Alright boyz, here we go!!! Civ 5 first impressions & tips thread!

[Jughead Spock]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OK, I'm pissed. I'm on vacation and can't access CivV because I can't connect to Steam (I don't know why - might be some sort of firewall issue or something), Anyway, I thought I didn't need Steam or to be online to play the game after the first time I fired it up? WTF! This pisses me off to no end.

Try disabling/unplugging your network card. It will probably be fine with letting you play offline if you have no network connection at all, I imagine.

[Ben E Lou]

That's really odd, KSyrup. I installed it on a laptop and was able to play just fine on an airplane without any available internet connection.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OK, I'm pissed. I'm on vacation and can't access CivV because I can't connect to Steam (I don't know why - might be some sort of firewall issue or something), Anyway, I thought I didn't need Steam or to be online to play the game after the first time I fired it up? WTF! This pisses me off to no end.

Turn on Steam and use the Go Offline function.

IIRC, Steam should still be active, just in Offline Mode.

[Ksyrup]

I can't get on Steam to change it to offline mode.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I can't get on Steam to change it to offline mode.

If you don't have an internet connection, running Steam should trigger the "Go Offline" option.

What happens when you try running Steam?

[Ksyrup]

It gives me an error about not being able to connect.

[Ksyrup]

I have an internet connection, so I don't know what the problem is.

[Passacaglia]

Maybe try turning off your internet connection?

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I have an internet connection, so I don't know what the problem is.

Must be the firewall wherever you are connected.

You need to be disconnected from the internet in order to trigger the Go Offline option when starting Steam.

Try disabling your Network Card Connection via Networking in your Control Panel.

Then try Steam again.

[Ben E Lou]

Now all of this has got me mildly curious. Did I just get lucky to be able to play on the plane with no issues? I mean, I didn't toggle modes or do any other fancy-dancy stuff. I just hit the little Civ5 icon on my desktop, and the game loaded up.

[Butter]

You were auto-hooked up to the plane's pay-per-hour WiFi. Expect a large bill any day now.

[Honolulu_Blue]

It's odd. Last night I ran into the same problem Ksyrup is having with Steam. For the first time, I was unable to start Steam in an off-line mode. I was connected to the internet at my house and every time I tried to launch Steam, it would try to connect and then give me an error message saying it couldn't connect and to check my internet connection or go to the Steamworks page.

I re-booted, same thing. No option at all to work in the off-line mode.

I managed to fix this by going to www.steampowered.com and logging into the webiste with my user name and password. As soon as I logged in, my Steam fired right up and I was connected and had full access to all of my stuff.

I have no idea why this happened, but it worked.

In the past, I have always been given an option to start in "off-line mode" if Steam couldn't connect to the internet. Not sure why I didn't have that option this time around.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Now all of this has got me mildly curious. Did I just get lucky to be able to play on the plane with no issues? I mean, I didn't toggle modes or do any other fancy-dancy stuff. I just hit the little Civ5 icon on my desktop, and the game loaded up.

Unlike most of my Steam games, I don't have a desktop Icon for Civ V. I was never given the option the make one during the installation process or I would have. I think the reason is because I pre-loaded the game and then installed it, as opposed to just installing without a pre-load. I had issues with "Left 4 Dead 2" when I pre-loaded it. I am done doing that.

Any idea how to make a Desktop icon now?

[Ben E Lou]

Oh wait. Now that I think about it, the DVD was/is still in there. That may have made a difference.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Any idea how to make a Desktop icon now?

Go to your Steam games library, right click on the game, select create desktop shortcut. Is that what you were asking?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Go to your Steam games library, right click on the game, select create desktop shortcut. Is that what you were asking?

Yes. Thanks!

[spleen1015]

I was able to play on my laptop while on a plane last Tuesday afternoon. I haven't tried since, but I didn't have any issues last week.

[Buccaneer]

Sigh, I had predicted stuff like this. I hope you guys get the Steam problems resolved. It is inconceivable to me that a third-party product could prevent you from playing a single-player game.

[Alan T]

Hope you guys work out your steam issues. I'm not a fan of steam myself, but luckily haven't had any further problems with steam since the whole issue I had at the civ V launch when I needed to change the steam server I connected to.


As far as the game goes, I just realized how easy it is to "steal" a diplomatic victory in the right condition. On my recent game, playing on King level, I took over my continent that contained 4 civs as the Americans. The other continent was completely dominated by the Persians with only 3 civs on it. I don't know how the Persians did it, but they hit future era in the 1800s (right when i got to modern era). They had 12,000 gold and gaining 550 gold per turn. I had a pretty solid setup, but nothing to compare to that.

I had more people, production and land then them but they were so far ahead in technology and finances that I ruled out the ability to beat them in a space victory or even domination victory. (I probably could do domination victory if I focused on military techs and a pinpoint strike on their capital but am actually tired of domination victories). I was too large to get a culture victory. Even though I was about 100 points behind them, I didn't think I would be able to catch up to their score for a time victory, even if I held out that long from all other victory conditions, which was unlikely.

So that left diplomatic victory as my best option. This was one of the first times they didn't kill off all of the city states. In fact, 15 city states were around (perhaps that is the full number we started with even). I had 6 in my control, he had 5 in his. 9 were needed for diplomatic victory plus the United nations. I bee-lined for Globalization, but just as I teched it, Persia actually finished building the United Nations. Since he had over 10,000 gold, I was pretty scared of what would happen next. 9 turns passed though, and I concentrated on saving up my money. I had about 3800 gold saved, and 1 turn before the first UN election, I poached 3 of Persia's city states to get my total of 9 and then hit next turn.

That led to the Diplomatic victory for me by the skin of my teeth.

The question I have to ask is , with that much money why didn't Persia bury the city states in money so I couldn't poach them. I guess a limitation of the AI. That is three straight wins at King level though. I'm debating moving up another level or not. I actually started looking at the achievements, and am finding those kind of neat. I am 38/120 right now, and might try to see how many of them I can knock out while on King level

[Buccaneer]

AlanT, that was an amazing win, congrats. I would be shatting bricks during those 9 turns (as the AI can bribe CS but not too wisely, apparently).

but am actually tired of domination victories

You too, huh?

In my game, I got a clear shot at China's capital via embarking (imagine me in Tallahassee and the cap is Tampa). But I want to try out something and will send most of my forces overland.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Sigh, I had predicted stuff like this. I hope you guys get the Steam problems resolved. It is inconceivable to me that a third-party product could prevent you from playing a single-player game.

Yep. The primary reason I still haven't bought the game.

[spleen1015]

I know for me, I don't believe I'll be in situations where I need to play the game without having an internet connection. So, I don't have this to worry about too much.

Even if I did, I don't think I would let this sort of thing prevent me from buying it. I'll still get to enjoy the game, just not as much as I want if you run into this situation often.

[Ben E Lou]

For me, I guess it doesn't really matter. I play a few text sims, and the latest version of Civ. That's it. The DVD is in my drive right now, and there's a fair chance it stays there until the first expansion pack comes out.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

For me, I guess it doesn't really matter. I play a few text sims, and the latest version of Civ. That's it. The DVD is in my drive right now, and there's a fair chance it stays there until the first expansion pack comes out.

Even though it doesn't have to be in the drive?

[Ben E Lou]

Well, just speculating about whether that's why I was able to play on the plane without jumping through any hoops.

Plus, why would I take it out?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Well, just speculating about whether that's why I was able to play on the plane without jumping through any hoops.

Plus, why would I take it out?

Shrug.

No reason to if you're not using the drive for something else, I guess.

Just saying I don't think the game actually uses the disc for anything once Steam has downloaded the game.

[Buccaneer]

That is interesting. I recall that the DVD had no game executable files, except to install and to start Steam. I also wonder if you were in off-line mode prior to your trip? This is my first experience with this since all I play are Civ, FBCB and OOTP. Come to think of it, I like the idea of eLicense more than I do Steam.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

That is interesting. I recall that the DVD had no game executable files, except to install and to start Steam. I also wonder if you were in off-line mode prior to your trip?

No idea on that one. Seems odd that I would be, given that all I did was install it on the laptop while I was packing, made sure it would open, then shut it down, finished packing, walked out the door, and opened it again on the plane and played.

[Ksyrup]

Came back to it a little while ago, fired up the computer, and it now works. I didn't do anything differently. However, a bit of lurking on a Steam support forum suggests that people were getting the same error yesterday and linked it to the release of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo on Steam. If true - an unrelated demo offered through Steam prevented me from playing a single player CivV game - then Steam can suck my left nut. That is fucking ridiculous.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Hope you guys work out your steam issues. I'm not a fan of steam myself, but luckily haven't had any further problems with steam since the whole issue I had at the civ V launch when I needed to change the steam server I connected to.


As far as the game goes, I just realized how easy it is to "steal" a diplomatic victory in the right condition. On my recent game, playing on King level, I took over my continent that contained 4 civs as the Americans. The other continent was completely dominated by the Persians with only 3 civs on it. I don't know how the Persians did it, but they hit future era in the 1800s (right when i got to modern era). They had 12,000 gold and gaining 550 gold per turn. I had a pretty solid setup, but nothing to compare to that.

I had more people, production and land then them but they were so far ahead in technology and finances that I ruled out the ability to beat them in a space victory or even domination victory. (I probably could do domination victory if I focused on military techs and a pinpoint strike on their capital but am actually tired of domination victories). I was too large to get a culture victory. Even though I was about 100 points behind them, I didn't think I would be able to catch up to their score for a time victory, even if I held out that long from all other victory conditions, which was unlikely.

So that left diplomatic victory as my best option. This was one of the first times they didn't kill off all of the city states. In fact, 15 city states were around (perhaps that is the full number we started with even). I had 6 in my control, he had 5 in his. 9 were needed for diplomatic victory plus the United nations. I bee-lined for Globalization, but just as I teched it, Persia actually finished building the United Nations. Since he had over 10,000 gold, I was pretty scared of what would happen next. 9 turns passed though, and I concentrated on saving up my money. I had about 3800 gold saved, and 1 turn before the first UN election, I poached 3 of Persia's city states to get my total of 9 and then hit next turn.

That led to the Diplomatic victory for me by the skin of my teeth.

The question I have to ask is , with that much money why didn't Persia bury the city states in money so I couldn't poach them. I guess a limitation of the AI. That is three straight wins at King level though. I'm debating moving up another level or not. I actually started looking at the achievements, and am finding those kind of neat. I am 38/120 right now, and might try to see how many of them I can knock out while on King level

I just had a similar vicotry. It was a prince continents game with 8 civs (4 on each one). Washington dominated the other island wiping out everyone except for about 3 Japan cities including the city-states.

One my island, I basically wiped out India, leaving them with 1 city. Siam wiped out Germany, but the city-states were left along except for one. i ended up as an ally with all city-states. There was one that I hadn't met yet. I won a diplomatic victory after Washington entered the Future Era when I was still in Moden.

[Alan T]

Ok, I'll admit that I am wrong about militaristic city-states.

In a game yesterday, I was Greece, so I decided to play up the city-state aspect and make use of that special ability. It so happened the two city-states that I started out next to were both Militaristic. So I decided what the heck, why not and allied them early on. I built alot of my strategy (including choosing the entire policy tree to benefit city-states relationships) in fostering my city state relations with them and any other city-state I encountered.

The game ended up being my best game yet. Even though I was on King level, I ended with a score of somewhere around 4500. (most of my wins have been between 2800-3500 for the most part). I built my first two warriors earlier on, but then don't think I built another unit the entire time. I just upgraded the units I got as I went and used that cash instead.

I still got a bunch of useless spearmen/scouts/etc that I just disbanded, but it was a bigger boost then I had assumed it would be.

Now perhaps a big part of this was being Greek plus the policy traits I chose significantly reduced the amount of money I had to put in to keep the city states as allies, which made it worth it.. but I just figured that I would post here about the game.

[Buccaneer]

Don't disband them, gift them to another city-state. They don't have to move to be gifted.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Don't disband them, gift them to another city-state. They don't have to move to be gifted.

Well, I was disbanding them for the 30 gold or so they gave in my territory.

[Buccaneer]

That makes sense, tended not focus on gold since I get so much of it through various means.

[Alan T]

Ok, this is neat


Here is a conversion of my last Greece game to html format for a html replay

http://www.fool-x.net/civ/greece.html

[Alan T]

Hmm, you can't see the Babylon in that for some reason. they were in there as well.


Edit: ok fixed it

[Flasch186]

FWIW, Im back to playing FM'10

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Ok, this is neat


Here is a conversion of my last Greece game to html format for a html replay

http://www.fool-x.net/civ/greece.html

That's cool, but are you supposed to be able to see the map as well? All I see is a tan background and the hexes as cities grow, etc. It would be better if I could see the map.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

That's cool, but are you supposed to be able to see the map as well? All I see is a tan background and the hexes as cities grow, etc. It would be better if I could see the map.

I thought I had seen the map before, but guess it has just been the hexes. I agree would be neater if it had the map too

[Edward64]

I've been playing it on and off, still trying to figure the optimal early strategy. How about some of you posts your top tips for the less fortunate?

[Buccaneer]

Edward, what type of victory are you interested in?

[JPhillips]

The German ability seems way overpowered. Between converting barbarian camps and two militaristic allies I easily have the most powerful military in the world and I've only built one land unit.

[Buccaneer]

Desipte many flaws and problems with the game (it does have the potential to be a great game), I think they did a good job on the diversity of civilizations/leaders. I think you can win, various ways, with any of them. But of course, some are much better than others. Here is one person's view on the leaders, which I tend to agree with more than some of the views:

Tier 0: God tier. The best civ goes here.

Alexander - Just awesome. Hoplite would be good on its own but because Companion cavalry is borderline broken and comes in same time period its usefulness is a bit diminished. Also city states are awesome and Alex can pretty much keep alliance with all of them.

Tier 1: Really good civs go here.

Darius- With golden ages being quite powerful in CiV Persia’s UA is really nice. Also immortals are solid early game units and satrap’s court is a building you want to build everywhere in late game if you have spare hammers.

Ramkhamhaeng - Another abuser of city states with powerful UA. I already like knights and Naresuan’s elephants increased strength makes them unstoppable force in medieval ages. Wat is a nice improvement to already useful university with bonus culture and lower maintenance.

Wu Zetian - A strong UA that basically gives your fighting force 20 % strength boost (generals giving 45 % bonus instead of 25 %) with more great generals to start golden ages with. Cho-ko-nu is a great replacement of crossbowman and paper maker might be the best building in the game.

Nebuchadnezzar II - Stupidly powerful UA can net you ridiculous slingshots. Bowman is also a great unit but Walls of Babylon just sucks. Also not available for poor peasants who bought just the normal game

Tier 2: Average civs go here.

Askia - UA is solid but not that great unless you can somehow abuse it. Mandekalu Cavalry gets bonus against cities and is again solid unit but not all-around great. Mud pyramid mosque is great culture boosting building (and free maintenance to boot) but not a high priority to me.

Elizabeth - Has sea dominance but that is kind of situational ability when AI doesn’t really threaten you there anyway. Only reason England is not in the bottom bracket is the longbowman. With range 3 you can outshoot cities in medieval era and just conquer them without fear of losing units.

Gandhi - Has probably the most powerful UA in the late game. War elephant seems really nice but I haven’t tested it properly. Unique building on the other hand is just garbage and keeps India from upper bracket.

Augustus - Rome has some nice unique units but they are kind of slow and don’t come to play as soon as I liked. Also if you lack iron you are screwed. UA is nice but not great. Rome is solid civ but nothing more imo.

Napoleon - I really like land grapping ability of France’s UA. Unfortunately its UU’s are not that great. Foreign legion comes too late to matter and Musketeer can become obsolete before you even manage to build any.

Oda Nobunaga - UA is obviously powerful and Samurais are nice but Zeroes are come too late and their bonus is too minuscule.

Ramesses - UA is nice but on higher difficulty levels is still not enough to get early wonders. Burial tombs are super-nice but War chariots are a bit meh.

Harun al-Rashid - UA is just crappy. A few extra gold per turn will not matter much and oil comes too late. Camel Archer looks solid and bazaar nets you bonus happiness for a building you were going to build anyway.

Tier 3: Below average civs go here.

Bismarck - UA is a gimmick that can be really powerful but more likely gets you very little especially in higher difficulties where AIs settle so fast that new encampments are rare. Landsknecht is cheap but I’d rather have a small elite army than large normal army and panzer once again comes too late to matter.

Catherine - UA is frankly not that great. Small production boost here and there + extra resources are usually wasted as it is better not to maintain too big army anyway. Cossack can be good if you go that route but krepost is too bland as I never build barracks anyway and the bonus is too small to start doing so with Russia either.

Hiawatha - All uniques require forests which you might not have and are not that great either. Bah.

Montezuma - Floating gardens might be nice later in the game but I feel that Jaguars and sacrificial captives’ bonuses are too small to really matter.

Suleiman - A undeniably weak UA combined with quickly obsolete Janissary and I never use Lancers/ Sipahis either.

Washington - UA is not that great and UU’s are quite weak. B17 comes too late and minuteman replaces again quickly obsolete musketman.

The other thing about Bismark is that he definitely becomes over-powered playing at Marathon.

One of the key things when thinking about early Unique Units is their upgradability. Most of them, whether strong or weak early, do have good upgrade paths and their bonuses are kept throughout (which may be partially nerfed in the first major patch, along with the dozens of other over-powered stuff). I took Greek's Comp Cav (dubbed the Four Horsemen Wonder since they can single-handedly conquer everything) to a Knight and then to a Cav.

[Buccaneer]

I've started a new game, as the Babylonians, so I can work on growing fewer cities to a big size and ramping up production. Did lousy at that in my first long game.

[Alan T]

I agree with Bismark (Germany's) UA being not as useful as Jphillips thinks. Maybe it is another case of me preferring to play on small maps and faster paced games, but Barbarians usually are wiped out after a fairly short period of time. After that it is fairly worthless.

Regarding Alexander in Buc's list, I mentioned previously that my best game ever so far was using him. The City States UA is no joke. I didn't even build any Companion Calvary either (which are very overpowered), since all of my units in that game were gifted to me. So if I had those, I imagine it would have been even easier.

So far I agree Greece has been the easiest game so far. (I've played I think 10 or so different leaders thus far.) My least favorite was Hiawatha

[Buccaneer]

I have a high personal interest in playing Hiawatha and with a standard bias start, he does end up in a huge forest. I've read that with certain improvements and the Longhouse, no one can out-produce him, and that the Mohawks are good, esp. upgrading. That intrigues me but I haven't heard a lot of good things from those that actually played him.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I have a high personal interest in playing Hiawatha and with a standard bias start, he does end up in a huge forest. I've read that with certain improvements and the Longhouse, no one can out-produce him, and that the Mohawks are good, esp. upgrading. That intrigues me but I haven't heard a lot of good things from those that actually played him.

I pretty much put alot of random in my games, just to make sure I try different leaders in different conditions. So the one or two times I have played him, I had hardly any woods around. So I am sure that influenced my decision.

[Alan T]

Up to 51 achievements unlocked now. I unlocked a ton today in one game. Finally beat the game in a one city challenge. The one city challenge seems tougher to me in Civ V than it was in Civ IV, but maybe it is just circumstances (no iron or coal anywhere near me or any of the city states, but my rival civs had plenty of both).

Managed a cultural victory for the first time, unlocking that achievement as well as several of the complete policy tree achievements. This was also the last victory condition I had to beat, so unlocked the achievement for winning a game in all methods too.

[henry296]

I decided to play a different style of game this time, focusing on military. I've just finished wiping out my entire continent, but Siam has done the same thing on theirs. However, they have already reached the modern age, while I'm just about to reach the industrial age. I had some happiness issues while expanding that slowed my growth and science. Either I try for a tech victory or do my best to attack him once I can build a navy.

[AFShadow]

New Civ- Mongols and scenarios coming next week in Free DLC:Sid Meier's Civilization V DLC Next Week - Blue's News Story