Brave New World - difficulty and coup changes?

[ForestDepths]

Been playing BNW for a bit now and really enjoying it, but I was wondering if anyone else noticed two things I did.

First, the difficulty seems much higher. I usually play on King but when I played on Prince for my first BNW game, barbs were harsh, wonders were stolen out from under me just 1-2 turns away, and overall it seemed more difficult.

Second, once I get to the later part of the game (when I turned it around point-wise), I noticed that coups were being staged literally every turn. Siam especially would stage a coup in a city-state, I would pay the city-state to be my ally again, and the very next turn Siam would stage another coup (very high success rate too). You'd think the spies would need to breathe and maybe gather more support before killing city-state leaders friendly to me, but apparently not?

[Gen. Selekta]

I totally agree, I was searching for answers when I found this post. I'm also playing on Prince to "get and easy win" and I'm getting my butt kicked! The Barbarians spawn rather rapidly. Persia has been snapping up wonders from me in 1-2 turns and Greece is able to turn City-States via coup at a head spinning rate.

If anyone has found a good way to combat this please let me know. Im always playing catchup.

[Burbot]

Just play a few games to get a feel for the changes. I'm beating it regularly on King now, but it took a few games on Prince to get the hang of it. I'll be stepping back up to Emporer in my next game.

The coup thing can be annoying but they will eventually fail. Thankfully it doesn't happen often. Just have extra cash on hand if you consider buying out a CS. You may need it if the AI stationed a spy in the CS.

The barbs spawns are frequent, but you'll get used to it and start using them to your advantage. Good potential source for XP, gold, and culture.

I'd highly recommend feeding food to your capitol early if you can afford it. I've been splitting my trade routes about 50/50 food/gold and it seems to be paying off pretty well. Just finished a game where my cap had 45 pop with all specialist slots filled. It's also very useful to get production heavy-food light cities up and running to pump out units. Gold gets tight at times, but if you stagger the routes you can switch them to gold when necessary.

[VonStreed]

I tried playing a few games on the easiest setting and it was mind munbingly easy. So as soon as I start to raise the diff lvl I am having no end of headaches. I had about 5 CS allies and then Greece snatched all but 1-2 away from me and now has almost single CS in the game. I have a 0% coup in 4/5 CS and nothing I do seems to move them even slighlty. I have over 300 influence with one CS after spending $1000s and rigging elections and STILL 0% CHANCE! Every once in a while i get a message from Greece that if I don't cease hostilities toward the CS they will f**k me up, and I am like what hostilities??? Then when i notice I am now at war the CS for no apparent reason at all. That happened about a half dozen times and may be part of why I have 0% chance. Once the random message popped up that I DoWed England for absolutely no reason I quit. Is this a glitch? Am i missing something obvious? I never did anything to piss these AIs off. I was going for a space victory since Greece was kicking my a**, but the game seems totally rigged or broken. Any ideas? A patch or something? This isn't my first Civ game btw, but this is the first I am about to give up on because it seems like the settings are boring as s**t or impossible. Tell me this is a bug.

[frapp3_lake_]

BNW has AI that will be more aggressive in culture, wonders and science, while G&K has AIs that are more aggressive militarily.

Also, I'm pretty sure that putting a spy of your own in an allied CS will prevent enemy coups from occuring. I always do that, and even on some of the higher difficulties, I've never gotten couped.

[VonStreed]

Then maybe my game is glitching. In my game, it might make it slightly harder for enemy AI to coup, but they still do anyway.

[frapp3_lake_]

Originally posted by VonStreed:

I tried playing a few games on the easiest setting and it was mind munbingly easy. So as soon as I start to raise the diff lvl I am having no end of headaches. I had about 5 CS allies and then Greece snatched all but 1-2 away from me and now has almost single CS in the game. I have a 0% coup in 4/5 CS and nothing I do seems to move them even slighlty. I have over 300 influence with one CS after spending $1000s and rigging elections and STILL 0% CHANCE! Every once in a while i get a message from Greece that if I don't cease hostilities toward the CS they will f**k me up, and I am like what hostilities??? Then when i notice I am now at war the CS for no apparent reason at all. That happened about a half dozen times and may be part of why I have 0% chance. Once the random message popped up that I DoWed England for absolutely no reason I quit. Is this a glitch? Am i missing something obvious? I never did anything to piss these AIs off. I was going for a space victory since Greece was kicking my a**, but the game seems totally rigged or broken. Any ideas? A patch or something? This isn't my first Civ game btw, but this is the first I am about to give up on because it seems like the settings are boring as s**t or impossible. Tell me this is a bug.

Leaders will get pissed at you if you try to snag CS allies that they consider to be theirs, or if you demand tribute from a CS that has a pledge of protection and is the ally of somebody else. That's a feature in the game.

However, the random DoW with England sounds like a glitch.

[VonStreed]

Well, I was mostly trying to win back allies of mine after Greece stole them from me. Not once did I demand tribute, or do anything that would aggrivate other than throw coups to win back my CS allies. It must be bugs. Seems like I am the only one that is having this issue. Reinstall maybe?

[dasaard200]

If Alexander is a problem, solve it by killing Alexander; and the CS's will want/NEED new patrons .
While doing that, fill your treasury for the CS auctions !

[frapp3_lake_]

Originally posted by VonStreed:

Well, I was mostly trying to win back allies of mine after Greece stole them from me. Not once did I demand tribute, or do anything that would aggrivate other than throw coups to win back my CS allies. It must be bugs. Seems like I am the only one that is having this issue. Reinstall maybe?

If Alexander got pissy because you were trying to reclaim your CS allies, then it's because he's Alexander and that's a part of his AI. The first time I experienced it, he eventually DoW'ed me until my force of 2 riflemen completely destroyed his pikes and trebuchets, and he got the message and stopped. The second time was on an Archipelago map as Venice, where he was so far away that he couldn't do anything about it.

Of course, if you don't want to deal with it at all, kill him or get another Civ to do so.

[VonStreed]

Originally posted by Starwing1:

Originally posted by VonStreed:

Well, I was mostly trying to win back allies of mine after Greece stole them from me. Not once did I demand tribute, or do anything that would aggrivate other than throw coups to win back my CS allies. It must be bugs. Seems like I am the only one that is having this issue. Reinstall maybe?

If Alexander got pissy because you were trying to reclaim your CS allies, then it's because he's Alexander and that's a part of his AI. The first time I experienced it, he eventually DoW'ed me until my force of 2 riflemen completely destroyed his pikes and trebuchets, and he got the message and stopped. The second time was on an Archipelago map as Venice, where he was so far away that he couldn't do anything about it.

Of course, if you don't want to deal with it at all, kill him or get another Civ to do so.

I slapped his ♥♥♥♥♥ ass down in two wars already and he surrendered both times immediately after i took one of his cities. I was trying to go for something other than military victory. I am not confused about the AI playing against me, just wondering if the mechanics seem off. It seems far fetched that one civ could havve so much gold and so many spies that it is impossible for me to coup back a past ally (which i have over 300 influence with) or any new ones. Shouldn't there be an influence cap or something? Also, I have to keep renewing defense pacts with some civs like every other turn. I thought they were supposed to last 30??? And why i am randomly DoWing CS and England one time? I never made any hostile actions to any of them. I was just wondering if these are known glitches, I am missing something obvious, or just my own private nightmare. He is amasing an army on my border and this time I will not be so gentile. He has better units, but I will slap him down again. Still taking him out might not solve some of the weird glitches that have nothing to do with him.

[frapp3_lake_]

Originally posted by VonStreed:

Originally posted by Starwing1:

If Alexander got pissy because you were trying to reclaim your CS allies, then it's because he's Alexander and that's a part of his AI. The first time I experienced it, he eventually DoW'ed me until my force of 2 riflemen completely destroyed his pikes and trebuchets, and he got the message and stopped. The second time was on an Archipelago map as Venice, where he was so far away that he couldn't do anything about it.

Of course, if you don't want to deal with it at all, kill him or get another Civ to do so.

I slapped his ♥♥♥♥♥ ass down in two wars already and he surrendered both times immediately after i took one of his cities. I was trying to go for something other than military victory. I am not confused about the AI playing against me, just wondering if the mechanics seem off. It seems far fetched that one civ could havve so much gold and so many spies that it is impossible for me to coup back a past ally (which i have over 300 influence with) or any new ones. Shouldn't there be an influence cap or something? Also, I have to keep renewing defense pacts with some civs like every other turn. I thought they were supposed to last 30??? And why i am randomly DoWing CS and England one time? I never made any hostile actions to any of them. I was just wondering if these are known glitches, I am missing something obvious, or just my own private nightmare. He is amasing an army on my border and this time I will not be so gentile. He has better units, but I will slap him down again. Still taking him out might not solve some of the weird glitches that have nothing to do with him.

There don't exist any influence caps, and AIs get bonuses on higher difficulties, thus explaining the giant amount of gold. Spies, as far as I'm aware, are obtained with NIA or advancing an era, therefore the giant amount of spies may be that they are a couple eras ahead.
By the random England DoW, is it that England DoW'ed you or did the game force you to DoW her? If it was the first one and you think you didn't do anything, check the diplomacy screen and make sure that statements such as "they covet your lands" aren't there. If not, then it's the AI being incredibly wonky at times or your game is bugged and you need to delete the save (maybe reinstall the entire thing if you have to).

[VonStreed]

Originally posted by Starwing1:

Originally posted by VonStreed:

I slapped his b***h a** down in two wars already and he surrendered both times immediately after i took one of his cities. I was trying to go for something other than military victory. I am not confused about the AI playing against me, just wondering if the mechanics seem off. It seems far fetched that one civ could havve so much gold and so many spies that it is impossible for me to coup back a past ally (which i have over 300 influence with) or any new ones. Shouldn't there be an influence cap or something? Also, I have to keep renewing defense pacts with some civs like every other turn. I thought they were supposed to last 30??? And why i am randomly DoWing CS and England one time? I never made any hostile actions to any of them. I was just wondering if these are known glitches, I am missing something obvious, or just my own private nightmare. He is amasing an army on my border and this time I will not be so gentile. He has better units, but I will slap him down again. Still taking him out might not solve some of the weird glitches that have nothing to do with him.

There don't exist any influence caps, and AIs get bonuses on higher difficulties, thus explaining the giant amount of gold. Spies, as far as I'm aware, are obtained with NIA or advancing an era, therefore the giant amount of spies may be that they are a couple eras ahead.
By the random England DoW, is it that England DoW'ed you or did the game force you to DoW her? If it was the first one and you think you didn't do anything, check the diplomacy screen and make sure that statements such as "they covet your lands" aren't there. If not, then it's the AI being incredibly wonky at times or your game is bugged and you need to delete the save (maybe reinstall the entire thing if you have to).

No avatar popped up and told me they were declaring war. I didn't declare it. I only knew about the wars with the CS when i was attacked or when a civ told me to stop picking on them or else. I knew about the war with England only becase a notification popped up on the right side bar, and at this point in the game i mostly ingnore them since there are so many, so I almost missed it totally. And why would I have to renew defensive pacts almost every turn? Aren't they supposed to last a while? It is getting extremely tedious have to click yes all the time. Yeah, I am thinking file corruption or glitch. I am gonna reinstall and start anew. Greece is on it's way to winning a diplomatic victory anyway. Seems stupid that one nation is allowed to control like 80% of the delegates. Greece has literally every CS except 2 or 3. Kinda op. It should have a cap of 49% so that it would at least be theoretically possiblity to take control IF you could somehow get every other civ to vote for you (which i don't een think they would. They always seem to vote for themselves anyway). In this system taking control away is completely ruled out. Seems strange to design it that way.

[Random Reference #98]

Originally posted by VonStreed:

Originally posted by Starwing1:

There don't exist any influence caps, and AIs get bonuses on higher difficulties, thus explaining the giant amount of gold. Spies, as far as I'm aware, are obtained with NIA or advancing an era, therefore the giant amount of spies may be that they are a couple eras ahead.
By the random England DoW, is it that England DoW'ed you or did the game force you to DoW her? If it was the first one and you think you didn't do anything, check the diplomacy screen and make sure that statements such as "they covet your lands" aren't there. If not, then it's the AI being incredibly wonky at times or your game is bugged and you need to delete the save (maybe reinstall the entire thing if you have to).

No avatar popped up and told me they were declaring war. I didn't declare it. I only knew about the wars with the CS when i was attacked or when a civ told me to stop picking on them or else. I knew about the war with England only becase a notification popped up on the right side bar, and at this point in the game i mostly ingnore them since there are so many, so I almost missed it totally. And why would I have to renew defensive pacts almost every turn? Aren't they supposed to last a while? It is getting extremely tedious have to click yes all the time. Yeah, I am thinking file corruption or glitch. I am gonna reinstall and start anew. Greece is on it's way to winning a diplomatic victory anyway. Seems stupid that one nation is allowed to control like 80% of the delegates. Greece has literally every CS except 2 or 3. Kinda op. It should have a cap of 49% so that it would at least be theoretically possiblity to take control IF you could somehow get every other civ to vote for you (which i don't een think they would. They always seem to vote for themselves anyway). In this system taking control away is completely ruled out. Seems strange to design it that way.

If you had deffensive pacts in place that's probably where the war came from, one of your allies got declared on and the pact forced you to autodeclare on whoever attacked. Thats also likely where the CS wars came from, they were allies of w/e civ was attacking.
Don't make deffensive pacts, the AI never helps anyway and they lead to situations like that where you get dragged into random wars.

As far as competing with Alexander for CS influence don't even bother unless you have the three influence boosting policies in patronage. He maxes out that tree and that combined with his UA makes it pointless to fight that battle without dipping into it yourself or having insane gold output.

[VonStreed]

Originally posted by Random Reference #98:

Originally posted by VonStreed:

No avatar popped up and told me they were declaring war. I didn't declare it. I only knew about the wars with the CS when i was attacked or when a civ told me to stop picking on them or else. I knew about the war with England only becase a notification popped up on the right side bar, and at this point in the game i mostly ingnore them since there are so many, so I almost missed it totally. And why would I have to renew defensive pacts almost every turn? Aren't they supposed to last a while? It is getting extremely tedious have to click yes all the time. Yeah, I am thinking file corruption or glitch. I am gonna reinstall and start anew. Greece is on it's way to winning a diplomatic victory anyway. Seems stupid that one nation is allowed to control like 80% of the delegates. Greece has literally every CS except 2 or 3. Kinda op. It should have a cap of 49% so that it would at least be theoretically possiblity to take control IF you could somehow get every other civ to vote for you (which i don't een think they would. They always seem to vote for themselves anyway). In this system taking control away is completely ruled out. Seems strange to design it that way.

If you had deffensive pacts in place that's probably where the war came from, one of your allies got declared on and the pact forced you to autodeclare on whoever attacked. Thats also likely where the CS wars came from, they were allies of w/e civ was attacking.
Don't make deffensive pacts, the AI never helps anyway and they lead to situations like that where you get dragged into random wars.

As far as competing with Alexander for CS influence don't even bother unless you have the three influence boosting policies in patronage. He maxes out that tree and that combined with his UA makes it pointless to fight that battle without dipping into it yourself or having insane gold output.

Thanks. Makes some sense. This Civ is VERY different than preious Civs. Learning that the hard way, like how founding too many cities is not neccassarily good here.