What is your prefered playstyle?

[Securion]

What is your prefered playstyle (and early game tactics?), and how do you think it will change with the BNW expansion?

Early game; I usually go Scout, Monument, Granary and try to steal a worker from a City State asap. I always go Tradition.
Then I beeline for Hanging Gardens, build a settler and some military while doing so. After HG are built I go for a two city NC.

Playstyle; Most of the time I try to have a strong culture while having semi-tall cities with a huge capital, and go for a diplomatic victory. I often liberate City States and try to keep civs from "running away".
Hanging Gardens and Brandenburg Gate are "must have" wonders for me. (big capital and elite units)

Prefered civs; Sweden, England, America. (I dont like playing Persia, Arabia or Babylon. It feels like cheating...)

Changes i expect with BNW; With BNW I think I will play Poland, Brazil and France a lot, but still go for a smaller empire (3-4 cities on a standard map, 5-7 on a large?). I expect to have more focus on Gold and Trade, but my old preference of having a strong cultural base will serve me well in BNW and its Defensive Culture vs Tourism mechanics, at least I hope so...
My best located coastal city will get a lot of love from me... probably my first land trade route will go there (with food) to get it really big fast. I also think I will go heavily for the Colossus in my best coastal city. New priority might be HG + Colossus.

 

[Bakspatel]

Interesting topic, I was already thinking about sniffing around the forums looking to see what strategies/gameplay styles others use to improve my own.

Early game: Monument, shrine and then either a settler or a worker. I usually wait with training a scout until a later moment, I've always got ancient ruins off as I find them to be giving too much unfair advantages. I bully CS in the beginning if it's possible to gain a quick buck; it's not like they give quests so early in the game.
I start off with opening Tradition (for the extra border growth and culture bonus) and then completing the Liberty tree. Usually right before I complete the tree I've already founded by religion, then choose a GP from finishing the tree to finish my religion and gain a big advantage over the religion of my opponents. Usually those who found a religion after I've finished mine end up struggling to keep theirs alive. If I play a warmonger civ I usually pick Honor instead of Tradition.
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is one of my favourite wonders: low in AI demand and quite useful if you have any quarries nearby. Depending on the civ I pick I might also go for the Great Lighthouse, and depending on the situated location I might choose Temple of Artemis. But I usually ignore that one due to the high demand at the AI. Depending on troubling neighbours I might try the Great Wall as well. The Hagia Sophia is a must-have if I still require a second GP or if I want to prevent others from starting a religion. The Oracle is also a must-have for me.

Playstyle: In general a friendly attitude while trying to keep my whole empire balanced in all aspects, including techs and SP. Because I usually construct so many buildings it does make me vulnerable in the early part in the game. But when I get on steam and start upgrading units I become a force to be reckoned with. Tech preferences go first to what is most favourable with luxuries, a bit towards defense and naval expansion.
I cooperate with neighbours unless they start settling in the spots I've had my eye on. Then I become a not-so-friendly neighbour. Those who keep bothering me too much risk total warfare and complete annihilation. I generally keep it at denouncements and insults towards civs that I find too far away to start a war with.
Generally I move with the general opinion and try to keep as much friendly ties as possible. Not that I want a peaceful world, but to use these connections against those I like less. Getting friendly with a couple of civs then denouncing one with only few friendly ties so that the others get a hostile attitude towards that civ is one of my favourite strategies. And it keeps everyone bothered with that player instead of with me. Muhahahah, I love political games.

Prefered civs: The Netherlands (surprised?), Byzantium, Babylon, Spain. Sometimes I play others like England, Mongolia, Greece and Rome.

In BNW I'll try at least Portugal, Poland, Venice and Assyria. Perhaps Indonesia as well, but I find their leader screen so cool that I would find it a miss to play with them myself. My strategy probably wouldn't change a lot, perhaps I'll be even more naval focused than I am right now. Also of course a lot more focus on culture and I am very interested in the ideology aspect. The WC is like a Christmas present to me so I can't wait to try that out to see how I can influence the others against each other.

 

[JtW]

My usual playstyle is going tall because I don't like to micromanage a lot of cities. I am a builder and usually neglect my military, only building the bare minimum needed to survive. I also don't pay much attention to diplomacy or CSs and rarely take Patronage. I like to get my religion running, though. Then in the late game I either go for the spaceship or beeline to Artillery if I feel like conquering.

I think this will change somewhat with BNW. I will probably still go tall but I will pay a lot more attention to diplomacy in order to get good trade routes and to get the World Congress on my side. I think I will get bored quickly with the Tourism game and will mainly use it as a defensive measure.

In general, after the playthrough by MadDjinn, I have the feeling you will have to pay attention to more things in BNW, though. The systems are more intertwined and interdependent now.

 

[HeraldtheGreat]

Early Game: Either Scout or Monument first, then shrine or granary, a worker (by production or other means.) Then a settler or two, libraries first thing in all those cities, tech to Philosophy for NC and after the Oracle and maybe terracotta army after getting construction. Then civil service for food bonus as well as allowing me to get to those universities and chivalry for a shot at Alhambra. Tradition and Piety (just the cultural half.)

Playstyle: a very tall empire, 2-3 cities. I go strong culture, with a relatively weak military, just enough so that the military advisor will stop screaming "wipe us off the face of the earth" for a moment. I usually neglect the naval techs unless I get any sea luxes, something that will almost certainly change as of BNW. The new trade mechanic makes Brazil look very desirable to me, being cultural and coastal. They also seem to have a bias for Jungle, going great with sacred path and universities.

Preferred Civs: Sweden, Korea, Etheopia, Dutch for Tall and Wall. England, Denmark, Aztecs for Tall and Maul.

 

[The A.K.T]

Early Game

I go for scout-Monument-worker/granary-Wonder. I try to make a pretty good empire. With around 3 Cityes. And Going for as many Wonders as Possible.

Play style

Building wonders and keep being happy, untill Middle Ages. Then i make a Army with my UUs, and Conqurer a few Civs. Then play passive again and win by Buying City states/Science.

Prefeable Civs
Mongols-Inca-Denmark-Arabia

 

[Veneke]

Interesting topic.

Early game: Almost universally a Tradition opening and a beeline for the NC with just the capital (second settler already on spot ready and waiting to settle though). I'll typically ignore religion unless I get a lucky ruin or the map is clearly suited to it. If there's a Civ nearby (I usually play small continents so 'nearby' typically means on my island) then I'll go for some early warmongering and, if not, then focus on development.

Playstyle: Generally I play friendly with city-states and go for a diplomacy-centred VC with a small, tall core of cities. That said, around the time I start sending out Caravels I'm usually look for nice spots to settle overseas, particularly if I think they might serve as a nice staging area to defend my far-flung City-State allies or for a late-game war(s) with the most threatening Civ(s). There's rarely any need for said wars although there is the odd runaway and Civ to be liberated but mostly I could avoid them without too much hassle and just sit behind my fleet waiting for the VC to kick in. It's mostly to add a little bit of excitement to the game after it's essentially been decided.

Prefered civs: England and Denmark (though I've yet to finish a game with the Danes).

Impact of BNW: There are more Civs in BNW that I'm interested in playing than in the previous expansion, base game and accompanying DLCs. Portugal, Venice and Indonesia are all looking like picks I'll explore. The World Congress interests me and presents more options for my style of play but I don't think it will change it. I was going for City-States anyway, and typically I play nice with other AIs; maybe I might leave any nearby Civs alone now? That depends on what the AI is thinking. Generally speaking though it doesn't look like it's going to significantly impact on how my games play out - it'll still follow the pattern of a peaceful building phase (occasionally marred by an overly close neighbour), a focus on city-states and colonies, then some late game conflict and finally victory, or defeat - which is always the more interesting conclusion.

The two big exceptions that I can see at the moment are Piety opening in the Ancient era which will change my approach to religion in the early phase pretty significantly and the Tourism mechanics which will necessitate a stronger approach to culture to my games than I take currently. More importantly though what I am noticing is that the BNW seem to provide reasons for why I do half the things I do. Colonies, in particular, have always just been a personal preference of mine, there was rarely a need to do it (the odd strat resource, maybe, but even that was rare) - but with the new trade route system there's actually a decent reason to put colonies out there. Ideologies could also provide for more interesting late game wars that don't centre around a rather dull 'You're beating everyone up. Now die!'.

 

[Scott Jegg]

I prefer aggressive culture victory on Immortal, so...

EARLY GAME

Monument - shrine - worker - granary/library - defense units - scouts - oracle - national college

Philosophy asap, interspersed with archery/masonry/bronze, depending on defense needs

Civil service next if food is scarce, otherwise physics for trebuchets to go after the most threatening neighbour. Then back up for universities and race to platics, picking up Archaeology on the way

PLAYSTYLE

Early warring to grab a capital with a wonder in it (for reformation + 33% culture bonus). Try and go for about 4-6 puppets to spam trading posts on to keep gold high and science rolling in all game. Only settle two cities of my own after capital. Build Pisa in my 2nd or 3rd city with most hammers, then use GE for Porcelain Tower in the other. Build as many culture wonders in my capital as possible, and look to lay about 6-8 landmarks. Usually have to capture the city that has Chichen Itza (generally will have other good culture wonders it too), but that will give permanent golden age from about 1600ad if religion is also pumping out faith to buy GAs. By about 150AD should have patronage opener and aesthetics policy, and will pledge to protect all city states to get permanent friends status for amazing capital growth, culture, faith, and free units. Get freedom tree filled out asap, then go back to patronage and usually commerce to finish. try and buy alliance in as many city states as possible once patronage is done, and keep the culture ones allied at least. Then see out the game before we get to the 1900s if possible. Should have a good army all through the game, so can war at any time to increase empire as happiness permits, and to keep things interesting.

PREFERRED CIVS

Anyone. Just alter the playstyle a little to suit. Siam is crazy strong with those city state bonuses though.

BNW

Looks to be big changes to early expansion now that lux trading is clipped a bit, and gold seems more scarce. Tourism changes the whole culture victory, and being so aggressive throughout the game might not be worthwhile. I'm looking forward to embracing tourism and the archaeology side.

 

[DeutschDachs]

I usually go scout, monument, shrine, worker/settler if I can steal a worker from a cs. I will say it annoys me to no end when css seem to avoid building workers just to spite me. I almost always go tradition unless I have my own continent which can fit a lot of cities, in which case I go liberty. Generally i stick to 4 cities to max the tradition bonuses. I'll try to get the 10 and 15 percent growth from religion along with templeof artemis and go for a scien ce victory or just dominate if I get bored and get to artillery/frigates. If I can't get 4 good cities ill go with 2 or 3 and turtle for a cultural victory.

Favorite civs are Spain, Netherlands, aztecs, incans, Polynesia, ottomans, england, byzantium Ethiopia and the mayans. I really enjoy a wide range of civs, it actually bothers me that my friends always play the same 2-3

 

[Grumpbeard]

I have a weird obsessive compulsive thing where I like to go through each Civ before doing a civ a second time, so by neccessity, my play style has to change. You don't play Spain the same as Japan the same as Babylon. Or whatever.

That said, I tend to build a scout first, then a shrine. I like having a religion. After that point, it depends on the civ and the situation. Though I do tend to like wide over tall, and I try to garrison a unit in each city.

 

[Sam Kwon]

Early game: I usually open with tradition, try to grab an early pantheon. I beeline for Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I like exploring for ruins and avoiding barbarians. I tend to prefer not to meet a lot of civ's early on since then I don't have to deal with them.

Playstyle: Generally I focus on gold and science. I find gold to be the most useful 'yield'. I turtle a bit until the late game where I'm ahead enough scientifically to have few but better units to crush the opposition. I aim on high population in a few cities. (Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Landed Elite, Fertility Rite, Swords in Ploughshare, a few maritime citystates). I tend to mostly ignore city-states unless I'm sorely lacking in happiness or culture and I have the gold. I try to spread my religion early on and then just watch it snowball, although Theodora always gives me a run for my money.

Prefered civs: Korea and Byzantium are my favourite civs and I also enjoy Babylon and Austria who seem to match my playstyle.

Impact of BNW: With the new expansion, I might shift from science to culture. I'm very excited to play as Brazil, Poland, France (in that order).

Btw there's an ad at the bottom to preorder Europa Universalis IV teehee.

 

[Monster Heel]

Early Game - Crank out 2 scouts and send them in opposite directions to find as many ruins as possible. Depending upon the resources I start with and what my scouts find, I make the decision on as to how I should proceed. I beeline mining/masonry if there are mineral resources. I go calendar, if there are plantation resources. If I start near a lot of jungle tiles, I try to establish a pantheon and secure Sacred Path.

Playstyle - Unless I'm playing a game with a random leader, I tend to go for culture victories. I'll do science if I get forced into wars and have to win a military tech race. Diplomatic victory comes after science and domination is last. Unless I go into the game with the intent to be aggressive (IE. I play the Huns or Aztecs), I play a defensive game until I'm attacked. Once I get attacked, I never make peace and conquer whoever attacks me.

Preferred Civs - Arabia, Austria, and Inca. With Arabia and Austria, I focus on becoming an economic power. As Arabia, I buy up city state influence and reap the benefits of having so many allies. With Austria, I puppet as many city states as possible. Occasionally, I will annex a far away city to pump out units. With the Inca, I focus on building tall cities. Bee-lining to terrace farms makes this easy regardless of where you're located (hello mega city in the desert). If I scout out some desert early, I try to take Desert Folklore and get Petra for a super-powered desert city.

Impact of BNW - I tend to lean toward becoming an economic leader, so the improvements to trading fit in with my play style. Morocco, Venice and Portugal all look like Civs I'll have fun with. World Congress will probably push me toward bankrolling city states even more as I'll be buying votes for more than just a diplomatic victory.

 

[IkM]

Early game: scout, monument, shrine then Great Library. I usually go with Tradition. build many wonders. stealing worker from a CS is part of every game

Playstyle: I love peaceful games, I love to defend my cities against huge armies. don't attack city-states but try to be their ally. I find CSs very useful. but, lately, I changed my playstyle, usually going for domination victory.

Prefered civs:Mongolia, Huns, Ottomans, Arabia, Persia my favourite factions Mongolia and Huns for domination. Ottomans and Arabia for science and domination victory and Persia for culture victory.

with BNW I'll probably go with Shoshone first. their UU looks badass (pathfinder) and I want to try them first so bad. then, try Morocco. their UU and UB looks great, and I still love defensive games. Morocco's UU's defensive bonus make them one of my favourite.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I prefer early tall, then medieval-renaissance peaceful expansion, then I focus on money and science and beeline for the UN.

 

[Ogrelord]

You guys might want to look/implementing into building a Caravan/Cargo ship in your early game strategies. Just sayin'

we need a Camel caravan smilie icon.

 

[Montezumas Hat]

Early Game: I almost always do marathon huge, so I'll generally go Scout (or Jaguar if applicable) then monument. After that, it depends on my start and researches, but it'll usually be a combination of granary, military/scout and/or worker. I usually don't start my first settler until I'm at 4-6 pop, depending on my food.

Playstyle: I switch around civs a lot, so it isn't super consistent, but I usually push heavy population and heavy production. Production especially; if I don't have gold or food in a good production spot, I'll usually build there anyway, where I often won't build low production cities until mid to late game. Lately, I've also been maximizing my happiness over most other things, riding heavy happiness into golden ages, at which point I throw settlers into the void. I try not to focus too heavily on either science or culture until I know the best victory to drive toward, so I'll generally stack on heavy culture, then add some science buildings, rinse repeat. And as far as religion is concerned, I generally aim for happiness and internal bonuses. Best case scenario, I take faith giving pantheons and enhance with a faith building.

Preferred civs: I switch around a lot, because marathon usually makes me sick of even my favorite civs by endgame, but I do have some I consistently go back to. Inca are probably my best and favorite, because terrace farms are nuts and that UA is straight - up unfair. Russia used to be my go-to choice, but lately I've had a run of starts where Moscow (and often the surrounding cities) has no horses or iron, which is supremely frustrating. I also really like Korea because duh, Byzantium for adaptability (assuming I get a pantheon, of course), and if I feel like going heavy military, I go Aztec.

What will change with BNW I'm split on what civs I'm going to try first - I like Poland for the policies and horses, Indonesia for their resources and Morocco for their everything. But on top of that, most of my preferred civs improved. Inca's ignored terrain cost and tile maintenence is only going to help trade routes, especially early when I do have many roads and want to get a CS route or a boost to new cities. Pushing great people as Korea means more science PLUS great works. Russia and Aztec both benefit from earlier iron discovery, and I'm holding out hope that Lake Victoria is affected by Floating Gardens. And of course, Byzantium gets the benefit from going Piety immediately.

As far as my actual Playstyle goes, I think I'm gonna be taking heavy advantage of internal trade routes, particularly for the early production boost. I feel like I'm leaning towards almost exclusively taking Aesthetics/Rationalism, regardless of victory type. Not sure beyond that, though. Gonna need to actually run through the game a few times to see how it works in practice.

 

[SkaisonFire]

Early game; Scout, monument, shrine, settler.
Try to have my five cities by turn 100, all affected by the reduced policy cost from liberty mind you, giving me an incredible culture score during the medieval age.


Prefered civs; Russia, Spain or the Netherlands

Changes in BNW: Reaaaallllyy going to get used to the new culture game, really excited about archeology and teh fact that military and science victory are much less of a standard victory to go for.
shoshone seems fun.

 

[crawf0rd]

Judging by others' playstyles, mine is very odd. I go Monument, shrine, worker, granary, let city grow one more pop by starting a scout, then settler. I usually have 3-5 cities by the renaissance and have little to no army. As you can expect I get dowd a ton. My favorite civs are Siam, Sweden, and the Ottomans. Btw, I play on immortal.

 

[Shafi-is-back]

I'm more excited about trade and the new diplomacy game - Will try Morocco first and then Portugal then Arabia

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Early game: moneument, Warrior, worker, granary, stonehenge
I expand slowly, building my capitol up defensively before placing a new city within 7 tiles of it. I like to enter the midgame with 3-4 wonders (terracotta, stonehenge, oracle, if I'm isolated the collosus) with 1 in my second city. I use most of my cash to buy up a sufficient defensive army. I like to head into the mid game ready for war (I need some puppets and colonies) and poised to make the great leap forward culturally.

Playstyle: Power projecting puppeteer (3P)- I like winning through the power of my culture, I am obsessed with social policies and cannot stand to see my people unhappy (being at zero happiness makes me moody and hostile, lower and I throw everything into my people's well being, desperately trying to bring the weary masses onto my side). As such, I keep 4-5 cities. However, I cannot stand idly by as my enemies build in size and strength, eclipsing my empire. So, I wage war nearby to keep my imediate neighbors in check, conquer on other continents to keep far off enemies from coming to my homeland, take land to keep my citizens in good spirits, and set about build a navy strong enough to keep control of the waves between the motherland and the colonies, cutting my enemies off from the rich lands on my home continent that I cannot afford take. I end the game with about 2-3 bordering puppets and 2-4 colonies, depending on the number of colonies. Pretty much, I play as England did in our world.

Preffered civs: Polynesia (complete and utter dominance of the waves, and allows me to start colonization much swifter. The maoi's allow my culture to florish and my lands to defend admirably from my spaming opponents. They are hands down my favorite side).
Etheopia (With the spirit of Adwa at my command the homeland shall always stand, with the mehal sefari the capitol shall never feel the crack of foreign musket, as the interlopers are cut down long before they reach our heart, and with the stele our culture shall never fall by the wayside).
France (Ancien Regime gives me the boost I need to take off sprinting and never fall behind, and the musketeer makes colonization as easy as showing up and planting the flag of victory)
Aztecs (I think you can piece that one together)
How BNW changes this: Poland will be a very strong pick on that list, my glorious Polynesia grows in power, and I'll have to rethink my france strategy somewhat. My main problem now lies with the defense of my heartland. Without that early currency I'll have to devote much more time into hardbuilding an army, which complicates things somewhat as my plans will be slowed signifigantly.

 

[Navelgazer]

Early Game: I learned my preferred early game strategy from a post I made a year or so again on the best starting strategies for Carthage. The suggestion (which worked very well) basically goes Monument - Shrine - Great Library, Pottery - Writing - Calendar - Philosophy as the free tech so as to ensure the Oracle. Social policies take the Liberty Tree from left to right so that you don't have to build early settlers/workers while focusing on early wonders. Grab "The Wheel" as soon as you can as well, if using this with Carthage.

Playstyle: I tend towards peaceful, though I'm trying to wean myself off of that a bit. Love love love naval maps and spend most of my military budget on ships which I then use to police the world, trying to get the Galleas as early as possible (unless I'm playing as Byzantium, where the dromon makes that unnecessary.) Great Lighthouse is a biggie for me if I can manage it. I exhibit no mercy on civs which DoW me but don't really do the DoWs myself. Very financially focused, so that I can be flexible in my victory choices, at least a little bit.

Preferred Civs: Carthage, obviously. Byzantium. Netherlands. I'm very excited for Portugal and Venice.