I will integrate this with the larger thread at some point. I wrote a little guide to help those who are new to the game, or are getting frustrated.
Anyway, I've put in a helluva lot of hours into Civ5. According to Steam, I've put in about 40+, which is pretty crazy considering I only started last week.
The game is just phenomenal, and insanely addictive. It does feel a bit 'light' after playing Civ4, but that's to be expected with Civ4 having been expanded upon twice. Civ5 is definitely worth getting into. It looks really good as well, with a really attractive art style. I highly recommend you guys buy this, if you haven't already. Like all Civ games, this is deep, but the game is very good with the learning curve.
How to win:
a) If you survive till the year 2050, you will automatically get a survival victory. Yes, this is like the ‘thank you for coming’ prize.
b) If you conquer every other civilization before 2050, you will get a military victory. I did this by the year 1920, with the Mongolian Civ., which is the best at taking out city-states, and the best at rapid military expansion. I recommend them, but only after there is some familiarity with the game. At the hands of an advanced player, the Mongolians are deadly. While the Americans gain some advanced military units later, Mongolians are good at crippling other Civs at the early stages. The key is to not build your own cities, but simply conquer city-states, against which they have a bonus.
c) If you reach space, and establish a colony on Alpha Centauri by 2050, you get a science victory. I am in the middle of trying to achieve this, and the Babylonians are the best for a science game, as they gain great scientists twice as rapidly.
d) You can also get a political victory (or whatever it’s called), by getting 10 votes in the U.N. The Greeks are good for this, because they get huge bonuses with city-states.
Anyway, here are some things you should know:
1. Units can't stack anymore, but this makes things easier to manage. Wars are far more interesting now; easier to conduct, and are more tactical.
2. You don't have to fortify a military unit in a city anymore. Each city has its own defense level, which wears down with each successful attack it faces -- though obviously it rebuilds automatically over time. The defense level obviously depends on how many defensive structures you have within. Cities also can fire (arrows, stones, rockets depending on the time period) at enemy units in range. The range, again, depends on the city.
3. The culture system has been modified. Now, every time your culture 'levels up', you can chose to adopt a new culture, or subculture. In the past, you had stuff like religion, types of political systems etc. This has all been modified into culture. Again, it works really well, with various cool, and sometimes crucial bonuses, for every adoption.
Every turn, you gain some culture, the amount of which depends on what you have built. Things like temples, world wonders etc., affect how much culture you gain every turn. Once you gain enough, you level up, and can choose a culture to adopt. It is a bit like a system in an RPG.
4. On the top bar, you can see how many people in your Civ are happy. As long as your happy level is at at least 1, you gain points towards a golden age. Golden ages are awesome. Once you hit a golden age, your gold level, and production speed goes up like mad.
Again, buildings like stadiums, and luxuries you have access to, affect how many extra happy people you have in your Civ. Adopting certain culture types, and certain wonders you build, can permanently increase the length of your golden age.
If your people are unhappy, your Civ’s work rates will suffer, so that’s something to avoid.
5. Like points you have going towards leveling up your culture, and working towards a golden age, you also build towards having great people born in your Civ. Great people like great generals, scientists, engineers, and artists.
If you want, you can use any great person to initiate a mini golden age. This consumes the great person, and the length of this mini golden age shortens by one turn every time you do this. I don’t recommend doing this unless it is an emergency, like a war.
Keep in mind that a golden age will artificially increase your gold and production level till it lasts, and that while golden ages last from 5 to 20 turns, deals with other civs last 45. So during a golden age, with your gold production up by 300%, don’t make the mistake of making a deal with another Civ with gold you may not have after your golden age ends.
I recommend keeping at least on great general at all times. A great general will provide a very high attack and defense bonus to any friendly unit it is in a tile adjacent to. A great general can also stack with another unit. There is no limit to how many units a great general provides bonuses to, as long as they are on bordering tiles.
Great engineers are very useful, as they can halve the production time of any building under work, in the city they are in. This is very useful when you are building a wonder, and don’t want to be beaten to it by another Civ.
Great scientists can immediately research a technology, which is useful, because you can even acquire a tech that requires 20+ turns, allowing you to leapfrog over other Civs. They can also establish research centers, which provide permanent bonuses to your Civ’s science rate.
6. City-states are awesome. These are civs limited to one city, like Dubai, or Singapore etc., and they don’t have any ambitions for expansion, and are all single minded. For example, Dubai is commerce minded, while something like Dublin is military minded. City-states are littered across the Civ map.
You can be enemies, neutral, friends, or allies with a city-state, depending on the city-state. Unless you attack a city-state, or are war with its ally, it is very hard to be in conflict with a city-state.
Depending on the type of city-state, you will get bonuses from them if you are their ally A military city-state provides crucial miliatry units at random, while a culture focused city-state will provide culture bonuses etc.
City-states are really tough nuts to crack, and I recommend having the city-state in closest geographical vicinity kept as an ally, especially if it is military focused. On many occasions, a military gift from a city-state ally has saved my ass. They will also go to war with your enemies, which can very useful against stronger civs.
To make a city-state your ally, you can simply give them gold from time to time, to increase the friendship level. Sometimes they will give you missions, like wiping out other city states, or clearing nearby barbarian camps, which will increase your level of friendship with them.
Things to remember:
*When you zoom in on a city, you will see its food level. Make sure it is a positive number, or the city population with stagnate. Building things like a granary, harbor etc., will provide more food per turn to the city. Use a worker to build farms next to a city, and connect it with roads.
*If you are having problems with gold, just have a worker build a trade post, each of which is worth at least 2 gold per turn. Don’t build trade posts near the city, if you can help it. Closer to the city, you should be making farms mostly, though it depends on the land’s fertility. On the outskirts, build 20 trade posts if you have to.
* Things like lumber mills affect how fast your cities build buildings. Other buildings, like workshops, also affect this.
* You can automate a worker by hitting “a”, but I recommend you do the initial building yourself. Have farms early on, as they will help your city population grow. Also try to have mines, and workshops to increase production speed. Again, the game is very good at recommending what to do with each tile.
* You can connect a city to any resource in its borders with roads. You can establish road routes which help establish trade networks. It is important that all your cities are connected to your capital. Simply take a worker to a city, and have them build a road to the capital.
* When too many citizens are unhappy, you can build stuff like stadiums and circuses etc. You can also trade with other civs for luxuries. Never trade of a luxury, unless you are have access to more than one unit of it. If the luxury has the number (2) or more in the trade menu, next to it, it is safe to trade. I do recommend you keep on top of things. Try to have access to luxuries and buildings that provide entertainment, well before your Civ turns unhappy, as such buildings and resources take time to develop.
* When building cities, try to keep them close enough, yet far enough apart. When you select a settler, you will see the recommended tile for building a city. If you have just started the game, your very first settler tile *is* on the recommended tile, so build away immediately. Try to build cities next to resources. When you hover your cursor over any tile, you will see what resources it offers.
For growth, you need access to tiles which offer food and can be farmed. If you see tiles with livestock, or deer, you can farm them for food.
If you see tiles with mines that offer marble, or tiles that offer wine, silk, incense etc., you can develop them to offer luxuries to keep your civs happy, and excess which can traded.
When you are in the medieval era, you will see tiles which offer access to iron, which is crucial for building swords etc. Horses can be used for knights and horsemen at any point, while late in the game, you will see tiles that offer oil, and uranium.
Anyway, that’s about it. If anyone is starting Civ for the first time, this guide should help.
It seems like a lot, but the game is pretty good at teaching you as you go.
Remember, when in doubt, follow what the advisers say!
