'm definitely going to have to change up my early game.

I've got a ton of room to expand, but I'm going to need war to get settlements from my legatus.

Jumping back in!

EDIT- I totally wrote the settler situation wrong, correcting above.

 

[misesfan]

I started a new game and then made a mistake and tried to select a different nation, and I got a CTD. Not good.

 

[Leucarum]

I tried Augustus and Carthage, on an archipelago. I wanted to see how growth felt with a bunch of towns and also to try and push some specialists in one city. It definitely felt better than before! Got to the end of antiquity and a my towns definitely felt like they were contributing more.

I ended up with a tonne of very tiny island chains, and even my home island could only fit Carthage, so I think I'll continue the growth push and see how Hawaii feels in exploration. I only have one other city candidate on my archipelago (when I say tiny island chains I really mean tiny island chains), so it's gonna be a very tall run!

 

[MutilationWave]

I tried Augustus and Carthage, on an archipelago. I wanted to see how growth felt with a bunch of towns and also to try and push some specialists in one city. It definitely felt better than before! Got to the end of antiquity and a my towns definitely felt like they were contributing more.

I ended up with a tonne of very tiny island chains, and even my home island could only fit Carthage, so I think I'll continue the growth push and see how Hawaii feels in exploration. I only have one other city candidate on my archipelago (when I say tiny island chains I really mean tiny island chains), so it's gonna be a very tall run!

Sounds like a great setup to test the food changes and related viability of going tall. Hawai'i was fun when I played it even though it was my second run and I hardly knew how to play. Keep us updated!

 

[MutilationWave]

I started a new game and then made a mistake and tried to select a different nation, and I got a CTD. Not good.

I haven't had a crash yet with this game luckily. Are you going to try again?

 

[evonannoredars]

Playing as Isabella, began as Mississippians and became Spain in exploration. Immortal (my usual difficulty) and continents plus (my usual map type).

Started next to grand canyon with lots of flat land, managed to get two settlements able to claim it's bonus which was great for a science boost. Completed science, culture and economic golden ages, although I got a happiness crisis and one of my settlements flipped a few turns before era end - had to emergency declare war on Xerxes to reclaim it, which I managed to do on the very last turn. That seems to have come back to bite me as in Exploration I'm currently facing a Mongolian invasion. Fortunately Tercios are suited towards fighting cavalry!

I am having a tough time repelling his attacks though, and not just because of combat strength. AI seems to use commanders better now. They also are way less likely to disperse independent powers, in previous games I'd rarely see them suzerain any instead of raze them, but now it's the opposite.

Definitely feels like the game has become harder. Continents plus I thought was already a good map script since the previous update, but this update has turned the coastline variability up a notch. New resources are neat although nothing crazy so far (ones with bonuses for towns are nice, was hoping for ones like that), although the game could do with a tab showing which resources you've found are available on which continents and hemispheres.

 

[MutilationWave]

Charlemagne, Rome, Deity, Fractal, Longer ages

Turn 90:
4 towns and one city. Most of Rome's mechanics benefit from having a bunch of towns. I'm failing to see what Rome does that Carthage doesn't do better. Definitely missing Augustus here. Everyone has double my culture and close to triple my science. All wonders being snapped up before I can research the civic, and I don't have time to build them anyway. I'll have to try Rome again sometime.

I'm not noticing the difference in growth rates. Although I did get my first town specialized, I'm already 58% through the age. My city will snowball from here, but I only have the one.

I think a legit tactic would be to pump out 4 legatus early, feed them on barbarians to level 2 (which is where they stop getting good experience on barbs) then get the civic to give them all bulwark. This would make them level three and ready to create towns. I need another city and I'm thinking war with Napoleon is the way to get it instead of building.

I successfully suzerained four city states. My first one was military and someone in distant lands still beat me to the +50% commander experience. That would have been awesome with legatus.

AI is better, with barbarians at least. Two sent pretty heavy squads at one point and nearly took a settlement. They killed all my scouts, so I need to build more to get one with each legatus. Here comes the power of the Legions in a race to get a few legacy points before end of age. All roads truly lead to Roma.

 

[uppi]

I started as Benjamin Franklin of Greece on Small Continents, Deity, Standard Speed and Ages.

I liked the start: plenty of production terrain and resources, even two mountains for a nice culture adjacency. I explored and found more nice spots with plenty of resources.

7 tiles to the west, there was a nice spot with 3 cotton and 1 gold in range, so I settle it. What I did not know at this point, was that this was only a few tiles from Simon Bolivar's Maya capital. He did not like it, denounced me and reverse forward settled me, stealing camels from my capital and gold from my second settlement.

War was inevitable, and he declared. I had a few defensive units, but I was not prepared for the onslaught of Hul'che which melted the defenses of my second settlement. The capital was in danger, too, but the mountains made a decent choke point, which I was (barely) able to hold. I lost more hoplites than I would have liked, though. But after stacking combat bonuses on the hoplites I was able to turn the tide, and he gave back my settlement.

Meanwhile, I allied Catherine of Rome and met Napoleon of something, who immediately denounced me.

Peace with Bolivar did not last for more than 10 turns, though. I brought my army in position and burned down his forward settle. I pushed towards the capital and was able to take it.

However, Napoleon declared war. His attack did not amount to much, but he dragged in Catherine, who traitorously chose him over me. She marched towards on of my towns. It was not defended very well, and she managed to take it one turn, before my main army arrived. Two turns later, I took it back.

The barbarian crisis started and one of their encampments was right next to my capital. I had to raise a second army to deal with it. However, with one army being busy with Catherine, and one at the capital, a town I conquered from Bolivar was also under threat by barbarians. I did not reinforce in time, so they started burning it down. I tried to retake it and also punish Catherine at the same time, but I was not in time: the age ended.

Although I was close to giving up during the first war, the age was mostly successful: 3 military, 3 economic, 2 culture and 2 science legacy points.

In the exploration age, I chose Bulgaria and I am battling it out with Ibn Battuta of the Shawnee. I took some of his towns and Carthage was in sight, but I ran out of meatshield and needed to regroup. So there was an uneasy truce when I decided that I was not going to finish it yesterday and had to stop.

 

[MutilationWave]

Thank you guys for posting! My posts haven't got much traction until this so I'm excited. I love reading them all and maybe we can learn more things about 1.2. Update on mine coming soon. It's not going well but I'm having more fun than I have been recently.

 

[Nikolai II]

Ancient age, standard map size, long eras, Bolivar/Rome, sovereign difficulty.

Quickly built a 5 settlement empire, with bare minimum defense, hoping Confucius/Han next to me, who hated my guts, would not attack before I could stop him. He did not. Built up my economy, pumped out archers and legions and struck him, hard. He was allied to Xerxes, but he never showed up. I took 3 Han settlements in 7-8 turns, then healed up and asked for peace for another settlement from them. Peaced out Xerxes for nothing.

Then the crisis hit, the rogue settlements one. I am unsure I can weather it actually, for I am slightly above settlement cap and lack the happiness buildings and need a few turns to get them up. And half my settlements hate my guts. Turn 108 is where I ended it IIRC.

Also, Oblivion remastered hit last night, so I ended the day with them. Today and tomorrow I need to help my wife with a home exam (I am her designated proof reader ), so I have less time.

 

[Nikolai II]

Ancient age, standard map size, long eras, Bolivar/Rome, sovereign difficulty.

Quickly built a 5 settlement empire, with bare minimum defense, hoping Confucius/Han next to me, who hated my guts, would not attack before I could stop him. He did not. Built up my economy, pumped out archers and legions and struck him, hard. He was allied to Xerxes, but he never showed up. I took 3 Han settlements in 7-8 turns, then healed up and asked for peace for another settlement from them. Peaced out Xerxes for nothing.

Then the crisis hit, the rogue settlements one. I am unsure I can weather it actually, for I am slightly above settlement cap and lack the happiness buildings and need a few turns to get them up. And half my settlements hate my guts. Turn 108 is where I ended it IIRC.

Also, Oblivion remastered hit last night, so I ended the day with them. Today and tomorrow I need to help my wife with a home exam (I am her designated proof reader ), so I have less time.

Update! I managed to get some time in, now on turn 128 and all settlements are happy! Still only on stage 1 of the crisis though... Having a blast!

 

[queenpea]

I'm testing out Pachacuti with the Mississippians to see how it feels. I never played him before the patch, so I have nothing to compare him to directly. But so far, I'm not really convinced that he is a strong leader. Also, it doesn't help that I started nowhere near the mountains in Antiquity.

Continents Plus, Immortal, Small Map, Standard Speed/Long Ages.

 

[Leucarum]

I'm testing out Pachacuti with the Mississippians to see how it feels. I never played him before the patch, so I have nothing to compare him to directly. But so far, I'm not really convinced that he is a strong leader. Also, it doesn't help that I started nowhere near the mountains in Antiquity.

Continents Plus, Immortal, Small Map, Standard Speed/Long Ages.

I like him paired with civs that have quarters more than those with UIs. Loading up specialists that don't cost happiness on Acropoli, Uwaybil K'uhs or similar is really quite fun to keep your specialists going full strength at the start of each age! He's also someone that benefits quite a bit from his own mementos if you want to maximize adjacencies.

 

[queenpea]

I like him paired with civs that have quarters more than those with UIs. Loading up specialists that don't cost happiness on Acropoli, Uwaybil K'uhs or similar is really quite fun to keep your specialists going full strength at the start of each age! He's also someone that benefits quite a bit from his own mementos if you want to maximize adjacencies.

I chose Mississippians for the food to test this out

 

[MutilationWave]

I like him paired with civs that have quarters more than those with UIs. Loading up specialists that don't cost happiness on Acropoli, Uwaybil K'uhs or similar is really quite fun to keep your specialists going full strength at the start of each age! He's also someone that benefits quite a bit from his own mementos if you want to maximize adjacencies.

I haven't played him, and I very rarely restart a spawn, but I think flipping around for a mountain spawn is perfectly acceptable for Pat.

I've been playing fractal lately and there are these majorly dense patches of mountains and volcanos, but they're unplayable except for military strategy.

 

[Tuvok694]

I think the game has become one level harder after the patch. It's a total mystery to me how so many people can play on deity. Sovereign is definitely the end of the line for me. On immortal, I get so far behind the AI in every category. I build military to stay alive and then I have not enough science and culture to keep up with anything. And in exploration age I can hardly find or even reach some settlement locations with treasure fleets.

 

[marius_kaparius]

The story for me so far has been: I play too greedy and lose a city to an independent people on Deity. I beratingly laugh at myself and start again.

 

[MutilationWave]

I

I think the game has become one level harder after the patch. It's a total mystery to me how so many people can play on deity. Sovereign is definitely the end of the line for me. On immortal, I get so far behind the AI in every category. I build military to stay alive and then I have not enough science and culture to keep up with anything. And in exploration age I can hardly find or even reach some settlement locations with treasure fleets.

I agree. I have had the hardest game yet today. I'll post more once I get to the end of antiquity. Every turn is taking forever because of tactical decisions. I also have real life stuff to do. And I still do something every turn that makes me think "Damn it. I forgot to move my commander first" or something similar.

 

[99-percent-sure]

I'm playing (for the first time) as Tecumseh using the Mississippians, and I just hit 100% on the Antiquity Age at turn 243 (epic game, long eras, Sovereign difficulty, standard map size/fractal). I saved before ending that turn, so when I boot back up, I'll probably be ending the age immediately and selecting my Exploration civ, mementos, etc.

I've been pretty badly behind the other four AIs in my hemisphere on both science and culture for the entire game, though I've kept pace on gold and number of settlements, and I've managed to complete the economic and scientific legacy paths. I maxed out my settlements at 9 (three cities, six towns) about 10 turns ago, with little or no excess happiness in the majority of my settlements. I've controlled the northern region of my continent all game long with a narrow sea to much of my south, so I haven't dealt with any invasions from other AIs. My last two settlements guaranteed me unblockable port access to the large oceans to my east and west moving forward, so I should have good luck with treasure fleets next age.

It feels like I'm lagging behind where I usually am on Sovereign difficulty in terms of keeping up with the Joneses. I was only able to build three wonders because I got so far behind in research by turn 120 or so. If I'd tried harder to prioritize them, I may have gotten five or six wonders. In terms of combat, I only dealt with independent settlements and quick victories, so I can't say whether combat strategy seems better on the part of the AI.

I did notice that I had trouble getting as many goodie tents/caves/wrecks as I usually do. The AI units seemed more adept at clearing them early on. Could be my imagination, though. The only bug I spotted was that little glitch with not being able to shift to a mastery tech/civic from a previously selected numbered research tree while on the full-screen menu, but again, I was able to use the drop-down to do that, so an easy work-around.

 

[Leucarum]

For me the line of what difficulty level is fun vs not in Civ7 comes down to combat. On deity I just find combat is a drag until you can get enough CS buffs going. The AI still isn't ultra-threatening unless you screw up, but needing to combine your forces to take down anything turns combat into a real slog! When I play on immortal or deity I pretty much exclusively play pacifist just because I don't want to spend the next hour clicking...

I wonder how a version of deity which gave the AI extra yields in place of CS would work? As it stands I think while deity is probably a little harder in 7, it was definitely a lot more fun in 6, and for me it's entirely down to combat. As it is, I prefer sovereign im 7 and intentionally not playing in the most hyper-focussed way possible.