On what level will you play your first game?

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by Stuie
I for one dislike anything that comes close to an ICS strategy, preferring to actually develop my cities.

IMHO, ICS is not a strategy; it's a cheat.

[Sarxis]

KIng. That will be easy enough, and give me a chance to become accustomed to CivIII.

And ICS would be good if it was better balanced. Afterall, there are plenty of asian countries that have cities that are highly developed, but are just SPRAWLING with population.

[JellyDonut]

ICS is unrealistic. Those Asian countries with huge populations are having a problem with it. The gov'ts had to resort to extreme measures to combat them (like the 1 child maximum in China or the whole Indira Gandhi scandal), but in Civ II biger always equals better.

Large empires geographically also have severe problems. It's what caused the Roman Empire to split up. Once an empire becomes too large, trans-empire communication becomes difficult, different parts of the empire start to become distinct in culture and eventually in ideals until the empire splits (although modern empires like China and the U.S. have the advantage of modern communications technology to keep them together).

[Sarxis]

I agree JellyD. These are the types of things that Firaxis could use to balance ICS.

And just for the record, I never use ICS- I like my bases 'Deep and Wide'.

[Mankind]

First I'll play on cheftain.

[Skanky Burns]

Im gonna play on Prince level (which is also my rank ) so that im not going to be immediately crushed by the AI, but at the same time the AI wont reward me for using stupid tactics.
In Civ 2, i played on the lower levels, and never defended cities with more than 1 unit. This allowed me to use almost all my resources for building other stuff. Obviously, on higher levels this didnt quite work One barbarian and my defender would be dead.

And a warning to those planning on trying the ICS strategy: The new 2-pop settlers will mean that a perfectionist civ will get land faster than an ICS civ will. Check the ICS thread in this forum for more details.

Edit: A link to the ICS Thread

[SerapisIV]

I'll be playing Prince first. Knowing full well that it probably won't be a real challenge, I plan to use it to explore the resources and diplomacy system without having to worry about serious opposition. Probably move up to King for my second game to try for real and then emperor by my third once I've actually figured out the game. I'll get to Deity after a few months, as I doubt I'll be able to kill off more the 4-5 games in the first few months because of work and school

[Uncle Thade]

I plan on Diety, I just want to see what the AI is really made of and how many times I'm going to shriek and throttle my own ineptitude.

Heck I'm not going to even read the manual!

It's going to be just like being a newbie!!!

[Jason Beaudoin]

I plan on taking Prince (probably).

Largest map, 16 civilizations, and all the features turned on. Playing as the Germans or the English.

I want to experiment with the new features, and I don't want to be destracted by having to just survive, but at the same time, I want to see other civilizations advance and interact well, so a medium level is best in my opinion.

BTW, how does anyone beat Diety. I've never been able to do that. The hardest I could ever play was King in CIV2.

[cyril25376]

I will play as Warlord. But when I loose to often I will change to chieftain

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by Jason Beaudoin
BTW, how does anyone beat Diety. I've never been able to do that. The hardest I could ever play was King in CIV2.

This is how a Deity game went for me:
1) Set up city.
2) Notice city in civil disorder.
3) Raise Luxuries to maximum.
4) Notice city still in civil disorder.
5) Attempt to buy temple; no money.
6) Utterly, utterly screwed.
7) ctrl+alt+del

[Executor]

Originally posted by JellyDonut


This is how a Deity game went for me:
1) Set up city.
2) Notice city in civil disorder.
3) Raise Luxuries to maximum.
4) Notice city still in civil disorder.
5) Attempt to buy temple; no money.
6) Utterly, utterly screwed.
7) ctrl+alt+del

After building your city immediately create a few warriors.

[Akron]

In civ 2 deity, all you have to do is get past the early game and quell your people's unhappiness. Build caravans to get wonders, expand fast, there are a lot of things that help. Once you're past the early game, you have no problems, as the ai is as stupid as ever. It simply uses its increased production power to move yet more units aimlessly around the map!

[Be Quicker]

I'll try Prince.
On a related note, will there be a tutorial game (like in CivII)?

[Th0mas]

I don't want to be crushed on my first game

If the difficulty levels are set-up the same way as in SMAC and CIV II then Prince will be my choice.

Based on that assumption, King would be a level playing field between the AI and myself - so start with Prince, for a bit of a challenge without either a complete walkover at Chieftain/Warlord or a hopeless disaster at Emperor/Diety.

Another point - at Diety the game will be extemely skewed - you may miss some of the subtleties e.g. Diplomacy on Diety - AI Bias so they all hate you?