Basic BNW Greek Strategy

Apologies if this is a well-worn subject by now.

Getting back into Civ V after some absence, I realized/remembered that while Alex is always the leader I groan the most at when encountering, because the AI seems to play him so crazy well, I had no idea how to play him properly myself, so I've been experimenting on King to see what works best for him, as well as reading up some. from what I can tell, the major points are:

1. Despite the two military UUs, which flourish in the ancient/classical era, early war is probably not a great strategy. Neither are ranged units, the Companion Cavalry sucks at taking cities, and the Hoplites still want ranged support, which stretches the bulbs and hammers too thin for a viable early attack. Instead, use these for defense, exploration, and fulfilling early CS quests.

2. As implied by point #1, the early game should be about building a strong foundation for the cities as peacefully as can realistically happen. Get those monuments, shrines and libraries up quickly, and once you can grab a pantheon, nab one that can grab you the most faith, or faith+culture, if possible.

3. Flavor-wise, Greece seems to urge you to go wide, but mechanically, there's no real reason to not be tall. You'll be spending the game relying on your CS allies, after all, so resources should be plentiful if you're doing it right.

4. That said, the Liberty tree is still worth a look here, especially based on my recommendations to follow. Considering the amount of quick infrastructure to be built, the free worker, faster tile improvement, extra production, free settler and quicker settler production can allow for early libraries and wonders in a way that is trickier in my experience with pure Tradition.

5. Obviously the Patronage track. I mean come on.

So, to put this then into BNW terms, the big piece of the puzzle is Religion, which is where I'm seeing Greece truly shine.

1. Pick up a pantheon that generates a ton of faith, like I said above. In my current game, Athens started right next to three Pearl resources, so Tears of the Gods was a no-brainer.

2. If successful, this should grant you a religion, so grab Papal Primacy and Divine Inspiration and keep gunning for the early wonders which can actually help your game.

3. Hold off until you've got your second Prophet, and if possible grab Holy Order (and whatever other follower bonus makes sense for you.)

4. Once you work your way into the Patronage track, every CS with your religion will be permanently friends with you at least, and easily made into allies, so you can turn your focus to gold production - made al the easier if you secured Colossus and Petra in the early stages.

I'm looking for comments on how to improve this strategy, and how to tweak it for higher levels, particularly considering how much tougher religion/early wonders are at that stage.

Thanks!

I disagree about no early war. I've had my fastest domination victories with Hoplites and CC. On any difficulty level, I feel that Alex is about warring while doing some things to please the CS. Honor is an an obvious choice for killing barbs and eventually AIs. Maybe if someone can help me with my video issue, I'll make an LP for Greek Honor strategy?

consentient: that'd be great!

The Honor/Patronage/Commerce/Autocracy combo is more or less a sure way to get at least a win by means of Gunboat diplomacy. I have played maybe one game as Alex that I never really finished, but once the gols starts rolling in and your Patronage policies are up, you're practically in a permanent alliance with every CS on the map.

There's a similar guide on this topic that emphasizes religious playing, and suggests picking Evangelism as reformation belief, which is just crazy good if you want to spread the word like crazy. I suppose the only issue with that is timing it with enhancers and/or generally assess what's the more immediate priority, enhancer or reformation

Tall Tradition works well for every single civ including Greece.

About the only difference when I'm playing Greece is that I'll always pick Consulates as the filler post Tradition while waiting for Rean era for Rationalism when as every other civ my filler would very.

(I'd also notice that city state friends/allies via quests would stay my friends/ally much longer. In fact if the city state has your religion and you also have the Patronage opener then influence won't decay at all for any of Erratic, Neutral, and Friendly type)

consentient said:

I disagree about no early war. I've had my fastest domination victories with Hoplites and CC. On any difficulty level, I feel that Alex is about warring while doing some things to please the CS. Honor is an an obvious choice for killing barbs and eventually AIs. Maybe if someone can help me with my video issue, I'll make an LP for Greek Honor strategy?

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It really depends on the difficulty level. If it's a low difficulty below immortal than early war is a steam roll. Just crush every AI around.

If it's immortal or deity you are probably going to need to get your infrastructure up and running and do a good xbow rush as your first war like move.

I suppose a composite rush is doable but you will probably fall way behind the rest of the world in tech doing something like that.

The idea(with any civs) is to make the best early set up before war. At quick speed you can begin to build massive army around turn 35 and over.

With low hammer start i suggest a 3 cities Liberty rush. No granaries, just focus on monuments first then chunk units.

If hammers are abundant enough you can go for Tradition 2 cities rush. Build 2 granaries and start making stuff.

With Greece under hands it's a good idea to rush somebody using UUs and cs bullying.

CraigMak said:

It really depends on the difficulty level. If it's a low difficulty below immortal than early war is a steam roll. Just crush every AI around.

If it's immortal or deity you are probably going to need to get your infrastructure up and running and do a good xbow rush as your first war like move.

I suppose a composite rush is doable but you will probably fall way behind the rest of the world in tech doing something like that.

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Actually, I've completed a large number of victories on Deity warring in every era starting with Archers. I've not mastered it yet, but please look at my Deity win on DCL #17 and Immortal win with Aztecs, for examples of how it can be done. Thanks.