Tell us the story of your first 1.2 game

[MutilationWave]

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.

Funny, I only play deity. The combat is incredibly fun but it makes my turns take forever because every single action must be considered among four commanders and roughly 40 units. The last thing I'd want to do is give them more yields. Before the patch I'd finally catch up to them about halfway through exploration. After the patch this has been the worst game I've ever had, including my first ever game on immortal and my first deity game after that. Too busy with life to finish it at this moment, but I've got a good post coming.

 

[chazzycat]

Went with Confucius / Khmer to play with the new growth curve. Went for all food related stuff first, and it actually worked! It started by getting really lucky on goodie huts so I actually had a chance to use fertility rites.

I proceeded to beeline Hanging Gardens on tech, and the unique Khmer civics for +50% capital growth, after pantheons + discipline. This led to a long period of sustained growth in my capital, fed by farming/fishing towns. I placed way more specialists than every before in antiquity - over 20 across 2 cities. Used the memento for extra growth per specialist.

Built 5 wonders in total - Gate of Nations, HG, Emile Bell, Colo & Angkor Wat. Had zero issues completing the entire tech tree and even got 1 future tech (my first time ever on deity). Racked up 9 milestone points in what I can only describe as a very successful antiquity age for my first game. Tall play does seem much better from that limited experience so far.

 

[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.

Update:

With some spare influence, I convinced Napoleon, that I might not be that bad and that we should be allies. He was at war with Simon Bolivar (seems like everyone was), but I considered that an acceptable price. After that, the truce with Ibn Battuta was up, so I brought my fleet in position before his capital and my army before the walls of Carthage (which has 6 juicy wonders). I declare war and the next turn the remaining 3 AIs (including my supposed ally Napoleon) declare war on me. Uh oh, that was not part of the plan. Things got a bit spicy, but I made enough gold per turn to buy defenders.

Meanwhile, the plague crisis hit. I was about to commence my assault on Carthage, when it got hit by a major outbreak. No way to safely assault it. So I camped before the walls on the unaffected tiles and waited out the outbreak. After the city was clear from the plague and all defenders had succumbed to it, I renewed the assault and the freshly upgraded bombards reduced the walls to rubble and Carthage finally fell.

I managed to peace out the other AIs and took a city from Simon Bolivar, who did not have a good game. He was reduced to one city and I had a tile, which almost matched the culture output of his empire city state. Future tech and future civic brought me to the end of the age. I managed to complete all legacy paths, with the exception of the economic one. Not sure, whether the new resource generation makes it more difficult or I just got unlucky, but I could not find good spots to generate treasure fleets.

Now the modern age begins, and I chose America to continue. I will finally have my revenge on Catherine. The only question is: Communism or Fascism?

 

[sixty4half]

I was still 1/2 way thru Exploration age when the patch hit, with a really good head start. Two things; i did notice growth really take off. I went from waiting about 12 turns for a Pop to 5-6.

The game was on Long Ages. It was ~ turn 40 when the patch came out. Afterwards; I took out Fred, finished 2 gold ages (science and trade ships) and got 1 Future tech and the age ended on T89. I know eliminating players advances the age quite a bit but I didn't expect those 4 things to end Exploration on T89.

I will say; i was several turns away from my first 40 yield tile before the patch hit. I was actually worried I wouldn't get the golden age before age ended. I ended up getting it 20 turns later because Pop events were happening so fast. 1 in an expansion 2 in my cap and 2 in captured Roma.

take all this with a grain of salt as I said; patch mid game.

 

[MutilationWave]

I was still 1/2 way thru Exploration age when the patch hit, with a really good head start. Two things; i did notice growth really take off. I went from waiting about 12 turns for a Pop to 5-6.

The game was on Long Ages. It was ~ turn 40 when the patch came out. Afterwards; I took out Fred, finished 2 gold ages (science and trade ships) and got 1 Future tech and the age ended on T89. I know eliminating players advances the age quite a bit but I didn't expect those 4 things to end Exploration on T89.

I will say; i was several turns away from my first 40 yield tile before the patch hit. I was actually worried I wouldn't get the golden age before age ended. I ended up getting it 20 turns later because Pop events were happening so fast. 1 in an expansion 2 in my cap and 2 in captured Roma.

take all this with a grain of salt as I said; patch mid game.

I was mid way through a game to show how far pillaging can take you. Good to know it's not gamebreaking because I'd like to get back to that one. Getting the Mausoleum wonder on deity is next to impossible, so I had to exterminate my neighbor and steal it. Seriously they built it turn 49. It took me 50 turns just to research that civic and the one before it on a total beeline.

 

[RaidandTrade]

Just started a new game. Like a previous poster, I’m playing (for the first time) as Tecumseh using the Mississippians. Continents Plus, Normal Age, Standard Size Deity.

Napoleon’s Carthage forward settled me three times early and Machiavelli’s Rome denounced and DOW’d me. They brought a warrior, slinger and commander and dropped a lot of influence to put me at -2.

I’ve repelled him easily enough and DOW’d Napoleon. He dropped some influence to put me at -1. I replied to bring it back to 0 then went at it. As Carthage, he’s coastal so I bought me a ship and marched three burning arrows from city to city and grew from 2/5 to 5/5 including Carthage.

Growth is looking decent even with focussing mainly on production. Pantheon is the gold on woodcutters one and I don’t have gypsum or camels to crank production. Seems like I’m placing a pop every 2-3 turns.

Was expecting more fight from the AI. I lost out on building the pyramids but have still picked up hanging gardens, monks mound and gate of all nations.

I have an alliance with Confucius and Trung Trac is offering me endeavours so Antiquity looks to be well in hand before Engineering.

 

[m_mus]

It is really encouraging to read your reports. Seems as if patch 1.2 really moved the game into the right direction. Don't know when IRL-stuff allows me to start myself a game, but I am looking forward to it.
Keep those reports coming

 

[MutilationWave]

Deity - Charlemagne - Rome - Fractal - Longer Ages

Part 2:
This has been so much fun. I've never done so badly in this game. The AI is much improved. I have also never played Charley or Rome before. I definitely made some mistakes. I hit the happiness crisis with only four towns, one city, and ZERO legacy points.

Augustus of Carthage declared on me, and I thought I'll at least get some military legacy points. I asked my only close neighbor and major trading partner, Napoleon of Maya, for open borders so I could go raze Augustus to the South. I had the bulk of my military stretched thin across Napoleon's lands when he backstabbed me from friendly with a surprise war!

Napoleon has been my worst enemy in most of my games. I shouldn't have trusted him. Everyone was so far ahead in tech and civics. He fell on my archers and legions with horsemen. By the time I stabilized, I only had less than ten military left, and my two commanders barely made it out alive, thanks to dropping archers like chum behind as they fled to my fortified rear line. Napoleon hit my final troops so hard with horsemen that I considered giving up. But this isn't civ 6. He asked for peace after he wrecked my military, but never attempted to take any settlements.

I had nothing to lose, and Roma was a powerhouse. I queued up infinite chariots. I was producing two chariots every three turns, plus the free ones on celebrations from Charlemagne. I made new trading partners and allied with Himiko and Hatshepsut.

Predictably, Napoleon declared again after the peace expired. I blindsided him by destroying everything in my path, but not taking any settlements. I tried to take his capital, Baak, but it was too fortified. At 90% age completion I finished making my plan. I made two towns into cities and built libraries. I built a lighthouse in Roma. Then I hit the first and second science point, the third economic point, and the second and third military point in a single turn, ending the age.

I went from 0/12 to 8/12 legacy points in 40 turns, and it wasn't easy. AI did very well with constant pressure of horsemen against my chariots. I had to do a lot of tactical repositioning with four commanders. I bought ballistae to take cities. At the end of the age I decided to lean into Charley's skill and gain revenge on Napoleon, Augustus, and perhaps my worthless allies as well.

With 51 gold left to my name, I'll be taking to the field with my first attempt at Mongolia in exploration.

 

[Manpanzee]

I had a Deity AI finish the Antiquity science legacy path in 97 turns (standard settings). It actually ended the age on the spot, because a civ elimination had happened and all other legacy paths were already capped. Never seen them pull it off anywhere near that quick before. The changes definitely seem to have had an impact on AI civ capabilities.

 

[SemiLazyGamer]

Reouncer Ashoka: Mayura -> Majaphit -> Siam

Soveriegn - Continents + - Standard Size - Balanced Starts

Ashoka's excess happiness turning into food gave me some very large cities in all ages, and the Mauya traditions kept my science and gold up in later ages.

I did have some AI attack me, but I was able to find off Tung Trac in Antiquity thanks to a natural choke point and Cleopatra in Exploration thanks to influence, War Support bonuses from Gate of All Nations and the Military Skill, and city-state bonuses. Xerses did join in his Allies war in Exploration and did attack my Distant Lands cities, but I fended him off with some purchased units and took one of his cities instead. Noone attacked me during the Exploration Era, even though I kept ticking off Techuseh and Tubman by instantly taking the city-states they were trying to befriend in Modern, mainly because everyone was at war except me.

My biggest annoyance was the fact that I was on the southern tip of my home continent and didn't have access to quick transportation of treasure resources, so I barely wasn't able to hit the second economic point before the end of the Era. This was also combined with the fact that Distant Lands was much more filled up than some of my other games by Emperor Napoleon, Tubman, and Isabella. One facepalm moment was me realizing that Cleopatra held all of the waters I was using to ferry my treasure fleets home and ending the war ended the easy open borders. Luckily, she allowed for Open Borders in the peace despite being hostile. On that note, the AI had multiple times to capture my Treasure Fleets and never did.

As for the Modern, I had a good amount of influence going into the Modern Age and gathering up all city-states under my banner instantly that allowed me to snowball into an Economic Victory on turn 91 with a Science Victory a few turns from being done.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Finally managed to play a bit. Machiavelli, Greece, Immortal, Continents+.

With 1.2 fixing independent removal bug, AI seem to be unwilling to destroy independents, so I managed to befriend all of them on homelands (AI tried to compete for 2 of them, but it was easy to overcome). Since I started with cultural ans scientific ones, I rushed through both civic and science trees. By the end of antiquity I got one future civic (with nothing else to research) and almost finished science tree.

New map script is fun, but Civ7 needs channels more than ever. With lakes without ocean connection Athens and most of my settlements are land-locked, but I managed to get 2 on shore.

 

[MutilationWave]

Finally managed to play a bit. Machiavelli, Greece, Immortal, Continents+.

With 1.2 fixing independent removal bug, AI seem to be unwilling to destroy independents, so I managed to befriend all of them on homelands (AI tried to compete for 2 of them, but it was easy to overcome). Since I started with cultural ans scientific ones, I rushed through both civic and science trees. By the end of antiquity I got one future civic (with nothing else to research) and almost finished science tree.

New map script is fun, but Civ7 needs channels more than ever. With lakes without ocean connection Athens and most of my settlements are land-locked, but I managed to get 2 on shore.

Fractal has much longer coastlines due to bays, peninsulas, etc. I really like it, although it does have its problems.

 

[uppi]

Update:

With some spare influence, I convinced Napoleon, that I might not be that bad and that we should be allies. He was at war with Simon Bolivar (seems like everyone was), but I considered that an acceptable price. After that, the truce with Ibn Battuta was up, so I brought my fleet in position before his capital and my army before the walls of Carthage (which has 6 juicy wonders). I declare war and the next turn the remaining 3 AIs (including my supposed ally Napoleon) declare war on me. Uh oh, that was not part of the plan. Things got a bit spicy, but I made enough gold per turn to buy defenders.

Meanwhile, the plague crisis hit. I was about to commence my assault on Carthage, when it got hit by a major outbreak. No way to safely assault it. So I camped before the walls on the unaffected tiles and waited out the outbreak. After the city was clear from the plague and all defenders had succumbed to it, I renewed the assault and the freshly upgraded bombards reduced the walls to rubble and Carthage finally fell.

I managed to peace out the other AIs and took a city from Simon Bolivar, who did not have a good game. He was reduced to one city and I had a tile, which almost matched the culture output of his empire city state. Future tech and future civic brought me to the end of the age. I managed to complete all legacy paths, with the exception of the economic one. Not sure, whether the new resource generation makes it more difficult or I just got unlucky, but I could not find good spots to generate treasure fleets.

Now the modern age begins, and I chose America to continue. I will finally have my revenge on Catherine. The only question is: Communism or Fascism?

I figure that with the hidden fortresses, I have more than enough production and gold and might as well take advantage of the new growth curve, so Communist America it is. I put my troops in position at Catherine's (of Russia) borders and beeline for Communism. On turn 20, I get it and declare war. She puts up a bit of a resistance around her capital, but she does not really stand a chance. I also decide to put Simon Bolivar out of his misery, since his one city is blocking the exit of a navigable river, where one of my fleets got stuck. 20 turns later, all settlements of both are conquered liberated and I have all the military legacy points. I could end it here, but might as well get the other legacy paths as well (my first factory goes online the next turn).

For a while it looks like I might get Augustus of Prussia on my side but Napoleon declares war (because why wouldn't he?), Ibn Battuta declares war and they drag in Augustus. Oh well, no allies for me this game. I can use all the Influence to get all the independent powers on my side then. They launch a few attacks, but nothing a few emergency-bought units cannot handle. I go launch a satellite, complete the economic legacy path and collect enough artifacts for culture as well. I end it on turn 69 with a military victory.

At then end, I have 31 settlements, four cities with a population in the mid-50ies and I am making 2600 science per turn. I also manage to get Ben Franklin to level 10 and (finally!) my Foundation path to level 50 with this game.

 

[MrRadar]

I started a fresh game with Ada of Rome, on everything standard, deity, Fractal map and light disasters.

Natural disasters indeed seem to occur at tolerable frequency now, and not every turn even on the light level. And the coastlines became much more interesting.

I quickly found myself pressed for space from north and south east. Up there there were Xerxes, King of Kings of Persia and Niccollo of Greece, down east Harriet of Egypt - I've met her for the first time in my games, I just heard of her reputation, so at once I felt a bit tense. The last one to the west was Isabella of Carthage.

Northern guys played cool for the time being, but Mrs Tubman forward settled and denounced me. Got denounced by Izzy as well. And as Rome was one city and two towns large, Harriet decided that Ada's scientific projects just had to stop. After quite a protracted fight and with most Mejays dispatched and Legions standing at the walls of Akhetaten, she finally agreed to peace and ceded that forward settle to Rome. Still a bit too hasty a decision, I'd say, it felt like a bit of a gift, as I was also quite exhausted.

Nevertheless, Rome returned to peace, building and expanding. A denunciation by Machiavelli followed, a repeated one by Izzy, who started spreading like wildfire with her towns, blocking the City of Rome's exit to the ocean. I placed 2 more settlements and eventually was living with 3 cities and 3 towns, and building. Until the Crisis started and brough the Plague. Which was surprisingly light. I only got two light outbreaks during the remainder of the Age.

And then treacherous Greece and perfidious Carthage conspired against burgeoning Rome, despite the Plague, and double DoWed. NW and W borders became battlefields. I thought I'd hold the line easily, but casualties started piling up. And although I stalled the Machiavelly quite alright, Isabella was slowly increasing pressure, until her lvl3 Numidian Cavalry showed up, in a bit of numbers, so that they managed to take Napoli, my SW town! On the turn before the last, as it turned out. Thank goodness, I had just enough Legions and a commander to retake the town on the last turn of the age, very close shave! And, of course a couple of turns before the age end, Harriet also joined in the happy pile-up on Rome.

The transition came in the nick of time (for me, at least ), it really took a lot of load of my back!

Btw, I've vassalized two IPs, but got nothing for the second one for some reason, was it a bug? Xerxes was my only buddy on this hostile continent and kept offering me Military Aid agreements, what a bro!

I picked Normans for exploration, but stopped here for now, next time I'll see how AI handles the transition and the age of Exploration.

 

[sixty4half]

Decided to play an Exploration Era start.....

Towns have 4 rural tiles and are taking 17-30 turns for their first pop event. Cities are just as bad.

Tried a dozen starts. Found a few fishing towns that would pop earlier but that was it.

You can't settle any Natural Wonder that doesn't have food yields. Your settlement will waste all of its rural expansions on it and you'll end up with no food. Even when settling next to a fish.... it didn't expand to fish!

They're going to have to do something about growth in late era starts or they're just going to be a drag for the first 60 or so turns.

 

[Yzman]

Decided to play an Exploration Era start.....

Towns have 4 rural tiles and are taking 17-30 turns for their first pop event. Cities are just as bad.

Tried a dozen starts. Found a few fishing towns that would pop earlier but that was it.

You can't settle any Natural Wonder that doesn't have food yields. Your settlement will waste all of its rural expansions on it and you'll end up with no food. Even when settling next to a fish.... it didn't expand to fish!

They're going to have to do something about growth in late era starts or they're just going to be a drag for the first 60 or so turns.

I'm not understanding...are you not picking the tiles your towns are expanding to?

 

[Krikkit1]

I'm not understanding...are you not picking the tiles your towns are expanding to?

In an advanced age start, I don’t think you do.

 

[Yzman]

In an advanced age start, I don’t think you do.

Ahh I see. That is weird. I have never done one.

 

[MutilationWave]

Decided to play an Exploration Era start.....

Towns have 4 rural tiles and are taking 17-30 turns for their first pop event. Cities are just as bad.

Tried a dozen starts. Found a few fishing towns that would pop earlier but that was it.

You can't settle any Natural Wonder that doesn't have food yields. Your settlement will waste all of its rural expansions on it and you'll end up with no food. Even when settling next to a fish.... it didn't expand to fish!

They're going to have to do something about growth in late era starts or they're just going to be a drag for the first 60 or so turns.

I'm curious why do advanced start? For many people antiquity is the best part of the game, me included. I'm just curious what the appeal is. It's like driving someone else's car.

 

[MutilationWave]

Deity - Charlemagne - Rome -> Mongols - Fractal - Longer Ages

Part 3:
I'm going to start off with some roleplay I did in another thread. Sometimes I'm thinking like this while I play and it makes it more fun for me.

My poor, culturally and scientifically backwards people were devastated by the power of the horse. They adopted chariots to fight back, but they saw that the power of well-trained and armed horsemen could defeat chariots with ease. Since they never reached this level of training or weaponry in game, in my narrative they focused on honing the tactics, armor, and weapons between ages, so they start exploration as Mongols, ready to bring the fight to the technologically advanced people that had harmed them in the past. They don't have much in the way of gold, treasure, or resources. What they do have is an army of vicious psychopaths on horseback, bent on revenge for their people's past suffering.

So my first try with Mongolia. 53 gold in the sack. I started and looked at my cities. Over 100 turns to growth in the capital. Over 50 in my other two cities that I saved with economic policy, and over 20 in my towns. I was very discouraged and honestly I got pissed and shut the game off.

I decided to try again yesterday. I was going to ignore that crap and go for it. So yeah I could probably have destroyed the homelands when I started with 3 mid-highish level and two level 1 Noyan (Mongolian unique general), full of Coursers. But I was gunshy and I wanted to explore. I'd done so badly in the first age I hadn't even seen the south of homelands. I did carry over the max 500 influence, was gaining 40 per turn, and I'd reached 50% off befriending IPs. So I got right on making friends, starting with a scientific and then a military. I wanted to get one tech per suzerain, so I waited a turn between the first two. No cultural available, a ton of economic, which in my opinion are the least valuable.

I had swordsmen enough to send one to every settlement. I left my two level 1 Noyan at home for defense. Noyan are nuts for exploring! They have 4 sight range. I think it's funny how I can send a bunch of men on horseback across the ocean in an army but I can't send a single unit until a century later.

I only had access to the west coast, so I fanned out the Noyan and built two settlers and four cogs, one of which I sent along the top of the homelands to check out the other ocean. I saw a pretty good settle spot right away on the west, but it only had one treasure resource so I moved on. I checked the other islands, no treasure resources, I hit the mainland of distant lands and there were no treasure resources. I sent one settler and a Noyan that was a few points from leveling up back to that first spot, there was a hostile military independent power on the same island.

I explored more, bought merchants and got trade routes going, settled an island with a natural wonder and two camels, I couldn't resist. Soon I was slightly over 100 production in Roma. The growth problem was fixed with +6-7 wharfs and +10-12 gristmills. I have to shake my old ways. I used to build farms where I was going to put my urban districts so I could lose them. Can't do that effectively anymore. In fact farms are awesome! Still take care not to fall into the fishing boat trap unless you intend the settlement to be a town forever. Towns are better now too.

Once I got my old settlements up to date I had Roma start pumping Keshigs and Knights, one turn each. I bought a bunch of the Ortoo unique improvements. They are incredible. They are better than railways. If you space them four tiles apart, your 5 movement cavalry will be reset to 4/5 movement when you reach one. You can move across continents like this in a single turn. If I'd known what they were I would have planned them better but it still ended up incredible.

I finally found two treasure resources, already settled by distant lands civ, which were destroying me more than usual in science and culture. Everyone was. Finally I get to the very tip of the landmass and find a perfect spot. Three treasure resources plus other good stuff. I'd just passed by two of Trung's settlers so I thought I'd never get it, but I bought a settler on the closer island and went for it.

Back home I set up my two level 1 Noyan on the small battle lines of my former enemies' lines. I brought back a level 8 to run the main battle line. I set up Knights and Keshigs alternating on the small lines, and a full line of Knights backed by a full line of Keshigs on the main line.

The spot I was racing for got settled several turns before my settler arrived. But not by Trung. It was Augustus, my first enemy from last age! The bastard settled exactly on the tile I would have. I was amazed. So I gathered a couple Noyans and three cogs and went to take it. This set off the first world war.

---

Thanks for reading and participating!

Edited to add some stuff 8:30 EST

Oh yeah forgot to mention I was getting two free heavy cavalry every 10 turns from Charley. It really helped to bolster those lines.