I have played with more than half of the civs so far, and of all the units out there, the most devastating one I have found is the sea beggar. From the description, you would not know that it is arguably the most formidable instrument of domination in the game. In fact, I expected the Dutch to be relatively weak and passive, relying mostly on the diplomatic strength attained by their UA and polders. Even the name "sea beggar" does not inspire confidence.
But oh boy, was I mistaken. The game becomes ridiculously easy when you have a fleet of sea beggars. YOU OWN THE COAST. Here is why.
First of all, you need at least one highly productive coastal city with an armory. Then start cranking out sea beggars or purchasing them. Each ship starts the the Coastal Raider 2 promotion. The armory allows 2 upgrades, so you can immediately upgrade to Coastal Raider 3 with one upgrade left. Once you get to Coastal Raider 3, you can get the logistics upgrade -- two attacks per turn! So by upgrading every sea beggar that comes out to Coastal 3 and logistics, you immediately have a fleet of ships that have +60% attack strength against cities, steal twice the normal amount of gold per attack, and can attack TWICE! And this is before they have ever seen their first battle.
As if that is not enough of an advantage, the sea beggars also come with the supply promotion which allows them to heal outside friendly territory. (This is usually a huge advantage, but you will be conquering cities at such a high rate that you won't be spending much time out of friendly territory. What's more, the sea beggars also have a 50% chance of converting other ships to your side. So not only do you conquer the other navy with ease due to the supply and multiple attack promotions, but then you use your opponent's own ships against him!
The end result is an epic and unending coastal rampage. The first step is to completely destroy the opposing navy. This is easy when you have ships that can attack twice fighting ships that can attack only once and you are capturing ships as you go. Once that is done, the cities are yours. One of the usual difficulties with taking cities with melee ships is that there are only so many spaces for a melee unit to attack. Then once you attack, your ship is vulnerable to the city's defenses and whatever ranged units are stationed in or near the city. With "super sea beggars" these problems go away. Each ship can attack, then move out of range. Each blow does huge damage. And to finish off a city that is nearing defeat, you can attack twice. The result is that, given a large enough fleet and no opposing naval units, you can easily conquer all of the civ's coastal cities in just a few turns without losing a ship.
Of course, the civ can always try to take its city back by land. This is a hopeless endeavor, because the sea beggars can keep capturing the city (and whatever unit is in it) repeatedly until the land units run out or give up. The city can then serve as a base of operations for an inland invasion. Once all the coastal cities have been captured, the opponent has no means of producing defensive naval units that could challenge the Dutch force. This allows the Dutch to launch amphibious invasions at will.
The only problem is acquiring enough happiness to puppet a large number of coastal cities at once. William is actually one of the most suitable leaders for overcoming this issue because his UA allows him to pile up the happiness points through trade. A little bit of advanced planning should allow him to prepare for the happiness hit that will result from the sea beggars storming the coast and seizing every city in sight.
I should also mention that, because the sea beggars can attack twice, they gain promotions twice as fast. So after one conquest you will have an even more invincible and overpowering fleet than when they first came out of the armory -- plus all the ships they have captured.
In sum, there is no stopping the Dutch military once a large fleet of sea beggars has been assembled. And did I mention they earn you gold too? That is huge in the gold-starved Brave New World. The polders and golden ages from the Dutch should also help support the massive fleet.
The only possible defense I can see is submarines. Aircraft will not help because the sea beggars upgrade to destroyers which have anti-aircraft capabilities. Even submarines are a stretch unless they come in bunches because once the sea beggar / destroyers capture a few of them, it's game over. Your submarines pretty much have to wipe them out before being captured, which I don't see happening. Nuclear submarines and nukes would work, but there is no way anyone is hanging in the game that long with William having sea beggars since the renaissance era. I really don't see how they can be stopped.
Needless to say, this strategy is largely dependent on the map. On an archipelago map, the Dutch have a cakewalk. On the other hand, the sea beggar strategy will not work on maps with hardly any coast.
I have never played a game on deity, but when I do I am going to use the Dutch and see if I can take over the world with sea beggars. I think the odds will be in my favor.
What does everyone else think? Are sea beggars the most powerful unit in the game?
But oh boy, was I mistaken. The game becomes ridiculously easy when you have a fleet of sea beggars. YOU OWN THE COAST. Here is why.
First of all, you need at least one highly productive coastal city with an armory. Then start cranking out sea beggars or purchasing them. Each ship starts the the Coastal Raider 2 promotion. The armory allows 2 upgrades, so you can immediately upgrade to Coastal Raider 3 with one upgrade left. Once you get to Coastal Raider 3, you can get the logistics upgrade -- two attacks per turn! So by upgrading every sea beggar that comes out to Coastal 3 and logistics, you immediately have a fleet of ships that have +60% attack strength against cities, steal twice the normal amount of gold per attack, and can attack TWICE! And this is before they have ever seen their first battle.
As if that is not enough of an advantage, the sea beggars also come with the supply promotion which allows them to heal outside friendly territory. (This is usually a huge advantage, but you will be conquering cities at such a high rate that you won't be spending much time out of friendly territory. What's more, the sea beggars also have a 50% chance of converting other ships to your side. So not only do you conquer the other navy with ease due to the supply and multiple attack promotions, but then you use your opponent's own ships against him!
The end result is an epic and unending coastal rampage. The first step is to completely destroy the opposing navy. This is easy when you have ships that can attack twice fighting ships that can attack only once and you are capturing ships as you go. Once that is done, the cities are yours. One of the usual difficulties with taking cities with melee ships is that there are only so many spaces for a melee unit to attack. Then once you attack, your ship is vulnerable to the city's defenses and whatever ranged units are stationed in or near the city. With "super sea beggars" these problems go away. Each ship can attack, then move out of range. Each blow does huge damage. And to finish off a city that is nearing defeat, you can attack twice. The result is that, given a large enough fleet and no opposing naval units, you can easily conquer all of the civ's coastal cities in just a few turns without losing a ship.
Of course, the civ can always try to take its city back by land. This is a hopeless endeavor, because the sea beggars can keep capturing the city (and whatever unit is in it) repeatedly until the land units run out or give up. The city can then serve as a base of operations for an inland invasion. Once all the coastal cities have been captured, the opponent has no means of producing defensive naval units that could challenge the Dutch force. This allows the Dutch to launch amphibious invasions at will.
The only problem is acquiring enough happiness to puppet a large number of coastal cities at once. William is actually one of the most suitable leaders for overcoming this issue because his UA allows him to pile up the happiness points through trade. A little bit of advanced planning should allow him to prepare for the happiness hit that will result from the sea beggars storming the coast and seizing every city in sight.
I should also mention that, because the sea beggars can attack twice, they gain promotions twice as fast. So after one conquest you will have an even more invincible and overpowering fleet than when they first came out of the armory -- plus all the ships they have captured.
In sum, there is no stopping the Dutch military once a large fleet of sea beggars has been assembled. And did I mention they earn you gold too? That is huge in the gold-starved Brave New World. The polders and golden ages from the Dutch should also help support the massive fleet.
The only possible defense I can see is submarines. Aircraft will not help because the sea beggars upgrade to destroyers which have anti-aircraft capabilities. Even submarines are a stretch unless they come in bunches because once the sea beggar / destroyers capture a few of them, it's game over. Your submarines pretty much have to wipe them out before being captured, which I don't see happening. Nuclear submarines and nukes would work, but there is no way anyone is hanging in the game that long with William having sea beggars since the renaissance era. I really don't see how they can be stopped.
Needless to say, this strategy is largely dependent on the map. On an archipelago map, the Dutch have a cakewalk. On the other hand, the sea beggar strategy will not work on maps with hardly any coast.
I have never played a game on deity, but when I do I am going to use the Dutch and see if I can take over the world with sea beggars. I think the odds will be in my favor.
What does everyone else think? Are sea beggars the most powerful unit in the game?
