How to Play as Polynesia?
- Thread starter Mesin
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Gamewizard
Emperor
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- Jan 24, 2011
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Polynesia benefits from continents/small continents/archipelago type maps. You will be the first Civ to explore the deep waters and thus get first crack at those isolated ruins/city-states. I like to build 4-5 Maori Warriors for this purpose. When they are done exploring and clearing barb camps for CS influence, bring them back home and upgrade them into strong swordsmen as they keep their unique promotion upon upgrade. Once you hit mathematics, build some siege units and take out your weakest neighbor with your strong army.
You want to look for peninsulas for your cities so that you can get as many moai statues grouped together as possible. Do this and you can get statues that give 5 culture. This allows you to play wide but not at the expense of policies like other civs would. Wide empires are better with religion, so piety is a good tree. Focus on producing Great Engineers to get many cities with atleast one wonder in each for the +33% culture piety boost. When you tech flight your gpt will skyrocket, especially if you can hit a golden age around the same time. Late game you will be able to finish the Order tree which will give +2 of every yield in every city. Communism will give you ultra productive mines which can be used to fuel production of your world domination attack force. Depending on which late-game resource you are swimming in, you could mass produce air units, naval units, or best of all, nuclear missiles.
This likely isn't the most optimal game you could play, but it is different and alot of fun, especially if you don't mind late-game warfare.
You want to look for peninsulas for your cities so that you can get as many moai statues grouped together as possible. Do this and you can get statues that give 5 culture. This allows you to play wide but not at the expense of policies like other civs would. Wide empires are better with religion, so piety is a good tree. Focus on producing Great Engineers to get many cities with atleast one wonder in each for the +33% culture piety boost. When you tech flight your gpt will skyrocket, especially if you can hit a golden age around the same time. Late game you will be able to finish the Order tree which will give +2 of every yield in every city. Communism will give you ultra productive mines which can be used to fuel production of your world domination attack force. Depending on which late-game resource you are swimming in, you could mass produce air units, naval units, or best of all, nuclear missiles.
This likely isn't the most optimal game you could play, but it is different and alot of fun, especially if you don't mind late-game warfare.
Princeofnigeria
The illustrious
I tend to play much differently then the person above me. I try to get sailing fairly quickly (not beeline though) build up some trireme and snag a few puppets on enemy continents. I send my settlers off to foreign land and I always try and get a city on all continents before the AD's, and if my happiness can sustain it convert a puppet or two to my city. I will then turn attention to my own landmass, with a few of my maori defending my capitol. I like to set up long moai lines near my borders to defend against invasion (in conjunction with my maori it is a nice spirit of adwa style ability) and keep up a good navy to protect my harbor trade network. I am OBSESSED with keeping my people happy (above positive 5 and usually around 20+. how can you guys sit there and watch your people suffer?!) and usually don't get more than 4-5 cities and a few puppets, so I don't know how well the moai offset culture penalties for wide empires.
I can say this though: this strategy is very fun for me and makes me feel like a colonial empire, and I like to roleplay a little. From a purely strategic standpoint i'm fairly confident the man above me has more sound advice. This is just how I play them, and it usually works out on prince or king.
I can say this though: this strategy is very fun for me and makes me feel like a colonial empire, and I like to roleplay a little. From a purely strategic standpoint i'm fairly confident the man above me has more sound advice. This is just how I play them, and it usually works out on prince or king.
I've found Polynesia particularly fun on terra and frontier maps. As stated above, their biggest strength lies in exploration, but also their warriors get a nifty debuff, making early rushes a bit easier. Moai are "just ok", I think... good if you can line them up in rows of 3 or 5 in a culture victory aim, but a harsh trade against food income or whatever else you might get from a tile.
seancolorado
Deity
I'd like to know how they're normally played
The biggest misconception about Polynesia is that because their Uniques are so...unique that that would limit their playstyle. That's only true if you make it true. I mean, just look how different the above responses are (and wait for how different mine is). Now, having said that obviously there are certain styles better than others and in the end it comes down to the style you are most comfortable with.
what victory types I should go for
I would say any victory type other than Domination is possible as long as you play defensively. (I mean, domination is always possible with every civ as Gamewizard makes a fine case above, but I just don't favor them for Domination games myself. On archipelago maps however anything goes, even domination). Why defensively? I'll get into that in a second. Diplomatic is probably my favorite victory type with them, especially when Greece is absent from the game. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter too much
It's best to settle only coastal and to have a line of coastal cities close enough to each other. On archipelago that's easy. On continents it's about a 50/50 draw of luck. A lot of the time you will have the resource/food availability that favors an all-coastal empire but a lot of the time you won't. I figured archipelago is more straight-forward so I'll mostly be discussing Polynesia with continents and continent-like maps.
The reason coastal is better is for the moai statues which means defense. +10% bonus combat strength near moais may not be amazing, it may not even be noticeable at first, but it absolutely gives you a boost. Princeofnigeria mentioned "Spirit of Adwa" and he's right. To elaborate, Ethiopia's UA Spirit of Adwa gives you a 20% bonus for civs with more cities than you. Polynesia, in some ways, is exactly the same only you get the bonus while being able to expand quickly. But before you tell me 10% is a lot different than 20% keep in mind the secret ingredient: Maori Warriors.
Indeed, Gamewizard mentioned building at least 4-5 - and he's right. Maori warriors give the opponent -10% strength so if you position your troops right then you are basically talking about the Spirit of Adwa with a coastal twist. Absolutely solid for defense. The strategy of that depends heavily on the situation but basically you want to have your warriors on the front line surrounding the city being attacked. The reason you need more maori warriors is so you can rotate them - have a few taking the punches close enough to the moais to receive the combat bonuses, have one or two healing up in the back. Archers are of course great to have but I've had games where the maori warriors and my city bombardment were all I needed - and in those games they cleaned up quick.
It's best to build a maori warrior straight away. That way you have two of them exploring the map, meeting unreachable city-states before other civs and thus getting more cash and if you're lucky more faith. You nab up ruins before other civs (the only civ other than America that gives you this advantage) and often times because you nab up more ruins you find a culture ruin, justifying the decision to build a maori warrior in place of a monument or something else. (Don't waste time/coin building a scout at the beginning...just don't).
Religion. If you manage to get one then take a look at your water tiles. See enough fish/whale/pearl/crab resources? Then choose God of the Sea, provided there isn't a more obvious choice available (such as Desert Folklore if you're surrounded by desert.) Production you get from that is great. By the time you reach oil if you are lucky enough to have an oil resource in the water you are talking about a six tile production (with harbors and seaports.)
Social Policy really depends on how you play but Commerce really justifies settling on the coast for these policies: Merchant Navy (+3 production, head straight for this if you don't have any high prod cities) and Trade Unions (Harbors and Seaports gain 1 gold - this is important too). All of this combined with the the moai gold that hits you at Flight and you are talking about a ridiculous amount of cash (and you can further abuse this money-raking by choosing Tithe if you really want). The great part is, because of the moai culture you will reach these SP's more quickly than your average civ.
You didn't mention any specifics to your game settings but I made a deliberate point to keep everything vague enough to apply to any kind of settings. At the end of the day I call Polynesia my favorite civ to play but I actually don't think they are a powerful civ - not weak, definitely not weak - but by no means part of the top tier in this game. I just like them for the music, immersion and all that
Edit: Looked real wordy, boldfaced for some easier reading
The biggest misconception about Polynesia is that because their Uniques are so...unique that that would limit their playstyle. That's only true if you make it true. I mean, just look how different the above responses are (and wait for how different mine is). Now, having said that obviously there are certain styles better than others and in the end it comes down to the style you are most comfortable with.
what victory types I should go for
I would say any victory type other than Domination is possible as long as you play defensively. (I mean, domination is always possible with every civ as Gamewizard makes a fine case above, but I just don't favor them for Domination games myself. On archipelago maps however anything goes, even domination). Why defensively? I'll get into that in a second. Diplomatic is probably my favorite victory type with them, especially when Greece is absent from the game. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter too much
It's best to settle only coastal and to have a line of coastal cities close enough to each other. On archipelago that's easy. On continents it's about a 50/50 draw of luck. A lot of the time you will have the resource/food availability that favors an all-coastal empire but a lot of the time you won't. I figured archipelago is more straight-forward so I'll mostly be discussing Polynesia with continents and continent-like maps.
The reason coastal is better is for the moai statues which means defense. +10% bonus combat strength near moais may not be amazing, it may not even be noticeable at first, but it absolutely gives you a boost. Princeofnigeria mentioned "Spirit of Adwa" and he's right. To elaborate, Ethiopia's UA Spirit of Adwa gives you a 20% bonus for civs with more cities than you. Polynesia, in some ways, is exactly the same only you get the bonus while being able to expand quickly. But before you tell me 10% is a lot different than 20% keep in mind the secret ingredient: Maori Warriors.
Indeed, Gamewizard mentioned building at least 4-5 - and he's right. Maori warriors give the opponent -10% strength so if you position your troops right then you are basically talking about the Spirit of Adwa with a coastal twist. Absolutely solid for defense. The strategy of that depends heavily on the situation but basically you want to have your warriors on the front line surrounding the city being attacked. The reason you need more maori warriors is so you can rotate them - have a few taking the punches close enough to the moais to receive the combat bonuses, have one or two healing up in the back. Archers are of course great to have but I've had games where the maori warriors and my city bombardment were all I needed - and in those games they cleaned up quick.
It's best to build a maori warrior straight away. That way you have two of them exploring the map, meeting unreachable city-states before other civs and thus getting more cash and if you're lucky more faith. You nab up ruins before other civs (the only civ other than America that gives you this advantage) and often times because you nab up more ruins you find a culture ruin, justifying the decision to build a maori warrior in place of a monument or something else. (Don't waste time/coin building a scout at the beginning...just don't).
Religion. If you manage to get one then take a look at your water tiles. See enough fish/whale/pearl/crab resources? Then choose God of the Sea, provided there isn't a more obvious choice available (such as Desert Folklore if you're surrounded by desert.) Production you get from that is great. By the time you reach oil if you are lucky enough to have an oil resource in the water you are talking about a six tile production (with harbors and seaports.)
Social Policy really depends on how you play but Commerce really justifies settling on the coast for these policies: Merchant Navy (+3 production, head straight for this if you don't have any high prod cities) and Trade Unions (Harbors and Seaports gain 1 gold - this is important too). All of this combined with the the moai gold that hits you at Flight and you are talking about a ridiculous amount of cash (and you can further abuse this money-raking by choosing Tithe if you really want). The great part is, because of the moai culture you will reach these SP's more quickly than your average civ.
You didn't mention any specifics to your game settings but I made a deliberate point to keep everything vague enough to apply to any kind of settings. At the end of the day I call Polynesia my favorite civ to play but I actually don't think they are a powerful civ - not weak, definitely not weak - but by no means part of the top tier in this game. I just like them for the music, immersion and all that
Edit: Looked real wordy, boldfaced for some easier reading
Petiscator
King
Hmm... after reading this thread I might try playing as them on my next game, even though I dislike them a lot. Can anybody explain the moai's gold bonus? Does it work the same way as culture do? What I mean is, does it give only +1 gold or +1 gold AND +1 gold per adjacent moai? Thanks for the future replies 
seancolorado
Deity
Hmm... after reading this thread I might try playing as them on my next game, even though I dislike them a lot. Can anybody explain the moai's gold bonus? Does it work the same way as culture do? What I mean is, does it give only +1 gold or +1 gold AND +1 gold per adjacent moai? Thanks for the future replies
I'm pretty sure it's just the +1 gold (but I never thought about it, anybody else know 100% for sure?). Regardless, it comes late (Flight) but not that late: it comes as you begin planning your home stretch and that gold is truly helpful
Petiscator
King
I can imagine! Thanks for the reply, Sean!
Princeofnigeria
The illustrious
Forgot to mention this in my post, but in my opinion polynesian warfare is all about outmaneuvering your opponent and swarm tactics. On land the maori's embarkation allows them to flank tough opponents and attack from multiple sides (this is why I think Haka doesn't stack, as it would make swarm tactics and domination more viable, and change maori from an overlooked meh unit to an unstoppable world conquering ubermench.) at sea, lets say carthage has 10 dromomon, and I have 5 trireme. I'll beat his navy to pulp easily. While he has to funnel his ships though the one tile coast, I can cut off his lines and attack from multiple sides in the sea, making my units invincible from counter attack. If things do turn sour, my units slink off into the deep sea and heal with impunity (probably whilst flipping off the carthagian ships and talking trash about there momma's while they sit ten feet away and still can't attack. And I like polynesia's war theme because it sounds like a slow, crushing guerrilla campaign, finished off by a massive counter offensive.
Somebody should maybe write a war academy article about this.
I want to +1 this momentum; that was a good mini-article, Sean, I enjoyed it and would love to see you expand it into a war academy piece!
seancolorado
Deity
I'm truly flattered with the suggestions. I'll write something up sometime after Christmas/New Years. While it may not end up being war academy worthy, I'll post it in Strategy & Tips so anyone interested in a more in-depth and cleaner looking read of Polynesia, keep your eyes peeled
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