Finally Got Into Civ 5

[Jacob]

I was so stoked when Civ 5 was coming, but found it pretty underwhelming on release. Now I've gotten all the expansions and so on and am having a good time.

Do any of you have tips, tricks or interesting strategies to share?

[The Brain]

I tend to turtle in these games. So no I guess.

[Winkelried]

I tend to turtle in these games. So no I guess.

I do the same. I chose Egypt and the wonder building cult early on and just lined up one wonder after another. I think it was the middle ages already when I built cities 2 and 3.

Is there any other viable strategy?

[PRC]

I just picked up Brave New World in the Steam sales and am playing a game right now. 

I'm playing as the Zulu.  Their unique unit, the Impi's are super powerful.  They're an early unit that receives a free missile attack before engaging in melee attack and they also have +1 movement.  They don't seem to be all that good at sieges though.  They're also a tough opponent if they're close to you.

The Piety policy is good.  The reformation beliefs there can be very helpful if you're focusing on getting the extra perks a religion can offer you. 

If you're playing on harder difficulties pay attention to the warning if you takeover another civ's city that says "Warning: you will receive a MAJOR warmonger penalty if you take this city."  That penalty can make it tough and other civ's won't be very pleasant towards you.

Trade routes are awesome!  Max them out.  If you have a workshop it will send production to other cities, without reducing your origin cities production. 

Unhappiness penalties have changed in BNW, don't neglect the happy face buildings.  If it's get to low you could get into rebellion issues.

[Jacob]

The strategy I've settled on after my first few playthroughs:

- Go for piety early to start a pantheon, and pick one that gives you a boost. Keep pushing piety a little bit to get a religion for another boost.
- Expand to two or three cities fast, adding a fourth one when it's reasonable.
- Culture wise focus heavily on Tradition (hence four cities max).
- Build wonders.
- Always max out trade routes.
- Once Tradition is maxed out (and possibly with an early foray into Honour to help vs barbarians), invest in patronage.
- Start spending on city-states as patronage comes online; combined with by then being in the lead, more or less, on culture and piety the various quests soon put at least half the city states firmly in your sphere.
- At that point your research, economy, and culture will be outpacing everyone else - at least on standard difficulty.

It took a bit to get there. I've taken a break from regular Civ 5 to play the scenarios. I'm having a lot of fun playing the Scourge of God, Attila of the Huns, in the Fall of Rome Scenario. I'm thoroughly sacking the Sassanid's right now, but I have my sights on Constantinople and even Rome. It plays a lot more like a hex-and-counter wargame than standard Civ, which is kind of interesting.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Any Fall From Heaven style fantasy scenarios?

[Winkelried]

Any Fall From Heaven style fantasy scenarios?

I haven't found any for BNW.

I really hope somebody will make one. It's the only reason I kept going back to Civ4.

[Syt]

Wasn't there a mod with the D&D races?

[Razgovory]

What sort of setting do you guys use?  How many civs, how big a map etc?

[Jacob]

Right now I'm usually playing on normal difficulty (Prince), with 10 other Civs and 20-24 city states. I've turned off ancient ruins and set the barbarians to raging (not much of a difference TBH).