Civ V -- Brave New World Expansion Pack (Summer 2013)

[Yskonyn]

From what I gather the new expansion alters some aspects of the game which makes a few existing features obsolete, but nowhere do I read that it removes this content and as a result simplifies the game.
If anything it expands the game, especially mid and end game, tremendously.

[Barthheart]

^ What he said.

This expansion is kicking my ass. Now, I'm not a power player of CiV. I like to play, a lot according to Steam >900 hours, but I always play at Prince level. and win pretty consistently
Now I'm getting creamed. The barbs are like if you have set Raging Barbs!! They're everywhere and are very aggressive..... except it seems against settlers and workers...bug?
They will actively attack any city within reach now. They get mounted units! ACK!

The AI seems to aggressively use the new mechanics that I'm still trying t figure out. Haven't been in any wars yet so not sure if they have improved that....

Great fun. Not expensive for $20.

[bayonetbrant]

one thing I just tried for the first time last night...

There are a bunch of cool new things in the new civs I wanted to try, like the Shoshone Pathfinder, or the Merchant of Venus.  So I created a 4-player hot-seat game with 6-7 AI players in it, and played 4 different civs at once :)

I had the French, Indonesians, Shoshone, and Venice going at once, and only 2 of them (France / Indonesia) were that close together.  Funny thing is, even once I figured out how close they were, and where they were running into each other, and even trying to run them into each other here and there, it still took some doing because of all the space there was to move around on the map out there.

[bayonetbrant]

oh, and yesterday's Tuesday Screenshot was a set of screenshots from those first games after I got BNW installed.  I was adding to it well into the evening while I was playing and watching the US Gold Cup game. (As an aside, can we not schedule late kickoff West Coast games on weeknights?!)

[steve58]

OK, if the voucher code isn't working at Greenmangaming, here are a couple sites that have BNW on sale:

$23.99 (after using using code GFDJUL20 for 20% off) at GameFly

$25.49 (15% off sale) at GetGamesGo

[Gusington]

Ok...not sure why Gamespot posted that 'some features are lost' to Brave New World. As long as I can play the DLC scenarios I have purchased as well as Empires of the Smokey Skies along with the new content, I am happy. The only sticking point now is the Steam sale and whether or not Brave New World will be included. Can't wait to play as Morocco...what a great Civ choice.

Thanks for the additional info Steve.

[son_of_montfort]

Wow... let me tell you, playing Venice is a totally different type of game. You can't build settlers and any new cities you take or buy (you can buy, with no money, city-states, using the Merchant of Venice Great Person) are always puppets. The catch is that you can purchase (using gold) things in puppet states. So for the first many turns you are a lone city, but a HUGE one that is incredibly efficient at building stuff and making money. You also really need to max your caravans and trade ships, as you start with double the amount normally allowed. I was raking in around 100 and maxed out at almost 500 gold per turn!

The big issue is that these puppet states, while great at building normal buildings, will never build wonders or military units. Which means you either have to purchase military units where you need them (and with your huge treasury you can) or build them in Venice and ship them over. It means, as long as you have money, you are very flexible.

On the other hand, the loss to trade that war brings really dissuades you from too many wars. Buying up too many city-states also increases your unhappiness, so you constantly have to off-set that.

I am trying for a culture victory and I've determined that it is extremely difficult to achieve. I have been able to influence two of the 6 remaining civs (two are gone), but it won't be quick enough to do that before the artificial end of the game. I need to reevaluate the best method to achieve this victory.

[bayonetbrant]

I think Venice was made specifically for people who think the One-City Challenge is the only way to play ;D

That said, it really does feel right for the way Venice operated for so long, so that's a huge credit to the designers.

[eyebiter]

If there are that many barbarians, play Germany with the Honor cultural tree.  Hunt down barbarian camps for gold + 50% chance of free unit.  Once your 5+ above your army support limit start blitzkrieg against nearby cities. Half dozen archers will take down early era defences fast.  Pull back wounded units and bring up others to reinforce.  If you lose a few big deal just hunt down more  barbarian camps. Attack NPC cultures first, intimidate city states for free workers.

[Barthheart]

^ That's a good idea to try. 8)

[bayonetbrant]

one tactic that I've been trying on the Smokey Skies scenario is to find the nearest NPC and immediately attack him to capture one of his settlers.  With only 3 settlers each to start, and the HUGE expense in that scenario of building new ones, it seriously handicaps the nearest neighbor and gives me an extra worker.  The war never lasts that long and always ends in an even peace, and in the meantime, I'm 1 city ahead of him.

[Gusington]

Sneaky bastard.

[Windigo]

So... I... um... might have played this to 4:00 am last night. So far, so good, but I was getting my butt handed to me on Prince level by the AI. In one start, as Harun al-Rashid (I wanted to benefit from spreading religion and trade routes), I started strong but then my next-door-neighbor Portugal managed to convert all of my cities to their religion, even my holy city. That tanked both my happiness and my treasury, as my religion offered bonuses to both.

My second start was Byzantium, and I managed to get a very early religion foundation (easy to do with Theodora). But the Babylonians were parked right next to me and founded Akkad in my territory. So I went to war and took Akkad, then patched things up in peace. The happiness hit began to tank my economy and so my research foundered. The caravans did not help.

So it seems like they have made some stark economy changes under the hood.

My best experience seems to be economic warfare, build an army up early and send it in to raze most of their land improvements. That and manually manage my specialists in the cities.

[Gusington]

Gave in...and bought it on Gamefly for 23.99. Downloading Gamefly client and then the DLC now. I am weak.

[steve58]

We're all weak.  :)   Don't bother with the GameFly client...alls you really need is the Steam code so you can activate it on Steam...