Top Ten Tips for Your Favorite Civilization

[jackelgull]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/your-top-ten-tips-for-your-favorite-civ.338852/

So I loved this thread, but given that Ashes of Erebus is planning on making alot of changes, I thought it'd be for the best if a new thread on the same topic was opened for Ashes specifically (and it feels weird reopening a thread that's been dormant for like 2 years.)

So I'm reopening this with some tips for the Scions of Patria

1) Risen Emperor VS Korinna
So the Scions have 2 leaders (and Ophelia but I never use her, she's not very interesting) that determine how you play.
With the Risen Emperor as a leader you start the game with Korinna who can upgrade down several paths depending on whether you want to hit bronze working and get the red lady or whatnot. He also gets his own disciple line since with him the Scions can't get a normal religion. His traits are Charismatic and Imperialist. Imperialist isn't that good for the Scions - you won't be producing settlers not for a while. Charismatic is better - since you have no health problem, happiness is your only real limiter and the reduction in experience is always welcome.
Korinna however, nets you the Risen Emperor as a hero, who can become a death mana fueled murder machine, and she can get the benefits of a religion. She's also Aggressive/Organized, which as traits go are mediocre. However, given that she can get a religion and the Risen Emperor can't I rate her above him.

2) The melee line is a trap
The Scion Axemen and Champion UU look good on the surface - they have +30% strength and the Axeman has -1 attack/+1 defense which at first seems good for a builder civ, but be warned they're really expensive, and really slow. Their upkeep means you can't build a whole lot of them and they're not worth it at their price. At best, put 3 in your border cities you expect to see enemy action and base your offense on the actual stars of a Scion military.

3) The Arcane line should be the mainstays of your army
Necromancers rule. They get extra xp per combat, have 5 strength and balefire which is pure awesome. It's really easy to get promotions with them. Just make sure you have some protection to go with them - Recon maybe, or Paramanders (if you went with RoK) or Bone Arquebuses. Necromancers are really squishy to enemy units that haven't been softened up by like 10 fireballs to the face.

4) The Bone Arquebus is a hidden gem
The Bone Arquebus is melee instead of ranged, has 3 less attack strength then it's counterpart, but in exchange for all of that it is absolutely free. Build these babies by the bucketful. Spread them over your empire and make them the protection for your mages once they come online. They defend just fine, and since they're deaths don't cause you any war weariness, feel no remorse in using them as undead cannon fodder.

5) Don't neglect the religious line. There are lots of goodies for the Scions here. Since they're neutral they can go with the Altar of Luonnotar to boost their priests and paramanders/crusaders. The Cathedral of the Reborn is there and so is Theocracy

6) Prioritize research
I know I've spent some of the previous tips talking about some of the research lines individually, but to wrap it up, the Scions have lots of goodies everywhere. Make your decision about what the Scions should be early and work towards it. My usual priorities is to go Mysticism first for Godking(which increases your awakened rate) and pagan temples for an early Great Prophet to bulb Way of the Earthmother (after researching mining). After an early RoK the plan is then to build up my economy to research the arcane line (With a detour to archery or hunting if your neighbors make you think you need it).

7) Civics
God King/Theocracy
Pacifism/Scholarship
Arete/Industry
Conquest/Mercantilism

Note that these are all recommendations for a Priest Economy with the Scions. If you're not going for an Altar of the Luonnotar victory then you'll probably be set up differently, but as is +3 hammers, + gold +2 science is really good and the Scion's being fallow means every pop can be a priest specialist.

8) Wonders
Altar of Luonnotar
Form of the Titan
There are really no critical wonders besides the Altar, but for a necromancer army, form of the titan + conquest + keep made by Alcinus gets your adepts to instant mage. Guild of the Nine is also handy and so is the Nexus (just make sure to not build those in your priest specialist city). Hall of Kings gives specialists +2 culture, which with Scholarship and Mercantilism means your specialists practically have the equivalent of +6 commerce. All of these are nice, but none of them will sink your plans if you have to conquer them vs building them.

9) Religions
So far I've been working off the assumption you're going with RoK but order works too. Since you can build population, happiness might become a problem in your priest city, so Social Order removes that limit (combined with the bone arquebus it only really costs you production). Also Basilicas further reduce your maintenance and so does the Imperial Cenotograph and both give you a priest slot and in the basilica's case, just gives you GP points directly. At -90% maintenance you're empire should practically be free. (But RoK also has synergy, Dwarven mines are great and Soldiers of Kilmorph are good too for transferring production from your capital to smaller cities.

10) Vassals
The Scions buildings try and encourage them to get foreign trade routes, but Mercantilism only allows for domestic trade routes. The solution? Vassals. Dealing with foreigners but only as superiors is the only path for the Scions. You get all the bonuses of Mercantilism and all the bonuses of trade with a foreign civ. It's a win win. I like the Malakim because they grow big cities which means more commerce.

 

[azatote]

Thank you for these useful tips, I'll keep them in mind next time I'm playing with the Scions. I'm not a specialist of this civ, but here are my two cents:
- Playing with Risen Emperor (or Ophelia), Korinna the red lady is a terror in early game. High strength and the hero promotion (plus the fact that she already gained XP on her leashed state) while your rivals only have warriors, or at best a few hunters or archers. With a few axemen to escort her (inefficient in attack but still decent defensive units), she's able to invade one or two neighboring civs on her own. This allows you to expand quickly in early game even if you lack awakened.
- The Luonnotar victory is an obvious one for the Scions, but the culture one is also more than playable, given that you can grow your main cities quite a lot and have many specialists without having to worry about your food supplies. I don't recommend going for the domination or magical victories as they require a large territory, and you cannot have many productive cities because of your limited amount of awakened.

 

[Derf]

Well, here's my contribution for one of my favourite economic powerhouses, the Malakim. Presented in no particular order, this is a mainly defensive economic approach, which works nicely with all but Domination and Conquest victories - which is not to say they're impossible, as you'll be able to spend your vast treasuries of gold on units, but they're not the main focus.
So here we are:

1) Lightbringers and you: Scorch all the lands! This can't be emphasised enough. The Malakim get a natural desert climateform, but this takes time. Instead of scouting with your starting Lightbringer, put him to work casting Scorch in all your lands. Add a few more now and then to keep pace with your expansion, and focus on the terrain around new cities as soon as you can. The Malakim are at their best in the desert, as they need no roads, saving your workers time and making it harder for others to cross your territory.

2) Worker management. Some people prefer to hit 'automate' and be done with it. Try to resist the urge to do that! Plan your tile improvements carefully. You're going to be heavily commerce focused, so you'll want to focus mainly on towns and beduin improvements where you can. Build mines and when you get them add waterwheels and windmills to boost your production - this isn't a great focus, as later on your civics will allow you to buy buildings, but it'll help until then. Which leads into...

3) Planning Beduin Sits. You have to have a set amount of space between each of these, and they can't be built on flood plains. The very first one you build will determine almost all of the future placements. Where you can't build them, supplement them with towns. Don't forget to protect them - unlike the Dwarven Mines, these don't count as forts as well, so there's no fort commander to protect them. You really don't want these to get pillaged.

4) Thematic is a trap! You may be tempted to go with Empyrean. While not a bad choice for the cultural bonus or the all-sight granted by Dies diei (and the free sun mana), it's better taking a back seat to Runes of Kilmorph. The Malakim are economic powerhouses, and RoK plays perfectly into this. Adopt Arete and it'll boost your mines. Use the access to RoK units to add a few Dwarven Mines carefully interspersed near your high level Beduin improvements to afford them better protection. You've now got production coming up nicely as well as a neat economic boost.

5) Mirror, mirror in the desert... if you're good (which means playing Varn or doing goodly things), you absolutely want to find the Mirror of Heaven. This can grant you a heroic lightbringer, which is available even if you're not good, but the big one is option to have Mirrored Pylons throughout all your cities. These grant conviction to your disciple type units, which gives them a nice boost. And speaking of disciples...

6) Religious Fervor, the world spell, is extremely powerful if used right, and it only gets more so when you cast it again thanks to Birthright Regained. Each use creates a disciple of your state religion in each of your cities with 1xp per city following your state religion. Combine with the above, and a city working on the Altar of the Luonnotar, and you'll get some powerful disciples that may even reach High Priest status not long after. Put some in your border forts or cities, and they'll keep your units healed and be nasty defenders - or front line attackers.

7) Teutorix, Desert Defender. Always keep someone with Scorch around or another spell to desertify the local terrain to keep him at his strongest, as his Nomad promotion makes him tougher in the desert. Stick him in a city you expect to get attacked with a priest or two to keep him healed and one or two other defenders, and you might as well put up a sign that says 'trap is here, please enter and die'.

8) Leader choice matters. Varn is the only one who starts out Good and therefore able to make use of the best part of the Mirror of Heaven, but don't focus on that.
Decius is Organized, halving your civic costs - useful early-game if you don't go city-states like all the cool kids, but in the late game this isn't useful. Being Conquerer doesn't help either unless you really want the unique buildings of other civs, but in doing so you lose access to your Malakim specific stuff. Couple that with culture being affected twice as hard by combat nearby, and you've got a problem for this kind of approach.
Varn is Philosophical/Spiritual, granting him double the normal great person generation and even more boosts for your disciples. Chuck your great people at the cities that need each of them the most, bringing the lesser ones up to par with the greater ones, spread your disciples far and wide, upgrade them to a mass of priests, then supplement with other troops for a nice army.
Kane is also organized like Decius, but he does it right by combining it with Charismatic, knocking 25% off your promotion costs. Again, supplement with the Mirror of Heaven if you can make him good and the Altar of the Luonnotar, then Religious Fervor and you've got even more powerful disciples popping up.

9) Camels vs Horses. Look at what your enemies armies are made up of. More archers than cavalry? Build the stable and stick with traditional horsemen. Bear in mind that they lose access to the Dunespeak promotion and lose a lot of the desert benefits as a result. See more cavalry, and build the Caravanserei instead. You can't build both in the same city, so consider which ones to place them in if you have access to both camels and horses. A mix of both can be better than only one of them.

10) Dervish, the other desert defender. Dervishes are nasty, despite their drawbacks. Unlike the Shadow they replace, they don't require the Council of Esus religion, and they get +1 Fire instead of +1 Poison combat. They also get affinity for Sun Mana, so stock up on that and don't let anyone near it. Remember to research Sorcery and get a Mage with Metamagic II to get other mana notes converted once you no longer need them on a different type. Keep in mind however that this comes at the cost of only being able to turn invisible in deserts.

So stick to your deserts, man your beduin sits and dwarven mines, pick the right civics to supplement it and before you know it you'll be rolling in more gold than you know what to do with.
Have fun!

 

[azatote]

My two cents again:
- Varn is one of the best leaders in the game to run the Luonnotar victory. Given that your cities should have many flood plains around, they have no trouble sustaining GP who do not produce food. They have several buildings enabling priests, whose production bonus is appreciable since your cities often have low production in early game.
- try to get the technology for windmills and watermills as early as possible, as these two improvements will greatly increase your cities' production: you can build a limited number of dwarven mines, and it's difficult to exploit many mines as they yield 0 food.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

One simple tip for my favorite civ the Mechanos.
Ranged units. Learn them. Love them. Use them.

And if you aren't wining the game just double down.

 

[jackelgull]

That seems like a fun strat for the Malakim. I've never played them because they seem tricky to pull off - they're almost guaranteed awful production early in the game.

 

[Derf]

My two cents again:
- Varn is one of the best leaders in the game to run the Luonnotar victory. Given that your cities should have many flood plains around, they have no trouble sustaining GP who do not produce food. They have several buildings enabling priests, whose production bonus is appreciable since your cities often have low production in early game.
- try to get the technology for windmills and watermills as early as possible, as these two improvements will greatly increase your cities' production: you can build a limited number of dwarven mines, and it's difficult to exploit many mines as they yield 0 food.

Varn definitely works as well, I was just presenting the cases for all the leaders. I admit I forgot priests boost production though.
Wind- and Watermills definitely work nicely alongside the Dwarven Mines too. DM's may be limited and may sometimes produce no food, but the benefits of a fully upgraded one aren't to be sneezed at.