What'll be your first game on patch 1.2.2?

[MutilationWave]

Seriously I'm playing a game right now and I was surprised to see Lafayette had built 3 cogs and was moving them together. I considered warring him for his terrible settlement placement, but thought those cogs plus the units around might beat the local army.

Nah. I didn't go to war. I just watched. He moved his cogs towards a hostile IP I'm suzing and leveling a commander on. Moved them away. Moved them back and fired! Moved them away. Farther away.

It's kinda embarrassing.

 

[Tuvok694]

I could not finish a single game on immortal after the patch. Even with friendly independents, peaceful playing seems to be no longer possible for me. The AI is incredibly aggressive and I always get multiple war declarations from all sides. I sometimes survive antiquity but after about 40 turns in exploration I get steamrolled by tons of AI units.
So I go back to level sovereign for the next months, I have a lot to learn, obviously.

 

[Nikolai II]

I could not finish a single game on immortal after the patch. Even with friendly independents, peaceful playing seems to be no longer possible for me. The AI is incredibly aggressive and I always get multiple war declarations from all sides. I sometimes survive antiquity but after about 40 turns in exploration I get steamrolled by tons of AI units.
So I go back to level sovereign for the next months, I have a lot to learn, obviously.

Interesting. On Sovereign I get what feels like less aggressive AI compared to previous patches, with so far 3-4 games under the new patch from antiquity to exploration (and one to modern).

 

[Suicidekills]

I could not finish a single game on immortal after the patch. Even with friendly independents, peaceful playing seems to be no longer possible for me. The AI is incredibly aggressive and I always get multiple war declarations from all sides. I sometimes survive antiquity but after about 40 turns in exploration I get steamrolled by tons of AI units.
So I go back to level sovereign for the next months, I have a lot to learn, obviously.

Try playing a trade-focused game. Sending merchants to AI is by far the best way to keep them happy. Also, definitely check their personas. Ben Franklin hates you if you choose a different government. Choose the same government as him and you’re on your way to friendship.

 

[MutilationWave]

I could not finish a single game on immortal after the patch. Even with friendly independents, peaceful playing seems to be no longer possible for me. The AI is incredibly aggressive and I always get multiple war declarations from all sides. I sometimes survive antiquity but after about 40 turns in exploration I get steamrolled by tons of AI units.
So I go back to level sovereign for the next months, I have a lot to learn, obviously.

Something that came up in another thread about getting warred early and such is friendly greetings. A friendly greeting costs you a bit of influence for 20 relationship points. Trade routes give you 10. If I send everyone a friendly greeting and Napoleon isn't in the game or at least on my side of the map, I can mostly go about my business. I did a ludicrous forward settle for my second settlement on Waset run by Confucius last game. We ended up allied. That could have easily spilled into war if I hadn't had the friendly greeting points.

 

[Tuvok694]

Something that came up in another thread...

I just want to let you know that I really appreciate your advice here and in other discussions very much !!! It really helps me to improve my gameplay, although I sometimes think that I (myself) am just a little too stupid to play this game properly. I had thousands of game hours in Civ6 and could sometimes even win on deity, but Civ7 is really something else .

 

[Suicidekills]

Sounds like an intriguing game, I love reading these stories!

Well, I had an absolute blast playing this Isabella game. Probably my favorite game so far. I was able to finally put a dent in Harriet Tubman's empire and grab the last Natural Wonder that I needed. My NW boost was now up to 350%. I decided to put a little bit more effort into the cultural legacy path based on our conversations, and I got a couple of relics.....

Obviously at this point I was really disappointed to not have the belief that adds another great work slot to temples as I would have liked to showcase all the relics, but I went with the belief that when you take over a settlement, it automatically converts to your religion. This came in very handy actually. The crisis in my game was the one involving revolt when settlements aren't following my religion. I was still warring with a few leaders, and I was not doing the best on happiness. Without the belief, I might have lost some settlements to revolt. It would have been very annoying at least.

The 10 urban pop reilquary belief is a solid belief to get relics and from my experience is available no matter how long you wait for religion. What made the cultural exploration legacy path even easier in this game was the map size and amount of leaders. The more opposing settlements, the more options you have of gaining relics. This game was so good, I was able to get Rila Monastery for the first time. I only built like five wonders, so it wasn't my main source of relics, but it helped.

The Incan Treasure fleet ability was fun. Easily got the economic legacy path, and I didn't touch a single distant land.

For Modern, I decided to go with Russia since I originally started the game in Tundra and took out Catherine who also started in Tundra. I saw your post about Science Victories being boring, so I decided to try it out myself. You're right, it is just a boring ending your turn until it's over, but that's simply what the science victory is, have ridiculous science and production, and tech and build as fast as possible. So, to me, the joy is planning for the victory and executing it successfully, and again, wow, did I have a blast (literally)......

Turn 39 Science Victory. I was surprised by how well I did sciencewise. I actually ended up teching faster than I was building space parts. If I planned the ending better, maybe I could have gotten a Turn 30 victory. Apalachee was my MVP settlement. With the 350%, the NW turned this city into an absolute behemoth with 271 production. Can't say I didn't have fun with this science victory!!

 

[MutilationWave]

Well, I had an absolute blast playing this Isabella game. Probably my favorite game so far. I was able to finally put a dent in Harriet Tubman's empire and grab the last Natural Wonder that I needed. My NW boost was now up to 350%. I decided to put a little bit more effort into the cultural legacy path based on our conversations, and I got a couple of relics.....

View attachment 736378

Obviously at this point I was really disappointed to not have the belief that adds another great work slot to temples as I would have liked to showcase all the relics, but I went with the belief that when you take over a settlement, it automatically converts to your religion. This came in very handy actually. The crisis in my game was the one involving revolt when settlements aren't following my religion. I was still warring with a few leaders, and I was not doing the best on happiness. Without the belief, I might have lost some settlements to revolt. It would have been very annoying at least.

The 10 urban pop reilquary belief is a solid belief to get relics and from my experience is available no matter how long you wait for religion. What made the cultural exploration legacy path even easier in this game was the map size and amount of leaders. The more opposing settlements, the more options you have of gaining relics. This game was so good, I was able to get Rila Monastery for the first time. I only built like five wonders, so it wasn't my main source of relics, but it helped.

The Incan Treasure fleet ability was fun. Easily got the economic legacy path, and I didn't touch a single distant land.

For Modern, I decided to go with Russia since I originally started the game in Tundra and took out Catherine who also started in Tundra. I saw your post about Science Victories being boring, so I decided to try it out myself. You're right, it is just a boring ending your turn until it's over, but that's simply what the science victory is, have ridiculous science and production, and tech and build as fast as possible. So, to me, the joy is planning for the victory and executing it successfully, and again, wow, did I have a blast (literally)......

View attachment 736380

Turn 39 Science Victory. I was surprised by how well I did sciencewise. I actually ended up teching faster than I was building space parts. If I planned the ending better, maybe I could have gotten a Turn 30 victory. Apalachee was my MVP settlement. With the 350%, the NW turned this city into an absolute behemoth with 271 production. Can't say I didn't have fun with this science victory!!

!

Nice game, nice work, nice writeup. What difficulty? Those numbers blow my mind. I haven't played Isabella yet but she's looking like S tier now with her so called nerf.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

!

Nice game, nice work, nice writeup. What difficulty? Those numbers blow my mind. I haven't played Isabella yet but she's looking like S tier now with her so called nerf.

Isabella was and still is ferocious in this game. Nerfing her gold bonus didn't even begin to address her real strength, which is guaranteed and enhanced NW bonuses.

I got a taste of that strength in my latest game, in which I wasn't even playing with her: playing Rome as Trung Trac (automatic early 2nd settlement with the 3 starting promotions for the first Legatus: Yum!), had a NW in range for my second settlement. Was doing all right but not leading when I noticed that Pachecuti was sitting between me and the nearest coast (Pangaea map), and so potentially blocking my access to Distant Lands in Exploration. Took him out (He was Maya, but had neglected his military in favor of massively building up his capital with Quarters and structures).

Took his capital, his only settlement, and discovered that his capital was exploiting a second NW, Mount Everest. As a result of the non-enhanced bonuses from two Natural Wonders, my Antiquity Culture doubled in one turn, shot ahead of the other AI Civs, and I never looked back.

Had I been playing with Isabella, the game would have been even more ridiculously easy, but even without her 'extra' bonuses to the NWs, two good NWs to exploit gives you a commanding lead over almost any competition - except, of course, an AI Isabella . . ..

 

[MutilationWave]

Isabella was and still is ferocious in this game. Nerfing her gold bonus didn't even begin to address her real strength, which is guaranteed and enhanced NW bonuses.

I got a taste of that strength in my latest game, in which I wasn't even playing with her: playing Rome as Trung Trac (automatic early 2nd settlement with the 3 starting promotions for the first Legatus: Yum!), had a NW in range for my second settlement. Was doing all right but not leading when I noticed that Pachecuti was sitting between me and the nearest coast (Pangaea map), and so potentially blocking my access to Distant Lands in Exploration. Took him out (He was Maya, but had neglected his military in favor of massively building up his capital with Quarters and structures).

Took his capital, his only settlement, and discovered that his capital was exploiting a second NW, Mount Everest. As a result of the non-enhanced bonuses from two Natural Wonders, my Antiquity Culture doubled in one turn, shot ahead of the other AI Civs, and I never looked back.

Had I been playing with Isabella, the game would have been even more ridiculously easy, but even without her 'extra' bonuses to the NWs, two good NWs to exploit gives you a commanding lead over almost any competition - except, of course, an AI Isabella . . ..

And if you had Isabella, discovering Mt Everest could lead to a nice chunk of gold.

Funny you mention Trung. My games have shifted from always having Napoleon warring and backstabbing me to always having Trung and usually Confucius with absurd runaway science and culture.

I'm late to the strategy with natural wonders, I did not prioritize them unless it was grand canyon. In my most recent game I did some tricky settling to get two good ones and it's made a big difference, even playing Ashoka WR as Maurya into Inca.

 

[Suicidekills]

!

Nice game, nice work, nice writeup. What difficulty? Those numbers blow my mind. I haven't played Isabella yet but she's looking like S tier now with her so called nerf.

Thanks!!! Diety/Huge/Pangea and everything else was standard except disaster intensity was at moderate. She’s better the bigger the map. More opportunities for Natural Wonders.

 

[MutilationWave]

Thanks!!! Diety/Huge/Pangea and everything else was standard except disaster intensity was at moderate. She’s better the bigger the map. More opportunities for Natural Wonders.

Seriously impressive. Have you considered trying the GotM?

Also how many scouts are you using for huge Pangaea? I haven't tried huge or Pangaea yet.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

And if you had Isabella, discovering Mt Everest could lead to a nice chunk of gold.

Funny you mention Trung. My games have shifted from always having Napoleon warring and backstabbing me to always having Trung and usually Confucius with absurd runaway science and culture.

I'm late to the strategy with natural wonders, I did not prioritize them unless it was grand canyon. In my most recent game I did some tricky settling to get two good ones and it's made a big difference, even playing Ashoka WR as Maurya into Inca.

There are so many ways to create a Runaway situation by Modern Age or earlier that I suspect a major re-balancing is in order for the game. The latest post above from @Suicidekills is one of a half dozen or more that I have seen in which a good Human player has per turn totals 5 - 10 times or more greater than any of the AI Civs in their game.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intention of the game design. For one thing, it makes people finishing the game that much less likely - what's the point of continuing when there is no mechanic in the game that can stop you from doing whatever you want?

I suspect that the only way to avoid these situations would be to reconfigure the entire 'bonus' system of adjacencies, multipliers, Civics, Traditions, Leader and Civ bonuses etc. so that a combination of terrain, Leader, Civ, Civics and Magic cannot multiply the 'currencies' to stratospheric heights. That's going to be very, very difficult to accomplish, because if there is one thing that has become apparent just from these Forums, it is that the motto of the Civ Player Base is:

Loopholes Я Us

No matter how well they think they've 'balanced' some part of the game, somebody somewhere will find a way to 'play' the system and gallop to a massively imbalanced victory.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Seriously impressive. Have you considered trying the GotM?

Also how many scouts are you using for huge Pangaea? I haven't tried huge or Pangaea yet.

I've been playing Huge Pangaea almost exclusively since the patch (It was almost all I played for my last 1000 hours of Civ VI, so I'm consistent if nothing else).

I generally use no more than 2 scouts, both built or bought right away. I will frequently add a third scout a little later, but never more than that - for one thing, Pangaea seems to result in more IPs left on the map later, and that means Hostile IPs on the map with enough units to mop up any scout that blunders near them: later scouting (except by the Mayan Combat Scout) frequently has to be accomplished by cavalry or warships to survive long enough to find out anything.

One thing I do which I haven't seen others describe, I research Sailing very early - 2nd or 3rd Tech, usually. Even when there aren't any islands to explore anywhere near, it vastly increases the mobility of scouts that can scurry down the coast or across lakes, getting around Hostile IP sites, impassable mountains, or AI Civ borders - or hide off shore while Hostile IP Warriors are prowling the land. It is one of the reasons that I can scout as much or more territory with 2 - 3 scouts early on as the AI can with 4 or more.

 

[Suicidekills]

Seriously impressive. Have you considered trying the GotM?

Also how many scouts are you using for huge Pangaea? I haven't tried huge or Pangaea yet.

Yeah, I just play on the ps5 so I need to figure out how to get the save file on there. Are you familiar?

I started out with 4 scouts this game considering it was huge and I was playing as Isabella. It seemed to have worked out.

 

[Berrern]

Turn 39 Science Victory. I was surprised by how well I did sciencewise. I actually ended up teching faster than I was building space parts. If I planned the ending better, maybe I could have gotten a Turn 30 victory. Apalachee was my MVP settlement. With the 350%, the NW turned this city into an absolute behemoth with 271 production. Can't say I didn't have fun with this science victory!!

Wow! Loved reading your write-up, what a game! Looks like Isabella is an absolute winner!

Is this still the same game you started out as with Carthage? If so, I might have to give Isabella another look (but not as Carthage, not yet anyway!).

Yeah, I just play on the ps5 so I need to figure out how to get the save file on there. Are you familiar?

I started out with 4 scouts this game considering it was huge and I was playing as Isabella. It seemed to have worked out.

Maybe write to the GOTM mods and ask for advice? I play on PC so I have no idea...
I'm going to join this month's GOTM (it'll be my first since 2010!), and you should definitely join in! Would love to see the outcome, considering we have such different playstyles

 

[Nikolai II]

Yeah, I just play on the ps5 so I need to figure out how to get the save file on there. Are you familiar?

I started out with 4 scouts this game considering it was huge and I was playing as Isabella. It seemed to have worked out.

Don't think it's possible on console directly. But if you have access to a computer version of civ7 you could save it there and use cross save...

 

[Suicidekills]

Is this still the same game you started out as with Carthage? If so, I might have to give Isabella another look (but not as Carthage, not yet anyway!).

Absolutely! I want to say it takes me about a week to complete one game. I typically don't play more than one age in a sitting.

Don't think it's possible on console directly. But if you have access to a computer version of civ7 you could save it there and use cross save...

Sounds like a fun problem to solve!

I'm going to join this month's GOTM (it'll be my first since 2010!), and you should definitely join in! Would love to see the outcome, considering we have such different playstyles

I will most certainly try!!