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[IndomitableSam]

I will just say that once, I decided to play a game with all the women leaders and only the women leaders... I had to quit the game because everyone hated each other so much everyone was at war with each other. It was insane.

On that note, never, EVER trust China. If they or Montezuma are in a game with me, I know I have to build up my military quickly. Also, England can get pretty nasty, because she'll build cities near you and call you a dick for being too close to her.

This is also why I play on maps with Islands... a few strategically placed archers/ranged in forts and in cities, and no one can beat you.

I also have mods in so the game doesn't go past the midieval era, though, because I don't enjoy the game after guns are developed.

When I play, I usually play as Catherine so I can get double horses, iron, etc. This way I can easily set up trade agreements with other Civs for things they actually want and it gives me a slight bit more of a safety cushion with them. Usually if I give Alexander some horses early on, he's my buddy through the end. And I also try and keep up deals with my neighbours. If they don't renew the agreement, something might be up. That and the Krepost is a nice little thing. Extra experience baracks, basically.

 

[gorfias]

My advice? Put it on the easiest difficulty and just play. You will learn as you go on. It is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Did you bother with tutorials, or would you advise, just go for it!

I've gotten a number of such games cheap and fall asleep during tutorials so I haven't gotten far in any of them!

Civilization 4 and 5
Sim City 4
Shogun 2
Cities XL Platinum
Sims 3 with Expansions
Edit: Tropico 3 and 4

To name a few. Gotta get on those!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Final update for Egypt.
Pursued Japan into the corners of the map, slowly wiping them from existence. Nobunaga tried many times to offer peace but I let him know that his bed had already been made.

So once the red and white menace was eradicated I switched to full culture mode and just focused on building.
It was kind of boring, with a lot of time just spent burning through turns. No one else attacked me though, funny enough.

Eventually I got the utopia. I don't know if it's the nature of cultural victories, or the difficulty I had it set on, or if I just learned fast but it wasn't too terribly hard and kind of dull in the last half. I'll try for a cultural victory on a higher difficulty setting next time but for now I'll just keep it on chieftain and try out a domination run, then a science and diplomacy one.

Are the DLC's worth getting?

They add variety to the civilization choice, and I think a couple of them add wonders. Worth it if you enjoy the game and play a lot.

What difficulty was this on, btw?

 

[The_Lost_King]

My advice? Put it on the easiest difficulty and just play. You will learn as you go on. It is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Did you bother with tutorials, or would you advise, just go for it!

I've gotten a number of such games cheap and fall asleep during tutorials so I haven't gotten far in any of them!

Civilization 4 and 5
Sim City 4
Shogun 2
Cities XL Platinum
Sims 3 with Expansions
Edit: Tropico 3 and 4

To name a few. Gotta get on those!

Well I played Civ IV before so I knew the basics. Though, my friend went into it without a tutorial and only a little help from me and it is not complicated at all. I think you should be able to do it without the tutorial. Especially since it just brings you to the required screen when something is done.

 

[gorfias]

my friend went into it without a tutorial and only a little help from me and it is not complicated at all. I think you should be able to do it without the tutorial. Especially since it just brings you to the required screen when something is done.

Cool! And of those on my list, I'm thinking this will be the most fun and intuitive. I will get to it ASAP!

 

[piinyouri]

Final update for Egypt.
Pursued Japan into the corners of the map, slowly wiping them from existence. Nobunaga tried many times to offer peace but I let him know that his bed had already been made.

So once the red and white menace was eradicated I switched to full culture mode and just focused on building.
It was kind of boring, with a lot of time just spent burning through turns. No one else attacked me though, funny enough.

Eventually I got the utopia. I don't know if it's the nature of cultural victories, or the difficulty I had it set on, or if I just learned fast but it wasn't too terribly hard and kind of dull in the last half. I'll try for a cultural victory on a higher difficulty setting next time but for now I'll just keep it on chieftain and try out a domination run, then a science and diplomacy one.

Are the DLC's worth getting?

They add variety to the civilization choice, and I think a couple of them add wonders. Worth it if you enjoy the game and play a lot.

What difficulty was this on, btw?

Chieftain.


@Bostur
Yeah I'll change somethings around to make it more difficult next time for sure.
Does BNW come with G&K or are you saying G&K just isn't worth it?
Truth be told I'll probably end up getting G&K anyway since some mods I want real bad are dependent on it.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

Don't bothering trying to be friends with adjacent empires, close borders is going to cause war sooner or later so it's easier to just be hostile or at least passive aggressive to your neighbors from the get go.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Chieftain.

@Bostur
Yeah I'll change somethings around to make it more difficult next time for sure.
Does BNW come with G&K or are you saying G&K just isn't worth it?
Truth be told I'll probably end up getting G&K anyway since some mods I want real bad are dependent on it.

Bump that up to Prince for your next game. It's the "normal" difficulty, with minimal AI crutches. Anything past that and you're going to deal with excessively flagrant AI cheating. Which is not to say Prince is a good difficulty level...it's ludicrously easy. The AI is very, very poorly equipped to deal with a human player. But if you dislike AI shenanigans, then Prince is as high as you can go without the AI swimming in shady bonuses.

Gods and Kings and Brave New World aren't just worth it, they're borderline necessary to have a decent experience. Vanilla Civ V had a lot of holes, which G&K and BNW largely spackle over. One significantly improves the middle game, the other beefs up the often sluggish/boring late game. Both should be considered essential.

And for some reason I think BNW DOES contain Gods and Kings, but I'm not 100% certain.

One thing to remember in addition to Frankster's note that same-victory-type civs will hate you if you're pursuing (and dominating) the same goals as them...the AI does not play a simulated world community. It plays like a (very stupid) human player would play...to win the game. If you are looking like a genuine threat to win the game, you will find enemies under every rock. This is the culprit behind the "insane AI aggressiveness" that is a hallmark of the series, when boon friends are suddenly sharpening their knives with no provocation. Everyone hates a front runner.

As you have self-identified as a builder/culture type as opposed to a warmonger (fist bump, me too), you'll want to focus on building small/tall Empires. A few large cities (4-5 maximum), placed in optimal expansion spots. India is a perfect civilization for this, and you've already tried the penultimate wonder-spammers, the Egyptians. The Shoshone (Brave New World civ) are also a very strong "builder" civ who can snowball early. Rapid expansion (past the 4-5 city limit, rapid expansion TO that limit is HIGHLY DESIRABLE) and large sprawling empires are DEATH for cultural civs, and painful for science civs as well post BNW. Resit the urge. If you grab an enemy city, give it away to an ally to curry favor.

Look for salt and marble for early luxuries, particularly salt (salt starts are OP). Always look to start on a hill...there is literally ZERO benefit to not founding your first city on a hill. And fill out Tradition early.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask. I have HUNDREDS of hours sunk into that bloody game.