[Spoilers] Ichabod's spoiler thread

[Ichabod]

Now that we know that our pick will stand, it's time to go over the Uniques that Brazil receives. 



Brazil Unique District is the Street Carnival, which replaces the Entertainment Complex. Unique districts are always great, because they come with a discounted cost (only 50% of the normal cost), so most of the times the ability itself doesn’t even matter. In Brazil’s case, the UD replaces one of the districts that you are not likely to spam in your cities, so it doesn’t compare to uniques that replace Holy Sites, Campus, Commercial Hubs…

Now, there’s no need to sell the Street Carnival short. To win a MP game, you need an empire with lots of cities and lots of population, which naturally leads to happiness problems (especially in a Pangaea map, where there aren’t that many unique happiness resources available for you). The Entertainment Complex can help you reduce those penalties and even get some bonuses – which are meaningful, since a cool mechanic in Civ 6 is that cities with extra happiness get yield bonuses. A city with an extra 3 amenities gets +10% to all yields and +20% to food, while a city with 1-2 extra amenities gets half of that. Negative amenities lead to similar effects, but negative.

In this case, the Street Carnival can give a nice bonuses to your Civ when you start running short on amenities all around (mid game). The lowest cost makes it less of an investment and it receives an initial +2 amenities in the city that build it, instead of just +1. A Street Carnival can benefit a city more than a third/fourth yield district, built with bad adjacency bonuses and with no time to build the district buildings.

Two other important points:

*The Entertainment Complex buildings are buffed in GS. They give bonuses besides just the amenities. The second tier building, the Zoo, actually synergizes greatly with Brazil, because it gives a +1 science yield to all rainforest tiles worked by the city. So, if we kept those around for the adjacency, we actually receive some benefits from it.



*The Colosseum, one of the best Wonders in the game (it gives amenities and culture to all cities within 6 tiles of it), has to be built adjacent to as Entertainment Complex. Brazil gets sort of a discounted cost for this Wonder, considering the reduced cost of the Street Carnival.



Finally, the Street Carnival comes with a unique district project, the Carnival. While you are running this project, you get extra amenities in your city. When you finish it, you get Great Person Points for Great Engineer, Great Merchant, Great Writer, Great Artist, and Great Musician. I don’t see it being very useful in MP, since those artist related points aren’t that useful and the GE and GM points are reduced. We’ll see if we find a decent use for it, but I’m not banking too much on it.



Ah, but that’s not all. Brazil actually gets a second Unique District in GS, the Copacabana. The Copacabana replaces the Water Park, which is the water-based version of the Entertainment Complex (you can build it in coastal tiles). The changes are similar to what the Street Carnival changes in the Entertainment Complex – more amenities, lower cost. While not an exclusive bonus to Brazil, it’s worth mentioning that the Water Park buildings are not the same as the Entertainment Complex ones. The most worthy of note is the Aquarium, that gives +1 science yield in water resources and some other water tiles.

Overall, this isn’t a spam it to win it District. It also doesn’t open the opportunity for a crazy District discount strategy, like I did in my Russia game. But it’s our job to find how to explore these bonuses in this game, to make Brazil’s streets glister with beads, confetti and feathers and a whole lot of Samba. 

[Ichabod]

Finally, we have the Minas Geraes, that is perhaps the most powerful tool in Brazil’s kit. The Minas Geraes is a Battleship replacement, that has higher strength...

...And it comes a whole era earlier than the unit it replaces. That is, of course, the big advantage here. While the Battleship unlocks at Steel, a Modern era tech, the Minas Geraes unlocks at Nationalism, which is an Industrial era civic. Yup, it’s tied to the civics tree, pretty unusual for units in Civ 6. Considering that the Battleship (and the MG) requires Coal, which is tied to Industrialization tech (not exactly on the path to Steel), the Minas Geraes can be reached way earlier, by dividing the load between your tech and culture (something that you have to do anyway).

The Minas Geraes is obviously a powerhouse against the naval units that other civs can field at the same era. It has 25 more ranged strength than the Frigate, with range 3 instead of 2. It has 60 melee strength, which is only 10 less than the Ironclad, which can be reached about the same era and is a melee ship. So, only a heavily stacked navy (lots of Great Admirals, lots of promotions) will resist the power of the MG.

The Minas Geraes is definitely a powerful unit, but how exactly does it fit in the grand scheme of winning the game? That’s not so clear, especially in a Pangaea map. A powerful navy can hinder someone else’s game, if left unchecked: razing some cities, pillaging some tiles, etc. But a navy won’t finish a player by itself, in most cases. So, does it make sense to invest a lot into a unit that won’t make definitive gains for you? I don’t think so.

Considering all this, the MG isn’t a unit that you beeline with your eyes closed, like the Cossack is for Russia. But Nationalism is a civic that you can’t really avoid, as it’s a prereq for most of the later part of the civics tree – you’ll get to the MG whether you like it or not. And there will be a significant power spike during that era, that can be used as needed. Perhaps 3 MG’s are enough to put the leader down a peg; perhaps it can support a conquering campaign, by limiting the opponents movements (you can’t place units 3 tiles from the coast, less they’ll be blasted to smithereens)…

My final take about the MG is: don’t beeline it, unless you are playing a water map. Use it strategically, to bolster your position in a time where you’ll have dominance on the water without significant investment.

[Ichabod]

That does it for the Civ analysis. Anything else you all want to know while we wait for the map?

[Ichabod]

The New Frontier Pass launched in Brazil with a price of R$ 230,00. That's 22% of the national monthly minimum wage, which is supposed to be enough to sustain a family of 4 people for a month (habitation, food, education, leisure, transport and all other basic needs). 

That’s completely unacceptable. It’s the price of an on-launch full-content AAA game. I know the Real lost a lot of value compared to the Dollar in the last few years and especially this year, but this price for a bunch of DLC’s is preposterous.

[Quagma Blast]

Confirming Ichabod's selection as BRAZIL.

[Ichabod]

Confirming Ichabod's selection as BRAZIL.

Thank you.

It seems that a straight up Civ analysis hasn’t piqued much interest. Well, it’s understandable, since you can go to any internet wiki and find out pretty much the same thing. So, let’s try to make things more interesting.

Lets talk Civ 6 early game. As I see it, there are 4 main objectives you can pursue in Civ 6 early game. Settling cities and general snowballing is a given (it’s Civ, after all), so I won’t add that. The objectives are:

*Get to Political Philosophy as soon as possible, since early governments really boost your Civ.

*Get a religion.

*Prepare an attack on one of your neighbors.

*Build the Ancestral Hall in the Government Plaza (I can’t see any of the other GP buildings being nowhere near the AH is value – they are just SP builds).

Getting to PP fast is so fundamental to the game that I could perhaps add it as a given as well. Whatever other objectives you have, getting to PP will bolster your position. It’s what you need to focus early on.

But how exactly do you focus on PP? I think the main thing you can do to speed up PP is to carefully plan to get all the inspirations along the way there (the only other decisions I can see is getting a monument early and choosing a culture based pantheon). Two of the needed inspirations are “luck” based, based on exploration (finding a new continent and finding 3 city-states). Obviously, we will be getting a scout early, because the expected value of it is really high in Civ 6. Other than getting a second scout, there’s not much we can do while trying to get those inspirations, so I won’t dwell to much on it.

The 2 remaining inspirations in the path to PP is what will make/break your timing to get there: 3 improvements and build a district. 3 improvements is a bit more costly than just building a builder, because it means you have to build one and not use it to chop/harvest. As crazy as it may seem, there are maps where you are hard pressed to find 3 decent tiles to improve early in the game, since mines are not better than forested tiles and farm yields aren’t that meaningful.

Also, there’s the timing of your first builder. It’s really hard to see a situation where a generic builder will be better than just building a settler first. The improved yields don’t really pay off as much as a new city, it’s a completely different dynamic from Civ 4 in that regard. Also, if you want the Craftsmanship inspiration, you can’t use this builder to chop the settler, unless you want to build a second builder, which will be even harder to have a good payoff in the time-frame we are talking about. 

This ties to the question: is it a good idea to delay Craftsmanship in order to get a builder after a settler? Meaning, would you go for Foreign Trade after Code of Laws, before Craftsmanship? Foreign Trade opens up Trade Routes and Caravans, but Craftsmanship has the Agoge card (50% bonus production to melee and ranged units), which can save hammers early game (it feels bad to get warriors and slingers without it). The other civic card in Craftsmanship gives +30% production to builders, but I don’t think you’ll ever get a 2nd builder before teching Craftsmanship anyway.

So, here’s some initial questions? When do you get your first Builder? What civic do you go for after Code of Laws?

The second meaningful inspiration is building a District. That’s also a very complex question. What are the districts potentially available this early? Campus, Holy Site and Encampment. I think your choice will be tied to what you favor between your other early objectives: HS for a religion, Camp for an attack (due to the GG points) and Campus as the most useful of them, for a general strategy. The benefit of getting the early Campus isn’t that great tough, because early beakers aren’t that useful. I constantly find myself not knowing where to go with my early research, since nothing seems useful and getting techs actually hinder you in some ways (districts get more expensive, for example). But going for HS or Camp without a plan also isn’t much better. There’s also the district discount formula to take into account, which begs the question if it’s useful to try and get discounted districts early (that means getting 2 districts of a same type before getting any other of them).

So, another question we can ask ourselves, before having the map is (I don’t think we can think about early attacks without seeing neighbors and terrain): do we go for a religion? Is a religion worth it? The bonuses can look very flashy, but are they actually better than your other options? Is the Monumentality GA bonus (buying builders and settlers with faith) really that great, considering you can easily have a city with +100% production towards settlers and free builders from settling cities (through Ancestor Hall)? I think I’ll try and look for religious bonuses for the next post, but there are some initial thoughts to get a discussion going.

[El Grillo]

I’m interested in what to do with the first Builder, I’ve been naively going for 3 tile improvements for Craftsmanship but you’re right, the improved tile yields don’t seem great outside of maybe pasture production, or a luxury? I also feel iffy about chopping/harvesting, part of me can appreciate that it can contribute a lot for snowballing, and that snowballing is still the name of the game, but deciding when to chop and what to do with the production still challenges me.

[Ichabod]

I’m interested in what to do with the first Builder, I’ve been naively going for 3 tile improvements for Craftsmanship but you’re right, the improved tile yields don’t seem great outside of maybe pasture production, or a luxury? I also feel iffy about chopping/harvesting, part of me can appreciate that it can contribute a lot for snowballing, and that snowballing is still the name of the game, but deciding when to chop and what to do with the production still challenges me.

Yeah, the first builder builds are a very interesting discussion. Sometimes they are pretty obvious, others not so much. Hopefully, we have a easy time this game.

I got another important piece of knowledge from TBS' thread in PBEM17, that there's a +30% card for Harbors and lighthouses. That's very big (and would have been great to know in the first 150 turns of my current Maori Archipelago SP game). Harbors are definetely a very nice district to invest into in the midgame and the lighthouse gives a TR slot. Later, the shipyard is also a very decent building (the second tier one), since it gives production equal to the adjacency bonus (which doubles with the double adjacency card). The harbor is actually one of the easiest districts to have a big adjacency yield.

That being said, harbors don't get benefits from Amazon, so there's that.

[Banzailizard]

I didn't comment on the civ analysis, because you honest nailed anything I might have said (including not bee-lining the Minas Geraes).

Brazil should have no real issue with the district. Your best abilities keys off of adjacency, and generating Great Person points so you want to start generating those reasonably early anyways. I think for Brazil the clear choice on district is campus due to the civ bonus. Depending on who else is in the game and what inspirations you find, a HS might be viable. Of the civs, Spain would want a religion. Georgia probably would want one too, though most of their faith benefits come all the way in the renaissance. Egypt stands the best chance of getting one since they have reduced district costs. If none of these are in the game, well, HS might be an option since faith can be used on GP patronage.

Regarding builder vs settler, I think builder for craftsmanship boost is still the way to go just because of Agoge. Production is the bottleneck resource in Civ 6. Things that save you production, especially early production are just better. For example you are going to get roughly 20 extra hammers (or cogs technically) from running Agoge while building early warriors. That saves turns which can then be put into getting out another builder, settler, etc.

That being said this is more of a general rule than an iron law. If you really have little that needs improving and can spy a strong choke point, or otherwise valuable city spot, then no problem making a settler first. Its just if you were in a situation where you were indifferent to the two, I would opt for the builder and craftsmanship boost.

[Ichabod]

I messed around a bit in a SP game with Brazil. Some points:

*Religion is not worth it. I think religion would be better if you could just pick more beliefs from the pantheon options, because everything religion offers sucks. Choral music is perhaps the only saving grace, but it's doubtful if all the ahmmers you need to invest into it ever pay back. Jesuit Education is bad, since it competes with Monumentality for your faith and it takes a million years for religion to spread to your 3rd, 4th cities, meaning you need a lot of turns for those cities to have the chance to spend faith in libraries. DoTF is nerfed as well.

*If we get a map with the usual Brazil jungle bias, it's very, very easy to get districts with high adjacency. Brazil does great with Campuses, it felt like. I felt like there would be a good opportunity for a Medieval attack, perhaps early renaissance, since we are likely to get to Knights and XBows before every one else. Perhaps even Muskets. That felt like a plan.

*The bottom of the tech tree also has lumbermills, but we need Mercantilism before being able to build them in ranforests.

*Ancestral Hall + Magnus + Colonization is 150% to Settlers. If you have Magnus second promo that prevents pop loss from Settlers, you can get easy settlers with a single chop. Magnus also feels like the best way to build the Ancestral Hall in a decent time frame. I think I can't get stuck into the mindset that I can't ever chop rainforests with Brazil.

*Capturing CS's is practically a must. Midgame hammers simply can't be used in a better way than swords/horses to capture CS's. 

*Why are wonders so bad in Civ 6?