Civilization V

[fragger]

It is in fact the very same model, a Fokker DR-1. The WW1 bomber unit is also a German aircraft, a Gotha G.IV.

The air units in Civ V are quite authentic. Other aircraft units include WW2 Messerschmitt BF109 fighters (you get Mitsubishi Zero fighters instead as one of your unique units if you play as the Japanese), RAF Avro Lancaster bombers (unique B17 Flying Fortress units instead if you play as Americans), F22 Raptor jet fighters and Stealth Bombers in the Modern Era. If you drop an atomic bomb on someone (as opposed to launching an ICBM at them) a B29 Superfortress will deliver it 8)

[Art Blade]

 ??? :)

[fragger]

Won my first game playing with the Gods and Kings EXP, managed to score a Cultural Victory.

[smg id=7255 align=center width=600]

I led technologically throughout the game but the other players' spies were an occasional nuisance, stealing Techs from me whenever my metaphorical back was turned. Building Constabularies and later Police Stations in each of my four cities, placing Spies in each of those cities and completing the Counter-Intelligence Agency project helped to reduce the incidence of tech theft but couldn't eliminate it entirely - the other Civs still managed to swipe the occasional Tech from me. There is a later project which can be undertaken called The Great Firewall but I pulled off my victory before I was able to make the discovery required to build it. The Great Firewall will reduce the other players' chances of nicking Techs from you by about 99%, so it sounds like it would be worth getting if the other players' light-fingery is ticking you off.

I played as the Byzantines on a Small Continents map and lucked out by starting with a nice-sized landmass all to myself, just big enough to get four cities up and happening (Cultural Victory was my goal from the beginning and I didn't want too many cities - the more cities you have, the more expensive subsequent Social Policies become, which hampers your chances at achieving this type of victory). I was pulling down over 700 Culture points per turn toward the end, had just under 100 Happiness points and was making money hand over fist (around 200 Gold per turn). One advantage of playing as Byzantium is that you get an additional Belief to add to your Religion, should you decide to found one (you don't have to if you don't want to). Naturally the additional Belief I chose was one that boosted my Cultural points generation. The Celts managed to convert one of my cities to their Religion at one point - I had to buy an Inquisitor unit to put an end to this effrontery. You can only buy these with Faith points, but I had plenty up my sleeve at that time. Stationing Inquisitors in your cities will prevent this kind of spiritual head-turning from happening.

I finished the game without a single shot being fired in anger, except for very early on when I had to biff out a few Barbarian troublemakers. That's what I love about this game - if you want to be an all-out warmonger you can be, and the combat can be great fun, but you can win a game without any conflict whatsoever - so long as you wave a big stick around. I had a powerful and technologically up-to-date standing army and navy throughout the game which pretty much intimidated the other Civs into not wanting to mess with me.

I found out that if one of your spies discovers that a particular player is planning to attack another player, you can initiate a diplomatic talk with the intended victim and spill the beans about it. This can be useful for pitting the involved Civs against each other, thus getting them off your back while they squabble and bicker with each other.

There are heaps of new types of side missions and quests offered by the City-States now, and some of them are pretty cool - like bullying another City-State into paying you Tribute, converting the requesting C-S to your religion (by transporting a Missionary or Great Prophet unit to them and having them do the preaching thing), achieving the most Culture or Science points over a 30-turn period, and a bunch of other stuff. You can plant one of your Spies in a City-State to "rig" an election in your favour, thus trashing another player's alliance with them and establishing your own after a certain number of turns. The more skilled your Spies becomes, the more effectively they can carry out missions.

I love this game, there's just so much that you can do :-X

Next, I want to try for a Science victory, but I can see it's gonna be a tough ask.

[Art Blade]

interesting read, I can virtually see what you were doing. Nice, and congratulations on your victory  :) :-X

[PZ]

Indeed - sounds like you continue to have a great time in the game.

[fragger]

Ta :) I never seem to get sick of these games. In fact I've been playing the Civ series for almost twenty years now, ever since Civ II back in 1996. They have generally gotten better with age, except for Civ IV which I just didn't like at all.

[Stiku]

Started m tour with CIV, with the only and only point in mind, get the nuke and blow stuff up.  >:D
But it seems that it took about 8 hours to get those nukes, and then it hit me, I started to do all kind of stuff with it, like dominating the world.
Nowdays its more like I dont try to wage a war with anyone in the game, but everytime you start to expand the countries nearest to you start pissing you off, and then the artillery comes in.  >:((

[fragger]

The other Civs do seem to be a bit more aggressive now. It also depends on who you play against - some Civs are more expansionist than others, some are more prone to go to war than others, etc. Some Civs such as the Greeks, the Japanese and the Americans like to gobble up land quickly and will readily get their noses out of joint when you start to butt up against them or move into lands which they consider theirs. Some Civs such as the Indians and the Siamese are more perfectionist and less aggressive, they will tend to concentrate on developing just a few cities at a time instead of spreading out like mad and are less likely to get cross with you - as a general rule.

Throwing nukes around like confetti can land you in a bit of trouble. Your standing in the eyes of other nationalities will diminish if you start raining nukes on someone, especially if you're the aggressor. But it does take time to get to the point where you can build atomic weapons, which is logical as you can't simply go from throwing spears to throwing ICBMs. It took humanity thousands of years to get to the Atomic Age, just as it does in Civ game years. There's a lot of technological discoveries to be made along the way, and of course you'll need a source of Uranium when you do get there. If none appears in your territory when you make the discovery which reveals it on the map, the only way to get it is to trade for it or become an ally with a City-State who does have it.

There are two types of nuclear weapon in the game:

Atomic Bombs
Atomic Bombs can only be launched from a City or a Carrier, and when launched, a WW2-era B29 Superfortress will fly to the target and drop a Fat Man on it. An Atomic Bomb will destroy or severely damage any units within two hexes of the target hex (including your own, so be careful) and will reduce a city's population value. Subsequent bombings of the same city will reduce the population further, down to a possible value of 1, but can never entirely destroy a city. The Bomb will also cause fallout pollution within the two-hex blast radius which will have to be cleaned out ("scrubbed") by a Worker. The Worker will then have to repair any improvements that may have existed in that hex (i.e. fallout must be removed first).


Nuclear Missiles
Nuclear missiles can be launched from your Cities, Missile Cruisers or Nuclear Submarines. These are more powerful than Atomic Bombs, and if used on a city with a population value of 4 or less, can actually obliterate that city, leaving a bunch of ruins in the city's place (Capitals and City-States however cannot be destroyed, but population value can drop to 1). Nuclear Missiles will also destroy or severely damage any units within two hexes of the blast hex, and cause the same fallout headache within those two hexes as the Atomic Bomb.

I'm sure there used to be a third type of nuke - an ICBM unit - in Civ V which could only be launched from within a City, but this may have been changed with the Gods and Kings EXP (the Civ V Wiki I looked at doesn't list it at all). I'll have to check that out next time I'm in the game.

Either way, any of these weapons suck the big one when you're on the receiving end of them- as I have been a couple of times :D

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[fragger]

After a brief trial foray into Civ: Beyond Earth, I just had to get back into Civ V to try and win the game I had going there, in which I was pursuing a Science Victory (which is achieved if you can be the first Culture in the game to build and then launch a huge spaceship to colonize an extraterrestrial planet). This was going pretty well and I had to see it through.

It wasn't easy, but I pulled it off. I led technologically throughout the game (got lucky with my starting lands and resources) but along the way I had to keep the other players' spies at bay as they tried to rip off my discoveries. They managed to snaffle a few, but I placed my own spies inside my cities and as their experience levelled up (and after establishing various counter-intelligence buildings in my cities) I started catching the other players' spooks red-handed before they could scoot with the loot.

I nabbed a Swedish one who was trying to nick off with some of my best-kept secrets. The Swedish leader, Gustavus, had some explaining to do:

[smg id=7277 align=center width=600]

Luckily for him I'm the forgiving type. Actually, I didn't want to get into too much of a spat with him over it and possibly precipitate a war, as war is expensive and time-consuming and I wanted to keep things on track for an eventual space mission, which is also expensive and time consuming. There is seldom enough time and production capacity to let you w@&k towards both in the same game.

Here I am around turn 430 (out of 500), circa 1990 AD and getting near to the end of the tech tree:

[smg id=7278 align=center width=600]

Finally! All parts constructed and transported to my launch facility in my Capital city. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1... LIFT OFF!

[smg id=7279 align=center width=600]

Science Victory achieved, and humanity's future in the cosmos is assured. Unless we manage to screw up our new planet...

[smg id=7280 align=center width=600]

[Art Blade]

impressive, well done :)

Looks as if you could now seamlessly continue your endeavour with your new game Beyond Earth. Nice  :)

[PZ]

Very nice, fragger!  I'm glad you get such pleasure out of the Civilization series  :-X

[fragger]

Diplomatic victory nailed:

[smg id=7709 align=center width=600]

Only one more victory type of four possibles left to achieve with the Gods and Kings expansion - Conquest!

Wow, I've never gotten my Happiness level up so high! Usually I struggle to get it anywhere near 100. At one point, it was nudging 200.

[smg id=7710 align=center width=600]

What can I say, my subjects love me

This Byzantine femme fatale was one of my opponents. Never fear - it was going to take more than just her Theda Bara charms to divert me from my ambitions! Besides, once I'd become Chairman of the U.N., she'd have to toe the line or face the consequences. Power hath its privileges >:D

[smg id=7711 align=center width=600]

[fragger]

Incidentally, I discovered that in Gods and Kings, if you're not crazy about the espionage side of things, you can turn it off altogether before starting a new game. I wasn't crazy about that aspect of the game and was getting sick of other cultures stealing my techs, rigging elections and undermining my alliances with City States, so that's a plus :-X

[Art Blade]

oh, that's indeed a nice touch :)

[Binnatics]

Diplomacy and conquest; quite opposite :)
I wonder what that will do with the happiness factor in your next playthrough ;)

[fragger]

It won't make me very popular with my people :-() The happiness level is much harder to maintain when you're at war. For some reason, your people aren't as happy with you when you send them off to fight. Funny, that...

[fragger]

Yes! A Conquest victory!

[smg id=7723 align=center width=600]

I even managed to make Caesar, in only about 280 out of a possible 500 turns:

[smg id=7724 align=center width=600]

I sort of lucked out with an excellent starting location which enabled me to get up to strength quickly and take out the first two opponents without much trouble. The last opponent was a tough nut to crack, but I prevailed. As expected, my people weren't as happy with me this time :-() I could only manage a Happiness score of about 35 at its highest, as compared to almost 200 in my last game. But since I now rule the world, the people can whinge all they like >:D

I've found that if you want to pull off a Conquest victory you pretty much need to be committed to it from the start, and can't waste too much time shilly-shallying. If you spend too much time expanding, establishing new cities, building up your infrastructure and going for techs you'll give your opponents enough time to get their strengths and defenses up, making it harder to take them out later. They may even strike you first and catch you with your britches down. You need to decide which techs to research in order to gain the military edge (and you'll need to acquire the proper strategic resources to build the best units, either through territorial access or trade), but if you strike fast and get some of your opponents out of the way as early as possible, capturing their cities instead of spending time founding your own, you can acquire more territory, money and resources that way. The Happiness level will be harder to maintain, but it can be built back up over time once the fighting is over.

You still have to watch your back. I've had opponents who have taken advantage of my brawling with another Civ and have attacked me while the bulk of my forces were away fighting elsewhere. I try to keep a good standing force at home to help guard against such underhanded shenanigans.

After four years I still love this game. It has just the right amounts of depth and flexibility - plenty of management, strategic and tactical options without ever becoming overwhelming. After playing for over four years, it still allows me to come up with new ideas and approaches. If you want to be a warmonger, you can, but you can still win without ever firing a shot. If you want to treat it as a micro-management exercise, you can. You don't need to build a sprawling empire to win a game, but you can go for that if you want. It's all up to you. I've always loved strategy games, especially ones which reward good planning and which have multiple paths to victory.

It may not be for everyone, but Civ V rocks for me :-X

[PZ]

Nice story fragger  :-X

I have one of the Civ games, but I never could get much in to the turn based games, although it should be something that I would appreciate.

I remember when young going to specialty stores that sold only games, mostly turn based.  I purchased a Civil Way game, which I still have, that came with hundreds of pieces and a map that was at least 4x5 feet in size.

Oh well, that's what we're all about at OWG - a variety in gamer styles and preferences.

[Art Blade]

nice, fragger  :)

For some reason you made me remember my stint with X-COM.

[fragger]

Art, I guess the two games are roughly similar in that they both involve more than just moving units around a map, and are turn-based. I might have a go at X-COM one of these days, I remember you had a great time with that :-X

PZ, I remember those games well. I had this one for a great many years:

[smg id=7725 width=600]

I bought it in about 1973 and I only got rid of it when I moved about a year ago. Half of the hundreds of pieces had been lost at some point so it wasn't much good anymore...

Funny to think that there used to be whole stores devoted to these games. That was well before home computers, of course. They use to be called "bookcase games" because the boxes were made to look like books on a shelf when they were stood up on end. And in a standardization move that took the digital gaming industry years to catch up with, ALL the boxes were made to the exact same size, even those from different manufacturers, so they would all fit on your shelves perfectly with each other. I remember going into shops and seeing hundreds of titles. They were originally created by a gaming company called Avalon Hill, but other companies got on the bandwagon later and they all adopted the box-size convention set by AH.

I used to have a couple of others, one based on Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (the novel of course, not the film) and a Battle of Britain one. I good friend of mine still has his Dune game.

[PZ]

Those were the good 'ol days where you and a friend across the country would each have the game, and then take turns making moves - the first of the multiplayer games  :-()

[fragger]

 :-() :-X

[Art Blade]

 ^-^

[Binnatics]

That Panzer game reminds me of a more recent board game, The Colonists of Katan.  A small civ-like game about exploring and conquering an island and starting a small settlement using the products the land would generate.
A very well thought out game development with single tiles of land in a hexagram form, that can be sorted in any order when you 'build' the island before the game starts.
I've played it many times. It's very popular in Europe, even though it has to conquer with PC games. There's lots of expansion packs, a little like the DLC's we know, but they do add additional joy to the game because they change it quite a bit. For example an expansion pack that adds knights, cities and more complex trading. Or another expansion pack that offers lots of extra 'sea-tyles' and boats to travel to additional small islands, and with a new resource; gold ;)

It's funny that old fashioned board games are still being created and sold even when the difgital gaming industry has taken 95% of their market share. There's no multiplayer games that equals a group of friends / family around the table playing an old fashioned board game.  ^-^