[SPOILERS] HAK tries Civ5 for the first time before it becomes obsolete

[HitAnyKey]

Yep, this will be interesting...or short.

I absolutely have no strategy or plans because...well, I barely even know how this game operates compared to Civ4, etc. So I'm just going to play it and see what happens.
If there are any who have been playing Civ5 who want to offer me any tips, thoughts, or even ded-lurk me, please don't hesitate. I may try to actually finish or play more of a SP game to get used to things, but even that is highly unlikely. So this will essentially be my first time playing the game, period. Other than the short stint I did of starting an SP game a few months ago.

[Dantski]

Sure I can try to answer any questions you might have, I don't have any MP experience with Civ5 though so keep that in mind.

[Dantski]

PLAYER 4: Choose from Inca / Germany / England

Just to give you a little info on your options.

Inca is a DLC civ so I don't know what they do, its possible that this isn't an option if everyone doesn't have it.

Germany is slightly better than in Civ 4, they get the Panzers again which will likely be too late to affect the game. Their unique building (Hanse, a bank replacement) gives a 5% production boost for each trade route you establish with a city state. While trade routes with other civs are a bit better on average this bonus will add up over time providng you get some trade going with city states and save a lot of turns of production as the game goes on. They also have a 67% chance of capturing barb units that are defending an encampment and receiving 25 gold. You can farm barbs if you have military units spare and can leave the camp to spawn more barbs to bolster your military further! Germany also pays 25% less land unit maintenance

England is just strong, all naval units get +2 movement and you receive an additional spy later on (not sure when). They get two of the best unique units (depending on the map) with Ships of the Line (a Frigate replacement) and Longbowmen. SotL are easily stronger than Frigates with a higher base strength plus superior ranged attack. Not only that but they are cheaper to build! If that wasn't enough they can see 1 tile further. Longbowmen are identical to Crossbows but have 1 additional range, providing hills aren't blocking their vision they are incredibly powerful for chipping away at your enemies forcing them to retreat or rush towards you. The fact that they can outrange city defences makes them good at taking down city HP too.

[Quagma Blast]

Inca ignores move cost on hills, has maintenance-free roads on hills, and 50% maintenance on all other roads. The maintenance bonus is nice to have, especially in defensive war. The hill move bonus is excellent both for early scouting and for land wars. Note that the hill bonus lets you move through both forests and rivers at flatland speed if there's also a hill.

The UU is the Slinger, an Archer replacement with a very high chance to retreat from melee attacks. Really, this is more of a drawback than anything, since they can no longer reliably escort civilian units.

They have a Unique Improvement, the Terrace Farm. It's basically a farm that you can build on hills even if they don't have fresh water, but it also gets +1 food from each adjacent mountain. Unlocks at construction. It's very good, because science is tied primarily to population, so baby's first Civ V strategy is to just farm everything.

You got a really nice roll. Inca and England are two of the best civs in the game.

[chumchu]

Here is your starting screenshot. The goodie huts will be reshuffled.

[HitAnyKey]

So, any lurkers have any unbiased (ie. non-spoilery if you've looked at the other starts) thoughts or opinions about this start? Having barely played a single game of Civ5 so far, I'll end up just playing by the seat of my pants just randomly doing stuff. But would certainly like a little input from anyone a bit more experienced with this version of the game.
I'll definitely be going either Inca or England. Not a whole lot of hills in my immediate vicinity, but I'm leaning towards them for possible quicker early exploring once I do run into more hills. Though England with their Longbowmen is something I'm liking the possibility of as well. Tough choice here, I think. I may just flip a coin.
As for my start location, other than resources looking ok, it's kind of barren without much grassland. So certainly going to need lots of farms, probably on every non-resource tile. And production is going to be pretty low I think.

[Dantski]

So, any lurkers have any unbiased (ie. non-spoilery if you've looked at the other starts) thoughts or opinions about this start? Having barely played a single game of Civ5 so far, I'll end up just playing by the seat of my pants just randomly doing stuff. But would certainly like a little input from anyone a bit more experienced with this version of the game.
I'll definitely be going either Inca or England. Not a whole lot of hills in my immediate vicinity, but I'm leaning towards them for possible quicker early exploring once I do run into more hills. Though England with their Longbowmen is something I'm liking the possibility of as well. Tough choice here, I think. I may just flip a coin.
As for my start location, other than resources looking ok, it's kind of barren without much grassland. So certainly going to need lots of farms, probably on every non-resource tile. And production is going to be pretty low I think.

Your start is reasonable for production early game since many of your resources are on plains. Food is low for sure and that looks like a fresh water Fish to your SW. Does this mean I think you should move so you're able to build fishing boats? Not yet since you don't have enough map info. You could move the warrior SW onto the hill to get a better view but settling in place does put you on a river and allows you to build a watermill later. Honestly I'd settle in place and get trapping and calendar in time for a worker to improve those resources. Remember you start with Agriculture so a worker will never be short of things to do early on. Also Civ 5 starts typically have 2 different luxuries within 3 tiles of your starting spot and we can only see 1 (albeit 4 of the same) so I'd expect another in the fog which you might lose by moving.

With your immediate land being fairly flat, it might tempt me into picking England, but then your capital won't be able to build ships if you settle in place and I don't know how much water this map will have.

[Quagma Blast]

Just looking at what we can see, there's a couple of city sites I might consider. The stone gives a 2h city center and a 3f tile to work, but gives up the watermill later (and hydro plants if the game goes that long). Settling on an incense gives you a 2g city center, but all of them cost you a turn. The one to the NE of you also has a 2f1h tile to work. One of the grasslands would let you build a Stoneworks later for a touch of happy and production, but again both of them cost a turn. SIP is food-light until you can get some border expansions. Probably want to use the warrior to get more info about the environs before making a definitive choice.

It looks like this is going to be a strong hammer site in the long run, with early concerns about food.

[HitAnyKey]

So I've chosen the Incas, and will likely just settle in place just for simplicity sake. After all, I don't plan to do much analysis. I will move the warrior before I settle, but it likely won't change anything.

[HitAnyKey]

So I settled in place after moving the warrior to that hill to the SW. From where he saw a ruins 2 tiles to the West and another ruins a couple tiles to the SE on the other side of the small 2-tile lake.
So the warrior will go west to the first ruins, and then circle around to get the other because there are a good number of hills that he'll be able to move quickly across to get over there. At least that's my understanding of the extra bonus the Incan units get.