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[Ghost]

Most of my victories end up as conquests so I'm a fan of the Aztecs & the Germans.

Aztecs because they get a free heal after combat victory, which is massive all through the game but especially when you're taking out barbarians early on.

Germans because getting automatic Upgrades to Elite units is invaluable if you're constantly warring.

I was playing Saturday, was way behind in tech but had enough units to keep my cities well defended, Chinese declared war, swarmed over my borders with knights (I only had horsemen and pikemen to defend), built some spies to defend my fortification bonuses and basically turtled, hitting out with the cavalry when safe, about 5 turns later I had 4 or 5 elite horsemen armies, and elite pikemen in every city I was actively defending. Next turn I discovered feudalism, all my elite horsemen got upgraded to knights, so I started wiping out all attacking forces before they could get over my border, then I got gunpowder so all my pikemen got upgraded. Then I got a great leader person that meant I could build elite units straight out of my capital, so by the time I got to Combustion I had a ready made game winning army. Proceeded to trounce the rest of the world.

 

[Dyno]

I nuked for the first time in Civ:Rev. I nuked the Aztecs and it was glorious!

I was playing the Greeks on King and my early game thoughts of some quick expansion was utterly dashed when I discovered that my Aztec next-door neighbours were complete assholes. They were culturally "disgusting" but brimming with Legions so I turtled in with three cities and went for the cultural win.

They were always attacking, always probing, and twice even had settlers found a city right beside another city of mine in hopes of stealing some of my resources. These cities quickly became mine through culture and in fact became decent places that didn't steal much from their neighbours so that was a plan that backfired.

Towards the endgame my six cities (three settled, three converted) were all focused on culture first, then split between economy and science. This was enough to keep me on top in both fields and utterly dominating in culture. So I did the Manhattan Project and got the nuke.

I didn't even keep it for a round. The Aztecs, always demanding shit, always attacking my cities, where beyond being redeemed. I nuked the closest city, the main pipeline of their aggression, and turned a powerful city into a black scorch mark.

I was surprised and satisfied to see that it crippled their whole civilization. Their once overwhleming attacks became but a paltry shadow of their former selves. It was a great shift in the game because once the Aztec threat was reduced it was India who took it upon themselves to assault me mercilessly, followed by the Egypians at the 11th hour.

By then it was too late though. I built the U.N. (which in my mind is the most dubious of wonders, it being so ineffectual and heirarchy-based) and won the game.

Loving this version of Civ. It's nice to bang out an intense session and finish it in an evening rather than over a weekend.

 

[AlexMogil]

:lol :lol

So true. Its the one thing I absolutely loathe about Civ 4. No fucking way a group of pikeman with spears and a defense rating of 18 should be fending off my Tanks with an attack rating of 50-something. Thankfully, I haven't ran into too much of that so far in Civ Rev. The side that's supposed to win, usually does.

I have had entrenched archers take my fighter planes down to 1 health. Just happened last night. The only thing I can wrap my head around would be that a pilot crashed while falling asleep from boredom.

 

[oneHeero]

I've played 2 matches so far, time goes by ASAP when playing its awesome for killing time when gf getting ready or something.

Lost both my matches, once to tech victory and one to domination since turns ran out. My own allie the whole game won

This game is so fucken awesome.

Question, if you have all your cities do research instead of gold, does that accelerate w/e your research or does it not matter? Like if I pick Iron working and it says it'll take 6turns to finish with 1 city doing research/science, if I go and put 3 cities on research would it accelerate and reduce it to like 3-5 turns?

 

[Dyno]

I have had entrenched archers take my fighter planes down to 1 health. Just happened last night. the only think I can wrap my head around would be that a pilot crashed while falling asleep from boredom.

I bought the Civ:Rev Strategy Guide and within is a lengthy essay by Sid Meiers going over changes Firaxis made and why. I mention this because that's the source for what I'm about to tell you and everyone else who finds it unsatisfying for primative units to be stymied by modern units.

PC Civs attack and defend modiers are inheirently balanced in that there is an upper limit to the modifier's achievable based on the unit. That's how pikemen cannot takeout tanks. The same goes for city production numbers.

When building Civ:Rev they found that removing these balancing factors created some pretty big numbers when players are synergizing. Defending archers behind walls with a ship in the harbour may have a chance at holding off a mechanized unit for a while.

They decided to keep them for a few reasons. First of all - and this applies to the whole game - by finding a great many of these loopholes in playtesting and then ensuring that each civilization has a few of their own, overall balance is still maintained. Yes what happened to your Tanks and Fighters may feel unfair but you'll get your time to shine in another aspect or scenario of the game. Everyone gets the chance to 'break the rules' and this in itself is a balancing factor.

The second reason was that it allows civilizations going for the cultural, technological, or economic victory a chance to lay off building military units. They can't complete the game with archers but they may be able to skip a unit before upgrading. PC Civ games focused too heavily on military in Sid's mind and he wanted the other victories to get more time being played.

The third reason is that balancing - of all kinds - slows the game down towards the end. After much playtesting they found that when the numbers, be it military defence or gold development, started to grow exponentially then victory conditions could be reached in a short amount of time. A good game can now play within a few hours rather than dragging on and on if you want to see the end game.

In my mind this gives console Civ it's own personality while still feeling like Civ. It is by no means a replacement or even improvement to the PC version, it's a new envisioning of the core Civ concepts.

Last night I had city-defending Modern Infantry with a defence of 104. I was trading armies with a swarm of bomber units who had a defence of 108.

 

[fortunzfavor]

To whoever asked above, you can't get rid of a base by churning out settlers.

PC Civs attack and defend modiers are inheirently balanced in that there is an upper limit to the modifier's achievable based on the unit. That's how pikemen cannot takeout tanks.

I've seen spearmen take down my tanks in CivIII. Repeatedly. Judging from past civ forum outrage, I'm not the only one.

 

[Dyno]

I've seen spearmen take down my tanks in CivIII. Repeatedly. Judging from past civ forum outrage, I'm not the only one.

Yeah, still possible at the higher difficulty levels where there are battle modifiers against you across the board.

 

[fortunzfavor]

oic

 

[Adam Locked]

Alright I just finished my first win on Warlord using the Aztecs. I'm on the DS so I don't have the Civlopedia to answer these questions that I have:

- Is it a good strategy to add new settlers, and then directly put them into the city instead of creating a new one? How many cities should you try and start at the beginning?

- What is the purpose of learning science quickly? Does that help you learn new Technologies quicker than having no science?

- Is it a good strategy to simply surround the enemy's capital/city and not directly attack it? That's what I did on my last game, I never bothered attacking the capital because it was so insanely heavily guarded. I had one unit placed directly one tile outside of the capital and just fight the entire game... he had 30+ victories and yet by the end of the game he wasn't strong enough to be able to take the heavily guarded city. Is this pretty normal? I don't know what else I could've done... other than research all new weapons, but even then it was so heavily fortified that by the end of the game I used a Bomber on his city, and it still didn't destroy all the defenses. Is this normal?

- What are the conditions of making other cities join your nation by your Culture? I had a really good culture on my last game and was able to convert two cities, is there a certain point where you are able to do this, or do you just build up culture enough so that it randomly happens?

- When you build a new unit and it has the resources required in parenthesis... what does this mean exactly? How can I look on the screen and know how much resources each city is putting out?



... I think that's all my burning questions I have for now. Again, sorry for the n00b questions.

 

[Ghost]

Question, if you have all your cities do research instead of gold, does that accelerate w/e your research or does it not matter? Like if I pick Iron working and it says it'll take 6turns to finish with 1 city doing research/science, if I go and put 3 cities on research would it accelerate and reduce it to like 3-5 turns?

It's easier to understand if you think of each Technology as having a science requirement, just like buildings have a production requirement, say Iron Working costs 35 science, if all your cities combined create 7 science a turn, that's 5 turns. If you move a few workers around so your cities produce 10 science a turn you can get it in 4.

If you change cities to gold production, then they no longer produce any science, so getting to 35 will take longer (or not happen at all).


If you press Back (on 360) you can get to your Cities report which is the easiest way to see which cities are working well in terms of trade (science/gold) & production.

 

[Dyno]

For DS owners who are unfamiliar with the game the Strategy Guide (less than $20) is probably a good investment because it covers a lot of civilopedia things.

- Is it a good strategy to add new settlers, and then directly put them into the city instead of creating a new one? How many cities should you try and start at the beginning?

Building Settler unit decreases that cities population. Putting them back in returns them but you waste the Production it took to make them. As a rule settling Settlers in an already existing city is not as effective as striking out and making a whole new city. It's a good idea to escort Settlers with Archers (or better) and have them move at the slower pace. That way they're always protected and the Archers can immediately defend the city upon it being founded. This will speed your new city along because it won't have to waste as much (or any) time building defensive units and can concentrate on buildings that will improve its numbers.

The Strategy Guide suggests that at game beginning you save up 100 gold as quickly as possible because the gift for that economic milestone is a free Settler unit. You save gold early in the game by not spending it and exploring with a couple warrior units in hopes of finding barbarian villiages.

In most Civ. games having three or four cities that you settled yourself in the ancient/medievil era is a good solid base to carry you through the game. Of course if you dominate or culturally flip more cities, all the better.

- What is the purpose of learning science quickly? Does that help you learn new Technologies quicker than having no science?

Without science there is no technological discovery. That's why it's always good to build your cities next to water or deserts. Above all however balanced cities are best. Cities with good growth, production, and trade can be specialized into science or gold cities.

- Is it a good strategy to simply surround the enemy's capital/city and not directly attack it? That's what I did on my last game, I never bothered attacking the capital because it was so insanely heavily guarded. I had one unit placed directly one tile outside of the capital and just fight the entire game... he had 30+ victories and yet by the end of the game he wasn't strong enough to be able to take the heavily guarded city. Is this pretty normal? I don't know what else I could've done... other than research all new weapons, but even then it was so heavily fortified that by the end of the game I used a Bomber on his city, and it still didn't destroy all the defenses. Is this normal?

Every game is different and sometimes stranger strategies, like the one you employed might be effective given the difficulty level you are playing on and the civilization you are employing this tactic against. It's important to remember that flexibility is a key ingredient to an effective Civ player. Be sure to capitalize on the nuances of every new game.

- What are the conditions of making other cities join your nation by your Culture? I had a really good culture on my last game and was able to convert two cities, is there a certain point where you are able to do this, or do you just build up culture enough so that it randomly happens?

It's not random but involves a complex calculation that the computer doesn't let you see. What you can see is the influence your cities culture has on the map. In many cases high culture cities will have an influence that extends right up to the enemies city. This is good because you might be able to use squares for resource that the enemy city would like to use. If a city has walls you cannot 'flip' it with culture unless you have the Hollywood wonder.

In all cases producing cuture buildings and wonders both help you flip cities and prevent your cities from being flipped in turn. Every city should have some culture in it. Cultural victory games should have all the culture buidlings (temple, cathedral, courthouse with the Magna Carter wonder) in them.

- When you build a new unit and it has the resources required in parenthesis... what does this mean exactly? How can I look on the screen and know how much resources each city is putting out?

I'm not sure about the DS version but your cities states are at the top of the screen in the other versions. Apple - growth, Hammer - production, Happy Face - culture, Bars or Beaker - gold or science.

 

[platypotamus]

I played a game as the Zulu last night, and either they are awesomely powerful, I played awesomely well, or I got really lucky, because I pretty much destroyed everyone. I was ahead in every victory type. I hit the modern era before any civ hit industrial. This was on King, and right after getting decimated on King as the Mongols.

 

[Adam Locked]

Dyno - Thanks for your detailed reply!

After playing through another game this morning I feel like I am picking up on more and more nuances of the game everytime I play. One thing that I am still confused about, what determines the science/gold pickup from each tile? I found that when I moved settlers manually on certain tiles with the arrows, I would get a science increase, but not a gold. Then I would go back and set the city to "Gold focused" and I would somehow increase gold, with the settlers on the same squares as I had before.

So basically is it just best to leave each city to "balanced focus" early on, and then later focus them on a specific focus?

 

[Dyno]

Dyno - Thanks for your detailed reply!

After playing through another game this morning I feel like I am picking up on more and more nuances of the game everytime I play. One thing that I am still confused about, what determines the science/gold pickup from each tile? I found that when I moved settlers manually on certain tiles with the arrows, I would get a science increase, but not a gold. Then I would go back and set the city to "Gold focused" and I would somehow increase gold, with the settlers on the same squares as I had before.

So basically is it just best to leave each city to "balanced focus" early on, and then later focus them on a specific focus?

Science and gold both come from the trade tiles so when you are generating one you are not generating the other. In the PS360 versions that's the red circles that are ususally found on coatal waters and deserts. In each city you have the option to generate either science or gold, not usually both. When you are in the city menu there should be a button that makes the switch back and forth.

Balanced focus is usually just fine because the computer will always pick one production square, one food square, and one trade square. As your city grows you should keep an eye on worker management just to make sure its still good. In war it is sometimes good to switch to production (though personally I prefer to rush units with gold.)

I have found a few times you have to do custom because the city won't always pick a juicy spot with a special resource on it. In these rare cases you just pick the squares you want harvested.

 

[contaygious]

I'm loving this game, but I always end up being able to win in almost every category. I can't seem to ONLY win in 1. Since the maps are so small you are always competing over resources and land to build cities on which you need for every type of victory.

If you just decide to focus on culture for instance, you still need to defend yourself so you really need tech. Money is also needed to rush units. Since everyone seemst o attack you all the time no matter how much I trade with them I can't seem to have any friends and be peaceful which is fine, but explains again why you need to be good in tech to defend yourself.

Can someone help with specific strategies? It seem kind of odd that I am always a handful of turns away from every type of victory at the very end of the game and I want to try to push myself to win earlier, but since the culture and money is capped for each city there is not much left to do but take over other cities and at that point you might as well do domination.

 

[Dyno]

Good city building ensures a wealth of resources coming in so that no matter what victory you are going for, you will also be decent in one or two other things.

The map you get plays a big part in what victory would be the quickest. This however doesn't mean you need to start right away toward that victory. During the ancient and medievil areas I like to simply build the best league of cities I can that are adequate in a bit of everything.

Once the industrial era hits however a theme should arise out of what you've made. Look at your cities. Look at cuture and science, look at how many palaces (if any) you've captured. As soon as the industrial era hits you should begin your plan in earnest and work it hard through the next two eras.

A temple in every city is a good idea for cultural defense, but if a cultural win is what you want then they all need to become cathedrals ASAP. The culture building wonders must all be built, and spies must be sent into other cities in hopes of kidnapping great people.

Building either a libary OR a marketplace (not both) in every city is a good idea to keep science or gold coming in, but if a tech or economic win is what you want then the libraries must all become universities and the marketplaces must all become banks. Don't build either in both, it's a waste of resources. By the industrial era you should commit your cities to either science or gold if you haven't already.

For economic victory all of your cities should be earning gold but one or two. The reverse is true for a scientific victory. For a cultural victory I like to split them up the middle.

Domination victories require much conquering of cities early in the game. If you are in the middle of the Medievil era and you haven't taken a city, chances are a domination win is not for you in this game. It is probably the hardest things to accept however, to stop constantly warring with a harassing enemy and instead turtle inward.

Changing governments is also recommended once you're sure of what victory you're choosing. Monarchy for cultural, Democracy for science or economic, Communism or Fundamentalism for Domination. (Republic is great for the beginning of the game because building Settler units is less painful. Once most of the land is taken and you are occupied with other aspects of the game it might be best to change it because it's advantage is one you won't be exploiting.)

 

[Slacker]

Still haven't played a single online game, despite trying every night. Is it just me? Are other PS3 owners playing online? I get to the screen where it says it's waiting for other players, and then just sit there. I've tried changing ports, DMZ stuff, yadda yadda. Resistance and GTA IV let me play online just fine. What's up with this? >___<

 

[contaygious]

Thanks Dyno, I'll try that. You are right where you start on the map plays a big role since they are pretty small maps. I have won all victories on the first two levels and am now trying king, but I get killed lol. It seems I can't ever beta an archer army (24 defense!) even though I have loads of legions with veteran status and upgrades. No one can kill my legions when I just leave them around, but as soon as I try to attack a base I get massacred! I even tried using spies to tear down defensive structures, but still no go. I never had this much trouble against archers before on the earlier difficulties. Do I really need knights before I stand a chance? Kinda lame if that's the case as I don't want to wait until that far down the game to take a few cities.

Slacker there is a ps3 issue they are working on that screws matchmaking.

 

[Deku]

I just don;t think this game is going to popular online with the console crowd despite the game being fantastic for the home/portables.

I hope if they do a sequel that they put more resources into the singleplayer mode and not foucs so much on multiplay.

Civ works just fine as a single player game, in fact I prefer it.

 

[contaygious]

Finally won on king, it's not too tough and i even had yet again a tech/cultural/domination lock up but decided on domination. I just get pikmin quickly for defense and then knights and then riflemen, then bombers then it's a done deal that's all i need to do.

 

[Deku]

One thing I've noticed in this game. Various strategies are applicable especially on the builder side of things.

OCC (one city challenges) are no longer variants, but full on game design features.

I just won a quick game on Beta Centauri scenario on King doing an OCC with Greece just pumping out culture for GP (trying to get the Gilgamesh achievment)
The AI were so bogged down with the agressive barbs I didn't even have to worry about them. Had a single Modern Inf. stationed in my city.

Also found out City size caps at 31 pop

 

[ecnal]

As a rule settling Settlers in an already existing city is not as effective as striking out and making a whole new city.

this isn't always true. eg; the mega city strat.

 

[Deku]

this isn't always true. eg; the mega city strat.

how does mega city work? and I believe 1.1 fixed this.

 

[contaygious]

Domination victories require much conquering of cities early in the game. If you are in the middle of the Medievil era and you haven't taken a city, chances are a domination win is not for you in this game. It is probably the hardest things to accept however, to stop constantly warring with a harassing enemy and instead turtle inward.

This is not entirely true as with civ rev you only need to take out the capital of each civ so bombers will do the trick pretty easily and just drop in a rifleman to take the each of the 4 cities and you win. I have done this plenty of times in the modern era having had never taken another city before it.

 

[ecnal]

how does mega city work? and I believe 1.1 fixed this.

1.1 didn't fix anything according to 2K. it supposedly made it so the upcoming DLC would work correctly.

from the 2K forums:

hey guys,

this is a patch to support some of the upcoming content, including the gift with purchase stuff. a more intensive patch is in the works for game tweaks, etc. i'll let you know about that when it's ready!

mega city works well w/ romans (republic government allows settlers to only take up 1 pop instead of 2 & 1/2 cost for roads allows you to quickly pump settlers to your mega city). you basically find a spot for your mega city that has a lot of spaces for gold/science (start with gold). build 3-5 additional cities that you use to pump settlers into the mega city. build wonders/buildings that increase gold/science (which ever you're focusing on) in your mega city. if you focus on gold, you should easily dominate in the economic aspect, which allows you to rush units all the time, rush buildings, etc.

there are rumors that a future patch will nerf this strat. although, tbh, it's not very effective online vs human players IMO.

there are a number of in-depth posts that detail the specifics of the strat, just google it.

 

[bill0527]

I'd like to see them let me put my galleys/gallions/cruisers on auto-explore in a future patch. I don't see how this could be game-breaking at all and its one of those little things I miss from Civ 4 on the PC. Its really annoying having to move my ships 1-2 spaces over the whole map.

This is not entirely true as with civ rev you only need to take out the capital of each civ so bombers will do the trick pretty easily and just drop in a rifleman to take the each of the 4 cities and you win. I have done this plenty of times in the modern era having had never taken another city before it.

Its pretty much impossible to do that on the higher difficulty levels because so many civilizations stay right with you on the technology curve and they're likely to have bombers, tanks, and modern infantry themselves.

 

[contaygious]

Guess I will have to change my strategy up when I get to the next difficulty then. What is a good strategy then if you can't win with better tech? Trying to take out a city can take forever at the earlier stages of the game since there are only basically legions/knights to work with against archers/pikmin (who always win). I guess there's catapults, but man I hate those, they are way too slow and have no defense.

 

[Deku]

Guess I will have to change my strategy up when I get to the next difficulty then. What is a good strategy then if you can't win with better tech? Trying to take out a city can take forever at the earlier stages of the game since there are only basically legions/knights to work with against archers/pikmin (who always win). I guess there's catapults, but man I hate those, they are way too slow and have no defense.

As in Civ3 and 4, the AI will hold a reserve of troops. When war is declared they will attack you usually from the nearest contact point they have with you but also send ships to attack your coastal cities /land troops next to them (so be careful to leave troops both attk and defense in your core cities as a rapid response force).

What you'd do is let their armies attack you. Use this opportunity to level up your own attackers (tanks, knights, horses work very well as they can attack and retrat back into a weel fortified city) as well as ranged units (catapuls,cannons, artillery, bombers) enough to give several key units promotions. You might even earn a general or two.

Once your frontline units are sufficiently upgraded, the AI will likely be spent. You can attack. The bonuses in CivRev are massive. +50% for vet +50% with a general.
Also use terrain wisely. If an enemy city has a hill terrain next to them, move to that tile. Hills give your units 50% defensive bonus and 50% attack bonus.

If you're playing a purely builder game, you probably don't need to do too much. Just stay close to the AI technologically to have a reasonably advanced army and keep a few stacks of fast attackers around and you can defend pretty well. Fleets on your coasts will also help make your defense stronger on your border cities (with coast tiles)

 

[Dyno]

Guess I will have to change my strategy up when I get to the next difficulty then. What is a good strategy then if you can't win with better tech? Trying to take out a city can take forever at the earlier stages of the game since there are only basically legions/knights to work with against archers/pikmin (who always win). I guess there's catapults, but man I hate those, they are way too slow and have no defense.

Adapting to the situation presented to you is key in Civ. There are no strategies that are so iron-clad that they will work in all situations.

Last night I started a game (still on King) with the Aztecs. My warriors found the Chinese close by around the same time I had saved 100 gold and got my free Settler unit. I built my second city with the Settlers pretty close to Bejing with thoughts to harrass them.

The Chinese are a tech-heavy civilization. They beat me to Bronze Working, Pottery, and Masonry. The last one was bad to lose because just like that they got free walls around Bejing. I did however get Iron Working first and started pumping out Legion armies.

I parked a Galley in Bejings harbour and this provided me with intellegence, with the defensive numbers Bejing could muster. Fucking 18 with archers! The best my Barracks-built Legion armies could do was 12. I was not going to take Bejing easily.

What I did was park Legion armies on four spaces around Bejing in addition to Galleys on two of their three water spaces. I strangled that fucking city, giving them 1 Production and 2 Science only. I purposely left one land and one sea space open because the A.I. was attempting to get units through the gap and this allowed me to upgrade my units through easy battle. China also tried to get a Settler unit of their own through the gap and I caught it, giving me another nearby city. 20 Chinese rounds of production and all of it for me!

Things remained like that until the middle of the Medievil era when I was able to develop Mathmatics. I made two Catapult armies and roled them into defending Legion army squares. Oh then China started attacking like crazy and so did the Japanese (who China seemed to have an alliance with.) The Legion armies didn't let the Catapults come to harm. In one round I sent a Spy ring in to dismantle defenses, then the two Catapult armies hammered Bejing, then four Legion army attacks. The city fell.

I took China's second city two rounds later with the same army. I now have a total of seven cities with which to punish the nearby Egyptians and the Japanese.

What I learned from this game is that even if you have the winning strategy, you have to be patient sometimes for it to work. I thought five Legion armies would be enough at first and in a way they were. I just had to starve China out with them first.

 

[Adam Locked]

Just beat King today on my second overall try; in 4 hours. I got my best score of 18,308 and I thought I won the thing pretty handily.

I used the Americans and I started out with just two cities, then had three pretty early on. I pretty much used your strategy, my capital city I devoted to science, then my second city to gold, then my third city to pumping out settlers and moving them into my capital and secondary city. Then I just used my money to rush build everything that I needed. By like early 1900s I hadn't really fought with any other country, bribed them off and made peace or whatever. In 1950 I had the nuke, and I was making crazy money and tech. But I started screwing around and I wanted to use the Nuke, so I switched over from Democracy and nuked Paris just for the hell of it since they were in second place. But I could've just kept on going with science and money without using the Nuke and could've won earlier. Anyways, I won in 2054 when I built the space station and I had loads of money too. I ended up culture converting one other city, but basically I just had three cities the entire map doing everything for me.

I'm really sure I could've dominated victory, tech victory, or money victoried, but I went with tech since it seemed closer.

One thing about Culture though, is there really any way to raise it except for temples and such? You can't make your city "culture focused" can you? Because I got a point in the game where my culture just stopped improving after I had built all the buildings. I figured it was because I didn't hit certain culture Wonders and the other places got them first.

 

[contaygious]

Thanks guys, I find that I can easily stay ahead technology wise in king as most other civs have only a few cities and I have a bunch of well places ones. I will try the next difficulty up now.

 

[Deku]

Whoo boy, Emperor is challenging. The AI gets so many more units and builds much faster.

Isabella was on her own continent and did not make contact with me until very late in the game so she was pretty much cut off from the AI as well and on her own most of the game. She beat me to an economic victory by 1 turn!

 

[Adam Locked]

I won another game, again using Americans and got an Economic victory. This time I my score was 39,330 - more than double my last one!

I think I got this game down. There's a certain point in the game where you know you pretty much have it won... once you start getting about three cities kicking ass, and you start building those pike guys... you know you're untouchable. Again I probably could've won with any victory once you get rolling wiht lots of money and science. It was a good win because I was losing in culture, technology, and wonders for most of the game... then I starting rolling by the endgame.

Dam this game is too addicting. I might try the next difficulty level now or just use another culture in King.

Isabella was on her own continent and did not make contact with me until very late in the game so she was pretty much cut off from the AI as well and on her own most of the game. She beat me to an economic victory by 1 turn!

That sucks, I would be super freaking pissed.... actually I would just load up a save from earlier in the game and prevent it.

 

[Chris_C]

I downloaded the demo for this yesterday cus I was bored, it's pretty much the first civilisation building strategy title I've played since Populous (the eventual stress brought on by micromanagement in these types of games irks me usually).

I have to say it's a ton of fun, it's so friendly, inviting, and the interface is not daunting at all. I think I might just pick it up.

 

[Deku]

Oh the glory of Nukes!

Won my first Emperor game with it. I had a bad start. Slow gold gather slowed my first settler from popping. The Romans started to pull ahead and was 16/20 on cultural victory conditions. I was 11/20. Nowhere near and it would be very difficult to catch up.

I was lucky enough to have research the manhattan project and rushed built it with a great engineer and had a nuclear weapon. Most of Rome's wonders were in Rome, and a lot of great people too.

In a final bid to win the game, I sent over a Battleship feet loaded with my best units, included an unit with a general attach for 50% attk bonus. Parked the Battleship fleet outside Rome and nuked the city.

This reduced the city to size 1 or 2 and destroyed a lot of its defenders, including a warship off its coast. I took the city and the math became possible. It was 16/20 Japan , 9/20 Rome. The nuke, unfortunatelly, killed off all the great people in the city, so I had to make up the 4 missing cultural achievements by flipping a city, and stealing great people.

Also Battleship Fleets (3x Battleship combined into one unit) is godly. The AI navy will crumble to it. Build lots of these!

 

[Brashnir]

Also Battleship Fleets (3x Battleship combined into one unit) is godly. The AI navy will crumble to it. Build lots of these!

Yep. Battleship Fleets and Bomber Wings for the win.

 

[KTallguy]

Wow, this game is too easy on Warlord.
I forgot how they hand it to you in the beginning.

Although I have to admit, shooting archers with tanks is hilarious :lol

 

[ecnal]

so, according to a recent 2K post, the 1.10 patch changed things differently depending on your region.

in europe, 1.10 DID change the mega city strat (settlers don't add 1 pop once a city is past a certain population, they only add food production to the city).

in north america, the patch DIDN'T change anything, but the upcoming 1.20 patch will change settler population.

they still have no idea what's going on w/ PS3 multiplayer matchmaking :lol

 

[Chris_C]

What's this about PS3 matchmaking problems?

 

[Dyno]

Whoo boy, Emperor is challenging. The AI gets so many more units and builds much faster.

Isabella was on her own continent and did not make contact with me until very late in the game so she was pretty much cut off from the AI as well and on her own most of the game. She beat me to an economic victory by 1 turn!

Did you explore the map with a galley or two early in the game? The game rewards exploration in a few meaningful ways. The first is that you get to know where further off civilizations are. The second is that you can find more barbarian villiages, friendly or otherwise. The third is that there are artifacts that will seriously bump your game.

As a generic starting strategy I've used the following to good effect.

Warrior, Warrior, Galley, Warrior or Archer (depending on technology chosen)

The two warriors go off and explore the immediate area. The galley does more in this regard. The third Warrior or first Archer defends the town. At this point or closely thereafter I've earned/discovered 100 Gold and with the free Settler I move it to the best looking place I've found to make the second city. If I'm going aggressive at this point I will make barracks in both cities, buy them with gold, and start pumping out veteran units for attack and defense.

 

[Dyno]

Last night I completed two games on King. The first was with my wife, we started a game together and discussed our moves while passing the controller back and forth. We were Spanish and went for the economic win with four cities huddled close together.

Technology-wise other nations killed us throughout the game. Bombers and Cruisers were everywhere. Once we were close to the win everyone declared war on us. At the same time Russia offered us Mass Production in exchange for The Corporation. I've never seen the A.I. bequeath us such a gift! From Archers we upgraded to Modern Infantry! We made walls and bought them with all our money. Switched all cities to production and pumped out army after army of Infantry. Our cities held despite incredible pounding and we won.

Then I finished my King domination game (mentioned above) with this one I wound up taking every city on the map, leaving one of the capital cities for last. My main attack force at the end of the game was five tank armies, five cannon armies, ten rifleman armies, and 2 cruiser armies to ferry them around. I had cannon armies with 24 victories.
At the very end of my game I emptied out every city I had and placed the units throughout the board. When I took the final city you could see every unit I had doing the victory dance.

Wow this thread has become my Civ blog. I think I'll try to man up to Emperor now.

 

[ahoyle77]

Where do you find your overall score? Also, how do you know which civilization has which technology (other than seeing the results of it)?

I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on the game until I came here and was reading this and read that parking a galley outside a city provides intelligence? Maybe I need the strategy guide after all.

 

[Dyno]

I don't think you can get a list of what civ has what tech but if you call up the Diplomacy page (L1 on PS3) there is a quick summary beneath each ruler that tells you how many domination, economic, technological, and cultural milestones they have hit.

Also if you press Select there is that Who's Winning page and they compare how close each civ is to winning any of the four victories.

 

[Adam Locked]

Last night I completed two games on King. The first was with my wife, we started a game together and discussed our moves while passing the controller back and forth. We were Spanish and went for the economic win with four cities huddled close together.

Technology-wise other nations killed us throughout the game. Bombers and Cruisers were everywhere. Once we were close to the win everyone declared war on us. At the same time Russia offered us Mass Production in exchange for The Corporation. I've never seen the A.I. bequeath us such a gift! From Archers we upgraded to Modern Infantry! We made walls and bought them with all our money. Switched all cities to production and pumped out army after army of Infantry. Our cities held despite incredible pounding and we won.

Then I finished my King domination game (mentioned above) with this one I wound up taking every city on the map, leaving one of the capital cities for last. My main attack force at the end of the game was five tank armies, five cannon armies, ten rifleman armies, and 2 cruiser armies to ferry them around. I had cannon armies with 24 victories.
At the very end of my game I emptied out every city I had and placed the units throughout the board. When I took the final city you could see every unit I had doing the victory dance.

Wow this thread has become my Civ blog. I think I'll try to man up to Emperor now.

Thanks to your good tips I have been dominating on King now too! I think I'm ready to try Emperor as well.

I won again this morning on King, I think I'm ready to move up to the 4th difficulty level. I freaking dominated the game and had a Culture victory in 1900AD with the Romans. Then I reloaded the save and kept playing for a Domination victory, which I got around 1960s. I might reload that save and play for the Tech and Money victories as well. By 1890 I had the game well in hand to win however I want.

I think it's much easier to flip cities over using your culture than it is to attack them.

 

[Adam Locked]

Did you explore the map with a galley or two early in the game? The game rewards exploration in a few meaningful ways. The first is that you get to know where further off civilizations are. The second is that you can find more barbarian villiages, friendly or otherwise. The third is that there are artifacts that will seriously bump your game.

As a generic starting strategy I've used the following to good effect.

Warrior, Warrior, Galley, Warrior or Archer (depending on technology chosen)

I kind of do the same thing. Warrior, Warrior, Warrior, Galley, and then I start saving money for what needs to happens. If I'm getting invaded I break the bank and start building roads (I only build roads as soon as I need them) and then start building archers to defend the citites. But until the other Civs start attacking me I hold off on building more units and just save the money to use as it needs to be done.

Yeah and I always play for that 100 settler bonus and always get a Galley going to explore.

 

[ahoyle77]

I don't think you can get a list of what civ has what tech but if you call up the Diplomacy page (L1 on PS3) there is a quick summary beneath each ruler that tells you how many domination, economic, technological, and cultural milestones they have hit.

Also if you press Select there is that Who's Winning page and they compare how close each civ is to winning any of the four victories.

Thanks, I knew about those, it just sounded like people were able to tell who had exactly what and when...I just never seem to keep up with the competition that closely, until they start rolling out military my way. This game is tempting me to pickup a DS so I can play it at lunch!

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

One thing you can do to get some idea of who has what is look at the tech tree. Techs with a 1 next to them are techs that haven't been discovered by anyone yet. Also handy to let you know which techs you're likely to get the first civ to discover bonus from.

 

[ahoyle77]

One thing you can do to get some idea of who has what is look at the tech tree. Techs with a 1 next to them are techs that haven't been discovered by anyone yet. Also handy to let you know which techs you're likely to get the first civ to discover bonus from.

Sweet, I didn't know that. That will be a big help, as I hate thinking I am going to be first only to not get the bonus.

 

[ecnal]

What's this about PS3 matchmaking problems?

since the patch its been virtually impossible to play online via matchmaking (player or ranked). the only way to play online successfully atm is to invite your friends.

i played a couple matches before the patch and everything worked appropriately. however, since the patch, i've only been able to play 1 player match, and even that game took nearly 40 minutes to fill up. since that successful match i've been unable to play a single online matchmaking game of either type (player or ranked).

it's all pretty ridiculous. initially, they, 2K, claimed the patch changed absolutely nothing. now they say somehow the european patch accidentally included gameplay changes. so there's really no way of knowing what the patch did to north american users. :lol

PS3 matchmaking is SOL till the next patch pretty much :/

 

[Adam Locked]

One thing you can do to get some idea of who has what is look at the tech tree. Techs with a 1 next to them are techs that haven't been discovered by anyone yet. Also handy to let you know which techs you're likely to get the first civ to discover bonus from.

Is this true of the DS version, anyone know? I have never noticed this while playing.