Tips for New Arabia?

T

Thuellai

Warlord
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
127
Arabia's new UA has me a little confused about their optimal strategy.

There's a lot going on and I'm not sure what to focus on
-Faster Religion Spread
cool, but what do I use it for? I'm guessing getting an early religion is a good idea with Arabia so that I can get my hooks into as many civs as possible before there's any competition, but what do I do with that? What are some good religious policies for Arabia in order to take maximum advantage of their ability to spread religion? I imagine Religious Texts is a big buff since it will add on to that multiplicative effect, but what else should I grab?
-Longer land trade routes
This is pretty nice, although early land routes seem to be just begging to be picked off by barbs. I'm guessing it's intended to make it even easier to spread your chosen religion, since you can send your caravans farther afield. Should I try and get a bunch of early trade routes so that I can swarm other civs?
-Double Oil
Obviously a late-game thing. I'm guessing it's designed for late-game conquest, letting you build up a ton of planes and ships? That might be cool, I had a pretty nice air-force as Indonesia, although with the other two abilities seeming kinda early game not sure how big a deal it'll be.
 
Religious texts would have no effect on trade routes; trade routes only give religious pressure to cities too far for regular religious spread. Based on what I've heard, Arabia seems like a tall, piety rushing player with a bit of conquest mid-game. You'll probably be trading that extra oil.
 
Personally, I'd use these for a non-peaceful diplo win, with a wide empire with Faith, Patronage and Commerce (and Autocracy).

You start with Piety, founding an early religion and choosing either Tithe or Papal Primacy for your founder belief, stuff that gives bonuses to temples as your followe beliefs, and either Religious Text or the one that gives bonuses to converting city states as your last belief.

You build a wide empire with temples giving you gold (from Piety) and two benefits from your faith, while converting city states. After Piety, you unlock Patronage to build the Forbidden Palace and then fill up Commerce and Patronage. With Patronage and Papal Primacy, you should have an easy time maintaing your stable of allied City States.

Later on you go Autocracy and pick Gunboat Diplomacy, allowing you even greater control of your allied city states. By that time you should be maintaining a good control over the World Congress.
 
Martinus said:
Later on you go Autocracy and pick Gunboat Diplomacy, allowing you even greater control of your allied city states. By that time you should be maintaining a good control over the World Congress.
Click to expand...

Side point -

Freedom's trade route to CS diplo booster is better than Gunboat Diplomacy.

Since you've got the trade route headed to the CS anyways for religion, you can just tack on the Inf gain.
 
I would say Arabia gets slightly more money from Trade Routes due to having a better selection because they can reach more cities.

Also, they have the ability to spread religion through Trade Routes better than others, and farther too.

So getting World Religion resolution passed should be easier, for Diplomatic Victory and Cultural Victory benefits.

And they still have the extra Bazaar luxuries to trade for other luxuries or GPT or lumps sums with DoFs.
 
and since they have access to trade routes 50% further away, you can maybe grab that excess science from the AIs earlier than others (while staying at a healthy distance away) which makes rushing Camel Archers that much faster.
 
1. Open Piety, take everything, get an early religion.
2. Find a really good city nearby enough to trade with.
3. Focus all your trade routes on that city.
4. If possible, get Petra for an extra trade route.
5. Get the grand temple.

Right now in my Arabia game, I have four trade routes going into Consantinople for massive gold, and that's without Petra. My religion has 30+ pressure in her city. The only reason I don't own it is because Ethiopia is throwing 3 missionaries at a time at the city, and
 
I found with Arabia:

Open with Tradition, and get the wonder bonus, and free monument bonus, then Hit up piety for the 20% discount on faith purchases. I usually aim for GLib, hanging gardens, petra, mosque, brobadur, and hagia in a diff city.. hagia is so the other civs dont get a prophet to use against me, brobadur is so they dont get missionaries to use against me. I`m not heartbroken if they get them, I only want the mosque. I also try to time Glib, and mathematics to end at the same time, for a quick jump to currency and a bazzar..

If I get a desert start:
- desert folklore
- Pilgrimage (killer faith on large/huge maps)
- Faith from wonders(guaranteed atleast 20 faith)
- enhance with 30% cheaper missionaries.

Then I beeline for Mosque of Djenne, for ulrta cheap missionaries with 3 uses, and spam the map with my Filth.. Faith..

As for trade routes:
Early game(pre missionaries)
When i see the AI place a new city, I send a TR to it ASAP, so with any luck, it will convert when it grows to size 2 or 3.

Then do what Montezumas Hat said. Mass trade with one city to put the pressure on. Or a couple cities. I do it to force the AI to use inquisitors to remove my faith, or prophets to flip the city back. Keeps them away from my cities, and lets me farm Great people with my faith.

I also purposely don`t pick up techs that I won`t need. When I go for theology, i skip everything, no trapping, bronzeworking, optics.. Mainly to create a huge difference in tech levels between me and my trade partners, so my +sci is much higher per route. My current game, Morroco knows 10 techs I don`t(all low end ones), he doesn`y know 2(theo and drama) so I get +5 sci per turn from each TR. Works well for science quests from CS`s too, bang off 4 or 5 cheap techs for a win.
 
rodrigoq said:
I found with Arabia:

Open with Tradition, and get the wonder bonus, and free monument bonus, then Hit up piety for the 20% discount on faith purchases. I usually aim for GLib, hanging gardens, petra, mosque, brobadur, and hagia in a diff city.. hagia is so the other civs dont get a prophet to use against me, brobadur is so they dont get missionaries to use against me. I`m not heartbroken if they get them, I only want the mosque. I also try to time Glib, and mathematics to end at the same time, for a quick jump to currency and a bazzar..

If I get a desert start:
- desert folklore
- Pilgrimage (killer faith on large/huge maps)
- Faith from wonders(guaranteed atleast 20 faith)
- enhance with 30% cheaper missionaries.

Then I beeline for Mosque of Djenne, for ulrta cheap missionaries with 3 uses, and spam the map with my Filth.. Faith..

As for trade routes:
Early game(pre missionaries)
When i see the AI place a new city, I send a TR to it ASAP, so with any luck, it will convert when it grows to size 2 or 3.

Then do what Montezumas Hat said. Mass trade with one city to put the pressure on. Or a couple cities. I do it to force the AI to use inquisitors to remove my faith, or prophets to flip the city back. Keeps them away from my cities, and lets me farm Great people with my faith.

I also purposely don`t pick up techs that I won`t need. When I go for theology, i skip everything, no trapping, bronzeworking, optics.. Mainly to create a huge difference in tech levels between me and my trade partners, so my +sci is much higher per route. My current game, Morroco knows 10 techs I don`t(all low end ones), he doesn`y know 2(theo and drama) so I get +5 sci per turn from each TR. Works well for science quests from CS`s too, bang off 4 or 5 cheap techs for a win.
Click to expand...

Then you have a lot of faith for the sake of making faith with your religion and you get a lot of cheap missionnaries converting and that gives you more faith ....ok but then what do you gain ?
That reminds me of the smurf that creates a machine in which a bag of nuts is transformed into a bag of gold. When asked what to do with the gold he says , buy a huge bag of nuts...
 
Karmah said:
Then you have a lot of faith for the sake of making faith with your religion and you get a lot of cheap missionnaries converting and that gives you more faith ....ok but then what do you gain ?
That reminds me of the smurf that creates a machine in which a bag of nuts is transformed into a bag of gold. When asked what to do with the gold he says , buy a huge bag of nuts...
Click to expand...

massive faith output post-industrial = lots of faith bought great people. So you can convert it to whatever you want.
 
Karmah said:
Then you have a lot of faith for the sake of making faith with your religion and you get a lot of cheap missionnaries converting and that gives you more faith ....ok but then what do you gain ?
That reminds me of the smurf that creates a machine in which a bag of nuts is transformed into a bag of gold. When asked what to do with the gold he says , buy a huge bag of nuts...
Click to expand...

Reformation beliefs let you either buy every great person, or science buildings, or post industrial military units.

Follower beliefs let you buy pre-industrial military or buildings to net you culture, happiness, more faith, and even great art slots.

Plus, missionaries/great prophets let you convert more follower/cities, which usually means better yield from your founder belief. There are just lots of benefits to massive faith.
 
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