A general strategy for Brazil

Continuing on from my previous strategy post regarding Assyria, I have just published a second strategy for Brazil:

http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2013/12/25/Civ-V-Brazil-strategy.aspx

I found Brazil to be quite a bit more challenging than Assyria, and so their strategy ended up being considerably larger. But on the upside, I managed to get more screenshots!

I welcome any feedback!

I also posted this topic on the official 2K forums:
http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?410781-A-general-strategy-for-Brazil&p=5569736#post5569736

megabearsfan said:

Continuing on from my previous strategy post regarding Assyria, I have just published a second strategy for Brazil:

http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2013/12/25/Civ-V-Brazil-strategy.aspx

I found Brazil to be quite a bit more challenging than Assyria, and so their strategy ended up being considerably larger. But on the upside, I managed to get more screenshots!

I welcome any feedback!

I also posted this topic on the official 2K forums:
http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?410781-A-general-strategy-for-Brazil&p=5569736#post5569736

Click to expand...

This is a really solid guide. It makes many great points... your insights would have helped settle many of the arguments I've seen happen over Brazil on these forums.

The guide flows well, its structure and organization makes sense. Look forward to the next one. That is, if there is to be a "next one".

Jon the Bastard said:

This is a really solid guide. It makes many great points...

The guide flows well, its structure and organization makes sense. Look forward to the next one. That is, if there is to be a "next one".

Click to expand...

Thanks, Jon! I am planning on writing similar strategies (more or less in-depth) for each of the new "Brave New World" civs (as time permits). At that point, I plan to write a strategy for the civs that were revised for BNW (France, Arabia, India, Germany, Japan, America), and then will move onto G&K and Vanilla civs (again, time permitting).

Jon the Bastard said:

your insights would have helped settle many of the arguments I've seen happen over Brazil on these forums.

Click to expand...

To what arguments are you referring? I actually haven't read very much about Brazil, so I'm not sure what any of the major "controversies" regarding this civ are...

megabearsfan said:

Thanks, Jon! I am planning on writing similar strategies (more or less in-depth) for each of the new "Brave New World" civs (as time permits). At that point, I plan to write a strategy for the civs that were revised for BNW (France, Arabia, India, Germany, Japan, America), and then will move onto G&K and Vanilla civs (again, time permitting).



To what arguments are you referring? I actually haven't read very much about Brazil, so I'm not sure what any of the major "controversies" regarding this civ are...

Click to expand...

You're welcome, of course. I would like to do guides for the civilizations that I play most and feel most comfortable with as well. Now that the game is, more or less, in its final version, it is much more prudent to do so than it was before.

There have been arguments about the Brazilian UU time and time again. No one really ever brought up some of your points regarding that... your elaboration generally presents a more comprehensive and holistic approach to that particular topic. There have been a lot of arguments about whether or not Brazil is actually a flawed civ from the the start and most of these arguments stem from the "jungles don't give you enough production" camp of posters. I had always imaged that those posters never played through an entire game with Brazil, and if they did it was only one. Hardly a large enough sample size. The points you raise about being patient and seeing the pay off in the mid-late to late game would have been nice to have around when those arguments were going on. Those are just to name a few.

Nice write up. Thanks

Jon the Bastard said:

You're welcome, of course. I would like to do guides for the civilizations that I play most and feel most comfortable with as well. Now that the game is, more or less, in its final version, it is much more prudent to do so than it was before.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't anticipate there being any more full expansions, so I figured now was a good time to start. I didn't want to write strategies earlier because I knew that game mechanics and Civ uniques/balance would still be in flux.

Jon the Bastard said:

There have been arguments about the Brazilian UU time and time again. No one really ever brought up some of your points regarding that... your elaboration generally presents a more comprehensive and holistic approach to that particular topic. There have been a lot of arguments about whether or not Brazil is actually a flawed civ from the the start and most of these arguments stem from the "jungles don't give you enough production" camp of posters. I had always imaged that those posters never played through an entire game with Brazil, and if they did it was only one. Hardly a large enough sample size. The points you raise about being patient and seeing the pay off in the mid-late to late game would have been nice to have around when those arguments were going on. Those are just to name a few.

Click to expand...

The UU does kind of suck, especially since (as I mentioned) the American Minuteman is now strictly superior once it's upgraded to Infantry.

As for the claims that Brazil is fundamentally flawed... I can kind of see the point. It's very difficult to be patient in Civ considering how much of the game is determined by the early development. Especially on harder difficulties That's why I always tried founding a religion when playing as Brazil. And I've noticed that a lot of people who take issue with civs with weak start biases tend to overlook religions.

I had a discussion on the 2K forums about coastal cities and the value of workers v workboats in BNW. One poster said that he would quit an MP game if he got a coastal start with lots of sea tiles (even if there were 3 or more resources) because (since the gold on sea tiles was removed in BNW) the city just wouldn't be productive enough to compete with landlocked cities that can irrigate, mine, or trade post every tile. I pointed out that instead of rage quitting, he should just build a Shrine and adopt "God of the Sea": production problem solved!

I wonder how many of the Brazil-haters just never thought about how significant a difference it would make to adopt "Sacred Path" or one of the good plantation-buffing pantheons?

Anyway, feel free to post a link to the strategy (or to this topic) on those old threads about Brazil if you want.