Tomorrow's Dawn
Heroes Never Die
Sweet Catherine.
Qin Shi Huang did not notice it immediately, but he wondered what had happened to Peter, his loyal vassal.
While sauntering around in the Russian Palace in Novgorod, he contemplated his disappearance as he tightened the sash around his bathrobe.
Waltzing into his private suite, he was a little shocked to find a woman in her birthday suit laying across the silken bed.
Wait a minute, the immortalPresident Emperor (in the bedroom, he always holds that title) thought.
Girls Aloud was still in Luoyang and he didn't remember taking any more concubines for his harem.
"You don't remember?"
"In this document," Catherine read as the scroll draped over her Assets folder.
"It was agreed that I would take over as head of state for Russia when the appropriate time period came up."
"Who came up with that arrangement?" Qin Shi Huang asked.
"Why, Leoreth did. It's there in the code."
"That makes no sense, but I'm not complaining." he replied.
"Close the doors, dearest.
There are many games we must play. "
(Okay, I was channeling some Flouzemaker there, but we can talk strategy now. )
Catherine, and by extension, Russia, to put it bluntly, is best waifu.
She gobbles up massive tracts of land without losing stability.
She techs on an almost Western European tier so you can trade with her.
Most AIs are horrible in combat, but if she needs to fight a defensive war to help
secure your flank, you can count on her to survive with General Winter.
For Conquest, you can count on her to take Eastern European & Mongolian cities off your hands.
For Domination, she can easily account for anywhere between 3-7% of the needed land limit all on her own.
Russia also holds the distinction of being a very readily accessible vassal to acquire for anybody.
There are two opportune moments to be able to vassalize them:
1) During the Mongol conqueror invasions, you have a window of opportunity to snag them there.
2) If they were completely annihilated by the Mongols/Germans/Vikings,
their respawn period is a great time to vassalize them.
In general, I would like to embellish here some of the best vassals in DoC and good times to get them:
China: They are practically guaranteed to collapse after the Mongols spawn, so you'll have to wait for them to respawn.
Depending on how weak they were, you may have to raze some Mongol/independent cities to put them at a correct power level to vassalize.
They are a good trade partner and can gobble up lots of Mongol/Japanese land.
This is especially key if you happen to be playing Japan, which appears to be explosively popular in Civ4 S&T nowadays.
Unless you're brave enough to hold onto that Chinese core and face heightened risk of respawn/rebirth,
you are much better off vassalizing them and saving your Settlers for North America.
This is of course, my opinion, but anyone can take me up and try to put both methods into practice.
Mongols: I've gone over this before, but Mongolia's predisposition ensures that they'll get into a lot of trouble (and a lot of land).
They are a fairly decent vassal in most respects otherwise.
Inca: Not a particularly notable vassal otherwise,
but they offer themselves quite easily at almost any time and from what I've seen many others do,
they accept South American cities very often, contributing a sizable amount of land area.
Arabia: I've almost never been able to vassalize them, but theoretically,
they are very good vassals for their stability map.
A good thing in DoC is that Arabia is practically guaranteed to die, but it's not really guaranteed that they'll respawn.
When they do, they are a very premium vassal to try and obtain.
Ottomans: They are a bit weaker in DoC than in vanilla RFC, because of the presence of the Byzantines,
but they will vassalize readily when threatened and can grow to huge proportions. Definitely up there in land proportions.
Any of the Western European countries, minus Germany:
For obvious reasons, the Western Euros expand very quickly and can accept many different cities.
We don't vassalize Germany because they're landlocked.
Tips on how to vassalize them are to play the political background.
Keep contacts in Europe to keep track of the situation.
Vikings pushing hard against the English? Prime-time to vassalize.
Dutch/Portugal feeling threatened by France/Germany/Spain? Again, it's time to go.
(Maria II happens to be really pretty, too)
And remember, when a civ newly respawns, that's the best chance you get.
Oh. And we get Rifling.
But that's not really important.
Qin Shi Huang did not notice it immediately, but he wondered what had happened to Peter, his loyal vassal.
While sauntering around in the Russian Palace in Novgorod, he contemplated his disappearance as he tightened the sash around his bathrobe.
Waltzing into his private suite, he was a little shocked to find a woman in her birthday suit laying across the silken bed.
Wait a minute, the immortal
Girls Aloud was still in Luoyang and he didn't remember taking any more concubines for his harem.
"You don't remember?"
"In this document," Catherine read as the scroll draped over her Assets folder.
"It was agreed that I would take over as head of state for Russia when the appropriate time period came up."
"Who came up with that arrangement?" Qin Shi Huang asked.
"Why, Leoreth did. It's there in the code."
"That makes no sense, but I'm not complaining." he replied.
"Close the doors, dearest.
There are many games we must play. "
(Okay, I was channeling some Flouzemaker there, but we can talk strategy now. )
Catherine, and by extension, Russia, to put it bluntly, is best waifu.
She gobbles up massive tracts of land without losing stability.
She techs on an almost Western European tier so you can trade with her.
Most AIs are horrible in combat, but if she needs to fight a defensive war to help
secure your flank, you can count on her to survive with General Winter.
For Conquest, you can count on her to take Eastern European & Mongolian cities off your hands.
For Domination, she can easily account for anywhere between 3-7% of the needed land limit all on her own.
Russia also holds the distinction of being a very readily accessible vassal to acquire for anybody.
There are two opportune moments to be able to vassalize them:
1) During the Mongol conqueror invasions, you have a window of opportunity to snag them there.
2) If they were completely annihilated by the Mongols/Germans/Vikings,
their respawn period is a great time to vassalize them.
In general, I would like to embellish here some of the best vassals in DoC and good times to get them:
China: They are practically guaranteed to collapse after the Mongols spawn, so you'll have to wait for them to respawn.
Depending on how weak they were, you may have to raze some Mongol/independent cities to put them at a correct power level to vassalize.
They are a good trade partner and can gobble up lots of Mongol/Japanese land.
This is especially key if you happen to be playing Japan, which appears to be explosively popular in Civ4 S&T nowadays.
Unless you're brave enough to hold onto that Chinese core and face heightened risk of respawn/rebirth,
you are much better off vassalizing them and saving your Settlers for North America.
This is of course, my opinion, but anyone can take me up and try to put both methods into practice.
Mongols: I've gone over this before, but Mongolia's predisposition ensures that they'll get into a lot of trouble (and a lot of land).
They are a fairly decent vassal in most respects otherwise.
Inca: Not a particularly notable vassal otherwise,
but they offer themselves quite easily at almost any time and from what I've seen many others do,
they accept South American cities very often, contributing a sizable amount of land area.
Arabia: I've almost never been able to vassalize them, but theoretically,
they are very good vassals for their stability map.
A good thing in DoC is that Arabia is practically guaranteed to die, but it's not really guaranteed that they'll respawn.
When they do, they are a very premium vassal to try and obtain.
Ottomans: They are a bit weaker in DoC than in vanilla RFC, because of the presence of the Byzantines,
but they will vassalize readily when threatened and can grow to huge proportions. Definitely up there in land proportions.
Any of the Western European countries, minus Germany:
For obvious reasons, the Western Euros expand very quickly and can accept many different cities.
We don't vassalize Germany because they're landlocked.
Tips on how to vassalize them are to play the political background.
Keep contacts in Europe to keep track of the situation.
Vikings pushing hard against the English? Prime-time to vassalize.
Dutch/Portugal feeling threatened by France/Germany/Spain? Again, it's time to go.
(Maria II happens to be really pretty, too)
And remember, when a civ newly respawns, that's the best chance you get.
Oh. And we get Rifling.
But that's not really important.