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Are you, in fact, a pregnant lady who lives in the apartment next door to Superdeath's parents? - Commodore |
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[Spoiler] This is not Civ VI
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Caesar is not the only leader who changed, there's at least Genghis too. Among the new stuff there's the UN and Apostolic palace mechanics (although I doubt we'll see them in action very much).
But I didn't play a lot of pre-BTS civ 4 so I'm not an expert on the changes, there might be more. 
I'll try to have a shot at the CIVs, please bear with me and point me in the right direction where necessary. Always remember that I did not play a game of CIV 4 in years so everything is theorycrafting from my side.
My main difficulties will probably be the estimation when things become relevant and how they can be used. As you stated that it will be more of an island type of map, I assume that early warfare will be less likely and that it is to be expected to clash somewhere around the medieavel timeframe. This all is assuming your pick of Frederik. Byzantine UU - Cataphract - has +2 strenght over the Knight it replaces (+20%), seems like a strong UU as it has the same strenght than a Cuirassier UB - Hippodrome - has +1 happiness, gains +1 happiness from horses (instead of dyes) and gains +1 happiness per 5% culture rate, replaces the theatre and cannot work two artist specialists Wheel - early Chariots, allows building roads Mysticism - have a shot at an early religion, allows building monuments and stonehenge We could actually pick the vanilla combo with Justinian and Byzantine, but that would only be fluffy I believe. The Cataphracts look decent and seem to appear at the right time. The Hippodrome although seems a double edged sword as it provides better happiness for the cost of 2 artist specialist slots. Do people run the cultural slider in CIV4 MP? The technology combination is probably meh as we do not have a use right away for the Wheel but could try to go for an early religion based on Mysticism. Current rating for this game 2/6 Spain UU - Conquistador - replaces the Cuirassier in BtS, gets +50% against Melee and defensive boni, seems strong as well, although this depends on the enemy fielding Melee units UB - Citadel - a castle giving +5 xp to siege units giving the LVL2 of the bat, this looks not that promising at first but I might be off due to the relevance of siege units Fishing - here we are, we could build workboats right away, this is the only CIV available offering this technology. The improvement looks very good on the fish with +2 food and +1 health (is that correct). It also is the prerequisite for Sailing which we need soon anyway on an island map and will allow us building lighthouses. Is the Great Lighthouse allowed and worthwile to pursue? Mysticism - have a shot at an early religion, allows building monuments and stonehenge Fishing start sounds pretty good as it will give us a fast 4f2c tile for bettre growth and research. We could also use further workboats for scouting as it looks like we are on the E end of an island or peninsula. Especially the southern part looks slow to scout by land. The UU sounds good but might be a bit late, the UB is hard to rate from my side. The technology combination looks good, especially if we want to go for an early religion. However note that all players have access to at least one mysticism CIV although we have the largest selection to choose from. For that purpose we could work the fish for 2 2 food and 2 commerce in order to raise our science while researching Polytheism or Meditation, the latter looking a bit better as it gives us access to the Shwedagon Pagoda. Current rating for this game 5/6 India UU - Fast Worker - these guys are really good, I remember that they have +1 movement and thus can enter a forest and chop it right away UB - Mausoleum - +2 happiness jails, they look like they come in late in the game and I am not sure if happiness is the limiting factor by then Mining - prerequisite for BW and thus slavery and chopping, high importance for early development but growth infrastructure and workers necessary Mysticism - have a shot at an early religion, allows building monuments and stonehenge The fast workers are probably a very good choice on their own, although it might be that we encounter limited landmasses and a greater need for water based improvements. Without knowledge of our lands to the W it is difficult to judge their importance for this game`s early game. The UB doe not look that appealing. Mining is a good tech, but comes a bit too ealry I believe, as we likely want to improve I food resource right away which needs either Fishing or Animal Husbandry, best both, before starting to mine the hills around us. That said, there are 4 hills around us, one of which we are on. I think the main benefit of earlyMining here is to go for an early BW to switch to Slavery and start chopping. However this needs fast growing cities and Workers, so the tech itself can be researched later by us. Current rating for this game 4/6 Arabia UU - Camel Archer - is a better knight with 15% withdrawal chance but looks weaker than the Cataphract with its higher strength UB - Madrassa - +2 culture and 2 priest specialists over the library, this one looks quite strong as it doubles the culture output and works well with philospohical Wheel - early Chariots, allows building roads Mysticism - have a shot at an early religion, allows building monuments and stonehenge Wow, that it the same technology combination than Byzantine and even a similar UU, however weaker looking. The UB is earlier available I believe and will provide more culture instead of more happiness, the former I believe is especially early more important. I believe that the Cataphracts additional strength is superior though and believe that it is better to pick Byzantine than Arabia. Current rating for this game 1/6 Holy Roman Empire UU - Landsknecht - A btter Pikeman with its bonus of +100% against Melee units as well. As for defense typically Archer units are used, this unit itself is a good defensive but likely not good offensive unit UB - Rathaus - a better courthouse with further reduced costs down to -75% Hunting - enable us to build Scouts, is necessary for Spearmen and the prerequisite for AH Mysticism - have a shot at an early religion, allows building monuments and stonehenge Well, hunting looks interesting in order to get fastly to AH and work the improved cow for 4f2h. Scouts however are likely not necessary as it looks like we already start with one (is that correct?) and we likely are on an island with limited scouting possibilities. The nice thing we got working here is the synergy between your preferred leader Frederik and the Rathaus, funnily both are German. Getting better courthouses and being able to produce them in half the time means we can push them out like crazy nuts and thus push for more cities as soon as we get CoL. In fact it should probably be a priority for us and would mean a strong expansive strategy should be enacted. The Landsknechts are well suited to provide a backup for that plan as defensive units and as stated before I expect the early game to be low on aggression due to the expected island map. Current rating for this game 6/6 Ottoman UU - Janissary - A strong Musketman with +25% strenght vs Melee, Mounted and Archer beating any earlier area units to the ground UB - Hammam - a +2 happiness aqueduct allowing for better city maximisation Wheel - early Chariots, allows building roads Agriculture - building farms and another prerequisite for AH While the same thing is true than for hunting, it allows us to get earlier to AH, it gives us fewer benefits at the start of the game, as there are no farmable tiles to be seen so far. Hunting at least gives the possiblity to build likely undesired Scouts and is a prerequisite to build Spearmen. The Ottomans are also the only CIV from our selection not providing Mysticism and thus slowing any goals for religions. On the other side our Mysticsim heavy pick list might lead the other to pick non Mysticism CIVs which would bring the Ottomans on an equal footing for that purpose. The good point for the Ottomans is clearly the Janissary as a highly effective unit when researching Gunpowder early. However this is also somewhat predictable and will result in lacking progress at other technologies. Due to this being an island map, other players could try to prevent an invasion with naval technology instead. Although I do not know yet how likely and possible that is, I believe this will reduce the value of tha Janissaries for this game. The Hammam comes decently early and provides a substantial happiness improvement allowing for larger cities, which is definetivly in favor of the Ottomans. Current rating for this game 3/6 Some thoughts: Ottomans and Byzantine seem to have the strongest offensive UU, while HRE has a strong defensive one and India a snowballing worker. Please note that my rating might be flawed by the fact that I am German myself so would love to see the Frederik HRE combination. I am also not sure if an expansive strategy like proposed would negatively interact with the PHI trait, as I assume it means working many specialists. Spains UU is difficult to rate for me, but starting technologies and a good shot at landing Buddhism gives them a strong second position as a pick in my eyes.
This is a really strong civ list. In a snakepick I wouldn't be surprised to see HRE Ottomans India and Byzantium taken, and Spain maybe too. In terms of individual strength I would put India>Byzantium>Ottomans>HRE>Spain, but the starting techs matter a lot here. AH and fishing are not techs you want to start researching too early normally.
I'll setup a sandbox or five later today to see what works.
Cataphracts are the best UU in the game if you don't count Indian FW. They basically have no counter, as pikes are only strength 12 against them. Ottomans are a good all around civ. Janissaries are good (but not amazing), and Hammams are pretty good. In the mid game you're struggling for happiness and it helps a lot. I'm also thinking that if you don't know what your starting area will look like the ottoman starting techs are better than the HRE starting techs. But TBH it's more India>Byzantium>>Ottomans=HRE>Spain.
Here are the sandbox files if you want to play with them. I made Spain last so I'll start testing a Spanish start first.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zig1gx2l7j0hs...uzRQa?dl=0 |
