New Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword expansion

Remove all ads!

I completely agree - I got screwed one game by someone building it and lost, and so now I only play custom games where I uncheck the "diplomatic victory" condition. Winning through the UN was a bit lame too.

 

I actually built the sucker in my capital in my current game, and it's not that powerful, the rest of the world has to agree with you until you're big enough to bully the vote your way...

I drew Boudica of Korea. Not a powerhouse, but I didn't hit a wall either. The Unique Unit was nice, but not something I would rely on, so my empire grew at a more managable pace. I founded Hinduism, and captured the Buddist Holy City, and have 2 Great engineers ready to monopolize on the production corporations (Mining Inc in inner cities that need production, and Creative Constructions for border cities that need culture). The Challenge will be generating a Great Merchant for Sid's Sushi...

 

On the contrary, what this sort of exercise does is forces you to think about the game in different ways so you learn new tactics that enable you to be more successful and have more fun playing on higher levels. I find this is the only way to break out of Prince and Monarch and achieve more regular success on Emperor and Immortal levels.

Actually,, the One City Challenge in Civ is kind of the same as playing solo through Bladur's Gate (and how many threads are there around here devoted to that?) It's just another way to play the game.

[ August 30, 2007, 11:47: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

I've learned something with unrestricted leaders. When you have a warmongering leader, having a defensive or passive UU prevents the slow down offensively when the UU is phased out, and you are not tempted to delay the obsoleteing tech to keep your UU around. This means that someone like Genghis Khan could be a better fighter with a civ like Portugul than with someone like Sumeria or Rome...

That said, there are still a few tricks I want to try, like Churchill of China to see what a Cho-Ku-No can do with free promotions and faster experience.

I want to try the Sumerian Spy trick, maybe Alexander, Frederick or Lincoln with Sumeria. The Idea is getting the Ziggeraut and generating Great Spies to boost your Espionage. I am not a fan of a one shot boost of EP against one opponent, but settle the first one, build Scotland Yard with the second one, then keep settling Great Spies and you get mega points.

Lincoln would be an interesting leader to play with Arabia. The Madrassa can give priests or scientists, so any excellent food producing city would make a great candidate for a super city. It could propel a religion race and give you a monster Tech pace.