Will playing a a higher diffuculty level help you learn the game faster?

[stwils]

I have often wondered if playing at a higher difficulty level will teach you the lessons of the game without mercy - and thus teach you to play better. What do you think?

I just played at Prince level, and lost quickly. I learned not to leave my city unprotected! And I also learned not to wander out and click on a hut full of barbarians.

If I had been playing at Chieftain or Warlord, I doubt if these two lessons would have hit home so fast.

Any ideas?

stwils

 

[cairo140]

I would tend to agree with your observations to an extent. On one hand, playing at a higher level will teach you a lot of things by virtue of necessity including amassing a good army at all times; however, if your ultimate goal is to play well on a normal setting, then trying the higher levels more than a few times will not be productive. You will have learned the basic strategies (when and what to build; how to expand and how to defend and attack). But the level-specific (perhaps exploitative) strategies of the more advanced nature will not be learned; at least not unless you delve deeper into the game.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

The only way A good way to become better is to play a difficulty high enough that you don't know if you can survive

 

[nock371]

What I learn is that playing one level higher than you are comfortable is a help in learning deeper strategy, and you might want to save the game and start again when you've clicked on a hut of barbarians...

Also you will eventually get such a feel for the ins and outs of the game that chieftan will become too boring, and Prince will become your comfort zone after a while. After many years playing and having a few years break only recently have I pretty much worked out most of the ins and outs eg weighing up ratios of different things like whether to put a worker unit on irrigated land or a mine (population growth versus production capacity) and when you need a temple, colleseum, cathedral building is when you need two Elvis' to stop civil disorder or else production will get stalled etc...

There are so many ins and outs, I suggest you find a comfort zone and play hard conquests against agressive AI's while trying to keep your cities and techs growing, that will give you a good balance, and then when you have mastered that go onto next level, the reward for doing so are higher civilization score %'s at end of the game...

Im no amazing player compared to some of the civ geeks in this forum (man some players are legendary...) but I've learnt enough about civ to have fun and learn general strategy skills...

 

[Skyer2]

Both. Easy level and hard level.

Easy level teaches you confidence. Confidently mastering things. It shows you the way to win and shows you, that you can win. You learn by that. You learn by knowing the right strategies.

When you play hard level - it teaches you my making mistakes and showing consequences of it. Didn't build defence? Get eliminated. Didn't prepare for diplomatic negotiations? Get wars by stronger civs. Tried to win wonders race? It will show you that that's impossible. By knowing what not to do and the consequences of that - you will figure the right and only way/

I think, that those variants should change it's other. Play on easy - bored - play on hard - bored - play on easy - bored - play on hard.

If you want the hardest level possible, I recommend you these links: may be interesting.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=147163
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146639

 

[GoldBerg]

...just this,
as 'food for thought'...:

some of my best (or most interesting) civ1 games
i ever did play
i'd play
when i didn't know
what may happen
or
how i should 'solve the problem'
or a 'dangerous' game constellation
within civ1...

...when i was an absolute civ1DOS beginner...
(in 1991)