The fall patch changed two existing civs; but Germany's was by far more extensive.
1. Germany now has a higher percent chance of converting a barb in a camp
2. Germany no longer has the earlier UU.
3. Germany now gets a new UB, which replaces the Bank, but gives cities with this UB hammer bonuses for each trade route you have with a city state.
Germany was and still is largely a standard civ (they can go after any victory condition and all standard tactics work), so I'm just going to cover what's unique to Germany:
#1For this; when fighting the barbs; be sure you don't accidentally kill a barb unit inside a camp with a ranged unit. Even if you aren't interested in a Brute / promoting him to most advanced foot solider, you can still some use by moving it into friendly territory and then disbanding for gold.
Also note that ragging barbs does not actually increase number of barb camps; all it does is greatly increase the rate at which barb units spawn from camps, so if you are interested in farming barb camps ragging barbs would actually slow you down.
#2/#3 For this; your UB only really works if you have trade routes with city states (but the route can come from another city) so if all your trade routes are with major AIs and internal, it's not providing anything extra.
However, even if you have Patronage policy, city states provide less income than the best routes with major AIs and also never provide science bonuses; so you will have to decide weather or not the 5% hammer bonus is worth it. (This will depend on how fast you get these up; 5% to a single city isn't much; but if your entire empire has this it will be better)
The other major comparison is against hammer cargo ships. Hammer cargo ships will win hands down to a single city. However, you aren't allowed to duplicate a food cargo ship route with a hammer cargo ship route anyway. And when you get multiple copies of your UB built, using a city state trade route to get hammers will look better.
This gives Germany a minor incentive to go after most of Patronage (to reduce the difference in gold between major civs & city states)
Whichever victory condition you go; the extra hammers will be helpful:
Going Cultural victory that's faster wonders with theming bonuses.
Going Science victory that's faster hand building of science buildings. (Somewhat offset by less income meaning less cash buying of the same)
Going domination victory that's faster hand building of units. (Somewhat offset by less income meaning slower unit upgrades & less cash buying of the same)
Going diplomatic victory: Well, your UB doesn't really help you directly there; but if you did establish all those trade routes with City states then Freedom has a tenet made for you.
Starting location: Germany's UB is somewhat more powerful if they start in the interior of a land mass instead of on the coast. (If the capital can't run cargo ships anyway then the bonus compares favorably to a hammer carvan run to Berlin even if only that city has the UB built. In addition, the Patronage policy bonus to city state trade routes means more from the smaller base of a caravan.)
Edit: This could use a short fighting New Germany section:
1. Embargo city states! If this resolution passes, watch Germany cry when their production falls as their UBs get demoted to the regular bank.
2. If playing Venice or Austria: Concentrate more on buying out / marrying city states near Germany; prior to late game this will make it more difficult for Germany to get the production bonuses.
1. Germany now has a higher percent chance of converting a barb in a camp
2. Germany no longer has the earlier UU.
3. Germany now gets a new UB, which replaces the Bank, but gives cities with this UB hammer bonuses for each trade route you have with a city state.
Germany was and still is largely a standard civ (they can go after any victory condition and all standard tactics work), so I'm just going to cover what's unique to Germany:
#1
Also note that ragging barbs does not actually increase number of barb camps; all it does is greatly increase the rate at which barb units spawn from camps, so if you are interested in farming barb camps ragging barbs would actually slow you down.
#2/#3 For this; your UB only really works if you have trade routes with city states (but the route can come from another city) so if all your trade routes are with major AIs and internal, it's not providing anything extra.
However, even if you have Patronage policy, city states provide less income than the best routes with major AIs and also never provide science bonuses; so you will have to decide weather or not the 5% hammer bonus is worth it. (This will depend on how fast you get these up; 5% to a single city isn't much; but if your entire empire has this it will be better)
The other major comparison is against hammer cargo ships. Hammer cargo ships will win hands down to a single city. However, you aren't allowed to duplicate a food cargo ship route with a hammer cargo ship route anyway. And when you get multiple copies of your UB built, using a city state trade route to get hammers will look better.
This gives Germany a minor incentive to go after most of Patronage (to reduce the difference in gold between major civs & city states)
Whichever victory condition you go; the extra hammers will be helpful:
Going Cultural victory that's faster wonders with theming bonuses.
Going Science victory that's faster hand building of science buildings. (Somewhat offset by less income meaning less cash buying of the same)
Going domination victory that's faster hand building of units. (Somewhat offset by less income meaning slower unit upgrades & less cash buying of the same)
Going diplomatic victory: Well, your UB doesn't really help you directly there; but if you did establish all those trade routes with City states then Freedom has a tenet made for you.
Starting location: Germany's UB is somewhat more powerful if they start in the interior of a land mass instead of on the coast. (If the capital can't run cargo ships anyway then the bonus compares favorably to a hammer carvan run to Berlin even if only that city has the UB built. In addition, the Patronage policy bonus to city state trade routes means more from the smaller base of a caravan.)
Edit: This could use a short fighting New Germany section:
1. Embargo city states! If this resolution passes, watch Germany cry when their production falls as their UBs get demoted to the regular bank.
2. If playing Venice or Austria: Concentrate more on buying out / marrying city states near Germany; prior to late game this will make it more difficult for Germany to get the production bonuses.