Fairly certain there hasn't been a thread discussing this expansion on Civ V yet, and I just copped it yesterday evening, so I'm starting one. It's essentially taken Gods and Kings' religion system and expanded it a bit, with some really cool Trade and Diplomacy additions to boot.

So far, I've only been able to play an hour or two, but you can best believe I'll be addicted in no time. The reviews have been pretty much stellar so far, and I'm already digging the additions. It's all at once easier and more difficult, but I haven't proceeded past the first hour, so I'm not sure how awesome all the changes will be. Anyone else get the expansion?

By the way, hit me up with your info and I'll add y'all on steam Thursday when I get my Internet set up at my house.

 

I've had it since release and I fucking love it. It took Gods & Kings, already a good game, and brought it to a WHOLE new level. The World Congress is a very well done feature, tourism seems poorly named, but it's a good feature too. From what I've seen, it managed to fix the hyper aggression of almost all Civs in Gods & Kings from a war perspective, though it can be argued that they overcompensated too much. The ideologies are great and add a new wrinkle to late game matches.

MonkeyEpoxy on steam.

 

I've played a few practice games on it and the World Congress is just plain awesome. It's a great mechanic and I can't wait to play a multiplayer game with it. Wonderspam won't win this time! MUAHAHAHA!

 

"Fenraellis" It's in my signature.

In a recent game with a friend, he was relatively firmly in the lead, ever since I deviated by two turns to build something else before starting Petra(both of our capitols were in the desert, but mine had 21 tiles that would benefit, his only had 13). Well, he got it, and the large amount of free food and production that comes with it.

But, hey, I have Desert Faith, and was earning +400 faith per turn when he only got +50(Mosque/Pagoda + Piety = minimum +10 Faith per town, aside from desert tiles and wonders).

Anyway, our empires are similar in size, although my food production and GDP has almost always been higher. His production and science had been ahead by a bit for a while, though. That, and he has 16 wonders when I had 8. And his capitol was coastal, so trade routes are a bit better for him. He's was mostly ahead because of wonders(worth 25 points each), and because while we both have taken out another Civ, I took Babylon out in the Classical Era(3 militaristic gifted catapults + produced/purchased spearmen) and they only had three towns. He took out the Netherlands in either late Rennaisance or early Industrial, so they had more stuff, including the Forbidden Palace that I missed building by a single turn.

Then along came the World Congress.

I'm not the first default host, but I am the second by rule of 'everybody self-votes~!'. Nothing important happens in the first meeting. In the second meeting, though, my friend was in a position to propose the World Fair. Since I was currently, not just losing, but also suffering unhappiness from ideological differences and his superior tourism, I proposed World Ideology. Cue minor flipping out.
Also, cue sending diplomats to the remaining four computers and getting their votes, such that even if they all vote 'no' with the remainder and my friend's votes, it will pass. So, yay, my Ideology(Order, that game) passes, and suddenly, I jump up to 30's happiness which is nice, and he goes from 4/5 to -13. Convenient, as it cuts into his production for the World's Fair, as well as forcing him to divert potential production towards building happiness structures.

Then he makes the mistake of voting for Poland as the next World Congress Leader. Poland gets it, but I still have the second most votes, and he lost the ability to propose things, such as, say, Repealing Ideology. I proceed to get World Religion secured for myself, which really cuts into my resources, as I still had not got back my strategic resources I used for the last diplomacy deals, and had to use chunks of 25/35 gold income too. Doesn't really hurt him, but along with Treasured Grounds(or whatever it is that makes Great Person Sites worth bonus culture), and the hotel and ten Holy Sites in my capitol, suddenly, I'm producing more Tourism than he is. He went Aesthetics, and pumped out related wonders and great people.
(Airport, Internet, and if we continue the game, soon to be built National Visitor's Center, will really help. I already have the Great Firewall, so it is impossible for him to win against me culturally.)

...anyway, rambly-wambly. World Congress helped me turn the game around. I could have been really mean and forced a trade embargo on him, since he has both Colossus and Petra, and full sea trade routes. I've purposefully refrained from trading with him. Sure, it means a 23 gold land route, rather than 34 gold ocean route, but it also means he doesn't get the return 22 gold himself.

Either way, I have a minor tech advantage now, about to research X-Com Infantry and start gifting lvl 4 units(Brandenburg Gate) to the city-state Riga on the opposite side of the map that he is threatening. I've already given them 4 Infantry, 2 Anti-Air Sams, 2 Fighters and 2 Bombers. To be fair, he has Rocket Artillery, but maybe the city-state can hold out regardless.

Sadly, I only have access to 7 Uranium, and he has 24, so I can't make a bunch of GDR's.

Oh, and for clarification, in this current session, only Cultural and Domination victory were enabled, playing on the Inland Sea map. With cultural being impossible for him to win, and taking hundreds of turns, Domination will have to be it. At least my capitol is outside of nuking range from the sea.

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Also, to be fair, Aekiel, if one is in the position of strength to wonder-spam, then they probably are able to be in a potential position of diplomatic strength as well. Even if it just means the two votes from Forbidden Palace, or the more likely idea of having superior GDP and simply buying off the city-states, or diplomatic deals.

That being said, either with two sufficiently closely-matched players, or with a coalition of like-minded human players, the World Congress can be an excellent equalizer.

 

Brave new world is really really good. I particularly love the new culture system. The world congress also presents a great sub plot of vote management and slippery business. Super awesome!

 

True, though the strat I've seen used most involves Egypt/Great Library/Philosophy/Great Engineer spam. Once you've got the GL/Oracle up you're getting enough points put into Great Scientists that you can pretty easily take hold of the tech race, which means you're in a much better position to grab Wonders early on.

The only real counter I've found is an early rush or bribing the AI into attacking him, which is iffy at best. Otherwise it was very difficult to fight against it in G&K. Once you've got a few wonders down (especially ones that focus on Scientists and Engineers) you can find yourself very easily out teched and out spent, which means war goes out the window pretty quickly.

tl;dr Fuck Wonder Spam. Imma take your wonders and sell 'em on the black market.

 

Man, I want BNW so bad D:
Sucks being broke.

 

You can get it for 15$ at Amazon US at the moment.

 

As I said I would be, I'm hopelessly addicted. Spent all last night playing, and my last two lunch breaks. It won't be long now until my girlfriend hides my laptop. Or the charger.

As for the game itself, I'm really impressed with the new mechanics. You never feel like you're not doing something important. I still haven't made it to a World Congress yet, and that's what I've been looking forward to the most. There's so much to do on this game that I don't think I'll need another one until next Christmas.

 

So uh, as a Civil War fanatic, how's that feature? What happens if you win as the Confederacy? Does it follow through with a realistic scenario or does it just follow history?

 

It's not very good. It basically just shows how weak the tactical AI still is.

There are maybe 3 dozen cities on the map of the southwestern US split between the Union and Confederacy. Then you just conquer the other sides' capital with modified units and tech tree.

 

Well that sucks.

What's the aftermath like?

 

What aftermath?
You win and get an achievement. It's a scenario, not a whole campaign.

 

That sucks balls.

 

Cheaper on Newegg. CIV 5 Gold is also on sale if you don't have it.

 

I paid 30 bucks in store, but it was still worth it just to have something to keep my nights occupied (no Internet at home until this evening) with kick ass gaming. Finally made it to the World Congress and it certainly enhances the replay-ability of the game. Religion seems to be the trickiest part of the game thus far, as no matter what I seem to do, the city closest to Indonesia is not my home religion (Catholicism). Not sure what Gods and Kings was like, but I enjoy the attention to detail when you can choose many different ways to improve your cities through Religion.

Caravans and Cargo Ships are neat, though I think it's stupid you can't stop one in transit -- I nearly had one of my cities starve because it was trading food to another one of my cities.

You certainly have to think about your actions, as I'm sure at more difficult levels you can't just go to war constantly. In fact, in this game, I haven't attacked a soul, as I'm hoping to win through Tourism just to see what that's all about.

Definitely rec this game for newbies and people who loved the old games.

 

Any brave soul interested in finding out if they fixed the multiplayer?

 

Fixed it? I played some last weekend.

 

It gets really slow in late game, with plenty of desyncing happening, enough to make it unplayAble.

 

I'd be interested in a multiplayer game around 10 am eastern time tomorrow or at least early enough to play for a long while.