Bibor
Doomsday Machine
added 17.12.
added 21.12.
*AI flavor probably has something to do with this
Diplomacy
Initial attitude is random*; some might be hostile, most will be neutral or friendly.
As time passes, bonuses and penalties will negate this randomness.
It is entirely possible to have a whole continent "at peace", but even a minor transgression (like attacking, but not even taking) a city state can ruin this*, possibly forever.
If you agreed with someone to join a war with "give us 10 turns to prepare", DO NOT start a war before that civs tells you "now is the time", because it will mark you as a "warmonger".
Although there's still no such thing as "best friends forever", AIs you work with for a long time are pretty reliable.
Buying off City-states allied with another civs is a good way to get them hostile towards you.
Rich AIs will aggressively pursue a diplomatic victory, so be prepared to make your own bribes.
Watch out for those penalties that aren't obvious (AI desires your lands, AI desires your wonders).
A city-state stolen on voting turn still votes for its previous owner!
AI isn't as paranoid about "close borders" anymore, but they might want certain parts of your empire.
Some leaders (in my game Hiawatha) really, really hate warmongers (preying on weak etc.) and peaceful cooperation with these civs (if you're a warmonger) might become impossible.
Combat
The AI now positions units on its own borders. While this can be quite unnerving, at least you know what you'll be dealing with.
Passive bonuses (terrain, Great Generals etc.) pay a lesser role now. Not only does this mean that taking out individual units and cities is harder, but rough terrain (especially mountain chains) can and will slow down invasions significantly. Although Horse units lost their super-powers, they have a new critical role in breaking unit formations (probably as was intended from the start).
Even with the combat penalty and lower terrain penalties, Catapults are still stronger than Archers when it comes to vs. unit combat. This evens out slightly at Trebuchets and Crossbows, but then again Cannons take the lead.
AI can have a sizeable naval and air force. Rome rolled over a larger France with Jet Fighters and Rocket Artillery.
AI (Rome again) nuked French "last stand" at Paris.
AI now groups its units together, both land and sea.
You can't realistically take a city without at least two artillery units of your current era.
Naval vs. naval combat is indeed much stronger; older units can go down in one shot.
General AI strategy
Although its true that some AIs will ICS (i.e. build a city network 3 hexes apart), this is not always the case. I'm not sure if this is flavor or map or AI grand strategy dependent, but in every game at least half of the CIVs do not ICS.
Some AIs settle more aggressively*.
AI purchases land with happy/strategic resources 3 tiles away.
AI indeed tries to settle other landmasses more often.
AI beelines techs for their current (decided upon) victory condition; I had two civs reaching future era and building spaceship parts before me.
AI allies with city-states more often and also steals your allies.
Personal gameplay observations
Don't expect early great scientists. Actually, Great Engineers are the most common great people in my post-patch games (probably has something to do with grabbing Stonehenge, but also with my allocation of specialists). While this can slow down your tech pace, you'll have more wonders to boost your empire.
As far as happiness social policies go, Theocacy is the most powerful (25% of your citizens are turned happy), especially for large empires.
Puppets aren't so exciting as they used to be. The governor won't grow above a certain population even if it can (unworked farms, 30+ happiness), in my experience 11 is the limit.
Puppet cities grow differently, depending on the surrounding terrain. Non-river puppets will stagnate at very low population levels, riverside puppets can grow up to size 10-11, while very food rich puppets (riverside, lots of fish) can grow higher (I've seen 14). This has nothing to do with excess happiness.
It's possible to benefit from puppets (i.e. stay happiness/GPT positive), but be willing to raze any city that doesn't bring something to the table (strategic resources, happiness resources). Happiness is very difficult to manage.
Tech paths and buildings need to be in line with your strategy. Doing "a bit of everything" doesn't cut it anymore. You really need to focus on a certain victory type after populating the land.
If you want to minimize your losses, you need a balanced army; that includes crossbows, lancers, Anti-tanks (AI has tanks now) and AA units.
No more growth without farms. Except Siam.
National wonders, especially National College and Ironworks (also Heroic Epic, due to lowered passive unit bonuses elsewhere) are extremely powerful. National College boosts your early and mid-game science by a sizeable amount, while Iron works with its 10
turns your production city into a wonder/unit powerhouse. The reason why Iron Works is so powerful now is that it gets all the bonuses from multipliers (Railroad, Factory, Windmill, Workshop, Marble etc.).
- Natural wonders that give happiness are "worked", they provide the bonus automatically when within borders. Except for the Fountain of Youth, all others give around 5 "stuff". Fountain of youth in my game was within borders of a city-state, but otherwise... I think its worth warring over.
added 21.12.
*AI flavor probably has something to do with this
Diplomacy
Initial attitude is random*; some might be hostile, most will be neutral or friendly.
As time passes, bonuses and penalties will negate this randomness.
It is entirely possible to have a whole continent "at peace", but even a minor transgression (like attacking, but not even taking) a city state can ruin this*, possibly forever.
If you agreed with someone to join a war with "give us 10 turns to prepare", DO NOT start a war before that civs tells you "now is the time", because it will mark you as a "warmonger".
Although there's still no such thing as "best friends forever", AIs you work with for a long time are pretty reliable.
Buying off City-states allied with another civs is a good way to get them hostile towards you.
Rich AIs will aggressively pursue a diplomatic victory, so be prepared to make your own bribes.
Watch out for those penalties that aren't obvious (AI desires your lands, AI desires your wonders).
A city-state stolen on voting turn still votes for its previous owner!
AI isn't as paranoid about "close borders" anymore, but they might want certain parts of your empire.
Some leaders (in my game Hiawatha) really, really hate warmongers (preying on weak etc.) and peaceful cooperation with these civs (if you're a warmonger) might become impossible.
Combat
The AI now positions units on its own borders. While this can be quite unnerving, at least you know what you'll be dealing with.
Passive bonuses (terrain, Great Generals etc.) pay a lesser role now. Not only does this mean that taking out individual units and cities is harder, but rough terrain (especially mountain chains) can and will slow down invasions significantly. Although Horse units lost their super-powers, they have a new critical role in breaking unit formations (probably as was intended from the start).
Even with the combat penalty and lower terrain penalties, Catapults are still stronger than Archers when it comes to vs. unit combat. This evens out slightly at Trebuchets and Crossbows, but then again Cannons take the lead.
AI can have a sizeable naval and air force. Rome rolled over a larger France with Jet Fighters and Rocket Artillery.
AI (Rome again) nuked French "last stand" at Paris.
AI now groups its units together, both land and sea.
You can't realistically take a city without at least two artillery units of your current era.
Naval vs. naval combat is indeed much stronger; older units can go down in one shot.
General AI strategy
Although its true that some AIs will ICS (i.e. build a city network 3 hexes apart), this is not always the case. I'm not sure if this is flavor or map or AI grand strategy dependent, but in every game at least half of the CIVs do not ICS.
Some AIs settle more aggressively*.
AI purchases land with happy/strategic resources 3 tiles away.
AI indeed tries to settle other landmasses more often.
AI beelines techs for their current (decided upon) victory condition; I had two civs reaching future era and building spaceship parts before me.
AI allies with city-states more often and also steals your allies.
Personal gameplay observations
Don't expect early great scientists. Actually, Great Engineers are the most common great people in my post-patch games (probably has something to do with grabbing Stonehenge, but also with my allocation of specialists). While this can slow down your tech pace, you'll have more wonders to boost your empire.
As far as happiness social policies go, Theocacy is the most powerful (25% of your citizens are turned happy), especially for large empires.
Puppets aren't so exciting as they used to be. The governor won't grow above a certain population even if it can (unworked farms, 30+ happiness), in my experience 11 is the limit.
Puppet cities grow differently, depending on the surrounding terrain. Non-river puppets will stagnate at very low population levels, riverside puppets can grow up to size 10-11, while very food rich puppets (riverside, lots of fish) can grow higher (I've seen 14). This has nothing to do with excess happiness.
It's possible to benefit from puppets (i.e. stay happiness/GPT positive), but be willing to raze any city that doesn't bring something to the table (strategic resources, happiness resources). Happiness is very difficult to manage.
Tech paths and buildings need to be in line with your strategy. Doing "a bit of everything" doesn't cut it anymore. You really need to focus on a certain victory type after populating the land.
If you want to minimize your losses, you need a balanced army; that includes crossbows, lancers, Anti-tanks (AI has tanks now) and AA units.
No more growth without farms. Except Siam.
National wonders, especially National College and Ironworks (also Heroic Epic, due to lowered passive unit bonuses elsewhere) are extremely powerful. National College boosts your early and mid-game science by a sizeable amount, while Iron works with its 10
turns your production city into a wonder/unit powerhouse. The reason why Iron Works is so powerful now is that it gets all the bonuses from multipliers (Railroad, Factory, Windmill, Workshop, Marble etc.).- Natural wonders that give happiness are "worked", they provide the bonus automatically when within borders. Except for the Fountain of Youth, all others give around 5 "stuff". Fountain of youth in my game was within borders of a city-state, but otherwise... I think its worth warring over.
. Unfortunately for me it was basically exactly 3 tiles from the shore So I couldn't found a city that would work it. Basically I never really cared about getting natural wonders in my boarders before, but now there's a decent reason to do that.
