Recent content by Law Lord

There is just a lot of cognitive dissonance between America's real world position today, and its place in Civ as average to below-average (I'm in the slightly below-average camp). I don't know if they really need to be changed either, but I do find it irritating that the B-17 just comes too...

I'm aware of the issues around the trade route policies, but I'm just going to pretend that everything works as intended and judge accordingly. Commerce (Medieval Era) 7 - Commerce Opener: Boosts Gold output in the Capital by 25%. Unlocks Big Ben. (Nice gold bonus as the capital is almost...

That's true, I had forgotten about that and it does weigh in favour of Brazil. I'm still on the fence because it comes so late in the game (especially airports) that it doesn't affect all that much until the last couple of golden age tourism blowouts. I still feel like Brazil isn't all that...

I agree with most in this thread that the Maya, Iroquois, Sweden, Aztecs, Arabia, Zulu and Rome are examples of good design: synergistic, well balanced, and promote playing out the civ's 'theme' in a fun way. England is getting a lot of love, but I don't think they are in the top tier of well...

It's an odd inconsistency - Kilimanjaro etc. count as mountains but Lake Victoria does not count as a lake. I think I would prefer to see Lake Victoria get a slight nerf down to +5 food, but get added as a freshwater source. Either way, you're right - this should get changed somehow.

I wouldn't build any of those wonders if going Tradition. You're better served focusing on growth and hard building settlers/workers when necessary. MoH is really not good unless you have at least two stone/marble. You could try to get Hanging Gardens, but the AI prioritizes it so get there...

This is key. When you consider that you can get Salt up and running without any opportunity cost in taking Calendar/Masonry, I agree that it's far better than any competitors. I don't know if it is game breaking, but it is a significant early advantage. Early invading a neighbour that has...

Piety (Ancient Era) 6 - Piety Opener: Halves time to build shrines and temples, unlocks building the Great Mosque of Djenne. (If you going full on religion -- and if you're opening this tree, you probably are -- this is a solid early benefit.) 6 - Organized Religion: +1 Faith from Shrines...

This is a good thread so far. I would add that internal trade routes should not be ignored in the early game. Until a couple weeks ago, I wasn't realizing the potential power in having my capital ship food out to other cities for some early game growth. Like many BNW strategies, it is a...

If I recall correctly, this was basically the case in Civ 4. The AI would mostly follow resolutions with the very odd exception, while human players could just take their pick and laugh at the largely toothless late game diplo penalty. At best, it was a poor gameplay mechanic that removed all...

I think Morocco is generally weak. The UA looks powerful, but in practice doesn't pan out. It takes too long to establish stable trade routes for the +1 culture to be powerful, and the gold benefits become pretty marginal by the Renaissance Era. The trade routes from other civs just don't add...

I find the AI does give a measure of priority to Petra. It's no GL or Hanging Gardens, but I regularly get beat to Petra. If you make it your absolute #1 priority you will have a good chance, but otherwise, it is touch and go. I think it is nice that the AI actually prioritizes the more...

Like many in this thread already, I've found that opening the Honor tree early in the game is very useful in BNW, but I almost always stick with Tradition or Liberty as my main early game policy. Barbarians can become a real issue in some games, and the early culture is nice. As others have...

I gave it a 9/10. It's really close to a must-buy, especially if you've been playing Civ 5 vanilla or G&K regularly. The culture victory is undeniably improved, the World Congress and ideologies vastly improve late game diplomacy, and tweaks to the social policy trees have resulted in probably...

I largely agree with this analysis. However, I will say that if there is almost zero threat of an early rush from the AIs, then I'm sympathetic with those complaining about the lack of aggression. Ultimately, I think we are all looking for the sweet spot of mostly predictable, occasionally...