Civilization V: Tips for a newbie

[khiliani]

Sorry to be a bummer, but the game got hyped and praised ridiculously over what it deserves (not anti fanboism, I love the series and even the game itself in many points). I hope you're the sort of guy who likes small maps and short games cause otherwise you're gonna have more technical difficulties than trying to run a V8 engine in a VW Beetle, the game is ridiculously poorly optimized and has more bugs and things that cause crashes than most games' beta tests :\

i did manage to slog through a huge map senario with 12 people, took for fucking ever though with all the crashes.

Aye, I was playing a Huge Earth map, 8 Civ, 15 City States or something like that game but got really annoyed near the end with all the crashes, lag, bugs and awful optimization. The "move the chopper a long way over a railroad for an instant crash" was one of the tips that spilled the barrel for me considering I loved using Gunships and my empire was connected throughout Africa, Europe and Asia with a pile of railroads.

i can see why hat would suck. i was playing islands, so there wasnt anything major to break the game, apart frm nukes. still needed to set the autosave to every turn to get anywhere though

 

[Isaac The Grape]

...you're gonna have more technical difficulties than trying to run a V8 engine in a VW Beetle...

Yeah but it's worth it if you do right.

Spoiler

 

[Vrach]

i can see why hat would suck. i was playing islands, so there wasnt anything major to break the game, apart frm nukes. still needed to set the autosave to every turn to get anywhere though

Hehe, yeah, I slapped the autosave to each turn as well (mostly as a habit from Civ3), but sadly it has a very big downside of increasing the savegame issues considering you're saving that much more often.

...you're gonna have more technical difficulties than trying to run a V8 engine in a VW Beetle...

Yeah but it's worth it if you do right.

Spoiler

Yeah, had a feeling that was coming from someone :>

 

[Ghengis John]

If you want to build iron-consuming units you will get no iron. It will spawn nowhere near you, predictably in your worst enemies' territory and may even possibly flee from you as you approach. (That last one is simply a suspicion).

I like to pick Rome. They suit my "plod along and murder everyone in the way" style long enough for me to sack a couple civs and sit on a nice cache of resources/space.

 

[Arctodus_Simus]

Egypt, one city, cloistered away from everyone. Build as many Cultural buildings as you can, and fill it full of as many wonders as you can. Any Great person should be used to rush build if they can, and golden age if they can't.

Cultural victory before 1850

 

[Floppertje]

so it's not just that my pc is crap? I'm playing a huge earth map and I seriously can't make more than a few moves before fore the game crashes.
also, how do these pacts work? I looked it up on civpedia and it's still a bit unclear...
can you actually be allied with another major civ?
I tried to become allies with catherine when she was down to her capital, gave her 2 cities and a ton of materials and gold and she still wouldn't make a pact with me... even said no to my offer to declare war AGAINST THE GUY SHE WAS AT WAR WITH!

 

[SovietSecrets]

Be allies with everyone then watch them go to war with each other. Eventually you will be dragged in, but usually by then they are weakened. Just have a huge army built up just in case.

 

[Blind Sight]

If you're playing the world map...colonize Australia at around the time you start getting decent naval movement (I'd say just before the Industrial Age, but I'm usually trying to build a massive state on the mainland as Russia so anytime after the Medieval period would work). I found that the AI usually avoids Australia completely, even though there are various citystates on it and around Indonesia. Anyway, bribing those states to support you ensures that they'll keep giving you military units so you won't have to worry about defence. Securing Australia helps later on because usually there's a uranium deposit or two, along with oil and coal. It also is the perfect staging point for an invasion of Indochina and East Asia.

EDIT: Just make sure to bring a couple military units off the bat as well. Usually there's a couple barbarian camps throughout the area, especially if you have Barbarian Invasion on (which I always do).

 

[Neverhoodian]

Well, I actually decided to go with Russia for my first game (more production=more time to focus on culture). After some early jitters fending off barbarians (the game sandwiched me between two settlements from the get-go), I befriended a militant city-state who gave me soldiers every so often.

Later I realized I had been placed on an island with no other major civ nearby. In light of this, I focused on fortifying and building wonders until I was visited by England and Egypt (England doesn't like me). Right now my biggest issues are building more cultural buildings/wonders and finding another land mass.

Thanks for the advice everyone!