Civilization Revolution - Page 2

My apologies to your bank account.

I just have to say, though, that as a strategy lover, this game is a godsend. I've been making do with Live Arcade stuff like Band of Bugs and Commanders, which were fine. But to finally have a real, honest-to-god strategy game on the 360 is great. Every time I start to feel that consoles are turning into shootin' simulators, something like Rock Band or CivRev comes along to make them worth owning again.

I can tell you what Diety's like... it's EEEEVIL!

I can compete, but it's probably not the most fun difficulty level, mainly because the entire game can be decided by starting position, a small mistake, or a few bad luck rolls of the dice. If your starting position sucks (low food/production, only late-game resources), it's over. In fact, Diety almost requires you to move your starting settler to get resources with your initial town (fish, at least), risking either a 2-3 turn loss (oops, hello Elizabeth! You kinda caught me with my pants down!) or a reload (cheater cheater pumpkin eater!). The AI has so many bonuses that the standard starting (no resource) spot leaves you way behind.

If you survive the first few turns (not a joke), the game usually settles down for a bit. Survival is a matter of keeping the AI from deciding to gangbang you. It's important to realize why the AI attacks you:

1) Weak defenses. If you overexpand, or just try to squeak by with a bare minimum, the AI will eye your land like it's made of ice cream and sex. Try to keep a defensive army in each town, and focus on military techs to ensure your defenders are up-to-date.

2) You're in his way. If the AI can't reach an enemy, they rarely war with them. Conversely, if an AI player is next to you, expect a fight. When building cities, try not to put yourself between two AI players, you're likely to piss them both off and end up getting pinched, since even if they're enemies, they have to kill you to kill each other.

3) You're winning. The AI knows it's playing a game, and if it sees someone is going to win, they'll try to stop it. If that's you, you may as well be the love child of Hitler and Paris Hilton.

4) He just hates you. On Diety, you start the game having already ripped a chili-fed fart in a compact car with the AI. You have to be doubly nice to recover, and sometimes his grudge is just inevitable.

Other notes for people who need a hand:

When you make an army, only one unit (the one that creates the army, I think) counts for the army stats, so only 1 in 3 towns (roughly) needs a barracks. Also, always build armies - lone units are fodder.

If the AI starts demanding tech/money/people, it means he thinks your army is weak. That's a clear sign to build troops, form armies, and grab military techs, stat.

Don't be too proud to give in to some AI bullying. If you're already at war, giving in to another AI's demands is often worth it. Better to give away some cash or a tech than to become the meat in an AI sandwich.

Rush production often. Settlers and buildings are usually worth more than the money. Rush troops whenever needed, especially if you can form an army. Other than the free settler you get for reaching 100 gold, you never want to have much money early on. Spend spend spend!

Find a way to get a boat out early. It's hard to fit in a boat when you're frantically trying to keep the AI from murdering you, but on most maps there are tons of free bonuses to be had if you find them first. Early on, those bonuses are massive. Also, remember to send along a warrior with that boat, so he can kill any barbarians on the islands you find, for even more goodies.

Don't overexpand. It's tempting to fill all the land you can grab, but if you can't defend it, you're just building towns for the AI. Focus on the spots with the best terrain/resources -right-now-, meaning resources you've already (or are just about to get) unlocked, and terrain that doesn't require buildings to be useful (grass+trees). Also be sure the good terrain/resources are right next to your town, as it might be a long time before you can get a courthouse up. Even if it costs you "the perfect placement", each town you build should have at -least- one usable resource, one grassland, and one forest, or else it'll probably take so long to grow that it'll be useless.

Don't ignore the navy. The AI is very good at punishing landlubbers. A boat next to a ground battle acts as a support bonus, and the AI -will- use this. It's also excellent at sneaking troops up your soft and poorly protected backside when you aren't looking.

Don't ignore spies. Always have one (or more) in any city that will likely face attack, and always take one (or more) with you when you attack. Spies can greatly weaken defenders before an attack, and the AI will use them a lot.

I'm sure some of that stuff is obvious to some people, but it wasn't to me at first, so I thought I'd pass it along. The best part about Civ (and especially this streamlined version), is that practically every game teaches you something.

That is excellent advice. It will help me in King, where I'm struggling. Thank you.

Thanks for all that. I'd only worked out some of it.

Any idea how worthwhile caravans really are in this game? I rarely use them. They don't seem worth the build time compared to the military units and buildings.

I have never built one caravan and very rarely do I have time for wonders, although the nuke is a great way to buy yourself some peace time cause nobody wants to fuck with you. Internet is great too, although that is a late game tech.

Has anybody played this online yet? Just wondering how smooth the transition is when playing real people.

Really, one could argue that there is actually more strategy involved just because space is so often at a premium and you CONSTANTLY have to maintain your cities defenses while plotting how to take over your neighbors cities. Which city to attack? Do I give up a tech for 7 rounds of peace? Do I spend the resources for a Wonder? Do I build a university or should I build 3 tanks for extra protection? Should I expand or fortify the cities that I have? You make the same choices in the other Civ games as well, but here the decisions have to be made much quicker because of the pace of the game and the proximity to other civs.

As stated before, placement is so important. Me losing to the Zulus in 5 turns before was due exactly to that. I was still building another warrior for defence when they came in and took my only city.

The last game I had the best start situation, plenty of grasslands with nearby resources with no enemy cities close by. Quickly scoping the land I found choke points where I immediately establish cities which immediately gave me full control over a large part of the area and a solid foundation to build from.

I find that I'm very hesitant to trade or give away techs but some of that is due to common sense. It's not like it's a good idea to give an enemy Research to Maths when that gives them catapults to attack your city when you've barely built one of your own yet.

At one time in that very same game I had every single faction attacking me which was distressing. I managed to hold them off which cost them more than it did for me since it meant every failed attack meant that an entire army was wasted while I could easily reinforce mine for no cost at all. Which also meant I could mass my armies (reason why I always have roads built between all my cities) and go on the attack immediately the next turn that usually ends with me capturing a nearby enemy city. Being a Democracy I usually could go no further since they usually sue for peace immediately after.

I ended with a cultural victory on that one, capturing as many cities as I did converting them before my UN Building went up. Though not before the Germans declared war on me even though I had them reduced to just their capital city. Foolhardy since I had large armies in all the nearby cities they could attack. And a nuke.

So guess what I did next....

Ghandi is a dick.

I swear in every incarnation of Civ Ghandi has had it out for me. I'd work things out with him, but he tends to demand almost all my gold. Though I have a city at a choke point that he can't cross so it happens to be real easy to hold him off. Pretty sure I can out last him and swing a cultural victory.

Picked it up on the DS (portable crack!) and am enjoying the hell out of it, though I am not familiar with many of the changes and the manual isn't very helpful. However I'm liking the challenge of learning the new stuff.

Caravans are only useful if you're going for the financial victory.

But... if you get a caravan from a goodie hut early in the game, DO NOT SEND IT TO A CITY. You've just obtained the ultimate scout: 3 moves, and can run right through occupied land. Scout out everything possible before cashing that little camel in.

I rarely have time for Wonders on Diety. Earlier levels I can usually squeeze some in, and the late-game wonders I normally build just to give towns something to do. If you can get Leonardo's Workshop, do so. It's the only way to upgrade obsolete units, and it does so -for-free-. Having all your archers turn into riflemen is a great way to go from whipping boy to Big Man On Campus. Other than a few key Wonders, most of them are only worth it if you're going for a cultural victory.

And yeah, the decisions are faster and furiouser in this version. Some is the scale, but a lot is thanks to the greatly reduced micromanagement. I'll be very interested to see how many ideas from this Civ make it into Civ5. A bit better diplomacy (Open Borders? PLEASE?) would make this IMO clearly the best Civ game of the bunch.

The diplomacy is the only thing that bothers me about the game. I miss being a manipulative bastard. It was always fun to squeeze as much tech and money as you possibly could out of an opponent that you're about to declare war on.

Played my first online game last night. Had two people drop, and one little kid that wouldn't shut up. He didn't seem to really like Civilization, and kept reading the demands the AI made of him out loud. Also, loved the word faggot. And constantly asked for advice. For a while, I humored him, explaining what Mao was reading, etc., but I soon became weary and muted him. Won by Time out domination, after 3 hours.

So, in short, anyone want to play a real game at some point?

I will definitely be on Friday night, probably going between this and The Who pack in Rock Band.

Hmm, I must be learning something - I'm actually trouncing the AI on Diety!

Playing as the USA (woo! U-S-A! U-S-A!), who I haven't played before in CivRev, and I gotta say I like them quite a bit. They start with a Great Person, which in my case was an Artist. Instead of settling him, I saved him for a loooong time until I could finally use his "gimme that city" power instead. That crippled the Zulus (it was their only other town).

Around the same time, I switched to Fundamentalism since I couldn't afford the time to build libraries anyway, and started my military push. When the USA's 2nd unique power kicked in (1/2 price rushes), the slaughter began. Poor fey Alexander didn't know what hit him, and a mass of catapults sent Napoleon's 3 cities to my side in about 6 turns. Russia was hiding behind Nappo, so she's next on my hit list. I like Shaka, so I'll kill him last.

I'm curious to see if I'm really getting better, or if Lincoln is just the ultimate badass, or I just got lucky. I'd say it's even money on all 3 at this point.

I want this, but there's something in the back of my head telling me i'd be better off picking up the latest Civ on my PC.

That's annoying, because I enjoyed the demo.

I didn't mind not having a mouse, the selection squares behaved a bit oddly but nothing that drove me crazy - and I used to play Civ over LAN quite a bit.

But nowadays, I don't think i've got time to kick back for the endurance games I used to - and the demo on the PS3 really frustrated me by limiting turns - which means I was hooked. Could prove bad for sleep and eating habits.

Has anyone played the DS version? I'm sure it's way too simplistic for you guys, but (a) I'm not familiar with "Civilization" and (b) the DS version looks like fun. I'm wondering if it's worth picking up. If it helps, I dig "Advance Wars", although I'm terrible at it.

Supposedly the DS version has the same gameplay as the others. I'm a longtime Civaholic, and I'll pick up the DS version (since I don't have any other consoles).

A DS version actually sounds quite tempting. Is there a PSP version?

Nope.

Anybody else here playing this for the PS3? If so I'd love some quality online games.

You probably should have bought a 360 then.

I'm just messin' with you.

Mostly.

I admit, i didnt give this game a fair chance due to the terrible voices. After reading your guys stories im going to have to give it another shot. The idea of epic long games has got me interested.

Well, actually, the games aren't epic or long. Three hours, tops. That's part of what I love about it: single-session Civilization.

And you can turn the voices off. God knows I do.

Okay, this was weird -- I was screwing around with a quick game and had some Warrior units defending near an enemy city, and some Settlers that I told to wait a turn. I had some Horsemen attack the city, and they lost badly. After that, I was unable to activate any waiting unit. The option would come up, but hitting A did nothing. Did I do something by attacking that city, or did I just hit a glitch?

I ran into something like that. I just ended the turn, and the next turn, everything was back to normal. Did your units just stay stuck?

May very well be one of the bugs in the game. I ran into another when I took a rival's capital which had the Himeji castle and Lenardo's Workshop Wonders. It asked me if I wanted to upgrade one of my riflemen units to Lightning. I selected yes and on the very next turn it asked me again if I wanted to upgrade the same unit to Medic, and then back again the next.
That came up every turn which annoyed me for the rest of the game. I tried to form an army with that unit hoping that'd shut it up but it did not let me. Really don't know what's happening there.

I went through about five or six turns and nothing changed, so I just quit.

I'm also a little ticked about going to the site to get the code to redeem my Wonders and being told they're not ready yet.

Yeah, that didn't make my day either.

I've hit a couple bugs as well - one game it refused to give me rewards for passing the money thresholds. Thankfully, there's no major issues, and we're sure to get a patch at some point to iron out the little rough bits.

After crushing the AI on Diety, part of me wants to retire forever - I can't do any better than that. Plus, if I had worked on the game, the AI would definitely remember that ass-whoopin', and beat me senseless for about the next 20 games...

I hear what your sayin'. I just wanted to invest in an entertainment system that didn't give me ulcers. But the online experience for the PS3 definately has some catching up to do.

Motherfucker, I just got out of an 8-hour game that proves you wrong. Longest one I've played yet, but man.... can't think of the last time I played a game till I realized it was light outside. Oh wait, yes I can... back when I played Civ 4.

This game is incredible. I'm busy most this week, but if anyone's game for a game this weekend, let me know. Maybe Friday night we can get a 4-player game going?

8 hours?! What the hell were you doin', man? I mean, a war-heavy game tends to take longer than most, but still. 8 hours is extreme.

Yeah, I really have no idea how that happened. I was playing (the game of the week game) more for war, but ended up winning by sending off my colony to the stars.

Still, had a blast, but never had a game go that long.

Isn't there a certain turn count where it ends the game by domination for whoever has the highest score? I got a warning once that it was going to do that in five turns, just before I won by Tech.

You don't. That's one of my few bitches.

Not to my knowledge.

Really, though, I've found that your army stacks don't need to be nearly as huge as in the PC game. I once conquered over half the map with four tank armies riding around in a cruiser fleet. Granted, that was on Warlord difficulty, but my King armies haven't been much bigger.

How do you have an 8 hour game? It times you out at 2100. Can you turn that off?

I'm a big fan of the CIV games from the PC days. I tried out the demo of CR last night on my 360. I have a couple of questions for those who own the full version. There were some things I wanted to do but couldn't and I want to know if its just something I missed/not in the demo or if its one of the limitations on the console version of Civ.

1. Is it possible to disband units in a town? Couldn't find a way to do that.
2. Can you upgrade units when new tech is researched? It seemed like I couldn't.
3. Any easy ways to zoom out? I used the LT I believe but it was slow and I could never see the entire world in one view.
4. Can you move all armies or units on a square at once? Edit - just saw someone asked that above and you can't do this. Bummer.

Thanks!

Looking at the leaderboards I finished my game at 2096. No idea, maybe it was a lot of combat that did it? Sitting through animations? I also sent my ship off to Alpha Centauri with a ton of modules and such.

JudgeSmails- think the answer to all of those questions is No. The limitations definitely suck for people familiar with the series but makes sense for the new streamlined version. And honestly, it's just as addictive as any of the other titles.

I believe you need the Leonardo's Workshop wonder to upgrade units. I don't own the game so I won't swear to it.

Thanks for the answers folks. Yeah, I was afraid of that. But I did like the demo. Of course I only planned on playing for a few mins to try it out but ended by playing until the demo kicked me out at 1250 AD I believe. Not sure if I'm hooked enough to pickup the full retail just yet.

The Army mechanic is inspiring in me great levels of contempt. Am I doing it wrong? When I've got two Armies apiece of Horsemen, Legions and Archers in the same exact spot, why on earth wouldn't I be able to actually use all of those units to attack? Did I just massively fuck up, or does this game seriously not allow you to use your units?

You mean attack with all the units together? No, you can't do that. Only one on one.

So, game, tonight, anyone? I've got 4 hours to kill right now before I go out.

How the living holy hell are people beating the Game of the Week in the BC's? It's got to be Domination victories; I can't imagine how else it's possible.

No, units have no upkeep, so there's no point... either use them as fodder, or put them in defend mode and forget about them.

I'm assuming you meant Armies, not Units (you combine 3 similar Units to make an Army that attacks all at once). Armies can only attack one at a time, but you can pound the enemy with as many of them as you have. Unless your armies are way overmatched or very unlucky, they'll usually do damage to an enemy even in defeat. So enough Armies can burn through even stronger defenders.

They're not "playing the game". They're loading the map, exploring it, restarting, surging to where they now know the enemies are, and restarting if a single random roll goes against them. In order to win, they need great results from the goody-huts and a series of lucky rolls.

Basically, they're doing something I would never do, simply because it seems extremely lacking in fun (and shows no skill whatsoever).

Ugh, I though all the modes through King were too easy, then got my ass handed to me in Emperor mode. i played as England, and was under fire from the warrior era all the way up through Rome's space mission. I spent so much time defending myself against the Indians and Arabs that I never could get ahead.