Netherlands : Rather lackluster ability?

Q

Question

King
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
950
Let's say i have just one fur and i use netherland's UA to sell it for 200 gold (Best case scenario, usually some AIs don't like me enough to buy it at full price), and still get 2 happiness.

Or i can play arabia, use the bazaar, and sell the extra resource for 200 gold and still get 4 full happiness. Comes later in the tech tree though.

And the polder is very unimpressive, when you consider marsh is very limited(i ended up with two in range of my capital). It's a lot worse than starting in a desert and being able to use desert folklore/petra for your capital.
 
Netherlands is boring unless you cook settings or/and get lucky.
 
Glassmage said:
Netherlands is boring unless you cook settings or/and get lucky.
Click to expand...

I disagree. They can be OP. Nothing can withstand their navy. I'm just not sure The East India Trading Company should be open for business in 3000 BC. :eek:
 
I thought Netherlands would be underwhelming until I played them. Sell your last copy of a luxury and still get 2 happiness for it?- this is a great deal!

On the right map, Sea Beggars can be devastating- just be sure to use them in conjunction with frigates, and not by themselves.
 
Yes, they're a poor man's Arabia. They don't have a starting bias that matches their abilities (unlike Arabia, Inca, Iroquois, Russia, Carthage, England, etc.), which seems like a big mistake. As Glassmage suggested, you either roll, reroll, manually adjust, etc., or you're not going to get much out of the polder.

Nonetheless, the UA is actually pretty good insofar as you get to immediately trade resources without much of a happiness reduction (bazaars are still pretty early though, so I still consider Arabia superior in regard).

Edit: Sea Beggers are also great, but they don't make this otherwise middling civ top tier.
 
The funny thing about the Dutch is that their UA seemed 'meh' to me, the seabeggar just okay, and the polder awesome. It turned out that their UA is extremely powerful, especially on Deity/Immortal. The seabeggar is great on the appropriate maps.
 
i've never actually played as netherlands because i usually play emperor and really only trade luxs on immortal or deity. i barely ever focus on offensive navy either so it kind of does seem lacklustre given my play style
 
Polder is fricking awesome. And it looks like the best tile improvement ever, lol. But then it blows if your capital have none of it (in my current game so far.. :<)

Sea beggars is alright, pretty fun to do a mid-late game rush with.

UA will lose out to Bazaars eventually. But in early game you can easily settle 4 cities pretty darn fast and with more gold to boot on a CS and other minor things (shrine, granary, library, worker, etc).
 
I'm an ardent supporter of the UA, because the benefits from it compound over time. Improving your cities and their tiles just a few turns earlier can be more advantageous than it may seem, as can the ability to get an extra city out (if you trade for luxuries rather than gold).
 
draaibaar said:
manually adjust:confused:how to do this without worldbuilder (civIV)?
Click to expand...
This:
Glassmage said:
civ 5 sdk
Click to expand...
Or:
The In-Game Editor Mod (IGE) that works just like the CIV worldbuilder.

Now that I think about it, I don't think the FireTuner that comes in the CiV SDK allows for in game terrain editing. You can cook the game in the Worldbuilder that comes with the SDK beforehand, but you're out of luck when the game is in progress.
 
Question said:
... Or i can play arabia, use the bazaar, and sell the extra resource for 200 gold and still get 4 full happiness. Comes later in the tech tree though.
Click to expand...

When do you realistically build the bazaar? My capitol is usually finishing the national college around T90 and I have not built a market yet. The Netherlands, however, has probably already been through 2 or 3 rounds of trading by that time... that's why its UA is powerful.
 
Are you kidding me?
You know that you can also trade luxuries right?
So you can trade away your last Cotton for a Furs and get +6 happiness instead of 4.
Couple that with Protectionism in Commerce and that's +10 happiness, because you technically still have the resource you're trading away for some reason. This makes the UA so adaptable.
Polders are great if you can get a good start with some flood plains and marshes, and is probably the most situational UI there is. Sea Beggars are good, but it balances out the civ very well.
 
kamikazees said:
When do you realistically build the bazaar? My capitol is usually finishing the national college around T90 and I have not built a market yet. The Netherlands, however, has probably already been through 2 or 3 rounds of trading by that time... that's why its UA is powerful.
Click to expand...

I've never bothered to check...and my figures are probably skewed because i play on epic time research speed with quick build speeds.

I find trading luxuries can be very iffy. An expansionist civ can easily settle a city near you, stealing one of the luxuries you were hoping to trade with him. Like in my latest game, i have a massive surplus of bananas and sugar. There are 3 players including me on my continent, china who is doing the usual "covet lands" thing and warring with me repeatedly, and netherlands. Netherlands expanded faster than i did and ended up getting some bananas and sugar so i couldnt trade it to them. And i cant trade to anyone else till i get ocean going tech. If i was playing netherlands, i would be pissed because i wouldnt be able to trade at all.
 
And here we go again. The endless Arabia vs Netherlands discussion.

People just don't understand that an early bonus is (on most maps) better than a late one. Netherlands is the ultimate snowball civ. If you don't use their ability early in the game, you're doing it wrong.
Trade everything you have and either use the extra gold for buying workers/settlers or the extra happiness for expansion.
 
RealHuhn said:
And here we go again. The endless Arabia vs Netherlands discussion.

People just don't understand that an early bonus is (on most maps) better than a late one. Netherlands is the ultimate snowball civ. If you don't use their ability early in the game, you're doing it wrong.
Trade everything you have and either use the extra gold for buying workers/settlers or the extra happiness for expansion.
Click to expand...

What happens if you can't trade?
 
I really like Netherland's UA. I don't know, it supports an early expansion quite well: sell luxes to neighboors civs, buy a settler, found city 2, get a minor unhappiness hit. The polder, while situational, is really good. I once played an earth map with the Netherlands and ended up in Egypt. Oh boy. :D

It is hard when you don't have anyone to trade with but even when the AI dislikes you, they might pay 155-190 per lux, and then its up to you if it is good to give 2 happiness for that. It is not the best use for the UA, but it sometimes is worth it. When you meet the other civs in the other continent, then you have a good chunk of trading partners, and your UA shines again. It is better at the early game, though.

Arabia's quite good too, but IMO, I preffer the Netherlands. :)
 
One thing ive noticed after playing aztecs is that with all the jungles and plantations, it takes quite a while to get any luxuries to trade (since you need to chop the jungle down AND build the plantation, two different techs). Same thing could happen to netherlands if they start with plantations nearby instead of something accessible, like gems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

King Phaedron
3 Civilizations are China locked on this map - Secret of Evermore
Replies
3
Views
1K
fomrat
F
King Phaedron
Secret of Evermore - World Map Scenario for you
Replies
2
Views
741
Planktonic
P
W
General Feedback on Normal/Revolutionary
Replies
4
Views
1K
Cyberian
Cyberian
Pliped
v92 China
Replies
8
Views
975
Rhye
Rhye
Hinin
  • Locked
  • Poll
[Vote] (6-49) Unique Improvement Enhancements Reworks
2 3
Replies
54
Views
4K
pineappledan
pineappledan
Top Bottom