The Escapist Plays: Civilization V (MOAR PLAYERS PLS)

[lacktheknack]

Update delayed due to weddings and relatives.

 

[lacktheknack]

Corinth burns!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895703055/DD912AD0FF3FC502CE68F56DB5031DD752DBAA34/

Here's the queue for Ragnorak...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895710710/346C513CA7F0D6F0A3EBA3EFCF8233A05BC393D6/

and Geneva...
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895708830/16E61423DBBE2F40F90400243D0BE2E866554B75/

and Eumersiania...

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895706901/D701184EFD4585925ED9458DCD9F24BF7F317935/

and Waltzburg.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895715020/A9A4AB483421DCB35927F45C06D0F79B028E8853/

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895705762/D6EE71E3FD2D355DC47C528C9801F0FB161065D2/

No can do, Alexandra.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895713730/833DE6F7283CAD2F3079F199037EAF6510E498D9/

Perfect. Theaters will be added as appropriate.

<not pictured: The Incas building the Macchu Picchu first> Sorry, Thin!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895716756/269442E27F0F841D4770A479F959D040066D1751/

Not only has a Great Engineer been born in Knackopolis, a great General has too!

I'll send the general down to the South Army, what should our Engineer do?

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895717992/FCA8B5EA7B0593672D244117D81B67F42CBD904E/

Argos goes down in flames... but not before our Frigate goes through!

And on the other side:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540653236895712564/E7F7EC13A153069B16D408D2EBFFA8A3FBF2CED5/

Thinville is out of things to do, and Knackopolis will be soon. What to do in them? Also, what are our terms of peace should Greece get desperate enough?

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

I prefer to use great Generals for golden ages, my inclination is to go with holding on to him temporarily until we eliminate any possible threat from the east then pop him for a golden age and use our current general to man our western/southern front.

As for the Great Engineer we don't need him to improve a tile for production so wonder rushing should be his use. Having a list of Wonders we can build would be nice, but it might be good to save him for a good one rather than spend him on whatever random wonder we can currently build.

My personal preference for wonders: (any of these would be fantastic)
Chichen Itza, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Cristo Redentor, Sydney Opera House.

As for what Knackopolis/Thinville should build It's a bit impossible to tell since I'm not sure what can be built in either cities, but I do believe a longhouse and a stable hasn't been built in Thinville and it would benefit from both.

Don't be afraid to cut back on production focus in cities and instead start focusing on working specialists. I'd recommend cultural specialists as we're in need of culture. Science specialists are good, but there isn't any science overflow in the game so you have to tinker a lot to jump science enough to reduce research by a turn otherwise it's simply wasted science beakers.

The only condition Alexander can present for me to be interested in peace, would be if he starts to make the war more difficult or risky than it's worth. Frankly that means defeating a large portion of our military. (On that note have we lost any troops in the campaign? How many troops do we have in that area?)

To me this is a war of elimination rather than one of subjugation. Eliminating a probable enemy to our east allows us to secure our western border easier and provides plenty of gold and possible luxuries along the way as well as apparently great generals; to me that's pretty much worth more than Alexandra the horse fellater is able or willing to give.

 

[lacktheknack]

We've lost NO troops in the campaign. We have the same army as last time - three/four mohawks, a longswordsman, great general, catapult (that we can upgrade into a trebuchet for 100 gold) and an archer.

And actually, I'm fairly sure that there IS science overflow. I've noticed that sometimes, one random tech requires one less turn to research than the other equivalent techs after I've researched something else. It's just that science overflow is small, especially this late in the game.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't get to the update again, I still have relatives over. Besides, we still have a very depressing lack of players. ;_;

 

[Mr Thin]

Machu Piccu? Taken? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [http://nooooooooooooooo.com/]

Over it. Not having provided the possible buildings for my lovely city, I can only instruct you to erect things in this order: Happiness - Science - Culture - Production - Food. If there is an available wonder that focuses on improving any of the first three, build that first. Same goes for Knackopolis.

Send the General wherever, and send the Engineer to my city (please) so that the next wonder we build there gets built instantly.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

And actually, I'm fairly sure that there IS science overflow. I've noticed that sometimes, one random tech requires one less turn to research than the other equivalent techs after I've researched something else. It's just that science overflow is small, especially this late in the game.

EDIT: Sorry I didn't get to the update again, I still have relatives over. Besides, we still have a very depressing lack of players. ;_;

I'm 99.9% sure that there is no science overflow in Civ 5; it was one of the biggest annoyances I've had with the game when it came out. I haven't played the recent patches, but quick google search and browsing changes made during patches doesn't turn anything up other than various people complaining about the lack of science overflow.

Possible sources:
-As population increases science increases so over 6-14 turns it takes to research 1 tech suddenly the extra boost in output at the start of researching a tech reduces time by 1 or 2 turns.
-Research Agreement boosts do overflow into a random tech.

Besides, we still have a very depressing lack of players. ;_;

Here's a few tips if your interested in making the game more user-friendly for new players:

It might be helpful to edit the first page to spoiler all the pictures in order to not turn off new posters who might be interested, but get turned off by the bandwidth issues.

Include in the first post the helpful hint for firefox users of pressing ctrl+ to zoom in to view your screen-shots easier.

Include in the first post a brief description of the game (map size, difficulty, approximate turn, civ's we've discovered and are friendly with and those we're not, and current events such as our war.)

Include promises of having a city named after you and explain the basic format of voting after you pose us questions as well as a plea for new players.

Edit the thread name with another desperate attempt to draw more players.

I hope it helps, but as long as I'm not the only one playing I'll continue to play (and update schedule doesn't concern me too much).

and send the Engineer to my city (please) so that the next wonder we build there gets built instantly.

Me thinks Thinville is already too heavy on wonders! ;p

I advocate using the GE to rush a wonder in whatever city will benefit from it the most. Stonehedge/Porcelain Tower/Great Library produces Great Scientists/Engineer points so if the wonder we rush produces those we rush it in Knackopolis, If it produces great artist points we dump it in Thinville/Eumersiania/Knackopolis as they will all create Great artist points (break the tie by evaluating who has the most temples/museums/opera houses to which allow specialists to produce great people points) If no clear winner is present select the city with the largest potential for food output as to feed it's specialists. If all else fails we dump it in a city that needs the culture for natural tile expansion.

Either that or bugger the logic and erect the next wonder in Waltzburg.

 

[lacktheknack]

Holy crow, life doesn't want me to update this.

I'll wake up early tomorrow to do it.

 

[Doc Gnosis]

and send the Engineer to my city (please) so that the next wonder we build there gets built instantly.

Either that or bugger the logic and erect the next wonder in Waltzburg.

So, we're lobbying now for which namesake city gets the wonder? Why not throw a wonder to Gnosopolis? XD

I leave this matter to you...

In all seriousness though, I'd say get some happiness boosting buildings in Thinville - in case they already have them, culture buildings wouldn't hurt. Same goes for Knackopolis.

In terms of what to ask for peace, I don't have a lot that can help; most civ's will try bleeding you for everything you got for peace. Try going for strategic resources or more money, but I wouldn't try the greedy approach.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

and send the Engineer to my city (please) so that the next wonder we build there gets built instantly.

Either that or bugger the logic and erect the next wonder in Waltzburg.

So, we're lobbying now for which namesake city gets the wonder? Why not throw a wonder to Gnosopolis? XD

I like how who's namesake gets a wonder has drawn far more attention then what wonder we'll be rushing.

In other news, I'm voting for upgrading the catapult to Trebuchet as well as voting for Happiness buildings everywhere accompanied by longhouses and cultural buildings and no peace with the Greeks.

I'm also requesting a list of wonders we can build and a rundown of what we can build in cities that will run out of things in queue by 12 turns time.

 

[lacktheknack]

Taking lecture notes while updating this game is fun (in a Dwarf Fortress sort of way)!

Since we are now swimming in delicious gold, let's buy more loyalty from Genoa.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862800057/A3C686BBD0BFBCDB73659680F57B2666942B4479/

Here's the new queue for Knackopolis:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862791441/709126AAAC3A626C76C5FE7EE0A3965A509B9964/

...and for Thinville.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862788508/E53E03EAD4FC56558D5FC60D2045FE7704A9E762/

I feel pity for Thin, as A. he's the most wonder-hungry, and B. the Machu Picchu was ripped from his hands. The Great Engineer will arrive as his market finishes.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862784779/19F056E714D6C8CBFB9965F31275769194D0D69A/

Also, our catapults have trebuchet'd.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862778260/174FE9BDCF06F8B5AEDC48A49D370D8D444B01FD/

Also, um... our frigate hit a snag.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862782507/615328BA3636CA11B69CB357918466B2A6A68336/

DERP. DERP DE DERP. Gah.

Here, select a policy instead of telling me what an idiot I am.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319862797271/17E545D18C06A8C99081493FB903E24F49F55104/

 

[Doc Gnosis]

For the frigate if all else fails, reverse ho!

It's between taking up Patronage, or Free Thought. Patronage as a way to keep Genoa's relationship with the Iroquois for a while longer; and the latter as a long-term plan to take up Scientific Revolution which grants us 2 Free Technologies.

 

[lacktheknack]

For the frigate if all else fails, reverse ho!

It's between taking up Patronage, or Free Thought. Patronage as a way to keep Genoa's relationship with the Iroquois for a while longer; and the latter as a long-term plan to take up Scientific Revolution which grants us 2 Free Technologies.

We can't reverse! We burned our bridge... literally!

The frigate is stuck until we stick a colony on the Ex-Argos Peninsula.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

I like patronage a lot normally, but it's much better on a large map with lots of city states and suited for a diplomatic victory. It's also stronger if you've got too many things to spend gold on or are hard up for cash. None of that really applies to our situation so I'm in favor of skipping over it; best case it saves us some gold while we're struggling to find areas to spend that gold on.

I think we can stave off the unhappiocolypse ,until we get our next policy (if it's still an issue) which should be humanism for the +1 happiness for ever uni, public school, observatory; so I say go free thought it's science boost is quite nice.

Spoiler: The Waltz Party plan for manic technological dominance (aka getting giant death robots)

1: Specialists; secularism produces +2 science for every specialist. This is pretty awesome and we should make use of it. A lot of our cities are avoiding growth due to happiness reasons. Switching over to still produce food, but using that food instead to feed specialists will net us benefits without any of the drawbacks of growing and thus increasing unhappiness. Specialists are pretty powerful on their own with both scientists and artists producing large amounts of science/culture for the input of food. In an enviroment where we have so much production we're starting to run out of useful things, but can't grow too quickly or hit stagnation due to happiness, throwing emphasis on food and negating growth with specialists will produce tons of science. The great people they produce is the icing on the cake.

2: Maritime City states; They got nerfed significantly after the December patch, but they're still quite powerful if you can wrangle at least two into an alliance they'll provide enough food to feed 1 specialist in each city and 3 in the capitol. Throwing all those on to great artists for culture with enough cities produces more culture per gold in bribes than befriending a cultural CS plus a little extra science from secularism. It also becomes revenue neutral with a large enough empire and all cities producing merchant specialists. Simply being friendly won't achieve much, but becoming allies for the global food bonus is wondrous particularly the more cities you posses. Tack on freedom's social policies and it's a recipe for awesome.

3: Trading posts; I've mentioned this before, but bugger the Lumber mills to an extent and build more of these. Free thought makes them crazy powerful and they're a nice well rounded tile. The extra gold can finance a lot of fun things like rush building or bribing city states and RA agreements.

4: National College/Oxford university; Both are powerful. National College needs a Library in every city (something I think we're very close to achieving). Build it in our strongest science city (A city with a Observatory, Research Lab, University, National college gives a bonus of 200% on it's science so that's 3 times its output). Oxford University is much more gratifying, but a little harder as it requires universities in every city It does yield a free tech, though.

My votes:
-Diplo: Spend 500 gold making Helsiki an ally, maritime CS are fantastic plus it nets us a free luxury. They should go to war with the Greeks since we're allies allowing us to be machevellian and wait with our troops for around 10-20 turns to see if the Greeks are able to conquer them. We can then swoop in with our troops and liberate them and gain either a crazy amount of influence by liberating them or annex them for 1 turn to gift furs to Genoa then liberate them. My standard whore our excess luxuries and troll for RAs also applies.
-Military: If we bribe Helsiki hold them in the forested remains of Cornith keeping our frigate along the northern shore for bombardment if necessary. It's unfortunate that we crossed Argos for a glorified lake, but building a settlement for access to that lake and to simply get back a frigate is a little nuts. After the Greeks stop being a threat go ahead and gift the Frigate to Helsiki for influence or scuttle it; the latter being the most preferable.
-Social: Go for Free thought, FOR SCIENCE!
-Thinville: I'm cool with the wonder Mr. Thin deserves it, but possibly queue up a military unit or 2 right after rushing the next wonder in order to serve as reinforcements for the Greek invasion.

 

[Mr Thin]

Mwhahahaha! Yes, more wonders for me. All part of my plan to make my city invaluable, thus ensuring it will never be in danger again!

I have a powerful thirst for the final policy in Rationalism, so I pick Free Thought. I WANT THOSE TECHS.

And what's that you say? We can get another free tech from Oxford?

BUILD ALL THE UNIVERSITIES! All of them.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

BUILD ALL THE UNIVERSITIES! All of them.

Is it weird that I read that in emperor palpatine's voice?

If you've got a hard-on for free techs working scientist specialists produces great people points that fill up over time and spout out great scientists which give free techs as well. Artists specialists produce culture which could get us to the next policy roughly 10%-30% quicker. I don't believe we need anything other than free thought to get the policy that unlocks 2 free techs, but the nature of free techs makes them more valuable the longer you hold off to cash them in.

Research agreements are also basically a free tech, which is why I'm willing to spend the gold on them as well as cover 2/3s the gold cost of any other civ that's willing.

In any case: I'm requesting a list of cities that don't have libraries in them and same goes for universities. Plus the gold cost to rush buy both.

 

[HateDread]

I support a research push. We don't need to take new ground; only hold our existing territories while we wait for suitable tech.

Military advisors, assemble!
What conflicts are we involved in?! STAT!

 

[lacktheknack]

Funny story time! I wrote the update for this some fifteen hours again, and now as I check back, it's GONE, so I have to rewrite it! Y U DO THIS TO ME ESCAPIST FORUMS

First off: Free Thought.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893643651/1B77008B39AC646DAD22D85859522D29487A956F/

Also, at Waltz's suggestion, I see no reason not to spontaneously rewrite our entire economy on a whim, so here we go! In Knackopolis:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893629629/36010313F572A946B4100F46958DC5A4EF1B5A08/

In Eumersiania:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893626665/42C98AAC2C852B3B9CD1AF4E82AE30D732081233/

And in Thinville:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893635344/EF26B780D2C2AC29852B05CC76785FC62575A0C2/

...Or, in other words, our Stable Economy Trifecta. SPECIALISTS! SPECIALISTS EVERYWHERE!

Others will join this elite group soon (Waltzburg, Ragnorak), and they'll get themselves some specialists as well. Basically, if they can manage a good sized population vs production ratio + surplus, they can specialize. Unless everyone thinks that this is a retarded idea.

Finally, we're missing libraries in the Western Colonies (Purgatory, Gnosopolis, Colony 1337). Priority has been raised. Universities are also absent in Waltzburg, Geneva, and Ragnorak (Waltzburg is currently building theirs). Universities cost 660 gold to rush (!!!).

So, let's bribe Helsinki!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893645187/2257B93222528BCD40E0FD36A487CF4790F204FC/

+3 food in the capital, +1 everywhere else. Beauty.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893641813/237707CD6A5030FDD91232F11AC457E1202050D0/

Also, I sold a surplus spice set for 150 gold. No one could afford a Research Agreement.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893646229/AB432684C885C47C76C412A0360D327806020C71/

...and we instantly fell out of Alliance with Helsinki.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893628419/4A0AF32E796D0A412F540A9380211AE86BE96C58/

Should we fix this?

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893638352/09BD33BE8AC05C1859480DE3704D8A4CB481EB6E/

Perfect.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893631876/3C7622FFE95100C1241259F5E778FB67211309B2/

More perfect.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893637167/462DF1057D2D4C527C119699DE0D96AAA713EF10/

Sorry, Alexandra. You'll have to do way better than that.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893633011/7F5DE65640FBBEACA9343AE7781DD4C7569E7F84/

OK, everything's going fantastic! I seriously can't think of a single thing that could wreck-

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542905319893634207/6A7C1AB0347F8F36E3110BD3026D536942CD1782/

...Right as our declaration of Friendship with Inca and Japan ran out. I guess we're more controversial than we realized.

OK, pause for a second. We'll need a new tech fairly quick here (lost the photo, so use the pic in post 371 to help you pick), as well as some general "What to do next" ideas. Got any?

 

[lacktheknack]

I support a research push. We don't need to take new ground; only hold our existing territories while we wait for suitable tech.

Military advisors, assemble!
What conflicts are we involved in?! STAT!

We're involved in a war with Greece. That's it.

 

[Mr Thin]

HOLY SHIT. POSTS HAVE NUMBERS. THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIRST TIME I HAVE NOTICED THIS. I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR A YEAR AND A HALF.

I AM FAIL, HEAR ME ROAR!

OT: How could they denounce us, we're so huggable! Oh well.

I'm still angling for Scientific Theory, so I say get whatever techs we need for that, and then get that.

I say we deal with those pesky Greeks, as soon as possible and/or with extreme prejudice. If we have any troops not actively involved in the Greek Conflict, send them towards... uh, where are the Romans exactly? Towards them. Not to launch an attack, just to be ready in the event of one.

Use the coming Engineer to rush the next Wonder we get - preferably in Waltzburg, since I stole the last one - the great scientist for MOAR TECHS, and the great artist to... what the hell do they do? Give us loads of culture? Yeah, that.

 

[lacktheknack]

HOLY SHIT. POSTS HAVE NUMBERS. THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIRST TIME I HAVE NOTICED THIS. I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR A YEAR AND A HALF.

I AM FAIL, HEAR ME ROAR!

OT: How could they denounce us, we're so huggable! Oh well.

I'm still angling for Scientific Theory, so I say get whatever techs we need for that, and then get that.

I say we deal with those pesky Greeks, as soon as possible and/or with extreme prejudice. If we have any troops not actively involved in the Greek Conflict, send them towards... uh, where are the Romans exactly? Towards them. Not to launch an attack, just to be ready in the event of one.

Use the coming Engineer to rush the next Wonder we get - preferably in Waltzburg, since I stole the last one - the great scientist for MOAR TECHS, and the great artist to... what the hell do they do? Give us loads of culture? Yeah, that.

Um, Scientific Theory finishes in four turns. That's why I'm asking for another goal.

Otherwise, done.