Shout Out to the Shoshone!

C

Crushingdeth

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
11
Location
Missouri
A few things about myself first...

- I am new to Civ V: BNW
- I play Prince level at this time.
- I know my play style, I am a builder, prefer peaceful means to victory, my armies are purely defensive in nature, with occasional forays to grab up opportunity tiles, cities, and the such when needed.

The UU, Pathfinder, allows for quick, initial exploration of the map for prime city placement, early CS and Civ encounters for reference/gold, UU upgradeable with promotions, and selection of barbarian encampment rewards. What's not to like? The Comanche rider is a pretty solid UU as well, cheaper than Calvary and upgradeable with promotions.

The additional land tiles at start is huge for access to bonus tiles. The innate defensive bonus sets you up for strong defensive armies allowing one to build unhindered by warmongering neighbors who quickly find out attacking the Shoshone sux on their ground.

First are there other Civ's that play out well for a "builder" player (specifically, Romans)? And, do the Shoshone play out well at higher difficulty levels? Thoughts?

Crushingdeth

"The bugle sounds, the charge begins...but, on this battlefield no one wins...the smell of acrid smoke and horses breath...as we plunge on into certain death..." - The Trooper -> Iron Maiden
 
Well if you like defense...I'm sure you've tried Ethiopia. I actually prefer them over the Shoshone (not by much) because of the early religion. You can still get a religion as the Shoshone but you don't have the advantage Ethiopia has to likely get to have your desired belief left (at least on high difficulty)
 
Shoutout to Ray from Achievement Hunter
 
Crushingdeth said:
A few things about myself first...

- I am new to Civ V: BNW
- I play Prince level at this time.
- I know my play style, I am a builder, prefer peaceful means to victory, my armies are purely defensive in nature, with occasional forays to grab up opportunity tiles, cities, and the such when needed.

The UU, Pathfinder, allows for quick, initial exploration of the map for prime city placement, early CS and Civ encounters for reference/gold, UU upgradeable with promotions, and selection of barbarian encampment rewards. What's not to like? The Comanche rider is a pretty solid UU as well, cheaper than Calvary and upgradeable with promotions.

The additional land tiles at start is huge for access to bonus tiles. The innate defensive bonus sets you up for strong defensive armies allowing one to build unhindered by warmongering neighbors who quickly find out attacking the Shoshone sux on their ground.

First are there other Civ's that play out well for a "builder" player (specifically, Romans)? And, do the Shoshone play out well at higher difficulty levels? Thoughts?

Crushingdeth

"The bugle sounds, the charge begins...but, on this battlefield no one wins...the smell of acrid smoke and horses breath...as we plunge on into certain death..." - The Trooper -> Iron Maiden
Click to expand...

I think Morocco would also be a good Civ for you to try. The Kasbah (UB) gives a defensive bonus of 50%. Those mixed in with some Berber Cavalry (combat bonus in desert tiles and Moroccan territory) provide an incredibly formidable defense.
 
Morocco can turtle up pretty hard with Kasbahs (forts that improve tile yields; desert only) and Berber Cavalry as long as they're on home turf ... and that home turf fits their desert start bias.

Babylon can turtle up in the early game with better walls and archers, and can take a tech lead pretty early to ensure their defensive army is always cutting-edge.


Inca can get heavy production and food at the same time, and tend to have a better home-field advantage than Ethiopia and Shoshone because their start bias territory is all hills (where they don't lose movement and everybody else does) and mountains, which can block off approach entirely. If you have access (they were a DLC civ and I'm not sure they got packaged in with anything), definitely try them out. Superb civ.

You could also try France if you want to give the culture game a shot. Chateaus aren't quite as versatile as standard forts because they have fairly specific placement requirements, but you'll still have a bunch of them, and the civ definitely rewards a bit of wonder-spam in the capital.
 
I'm currently playing Shoshones on Immortal a bit to optimize the social policy paths.

They're pretty top-notch. The pathfinder is a bit luck-dependent but getting 2 composite bowmen in the Ancient era is pretty epic. It also mean you can found a pantheon without making a shrine, getting Collective Rule earlier with a cultural ruin, and getting a better tech after you research one of the 3 techs.

Shoshone has great synergy with Liberty since you don't have to worry about land grabbing. So Tradition -> Liberty -> Collective Rule is a great beginning on higher difficulties.

I'd say they're pretty good tier. Another thread here was talking about nerfing them.
 
To the OP, to get your second pathfind out as soon as possible (and therefore find more ruins), try:
- settling on a hill' and
- setting your city to production focus (you should be able to work a hill b/c you have so many tiles to choose from); and
- choosing from the first ruin you find increase population to get more production (although be careful not to let the city starve!).

Also, if you run into an AI scout, see if you can determine which direction he is running, and see if you are in the right placement to run ahead of him! If you can tell that you wont be able to run ahead of him, then run a different direction (dont run behind him).

Good luck out there.
 
It is not the civilisation that will make anyone win a high level game but the player.
The shoshone are great to play at low or high level.
Just a word about that :
Well if you like defense...I'm sure you've tried Ethiopia. I actually prefer them over the Shoshone (not by much) because of the early religion
Click to expand...
At high levels, the AIs will spam you so much with his religions that it may be better just to skip that part...
 
Shoshone is great for a new builder-type player playing on prince level. Try Poland, as well, they are very versatile and strong. Morocco is good too,,as mentioned above. Also Babylon if you have the DLC for it.
 
ballingforlife said:
Well if you like defense...I'm sure you've tried Ethiopia. I actually prefer them over the Shoshone (not by much) because of the early religion. You can still get a religion as the Shoshone but you don't have the advantage Ethiopia has to likely get to have your desired belief left (at least on high difficulty)
Click to expand...

Huh, the only civ that can beat Shoshone to a pantheon is Boudicca. And I doubt anyone could beat them to a religion if they were trying for it.

The only problem the Shoshone have is they need to take abilities that give piety, as getting the pantheon and religion come from lump sums.
 
Rome is more like a conqueror/expansionist civ - their ability sets them up perfectly for improving conquered cities fast so they won't slow down their progress (=more conquest and expansion).

Good builders you might enjoy:

Egypt. Focus on technology and growth early on, spam tons and tons of wonders for the rest of the game.

India. Insane tall growth practically unbounded by happiness at first, later supports conquest and expansion equally well if you decide you don't like your neighbor's face.

Brazil. Play an introverted culture empire, aim for maximum happiness and enjoy potent Carnival golden ages.

Morocco. Trade routes with everyone yields decent bonus money culture early on. You'll be a favorite trading partner even later in the game because of your UA. Peaceful merchant empire!

Poland. With a UA that flexible, they can be anything you like. Peaceful builder, merciless conqueror, tall culture civ...
 
Tachii said:
Shoshone has great synergy with Liberty since you don't have to worry about land grabbing. So Tradition -> Liberty -> Collective Rule is a great beginning on higher difficulties.
Click to expand...

They also have great synergy with Honor. I've had great success by stalling my growth on the first turn to pump out pathfinders, grow through goodie huts when possible. Once you're done searching for them, get the first honor policy and go bounty hunting with all your pathfinders. Kill all the barbarians everywhere quickly and easily for tons of gold, culture and promotions. The strength you get from them means everyone will treat you as though you have a large army, and if you need to, you do. All from just one policy

Edit: immortal btw
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

foreverlost
Need help to advance to beating the AI Civs
Replies
4
Views
527
foreverlost
foreverlost
pineappledan
  • Locked
  • Poll
[Vote] (6-03) Move Moai Defense Bonus to Encampment
2 3
Replies
43
Views
3K
Tekamthi
Tekamthi
pineappledan
Shoshone discussion
6 7 8
Replies
154
Views
9K
azum4roll
A
KayAU
Which are your favourite civs (in Vox Populi or vanilla)?
Replies
6
Views
3K
Darth Tribble
Darth Tribble
N
  • Locked
(4-NS) Shoshone Changes
Replies
12
Views
1K
Recursive
Recursive
Top Bottom