Civ 5

[Napoléon]

I'm not sure how you could love the politics. You can't trust anyone, even allies that you have outstanding relationships with. Not to mention that people you're at war with won't accept peace even when they're losing horribly.

I guess I meant I prefer the kind of countries that are actually involved. And the kind of family trees you can get, the traits family members have. Marrying princesses off to other factions to cement alliances.

At the end of the day, you can't trust anyone in real life. How many alliances have stood the test of time? How many countries have been 'allies' for eternity? It doesn't happen. Why should it in a game?

[Dystopia]

So I'm downloading this fucker, I found the game of the year edition, can't wait to try it.

I think we should start a thread on all time favourite video game series, new and old. Anyone here played HL1 when it came out?

[Chad32]

I don't need them to be allies for eternity. Just a few hundred years. Though honestly the good friends that signed treaties and such would be dead by then, and the new guys would just be allies because some papers say they're allies. One difference between M2 and S2 is that S2 happens within the lifetimes of the people making treaties. The Sengoku Jidai only lasts a few decades.

Games are not real life. The only reason anyone stabs someone in the back in a game is because the storywriters want them to. Not everything needs to reflect real life, even if the game is meant to be somewhat realistic. After all, I don't have to let Tokugawa beat the game in Shogun 2, even if he did historically unite Japan. Nor does M2 tell me which regions I can and can't take when I choose a faction.

[Jackalope]

What difficulty does everyone play on?

After beating the game soundly a few times on King difficulty. (Archipelago map, start in Renaissance, play as England, small map 6 civ/12 city states), I'm trying a game at Emperor difficulty (everything else is the same). Not going quite so well this time - I've managed to keep everyone friendly that I want, but it's now 2011, and I've only managed to take one capital, and I'm in third place in points (though not behind by much). I'm probably going to have to settle for a time victory (domination and time are the only victory conditions) - if I can manage to catch up.

I fell behind for awhile in the technology race for a bit, and was only able to get 4 uranium from a captured city. I hate getting screwed on resources. I also realized before I first went to war that a time victory was my most realistic option so I went after the strongest civ - who was far stronger than myself - but it took a great many turns to turn the war in my favor. (Note to self - fire your Military Advisor. What a pussy.)[/u]

[Chad32]

I typically go easy mode. I'm not a hardcore gamer, and rarely play the herder/hardest difficulties in game. I'll probably start playing on normal soon.

I'm playing a military campaign as Japan, but my love of artillery may make me try an Industrial campaign with France. That's just when the +2 culture goes out, but musketeer/foreign legion and artillery should be boss. Kind of a future version of Classical era Rome.

[Napoléon]

What difficulty does everyone play on?

I've been playing on Chieftain but I'm raping it fairly hard now so I'll probably up the difficulty in my next game.

[Jackalope]

What difficulty does everyone play on?

I've been playing on Chieftain but I'm raping it fairly hard now so I'll probably up the difficulty in my next game.

Yeah, probably time to take the training wheels off, Napo. Prince difficulty isn't really much different. (Confession: I occasionally play at the easiest difficult when I just want to roll the map.)

[Chad32]

Not everyone does this, but I always go with the easiest mode, or maybe second easiest if there are 5+ modes like this game, to learn the ropes. Training wheels, as it were. Warlord to Prince isn't a huge leap. This series just has a habit of giving the enemy a bunch of bonuses at higher difficulties, instead of just having the civs use better strategies and such.

I know that in one campaign, Wu Zetian's superior military force would have been harder for my artillery to deal with if she constructed a road or two through the mountains and trees to get to my closest city. Rough terrain + 3-5 artillery bombarding you = major losses. I love the late game siege machines.

[Nine]

I keep moving it up and down. My late game is strong but my early game is weak. Its kind of true for me in any strategy game. I try the normal difficulty but get frustrated when I'm being harassed by so many barbarians. I expect barbarians but they start spawning faster than I can fight them off. Its annoying because I'm fairly confident that I could still easily beat most CiVs in mid-late game but I always end up getting sick of the barbarians in the early game and go play something else instead.

[Chad32]

There is an option in advanced settings to turn barbarians off, but then you won't have the exp, gold, and culture fodder.

I would expect anyone's early game to be weak, and their late game to be strong. That's the reason some civs have special units in the ancient age.