Man, is it fun when strategies click in a game
 

Civ IV story

Dominating my continent was rather simple. It was me and the Incans, and they never stood much of a chance. They're now reduced to a one-city client state.

But the war with them took time and effort, and I fell behind in the research race. More importantly, by the time my caravels found the rest of the civs, it was clear I was lagging in many areas (although 2nd on the scoreboard). So I bent my efforts to catching up, with the goal of being ready to rock somebody's world when galleons and frigates came eventually online.

Well, that time is now. Continent #2 has two friends (Malinese and English) and two pissy rivals (Japanese and big, bad #1 Saladin), so I am content to pump up England in their fight with the Arabs. But continent #3 is perfectly suited to my needs. Cyrus is a weakling pal of mine, but Montezuma and his Aztecs were hostile to us from the start. They are ripe for the picking, made even moreso by the open peninsula they have left on their coast, outside their cultural boundary. It has pigs and fish readily on-hand. Well, my little Aztec buddies, some bacon-munching salmon-eating settlers are heading your way as we speak, along with a worker and a grenadier. That's the first wave to hit the beach. The next galleon will carry nothing but military might. And frigates will be on hand to defend the transports. Mwahahaha! :D

Yer such a maniacal little emporer ;)

Good Luck!

Good stuff. :)

I had a few of those moments with SMAC. I once got Miriam to use a planet buster on an advance force (OK, a big advance force) of mind worms I had put out there expressly for that purpose (the purpose of provoking her). Her plaintive communications when my heavy troops showed up a few turns later were funny. :)

It's ALWAYS satisfying killing Miriam in SMAC. :)

It's gonna be extra tasty because Montezuma just demanded that we stop trading with the English. Uh, no. Go choke on a chalupa, Big Guy. Nice head-dress. Heh.

My conundrum with SMAC was always whether to eliminate her early, or save her for later.

I still love laughing maniacally at all her cutscene voice-overs from the more technologically evil secret projects.

Fear the University of Planet.

I wish my laptop was cool enough to play Civ 4. :(

Me too. I've actually considered buying a desktop just to play the damn thing. Brand new laptop apparently didn't have a compatable video card - though this thread has inspired me to actually try the demo anyway.

Might be worth a shot - my laptop scrapes the bottom of the specs, and it works, especially with the latest patch.

My desktop is actually below spec on the vid card, and can play.

Wow, I really need to fire up AC again.

(or actually buy Civ IV sometime)

Buy Civ IV - it's really a great game.

Yeah, I will need to. My time on CoH has been flagging, and I probably won't get into OOTP2006 too big-time. Plus, I've always loved the Civ series.

yeah, it is. i need to get you into a pbem game.

Or a pitboss game... those are kickass..

I'd rather blow up your tanks in Combat Mission, ya wuss. :D

What's SMAC?

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

It was the quasi-sequel to Civ2... you built your spaceship, and went to Alpha Centauri.

The game had a lot of depth, and is widely considered one of the best in the whole Civilization series.

SMAC rocks.

I could never get past the icky color scheme in SMAC. I know I missed out on what many consider a classic, but there it is.

is Civ IV have the same isometric quality? is it easier to play with a keypad involved? like civ1-3 were.

Here's a thought, what about an FOFC Combat Mission Ladder?

Seriously ? I thought it was the best game in the series - by far. In fact, its probably my favorite game of all time - up there with Civ 2, KOTOR, and the original Monkey Island.

SMAC is so much fun!

Even the story is good. I almost prefer playing it over Civ 4 still.

Yeah, you can move units with your keypad. If you liked any of the civs, Civ4 is well worth the money.

The problem I had with SMAC was two-fold. I felt no attachment to units because you were constantly upgrading tech to add different things to them. I never had the "Great! I just got tanks!" feeling that I got from Civ. Yes, SMAC was probably more realistic, but I hated micromanaging what I built.

I was never able to look at a land tile and determine exactly what the tile would produce. Again, an advantage for Civ because I could look at a city and figure out what its rough production level was.

The tech tree was a monster for SMAC. I got Planetart Empathy, what the hell does that mean? I can sympathize with those mind worms as they try to fry my brain? Again, I prefer the Civ tree. I know that getting Iron is a big deal. I know that mass production is a big deal. Heck, I even love the Gal Civ 2 tree more than the SMAC one, because I have an idea of what the techs are.

There were some good parts to SMAC, but even there, the government/civ type was an improvement, but I never felt like fiddling with the settings I preferred. At least in Civ, there were reasons to be a certain government type.

Sounds fun. Is the game still available for purchase?

I'm up for anything that brings PBEM Combat Mission I/II/III opportunities. :cool:

I love Civ4 stories! (Could've done without the SMAC nonsense though.)