Board 8 > An attempt at beating civ 5 with every civ

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've never played a civ game in my life and I'm enjoying this topic!

Well, this might be the end honestly. Apparently poland and russia are indeed besties because they both declared war on me and have sent a massive navy and army overseas. My navy was no match and I fear I will not be able to replenish my forces in time. It might have been different, but Poland has samarkand's favor adn their privateers have assisted them in dismantling my navy. With everyone but Siam hating me, luxury resources and therefore happiness is in dire straits, as is my income.
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And now England and Germany have declared war as well
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I seem to have managed to repel the naval attack from the western continent, but Germany must have rebuilt its forces in a hurry after the last war because they have a force larger than last time. Munich has fallen back under their control, my only recourse is to try and end these wars quickly to get my empire back under control.
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oh man

that warmonger penalty

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Poland and Russia have agreed to put down their arms, and while I am still at "war" with England, they haven't interfered at all. Germany remains the main aggressor, and it has become clear to me that there can be no peace until they are wiped off the map. Siam shares my sentiments. Therefore, I will spend this time building an army the likes of which they haven't seen, and eradicate them for good. Their main offensive has stopped, though the surrounding city-states remain thorns in my side.

Edit: I can see now why Poland and Russia ceased fire--they have just declared war on England
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Sounds like, if you can get Germany taken care of, that Siam could be a friend for long enough for you to build up a good force again. Or just stop warring and focus science and production for awhile.

Are you planning on going for conquest victory?

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I don't know if I can accomplish a conquest with how vast Poland is. I might try to go diplomatic by buying up city-state favor.

Poland has eradicated England, while Germany continues to war with me. They have built artillery so I don't believe they intend on peace anytime soon. Russia has denounced Poland so perhaps that relationship has finally started to break. It's only natural now that Russia is the only other nation on the Western continent, they might be starting to feel the pressure.

Finally, somewhat worrying is that russia's spy has informed me that Siam is plotting against me. That's worrisome, as there's no way I can defend a two-pronged assault. Hopefully they will focus on Germany instead. I have started to rebuild my army, which was kickstarted by 2 great merchants back to back giving me 4000 gold.
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Poland has declared war on Russia and is immediately laying siege to one of their cities. Poland already has infantry. Meanwhile, Germany is finally ready to lay down their arms...unfortunately for them, I am not, not with Siam on my side. I have produced artillery with which I plan to take Munich back for a 3rd time.
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It's looking more like war with Siam is inevitable. They covet lands I currently own and denounced us, as well as suddenly being offput by our warmongering. Surprisingly, Poland is now the country friendliest to us, I will aim to keep it that way.
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We finally managed to take Munich back from the Germans, and we immediately negotiated a favorable cease-fire with them. Hopefully that will give us enough time to fortify Munich to prevent further invasion. I will not cease building the military, I intend on making multiple artillery to pave the way to berlin, while using battleships to take out their coastal cities that they built on the graves of the previous coastal cities. I am continuing to bolster the border between us and Siam, as I can no longer trust them.

Also russia is getting roflstomped, they'll be out of the game soon. Poland will control the entire western continent.
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Emeraldegg posted...

Edit: I decided to try something I never have before--I decided to bribe another civ (Siam) to declare war on Germany.

Yeah, this is an important strategy for surviving on high difficulties in Civ 5.

Also, this:
Anagram posted...

I'm enjoying these.

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Very glad people are enjoying this!
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Add me to the enjoyment list

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With Siam looming ever larger, I decided to launch a pre-emptive attack. A big factor was that I had 2 subs and 2 ironclads near their coastal city of Muang, and a lot of their land units were caught at sea. I also have air superiority over them right now, so I can have air and sea covering my Siam front, while having most of my land forces covering the Germany front. I seriously doubt I will be able to catch poland in anything, as they have almost the other 3 civs scores combined and are raking in 400+ gold per turn, but I will try. I bribed them to go to war with Siam as well, just to try and take a little pressure off.

I also accidentally bought a great prophet instead of a great merchant with faith so that was fun.
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The war against Siam was successful, we successfully captured and razed Muang Haluang to the ground, and promptly negotiated a cease-fire. That should take some heat off of our capital's borders.
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Going to try and finish this game today.

Germany declared war on Siam and marched most of their forces west, which is great for me because I subsequently declared war on Germany and now Berlin is mostly undefended.

I have determined the only way to win is going to be conquest, because the Polish capital of Warsaw is just a few tiles away from the water. So I will try to take Siam and Germany down as quick as possible while devoting all of my production to military, at which point I will sail an army as large as I can muster directly to Warsaw and take the head from the beast. Poland has too much money for me to do a diplomatic victory. They have already researched some technology that will allow them to build something called a "space ship" no doubt with the intent of bending the world to their scientific prowess. I must take them down before that happens!
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Sounds like a fun mad dash

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Frankfurt and Essen have been razed for the 2nd time, and Berlin is now ours, falling under a blitz of air bombings and artillery shells. However, an interesting wrinkle has been introduced. Poland is now influential over me, which means if I try to wipe germany and siam completely off the map, I assume I will automatically lose due to culture victory. Therefore, I have ceased hostilities against Germany. Next up is Siam.

https://i.imgur.com/my4uru7.png
https://i.imgur.com/2MlIzp7.png

I am going to sail some battleships over near the coast of Sukhothai, while marching those troops straight up along the plains. Once their capital falls, I will aim to end the war immediately and sail ALL of my forces west towards Warsaw. I am building a fleet of subs to escort the main force across the ocean, in case Poland decides to declare war on me prematurely.
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Poland is freaking massive lol

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Siam's capital has fallen, as soon as I consolidate my navy, I shall launch the attack. However, there is a problem. Most of my trade (read: all) is done with poland. Right now Poland is still at war with Siam themselves, but they have a massive navy nearby, so as soon as I declare war they may turn on me. But if I send my navy over to warsaw, then my cities will be defenseless...and they will know I'm coming for Warsaw.

I think my best option is to just declare war and take out their ships, then hope the resistance is not overwhelming when I arrive at Warsaw. I mastered the Honor policy tree at least so I get gold for each unit I kill. I have also been making the rounds around the cities and dismantling any buildings I do not need any longer, to help keep upkeep costs down. Finally, I just have to hope that Germany holds off on declaring war again, as Berlin has merely a token force defending it. If I go after warsaw and Germany takes back their capital, I'm pretty much finished.
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IT HAS BEGUN

The naval battle has gone very well, we are cleaning up the stragglers around the mainland now. We have cast a wide net with our subs to help protect the ground troops as they move across. Right now we're about halfway across the ocean. We have a great admiral and just produced a great general to help lead the charge, and we have a carrier with some aircraft to help provide support as well. Now the only question is: How vast is the army around warsaw?
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Our southern sub detachment has discovered another massive Polish naval fleet, with several nuclear subs, battleships, and carriers with planes. We had suffered some bombing but we didn't know where it was coming from, now we know. We have moved several subs to intercept before they reach the mainland, while the land force will advance north of them continuing to Warsaw. Our advance fleet ahead of the land units discovered some naval resistance so we're trying to clear that out before the army arrives.

Meanwhile, a boon on the siam/germany front, Germany has declared war on Siam, so hopefully that will keep them preoccupied while I attempt to take Warsaw.
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https://i.imgur.com/xAfcAZV.png

GG NO RE I think. I'll play it out and see what I can do but like, what do I even do
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We have ceased the war with Poland, and have decided that we are going to pour all we have into building gold and trying to sway some city states under our influence. We will keep our navy and army at attention as Poland, while currently friendly with us, still have many ships near our territory. There's also another looming German threat, as they appear to be overtaking the Siamese.

Edit: And now there's a hard clock, as Poland will become influential over every civ in 55 turns if all holds the same. Also I'm not going to finish the game today.
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Did a short session tonight, Si Satchanalai fell to Germany and was razed to the ground. An enemy city state captured another of Siam's cities and razed it. Siam has one city left.

Meanwhile, I caught wind of Poland sailing another massive navy in my direction, so I moved to intercept and declared war on Poland. Their forces are seemingly endless, but we are throwing money at the problem and pumping out 2 subs every turn to buy us time. After some time, Poland offered us surrender in exchange for all but our capital, but we declined. It may be foregone that they will rule the world (30 turns left until culture domination), but we serve no one! If they want us to kneel, they'll have to take our cities by force.
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Bump, I will hopefully get a session in tonight. I will admit it's a bit tough getting motivated to play out the last 30 turns of a game I knwo I'm gonna lose, combined with the general fatigue a late civ game brings, I definitely prefer the early/mid game to endgame civ.
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Yeah I would just ditch it at that point.

I started a polynesian game last weekend on an island map which has been interesting. Never used them at all.

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Yeah just bail

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Do you think there's anything you could/should have done differently to prevent Poland stomping everyone?

Nah I want to play it out, give it a sense of closure.

Hmm, that's a good question shattered...one thing that comes to mind is perhaps I should have devoted some resources to setting the rest of them against Poland. Bribing other nations to go to war is something that didn't even cross my mind until I did it myself once. There was a time earlier on when I felt like russia and poland would be evenly matched, and perhaps england could have even made a comeback. I don't think I can pinpoint an exact time that Poland was the clear favorite where it wouldn't have already been too late, but if I had tried to set both england and russia against them at once, perhaps it would have had a different outcome than england trying to take poland on by itself and getting roflstomped.

It's tough because on one hand, maybe I shouldn't have been as aggressive against Germany or Polynesia early on, as it set the whole world against me and prevented me from really developing my cities like I wanted. Perhaps if I had researched Astronomy earlier and been able to uncover the other continent, I could have had more influence in the events there. But by the time I arrived, Ethiopia was already on the brink of defeat and England had had territory stolen from them already, and the balance of power had already been upset. But on the other hand, it was only a matter of time before Polynesia and Germany came after me anyway, as they both coveted my land at one point or another. That distaste would have only been exacerbated when ideologies roll around, as civs really take offense if you're a different ideology than them.

I think one thing that really set me back was all the battles for Munich, that really depleted my forces and my economy. I should have gauged better the size of army I would need to take and hold it, but I typically don't play very aggressively in Civ so I'm not quite used to it yet. I also underestimated Germany's ability to rally after losing Munich the first time, and that really cost me. I don't remember if I had the resources at that point to replenish my army quickly but perhaps I should have just continued onward to their territory and taken Berlin.
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I haven't played a Civ game in a long time but before I saw B8 talk about it in the last few years, I legitimately didn't realize there was multiple win conditions. I was so used to playing games where the goal was to eliminate everyone else that I thought the only way to win was via destroying everyone else or via points at the end date.

So every game of Civ that I have played, I have only ever tried destroying everyone else. I did always wonder why they cried about wars so much because in my head it was 'Well what the fuck am I supposed to do?'. That mentality was only compounded because whenever I didn't war early, people just brought the war to me so I figured that was the entire point of the game

EDIT: Oh I see why I was under that impression. Seems after googling most of my Civ playthroughs occurred on Civ 1 and 2. So by the time I played again on a newer version years later, I never bothered to try anything else as I wasn't aware of the extra win conditions.

The AI gets bonuses to things like food and production on higher difficulties, which can cause it to really snowball sometimes. It can definitely be important to react to that as soon as possible by destroying whoever is in the lead. I think one way to tell who is getting ahead is to find out who got the important early wonders.

It's also more important to know about the 'metagame' and common exploits, so here are a few general tips:

• It's often worth it to spend a few turns to move your capital at the start of the game, especially to somewhere that gives you a lot of production. Placing your capital directly on top of a luxury resource gets you that resource right away. The ideal start is usually to land on a resource like gold or silver.
• Tradition is almost always the best first policy choice, with a good exclusive wonder and policies that help you grow four really big cities. If you prefer to pick Liberty, it's pretty good too.
• At the start of the game, when city states have workers but few (if any troops,) you can declare war on them, capture their worker, and then immediately make peace. They will be mad at you for a while, but the free worker is more than worth it.

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I almost always spend my first couple of turns finding a suitable settlement, and I usually go liberty first for those sweet free workers and settler. I dunno if I have it in me to attack city states though

Thanks for the advice!
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Well those are some great tips to remember.for some reason I never thought to start a city on a resource or just poach a worker from a city state.

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Alright, the game has been finished! Poland won via a Culture victory, though they were 1 ship part away from a science victory and 5 delegates away from a diplomatic victory. And so, updated standings:
Beaten the game:
Germany
Netherlands
Sweden
Poland

Failed:
Aztecs (2nd place)

I think after I finish a game with a civ, win or lose, they will be taken out of the pool until everyone has been played. It'd be kind of a drag to play the same one twice in a row or even somewhat close together, part of the point of this project is to widen my scope after all! And with that...

NEW GAME

For this game, we're gonna go with the Earth map type, and keep the other settings the same. And as for which civ I'll be playing...
*RNGs number between 1-38*

Ah, so we have Harald Bluetooth headset of the Denmark Vikings! I've always thought they looked kinda interesting.
PASSIVE: Viking Fury--Embarked units have +1 movement and only pay 1 movement point to go from sea to land, rather than all of it. Additionally, it costs units no movement points to pillage spaces. Interesting that it seems to not do the same from land to sea, though it makes sense thematically. I'll have to keep track of that.
SPECIAL UNITS:
Berserker (Replacing the longswordsman): Gets amphibious (can attack from sea to land at no penalty) and gets +1 movement, period.
Norweigan Ski Infantry (Replacing the rifleman): Gets +25% combat bonus and double movement in Snow, Hills, or Tundra if no trees are present. The combat bonus stacks if it's snow-hills or tundra-hills

So we have what appears to be a supreme coastal raiding civ, geared towards domination, as both of their special units are military and not buildings. Additionally, they seem to be one of if not the only civ who has both special units able to tier into each other (IE The berserker can eventually become a NSI, with the abilities of both units). Intriguing! It will def take some getting used to the embarkation rules but man that seems really good, being able to essentially pull a coastal siege in one turn rather than having to beach your units and watch them get pelted for a turn. And now, as Rick Sanchez would say...

And awaaaayyyyy we go!
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We start our journey in a pretty good spot! Settler starts on the coast, next to a river, with a good mix of plains, jungles, and hills in the vicinity, as well as being close to some dye, sugar, and spices! A solid mix of luxury resources. And to top it off, there's ruins just 2 spaces away so we basically get 65 extra gold to start off from exploring that!

Copenhagen has been founded!
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We get a great boon from another ruins in the vicinity, as it grants us a free technology: Archery!

We also decide to start off with the tradition social tree, taking exdeath's advice to see how it goes. I must admit the immediate culture boost is most welcome.

https://i.imgur.com/WOioIQJ.png

Look at all that goddamn sugar. Tactically, I'm very happy with Copenhagen's position as well. In the immediate vicinity it is surrounded by rivers on both sides, making it harder for melee units to attack, and as you can see there is a mountain range to the southwest and to the northwest, meaning there's only one path to the city. Add the jungles in for slow movement and it should be very easy to fortify.
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Too bad about the Aztecs, you got pretty close at least.
Hype for the Vikings.

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After some exploration, we appear to be in what would be South America. I'm focusing on optics ASAP because there's no more room in this landmass for settlers, and there are mountains cutting off land access to North America. A cursory examination with a trireme seems to be positive indicators.
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I've had tons of success in south America as a military civ. Its quick and easy to take over the continent with almost no outside interference. You have an easy choke to hold from north America until civs become more mobile

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We have founded our 2nd city, Aarhus! It's on the little strip connecting North and South America. I'm not super thrilled with the initial placement because there's virtually no production immediately, but once I get a border expansion to some nearby trees, and get a worker over there, I can start to get some production going.

We founded a pantheon, went with the one that grants culture per plantation, since I will have many plantations. Other than that, we've started establishing trade routes with nearby city-states and clearing out barbarian encampments to please them.
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We have encountered our first other civ! Indonesia is situated to the left of the great lakes in north america. We promptly exchanged embassies and I hope we will become friends for the time being!
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I've enjoyed 0laying the Vikings before

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And now we have discovered our 2nd civ! Ghandi of India has decided to settle the Alaskan region. Sure, whatever.

People keep building wonders I want, but at least our gold income is pretty healthy so far, as is our happiness!
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Also hey sorry I'm sure you've answered this somewhere but I'm a little late to the party.

Map size/difficulty/# of other civs?

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Hell yeah Indonesia represent.

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Hilariously, we have discovered China in the asian region. They're in the russia area.
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China is feeling like the early favorite, their score, while not super meaningful this early in the game, is a couple hundred points atop the leaderboard due mainly to having TEN world wonders already. They're the ones who keep denying us beautiful works!
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We have met 2 new civs, Austria, who is east of China, and Portugal, who is south of Austria. Austria and China are very close to each other, I imagine there will be some sort of conflict eventually. Both have at least some soldiers in their territory.

Edit: Plot twist, we're about to have some Maria-cide, as Maria of Austria has solicited us for war against Maria I of Portugal

Double edit: I forgot to mention that I decided to go ahead and settle the city of Kaupang in the area where brazil would be, even though it's a bit cramped with Vatican City below it. There are some good luxury resources in the area and I'm also contemplating trying to take Vatican City at some point.
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