End game excitement!

[ayronis]

(Single Player – Noble, Continents, all standard)

The last 30 turns of my most recent game were some of the most exciting I have ever had in a Civ game. A long drawn out end game “world war” between two political blocs finally ended with my side victorious. The UN emerged as a force to be reckoned with and both the other leader and I in the bloc lobbied for votes amongst all the remaining players. The space race was underway and I had a two tech lead but my opponent had a production advantage.



As I near completion of my final piece my spies discovered that he had only one turn left on his! I gave my spies their orders and the bombs were laid....



BOOM

Half the production of the Docking Bay destroyed! I finish my Stasis Chamber and reach Alpha Centauri!

After what I've been through, this pic is so beautiful; it almost brings a tear to the eye...

[marcuspeddle]

Very impressive. Sounds like the game will be fun all the way through. Were you getting bogged down with micromanagement or unit moving near the end of the game? I'm really looking forward to getting it.

[Martinus]

I agree. The end game is much more exciting in Civ 4 than in previous games.

In my last game as Frederick of Germany I formed a permanent alliance with Elisabeth and was on good terms with Washington. Our main opponent was Louis XIV with his crony, Catherine.

The last 30 turns or so was a mad race to finisht he spaceship (kudos to Lizzie for that) while fighting off Louis' forces and praying he won't get enough majority to vote himself leader of the world in the UN (Cath voted for him every time, meaning he was about 5-10 votes short of the victory). Eventually we won, but it was damn fun.

Unlike previous civs, AI really mobilizes in the end game.

[ayronis]

Originally posted by Masuro
Very impressive. Sounds like the game will be fun all the way through. Were you getting bogged down with micromanagement or unit moving near the end of the game? I'm really looking forward to getting it.

No, I wouldn't say so. You can assign stacks of units to hotkeys so moving my forces is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3. Late game worker use is a little bit tedious since the automation occassionally chops trees down that I want to keep, but I can cycle through all workers with the "/" key, so I don't mind moving them all manually on the occasion that I conquer new land.

No pollution makes the end-game MUCH more enjoyable.

[ayronis]

Originally posted by Martinus
I agree. The end game is much more exciting in Civ 4 than in previous games.

In my last game as Frederick of Germany I formed a permanent alliance with Elisabeth and was on good terms with Washington. Our main opponent was Louis XIV with his crony, Catherine.

The last 30 turns or so was a mad race to finisht he spaceship (kudos to Lizzie for that) while fighting off Louis' forces and praying he won't get enough majority to vote himself leader of the world in the UN (Cath voted for him every time, meaning he was about 5-10 votes short of the victory). Eventually we won, but it was damn fun.

Unlike previous civs, AI really mobilizes in the end game.

It sure is. Since there is a required number of votes for the diplomatic victory, and there are a couple of resolutions that are voted on leading up to it, every single session is exciting now. You can actually see the way the alliances affect the vote and each resolution is a clue as to which leader might win.

It makes you re-think late game nuke options.

Additionally, the AI wants to win now. It can tell when you are approaching victory and it actually attempts to do something about it. It isn't suicidal, but when your culture is dominating them or you are nearing the space race, then military alliances begin to form against you (unless they can win the space race themselves). I have played four games now and the two that made it to the end game have been very exciting indeed.

[Solver]

The late game in Civ4 is definitely improvement - while it was by far my least favorite part of Civ3. I actually think the first half of a Civ3 game was pretty good, but ater, it started to be bad.

In Civ4, one thing is that the AIs want to win. You can really see them actively pursuing space or the UN victory, which is way nice. Another thing is how overall the AI doesn't "die" - previous AIs somehow stagnated towards the late game, and didn't really have much of a clue. The Civ4 AI is very much alive, will use the modern tools of war if a war is ongoing, and will form blocs .

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by ayronis


No, I wouldn't say so. You can assign stacks of units to hotkeys so moving my forces is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3. Late game worker use is a little bit tedious since the automation occassionally chops trees down that I want to keep, but I can cycle through all workers with the "/" key, so I don't mind moving them all manually on the occasion that I conquer new land.

No pollution makes the end-game MUCH more enjoyable.

And even micromanaging workers is much easier now,
as you can queue up orders by using Shift-Click,
so that you can for example order a worker
to "Move to tile X", "Build a Sawmill" and "Lay Railroad Tracks"
all in one go.

[marcuspeddle]

That's very useful.

I can see that I'm going to have to carefully read the manual to learn all the new features and additions from Civ 3. Sounds good.

[LzPrst]

only problem is that the second your last spaceship part is finishedENDGAME!

whatever happened to travel time? building a faster ship? seeing the spaceship screen and watching it grow. watching with frustration the competitors spaceship grow. taking out the opponents capital and crashing their ship? starting an all out nuke war just so the AI wont win without severe PAIN. this was actually better in CIV I. why does firaxis do this at every turn? 3 steps forward 2 steps backward.

[Solver]

There was a rather simple problem with the old space race. Basically, while it was a scientific victory, it was very easy for the warmonger to prevent. Take the capital, and the ship is gone. Thus, the approach of a peaceful science victory didn't work too well, while as a warmonger, you could just wait until the right moment and invade the capital with an overwhelming force.

[Khab]

I dunno about the AI wanting to win - they're fairly bright, but they're fairly easily manipulated. In my last game (on Warlord) Qin of the Chinese (who had been my best mate throughout the game up til then) suddenly started building space ship parts right after I did, and quicker than I was, too!

Since I was the peaceful, building England on an Earth map (the modded one released with all 18 civs - lots of fun but FORGET about a diplo victory), I was a bit too far a away from him to build an sufficient expeditionary force and have it reach him in time to make a difference, I looked into my options.

The Persians, number three in the race and China's next-door neighbour, were no great fans of China. Too bad I was not on their Christmas list either, no way Cyrus would go to war for Old England. Darn it. Well, the Chinese are still me best mates, and he really doesn't like Cyrus much... Indeed - for a paltry sum of gold Qin said "Why the hell not?" and declared on Cyrus. Qin had a slight tech advantage, so I decided some behind-the-scenes propping-up of the Persians might be in order.

I send Cyrus some excess units while I gear all my cities into producing SS parts, hoping the Chinese will be distracted enough by the war. I send off a spy to check on their progress, while I'm at it. After a few turns Qin calls to ask me to help him fight the pesky Persians. He's not at all happy when I turn him down most rudely. My units and spy arrives in Persia only to find Qin's forces have already taken one and razed another Persian city! More must be done to prevent the Chinese running rampant. I give Cyrus a call and tell I have 1000g with his name on it, and set him up with a monthly stipend, too. I also turn some of my cities to producing Gunships and Mech.Infs that I then send off to Cyrus.

Meanwhile, my Spy has arrived in China and I can happily conclude my scheme has indeed worked - all of China's major cities are producing military units for the war. The Middle-eastern war rages on while I build like crazy. Cyrus manages to hold on thanks to my "military advisors" and "foreign aid", and Qin's tanks get bogged down in Pakistan.

Before I knew it, I'd completed the Stasis Chamber in London, and off the ship went. Three Cheers for England, old boy! Qin and Cyrus looked up from their war-room maps to realise they'd been had, and Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth I had won the day (or, er, game).

I do however also miss the old "I lost the building race but stuck four more engines on my ship so I beat you to Alpha Centauri, ya bastard!"-stuff, but it sounds like they had a good enough reason to change that. OTOH, wouldn't that scenario be mostly relevant in MP? Couldn't we still have the old nervous waiting and fortifying of one's capital while we wait for the ship to arrive? Is there a possibility of a mod, or would that be too complicated?

My point was that if Qin had known his own best, he'd never had gone to war at that point, no matter how much he liked me - or he would at least have tried to get Cyrus to kiss and make up once he realised I wasn't going to join in.

Oh well, I had tons of fun, anyway.