Just wasted 8 hours of my life on Civilization IV.
I grew up as a teen playing this game when it was the Minecraft of its time. I tried Civ5 and didn't like and I tried Civ6 and didn't like it. Civ4 has stood the test of time for me though.
I absolutely love the premises of the game, the way it operates, the deep strategy and map utilization & whatnot. However, I have a love/hate relationship with it because the diplomacy is nonsensical and game-breaking. It becomes a factor of luck and randomless instead of strategy or skill, because no matter how hard you try to please everyone, there's that random chance that a few will just dogpile on you for petty reasons.
This last game (Noble difficulty), I was trying to play peacekeeper. I was handing out gold and techs hand-over-fist trying to keep everyone happy. I do understand that in trying to keep everyone happy, it will make things worse with some. Like Genghis Kahn, you cannot avoid conflict with this guy if he borders you. Nonetheless, I felt like I was doing a damn good job overall keeping everyone happy. Then out of nowhere, Isabella, Montezuma, Napoleon, & Genghis Khan declare WAR on me.
-I held them off for awhile and thanks to my diplomacy, managed to get a few allies to declare war on both Napoleon and Genghis.
-Then I managed to make peace with Genghis.
-Somehow, Napoleon slipped a large army through that I didn't see and sacked one of my 3 cities.
-Then Genghis and Isabella declared war again.
-I made peace with Napoleon and Isabella and Genghis was just wrecking my tiles.
-Then Napoleon declared war again and Alexander joined in too.
-Alexander started wrecking my tiles too and Isabella declared war... again.
-Then I made with peace with Alexander, Isabella, and Napoleon again.
-By this point, I was shattered. All of my offensive units were wiped out. All I had left were the units defending my cities.
-So Genghis Kahn just came in and wiped me out.
It just seemed so random and nonsensical. I was leading in tech, gold, and overall score and my army was fairly strong. But there's not much you can do when 5 civs decide to be assholes for no reason at all. It really sucks to put 8 hours into a game like that, be doing well, then get wiped out by something completely out of your control.
I pretty much lost by virtue of bordering Genghis Kahn and Napoleon. That said, there was zero I could do to avoid my fate, so it just feels like 8 hours of my life wasted.
I love this game, but I hate it too.
I grew up as a teen playing this game when it was the Minecraft of its time. I tried Civ5 and didn't like and I tried Civ6 and didn't like it. Civ4 has stood the test of time for me though.
I absolutely love the premises of the game, the way it operates, the deep strategy and map utilization & whatnot. However, I have a love/hate relationship with it because the diplomacy is nonsensical and game-breaking. It becomes a factor of luck and randomless instead of strategy or skill, because no matter how hard you try to please everyone, there's that random chance that a few will just dogpile on you for petty reasons.
This last game (Noble difficulty), I was trying to play peacekeeper. I was handing out gold and techs hand-over-fist trying to keep everyone happy. I do understand that in trying to keep everyone happy, it will make things worse with some. Like Genghis Kahn, you cannot avoid conflict with this guy if he borders you. Nonetheless, I felt like I was doing a damn good job overall keeping everyone happy. Then out of nowhere, Isabella, Montezuma, Napoleon, & Genghis Khan declare WAR on me.
-I held them off for awhile and thanks to my diplomacy, managed to get a few allies to declare war on both Napoleon and Genghis.
-Then I managed to make peace with Genghis.
-Somehow, Napoleon slipped a large army through that I didn't see and sacked one of my 3 cities.
-Then Genghis and Isabella declared war again.
-I made peace with Napoleon and Isabella and Genghis was just wrecking my tiles.
-Then Napoleon declared war again and Alexander joined in too.
-Alexander started wrecking my tiles too and Isabella declared war... again.
-Then I made with peace with Alexander, Isabella, and Napoleon again.
-By this point, I was shattered. All of my offensive units were wiped out. All I had left were the units defending my cities.
-So Genghis Kahn just came in and wiped me out.
It just seemed so random and nonsensical. I was leading in tech, gold, and overall score and my army was fairly strong. But there's not much you can do when 5 civs decide to be assholes for no reason at all. It really sucks to put 8 hours into a game like that, be doing well, then get wiped out by something completely out of your control.
I pretty much lost by virtue of bordering Genghis Kahn and Napoleon. That said, there was zero I could do to avoid my fate, so it just feels like 8 hours of my life wasted.
I love this game, but I hate it too.