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[EMT0]

I beat my first game just now. Carnival is the most OP thing ever. Stack Brazilwood camps with Sacred Path while beelining religion through other means = Brazil can shit culture and Great Musicians out like there's no tomorrow, and culture bomb everybody.

This expansion gets a sogood.gif/10 from me.

 

[Rentahamster]

Played as Morocco and was BALLIN' in BLING with all those trade networks. Had Eons of peaceful coexistence with Siam, Venice and Babylon. Was spreading the love of Catholicism when Siam (who had enveloped me on all sides not on a coast) decided that Buddhism was the one true faith and launched a massive assault that took some number of turns to grind down. I had superior terrain (he had to go over rivers and I had Crossbowmen/Cities all over the place to rain down upon him). Chewed him to pieces but my trade was absolutely crushed. Almost 200 gold a turn down to 50.

Fuck you Siam. I thought you were cool.

Somehow Ramalamawhateverhisnameis oftentimes turns out to be one of the hugest dicks in the world. Him and his stupid elephants and buying out all the city states.

 

[TriniTrin]

Short answer- you align with their interests and ask to be friends. And you cannot be friends with everyone, or even half the world.

Long answer - the best way to go about making long-lasting friendship with a Civilization is to share spy intrigue, denounce the civs they are denouncing, go to war with the civs they are warring with, adopt their ideologies, and don't compete with them for land or the favor of city states. Befriend the Civs they are friends with.

Many Civs also don't like a warmonger who gobbles up other civ's cities, so if you plan on a lot of conquest you might want to make friends with Civs who don't mind if you're a big bully. If you are in a situation where two of your neighbors are at each other's throats, don't try to play it neutral. Pick a side and clobber the other guy, and YOU take all of his land while your friend smiles and says "hey thanks for the help!".

You should try to focus on one or two Civs that you can invest in a long-term partnership with. If you spread yourself out too much you will be put in the situation of having to trash one friendship to keep another, and that's not where you want to be.

Nice thanks!! Can you spoof Spy info you give to people? I.E. Say someone is plotting against them when they actually arent plotting at all? I was in game and this neutral dude told me one of the friendly countries i knew was plotting against me. But this country is so nice to me and for many many turns! They are like giving me great deals on trades and asking for defensive pacts and such. Didnt make sense to me unless you can spoof it!

 

[Rentahamster]

Nice thanks!! Can you spoof Spy info you give to people? I.E. Say someone is plotting against them when they actually arent plotting at all? I was in game and this neutral dude told me one of the friendly countries i knew was plotting against me. But this country is so nice to me and for many many turns! They are like giving me great deals on trades and asking for defensive pacts and such. Didnt make sense to me unless you can spoof it!

Sometimes the AI changes its mind. They may plot a sneak attack, but then by the time they get to your borders, they realize that you've since beefed up your military and then just head back home. They might still be in deceptive mode, but can't do anything to harm you, so for all intents and purposes, they still appear friendly.

Most times if I sense that another civ is about to backstab me, I bribe another civ into declaring war with them.

 

[Earl_Grey]

Motherfuckin' Polynesians tried to ban my clams. They failed, thankfully. Considering war if they try that shit a second time.

The concept of the great Clam War cracks me up no end.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Somehow Ramalamawhateverhisnameis oftentimes turns out to be one of the hugest dicks in the world. Him and his stupid elephants and buying out all the city states.

Rhamamamkeng or w/e is easily the biggest asshat leader in the game. Ultimate backstabber and a huge nuisance. And when he's in a game and he doesn't do those things it's because his early game is 100% derp and he got eaten on t100 by Napoleon , Atilla, or Genghis. You know that "Unknown Player lost his capital!" message? It's probably this jerkface.

Can you spoof Spy info you give to people?

No, but the AI might plot war with no real intention to carry it out unless it can get another ally to join in.So the other Civ's spies might say "He's plotting war on you" but it won't actually usually ever happen. There is also the logistics of actually assembling the attack force and positioning it before the AI will declare on you, so that's another reason a Civ plotting against you hasn't actually attacked.

As a player, if you want to rack up intrigue diplo bonuses, you can move your spies frequently (usually every 5 turns on so). They report spy intrigue the turn after they arrive on the city they are travelling to, so once they report you can move them elsewhere to get a fresh set of intrigue information. Useful when trying to raise your standing to secure DOFs, but a very situational thing to do.

 

[LumpOfCole]

Portugal just tried to set an Embargo on the great Venice.

The great Venice will show its violent side today.

 

[Trigger]

I tried to place an embargo on Japan since they've been fucking with me for several hundred years.

It didn't pass and Shintoism has become the "World Religion".

I'm going to fuck them up so bad once I have a good army.

The concept of the great Clam War cracks me up no end.

SERIOUS BUSINESS!

 

[Incendiary]

Ugh I'm so tempted to get this, but if I pay for it straight up I'll be paying more for this expansion than I did for getting Civ V/G&K all together thanks to Steam sales. On the other hand, I've always been a culture Civ player and everything about the expansion seems to be up my wheelhouse and very fun.

Argh! Indecision!

 

[Esch]

If they have a religion AIs will usually spend their faith on prophets. If not, then I've seen them spend it on a variety of other things, but never another type of GP specifically.

GPP purchasing now requires completion of a tree in its entirety.It is very powerful still, especially for Great Scientists and Engineers.

I used Venetian great merchants and puppeted a city state that was religious and was able to faith buy with it. Pretty cool.

 

[kidko]

Ugh I'm so tempted to get this, but if I pay for it straight up I'll be paying more for this expansion than I did for getting Civ V/G&K all together thanks to Steam sales. On the other hand, I've always been a culture Civ player and everything about the expansion seems to be up my wheelhouse and very fun.

Argh! Indecision!

PM DunderHassan from the BST thread

 

[Fragamemnon]

Updated the Shoshone to 2.5/5 in the OP after playing with them for a game. I still find that they are lacking any real victory condition focus or benefit, but when you combine food trade routes , rush built aqueducts (more important than any other building for them IMO) and sufficient worker turns you can get some very nice cities up very quickly due to the slower rate that land is claimed in BNW by the AI.

Still though mounted non ranged cav unique unit, egad bad.

 

[Ryuukan]

I have to agree with the auto-culture management. I thought the espionage implementation was shitty in gods and kings, but wow, this is a whole new level of bad.

 

[ShaneB]

BNW has changed things up so much that everyone's opening gambits are somewhat in the toilet. I'll try to keep a strategy section in the OP posted with good guides as they come out.

Well I was even just looking for general Civ V guids, lol, not just BNW...

I actually really enjoy not knowing how to best play the game for once. I used to read the fan forums religiously, I'd watch hours and hours of deity play throughs, I'd keep up to date on the latest patch notes and strategies, and in the end it only made the game stale for me.

I'd learned 'the right way to play', and felt like if I ever tried anything different I was simply playing the game wrong. This meant every game was the same. The same policies, the same tech order, the same beliefs, same timing of it all. I think this time around I'm going to avoid all of that, maybe bump my difficulty down to emperor or king, and simply 'feel out' each and every game.

It's like they say, ignorance is bliss.

But also this... as mentioned here before, I love just playing Civ V and seeing my civ grow and expand and all that great stuff, I'm not so looking to be an expert in all this

 

[Vespene]

I actually like that now you can decide what type of victory to go for almost half-way through the game instead of the very start. Of course there are some plans you need to make from the outset, but now you can adjust to the unfolding landscape and switch from a science victory goal to a cultural one for example.

 

[GrandHarrier]

Somehow Ramalamawhateverhisnameis oftentimes turns out to be one of the hugest dicks in the world. Him and his stupid elephants and buying out all the city states.

I can confirm there was a metric ass-ton of elephants involved in his tomfoolery. He didn't have a chance with the City States in my game, though, my God and Trinkets had all those lesser civs in awe, and in my pocket.

 

[Sibylus]

War can really be Venice's achilles heel, you need to have a bank of soldiers or gold to not be seriously damaged when you lose a huge chunk of your trade networks (need to replace the caravans and cargo ships in a timely fashion).

 

[Rentahamster]

Hehe, one of the things I enjoy about playing Civ is how it colors my perceptions of actual history.

 

[SanguineShark]

I'm very interested in playing Civ V, should I start with the vanilla game or buy both and start with this?

I'm in the same boat. Guess I'll wait and see what they have for the steam sale. Never really played a Civ game before...at least not much.

 

[Ryuukan]

Hehe, one of the things I enjoy about playing Civ is how it colors my perceptions of actual history.

I like the tech tree anomalies, like having Gatling guns without gunpowder

 

[War Peaceman]

The concept of the great Clam War cracks me up no end.

Not really much more absurd than the Opium Wars... Probably more ethical wars too!

 

[Soler]

Does the expansion make spies less useless?

 

[A Serious Man]

Mid to late game is so much better now. This shit is going to dominate my summer.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Does the expansion make spies less useless?

Somewhat. You can make them delegates and have them sway (read buy) votes from other countries on resolutions in the World Congress.

 

[Myomoto]

I like the tech tree anomalies, like having Gatling guns without gunpowder

Or internet without computers.

 

[KingK]

So if I have a trade caravan going to another Civ, will declaring war on them automatically move my caravans back to my city, or would they be at risk of getting killed?

Playing as Morocco and I've got like 3 trade routes with Brazil but I'm considering going to war with them because we're the only two who started on this continent and they're getting a little more aggressive with their religion than I'd like (plus I"ve got a nice big army with nothing to do and no experience). I'm just worried that my 3 caravans will get killed if I declare war right now.

 

[Giard]

Just won my first game in BNW. Venice, cultural victory with freedom on prince difficulty.

What should I play next...

 

[Fragamemnon]

Man my science is now like molasses. So is the AI's as well-the per-city science nerf modifier really helps make the modern and information era less of a lightning fast event.

Hubble Space Telescope is still crazy OP. but given that Ed Beach himself worked on the actual telescope back in the day I don't think it'll get nerfed.

A few other things G&K vets know but that are still really strong in BNW:

- 2 points into aesthetics, then pledge to protect every city state on the map. 30 free fixed influence giving you perma-friends status w/ all city states w/ no other investment.Diplomatic hit is still not apparently significant if they get bullied and you warn them.
- The worker steal from an early city state is still effective and rarely has any consequences provided you don't steal from someone protected.
- National College is still the most important single thing you can build in the game.
- Education tech/universities and great scientists-and the population to support them-are essential for getting reasonable tech rates. Plastics to open up labs is definitely worth blowing Oxford on if you are angling for a science win.
- Naval assaults are powerful but holding cities without reinforcing ranged units and artillery after you take it with naval bombardment is hard.

 

[Rentahamster]

Man my science is now like molasses. So is the AI's as well-the per-city science nerf modifier really helps make the modern and information era less of a lightning fast event.

Hubble Space Telescope is still crazy OP. but given that Ed Beach himself worked on the actual telescope back in the day I don't think it'll get nerfed.

Holy shit he did? That's fucking awesome.

Hubble is pretty necessary to secure a science victory, indeed. In my last GK deity game I had to burn one of my saved up great scientists before I was ready to pop them all in order to rush one more tech, so that I could build Oxford, get Satellites, and then engineer rush the Hubble telescope, since Siam was about to build the telescope themselves, within the next 5 turns.

After that, it was all about bribing all the other civs in the world to war with Siam, and rebribing all the other city states with whatever money I had left to stave off a Siam diplomacy vote. I had to go through 3 sessions of voting where Siam had one less vote to get the diplomatic victory before I finally finished my spaceship.

Fuck you, elephant boy!

 

[Fragamemnon]

Honestly I think teching and building hubble is worth doing even if you are going for the other victory conditions. You can basically turbo bulb almost to The Internet or Globalization with the pile of beakers that the telescope scientists give AND you deny a critical wonder to the AI.

 

[TriniTrin]

I've never really played online civ much because I suspect everyone is just attacking and backstabbing everyone... is it pretty good? Also, do people usually play them in one sitting, cuz DAYUM!

 

[traveler]

Re:National College timing- when you guys usually hit yours? 1000 BC ish ok? Would you delay dropping a third city? What about a second?

Just got the Dark Horse achievement- just curious- have you guys ever seen the A.I. vote for anyone other than themselves for WC host? I threw all my votes to Russia after seeing each nation vote itself because they had also adopted Freedom and the World Ideology vote was coming up in a few turns.

 

[-tetsuo-]

I've never really played online civ much because I suspect everyone is just attacking and backstabbing everyone... is it pretty good? Also, do people usually play them in one sitting, cuz DAYUM!

I played with my friends a lot and we would just bully civs until the eventual desync error killed the game.

 

[Petrie]

Jeez, I used to be ok on Prince, but now I have no idea how to play early game anymore.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Re:National College timing- when you guys usually hit yours? 1000 BC ish ok? Would you delay dropping a third city? What about a second?

Depends on the number of cities I am building before I build the National College. With two cities, I aim for turn 60-70, three cities around turn 80-85, and four cities any time around turn 90 is fine. This is all at standard speed.

I've done two and a half BNW games and each one has had NC timings around 85 or so for three cities.

 

[Blackace]

Is it 39 or 29?

 

[Sibylus]

The concept of the great Clam War cracks me up no end.

Luckily for them, Montezuma showed up and started pissing the world off, so clam mandates have been (momentarily) forgotten in favor of trade embargoes against the Aztecs. I was already laying the groundwork for a cross-continental punitive expedition in my mind when those events changed history.

You get off lightly this day, Kamehameha. Don't fucking try it again.

 

[Trigger]

Jeez, I used to be ok on Prince, but now I have no idea how to play early game anymore.

Yeah, I've said it before, but shit is a lot more competitive this go around.

 

[TheContact]

Have you ever played Civilization before?

Not that I can remember. I very much like these types of games too

 

[-tetsuo-]

Is it 39 or 29?

Dollars? 29

 

[Blackace]

Dollars? 29

Ohhh

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

Anyone getting any crashes with BNW? I played a full game of G&K the week before BNW came out with zero crashes, and suddenly I am getting a crapload of crashes. Basically every other turn. No idea what is causing it.

 

[CoconutTank]

So... were there ever barbarian Knights in vanilla or G&K? They seem to be a new addition for BNW, or at least I've only started noticing them more often now. Brutes and Archers and Spearmen are fairly easy to deal with since they don't have enough movement points to move far in the same turn, but boy oh boy the barbarian Knights are very good at ruining my improvements and pissing me off.

 

[Sblargh]

I am thinking if, with the new culture victory, you even need to limit your number of cities. I am doing so well culturally speaking as shoshone even when I'm focusing the most I can on science (tho I have no tourism) that I think the cultural victory = small empire is completely over now.

 

[Petrie]

Yeah, I've said it before, but shit is a lot more competitive this go around.

Yeah, I have no fucking idea what to do early on. Guess I'm waiting a bit for guides to pop up.

 

[Trigger]

I am thinking if, with the new culture victory, you even need to limit your number of cities. I am doing so well culturally speaking as shoshone even when I'm focusing the most I can on science (tho I have no tourism) that I think the cultural victory = small empire is completely over now.

Not quite. With enough wonders and regular great artist generation a small empire can be quite competitive. I'm the second highest tourism output on the globe (first is the Dutch), and I've got one city compared to their six. I think I can surpass them if I can absorb another empire into mine.

 

[Sblargh]

Not quite. With enough wonders and regular great artist generation a small empire can be quite competitive. I'm the second highest tourism output on the globe (first is the Dutch), and I've got one city compared to their six. I think I can surpass them if I can absorb another empire into mine.

Yeah, I imagine you can still, but what I'm asking is: do you still need to? (maybe you didn't needed before, too, but that was my impression). Also, is a small empire still the best way to achieve a cultural victory?

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

So the game crashes for me any time I mouseover the trade route summar in the top left. At least I know what's causing it so I can avoid it.

 

[traveler]

Yeah, I imagine you can still, but what I'm asking is: do you still need to? (maybe you didn't needed before, too, but that was my impression). Also, is a small empire still the best way to achieve a cultural victory?

I've tried both expansion heavy openers and the more g and k standard small, tradition opener since the xpac and I'm still finding the tradition opener to be the stronger opening. I always feel like my science has to come before anything else, and whichever opening affords me the strongest beginning in science (and, to a lesser degree, production followed by gold) tends to be the best, regardless of victory. Again, that's really general, but it's where I'm at right now.

Either I've gotten substantially worse after taking a bit of a hiatus or the A.I. is upped. I'm having trouble overcoming Emperor right now and I used to clear Immortal regularly. King is beatable fairly easily though, so I feel like Emperor is where I should be. Quite the plateau though.

 

[kidko]

So the game crashes for me any time I mouseover the trade route summar in the top left. At least I know what's causing it so I can avoid it.

Totally guessing, but maybe update your video drivers? Sounds like it's erroring while trying to draw some UI