Using +2 naval movement on pangaea. yuris125 of England

[yuris125]

Yes, it is useful!

[Tasunke]

Does england still get Longbow UUs as well?

[yuris125]

Indeed it does Exactly the reason why I picked it (more details in a moment)

[yuris125]

T0



This is an awesome start for Civ5. Grassland stone and a lot of hills for early production, two luxuries to support expansion. No river, but oh well, one can't have everything. Not much food, but food is much less important in Civ5 than in Civ4: you can't convert it to hammers via Slavery, and if you want to expand, it's necessary to limit growth

So I settled in place



I wanted to use an aircraft-based naming theme for a long time. In Civ4 I would probably run out of city names too fast, but in Civ5, where there usually are much fewer cities, it should work just fine

The Warrior found an ivory resource. This is great: ivory allows construction of Circus, the building which gives +2 happy and is maintenance-free. There is also a river barely outside of the screenshot, but indicated in the terrain mouse-over. I think I know where my second city will go

I spent some time in the last few days reading on the current Civ5 meta-game. There are a lot of things which are counter-intuitive to a seasoned Civ4 player; in particular, opening Worker first is rarely a good idea. Tile improvements are much less important in Civ5, and there are other early priorities. The best opening, apparently, is Monument first (hi JKaen). Culture is very important in Civ5, for social policies as well as for border expansion, and increasing culture per turn from 1 to 3 is extremely helpful. With Worker delayed, Worker techs are less important too, and usually the opening research is Pottery-Writing, with maybe one Worker tech thrown in

So, to start things off, I set the build to a Monument, and research to Pottery. The next post will be about the general strategy

[yuris125]

Well, we ran into problems early, hope this is something that can be solved, not Oledavy's Mac messing up the game (god I hate Macs ). I assume we will restart from the same save

Anyway, if the game gets off the ground at all, there's a question I have to answer in any case. Why England? Isn't it a naval civ which doesn't get enough benefits on a pangaea?

Here are England's unique features

* +2 movement bonus to naval units
* Ship of the Line - Frigate replacement, which has 17 ranged power instead of 15 and costs 170 hammers instead of 185 (on Normal)
* Longbowman - Crossbowman replacement, the same stats but has a range promotion, so can shoot 3 tiles away rather than 2

The range promotion is absolutely huge. Ranged attacks are key to Civ5 combat, even more so than siege weapons are key to wars in Civ4. If your ranged units fire first and hurt or even kill key enemy units, the war becomes so much easier. There is no retaliation to ranged attacks, so as long as your melee units can protect the ranged units, they don't even get hurt. Now, of course the opponent can shoot your ranged units on their turn - but that's where the extra range comes into play, Longbows can shoot while being out of opponent's range! This means that during the end of Medieval era and most of Renaissance era, Longbows are going to own opponent's land units

And then we have Ship of the Line. Yes, naval units on pangaea are not as strong as on other maps. But still, pangaea is a continent in a sea, so they're not useless. Naval units in Civ5 have ranged attack against land-based units and cities, so they can have huge impact when attacking coastal cities. A ship which is stronger than anything else before Ironclads, and faster than anything because of the naval movement bonus? I'll take some, thank you very much!

Basically, in the end of Medieval era and for the whole Renaissance era, which is the time when I expect serious aggression, England has the best land-based unit and the best naval unit. We'll see if this theory works in practice

[yuris125]

With England's unique units being so awesome, strategy outline is clear: research the techs required for UUs, build an army, kill the neighbours. How am I going to get there, and which obstacles there are to overcome?

Note that everything I say below is theory I picked up by reading forums in the last couple of days. I'm not an expert Civ5 player by any means. So if I say something ridiculously stupid, that's why

So, first of all, about research. In Civ5 there are a lot of ways to get a free tech or "a free great person" (in 95% of cases this equals Great Scientist equals free tech). This encourages carefully planned beelines with 2 or 3 most expensive techs received for free. I plan one of those to get to Navigation and Ships of the Line

Unfortunately Great Scientists don't grow on trees. They're produced in the same way as in Civ4, by hiring scientist specialists and getting GS points from wonders. Scientist specialists cannot be hired until Education and Universities. This makes early game research a rush towards Education, to start GS production as early as possible

The path towards Education is Pottery - Writing - Philosophy - Calendar - Animal Husbandry - Trapping - Civil Service - Theology - Education. This is the ideal order, but usually at least Calendar is researched before Philosophy, it's the tech which gives access to most luxuries, and luxuries are necessary for expansion. Other Worker techs (e.g. Mining, which also gives access to chops) can be included too, as well as early military techs (Archery, Horseback Riding). But you want to get to Education as early as you can

It is possible to start producing great scientists before Education. There are 2 early wonders which give GS points:

* The Great Library - available at Writing, gives a free tech
* The Oracle - available at Philosophy, gives a free social policy

GLib is the wonder which illustrates the principles of Civ5 research very well. On the road to Education, we have Civil Service, which costs 440 beakers (Normal speed) - almost the same as Education itself (485 beakers). Getting it for free is very helpful, and you can get it from GLib relatively easily. Plus the GS point is quite helpful

The Oracle is a decent wonder as well, but with social policies it's more tricky: they all cost the same, and become more expensive with every new social policy taken. This means that the later you can build the Oracle, the more valuable it is. I might go for it, because I need that GS point, but I won't prioritise it

So, I get to Education and start building Universities in cities where I want to produce great scientists, while clearing the bottom of the tree towards Machinery (Bronze and Iron Working and Horseback Riding technically are not required to get to Machinery, but I'd rather have them to build better units, for barb defence as much as to deter opponents' aggression). Getting to Longbows is as simple as this

Getting to Ships of the Line is a little more difficult: Astronomy and Navigation are expensive Renaissance-era techs, researching them naturally takes ages. This is where lightbulbs come into play. The start of the naval branch (Sailing - Compass - Optics) is quite cheap, so I only need to bulb the last 2 techs. One great scientist is likely to be produced while I research towards Machinery. The other one is a bonus from completing the Liberty tree of social policies (the funny thing is that the free great person you take from Liberty is often a Great Engineer rather than a Great Scientist; this GE is used to rush Porcelain Tower, which in turn gives a Great Scientist. The end result is the same, but you get +2 GS points. And more beakers from research agreements, which I expect to be useless in MP). So research to Optics, click the bulb button 2 times, boom, Ships of the Line, here we come

I didn't talk about social policies earlier, but basically Liberty tree is the One Right Choice to adopt first. After the tree is adopted, the second and third policies are free Worker and free Settler, you can get either of them first. In a game where early game production is limited, free units are great. The next 3 policies are less great, but still useful, and of course the finishing bonus (free great person of choice) is marvellous. The next One Right Choice is Rationalism, but you need to be in Renaissance era to adopt it; until then, I prefer to go for the Commerce tree, but Patronage is also worth looking at

Well, hope this is not too much of a wall of text I'm also going to talk about city buildings, but that will be the next post

[yuris125]

T1



Found [strike]a hut[/strike]ancient ruins. Early game Civ5 is all about scouting and finding those ruins, often it's even more important than finding expansion spots. Ruins can give the following bonuses:

* +1 pop in one of the cities (usually most ruins are explored before the 2nd city, so this means in the capital)
* Tech
* Culture (in early game, when social policies are cheap, this can give a full free policy)
* Upgrade for the exploring unit (in early game this means Warrior -> Spearman and Scout -> Archer)
* Gold
* Map
* Location of barb camps

There are no negative outcomes, so it's important to scout as much as possible and grab as many ruins as possible before others do it

[yuris125]

So, city buildings and empire management. The most important aspect of empire management is the happiness model of Civ5. A lot has been said about it, a lot will be, so I won't express any opinions, just quickly go through what it is and how it works

At the start of the game, the happiness is +9. Every city gives -3 happiness, every citizen -1. So a new size 1 city gives -4 happiness. Every connected luxury gives +4 happiness (there are 15 luxuries in the game), and every natural wonder you find (there are 5 on a small map) gives +1

So, every connected luxury allows a new size 1 city to be founded. You need a second luxury to let it grow beyond size 1 without happiness penalties. Ideally, every new city needs to have 2 unique luxuries within 3 tiles, so that they can eventually get into the city's territory. Obviously that's rarely possible, usually you have only 5 or 6 luxuries within reasonable distance from your start. This is why Civ5 empires usually are at 3 or 4 cities after the initial expansion, and city locations are usually determined by presence of luxuries. The habitual Civ4 considerations like availability of food play much lesser role

Once all luxuries are connected, happiness needs to be obtained from buildings and social policies. The Liberty tree has only one policy which affects happiness, Meritocracy, which gives +1 happy for each city connected to trade network. Eventually you want all cities to be connected, so this reduces unhappiness from cities from -3 to -2. The Rationalism tree has the Humanism policy, which gives +1 happy to Universities, Observatories and Public Schools - but this comes into play relatively late. Early game buildings which improve happiness are

* Colosseum - +2 happy for 1 gpt maintenance
* Circus - +2 happy, maintenance free, but requires an improved source of Horses or Ivory within city radius
* Stoneworks - a production bonus and +1 happy. 1 gpt maintenance, requires an improved source of stone or marble within city radius, the city must not be built on a plains tile

These are the buildings which allow expansion to go on

It's worth noting that the first level of unhappiness, between -1 and -9, is still ok. It only slows down city growth, and you can minimise its effect by micromanaging the cities, so that food surplus is minimal. There are no production penalties, so you can still build whatever is necessary to overcome unhappiness. Once it drops to -10, you get 50% production penalty and a penalty to strength of military units

Hmmm, this ended up being another wall of text, and I still need to cover city buildings and national wonders. I understand that Civ5 is unfamiliar for many lurkers, so hopefully these posts will help to better understand the game (and create an impression I'm incredibly insightful and have a deep understanding of the game ). I really hope they aren't boring

[Mr. Nice Guy]

So, city buildings and empire management. The most important aspect of empire management is the happiness model of Civ5. A lot has been said about it, a lot will be, so I won't express any opinions, just quickly go through what it is and how it works

At the start of the game, the happiness is +9. Every city gives -3 happiness, every citizen -1. So a new size 1 city gives -4 happiness. Every connected luxury gives +4 happiness (there are 15 luxuries in the game), and every natural wonder you find (there are 5 on a small map) gives +1

So, every connected luxury allows a new size 1 city to be founded. You need a second luxury to let it grow beyond size 1 without happiness penalties. Ideally, every new city needs to have 2 unique luxuries within 3 tiles, so that they can eventually get into the city's territory. Obviously that's rarely possible, usually you have only 5 or 6 luxuries within reasonable distance from your start. This is why Civ5 empires usually are at 3 or 4 cities after the initial expansion, and city locations are usually determined by presence of luxuries. The habitual Civ4 considerations like availability of food play much lesser role

Once all luxuries are connected, happiness needs to be obtained from buildings and social policies. The Liberty tree has only one policy which affects happiness, Meritocracy, which gives +1 happy for each city connected to trade network. Eventually you want all cities to be connected, so this reduces unhappiness from cities from -3 to -2. The Rationalism tree has the Humanism policy, which gives +1 happy to Universities, Observatories and Public Schools - but this comes into play relatively late. Early game buildings which improve happiness are

* Colosseum - +2 happy for 1 gpt maintenance
* Circus - +2 happy, maintenance free, but requires an improved source of Horses or Ivory within city radius
* Stoneworks - a production bonus and +1 happy. 1 gpt maintenance, requires an improved source of stone or marble within city radius, the city must not be built on a plains tile

These are the buildings which allow expansion to go on

It's worth noting that the first level of unhappiness, between -1 and -9, is still ok. It only slows down city growth, and you can minimise its effect by micromanaging the cities, so that food surplus is minimal. There are no production penalties, so you can still build whatever is necessary to overcome unhappiness. Once it drops to -10, you get 50% production penalty and a penalty to strength of military units

Hmmm, this ended up being another wall of text, and I still need to cover city buildings and national wonders. I understand that Civ5 is unfamiliar for many lurkers, so hopefully these posts will help to better understand the game (and create an impression I'm incredibly insightful and have a deep understanding of the game ). I really hope they aren't boring

No, actually much appreciated! Lurking all teams in this game with interest. Don't own Civ 5, don't plan to, but am still fascinated and appreciate all the extra explanations!

[Jkaen]

The best opening, apparently, is Monument first (hi JKaen).

:wink2: