Civ V

[Greentitch]

So anyone else playing it?

There are things I like and things I don't compared to Civ 4 but it's a learning curve for the new mechanics. The lack of dice rolls on combat is nice and the one unit per tile rule adds a lot more strategy (as opposed to the Stack of Doom).

My main gripe is that the AI seems pretty stupid and that was one of the things they said that they improved. I'd recommend not bothering with difficulty levels below Prince even if you never played previous Civ games at the higher difficulty levels.

[Septih]

Dunno why I bothered paying for it. I won't get £30s-worth out of it. It's alright and my main gripes are about the UI (especially the start up process) rather than the gameplay.

[Roper]

I've only played through it once up to now, and have rather mixed feelings. I guess the fact that I havent rushed to play it again is telling, though I did play it on far to easy a difficulty level so must try it on a harder level to really give it a chance.

I like the hexes and the non stacking, I also like the more realistic combat, so that my tanks no longer loose to defending pikemen or whatever. I think I like the city states though not really sure yet. Not sure about AI, I've read complaints though it probably didnt have such an effect on the game I played at easyish level. The final annoyance is that although I've not played a Civ game for a long time it does seem like they've dumbed some of it down unnecessarily.

Oh the other problem is it runs like a bit of a dog on my PC, but thats 3 years old so its probably upgrade time soon anyway.

Doesnt really seem worthy of all the rave reviews it was picking up before I bought it.

[Quadrantid]

I'm debating getting it -- will likely do so once my box arrives in Aus (about 3 weeks to go and counting!). That said, it seems to be getting really mixed reviews - people saying they've dumbed it down too much, etc.. So it's really interesting to hear what people think of it Most of the real hate seems to be being aimed at Steam, but I already have that, so it won't be a problem

If I do get it, I just hope my old tactic of doom works

[Commando]

If I do get it, I just hope my old tactic of doom works

By "tactic of doom" you mean expanding to the four corners of the world as fast as possible and then getting steamrolled by the first faction to invent catapults?

[Quadrantid]

If I do get it, I just hope my old tactic of doom works

By "tactic of doom" you mean expanding to the four corners of the world as fast as possible and then getting steamrolled by the first faction to invent catapults?

Pretty much Though I used to hold them off with the free units I got from the tribal villages

Gonna be nice to see spearmen start losing against tanks for once, too...

[Greentitch]

Because of the way happiness works and the distance you need between cities to make them effective (plus there being city states in the way) you run out of space after 4 or 5 cities on most maps it seems. However Jonti, you'll be happy to hear that you don't need a unit in each city to defend it any more. Cities have built in defence meaning a passing warrior can't just wander in and loot it.

I played my first serious attempt at a cultural victory (King difficulty) last night. It's possibly the most fun game I've had so far with Civ V. I've only got two cities because the more cities you have the harder a cultural victory is (due to the scaling on civic policies works). I've got two crazy ass civs on my island who are now intent on destroying me before I win. Actually getting to defend in a Civ game is quite fun and the 1 unit per tile combat really works well. Choosing which units to attack each turn with my cavalry leaving enough time to retreat from a counter attack is a real puzzle.

The thing I like so far is that whatever victory type you go for, you have to play all elements of the game (diplomacy, culture, technology and combat).

[Quadrantid]

Because of the way happiness works and the distance you need between cities to make them effective (plus there being city states in the way) you run out of space after 4 or 5 cities on most maps it seems. However Jonti, you'll be happy to hear that you don't need a unit in each city to defend it any more. Cities have built in defence meaning a passing warrior can't just wander in and loot it.

I played my first serious attempt at a cultural victory (King difficulty) last night. It's possibly the most fun game I've had so far with Civ V. I've only got two cities because the more cities you have the harder a cultural victory is (due to the scaling on civic policies works). I've got two crazy ass civs on my island who are now intent on destroying me before I win. Actually getting to defend in a Civ game is quite fun and the 1 unit per tile combat really works well. Choosing which units to attack each turn with my cavalry leaving enough time to retreat from a counter attack is a real puzzle.

The thing I like so far is that whatever victory type you go for, you have to play all elements of the game (diplomacy, culture, technology and combat).

Am quite enjoying it so far, having finally decided to splash out.

Sadly, though, I keep defaulting to "must get culture mode", to get new policies, so no matter what I reckon I'll go for at the start, that's me default one.

That said, my current game is fun... I decided to see how silly I could get my "expand and conquer" trick with settlers of DOOM!

All is going well, but I just built the Taj Mahal, to get more golden age goodness. Wasn't in one to begin with. Now I've got one that's going to last 49 turns.

Which is bizarre. Nice, but bizarre...

Anyone else had anything quite as weird?

[Greentitch]

That sounds very broken...

What difficulty are you on? If it's below prince then it's probably not worth playing. The AI is a lot easier than in previous games.

[Roper]

I've just started playing again over the last few days and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

I think my initial problem was I played it on a low difficulty to get used to the game, found it no challenge and got bored. I kept meaning to have another play but took me ages to get around to it, but glad I did.

I've only gone up to Prince as I tend to suck at these things, but that seems like a fairly decent challenge for me.

That does sound like a crazy long golden age, I cant remember them being that long when I tried it on easy but I guess it was a few weeks back so its possible.

Only weird thing I'm experiencing at the moment is that Ghandi has turned into some crazy aggresive dude! Oh also, why do leaders always turn down pacts and shit that I ask them for, and then ask me for exactly the same deal the next turn....

[Quadrantid]

That sounds very broken...

What difficulty are you on? If it's below prince then it's probably not worth playing. The AI is a lot easier than in previous games.

I'm doing the same as Ropey -- playing at lowish difficulty to get used to the new things in the game... think I'm on the third or fourth easiest level -- but can't quite remember (at work at the moment!).

Have found a few teeny little bugs so far -- possibly the most annoying one being units that move into to cities and then just sit there, not telling you they're there until you notice from looking at your empire some turns later. That isn't me garrisoning them -- just they were moving around and happen to be at the city at the end of a turn, and decide they like it there.

Got attacked during my epic golden age last night... which was funny -- had open borders with china, and noticed them moving about 8 units through my territory, in a block. So I started saving money, waiting for the war declaration. The units just wandered around a small area, almost in a loop, for about 20 turns, then attacked -- by which point I had enough money to buy 8 cavalry, and wipe them out, then plough into their territory. 10 turns or so later, I got an offer of a peace agreement with all China's resources, 190 gold per turn, and the full balance of their treasury.

All of which means: A) I'm playing at too low a level, B) you're right, the AI is far easier on this, and C) I should really have built an army earlier and been more aggressive...

[Quadrantid]

That sounds very broken...

What difficulty are you on? If it's below prince then it's probably not worth playing. The AI is a lot easier than in previous games.

I'm doing the same as Ropey -- playing at lowish difficulty to get used to the new things in the game... think I'm on the third or fourth easiest level -- but can't quite remember (at work at the moment!).

Have found a few teeny little bugs so far -- possibly the most annoying one being units that move into to cities and then just sit there, not telling you they're there until you notice from looking at your empire some turns later. That isn't me garrisoning them -- just they were moving around and happen to be at the city at the end of a turn, and decide they like it there.

Got attacked during my epic golden age last night... which was funny -- had open borders with china, and noticed them moving about 8 units through my territory, in a block. So I started saving money, waiting for the war declaration. The units just wandered around a small area, almost in a loop, for about 20 turns, then attacked -- by which point I had enough money to buy 8 cavalry, and wipe them out, then plough into their territory. 10 turns or so later, I got an offer of a peace agreement with all China's resources, 190 gold per turn, and the full balance of their treasury.

All of which means: A) I'm playing at too low a level, B) you're right, the AI is far easier on this, and C) I should really have built an army earlier and been more aggressive...