Civ V expansion packs

bazzabear · 26 Jun 2014 at 20:27

SO I have, and enjoy, vanilla Civ 5. But I hear that it's vastly improved by the expansion packs.

But how does it work? If you buy both, do new games use all the mechanics from vanilla and the two packs all together?

And is this the experience that everyone raves about?

Defiant306 · 26 Jun 2014 at 21:57

Bud buy them like tomorrow, they seriously add depth to the game that should have been in the original in all honesty. The game basically has more mechanics added to the existing ones. Also check out the steam workshop there is a TON of neat features, nations, maps and mechanics changes such as increasing city resource range from 3 tiles to 4 or 5!!!

You can also prevent cities being founded with in certain ranges to stop AI City spam.

Its all goooooood

bazzabear · 26 Jun 2014 at 22:06

Cheers. It's terribly vexing that buying all the DLC for someone who bought Civ 5 already is practically the same price as buying the lot together though!

tamzzy · 26 Jun 2014 at 22:09

civ 5 without the dlc = derp

adolf hamster · 26 Jun 2014 at 23:09

for a start it makes multiplayer gameplay a lot more level, in vanilla you could pretty much win every time with a single strategy regardless of the civ you played. with the dlc its much harder to wonder spam and you have to play to your strengths.

its a big difference, and adds even more dodgy politics to the game along with more civs, more stuff to build and more ways to kill people. and you can fight pseudo wars with religion

although somehow america has become rather op.

decmatt · 27 Jun 2014 at 09:10

When you have the DLC installed on steam, which one should you boot?

Mak3R · 27 Jun 2014 at 12:23

Definitely buy both expansions. Each one kept me playing for many more months than vanilla alone would have done.
dematt: when you install the expansions you still only launch the main game. However you can disable an expansion in the game settings if you want.

smelly_legend · 27 Jun 2014 at 12:40

Gods and kings is decent, but brave new world rocks

decmatt · 27 Jun 2014 at 12:58

Mak3R said:
Definitely buy both expansions. Each one kept me playing for many more months than vanilla alone would have done.
dematt: when you install the expansions you still only launch the main game. However you can disable an expansion in the game settings if you want.

Cheers, thought it may have been like Civ 4

eggyoke · 27 Jun 2014 at 12:58

Is it just me though or does the new expansion tend to prevent Civ's from declaring war? I miss the days when the AI used to gang up on me and launch a surprise war which I'd have to battle my way out of. I used to play the hell out of the game but since the new expansion I've hardly touched it because of the lack of war. Not saying thats all I do, it just makes it more interesting than constantly buying City-states favour and dominating the UN.

smelly_legend · 27 Jun 2014 at 14:09

eggyoke said:
Is it just me though or does the new expansion tend to prevent Civ's from declaring war? I miss the days when the AI used to gang up on me and launch a surprise war which I'd have to battle my way out of. I used to play the hell out of the game but since the new expansion I've hardly touched it because of the lack of war. Not saying thats all I do, it just makes it more interesting than constantly buying City-states favour and dominating the UN.

Have u tried on a harder level?

eggyoke · 28 Jun 2014 at 11:15

smelly_legend said:
Have u tried on a harder level?

Yes, I played mostly on King and Emperor. I felt it hardly changed.

MoridinUK · 30 Jun 2014 at 14:53

King and Emperor? My god I've no idea how you survive!

Zethor · 30 Jun 2014 at 17:17

MoridinUK said:
King and Emperor? My god I've no idea how you survive!

If you are near aggressive civ. leaders, have a small army (2-3 ranged, preferably seige, units) in the ancient/medieval area and focus on generating as much gold as possible, rather than expanding quickly. Keep a scout near the borders of the aggressive civs to see incoming armies. They will probably declare war sooner or later (stupidly thinking you are weak) so you wall up vulnerable cities and purchase melee units with the gold. Fortify them next to the cities, watch the AI send its armies to their doom and follow up by taking as many cities as you see fit (or happiness allows). At that point, you recovered the early resource advantage the AI's had, making the rest of the game easy.

If you are near peaceful civ. leaders, research seige weaponry asap, research swordmen, draft as many as your iron allows and take a peaceful civ's cities.

King and Emperor are easy, things get tricky on Immortal and Diety as the early advantage the AI has is huge, making some games almost impossible to win.

eggyoke said:
Is it just me though or does the new expansion tend to prevent Civ's from declaring war? I miss the days when the AI used to gang up on me and launch a surprise war which I'd have to battle my way out of. I used to play the hell out of the game but since the new expansion I've hardly touched it because of the lack of war. Not saying thats all I do, it just makes it more interesting than constantly buying City-states favour and dominating the UN.

Some leaders are very aggressive and they will declare war for sure if your army is considered weak (the Zulu one is notoriously psychotic). You must've played games in which you were placed near peaceful leaders (the Dutch, the Swedish etc). I have however noticed that "Great" wars, with multiple alliances/civs involved, happen less often.