A no science game

[Gaspar]

Well... it does seem like the no buildings variant is next up for Kylerean, ne?

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Alternatively you could keep restarting until you have stone nearby, get the Pyramids up and go from there

Hint: You can build the Pyramids even if you do not have stone nearby...

-Kylearan

[pholkhero]

Then the game balance for different map sizes and number of civs shifts radically and breaks the game balance. It has to be total.

As I'm not a programmer, I can't see how that happens, but I'll take your word for it, as it prob. comes from knowledge of the devo process...

by the bye, I was reading soren's thanks in the manual the other day and i was like, "d'oh, THAT's why the names 'sulla' and 'sirian' sound so DAMN familiar"

[Dantski]

Hint: You can build the Pyramids even if you do not have stone nearby...

Oh I knew that but it takes too many millenia for my liking even with an excellent early production city.

[Atlas]

Oh I knew that but it takes too many millenia for my liking even with an excellent early production city.

I don't think I like the Pyramids very much (soooo many shields!!), I mean Representation is only partially used (who runs many specialists that early?? everybody works! No slackers in my Civ ), Universal Suffarage useless-not enough money to rush stuff and no towns, Police State- unneccessary 25% reduction in military builds, hey you would have all the military you need if you used your pyramids shields on military builds, Heriditary Rule is useful, but guess what? Your gonna get that shortly after the Pyramids finish, monarchy is normally acquired in the first round of trades after the human gets Alphabet.

Sorry for the off topic rant-I do build the Pyramids, but mostly for the engineering points and then only if I am Ind. and have stone (or playing some variant).

Possilbly someone could outline why they really like the Pyramids?? I often miss obvious things

@Kylearan -What will your next crazy variant be? Will you sponser any of these wacky variants as SGs or Adventures?

-Atlas

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I mean Representation is only partially used (who runs many specialists that early??

The pyramids for early representation are not built for the specialist bonus, but for the happiness bonus. +3 happiness in basically every city equals roughly a 30% bonus to maximum city size in the early game, which gives you a huge advantage over your opponents for your growth curve.
Also, they can be quite useful (maybe even essential) in always war games for the WW bonus polics state gives.

@Kylearan -What will your next crazy variant be?

After the no military game and the no science game, I will try the no Civ game next. I don't think I'll play many single player games in the future, and will mainly play the RB Epics/Adventures and SGs.

I'm really enjoying Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines right now, and am eyeing GalCiv 2, but I'm not sure yet if I should buy it or not. After Civ 4's very nice AI, I don't think I could suffer the setback of a weaker AI in a game for some time.

Will you sponser any of these wacky variants as SGs or Adventures?

Somehow I fail to come up with good ideas for Epics or Adventures. The no military/science games are no games suitable for a tournament really, and unfortunately I lack the kind of creativity Sirian is blessed with. The only idea I have in mind is one I had originally planned for the Civ 3 Epics, and for which the Civ 4 tournament hasn't really run long enough yet.

-Kylearan

[Dark Savant]

Possilbly someone could outline why they really like the Pyramids?? I often miss obvious things

Apart from the valid reasons Kylearan gave ... what would Civ be without the average player dying to build the Pyramids?

Civ 1: colossally () overrated in single-player
Civ 2: colossally overrated, period
Civ 3: in most cases, bend over backwards to build if you can
Civ 4: uh, it really depends. Silly Civ 4 designers, making things not so simple!