Marshall Thomas
King
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2005
- Messages
- 700
I'm playing as Arabia for the first time. How do you usually play as them?
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
Arabian Advice
- Thread starter Marshall Thomas
- Start date
Marshall Thomas
King
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2005
- Messages
- 700
I'm playing an emperor/immortal hybrid difficulty that I created.
I'm playing on a large map with 16 civs and 24 city-states (I find the recommended 10 civs and 20 city-states leads to far too much empty space).
I'm playing on epic speed. I don't have any one particular victory type in mind.
Thanks in advance
I like going wide with them. You get tons of extra resources to trade to help with the happiness.
Other than that, once you get camel archers you should kill everything on your land mass. It's just too easy to do this. It's like if you have bombers and are looking at a map filled with crossbowman and musketeers. Kill them all.
Other than that, once you get camel archers you should kill everything on your land mass. It's just too easy to do this. It's like if you have bombers and are looking at a map filled with crossbowman and musketeers. Kill them all.
Alziel
Warlord
As an Emperor player I find that a 'Liberty'/'Piety' combo works well with the Arabs, with a focus on economic techs and getting trade routes up early. As you get a desert bias with them too, aiming for Petra and Desert Folklore is worthwhile.
Use Liberty to try and claim as many luxury resources as you can and try to maintain friendly relations with as many Civs as you can (which is fairly easy with the Arab's trading and religious pressure bonuses).
Camel Archers are very effective for both defense and offense depending on your strategy (you may want to clear out a nearby Civ to give you more settling space).
Try to avoid island maps where possible (large continent maps are OK) because Arabia is all about caravans and religious pressure (at least in the early game) and their Camel Archers have limited use on island maps.
Overall, Arabia is a very flexible Civ that can pull off any victory condition - although Domination is probably the least desirable because less trade partners means less opportunity to use the Bazaars and trade routes.
Use Liberty to try and claim as many luxury resources as you can and try to maintain friendly relations with as many Civs as you can (which is fairly easy with the Arab's trading and religious pressure bonuses).
Camel Archers are very effective for both defense and offense depending on your strategy (you may want to clear out a nearby Civ to give you more settling space).
Try to avoid island maps where possible (large continent maps are OK) because Arabia is all about caravans and religious pressure (at least in the early game) and their Camel Archers have limited use on island maps.
Overall, Arabia is a very flexible Civ that can pull off any victory condition - although Domination is probably the least desirable because less trade partners means less opportunity to use the Bazaars and trade routes.
Camels to Tanks domination is how I like to play them, with a healthy dose of cash to keep it all going. Haven't done this in BNW yet so may be a bit more difficult. Unfortunately, you lose all camel promotions when you upgrade them so it's not the greatest synergy but you can at least get medic and the like on them to carry over to Tanks later.
DarthSheldonPhD
Warlord
- Joined
- May 20, 2013
- Messages
- 202
TBH, haven't played them yet in BNW; they changed the UA, now it helps religion a little more and gold a little less, but much like before, Arabia is different from most civs because the UA is just the gravy whereas their meat-and-potatoes are covered in the UB and UU.
For peaceful games, the UB gives you the economy of a wide, sprawling empire with tons of redundant resources in a tall/narrow empire, best of both worlds. Someone mentioned going wide, but I prefer tall/narrow with Arabia as the AI civs often don't have enough new resources and/or GPT to trade with me as Arabia is I go wide.
For aggressive games, I've said it before and still believe it: grading all UU's on a scale from 1-100, I'd give the Keshik a 100, the Camel Archer a 98 , and everything else less than 6.
As far as Arabian-specific strategy, build lots of chariot archers early to defend your borders against barbs and "opportunistic" AI civs. When you hit chivalry, mass upgrade and, well, win the game. (also applicable to Mongolia.) I hate chariot archers because they essentially lose their promotions when they upgrade from a ranged unit to a melee unit and consequently never build them. As Mongolia/Arabia, they don't have this problem and every time I do so, I remember that chariots are really, really good at barb defense and holding borders. While they would encounter the problem when they upgrade to cavalry, not an issue because CAs/Keshiks are better than their upgrade, they last the whole game.
Arabia is also pretty good at BNW culture games provided you can found a religion. Just open borders and establish a trade route (which is easier as they have 50% longer routes.) Your religion will quickly spread (+25%), you have open borders (+25%) and you have a trade route (+25%), each GWoA is almost twice as "touristically effective."
For peaceful games, the UB gives you the economy of a wide, sprawling empire with tons of redundant resources in a tall/narrow empire, best of both worlds. Someone mentioned going wide, but I prefer tall/narrow with Arabia as the AI civs often don't have enough new resources and/or GPT to trade with me as Arabia is I go wide.
For aggressive games, I've said it before and still believe it: grading all UU's on a scale from 1-100, I'd give the Keshik a 100, the Camel Archer a 98 , and everything else less than 6.
As far as Arabian-specific strategy, build lots of chariot archers early to defend your borders against barbs and "opportunistic" AI civs. When you hit chivalry, mass upgrade and, well, win the game. (also applicable to Mongolia.) I hate chariot archers because they essentially lose their promotions when they upgrade from a ranged unit to a melee unit and consequently never build them. As Mongolia/Arabia, they don't have this problem and every time I do so, I remember that chariots are really, really good at barb defense and holding borders. While they would encounter the problem when they upgrade to cavalry, not an issue because CAs/Keshiks are better than their upgrade, they last the whole game.
Arabia is also pretty good at BNW culture games provided you can found a religion. Just open borders and establish a trade route (which is easier as they have 50% longer routes.) Your religion will quickly spread (+25%), you have open borders (+25%) and you have a trade route (+25%), each GWoA is almost twice as "touristically effective."
sendos
Immortal
Same here. Playing wide is the best option thanks to UB, however, be mindful of the expansion diplo penalty. Irritated AI civs = less trading opportunities. I assume the decay for that is similar to warmonger penalty but a bit faster. Post-patch, the AI does provide offers for resources even if they have some reservations about you, but they're likely to make horrible offers.
As for taking out neighbouring civs, I would recommend it for the sake of removing religious opponents but don't go too overboard with it or your UB becomes useless very quickly but temporarily depending on the diplomatic standoff.
Also, establish DoF's with wealthy civs in your game so you can sell spare luxuries for lump sum of 240 gold per luxury resource (standard speed, with some exceptions depending on civ happiness and diplomatic standing).
Settle in the desert and get the desert folklore pantheon. Build Petra. Spread your religion and grow your empire. Choose Liberty, Piety, Commerce, and Order. Patronage opener so you can get Forbidden Palace. Go for diplo or science victory.
Screw diplo victory.
Arabs can do any victory. Shoot for currency ASAP, build bazzars, asap. Trade you lux's, get rich, rule the world. Go tradition, buy your settlers with cash, and grow quickly. Desert start, desert folklore, and spread your filthy religion. War people to get cities with lux's, bazzar, profit, win.
Arabs are a powerhouse once you figure out how to play them as an economic giant.
Arabs can do any victory. Shoot for currency ASAP, build bazzars, asap. Trade you lux's, get rich, rule the world. Go tradition, buy your settlers with cash, and grow quickly. Desert start, desert folklore, and spread your filthy religion. War people to get cities with lux's, bazzar, profit, win.
Arabs are a powerhouse once you figure out how to play them as an economic giant.
And camel archers.
