Okay so I was able to install and play Civ 5 on my laptop.

This evening I tried to run it on my desktop. I downloaded Steam, logged in, and selected Civ 5, and downloaded it form Steam.

But if I try to run it, I get the popup to choose DirectX9 or 10/11.

If I choose 10/11, I get a Windows popup saying Civilization 5 had a problem and had to close

If I choose 9, I get a brief Civ window that then closes within 1 second.

I have Vista - I'm not sure what kind of graphics card I have but it doesn't even seem to get that far.

I looked at the civfanatics tech support forum but didn't see anything that seemed to match

So, anyone want to test out the MP and see just how broken/crap/amazing it is?

Succession Game suggestion:

Onward 2 Civ5!

Guiding Principle: The wondrous appeal of the number 2!

In the beginning, everything was the same. All was identical to itself. There could be only one. And there was only one. Then something changed. Uniqueness was compromised; homogeneity was shattered. Differences appeared. Where there had been one, there was now...[SIZE="4"]2[/SIZE]!

Variant: We simply revel in the number 2. It guides all of our decisions. Examples:

• We will need an even number of players. Preferably 2x2 or 2x2x2. It will be beyond awesome if for each player, this is their 2nd game of Civ5 ever. Skill level is not important. Fun and humor are. We seek inclusion and diversity rather than perfection or microanalysis.
  
  
• We will attempt to discover technologies in pairs. (Research until one turn remains, then swap to a different tech so that both techs may be completed consecutively.
  
  
• We will always have 2xn cities. (I am sure some kind soul 2 be named later will be willing 2 generate a save for us and give us 2 settlers so we can start on the right foot...err...on both feet!)
  
  
• Impromptu glorifications of 2 will be most praiseworthy. (E.g. "I finished 2 farms this turnset!")
  
  
• If only one civ declares war on us, we will naturally need 2 immediately declare upon another.
  
  
• Obviously, we don't want 2 win the game, we want 2 finish right behind the leader and in the same fashion (space, culture, or whichever).
  
  
• We cannot start until the brave souls of the first RB Civ5 SG team have kicked off their event.
  
  
• If anyone takes any rule 2 seriously, we will have 2 .
  
  

Shall we get it started? These were the first responders, please confirm your interest:

Sciz Wrote:I'd definitely play a SG civ 5 game.

regoarrarr Wrote:I'm in for a SG.

sunrise089 Wrote:In for a SG.

Quick version:

The Mrrshans are actually the faction most ill-suited to my playing style. I like to maintain peace as long as possible, while the cats' starting diplomatic relations are abysmal. I like to maintain a small (or even nonexistent) navy for most of the game, while the cats' only advantages are in combat. Further, this variant presented some interesting technology-related challenges in that I could not lean heavily on computer research (for espionage/RC), planetology/propulsion (for expansion) or weapons (the cats' strength, for trading around or building a navy), and that the best techs of any field were not in play. Throw in an interesting opponent draw, with erratic Psilons, Alkaris and Darloks nearby, and this one made for an interesting game.

Scouting went quickly, though there were significant pauses in factory building to throw out some long range laser ships as I quickly found the Alkaris and Darloks were next door. Started research in 2331, was thrilled to find that range 4 was available, as this meant all of the habitables I had found would be in colship range. Third colony was founded 2350, pretty late but I suspect that's how this game went. Four colonies and contact with both neighbors was achieved by 2353. The Psilons reached me in 2380, and espionage operations on the crazy brain faction began immediately.

Inertial Stabilizer in 2411 was a big tech, it was traded out for Controlled Inferno (Psilons) and Automated Repair System (Darloks). Shortly after this I was in hot wars with the Silicoids and Psilons, and cold war with the Darloks. To bolster my defenses I finagled Scatter Pack V rockets from the Darloks (in trade, for Merculites) -- three turns after this trade they declared on me! -- and stole Class V planetaries from the Psilons. With a number of roving ion fighters I was feeling pretty secure at this point. By 2435 I have twelve colonies.

If you have read any of my previous reports, you know what I did in the mid-game. I released Boris and Natasha to fill up my remaining tech holes. Despite starting slow thanks to the variant, through tech trading and espionage my Computer tech was superior to everybody else's. Pleasingly I was capable of stealing from the Darloks and getting frames on Psilon hits. Notable thefts included RIW 60%, Controlled Radiated, Class X planetaries, and range 7 cells.

In 2482 the Silicoids, hated generally by the galactic community, made the foolhardy act of declaring war on me. This guaranteed a visit from my new navy of ARS/Repulsor battleships and fusion bombers. Capturing the artifact world of Rayden and bombing out Celtsi improved relations with almost everyone. Settling Celtsi gave me contact with the Sakkra, who were immediately at "Peaceful" relations. Surprising how often love springs from hate in this game. Peace with the bellicose shifters and a final 2525 bombing run on the Silicoid homeworld allowed me to squeak in the council vote that year for a diplomatic victory.

As usual there is a long turn by turn account with pictures at http://www.codehappy.net/games/rbo31/

SirPartyman has posted a very good indepth article on Civ5 MP and the changes from Civ4.

You can read it here in the Civplayers strategy section, feel free to comment and ask questions of SPM.

http://www.civplayers.com/index.php?sect...pic=9213.0

Quote:INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to the Civilization V era. As an avid fan of the game for almost 20 years, I have eagerly awaited the release of each new “generation” of our favorite game. My focus, and bias, is towards the MultiPlayer world as I’m admittedly a CIV MP addict.

I was honored to be involved as a beta tester for CIV5. My name is listed in the CIVILIZATION V credits – that’s something I’m proud of – as it was in the original CIV3 Conquests, and CIV4.

While for the last six months or so I was under a non-disclosure agreement, now that the game is released, I am free to share my thoughts about announced and released game operation, mechanics, and strategies.

So, this is the article designed to be read by someone who is beginning the TRANSITION from Civilization IV to Civilization V. I’m assuming the sort of familiarity with CIVILIZATION IV that someone who has played at least 100 MP ladder league games would have. I’m focusing on differences, and that’s where we will begin.

Let me also state up front that I love CIV4 and played it as much as anyone. Just like I used to love CIV3, just like I used to … well you get the idea. CIV5 doesn’t have to be better or worse than CIV4 – it’s newer and different, and that’s what matters. And it’s hard not to be wowed by the graphics nor pleased with the improvements in MP stability, but ultimately you’ll be the judge of that yourself.

Hi, all. This was my third Imperium but my first in over half a year. Good to be back.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the return I would have wanted. It was more a case of . The limitations of this Imperium seemed like they’d be fun, and perhaps they would have been with a more favourable map setup or something. However, it was absolutely freakish how little went my way in this game.

The Darloks launched into a shooting war with me very early for no reason and were serious about it; I’ve never seen the MOO AI so persistent, they followed up their victories almost like a human player would. They managed to cut me off with just four planets (five once I had some environment techs) while leaving themselves free to expand to the south, quickly becoming by far the most powerful race in the game. In most council votes they had just under half the votes all by themselves; not once did any other race vote Darlok (except me once, in an unsuccessful attempt to get them to make peace), thankfully, but they still managed to deadlock the council throughout the game.

Though they had only retros, their fleets seemed to teleport all over the map, always being able to meet my transports or fleets in force even at objectives that had been completely undefended at the time the missions in question were launched. I made a good go of protecting my existing planets for a long time – over 100 years – but simply could not get any forward momentum going. I tried to take vulnerable-looking planets in ground combat more than once, but always there was a fleet there to greet them by the time they arrived, and it was a rare day when Mrrshan troops set foot on Darlok soil. And never in sufficient numbers to be other than horribly slaughtered.

On top of all that, the random events bent me over big-time; at one point I was contending with a plague and a comet at the same time, and a little later my homeworld turned poor on me (crippling when my empire was so small and that was by far my biggest industrial world). At about the same time as the latter event, the Darloks finally managed to overwhelm my second-largest planet and conquer it; the combination of these two events pretty much put me out of it. I persisted in trying to make a dent in them for about another twenty turns, but it just got too depressing when they managed to annihilate my second-largest remaining colony (reducing me to three planets, two small and one poor). At that point, I simply gave up.

Anyway, enough whining. Better luck next time, I hope.

(I really need to start writing these right after I finish a game. But I think I remember most of it.)

Things were looking good. A decent world was found and settled close to the Homeworld. Several more habitable planets were in range.

Then the Darlok menace arrived from the south. Equipped with superior propulsion tech they spread like an oozing stain across the galaxy.

2337:


They even settled nearby Paladia, to the west, before we could get to it. Such an affront could not be allowed to stand! After colonizing Neptunus, Herculus, and Ukko we built a couple of large laser-equipped cuisers and dispatched them along with invasion forces at Paladia and a weakly defended Darlok planet south of Ukko.

As it turned out, the Darlok scientists had discovered more than propulsion tech. Our superior fire control gave our cruisers the advantage in a fair fight, but they could not stand up to Darlok numbers and technology. On the ground it got really bad. The Darlok had better ground combat tech, and several key invasion forces were swatted out of the sky by well planned (that is, lucky) Darlok fleet movements.

To the East the prey-critter race, the Alkari, launched a fleet, and then invasion forces, at Herculis. Being somewhat busy at the time losing the war against the Darlok we played along with the Alkari when they announced to the galactic community that the planet was a "gift". Trade with the Alkari continued. It was a stupid, worthless planet anyway. In fact, we meant for them to have it!

In the end we finally convinced the Darlok to sign a peace treaty and back off for a while. We had taken Paladia, but lost Ukko. Our technology was abysmal. Not a good situation.

Not long after, the Darlok declared war again.

Desperate measures were in order. When our sensors discovered a tiny fleet of Darlok fighters heading for well developed Esper, High Command came up with the plan that would change the course of the galaxy forever. The Esper Gambit.

Esper's missile bases were dismantled. A surviving cruiser from the pervious war was sent away to a nearby empty system. When the Darlok ships arrived they found the planet ripe for conquest. And as the first Darlok invasion forces approached, the planet's defenders fled for nearby Mrrshan systems. It was an easy conquest. The Darlok wasted no time in introducing their technology to the planet, no doubt intending to use it as a base for the total conquest of the Empire.

One year later, the Mrrshan counterattack arrived. The planet was retaken, along with Darlok technology.

2389:


2390:



While all this was going on the Darlok were busy fighting the Sakkra (?) to the east, and the dreaded Darlok main fleet never materialized. Instead they kept sending small fleets. Esper was lost and retaken at least twice more. Suckers.

Those tech captures were what we needed. Darlok tech was whored away to other races for whatever we could get for it. We held off the Darlok until they were ready for a new peace treaty, and went on to expand slowly east and to nearby hostile unsettled planets.

In 2449 the galactic council finally acknowledged the natural superiority of the Mrrshan race, and voted Emperor Arrrbehoh-Thirrrtyon High Master of the New republic. Glorious victory!




Comments: The planet trading trick is a bit of a borderline exploit, but I was desperate.

My report is up in the usual spot!

Notes from the sponsor will have to be brief on this one:

(They'll also contain spoilers of my game results, so please read my report first! It's not THAT long.)

I think I could have designed this imperium better than I did (I ended up doing so in a bit of a rush for various reasons) - the main thing I would change if I had it to do over would be to require that we take the most advanced option in each research field instead of the least. Equalizing tech spending in all fields hurts a bit at the beginning, but is something we can deal with. Reducing tech choices to whatever happens to be the most expensive available option could have been interesting. But forcing us to plod along through old technologies before we can approach the state of the art made the game too much like a delayed, relaxed-rules, or deceptive No Research game (such as a number of players were suggesting, and such as we might do for real later on).

That isn't the reason I lost this one, of course (the first Imperium in which I was defeated!) though it contributed: The reason I lost was a serious of extremely silly mistakes (some of which are noted in the report) - I could have come back to win this one even from where I was if I'd sent enough assault transports off on the final turn to remove myself from the High Council running that year. Alas, it was not to be.

I hope others did better in this game than I did! If not, I'll have to do a shadow replay to demonstrate that it WAS a winnable game!

It's that time again! Please post your reports in the Tournament Reports and Discussion Subforum.