v95 Dutch

[Sir Raffi]

I first started the game as Dutch to have a look on the new victory conditions. First thing I noticed: I started with 27 points from "first European in Japan". Of course, none of my units did a single step before.

Then, after approx 25 turns, France declared war. Of course, I had no chance with my two composite Bowmans. I had founded the city between Amsterdam and Paris, so I thought that maybe that had provoked them.

I started a new game, this time I founded a city in denmark. After approx 25 turns, war started again, but this time with Germany and Spain simulatneously. Again, no chance.

Third try, I founded no additional city to not provoke any AI. But again war was declared at me, this time Germany and two turns later France. I think you know the outcome:

Until now I did not find a way to survive the first 30 rounds. Maybe the Dutch need some more defense units at the beginning (right now only two Composite Bowmans and one Horseman) or some kind of diplomatic bonus for their neighbours.

The second victory condition (low expences) was working good so far (3P/turn in medieval age).

 

[powergotnow]

Similar thing happened to me, France always declares war and wins. I survived using other cities and then Re-captured my capital until England declared war too and I was done. It's definitely very difficult to survive so didn't get to test much victory conditions.

 

[jbakke]

Question about the spend < 50 gold objective: Is this net gold change per turn? If you are producing 120 gold and have expenses/maintenance of 60 gold you end up at +60 GPT, does this satisfy the objective?

What if you upgrade a unit for something like 100 gold? Does that turn still count as "Low Expenses" for 1-time expenses like this?

 

[Rhye]

I first started the game as Dutch to have a look on the new victory conditions. First thing I noticed: I started with 27 points from "first European in Japan". Of course, none of my units did a single step before.

View attachment 690231

Then, after approx 25 turns, France declared war. Of course, I had no chance with my two composite Bowmans. I had founded the city between Amsterdam and Paris, so I thought that maybe that had provoked them.

I started a new game, this time I founded a city in denmark. After approx 25 turns, war started again, but this time with Germany and Spain simulatneously. Again, no chance.

Third try, I founded no additional city to not provoke any AI. But again war was declared at me, this time Germany and two turns later France. I think you know the outcome:

View attachment 690232

Until now I did not find a way to survive the first 30 rounds. Maybe the Dutch need some more defense units at the beginning (right now only two Composite Bowmans and one Horseman) or some kind of diplomatic bonus for their neighbours.

The second victory condition (low expences) was working good so far (3P/turn in medieval age).

that number is from technologies.
I need that interface to get fixed, I couldnt figure out how

 

[Jet]

I have gotten past The Netherlands' initial turns in v95. I doubt I did anything too different; you might have just been unlucky. I did get some declarations (I reload freely in RFC games), but not in the first 30 turns. Besides building units, I checked a Civ 5 diplomacy strategy article and tried to be careful about factors I could control. It might be good for the Netherlands start with a few more units - add 2 Pikemen, maybe? RFC 4 Netherlands seemed to be able to survive an early declaration sometimes.

I've played this on King difficulty, settling Amsterdam and Antwerp, 2S of Amsterdam, and buying the southern horse and cow tiles. So far I've played to turn 477 / 1739 AD. Until a few turns ago, I didn't understand the low-expenses objective, and was just trying to play for size. Right now I have 4 cities with a 5th settler sailing to Indonesia. My expenses are roughly 50 unit maintenance (max supply, largely from conquerors and city-states) and 50 building maintenance. It's slightly less than that, but currently I don't have much headroom for more buildings, which is frustrating.

On the other hand, so far I think I've gotten the low-expenses bonus on almost every turn by accident, even while trying to expand. It looks like I got it on every turn except for one interval when I had to bribe my neighbors with gold-per-turn to defend me against an attack. In hindsight I would have tried to do that as lump sum payments! And I'm 30 turns away from the next era, which should allow me to resume adding buildings as well as add another city or two.

The top scores on this turn are Arabia 507, Netherlands 481, Rome 413, Germany 380, Spain 329. China and Japan collapsed and India is not in the Netherlands game. It looks like I can win just by playing normally and keeping an eye on my expansion. That is a little boring, but I think that's partly just the way Civ 5 is.

I am enjoying the new Polders!

Question about the spend < 50 gold objective: Is this net gold change per turn? If you are producing 120 gold and have expenses/maintenance of 60 gold you end up at +60 GPT, does this satisfy the objective?

What if you upgrade a unit for something like 100 gold? Does that turn still count as "Low Expenses" for 1-time expenses like this?

It's not net gold change, it's "total expenses" on the gold tooltip. So +120/-60 in the Medieval Era wouldn't satisfy it. Upgrading a unit has no effect on the objective.

 

[PiR]

RFC 4 Netherlands seemed to be able to survive an early declaration sometimes.

They had pikemen when neighbouring civs didn't have the tech to build them.

That is a little boring, but I think that's partly just the way Civ 5 is.

I felt the same with India just staying at peace with everyone. As Rhye replied then, the obectives will be reworked to make the gameplay more fun. I think he's open to suggestion.
It's hard to find entertaining objectives that enable multiple/different gameplays.