Civilization V "Brave New World" expansion announced

[Erik_Twice]

The new civs are pretty strange but as long as they play well, I don't mind.

Have to say I've never heard about the Shoshone until now.

[Violent By Design]

Venice's seems pretty bad ~_~.

[AmishSamurai]

Venice's seems pretty bad ~_~.

Being able to insta-steal city-states, where the best resources ALWAYS are, isn't that bad. Also, you get 16 trade routes. That's pretty insane. It's not bad, just different. You're encouraged to build super-tall instead of Wide.

[Violent By Design]

What does doubling trade routes mean? That if you connect to 3 cities, you'll get gold equivalent to being connected to 6 cities?

[AmishSamurai]

What does doubling trade routes mean? That if you connect to 3 cities, you'll get gold equivalent to being connected to 6 cities?

It means rather than being capped at connecting to 3 cities in the whatever era, you can connect to 6 cities. So you can build super-tall in your capital, and shove gold and production everywhere. Science leaks from high to low in trade routes, so you also don't need to invest much in that. Build up tourism/culture and that flies over the routes too.

[AmishSamurai]

So I was hesitant on the Shoshone, just because they seemed so generic compared to other military things we've seen (Pathfinders are cool, but Comanche aren't as interesting as Winged Hussars or Impi for a unique military), but someone pointed out how you can pretty much dominate the resource game while still being isolationist, and Pathfinders can give you crazy early science with the tech bonus from ruins. Unfortunately like most science civs (and science victory in general), they are still really really passive. That's why Assyria seems so cool. Their Science and Military are kind of tied together, whereas most of the time like with say, Korea and Babylon it's a defensive game and the bonuses are focused around keeping you not dead long enough for spaceship happy funtime, or it's a last resort for when military just isn't working (China).

[AmishSamurai]

So I started playing yesterday as Brazil, and the science cost increases and no more gold from rivers and coasts gutted my playstyle pretty hard. Also, the following previously existing civs got their abilities/uniques changed

Arabia- Now trade caravans gain +50% range, and religion spreads with double pressure across trade routes. Oil resources are doubled (Old unique- +1 gold from trade routes, double oil). I like this because it sets them as a cool faith civ and keeps Morocco from stepping on their toes too much.

France- Now their tourism output from theming bonuses in capital is doubled (former was +2 culture per city per turn until Steam Power is discovered). The French Foreign Legion has also been replaced with the Chateau, a unique improvement.

[Snatch1414]

I have a question about Civ and buying it from Steam. I'd like to get back into games like it but if I buy it on Steam....well isn't it kinda crucial to have the paper manual? I just remember back in the day playing Alpha Centauri and the book was thick with info and the tech tree was useful too. Is that just a sacrifice made when buying a digital copy?

[MrPopo]

I have a question about Civ and buying it from Steam. I'd like to get back into games like it but if I buy it on Steam....well isn't it kinda crucial to have the paper manual? I just remember back in the day playing Alpha Centauri and the book was thick with info and the tech tree was useful too. Is that just a sacrifice made when buying a digital copy?

The Civ games have the entire tech tree in-game, and the in-game Civilopedia and tips do a good job of explaining everything you need to know. Additionally, it does come with a PDF menu you can access from the context menu in Steam.

[AmishSamurai]

I have a question about Civ and buying it from Steam. I'd like to get back into games like it but if I buy it on Steam....well isn't it kinda crucial to have the paper manual? I just remember back in the day playing Alpha Centauri and the book was thick with info and the tech tree was useful too. Is that just a sacrifice made when buying a digital copy?

I have the vanilla game on dvd-rom, but between two major expansions and several patches I end up having huge steam updates anyways. It does come with a tech tree poster, but that is outdated if you get either of the expansions. I would either get the Civ V Gold, which includes all the dlc and G&K and then buy BNW, or wait for the inevitable Civ V Perfect edition which has everything.

Also, firaxis accidentally put BNW on sale for the summer sale, so as an apology to everyone who paid full price for it at release or pre-release they gave them a copy of Civ IV.