Civilisation. Don't be hasty!

[BobRoberts]

I feel I have a reasonable grasp of the fundamentals involved in Civilisation... not perfect, by any means, but I read a lot of forum posts and game reports if I'm bored at work!

However, I usually find myself rushing when I'm playing. Sometimes this leads to hasty decisions. Often miss the ideal point to whip, switch tiles or similar. Occasionally found myself missing big stuff, such as 'We have enough on our hands' or a newly AI researched tech.

The way I was playing I found I had an easy time at Monarch, but was struggling somewhat at Emperor.

A while ago I started using the BUFFY mod for one of the Civfanatics Game of the month events. Using it I've won a couple of enjoyable single player Emperor games. But I don't feel like it's any particular improvement in my game. In fact, it might be making things worse. It simply masking my weak spots with it's handy little notifications and piles of information.

Anyway, onwards to the point of this post!

Seems lots of the reports here feature calm, considered play and it looks like fun!

Does anyone have any tips for slowing down and playing a more thoughtful game?

Any other random thoughts?

Cheers!

[Olodune]

Does anyone have any tips for slowing down and playing a more thoughtful game?

Try playing one of the Adventure/Epics. Taking notes, screenshots, and working with variant rules all help me to play more thoughtfully. It takes me 20+ hours to finish a standard game, which I spread over 1-2 weeks. I wouldn't mind if I played even more slowly.

Adventure 40 closes this Monday (26th), but even if you don't have time to finish it I would certainly read a partial report.

[Speaker]

Check every city every turn and see if you can optimize it. Check the diplomacy screen every turn and see if there are any deals to be made. Generally just think about all the things you could check every turn, and make sure to do them before you hit enter.

[sunrise089]

Check every city every turn and see if you can optimize it. Check the diplomacy screen every turn and see if there are any deals to be made. Generally just think about all the things you could check every turn, and make sure to do them before you hit enter.

Don't worry Bob, I don't do any of the smart micro things either. I even forget to check the trade screen after discovering a new tech.

However Speaker is right - there is no substitute for forcing yourself to slow down and play carefully. You want to make sure you're optimizing your whip/draft points, getting early warning of AI attacks, looking out for the best tech deals, making sure your Great People will be produced in the right order, etc. Another good way to get a little bit ahead is managing your worker actions - try to never have a worker turn wasted. If a worker has to travel have him road or farm a tile on the way for use later. See Soooo's posts in the turnplayer thread over at the Apolyton demogame for an example of a master at work.

[darrelljs]

If you enjoy playing fast, stick with Monarch and don't worry about it! Playing contrary to your nature just to move up a difficulty level won't help you get more out of the game. If you think slow play might end up being your thing, try a few OCC games. To micro one city is not very difficult, and it will give you a taste of what to expect when you have 20 cities.

Darrell

[BobRoberts]

Thanks for the advice there!

I think an adventure might be the way to go. I was considering trying to play one game properly. Unfortunately it won't be 40 as I'm away from PC until Monday... Maybe a careful OCC is the way to go.

It's definitely the full checking that needs doing, guess writing up might help as well. Perhaps having one game on the go that gets played 'properly' for an hour or so an evening, fast blitz any other Civ time that turns up.

More worker actions analysis could be great! I'll have to check out Soooo's posts on that thread, I did start having a little look at the forum there, although it was made a little tricky by their boards seizing up. Mainly I read the amusing diplomacy!

I do enjoy monarch, but I can't help thinking it'd be fun to push on a little bit...

Thanks again!