Alright, so after a little discussion and no dates last Saturday night, I decided to give Civilization V another go. As the title suggests, Civ V is 4X game: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate", and the 5th entry in the franchise. Average gamer, average game, what could possibly go wrong?
Here are the starting game conditions:
Map: Continents
Size: Huge --> I'm Referring to the map of course
Random Civs, including me
Number of Civs: 15
Number of City States (cities which can help / hinder you, but can't expand and don't play to win): 24
Victory Conditions: the only one that counts of course - Domination (must capture all capitals). Much blood will be spilled this game
Resources: Standard
Barbarians: Raging - why else would you have them around?
Game Speed: Epic, which is slower than Normal mode. This is altered somewhat by a mod which increases unit production (but not research)
Mods I will be using:
Faster aircraft animation (seriously why the hell are they so damn slow)?
Scout to Explorer - to keep them relevant later in the game
3 Units per Tile - by far the most important mod. It prevents "carpet of doom" while still requiring you to think carefully about your stacks. Plus, the A.I. is generally more competent at warfare since it has less difficulties in maneuvering. This should have been an included option with the game. \
Pikeman to Musketman - For some strange reason the default route is Pikeman to Lancer. So the Pikeman decide to mount horses or something? I think this transition is more realistic.
Starting Worker - to speed things up a bit in the beginning and give me something to do besides hit "next turn" a million times.
Submarines ignore borders - for obvious reasons
No futuristic units - I'm not particularly interested in Giant Death Robots stampeding around the place in a game that is supposed to represent historical development. Plus, they are very unbalanced.
Units at half cost- One of the big problems in Civ V is that it has major balance issues with research and unit production. At the regular settings, research generally outstrips production, so you don't have time to actually do much with your units. At slower settings, while research is slower you have far fewer units to play. This helps address that issue given my speed setting.
Alright, so let's get started!
So, I am all prepared set out crushing the world beneath my feet. Who am I going to be? The Zulus, the Aztecs, the Romans, the Chinese, the Greeks? Eagerly anticipating playing as a warmongering civ, I click the start button to find out:
... oh, Fuck Me!
Seriously? Venice? In a domination game?? Have the computer gods conspired against me right from the start???
Pros: loads of cash via trade routes (provided you can use them), can use great merchants to take over city states
Cons: Cannot build settlers. Ever. Also, cannot annex other cities, which means I cannot control the production of any city besides my capital (though I can buy things in them)
For most victory conditions Venice is a powerhouse due to its strong economy. In this scenario I'm basically going to have to conquer the world with a single city while surrounded by aggressive neighbours and raging barbarians. Lovely.
Despite this handicap from the gods I nevertheless pledge to my people that all will one day bow before my mighty hat!
Let's take a look at our starting location:
Welcome to paradise. Hope you don't mind living in a desert with the scorching hot sun!
Actually, it's not too bad a starting location. There's a river, incense nearby some marble. And I start near the coast (critical for trade routes) Quite a bit of dessert though, which means I'm going to have to focus on Wonders / religions which increase their usefulness (especially because I can't build more cities).
Before building my city, I send my warrior and worker to explore the immediate surroundings. Any better starting locations?
Not really.
There's some fish further up the coast, but that would mean losing the benefits of being on the river. Time to whip those maggots into working and build my city!
Alas, all records of that historic day were lost over time (didn't help that I forgot to take a screenshot!) Will the humble founding of Venice one day take on the great trappings of legends such as the founding of Rome? Or will people simply remember that some guy with a big hat told them to settle down there or else?
Well, let's look at the tech tree:
Decided to go for pottery first. My people are going to need shrines to worship me. Oh, and granaries so that they don't starve to death.
Soon, my warriors found some ancient ruins (or maybe the ruins of the last city I tried to run, hard to tell). I wonder what secrets my warriors will find when they explore the ruins?
65 bucks? Those cheap bastards!
While getting gold is always nice, it doesn't usually amount to all that much. Units and buildings in Civ V are pretty expensive.
Meanwhile, Venice produced a scout:
And I decided to name him Betty. Go forth Betty, and explore the world! Spread the word to everyone in sight that the hordes of Venice will one day be upon them!
My warrior discovered a barbarian encampment pretty close to my city and guarding some ruins:
Oh great.
With raging barbarians, the camp is likely to spawn another unit before I get the chance to kill the one guarding it. I decide to make a run for the ruins, hoping that they might contain some equipment to help me beat the barbarians. Will my warrior make it, or will the barbarians stop it?
Using the clever strategy of "walk around the camp in plain sight" my warrior was able to avoid conflict and secure the ruins.
The ruins contained an ancient map of the area, revealing another set of ruins and Rome in the distance. Great. So the Civ closest to me has 2 powerful early game units and the desire to use them. Better start building more warriors.
Meanwhile, Betty encountered my first conquest Bratislava.
Little do they know that this chance meeting has sealed their fate, and that one day they will all be mine!
And speaking of first contact...
Hello, your Royal Highness! You may think you have the advantage with your golden hat, but is it as comfortable as mine??? Also, how much would it cost to buy that big candy cane off you?
However, now was not the time for discussions (especially because at this point in the game you can't really do much with the A.I,) so I sent the envoys on their way.
My warrior approached another set of ruins:
So, a pile of ruins still manages to produce more culture my civilization has over the first couple hundred years of its existence. Go figure.
Seriously though, receiving 30 culture points at this point of the game is a big bonus as it basically gives me a free social policy:
But where is the option for building my throne of human skulls???
Unlike the previous games, in Civ V you have various policy trees that you can gradually develop. In this case I chose tradition, which is widely considered to be the most powerful policy to start with. I wasn't actually planning on using this policy from the outset, and I was thinking about using the honour tree to get gold/culture from killing off hordes of barbarians. However, as I started with Venice and tradition focuses on building up the player's capital, it seemed like the obvious choice.
I decided to make my warrior head back towards my capital and it encountered yet another pile of ruins. There must have been one hell of an apocalypse before the game started:
Note the barbarian warrior on the left. The bastards are already spawning
What did my warrior discover this time?
I guess the apocalypse wasn't as thorough as I thought.
Around the same time, Betty ran into this guy:
Erm... ok, that's an interesting way to start off a conversation.
Seriously, the dude's crazy. What you didn't see in this screenshot is that right off the bat he actually threw his chalice at me. Did I miss something?
EDIT: Turns out that according to the Bible, God decided to punish Nebuchadnezzar for his pride by making him lose his sanity and live in the wild like an animal for seven years. Good to know that in addition to being set to more aggressive and crazy than normal my next-door neighbour is also historically bat-shit insane.
After backing away slowly from Nebuchadnezzar then running away like the coward I am, I decided to send my starting warrior and one I just produced to deal with the barbarian camp before it became a real nuisance:
Right as I was about to take the camp, a new barbarian warrior popped up:
Surprise, motherfucker!
Fortunately after a couple of turns of battle my warriors were able to slaughter both of them. During the battle, both of my warriors gained enough experience to be promoted, which allows me to give them extra skills and abilities (or heal them instantly if they are close to dying).
Not shown: my men tearing the camp apart for several hours to recover a grand total of... $27
The Romans finally made contact:
Seeing as you have 2 of the most powerful early-game units, I think I'll check myself off as "ally" for now.
I also decided to "pledge to protect" Bratislava for a 5-point bonus to our relations:
Believe me, when I decide to revoke your protection, you'll know it
Added to my social policy tree:
Betty continued to explore the surrounding terrain:
Will Betty survive being attacked by two barbarian hordes?
'tis only a flesh wound.
During this time he also ran into three more civilizations:
Uh-Oh
To tally up my "neighbours" so far I have: A wonder-hog, 4 war-mongers and a batshit-insane gardener.
Though apparently Attila has a soft spot for Cape Town and decided to trade with them. I guess he likes the view?
As tempting as it was to plunder the trade route and start a war for the lolz, Attila has some units which are very good at taking cities. So Betty carried on.
A quick look at Venice:
And the tech-tree:
I went for Calendar first as there was plenty of incense to build plantations on. I am currently researching Archery as more barbarians will inevitably appear and it's easier to pick them off from a distance.
Around this time Ramesses yielded to my hat's superiority and asked for a declaration of friendship:
Admit it, you're just jealous.
I honestly don't really know what the point of declarations of friendships are, as my "friends" in Civ V have never had any problems stabbing me in the back.
Apparently someone had too much time on his/her hand and surveyed the world food-stock:
After hundreds of years of toil and hardship, 3 of my people are being now being fed properly. Namely me and my two favourite concubines. Progress!
For some strange reason, the Assyrians did not seem very happy having Attila the Hun as their neighbour...
ummmmm... pass.
Betty continued to run away from barbarians, and discovered Assyrian territory:
So we have two of the biggest war-mongers in the game within spitting distance of each-other. This promises to be interesting!
I soon received an envoy from the Fiendish Dr. Wu:
Another Social Policy is reached:
Venice has to deal with some pirates:
While Eqypt deals with some barbarians:
Note the shield icon on the unit in the Barbarian camp on the left, which means that there is more than one military unit on that tile (due to the mod).
Betty continued to run into problems:
HELP!
The next two turns were momentous occasions for my people, as they ran into the Santa Claus's Kingdom the great nation of Poland...
Ho Ho Ho!
as well as one of the great natural wonders of the world
Too bad it's pretty far from my territory... and that I can't build cities
It's now turn 50, let's take a look at the map:
The lands to the north-east:
The lands to the southwest:
haha, Poland lost a worker! Unlucky bastards! And my warrior is near another set of ruins!
The lands to the north-West:
I am pleased to discover that Betty is still alive, though he's not particularly healthy atm.
Summary of first 50 turns
IMO so far the start of the game has been fairly typical, with exploration, goody-hut ruin popping, meeting new civs, and encountering barbarians. Being Venice, my start is somewhat slower than most as I can't build new cities.
While I could have played an aggressive start and probably attacked someone, there wouldn't have been very much to gain. I cannot directly control cities I conquer, and at this stage I don't have the money to use extra cities to but units. Also, I'm having to deal with several aggressive civs with powerful early-game units, and there's a good chance that if I attacked one civ right now another might take advantage and declare war on me. Plus, wiping out a civ or two this early in the game wouldn't be that much fun.
As I carry on, I'll probably be posting fewer screen-shots per turn, but I wanted to take quite a few at the beginning so that people who haven't played the game yet can get the flavour for it.
What do you guys think so far?
