Civilization V: Gods & Kings - Rome

In a previous post, I commented that I got bored with Civilization V rather quickly. I found the replay value to be lacking because it seemed like there just wasn't enough to do. You build, you go to war, and most of the time you win. At the higher difficulty levels, there just weren't enough ways to get around the advantages the of the computer-controlled players. But with the Gods & Kings expansion, it added not only a new religion mechanic, but added more of everything to make gameplay more varied. In the past few months, I've been playing it a lot, and the "one more turn" addiction has taken hold of me once more. I want to experience as much of the game as possibly before buying the brand new expansion, Brave New World, which changes culture entirely and adds a new tourism mechanic.

With that in mind, I'm going to be recapping some recent games I've played. I hope you enjoy them, I know I did.


ROME - AUGUSTUS CAESAR

Unique Ability: The Glory of Rome (+25% Production towards any buildings that already exist in the Capital)

Unique Unit: Ballista (+1 Combat Strength and +2 Ranged Combat Strength over Catapult, which it replaces)

Unique Unit: Legion (ability to build roads and forts, +3 Combat Strength over Swordsman, which it replaces)

Map Size: Standard (8 civilizations, 16 city-states)
Map Type: Continents
Difficulty: King (5)
Pace: Standard

The Romans are pretty great for an "infinite city sprawl" (ICS) strategy since any building that exists in Rome is built much faster in every other city in your civilization. In other words, you can build tall and wide with Rome. The problem becomes managing your gold and happiness, as lacking in either will give the computer players a big advantage, especially on King difficulty. My strategy is to build tall at first, then go wide when I can afford happiness and science buildings. A domination victory is difficult because you need science to research new units, gold to keep them upgraded, and happiness to offset the penalty of conquering cities. If anyone can do it, it's Caesar. (Well, him and Napoleon, but I don't like the French.)

I didn't take screenshots during the actual game, but I will try to tell the story of my victory through the replay maps.

 

Turn 1: I found Rome, one turn later than everyone else founded their capital, in the northwestern part of the eastern continent. To my east the Netherlands are light orange and white, to the south the Incas are gold and green, and finally on the extreme other end of the continent the English are burgundy and white. The western continent has the Polynesians in orange and white, the Spanish in dark red and pink, the Egyptians in yellow and purple, and the Austrians in red and white. All of the black territories are city-states. This is a good starting location because I have a nice buffer between Rome and London. Queen Elizabeth I can be very aggressive with expansion and military strength, so I wouldn't want to go to war with her until adequately prepared.

Of course, I don't know any of this. All I know is that Rome got lucky by starting on a hill next to a river, with wine and marble nearby. Marble is especially nice since it provides the same happiness as other luxuries in addition to speeding up wonder construction.

More after the jump...

Turn 39: Spain's Isabella is the first to get a second city online, Barcelona. She is going to be a pain in the ass.

Turn 46: I found my second city, Antium. One turn later, Ramesses II gets Egypt's second city up, Memphis. Ramesses usually builds tall, spamming wonders with his unique ability, but if he's more of an expansionist it could be a race to see who eats up unclaimed land on the western continent.

Turn 65: Polynesia built two cities in 19 turns, Samoa and Tonga. He must be going down the Liberty policy tree. Only Austria and the Netherlands have one city at this point.

Turn 71: Well, that didn't last long. William I of the Netherlands founded Rotterdam, and has taken Prague, a city-state. Very unlike him to be so aggressive... I think I'll kill him first.

Turn 85: The Netherlands gets their third city down, Utrecht. William I... more like Big Willy Style amirite?! I begin to make my preparations, which include getting a ton of legions and building a third city to the east to close off William's expansion.

Turn 126: Cumae is online and I free Prague from the tyrannical clutches of Big Willy Style. He also settled a fourth city on his southern coast, Groningen. It will make for an easy target.

Turn 142: I use a Great General to plop down a citadel right next to Amsterdam. Now the war begins in earnest. Also note that on the other continent Austria has caught up in a big way.

Turn 148: I take Groningen with only one ballista. I told you it would be easy! I puppet it for now but it's a great location for a port city. I have another ballista coming online to deal with Amsterdam. With my attention fully on Big Willy Style, Polynesia founded a shit-stain of a city (Raiatea) right under Antium.

Turn 163: Amsterdam is mine! That'll teach you to conquer city-states and have terrible nicknames! What do you mean, "But you coined Big Willy Style?" Go home, Netherlands, you're drunk.

Turn 173: The Netherlands is no more, and I now have four port cities to play with. I'll need them if I ever take on Elizabeth, which seems inevitable. Her navy is about to peak very soon with Ships of the Line, her unique unit.

Turn 195: Austria's Maria Theresa (henceforth M-Tizzle) takes Memphis, marking the first time someone other than me has sacked another civilization's city. Unfortunately, I've only met Kamehameha from Polynesia so far, so I don't know who is doing all that wonder spamming on the other continent. But I put a city down (Neapolis) to crowd out Pachacuti of the Incas, there's spices and lots of jungles there and I want them!

Turn 206/207: A lot happens on these two turns. I take Cusco, the Incan capital, while Liz takes their only other good city, Tiwanaku. Who wants a South American sandwich? Also M-Tizzle has taken Heliopolis, she's got quite a hold on the western continent.

Turn 215: Well, Pachacuti, thanks for playing. You started in between two ruthless dictators, and the Inca Empire is no more. Now there's nothing stopping Rome and England from going toe-to-toe. *gulp* I decide to start making frigates up the ass and go straight for London, because the area between Cusco and Tiwanaku is a lot of mountains, with the only pass being the city-state to the south. A direct naval attack on London, hopefully before she gets too many Ships of the Line, should be viable.

Turn 266: London is mine! I lost a lot of soldiers, partly because I tried to take Tiwanaku at the same time (there just wasn't room for all my troops, but getting bombarded by two cities really sucked).

Turn 276: I capture York, and two turns later, Hastings. It won't be long now, Lizzy.

Turn 284: England is no more, gone before her navy could wreak havoc on the greater civilizations across the ocean. With the whole of the eastern continent under my control, I refocus my energy on... Austria. M-Tizzle has the highest score of the remaining civilizations and the most culture of anyone right now, and she's also trying to convert Rome to her crappy religion (I never started one but Amsterdam and London are both holy cities). Time to mobilize once more, upgraded legions of Rome!

Turn 298: I make my splash on the western continent by conquering Salzburg. For being so tall, M-Tizzle's defenses are really quite poor, my artillery can pound away on a city and bring it down in a couple of turns. The only thing slowing me down are her hussars, unique cavalry units that have an extra flanking bonus.

Turn 304: Vienna! The hussars don't slow me down that much I suppose. I make peace with Austria to replenish my numbers and see who else needs to be taught a lesson. Everyone on the planet hates me, even Kamehameha who had been supportive of me up to this point.

Turn 319-326: Lots of things happen. M-Tizzle, feeling crowded out by my advancing forces, takes Tonga and Honolulu from Kamehameha. At this point I am short on aluminum and I see that Raiatea, the Polynesian shit-stain city on my continent, has two hexes of aluminum. So I take it. Not like it matters, the whole world has denounced me anyway. I also take Memphis and Linz from M-Tizzle, since she's busy with Polynesia. One turn later a second wave of naval units and troops arrives at Honolulu and takes that as well.

Turn 330: I take Tonga and Klagenfurt, and decide that even though I'm way ahead in science, I will... PAINT THE EARTH PURPLE!

Turn 334: M-Tizzle is dead, her Austrian people scattered. That's what you get for building wonders I wanted. Spain gets in on the action by taking Nuku Hiva. I think that's the first city Isabella has conquered. Too little, too late.

Turn 337: Kamehameha joins Big Willy Style, Pachacuti, Lizzy, and M-Tizzle. Five turns later, Ramesses follows suit. Neither of them were cool enough to get nicknames.

Turn 348: I capture Nuku Hiva, just to prove to Isabella that I'm not fucking around.

Turn 354: I have taken Cordoba and Toledo, razed Santiago and Salamanca, and in a peace offering Izzy gives me Barcelona and some crappy cities she tried to sneak in on my continent. I must wait ten turns before smiting her, which gives me enough time to build a nuclear missile. Seems like the perfect exclamation point on a domination victory.

Turn 366: I take Seville and wait for my toy to arrive...

Turn 370: KABOOM!

Damn straight, I did!

It's easy to be first in everything when no one else survived your wrath.  :)

The graph of overall score shows I was never really behind. Score does prioritize population and land mass to a certain extent. I felt like Austria was in better shape than me while I was at war with England, M-Tizzle might have won a cultural victory if she had finished off Egypt and held better defenses for Vienna and Salzburg.

And here's the graph of excess happiness. The breaks in the graph are from a session that was bugged due to a crappy patch, but you can see that I was at or near the bottom for the entire game. King difficulty gives the computer civilizations a massive happiness bonus, rewarding them with more frequent golden ages and letting them build new cities and conquer existing ones without fear of slowing growth over their entire empire.

No matter. The whole world knows the strength of the ROMAN LEGION!

Until next time...