Civilization 5 playing it Wide

[Zloth]

This loading screen from Expeditions: Rome immediately got a screenshot!

Είμαστε Βάρβαροι! (or maybe switch the two words - Google Translate is unclear)

 

[Brian Boru]

China​

Been messing around with China, I like her UU and UB. Chu-ko-nu is a serious item, a crossbow with 2 shots per turn—unbeatable for a long time. I have yet to find out if the 2 shots stack with the Logistics promo to give it 3 shots—wouldn't that be a game winner!

UB 'Paper Maker' is a Library replacement which gives a great early Gold boost—no maintenance and 2 Gold per turn. Library is an early build for any Civ, so China doesn't need a weird tech order to get their UB.

Empress Greta Garbo

Eye vant too bee a loan
Having trouble getting starts where I have my own landmass with only Raging Barbs for company. Nearby civs mean the Barbs become obsolete quite early, and the civs are a PITA when trying to experiment with various game mechanics and approaches—need to keep variables low to draw valid conclusions.

I've reduced opponents to one in frustration, tried Hemispheres map which gave me my own place. Got a neat XP farming city down early:

I'm not dreaming of killing the Barb camp, it's feeding my Archer and Trireme like it's a candy store

I made a mess of that game tho—'forgot' to build Paper Makers and ended up in financial trouble. Serves me right for such a stupid oversight—got blinded by getting my 3 early Settlers out to provide the 4 early cities I want, but of course that's less of a priority when you have a landmass to yourself.

I've moved onto a Continents map v 1 opponent, but I have the start turn of the XP farming game saved, so will probably go back to it. I'm saving any interesting starts which could prove interesting to experiment with vis a vis different approaches.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm saving any interesting starts

And any great starts too—behold a yum-yum!

I like water-based games, so this is prime for China—Gold from the Crabs, Gold from the Paper Maker, +2 Production on 4 seafood plots with Lighthouse and God of the Sea Pantheon—what could go wrong? I'm the player, that's what But yeah, that'll fund a few more Archers so I can get Workers doing their thing without being constantly Barbed.

<aside>I'm thinking of starting a Civ newspaper—yeah, yeah newspapyrus at first until Printing Press—would a good name for it be Barbed Wire?</aside>

Nice forests for Lumbermill soon—I prioritize its tech Construction for the Composite Bowman en route to the Chu-ko-nu. Nice hills too. Which segues into…

Production is very slow​

I remember this was a second problem I had with Civ5 originally, that it took forever to build anything—like eg once Capital hits 2 pop it's typically ~15 turns to build a Settler, even with Production Focus turned on. Over 10 for Library and Trireme, 6-7 for Archer etc.

I set second city to build The Great Lighthouse from turn #1—it started at 93 turns, this for a Classical Era wonder! Improved a bit with Aristocracy Policy, which boosts all Wonders by 15%, but still city was pop 5 before it finished it.

Maybe I need to place that +6 Production Natural Wonder—King Solomon's Mines—beside capitals in the Advanced Setup mod, hmm…There are a couple of other +Production NatWons also—The Grand Mesa +2 and The Great Barrier Reef +1—which I could scatter in players' regions. Adv Setup allows for multiple copies of NatWons, maybe it's time to experiment with that.

Production is fine once you get going—very approx after turn 150—but damn, the start is dragged out painful. Same with Food & Gold. I guess that's meant to gel with the Happiness constraint in the default game, which severely limits earlier eras expansion.

Well, not for me!
Options are a Good Thing!

 

[Pifanjr]

And any great starts too—behold a yum-yum!

I like water-based games, so this is prime for China—Gold from the Crabs, Gold from the Paper Maker, +2 Production on 4 seafood plots with Lighthouse and God of the Sea Pantheon—what could go wrong? I'm the player, that's what But yeah, that'll fund a few more Archers so I can get Workers doing their thing without being constantly Barbed.

<aside>I'm thinking of starting a Civ newspaper—yeah, yeah newspapyrus at first until Printing Press—would a good name for it be Barbed Wire?</aside>

Nice forests for Lumbermill soon—I prioritize its tech Construction for the Composite Bowman en route to the Chu-ko-nu. Nice hills too. Which segues into…

Production is very slow​

I remember this was a second problem I had with Civ5 originally, that it took forever to build anything—like eg once Capital hits 2 pop it's typically ~15 turns to build a Settler, even with Production Focus turned on. Over 10 for Library and Trireme, 6-7 for Archer etc.

I set second city to build The Great Lighthouse from turn #1—it started at 93 turns, this for a Classical Era wonder! Improved a bit with Aristocracy Policy, which boosts all Wonders by 15%, but still city was pop 5 before it finished it.

Maybe I need to place that +6 Production Natural Wonder—King Solomon's Mines—beside capitals in the Advanced Setup mod, hmm…There are a couple of other +Production NatWons also—The Grand Mesa +2 and The Great Barrier Reef +1—which I could scatter in players' regions. Adv Setup allows for multiple copies of NatWons, maybe it's time to experiment with that.

Production is fine once you get going—very approx after turn 150—but damn, the start is dragged out painful. Same with Food & Gold. I guess that's meant to gel with the Happiness constraint in the default game, which severely limits earlier eras expansion.

Well, not for me!
Options are a Good Thing!

What speed do you normally play at? I'm guessing Normal?

My wife doesn't play anything but Quick, exactly because it takes too long to get anything done otherwise.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I actually liked playing it on slower speeds because it meant that I had time to use my new units. Otherwise, by the time I'd built a new unit I'd researched something that made it obsolete.