Multiplayer: gripes, praises and general first impressions

[ScrotusMaximus]

Before I even get started, I should preface this by saying that I haven't yet played even 1 turn of Civ5 SP. Immediately after work my friend and I installed and began playing MP duels. Furthermore, I have not yet played past the Medieval era. But after a good handful of 1v1 MP rounds this evening, here are my thoughts.

Let's start with the good:

Civ5 is fundamentally a good game. Hexes and 1UPT are really what set it apart from previous iterations (finally we have meaningful decisions to make in warfare)! The myriad ways in which combat decisions can make or break your assault (or survival therein) have been discussed at length in other reviews and commentary, so I won't detail them here; just play a few games and see for yourself.

Some of the simplifications that others are griping about are actually enhancements in my view. I honestly hated a lot of the micro-management and clutter in Civ4. Was it really enjoyable building roads in every tile, aqueducts in every city, and moving dozens of units all over the map, onto and off of boats?

And, of course, the game is very pretty; not due in small part to hexes.

Now the gripes:

This game is not ready for release. I routinely told units to move two tiles, only to watch them move one and then be prompted to move them again. On a few occasions I noticed that I was able to move a unit even though the "next turn" indicator was present. And where is the "shuffled" map type? Strangely, the game room screen (after host setup) shows "map type: random" when you select "continents" as the map type, but only if your map size is not set to random (?).

The tech tree is pretty narrow and doesn't allow for a lot of strategic variety. As one reviewer mentioned (I can't remember which one), Great Library rushing seems to be *the* strategy to pursue in most/all cases.

Barbarians are irritating, but not much else. Tactically, they are low-functioning retards. Nonetheless, they seem to appear out of nowhere and relentlessly cause messes for you to clean up. One barbarian spearman wondered into my borders and pillaged a mine in a single turn. That particular problem could be remedied if the view radius around your borders extended two tiles. Okay... fine, I could have placed units on my perimeter to scout out barbarians, but either way would my encounter really have added anything meaningful to the game experience? Nah.

Okay... back to the game now :-)

[MxM]

Playing SP on settler... I actually like barbarian implementation (though I did not have single turn move pillage). They provide very good pressure early in the game, so that even on settler level I had to think how to protect myself. It increases value of scouting and patrolling the borders.

[Kolbeg]

Barbs, seem to add a nice strategic angle to the game as well. Certain Civs can benefit from hunting them down and others have the option of just staying at home and defend against them or hunt them down for "CityState GoodWill" and nice amount of Gold.

The same should be said about CityStates. I used to just let them go about their business until I saw one of them having a nice amount of Workers peacefully cultivating its land. I was in a peaceful mode, like I usually am, but the benefit of enslaving those Workers for the Greater Good, really changed my Values that game. This was one of the most curious happenings I´ve encountered in this game.

[pdxsean]

That next turn thing is really frustrating. Especially when you hit "next turn" and then go get a glass of water or something. You come back expecting your list of achievements and there's one worker with half a movement point left waiting for you to skip a turn. Grrr.

I agree with you on the improvements with the streamlining. I thought a lot would be lost, but I don't miss much of it at all. I do still miss the tech/tax/culture slider... I always have a huge surplus of either science or gold and would really like to be able to divert that manually. I guess the correct answer is to plan ahead when building my civ. In time I'm sure I'll find the right balance.

I've had a lot of trouble with my economy in the later (Industrial era on) stages of the game. It's much harder to stay profitable than I would expect with my tiny army and stock-market-built cities. The inability to look at the specifics of where my money is going is pretty frustrating.

All that being said, the game is NOT a cakewalk. The streamlining hadn't taken away from the depth and strategy required (in SP mind) to win, it's just requires a different approach than any previous CIV game. In some ways, such as by eliminating the tax slider, I think it's even tougher than before. Long gone are the Civ III days of unbridled expansion.

I'm looking forward to giving MP a try. I'm still on my first SP game, but once I get the hang of it I'll get in there and see how I can compete with the big boys!

[Civ 2.5]

I dont know, I can't get past the wanna-be panzer general gameboard feel... I guess Im just an old chess hound

[Crustacian]

Now the gripes

The tech tree is pretty narrow and doesn't allow for a lot of strategic variety. As one reviewer mentioned (I can't remember which one), Great Library rushing seems to be *the* strategy to pursue in most/all cases.

Barbarians are irritating, but not much else. Tactically, they are low-functioning retards. Nonetheless, they seem to appear out of nowhere and relentlessly cause messes for you to clean up. One barbarian spearman wondered into my borders and pillaged a mine in a single turn. That particular problem could be remedied if the view radius around your borders extended two tiles. Okay... fine, I could have placed units on my perimeter to scout out barbarians, but either way would my encounter really have added anything meaningful to the game experience? Nah.

Okay... back to the game now :-)

I have some sympathies along your line of thought untill playing my Nephew recently in a duel. I indeed got GL and was Neb. He "farmed" the barb spawn areas while choosing civics that allowed him culture in addition to gold for knocking them out as they were spawned. Plus he capitalized on the city states more effectivly than me and that is what enabled him to whup me.

Your point on the tech tree seems worth thinking about even tho I was whupped outside the tech tree area by utilization of civics, city state exploitation, and barbaraculture!!!

So if the tech tree was expanded, what are your sugestions?