One free (legal!) copy of Civilization V (PC/Mac, Steam required)

[EricKei]

I've been playing 4X* games since the first one (Reach for the Stars...on MS-DOS 3), and I probably still have the floppy diskette ^_^

One thing I can tell you about the genre is that yes, all of the computer players really ARE out to get you. Some things that these games typically do with regards to the AI (these penalties get worse on harder difficulties):

- They get "diplomatic" bonuses that are favorable towards one another, and their opinion of you generally degrades faster than their opinions of one another, even when nobody does anything bad
- They can and WILL join forces against you, especially if you're winning
- They often start with extra money/resources -- on higher difficulties, maybe even with an established city and units while you still have your starting Settler
- The AI players have a specific chunk of the map they consider to be "theirs," normally the part they start on. Having a city/unit on any of these tiles, or even one considered part of your empire (they will start bitching about you getting too close, even if their nearest owned tile is 20+ tiles away -- it's THEIR empty land, dammit!), will reduce their opinion of you more quickly than normal. Ditto if you build a city really close to one of theirs (they have no issue building so close to yours that it cuts off your workable-tile area, though)
- They will hold grudges for a long time, especially with regards to "Atrocities" like nuking one of their towns, conquering and eliminating another ruler/civ, breaking a peace accord (instead of waiting for THEM to attack). You get the most penalty "points" from the one you actually hurt, but ALL AI civs will be pissed off about certain actions. Build up your army, your alliances, and your defenses before doing these sorts of things, and be prepared to steamroll the side you plan to offend.

Note specific to Civ games on Steam, or, at least Civ V: If you are running a mod of any kind, it won't count towards cheevos.

Oh yeah - Not sure if Japan is in "vanilla" Civ V, but it's a good side to learn with, especially on maps where you WILL come into conflict with others sooner, rather than later (read: any map with a lot of connected land tiles). They retain their maximum combat effectiveness even if they're down to a single hit point, making them terrors on the battlefield, and great for clearing out barbarians. (Normally, a unit at half HP fights at half effectiveness)

*eXplore (the land), eXpand (your territory), eXploit (the resources), eXterminate (your foes)

[Gravekeeper]

One thing I can tell you about the genre is that yes, all of the computer players really ARE out to get you. Some things that these games typically do with regards to the AI (these penalties get worse on harder difficulties):

The main thing with Civ V is just to try to not come across as a warmongering dick if you don't want the world to unit against you. Other than that, aside from Gandhi, every behaves in line with their history. Which is both a blessing and a curse. As there's not a lot of historical leaders who were pacifists. The best you can hope for is to run into the diplomats like Washington.

Civ 5 doesn't give the AI's any extra cities. They will get extra units but only if you crank the difficulty right up to nightmare mode. Mainly they just get increasing bonuses that make it easier to keep their citizens happy and working better, faster, stronger. None of this starts until you bump it above Prince difficulty though and you have to bump it to Deity or Immortal for it to really just start blatantly cheating. >.>

Oh, and they will kill each other wholesale in Civ 5.

[Kheldarson]

Oh, and they will kill each other wholesale in Civ 5.

I'll admit to only really playing up to Warlord, but it's hilarious watching two nations go at it while I'm slowly building my culture up to a point where my victory in that forum is inevitable.

And then I buy all the units I possibly need for the inevitable military onslaught.

[Barracuda]

I play Civ 4, myself, but it's still fun. I like to be prepared. I will admit I sometimes am not above gobbling up a weak neighbor, but I also like to place a city or two on continents not my own if I get to them in time, so I can be prepared. Last game I played the Vikings made the mistake of declaring war after I refused to pay them tribute. I have an inflexible rule with computer players: Cross me, and all your land are belong to us. Erik the Red quickly became Erik the Dead.

[Fire_on_High]

Oh yeah - Not sure if Japan is in "vanilla" Civ V, but it's a good side to learn with, especially on maps where you WILL come into conflict with others sooner, rather than later (read: any map with a lot of connected land tiles). They retain their maximum combat effectiveness even if they're down to a single hit point, making them terrors on the battlefield, and great for clearing out barbarians. (Normally, a unit at half HP fights at half effectiveness)

This is what I was going to say. Definitely pick Japan (Nobunaga) while you're learning. If not, Iroquois Nation (Hiawatha) is also a fairly easy one to learn with.

Civ 5 actually runs pretty well for me...anyone who's having issues with it might want to try another version of DX? It was notedly better behaved in 9 for me.

[Kagato]

Whenever I play Civilization (pretty much ANY of the games), I usually end up choosing Aztec for my civilization, when I don't come up with my own custom name, though I always give my cities custom names

[Kaylyn]

I just like to go completely random. Started a new random game last night (I have yet to actually win a game of Civ), I'm Sweden and apparently it only gave me one opponent. Again I'm stuck on an island, but this one is much bigger and has 2 city-states on it that I'm allies with. The problem this time is I'm completely isolated, surrounded by deep water, so I have to rush through researching Astronomy to actually MEET my opponent. I'm apparently kicking his butt score-wise, and he entered Classical Age waaaaay after I did. Since it's only one opponent, I'm thinking about going full military with Terracotta Army and just overrunning him once I find him and get a chance to judge his military strength.

[Gravekeeper]

Civ 5 actually runs pretty well for me...anyone who's having issues with it might want to try another version of DX? It was notedly better behaved in 9 for me.

Well, aside from memory leak problems the game is poorly optimized graphically and especially when running scripts. The early game is always fine but the late game it starts to have an aneurysm trying to think through AI turns. Because of its lua script processing speed. As for the graphics, it draws and animates units and battles even if they are not on screen or not visible due to fog of war or unexplored map areas.

Essentially, the engine is stupid and every turn in the late game is a surprise pop quiz. -.-

Whenever I play Civilization (pretty much ANY of the games), I usually end up choosing Aztec for my civilization, when I don't come up with my own custom name, though I always give my cities custom names

I think I mainly played Catherine/Russia in Civ 5.

Mainly because the Civ series steadfastly refuses to add Canada despite people modding Canada in after every game they release. ;p

[dalesys]

Mainly because the Civ series steadfastly refuses to add Canada despite people modding Canada in after every game they release. ;p

Well, derrh. Canada's to civilized for Civilization.

[EricKei]

Barracuda -- If yer playing Civ 4, I strongly recommend giving the Fall From Heaven II mod a try. It's a very well-done total-coversion mod that changes it into a fantasy-themed game, complete with religions (before Civ had them), magic, and some unusual civs. Case in point: One of the civs can expand their "workable" territory farther than the others, but they can ONLY ever have five true cities. Any others, and any captured ones beyond this limit, end up as one-Population "outposts" with no buildings (save for those automatically granted) and almost no border growth. They do have a use, though -- they're good for claiming turf and resources, and they are comparatively cheap to maintain. Oh, and the civ's leader is an ancient Gold Dragon...who is also a one-time-only endgame unit.

[lordlundar]

Well, derrh. Canada's to civilized for Civilization.

Nah, too OP. Canada would have almost the entire world before anyone even knew what was happening and the only clue would be a better standard of living for everyone.

[Gravekeeper]

Nah, too OP. Canada would have almost the entire world before anyone even knew what was happening and the only clue would be a better standard of living for everyone.

"Man, I got a great deal on my meds this we-OH SHI-"

[lordlundar]

And to prove the argument:

http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2014/02/12

[Kaylyn]

Finally won my first game! Continued the game I left off on last night. Spent the whole time while I was researching enough to make it overseas building up my army, zoomed across the ocean, and found my opponent...Venice. Who barely had anything built up, but had apparently had enough time to conquer and create a puppet city-state. Pretty much just mowed over him with troops and archers. Didn't even have time to squeeze my catapult in there for a shot.

[Gravekeeper]

I never go for military victory. Too annoying. >.>

I rule through science~ and occasionally slavish devotion to some sort of obscure god.