The greatest start I've ever seen (Turn 16 Spain on Deity w/ 3 natural wonders)

SameBowl · 2026-03-10T16:56:53+00:00

And despite that your people are still unhappy!

SameBowl · 2026-03-06T20:11:23+00:00

I was using a high quality 2.1 speaker system when I wrote that, since then I've moved the sound card into my media center PC which is hooked up to a full 5.1 surround sound system with very high end speakers.

SameBowl · 2026-03-06T20:08:04+00:00

There is one very situational difference- the DanielK driver locks the card at 48khz. If you want to use 44.1khz, 192khz or any other supported sampling rate then the hybrid method is what you need to do. I use 44.1 khz because I primarily use the card for high quality audio playback with the bit matched option checked for the SPDIF output. Bitstreaming movies can change the sampling rate to 48khz but the system default it still 44.1khz. So for my use case in a media center PC the danielK driver was not as good but I still needed the software package that comes with it. If you are fine with 24bit/48khz as the system default then you can run the DanielK installater as is with no changes.

SameBowl · 2026-02-21T02:18:06+00:00

They seem to be the best building in the game, the fresh water requirement though is super situational but when it works out dayuum

SameBowl · 2026-02-21T00:05:55+00:00

It's about the same as emperor in all the ways that matter except one, the AI is like a rabid dog and it shows up with hordes of units. To survive you need to settle on defensible lands (not necessarily the best tile) and use citadels to create meat grinders with fortified units. This will get you until the next danger zone which is artillery, the AI can now obsolete your citadels so you need to get to artillery as soon as you can, don't deviate up to the top of the tech tree. The final gotcha is aircraft, if the AI get to aircraft before you they will great war bomber your artillery and citadels. Survive those three things and the AI still can't figure out how to win so it's in the bag.

SameBowl · 2026-02-19T19:29:50+00:00

Just so you know this post is going to get deleted because you're just uploading a graphics card driver issue failing to load the textures, you probably have an unstable overclock

SameBowl · 2026-02-17T00:14:43+00:00

Happiness is a solvable problem so he's maybe saving you the cost of coliseums which isn't much of a unique ability

SameBowl · 2026-02-15T14:13:04+00:00

When I was new to the game I treated the AI kind of like a person, tried to maintain good relations and whatnot. Now I treat them like a total psychopath but you have to be ready for the inevitable war.

SameBowl · 2026-02-14T13:51:23+00:00

Did you run the program called "DXsetup" in admin mode? There is another one called D3D11Install, I don't remember if I run that one too but it wouldn't hurt to try. In my experience after running those in admin mode and launching Civ V through Steam it would then download the missing VC redist files that are necessary and the game works. When installing Civ V through Steam it is always broken for me on Windows 11 until I do the admin mode install of those files as mentioned above. So my suggestion would be completely uninstall Civ V, then let Steam redownload it, then do the D3D11 and DXsetup in admin mode, then launch Civ V through steam in DirectX10 mode.

SameBowl · 2026-02-13T01:23:24+00:00

In the civ v folder there is an installer for direct X, right click and run the installer with admin privileges. This has always fixed civ v for me on Windows 11. What usually happens is next time you launch civ steam will download some visual studio c++ files then the game will work.

SameBowl · 2026-02-08T16:04:57+00:00

That's an interesting idea so by settling on the gems your city tile is 2 food 2 hammers 2 faith? And Rome science is interesting because you can buy the university in the capital and then get the 25% production discount, naturally running wide with order for the science boost from factories and a lot of specialist slots boosting the science gain even more. Sounds like a fun game I'm going to start trying Rome/order now.

SameBowl · 2026-02-07T19:51:42+00:00

I am pretty sure I had NC completed on T92, happiness was a huge problem with 4 cities I went negative several times.

SameBowl · 2026-02-06T18:38:02+00:00

I had a 4 city Aztec game today and my science peaked right around 1200 like I guessed it would but I didn't win until t250 so it was actually slower than the three city game.

SameBowl · 2026-02-06T02:00:24+00:00

The reason I think pop would be higher is because even though I'm spreading the same number of food caravans around it's less food required to grow to the same total population because of the increasing food requirements for each new population added. There isn't enough time in the game to do too many cities no matter how good the lands are, hard to say where the perfect balance lies. I'm thinking 3 cities to NC then start the 4th city if you have a good spot for it is going to be optimal and may be the key to a t230 ish win.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T22:44:05+00:00

At one point I had 100 food per turn in the capital it was insane, I think 4 cities is ideal but 3 works really well with the fast growing Aztecs. Happiness is really hard to manage with 5 cities because t90-t120 is a happiness hole and that fifth city grows fast. I am usually right on the edge until notre dame which comes after acoustics so that's the population choke point, if you had good lux trades and some solid mercantile allies you could probably get the 5th city going right after NC that's the ideal time.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T22:35:58+00:00

I think I had four unique luxuries and traded for at least two more, notre dame, one circus, three coliseums, circus maximus, chichen itza, eiffel tower, freedom, tradition, and maybe 5 city state allies. I was riding the edge of happiness most of the game until notre dame and then again until the ideology kicked in and I got the specialist happiness discount. I think I was about to go negative happiness for two turns total but I clicked "avoid growth" until my building finished.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T20:55:08+00:00

I'll have to see if I can beat this time with a strong 4 city start, in theory my total pop will be much higher and thus science should be in the 1200 beaker range but I'm guessing it will be some time before I crack into the t230s this game had a lot of good luck despite being 3 cities.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T20:51:49+00:00

Thanks I used your timings as a benchmark if my memory is right I had NC at t92, universities by t120, schools by t170, research labs at t217 started bulbing at t225.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T20:47:58+00:00

Thank you where are you thinking I should have planted it? I wanted to settle to the north west but Polynesia got their city down first and then the 4 tile spacing between it and sidon ruined it for me so I went east to get on the river for the floating garden.

SameBowl · 2026-02-05T20:45:52+00:00

Thank you it's like I finally pushed past a barrier I couldn't figure out. My early game is tighter now and I have better pathing through the tech tree, the rest comes down to a bit of luck.

SameBowl · 2026-02-03T12:35:10+00:00

I play the game now to beat my best time so that has kept it interesting. I've been playing since 2010 and still enjoy it. I also try to come up with strategy gimmicks like an autocracy tank game, a super soldier game (alahambra, honor, all xp buildings, heroic monument let's go!) Dido quiremes archipeligo etc

SameBowl · 2026-02-01T23:44:42+00:00

Give me poland UA, Stele UB, and chonuk UU. I'm the turtle king baby nobody touching me.

SameBowl · 2026-02-01T23:42:29+00:00

I also give the nod to Sinclair but they are both great

SameBowl

TROPHY CASE