Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion

[drusain]

http://www.2kgames.com/blog/civilization-v-expansion-pack-announced

I don't know how many Civ fans are out there but Civ5 is getting a Spring release expansion which I'm really looking for. It's looking to be a very promising expansion. It'll have 9 new civs (Celts, Dutch, Mayans, Carthage, Byzantines confirmed so far), introduction of religion and espionage mechanics, and focus on naval warfare AI among other things I'm excited for.

[Bludshot]

Really looking forward to this.  I find Civ 5 to have a pretty simple diplomacy system, sounds like this expansion will add some complexity to it.  Maybe Washington will stop requesting 7000 gold and all my resources for and open borders treaty, probably not.

[drusain]

Haha yeah it's insane that the AI will demand everything (or offer everything if you're on a roll) sometimes. But yeah an attacking civ won't start making fairer peace deals until you start taking cities. I think there will be some major AI revisions coming out of the expansion though to that effect.

Washington decided to get into an early war with me as the Incans the other night so I showed him how completely unfair Slingers are

[Bludshot]

Never got the Incan DLC, but as I recall the slingers are like archers that can move afterwards?

The peace deals that really baffle me come from leaders who declare war from across the map, no units are killed, and then they demand huge tributes for peace! It would be nice if they waited to do that until my cities could at least SEE their armies on the horizon.

[Haids1987]

Awwww, Civ. I have never actually played this in my life, but my sister and dad kicked grass at it from the very first version.  Dad recenty brought it home and keeps bugging me to play it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Bludshot]

It is a great lazy Sunday game.  Not too complicated but still engaging.  I understand that it is apparently fairly different from other civ games but it sounds like your dad doesn't mind.

[Haids1987]

Nope, but he's been a Sid Meier fan since the beginning, so it's all good.  As with King's Quest, I remember sitting on his lap in the very early 90's, watching his pixely screen "discover" new territories. I really should download the old one!

[Bludshot]

Got the expansion, pretty solid improvement over regular Civ 5 if anyone is interested, and it might just be me, but I think it made the game more challenging.  They may have made the AI less derpy.

[drusain]

Yeah the AI in general is much better as well as the diplomacy. AI Civs plan better and generally the diplomacy is more "real." Religion is a very fun aspect of the game now. Social policies are a lot more balanced and the tech tree is a lot more interesting. I've been playing a lot of it lately.

[Bludshot]

Thinking of trying Byzantium, see how I can utilize religion to suit a conquest.

[drusain]

Well the thing about the extra belief the Byzantines get is that you can choose the extra belief to be ANY belief that is still open. Pantheon, founder, follower, or enhancer. One thing that's very powerful about this is that you can potentially enhance your religion after your first prophet instead of your second prophet like normal. Remember that once a religion is enhanced, a civ cannot found a pantheon belief. So if you get your religion enhanced early, you can ensure that the other civs who haven't gotten their pantheon yet will easily be convert to your religion without issue.

Getting a second Founder belief is also a good choice instead because they directly benefit the Civ that made the religion (you).

With a Domination victory with the Byzantines I would definitely want to tech Pottery first and get shrines up as soon as possible. Find and ally with religious city-states until you can found your religion. Domination really requires you to maintain your happiness, so I'd probably go for a founder belief that boosts your happiness. Gold is also going to be an issue when it comes to unit maintenance. So I would focus on beliefs that boost your happiness and your gold.  I don't think I'd make my free belief an Enhancer belief since you'll be spreading your religion through force anyway.

I haven't played a lot with the unique units, but the cataphract (horseman replacement) seems potentially pretty powerful. They're a little slower but their combat strength is pretty significant and the penalty against cities is reduced a little (not that there's much difference between -33% and -25%, but there you go), so if you get a bunch of them in the early game I think you could do some serious early game damage versus cities.

[LadyTerra]

I got the game recently with the expansion.  So far, it's wonderful.  I ended up starting a holy war against Babylon because they tried to convert my founding city.

[Bludshot]

Why was a science civ trying to spread the good word?

[Neonivek]

Why was a science civ trying to spread the good word?

They were in their Renaisance!

[Bludshot]

Silly Babylon, they have no business provoking people in an era where there defensive strengths are completley outdated.

(Posted on: August 07, 2012, 12:01:44 PM)

Finally started that Byzantium domination, I ran into some trouble immediately with Montezuma as my neighbor.  There were no religious city-states which meant I had to dedicate time to building Stonehenge rather than defense for an Aztec assault.

Those Dromons are beastly in the early game, having a ranged ship to protect my poor coastal city gave me time to get my religion and get my Cataphracts moving.  Now I am waging a holy war against those heathen Jaguar warriors, so far so good.