There are many choices I could have gone with. Many options available for true classics that have yet to be hinted at. But many of them hewed too close to my previous picks coughRogue Squadroncough
I even contemplated trolling Tom by putting Deus Ex up.
But in the end there is one game I have been dying to put up for the CGC since it became eligible. A game that is, by many, heralded as one of the best ever. A game that has devoured many of my nights (and yours too, be honest).
Yes, the game turned 10 last November. And with Civ VI on the horizon what better time to dust off your digital copies, or even disks. Double bonus for lead designer Soren Johnson’s current game being my new beau. Guy has mastered some kind of alchemy. I know you’ve all got this game (ok, most of you. Judging by my Steam friends list the actual number is 80%). So lets revisit suck classic moments as:
I’ll be playing with Beyond the Sword personally (I never played any expansions, only base game back in the day). Since mods were a big part of the game, I’m all for mods being part of the CGC on this one.
So, embarrassing admission time. After completing bouncing off of Civ3 (I’d loved Civ2 as a kid), I completely skipped 4 at release. I bought it on sale years ago, but was wrapped up in CiV at the time, so “going back” to IV’s UI was a little too painful for me. I think I maybe made it five hours in, tops.
So, if one you were to start fresh, how would you do it? Vanilla game, America start in real world map? All expansions, playing as Korea in a fully randomized map on max difficulty? Saying fuck it to the whole shebang and loading up on mods?
Step 1: decide on a play style you wish to do. Do you want to military conquest in the early game? Pump wonders to be the most dashing culture on the globe? Mark Watney it up and science the shit out of things?
Step 2: pic a civ that meshes with your desired play style.
Step 3: probably do vanilla, or maybe Warlords. Expansions are good, but do add some traps/ complexity that may make it hard to get in to. But really don’t fret too much. If you want to go all in, do it.
Really, though, I guess it depends. I always played on one of the medium difficulties, because I hate the AI ‘cheating’ with huge resource bonuses and such. I also played random maps, but mostly ones that were continental style.
I don’t have any getting started guides handy, though.
You’ve played a lot of strategy games. You can jump right into Civ IV with the expansions. No harm in getting your feet wet with the base game though. I’d save mods until after you can get an appreciation for the game itself.
I picked this for two main reasons. The first, and primary, is that I had been planning to pick this as soon as I could, ever since the start of the CGC. The second was I knew it would get a good showing. It’s Civ, everyone has played Civ.
I haven’t even taken part with the classic game club, but my eyes lit up when I saw this thread and I invited myself in. Sorry! Is anyone up to date with UI mods? I remember BUG/BAT back in the day, though installing was a bit tricky if I recall. Also blue marble was a thing to make the map look prettier.
This thread makes me think I should go back to the challenge I set myself of finishing the game with every leader. I never made it past A though because I always played marathon length games that took 15-20 hours each. Still fondly remember my Alexander game though (first on the list) and setting myself into a change of pace with early game aggression to support what was going to be a land grab to remain competitive with a specialist economy and support expansion into the new world. Seem to recall being excited by the Terra map because that is what it offered. Sadly, the pace of the game, particularly with the bogged down end game didn’t really allow much appreciation of it’s features, that is all players starting on one land mass and a migration to a second land mass. I just ended up conquering the old world instead.
All expansions, yes.
I consider turning off espionage to be a fine idea. There is some merit to disabling tech brokering. This can be done via custom game setup. This is in some ways personal preference as I consider espionage to be a distraction, particularly when learning the game. And tech brokering means the AI can leap ahead with tech up too fast because they (as I recall) happily trade with each other, even when they hate each other. I might be wrong on that point though!
Think about play style you want to go with (eg: builder vs warmonger) and choose a leader with traits that match that playstyle. Or just say fuck it, and go random. I seem to recall Mansa Musa to be incredibly good with his special traits, unique unit and building. Pangea maps are good, I’d hate for the first game you have to be in an isolated start which can be a rough experience. Isolated starts can be a fun challenge though, but not when learning.
Plenty of essential reading, but get a game or two under your belt first :) Civ Fanatics was always a good repository of information and guides. Never really went there though after Civ V even though I thoroughly enjoyed Civ V.
What is the end status of the FFH modmod situation? I remember there were some quite good ones, but the AI never really kept up. (Not that I’m expecting great AI after such radical game changes, but it was not at all uncommon for me to find barely-developed-at-all AI empires.)
Or maybe “end status” isn’t correct–is work still ongoing, 10 years later?
Ashes of Erebus is the mod that to replaced and updated the work of Rise from Erebus, which is the mod that I used to play and is most “true” to the original while adding new stuff.
