NPC Advantage?

[Curmudgeon Emeritus]

How is it that the NPCs create 50% more cities and over 100% of the units in the same period that I play? I'm overwhelmed by them is short order.

[knighttemplar1960]

The AI get bonuses on any difficulty higher than prince. They are mostly unaffected by negative gold (they don't have to disband units while you do.) If you are ahead in technology and have more cities than you can defend with spies they will steal technology more successfully than you can. They will also tend to gang up on you since every thing that might give you a victory gives them negative relations with you. Eventually all that negative relation ends up in a war with more than one declaring on you at the same time.

[John]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

The AI get bonuses on any difficulty higher than prince. They are mostly unaffected by negative gold (they don't have to disband units while you do.) If you are ahead in technology and have more cities than you can defend with spies they will steal technology more successfully than you can. They will also tend to gang up on you since every thing that might give you a victory gives them negative relations with you. Eventually all that negative relation ends up in a war with more than one declaring on you at the same time.

They also seem to be able to put more spies in 1 city. I killed a spy of a civ in a city, and literally 2 turns later i killed another spy of the same civ, in the same city, that is normally impossible.

[Bfloo]

Originally posted by John:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

The AI get bonuses on any difficulty higher than prince. They are mostly unaffected by negative gold (they don't have to disband units while you do.) If you are ahead in technology and have more cities than you can defend with spies they will steal technology more successfully than you can. They will also tend to gang up on you since every thing that might give you a victory gives them negative relations with you. Eventually all that negative relation ends up in a war with more than one declaring on you at the same time.

They also seem to be able to put more spies in 1 city. I killed a spy of a civ in a city, and literally 2 turns later i killed another spy of the same civ, in the same city, that is normally impossible.

If a spy dies, you get a new one the next turn.

[Curmudgeon Emeritus]

I'm at Prince in the vanilla game. I can make settlers or military but not both as the AI can do.

[John]

Originally posted by Bfloo:

Originally posted by John:

They also seem to be able to put more spies in 1 city. I killed a spy of a civ in a city, and literally 2 turns later i killed another spy of the same civ, in the same city, that is normally impossible.

If a spy dies, you get a new one the next turn.

Yeah, but it takes time to put them in a city and steal tech.

[A Pebble]

Yes. NPC's cheat heavily in King+ difficulties. Starting with extra warriors, sometimes starting with workers as well as warriors + settlers. On Diety they start with 2 settlers, several workers, and an ass load of warriors... As well as research speed bonuses, production bonuses and everything else.

It's pretty ridiculous really. But what do you expect from a game with as poor AI as Civ5.

[76561198833135506]

Originally posted by Steeve:

Yes. NPC's cheat heavily in King+ difficulties. Starting with extra warriors, sometimes starting with workers as well as warriors + settlers. On Diety they start with 2 settlers, several workers, and an ass load of warriors... As well as research speed bonuses, production bonuses and everything else.

It's pretty ridiculous really. But what do you expect from a game with as poor AI as Civ5.

It is not cheating, it is the advantage that you are giving the computer since you are the better player.

In chess, good players will spot their opponent (i.e. remove from play before the first move) 1 or more pieces to help their opponent. The this game playing on higher levels is similar, except you are giving your computer opponent(s) extra units at the start and other bonuses. Most games with simple AI work this way.

You just need to plan on playing a longer game while you reduce that advantage.

[unca.alby]

Originally posted by Private:

It is not cheating, it is the advantage that you are giving the computer since you are the better player.

It is cheating if they do that without telling you.

But it's OK, everybody should know that the AI player in almost every strategy game almost always cheats. It has to cheat until somebody invents an AI that can compete on a Human level (and I've seen enough Science Fiction to not really look forward to that day).

Originally posted by Private:

You just need to plan on playing a longer game while you reduce that advantage.

[Bfloo]

Originally posted by unca.alby:

Originally posted by Private:

It is not cheating, it is the advantage that you are giving the computer since you are the better player.

It is cheating if they do that without telling you.

But it's OK, everybody should know that the AI player in almost every strategy game almost always cheats. It has to cheat until somebody invents an AI that can compete on a Human level (and I've seen enough Science Fiction to not really look forward to that day).

Originally posted by Private:

You just need to plan on playing a longer game while you reduce that advantage.

They do tell you.

[Strategikal]

It's Brain vs brawn, like Ukraine against Russia. It's not hard to outwit the AI once you understand how the game works. Takes a bit of practice though. Think of the AI like a braindead horde of zombies. You can run rings around them once you get the hang of it.

Read some guides, watch some youtube videos, there are some insanely good players out there., you can learn a lot from watching them.

[Curmudgeon Emeritus]

Originally posted by Strategikal:

It's Brain vs brawn, like Ukraine against Russia. It's not hard to outwit the AI once you understand how the game works. Takes a bit of practice though. Think of the AI like a braindead horde of zombies. You can run rings around them once you get the hang of it.

Read some guides, watch some youtube videos, there are some insanely good players out there., you can learn a lot from watching them.

Who do you recommend to watch for vanilla civ 5?

[Strategikal]

Originally posted by Curmudgeon Emeritus:

Who do you recommend to watch for vanilla civ 5?

To be honest, I think most people who make Civ videos play with all the expansions. Shouldn't matter much though, the basics are basically the same with or without expansions.

I don't know if you are a complete beginner, but I've looked for some beginner videos and found these two by JumboPixel, he's pretty good.

Civilization 5 Tutorial - The Basics Guide
https://youtu.be/q7VW-rGvfrs
Civilization V - Early Game Tips
https://youtu.be/xypYpI4UiEc

This next one is by Marbozir, his accent is a bit hard to understand but he's an excellent player who always plays on Deity. Even though that's pretty advanced there should be plenty of good advice here and you can learn a lot from skilled players no matter what level they're playing on.

Civilization 5 Deity Strategy Guide
https://youtu.be/WlRWid_At60

Potato McWhiskey is my favourite Civ youtuber, he's pretty funny but mostly does Civ 6 videos. I did manage to find a few Civ 5 ones though, with mods. He usually plays deity but is only playing emperor in this one. Even though it's modded there should still be plenty of good tips there, along with other things that aren't in vanilla.

Civ 5 Vox Populi America
https://youtu.be/Cr0Hr9cfYYc

I haven't watched these particular videos but they should be pretty good judging by all the others I've watched by them. I'll probably watch these later, I haven't played Civ 5 for 6 years so it's fun to go back to it. Have fun.

[Strategikal]

Oh, I just noticed this Civ 5 tutorial video too, by quill18, another good youtuber.

Civilization 5 Tutorial - #1
https://youtu.be/Z3x3P8gsCFA

[Curmudgeon Emeritus]

I've got 700 hours in Vanilla Civ 5. I can routinely win in level 3 but routinely lose in level 4.

Thanks for the suggestions. If you come across more advanced videos you'd recommend I'd appreciate it.

[Strategikal]

In that case, I'd recommend watching some of Marbozir's videos, starting with the one I liked above. It seems that he's done several deity strategy guides. Bound to be lots of good tips there for any level of play. I never used to play higher than King (level 5) and found Emperor too difficult. But after watching deity players I've ended up regularly playing on deity in Civ 6, although I haven't won on deity in Civ 5 yet, only Immortal.

I'd recommend early scouting to find goody huts and city states before the AI. Settle 4 cities as quickly as possible but no more for a while (4 is optimum for happiness), keep developing the land with workers (at least 1 per city). Set up trade routes between your cities as soon as possible to help grow them faster with food, then trade with city states and AI later. Avoid early warfare. Don't build much military at first. The idea is to build up a strong economy as fast as possible. With a strong economy, loads of trade routes and many city state friends, you can become unstoppable later. In fact, the benefits of city states are so good it almost feels like cheating.