Bamboocha
Warlord
Let me start out by saying I haven't been around here for a while (my last visit was in december 2012 it appears) and I've only recently managed to nab the two expansions for Civilization V at a reasonable price (I only had vanilla up until then). I've been fiddling around with all the new content and noticed a few civs had changed. Most notably France.
Back in Vanilla, France was a decent civ.
Its Unique Ability (despite being very inaptly named for Napoleon) gave it +2 culture per city per turn until you discovered steam power. This meant that with the liberty opener, every French city generated as much culture as another civs capital with the tradition opener. Very strong, and allowed you to grab quite a few policies (which could aid you to a cultural victory but also any other kind).
Its Unique Units were a mixed bag. The musketeers were only marginally stronger than the musketmen, had no special abilities that remained on upgrade and would become outdated rather quickly due to rifling being only a few techs removed from gunpowder. The foreign legion on the other hand was pretty solid (bonus when fighting outside of France's borders, encouraging conquest) but was too little too late as by the time they came out much of the game had already been decided.
With BNW, it feels like France only got worse and worse.
Its Unique Ability (despite being more aptly named for Napoleon) is still centered around culture, but now seals France's fate as a cultural victory civilization. Gone is the versatility of the past and, even worse, gone is the usefulness. The only thing France gets is a very marginal bonus to tourism if it meets certain conditions on great works and only in the capital. The restrictions combined with the very limited pay-off means it's oen of teh worst UAs in the game.
Its Unique Unit didn't fare much better. I feel that BNW tilts more towards the late game than Vanilla due to changes in certain victory conditions and changes in gameplay overall. Such a shame that under these conditions, the only useful French UU has been removed and made into a freedom policy perk anyone can get. Instead France retains the musketeer, a rather useless unit that barely outperforms the standard musketman and retains nothing upon upgrade.
Its Unique Tile Improvement is something new and debatably useful. The Chateau is effectively a fortress that gives units parked there a defensive bonus and gives modest culture and gold when worked (more after the invention of flight). The problem is that it comes in relatively late compared to Ancien Regime, you can only build them next to luxury resources and the number you can get is limited. I can see how this is useful and this is the single best feature France has nowadays, but it's not too good I'd say.
And one final kick in the teeth for France: Brazil does everything France does, except better! Rather than giving some minor theming bonus in only the capital, Brazil's Unique Ability doubles tourism during a golden age and produces great artists, writers and musicians twice as fast during golden ages.
Getting golden ages shouldn't be too hard if you know how to manage happiness (and picking a good religion makes this even easier) but its Unique Unit actually makes getting golden ages easier. Of course you could argue that it's too little too late, but even that would be better than what France gets in the UU department (close to nothing). But that's not the case, because Pracinha's being a late game unit works in Brazil's favor. Brazil doesn't want early game golden ages because they make each following golden age more expensive. They want them in the late game, and the Pracinha will get them just what they asked for. Oh, and did you know that the Pracinha never becomes obsolete? And retains its abilities when upgrading to mechanized infantry?
And finally, its Unique Tile Improvement is objectively better than the Chateau. It can be built starting from roughly the same time France can build its Chateau, except it's not limited by the placement of luxury resources. The Brazilwood camp can be built on any jungle tile, which is great because Brazil has a jungle starting bias. It provides +2 gold and not much later +2 culture, as opposed to the chateau's +1 gold and +2 culture. After flight the Chateau's yield improves to +3 gold +3 culture, but that's not enough to make it even close to Brazilwood camps. First of all you need to realize that Brazilwood camps will be more numerous, translating to greater gold and culture yields. Secondly, jungles already generate 2 food and can generate 2 science when universities are built (and you have no reason not to build them regardless of what victory type you want). The Sacred Path pantheon gives an additional +1 culture from jungle tiles. Which means that by the time you enter the renaissance the Brazilwood camp will yield +3 culture, +2 gold, +2 food and +2 science, making them the best tiles in the game (other than petra + desert folklore desert tiles maybe). The only thing they cannot yield is production, and there are multiple ways around that (in the most radical case it means simply cutting down a jungle on top of a hill and replacing it with a mine).
I just feel a bit disappointed. My favorite civ from vanilla not only got gimped, but there's also another civ that outshines France so much in its supposed specialization that France no longer has a reason to exist. It feels like the "standard" civilization with no real unique things to it, the benchmark to which other civs are compared in judging whether they're over- or underpowered.
Back in Vanilla, France was a decent civ.
Its Unique Ability (despite being very inaptly named for Napoleon) gave it +2 culture per city per turn until you discovered steam power. This meant that with the liberty opener, every French city generated as much culture as another civs capital with the tradition opener. Very strong, and allowed you to grab quite a few policies (which could aid you to a cultural victory but also any other kind).
Its Unique Units were a mixed bag. The musketeers were only marginally stronger than the musketmen, had no special abilities that remained on upgrade and would become outdated rather quickly due to rifling being only a few techs removed from gunpowder. The foreign legion on the other hand was pretty solid (bonus when fighting outside of France's borders, encouraging conquest) but was too little too late as by the time they came out much of the game had already been decided.
With BNW, it feels like France only got worse and worse.
Its Unique Ability (despite being more aptly named for Napoleon) is still centered around culture, but now seals France's fate as a cultural victory civilization. Gone is the versatility of the past and, even worse, gone is the usefulness. The only thing France gets is a very marginal bonus to tourism if it meets certain conditions on great works and only in the capital. The restrictions combined with the very limited pay-off means it's oen of teh worst UAs in the game.
Its Unique Unit didn't fare much better. I feel that BNW tilts more towards the late game than Vanilla due to changes in certain victory conditions and changes in gameplay overall. Such a shame that under these conditions, the only useful French UU has been removed and made into a freedom policy perk anyone can get. Instead France retains the musketeer, a rather useless unit that barely outperforms the standard musketman and retains nothing upon upgrade.
Its Unique Tile Improvement is something new and debatably useful. The Chateau is effectively a fortress that gives units parked there a defensive bonus and gives modest culture and gold when worked (more after the invention of flight). The problem is that it comes in relatively late compared to Ancien Regime, you can only build them next to luxury resources and the number you can get is limited. I can see how this is useful and this is the single best feature France has nowadays, but it's not too good I'd say.
And one final kick in the teeth for France: Brazil does everything France does, except better! Rather than giving some minor theming bonus in only the capital, Brazil's Unique Ability doubles tourism during a golden age and produces great artists, writers and musicians twice as fast during golden ages.
Getting golden ages shouldn't be too hard if you know how to manage happiness (and picking a good religion makes this even easier) but its Unique Unit actually makes getting golden ages easier. Of course you could argue that it's too little too late, but even that would be better than what France gets in the UU department (close to nothing). But that's not the case, because Pracinha's being a late game unit works in Brazil's favor. Brazil doesn't want early game golden ages because they make each following golden age more expensive. They want them in the late game, and the Pracinha will get them just what they asked for. Oh, and did you know that the Pracinha never becomes obsolete? And retains its abilities when upgrading to mechanized infantry?
And finally, its Unique Tile Improvement is objectively better than the Chateau. It can be built starting from roughly the same time France can build its Chateau, except it's not limited by the placement of luxury resources. The Brazilwood camp can be built on any jungle tile, which is great because Brazil has a jungle starting bias. It provides +2 gold and not much later +2 culture, as opposed to the chateau's +1 gold and +2 culture. After flight the Chateau's yield improves to +3 gold +3 culture, but that's not enough to make it even close to Brazilwood camps. First of all you need to realize that Brazilwood camps will be more numerous, translating to greater gold and culture yields. Secondly, jungles already generate 2 food and can generate 2 science when universities are built (and you have no reason not to build them regardless of what victory type you want). The Sacred Path pantheon gives an additional +1 culture from jungle tiles. Which means that by the time you enter the renaissance the Brazilwood camp will yield +3 culture, +2 gold, +2 food and +2 science, making them the best tiles in the game (other than petra + desert folklore desert tiles maybe). The only thing they cannot yield is production, and there are multiple ways around that (in the most radical case it means simply cutting down a jungle on top of a hill and replacing it with a mine).
I just feel a bit disappointed. My favorite civ from vanilla not only got gimped, but there's also another civ that outshines France so much in its supposed specialization that France no longer has a reason to exist. It feels like the "standard" civilization with no real unique things to it, the benchmark to which other civs are compared in judging whether they're over- or underpowered.
They don't need to be cycled as often because they can take more hits and they stay relevant in their role longer. If they're well promoted they can stand to a swarm of riflemen and still protect your artillery efficiently.
