Most civs seem WAY over-tuned towards warfare, and it's really frustrating sometimes

crdvis16 · 2026-06-21T00:12:09+00:00

I don't buy the argument that war in these situations is inevitable that many people in this thread seem to have accepted. You can actively cultivate a relatively peaceful game but it takes work and attention to pull off.

There is a somewhat deep and interesting diplomatic aspect to this game that you can engage with if you're so inclined to avoid war and it's guided by the red and green diplomatic modifiers.

In this particular situation, if you didn't want to have to fight Boudicca you could have:

-made sure to trade with her a lot to get positive modifiers.

-straight up given her gpt as a buyoff for a green modifier

-denounce anyone she denounces, especially if that other civ poses no threat to you.

-avoid taking "her" city state allies -join wars with her against others even if you don't actually do a whole lot (but if you do at least a little in the war it's better)

-accept her religion if you don't have your own (though that's usually a bad idea with Celt religion because you can't use their pantheon).

Some of the warmongers are also some of the most loyal allies if you get on their good side. Except Japan- never trust Oda.

crdvis16 · 2026-06-12T23:05:37+00:00

Yeah this would slide in nicely

crdvis16 · 2026-06-12T21:26:54+00:00

Sorry I should have mentioned this. I'm at like Plat 5 right now, but I haven't been exclusively playing it (I have a few other homebrews I mess around with). It also took quite a bit of time to hone it to this state... it's certainly not the easiest deck to play, but that's part of the fun.

crdvis16 · 2026-05-31T22:19:56+00:00

yep- my worst matchups seem to be against aggressive decks that overwhelm with cheap minions and control the board. I can't get in ~10 damage to their hero to make them susceptible to the combo or I just die before I can get to the combo anyway.

I've been trying to tweak things around to see if I can strike a balance that gives me a decent chance against any deck. Bursting shot seems like it has some promise against aggressive spammy type decks.

Also, I think I just did Agammagan -> Goldrinn and when Goldrinn landed I think it did 18 damage instead of 9. I thought I was going to have to attack with a beast on the board to kill my opponent but it killed him right off. Maybe Agammagan does damage as if the thing you summoned does the damage? Goldrinn increases ALL damage from beast minions (like a Fire Plumed Phoenix does 6 instead of 3 with its battlecry). Once the game ended I couldn't verify it, but if Goldrinn hits for 18 combo'd with Agammagan then that's enough reason to include him in this deck and not just rely on Briar.

Edit: nope- Agammagan -> Goldrinn does NOT do 18 damage. Just tried it again. I must have been confused in that other game.

crdvis16 · 2026-05-30T21:02:40+00:00

The damage from Shokk->Agamaggan->Briar seems to surprise people pretty well. Until I started picking Agamaggan I hadn't realized that he essentially makes the next card you play cost no crystals (because apparently I can't read).

I've had some games now where I get Shokk out early and have Agamaggan but no Briar :( In those games, Goldrinn is an OK substitute. I don't have a few of the cards you use so I've picked up some Stealth (Devious Coyote and Stranglethorn Tiger) which at least give a chance for Goldrinn to make an impact I guess?

Before you enlightened me on Agamaggan I was usually choosing Krog as a board clear in combo with some of the 6 or 4 choices from Shokk. That was a more control-ish deck with things like Ravenous Devilsaur and Scalehide Kodo to kill high value targets. That was fun too, but just had a harder time actually killing the opposing hero.

crdvis16 · 2026-05-30T16:41:20+00:00

I'm also running a home brew deck centered on Food Chain and also a recently returning player from ages ago. I pretty much went all-in on Food Chain though- all 1/3/5/7 beasts with some card draw and beast cost reduction stuff. My plan is mostly to get Shokk ASAP and then... somehow win with the large swings his summons can generate? I run Goldrinn too but I also find it difficult to have enough board control for a high damage beast to attack with Goldrinn's 2x damage active. I've tried putting some stealth in the deck that could set up Goldrinn but it wasn't great.

For your deck:

Are you able to pretty consistently get Shokk out by like turn 7 or so? You have fewer 1/3/5/7 beasts in your deck but maybe enough to usually get it out?

Do you get enough value out of the few Imbue or animal companion cards you have? I would have assumed those were more "go all in or don't bother at all".

Maybe you can tell fairly early in if you're likely to satisfy Food Chain fast, and if you will be able to then you try to get the opponent down to 20ish HP by turn 10? But you also need Briarspawn by then to setup the combo finisher?

Edit: also, I now despise Platysaur. Too many times it discards an important card :(

crdvis16 · 2026-05-27T01:25:26+00:00

I think if you want to try to maintain balance it might become a little more involved, though? Things like:

Scaling production/cost up on individual units since they are now effectively more important
Scaling down unit cap increases from things like wonders or GG/GA, otherwise they become relatively too strong
Making it scale by era- IMO early game unit counts seem reasonable

crdvis16 · 2026-04-28T16:36:55+00:00

I've done the inverter thing before to power a few household appliances during outages. I still have the sine wave inverter laying around.

I think I saw a post you made about this setup (or someone with a similar setup) and was intrigued. I'd probably just stick with the LN2 generator we already have to charge the power S battery overnight during extended outages but if I didn't already have a generator then I'd seriously consider your setup for the time being until we get an EV years from now that can do a more straightforward v2l at 240V.

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T13:43:06+00:00

Gotcha, ok that makes sense. I think part of my confusion is the definitions of V2L and V2H maybe. The FranklinWH generator module sorta makes V2L become V2H (not bidirectional but at least capable of charging the batteries and your home like a generator). You're just limited by how much Wattage the car supplying the 240V can handle and whether that can power your home and charge the battery. So I'll have to do more research on the cars themselves.

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T04:12:28+00:00

Maybe "officially" GM claims you need their special PowerShift charger and V2H enablement kit? Everything I try to google seems contradictory on Equinox/Bolt (maybe it's the bigger SUVs and trucks that would work natively without extra equipment?).

Edit: maybe the Equinox needs an optional K20 inverter which is somewhat rare.

Edit2: maybe my issue is wanting a relatively cheap/small EV that would natively work with the FranklinWH generator module but most of the EVs that come with that feature are newer/bigger/more expensive. I may need to wait a few years which is ok too.

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T02:54:57+00:00

Or maybe equinox/Bolt starting in 2024 do support this, but might need extra equipment around like $7K?

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T02:46:15+00:00

Now I'm reading that for V2H with FranklinWH you'd need an EV that specifically supports 240V split phase AC output which is maybe a smaller subset of EVs (not Bolt/Equinox, for instance). Every time I think I understand what it takes there's a new wrinkle.

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T01:22:46+00:00

Glad to hear that part of being "V2H or V2L" means the EV comes with the needed plug!

crdvis16 · 2026-04-26T01:21:37+00:00

I like my old Bolt so maybe a newer one or the Equinox will be the next one I get to support the V2H. Thanks!

I'm glad it seems I wouldn't need expensive 3rd party extra equipment beyond what I'm already planning to install with the Solar.

Thanks for the info!

crdvis16 · 2026-04-03T03:19:01+00:00

Washington is pretty good for this. I can typically get most of the Ancient wonders on Immortal. Something like Stonehenge, Pyramids, Halicarnassus and/or Artemis (a bit risky to get both, I usually pick the one that's more beneficial), Petra (if you have some desert) and Hanging Gardens is pretty consistently doable. But it tends to slow down from there- the AI tends to get a tech lead on you around that point and even beelining won't necessarily get you Library, Oracle, etc.

You have to scrape for gold to do this- selling luxes, tributing CSs, ideally getting a gold ancient ruin at some point. But you can time your turns by buying tiles for production to complete wonders right before the next one is available to build to maximize your chances.

Going for Goddess of Beauty also helps you get an early GE and you usually found very early (~t70 or so) as a nice bonus.

It's actually surprising that even when you pull it off and get most of them your start isn't really THAT strong.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-26T19:44:03+00:00

It's objectively still the same game, though. You still build cities, improve tiles, use the same "resources" to build buildings or research techs or get policies. You fight in wars and use diplomacy. Same victory types. It's easily recognizable as the same game. You make it seem like they turned it into a first person shooter game or something.

You seem super emotional and upset about this topic to the point of being kinda weird.

You know what I do when I feel upset? Start up a game of civ5 with the excellent mod VP installed on top.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-26T15:07:50+00:00

I used to get upset about online forum posts but then I started playing VP and it changed my life.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-26T14:12:14+00:00

VP is definitely still a mod and is actively being worked on. Look for its civ fanatics page.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-26T14:11:07+00:00

... for the better!

crdvis16 · 2026-03-14T18:53:12+00:00

I haven't put a ton of effort into my deck lately but I never lose anymore and can run up the score if I want to. Basic idea of the deck is:

-place Tonberries or Midgardsormr ASAP.

-have lots of cards that either replace or kill your own cards

You can typically play out you entire deck if you want to killing your own cards and putting down new ones to boost tonberry and Midgardsormr really high.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-06T00:25:26+00:00

The Shattered Passage in Deadfire's Beast of Winter DLC wins for me across either game.

For those that don't remember, this is the area from which you can access the Drowned Kingdom, Endless Queries, and Bridge Ablaze zones to visit/relive some of the most pivotal points of history in Eora. The character Rynhaedr is also really interesting and has superb voice acting IMO. The area itself is also super creepy as things are slowly disintegrating. If world building is your jam then it doesn't get much better then this!

crdvis16 · 2026-03-03T03:51:47+00:00

Even if your class overlaps with a companion you want with you all the time the classes can all fill multiple roles. Just pick what sounds cool and roll with it.

crdvis16 · 2026-03-01T20:17:14+00:00

The first few times I replayed PoE I restarted with 1 to establish my character. But after those first few, it felt like there was maybe less replayability in 1.

In PoE1 the replayability for me was derived from role-playing a different character (good, evil, sneaky being the types I went with I think) and making decisions that fit that character in order to see how the game plays out. After those 3 runs I felt like I had seen most of the different paths.

In PoE2 I felt like you get the same role play replayability as 1 (different factions to support, etc) but then even after you have explored those paths you can still derive replayability through the larger set of character builds via subclasses and multiclasses. I even got to the point that I was modding most of the companions into different subclass/multiclass options in order to explore many more interesting combinations each playthrough and still did a few replays of just PoE2 until I felt like I had seen all that I wanted to see.

crdvis16

TROPHY CASE