Theme games

[Catbus]

I'm sure this isn't an entirely original idea, but I did a quick search and didn't find anything.

Mostly, my practice has been to play Huge maps in Standard time with a random selection of opponents, with the ultimate goal of winning at least once with every power. (I've succeeded with 14 so far: Darius, Sejong, Bismarck, Pachacuti, William of Orange, Selassie, Hiawatha, Pacal, Washington, Catherine, Wu Zetian, Nebuchadnezzar, Askia and Gandhi.) And lately I've been trying to win with Montezuma in order to "collect the whole series" in the Americas -- although with BNW, I'll have to add Pocatello to achieve that goal.

But looking over the latest Civ5 Leaders Spreadsheet gave me the idea to try something different: "themed games" comprising a group of opponents with a shared personality trait, so that everyone (including the human player) wants the same thing. This approach seems to mesh well with the spirit of BNW, in which the "play to your strength and exploit your advantage to the max" strategy has been nerfed by gold scarcity and the World Congress, so that victory comes more from accumulating small edges across the board.

Here are the themes I've come up with so far:

There Can Be Only One -or- Everybody Wants to Rule the World (6–10 civs)
Attila
Genghis Khan
Montezuma
Napoleon
Oda Nobunaga
Shaka
Alexander (8)
Askia (8)
Ashurbanipal (10)
Dido (10)

Space Race (8 civs)
Ashurbanipal
Bismarck
Catherine
Harun al-Rashid
Pacal
Sejong
Washington
Wu Zetian

Lebensraum (12 civs, Pangaea for extra insanity)
Augustus Caesar
Catherine
Gajah Mada
Genghis Khan
Hiawatha
Kamehameha
Napoleon
Oda Nobunaga
Pocatello
Shaka
Suleiman

Holy War (8 civs)
Askia
Boudicca
Haile Selassie
Harun al-Rashid
Gandhi
Isabella
Pacal
Theodora

Waterworld (8 civs, Islands)
Dido
Elizabeth I
Gajah Mada
Harald Bluetooth
Isabella
Kamehameha
Suleiman
William of Orange

Mutual Assured Destruction (6 civs, pick any 5 of the below)
Catherine
Gandhi
Genghis Khan
Montezuma
Nebuchadnezzar
Shaka

The final few are less about gameplay goals and more about the NPC experience:

Trust No One (8 civs, pick any 7 of the below)
Attila
Bismarck
Catherine
Dido
Enrico Dandolo
Napoleon
Suleiman
Wu Zetian

Why Can't We Be Friends? (8 civs)
Ahmad al-Mansur
Enrico Dandolo
Gandhi
Kamehameha
Pedro I
Theodora
Sejong

The Smacketeria (8 civs)
Alexander
Attila
Augustus
Boudicca
Nebuchadnezzar
Shaka
Wu Zetian

 

[M.Quazum]

I've had the same idea (and I posted it in another thread which noone responded to) I played a "Natives Battle" with all the tribal nations on a domination only victory condition. It was crazy.
I started playing a "water world" game too with all the civs with water UAs and UUs.
It's pretty fun and feels kind of like evening the playing field (I can't tell you how many times I just annihilated everyone on the map with England's ship of the lines.)
I like your "there can only be one" idea. Putting extremely warlike civs all on one map sounds like a crazy fun experience.

 

[Salts]

Pretty good ideas and themes. i will have to try some of these out, looks like fun.

 

[tedoll78]

A Night at the Zoo:
Arabia (camels)
Carthage (elephants)
Greece (horses)
Huns (horses)
India (elephants)
Mongolia (horses)
Siam (elephants)
Songhai (horses)
Spain (horses)
Poland (horses)

Mel Brooks Movie Night:
France (History of the World Part I)
America (Silent Movie, High Anxiety, The Producers, etc)
Shoshone (Blazing Saddles?)
Denmark (History of the World Part I)
Rome (History of the World Part I)
Ottomans (Robin Hood: Men in Tights)
Sweden (The Producers)
Germany (The Producers, To Be or Not To Be, etc)
Poland (To Be or Not To Be)
Brazil (The Producers)
England (Robin Hood: Men in Tights, To Be or Not to Be)
Russia (The 12 Chairs)
Dutch (this one's a bit of a stretch, based on a joke in Blazing Saddles)