[GS] Which civ to try next and a question on government plaza district

[tedhebert]

But if you've already got 6-7 cities, then how many free builders are you really going to get after building AH? And then, you get nothing else for the rest of the game. The other two options give you something until the end.

I think it depends on the kind of game and the map... Sometimes you can just build 2-3 cities and block a whole portion of land for yourself that there's no rush to settle. When that happens to me, i DO wait for AH before I settle all the others, because the free builder is really worth it.
And somethimes, the map just won't cooperate with THAT strategy, and you have to settle a lot of them before...so in those instances, AH is not the right choice. But it CAn and DOES happen that it's a very valid choice !

 

[Chefofrats]

followed by REX'ing

REX'ing? What is that?

Anyway, I voted for Japan since you enjoy playing with district placement.

As for the Government Plaza, I try to build it and the Ancestral Hall as early as possible - the free builder is awesome. Sometimes I build it later, but still it takes less time to do that than to build all those workers in the few cities I am still to found.

 

[Sostratus]

REX'ing? What is that?

Anyway, I voted for Japan since you enjoy playing with district placement.

As for the Government Plaza, I try to build it and the Ancestral Hall as early as possible - the free builder is awesome. Sometimes I build it later, but still it takes less time to do that than to build all those workers in the few cities I am still to found.

REX stands for Rapid (Early) eXpansion. In many 4X games, which Civ is one of, a common tactic is to grab as much land / settlements as possible in a focused way. Hence the term carries over game to game.

 

[Lord Lakely]

I really don't understand how you're all waiting until Ancestral Hall to settle cities. That means getting Political Philosophy, building the Government Plaza, *and* building the Ancestral Hall. That's, what, turn 60-70? And how many cities have you settled by then? It should be probably 6-7!

Two or three cities (besides the capital) is what you're aiming for. Each of those should have a monument. Your prioritize culture and military over science and build the Gov Plaza as soon as it unlocks - you want it build before Political Philosophy.

Not sure if it would work on Deity since I never play on difficulties higher than immortal but there's no risk on King, and very little risk on Emperor if you use Agoge to quickly build 3 Warriors and 3 Slingers after your first Settler.

Generally the build order I use is this (King/Emperor difficulty, huge or large Seven Seas / Pangaea map, default number of AIs)

1. Scout =>2. Monument => 3./4. Settler / Builder => 5. Warrior => 6. Warrior => 7. Slinger => 8. Slinger => 9. Warrior => 10. Slinger / Archer => 11. Gov Plaza

by step #6 you should have Agoge and Urban Planning as your policy cards, which you should retain until you reach your tier 1 government. I don't bother with God King - the most "consistent" way to guarantee the free settler is to meet a religious city state or pop a relic from a goodie hut. Just go Urban Planning and grab a scout instead.


You need the scout to fish for the Political Philosophy Inspiration (and it also helps you get in some extra yield tricle from City State First meeting bonuses, particularly Religious and Cultural ones), and the builder for the Craftsmanship Inspiration.

if I dont have Political Philosophy by the time I finish the gov Plaza, I usually go for a Wonder (Temple of Artemis is usually worth it) or a second settler, but I mean, that depends on what I need the most. The order isn't fixed, it's fluid and should be adapted to whatever needs you possess.

Policy Cards: Agoge, Urban Planning (Chiefdom) => Conscription, Urban Planning, Colonization, Charismatic Leader (Oligarchy or Classical Republic)

in the extra cities I settle i usually go Warrior => Monument => Builder => Archer. (usually a trader before the archer in my second city for the Currency Eureka and a road to the capital). Once Currency is unlocked I build Ancient Walls followed by the commerce district, the market/lighthouse and a trader. .

I also combo this with Magnus + Provision and that promotion that gives +2 Food to internal trade routes. With a CH/Harbour and a Campus, that provides a solid +5/+2 internal trade route to help the new cities grow faster after you've built the commercial district of choice.

This strategy works the best with Rome because of the Free monument they get, Gorgo because of the easy culture from kills and Russia/Korea/Japan because they get half-price districts that help you get the State Workforce inspiration. Any civ with a high production start can pull it off easily though.

 

[Mahi]

I don't get how people can wait for AH before expanding either. I doubt it's the strategy for the people who aims for 10 cities at turn 100?
In many of my games (emperor) I start off thinking I want to plan to get the Goverment Plaza down and get AH as quickly as possible but at that time I'm already spamming out settlers so I don't usually bother in the end. It seems like the extra builder should be worth the wait but I usually play on large maps and have lots of space to settle before the AI grabs. I just need to practice chopping it out I guess.

 

[Abaxial]

I don't get how people can wait for AH before expanding either.

I don't wait for AH before expanding, but it's useful when it comes.

 

[Kwami]

I think it depends on the kind of game and the map... Sometimes you can just build 2-3 cities and block a whole portion of land for yourself that there's no rush to settle. When that happens to me, i DO wait for AH before I settle all the others, because the free builder is really worth it.
And somethimes, the map just won't cooperate with THAT strategy, and you have to settle a lot of them before...so in those instances, AH is not the right choice. But it CAn and DOES happen that it's a very valid choice !

OK, sure. If you get really lucky with the map and most of your territory is split from the others by mountain chains or lakes or something. But that's not very common. In most games, I find that I need to almost continuously produce settlers once I hit Early Empire or else I'll lose most of the prime spots to opponents. Waiting for AH in that case is crazy.

 

[Alashiya]

I made the mistake of neglecting Government Plazas it offers a lot of tangible benefits Ancestral Hall which gives you a free builder is really handy, I quite like the Intelligence agency as well


I'm loving Phoenicia atm its a naval & trading superpower

 

[GunsGermsandSteel]

Play as Aztec.
If you've played a ton of games as Australia don't do something 'similar'. Why not try out a whole new aspect of civ?

Put game speed at epic or marathon this helps your units be relevant for longer. Since game speed is adjusted for everything except unit movement.

Anyways. Aztec is my favorite military Civ. All their bonuses blend very well together and they have an interesting 'bully' playstyle. You don't necessarily want to knock civs out as fast as possible as the eagle warrior bonus of 'capturing' builders from defeated units only works if you are defeating units of course.

 

[Victoria]

would then build the Coliseum and Ruhr Valley in the capital city, with ha variety of districts spaced all over the place, but with most of the Industrial Zones near the capital city.

Sounds like you would enjoy Germany .. but it is not on your list... Berlin88 of the Ruhr valley

 

[berlin88]

Sounds like you would enjoy Germany .. but it is not on your list... Berlin88 of the Ruhr valley

I have already played several of the vanilla civs like Germany and Russia, so I focused on listing civs I haven't really tried yet. Before the devs added Australia to the game, Germany was my go to civ.

In regards to the username, I have had this username on a variety of different games. I think I was playing either Wolfenstein or one of the old Command and Conquer games when I first picked the name. I was into WW2 games at the time, so I chose Berlin as my username. In most games, the name itself was already taken, so I had to add a number on the end, hence the 88 part.

For some of the EA games, I was restricted from using my desired username, so I had to modify it a little by adding somthing on the end. For some reason, EA wouldn't let people use the same username for both Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142, so I had to pick a slightly different username for later battlefield games following BF2, by adding an x on the end.

 

[Killer Rabbit]

Sounds like you would enjoy Germany .. but it is not on your list... Berlin88 of the Ruhr valley

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this--and I didn't even notice the 88 until you pointed it out. And this is the same guy who says in his signature that he wants, of all people, Charles Lindbergh playable as a leader for the US. Curious coincidence, to say the least...

 

[Kwami]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this--and I didn't even notice the 88 until you pointed it out. And this is the same guy who says in his signature that he wants, of all people, Charles Lindbergh playable as a leader for the US. Curious coincidence, to say the least...

It could just be his birth year. That's a pretty common thing to do. Let's not start assuming that everyone's a Nazi.