4.14.1 Spain Photojournal (Deity/Standard)

[randomnub]

Spain has been recently reworked again and it looks like the 4uc integration isn't going to change it much, so I hope this photojournal can stay relevant even after the update coming out soon. The AI has a hard time exploiting this civ and I even witnessed it failing to found a religion with it (it also 'always' picks god of expanse, that is a crap belief no matter your civ/playstyle, maybe it works on lower difficulties) so it consistently ranked terribly low in every AI vs AI game stats analysys. Guess what, Spain is overpowered in player hands, as long as you can play authority efficiently in the early game and rush conquistadors in a timely fashion.

I play with the current 4UC (it adds 2 uniques in the late Renaissance/early Industrial, so early-mid game stays the same, mostly a buff for the opponents) and I am testing the Unit Supply rework (that at a first glance looks like a nerf to early warmongers) on the communitas map that makes for pretty albeit badly balanced maps, but more on that later. No boring events, I really hope we finally get rid of them as the 'default' setting on the next pool

Settings:

Spoiler :

Starting Location:

Spoiler :

Some annoying small rivers typical of communitas map and rough terrain so barb hunting won't be quick at first, also low production. Marsh sugar is a terrible resource to improve but a great tile to work early on, this will make for a strong 3-4pop capital. Moving the starting units doesn't reveal any natural wonder or new luxuries so moving the settler is pointless. Mining into Animal Husbandry/Bronze Working to unlock Pyramids and hopefully reveal some nearby strategical resources. Monument/shrine, using the early bonus Spain gold to buy a second pathfinder after I send the first into one direction but the warrior spots ancient ruins in the opposite one.

T14 First Policy, a quick pantheon in sight and early exploration

Spoiler :

I'm going to pick Authority (the only policy branch that makes sense as Spain, Progress could work on an isolated start because it's flexible enough, but even then I'd simply stay small as Authority 1-2 civs and farm barbs until I can send conquistadors oversea) and ignore all that backyard (also called barbarian farming area) in order to forward settle my opponents. There's even the funtain of youth but is right in between England and Mayas so I'm not going to contest it, better they fight over it while I settle a more defensive position.

T23 Pyramids and expansion plans

Spoiler :

I get a production ruin so I can skip investing in the Pyramids that are ready at a safe turn, instead I buy a slinger to escort the settler and help get rid of some juycy camps before Askia takes them (and he would profit a lot by it, so better farm those than the ones spawning near Madrid). My scouts (fun fact, both pathfinders have been upgraded and that makes for great early barb hunters...but it would have been funnier to upgrade them manually at sailing and then find a upgrade ruin for early conquistadors, oh well that's for wet dreams only) go for trailblazer III so they can move quick and cross water before I research fishing but it looks like there's deep ocean in between my continent and the other ones. Still worth it in order to grab more ruins and spot some CS for more quests.

After Pyramids I'm going to build another settler before Madrid grows to 6 (because that would make me waste too much food, and it's not like I have many good early tiles to keep my citizens busy) and settle a couple of very hard to take desert cities in between me, Askia and Lizzy, and then work on the Statue of Zeus that works quite good with my pantheon of choice, God of War, due to the free barracks. It also is the pantheon that scales the best in the mid-late game and with enough early barb hunting it's easy to found first, a bit like playing Aztecs. That's also why I love-hate it, it makes early warmongers playing too similar. Spain bonus faith upon aquiring new tiles is very useful in order to get the first pantheon (fine, second after India) but it scales poorly and provides maybe 100ish faith before the first prophet is born, you can ignore shrine in the expansions but need some good faith source elsewhere, be it a nice pantheon or religious CSs.

T30 Forward Settling

Spoiler :

There're only 3 good tiles worth working in Madrid, the 2 sugars and an atoll, but a lot of chopping can be done in order to speed up settlers and the SoZ so the barb camp gold goes into a rush bought worker. The expansion gold instead goes straight into a monument so that Imperium bonus yields trigger faster, and because getting policies quick is very important for your first tree: in the past it was possible to efficiently go left Authority and mix with Tradition sovereignty for quick border growth but that's an outdated concept now that the finisher doubles the Imperium (once Tribute) yields and you get 10% scaling culture AND science with each Authority policy. Dominance has also been moved deeper in the tree and while I always go for the left side first (faster, more rewarding early expansion) I need Dominance for my first war against the AI (5 flat supply, heal on melee kill are game changers).

I'm taking a detour to Trade tech due to early markets being worth it with sugar and because I want to complete a quest and ally Almaty asap, early militaristic civs are very rearding due to free science and units. Having vision there is also going to be useful to avoid having loose barbarians in between my cities.

T36

Spoiler :

Almaty slighty pisses me expanding into a horse tile right before I settle Seville but that's not too bad if I can perma ally it, I'm more interested into having a canal in between those cities in case I need to move a navy around. While Barcelona is going to be a production powerhouse (mines, pastures, soon a forge and a quick Petra right after) Seville is there mostly to block Askia and work the Old Faithful. Tribute settler is going to found a city next the Barringer Crater east of Madrid revealing enough fog of war to not have barb camps spawn in that direction, leaving the north jungle as the only farming ground. All the bonus gold I'm getting from new settlements, barb camps, border growth and cs quests goes into workers and investing in the expansion buildings.

I'm not going past 4 cities with 'classical' settlers, it's simply not worth it to delay science/culture progression once my borders are secure and there's not much supply to gain out of rapid expansion anymore either.

T56 Classical Era

Spoiler :

Unsurprisingly Pacal is quite ahead of me in the tech race, but he's also going for the bottom part of the tech tree: the 4UC mod gives him the Plitz Court so he beelined Masonry and that means he is already working on the Terracotta Army I wanted for myself but I spot being under construction in Palenque... I'm not even trying to contest it. Masonry is still a good tech due to Watermills and Arenas granting solid production. All my 4 cities are in fact riverside and could benefit from a watermill, it's hard not to find a small river to settle next to it on these communitas map but there're almost comical situations like that small lake next Barcelona with 4 1-tile rivers. You could also ask yourself how there can be desert in between my cities with 5 rivers, 8 lake tiles and 2 oasis...sometime I forget this is not supposed to be a real life simulator.

T69 Working on those CS alliances

Spoiler :

A good number of CS is asking me for a trade route, and one asked me to complete Petra. 2 birds with one stone, I almost starved Barcelona in order to complete Petra quicker. I research Iron working hoping for Almaty to gift me a swordman but it prefers to send me a next to useless (at least, for barb hunting) catapult. No biggie, Colossus is on the way as well.

I rush bought some horsemen out of the capital (thinking they'll benefit from extra morale once I build the heroic epic there) in order to move at a decent pace in the barb filled jungle and also be ready to ride back south when horde units spawn next to Almaty, while spearmen level with Shock I -> Woodsman promotions. Should they grab some more experience in a real war they'll go Amphibious next, as mobility is the key.

Pacal is cheating science as usual but we become friends due to England being our common foe, I'm going to agree for a coop war and work on stealing Samarkand alliance from Lizzy.

T73 Religion

Spoiler :

Askia is still friendly so I don't feel the urge of going over the supply cap, but having 4 cities with Barracks already and knowing I can't improve it with lighthouses anymore makes me really want Dominance before I trigger the war against England. Reclusive Antwerp is asking for the 'wrong' quests so I'm happy to tribute it and shave some culture turns off.

My founder belief, Council of Elders, is the weakest ones in the long run but the plan here is get to Compass quick, nothing else matters for a successful Spain especially if you want to fight the deity AI with conquistadors before they get to gunpowder/metallurgy, and every drop of science is important. As a side benefit, between it and the Indulgences follower I can siphon a lot of quick production in the capital so I might wonderwhore a bit as well, that Great Lighthouse not being constructed by the civs on the other continent yet is still up for grab and is a nice war wonder to have for when I'll be ready to sport a serious navy. I can finish it the next turn, saving the gold to invest into it during the CS turns to be sure the AI doesn't "steal" it from me during this turn.

T79 War! Also, more War!

Spoiler :

Deceptive Askia declares on me, I'm not worried for my cities but Samarkand is on flat land and I have to protect it and the caravan in between us. Here I think the new supply cap is not doing a favor to Songhai because in past he could have flooded the battlefield with units, now those spears from Samarkand are holding him just for the time I need to make sure his catapults can't focus fire the CS. I'll have to ignore England but Pacal is more than able to hold her swords with his Atlatists and soon Knights, because he already entered Medieval thanks to the Oracle. No biggie, he's out of uniques after Classical and won't be able to snowball as a player would: I'm going to attack him eventually, but for now it's a good thing he's successful so I have a good ally I can even send gold requests to.

I'm also teching toward Chivalry (Currency->Philosophy->Engineering, and Metal Casting->Physics->Compass after that) in order to upgrade my horsemen before Askia gets his Mandelaku, and on the way there I'll make sure to have composite bows to deal with those annoying skirmishers that are quite good in AI hands when on defence (but not that efficient on the offense, also this map rough terrain doesn't reward them too much because they can't retreat enough to avoid a counter attack).

To Be Continued...

 

[randomnub]

T88

Spoiler :

I'm not trying to push in Songhai territory yet, playing very defensively farming any stragglers I catch and just making sure Samarkand holds. I make sure to ally another nearby CS to disperse Askia troops even more while a next to immortal scout is busy pillaging his strategic deposits. Not going all in on military, better build those libraries, work the specialists and get a tech lead over him.

T99 Medieval Era

Spoiler :

Medieval and completed Authority the same turn, that's a x4 to Imperium yields and double the UA ones, it's time to upgrade all those horsement to knights and work on the reconquista. I peace out with England because there's nothing to gain on that front yet and my spare troops are best used to farm the northern barbarians, with the instant yield influx being worth suffering the supply cap penalities.

T108 Enhancement

Spoiler :

I'm getting wonder greedy here and make an error, building the Alhambra because it's up for grab and I'm a rp sucker when it's time to build ''my civ'' world wonders. Truth to be told, Alhambra is possibly the worst WW in the game and not worth the hammers nor the increment in price for all future wonders, I'm not even going to focus on knights too much in few turns. Even worse, I still had some useful stuff to build in the capital and I could have already reformed Noobism. Oh well.

I enhance with teocallis, higher supply cap and some more faith into the engine, and Symbolism that's a generic good enhancer when picked early enough, but I can't help thinking the one buffing CS quests would have helped more in the long run.

I could take Askia as a vassal but he's really crippled and useless, a CS is offering a juicy juggernaut quest and all those cities and units are worth a good bunch of instant yields. After I take Tombouctu my influence with Almaty is going to be so high that I'll just plop down a citadel to steal some tiles and raise my supply cap, lose 100 influence and still be his honorable ally.

T111 Victory! I mean, Compass!

Spoiler :

I spent the past turns training and rush buying a bunch of scouts ready to be upgraded into conquistadors (I couldn't rush buy them after Compass due to needing a harbor in the city) with no respect to my supply cap that's only temporary crippled. Each new city from now on starts with barracks, armory and will invest into a harbor (completed in two turns thanks to Imperium yields and indulgencies hammers coming from teocalis and soon monasteries) so every conquistador pays for itself very quick. Since they're sort of disposable, and I also only care about trailblazer I and II promotions, it doesn't really matter if conquistadors come out with full or half experience.

T117 Reformation

Spoiler :

After I send him back to CS status I peace out with Askia, letting him rebuild a bit in order to finish him off later, and instead turn against Pacal now that our friendship declaration ended and before that emissary can put some influence in Samarkand. I'm able to snipe some of his wounded units and the unguarded Chicken Itza in a matter of turns, his war against England has been a slog leaving him exhausted.

Pacal being a founder, and having 3 more religions on the other continent makes me take the Crusade reformation belief for a fat 20% combat bonus: conquistadors lack the standard melee %CS promotions so every bit helps to make them still relevant against enemy knights and tercios. The yields on city conquest are cherry on top now that I devoted myself to world conquest (well, I decided on that on turn 1) and I don't think the game will last enough to make most of the orther beliefs worth it.

Instead of teching to Navigation to unlock my other UU I catch up with some techs in the upper part of the tech tree to always stay at good happiness, also chanceries are well worth it with my current CS allies. There's a lot of free land to grab and I want a good power base before churning out Armadas.

T122 Meet the other continent

Spoiler :

I have mixed feeling about the Haciendas, they can help making useless tiles worth it but truth to be told they provide yields I don't really need (1 culture is peanuts, I'll have to halt growth in a bit after some serious conquest and Spain drowns in gold), except production so I try to place them next to strategic resources, except when I have a bunch of SoZ stolen workers with nothing better to do.

On the other landmass the Shoshone are fighting everybody else but still holding, Babylon has a tech/policies lead but is not snowballing probably due to space constraints (and going Tradition, not a great pick for him). I spot some Marocco and Babylon Caravels and a couple of explorers but they didn't meet my neighbours yet so they don't know I'm a evil warmonger yet, and make for some good trade partners.

T125 Reconquista

Spoiler :

Lizzy asks me to move away my troops from her borders and I don't feel like lying to her, despite being still at war against Pacal she's too behind in tech to be anything more than a nuisance. Sadly I couldn't turn Geneva to my side before declaring though.

Using gold to buy settlers/melee and faith to start build a navy (using indulgencies powered faith buys to save a turn on building completitions) leaves me with a lot of production, so my cities are hard building everything and my happiness stays at 100%: I'm going to grow cities up to pop 10 in order to get some conscripts and then stop growth should the next pop cost me a big drop in happiness. I'm only working 1 specialist per city, the chancery one, except the capital that's focusing on everything at once due to the lack of good tiles. No guilds yet. Soon all the faith I'm making is going to spawn Great Prophets that I'm going to plant, CoE is a pretty bad founder and it is starting to fall off (now holy law would be way better for science, but the trick was getting that science earlier) but at least provides 5 flat science to holy sites.

I almost fixed my supply issues, there's a bunch of conquistadors on their way to make naval bases on those big barbarian islands and once I fully purged my continent I'm going to study a way to land a beachhead elsewhere.

 

[randomnub]

T131 Renaissance Era

Spoiler :

After ages of 100% happiness I foresee having some issues in the next future,with the razing of every no-capital rival city on my continent, hence I delay settling new cities because farming barbarians is still quite rewarding and I don't want to increase my policy cost until getting the all-important Fiefdoms. I'm also starting to avoid growth in most cities once they get to enough pop to work the good available tiles.

T141 Resettlement

Spoiler :

My economy looks weak but is carried by all the instant yields from conquest, border growth and faith expenses (even though some faith is ''wasted'' on great prophets due to the sheer amount of it). I jump on Askia after he settled two new cities to fuel my authority yields engine and make sure my trade partners on the other continent don't meet him.

With the capture of Palenque I have enough culture to unlock fiefdoms and I am now ready to plop a bunch of colonies.

Spoiler :

Unlocking the 10th policy also lets me work on the Renaissance wonders, I used to get Himeji mostly to deny it to the opponents, but with the new supply rules it's a good wonder for a warmonger too. With all the instant production from CoE and Imperium it's going to be ready in 1-2 turns after a gold investment and a missionary or two for better timing.

The "peaceful" civs are all dogpiling on the Shoshones right now but are not making gains, that might be due to the bad terrain but I bet they lack the supply as well. From the info my explorers are gathering I also notice they all field a very small navy, most of their units being knights and tercios, or hwach'a for the Koreans, so they're not good at taking coastal cities. I'll have to teach them how it is done.

T146 Completing the Reconquista

Spoiler :

I (finally? It was quick) am now the uncontested ruler of the continent: the crappy Songhai cities are worth so little yields and I am still at low happiness that I let Malacca take them, I think that also makes Morocco(the only AI who meet Askia) less angry at me.

I start working on aggressively ally all city states on the map, with 2 great diplomats (one from the Tower of Pisa) and a bunch of emissaries bought in the new naval bases close to the other continent.

T150 Armadas

Spoiler :

Navigation is a turning point on continent maps, I reached it before the AI and there's no way the opponents will be able to field a decent navy against my mass upgraded caravels and faith-bought frigates in a timely fashion. Some new cities with automatic barracks/armory, investing into a harbor and buying teocalli are going to provide enough supply to field two navies, one per ocean, in order to pile up on Shoshones from both sides.

 

[randomnub]

T156

Spoiler :

I catch off guard the Shoshone, most of their forces are fighting Korea and Morocco south of Moson Khani and their coastal cities have few ships and a ghost garrison. Before attacking I ally both Monaco and Zanzibar on their border but I must accept Wittemberg will stay loyal to them. No biggie, that'll give me some target to farm with my ships after it takes whole 4 turns to conquer this deity AI that's still in Medieval.

I complete Fealty on this turn, with Divine Right lifting 22 points of unhappiness from boredom and some more thanks to all the bonus yields.

T162 The last war

Spoiler :

After I assimilate the Shoshone the world finally realizes I'm a menace and mass denounces me but my military is ungodly and I'm not worried of fighting all of them at once. It's only a matter of overturn the last CS alliances, put the navy in position and declare before they do.

T164 This will be quick

Spoiler :

Field 3 logistic cannons are not to be sneezed at but they lack the mobility to protect all the coastline at once. Babylon only has coastal cities, is doomed. Morocco is lagging in military and I can brute force him.

T167 Industrial Era

Spoiler :

There're many instant yields to farm with so many units on the field, my science/culture numbers are lieing a bit as I make almost twice each turn from kill and city conquest/conversion. Korea manage to recapture one of his former cities but is going to cost a lot to him as all his units are badly placed and he can't help Morocco on that losing front.

Spoiler :

Policies are keeping my happiness reasonable, unlocking Colonialism now buffs about 15 monopolies. Entering Industrial through Scientific Theory rather than the standard warmonger pick Rifling and I can mass invest in zoos (bullrings) everywhere. I have some prebuilt public works in all cities ready to trigger the WLTK bonus yields from the Spanish UB as well. Not that it matters much at this point but I like to micro play as if I have 100 more turns to go.

T173 DomV!

Spoiler :

On the 10th turn of war, after I erased Babylon and 3 enemy armies from the continent, the AI offers capitulation at the first chance and I graciously accept. Almost at Industrialization despite 45 cities, 29 of them being Spanish ones on all the 'realistic' city spots I could settle, only some rocks and wastelands have been spared by the conquistadors. I think I hit a supply soft cap because despite barracks, armories, harbors, teocallis and bastion forts almost everywhere every new city is not adding to the cap, or at most by 1. The empire/tech modifiers are just that harsh, but that's not too bad as 70 units to micro are a lot already.

 

[randomnub]

So, my take on Spain and its uniques from this game:

[UA] 9/10 Almost perfect, the ranking is not about its strength (it would probably sit at a solid 7/10) but because the AI can profit from it almost as good as a human can and it carries you through the whole game: the border yields are very important in the first 20 turns (it translates into one unit or half a free building, and guaranteed early pantheon), while faith buying a navy is very convenient when you swim in faith and need to time the 'typical' Navigation rush. It's not a 10/10 mostly because it doesn't scale well in Renaissance+, those yields are peanuts by then and faith/gold both lose in importance. Also, I liked Reconquista more then Plus Ultra as a name

[UI] 7/10 The Hacienda is not a great improvement to work on standard resource maps due to the abundance of next to useless food it provides, it's not going to do much to fix any happiness issue you might have by growing cities too much until it receives the culture buff at Architecture, and only become broken near the end of the game if you go Autocracy for the military-industrial complex (and why shouldn't you...). It has great looking graphics and can make terrible locations worth settle though, and with 4uc you can sustain the growth if you focus on public works after bullrings so it meshes well with the kit. I'm not a fan of Progress Spain but it would work very well with it and it's good to have alternate playstyles.

[UU] 11/10, or 1/10 for the AI. The Conquistador is a one man army, with no weakness: no strategics required, good CS by the time it comes out, unmatched mobility, great at taking cities even if they sport a garrison, walls and castles. No counters who can reach it or shot it down before it heals back by pillaging and still have moves to disengage and attack somewhere else, it can even stand in lakes and shallow waters without being a free kill, not to mention being able to walk over mountains after some promotions. Oh and exploreing, getting ruins, barb camps and settle new cities with ~1600 hammers worth of buildings. Here is the issue, the AI cannot handle them, nor use them well when it's its time to roll Spain. The AI doesn't mass them, uses them mostly as explorers and I am not even sure they can settle cities. AI Spain pretty much plays with one UU less, the UU that would carry the civ the most is handled very bad. Despite loving it, I'd vote for the conquistador to be rolled back to a knight replacement if the AI cannot be taught how to harass with scout units efficiently.

[UU2] 6/10 The Armada suffers from being a corvette replacement when you probably want 2-3 frigates for each corvette if not more. It's going to lose boarding party so getting to blitz (the most valuable promotion to me, when you need to rotate units in order to take cities with few adjacent water tiles) is going to take a lot longer, otoh you won't feel like losing something when opting to go for hull promotions. I didn't mind their price increase as I only upgraded them from old caravels or faith-bought them. Both the Corsair and the Sea Beggar are stronger corvette replacements due to their all around abilities, the Armada is great at fighting but sea battles are a matter of timing not attrition, usually the one who attacks first with the better navy conquers the seas and there's no coming back so it feels like a win more unit.

[UB] 7/10 I didn't get to play with the Bullring much but I realize their strength. In practice they produce at least 40g/f/c per turn when you chain WLTK every 10 turns and enable late game city growth making public works worth their production cost and happiness necessary. I'm also a fan of zoos due to their instant science, and this building used to be OP at Navigation, now that it unlocks later it's good enough.

 

[CrazyG]

I also took an interest in Spain. I've been setting her as one of the AI in all my games (including one where I played as Spain too). I find her overall pretty well designed, all the uniques are fun and interesting without being too strong.

I think 90% of the reason she is the worst performing AI is pantheon choice. Like you said, God of the Expanse is not good (well its good with tradition but trash otherwise). I've gotten 1 game where she took a different pantheon (God of Commerce), and she was the #1 AI.

 

[azum4roll]

The AI doesn't mass them, uses them mostly as explorers

Did something change for the AI? When I last fought them they did mass Conquistadors. Their default AI is also UNITAI_FAST_ATTACK instead of UNITAI_EXPLORE, though they can be assigned as an explorer with UNITAI_EXPLORE being in Unit_AITypes (but not UNITAI_FAST_ATTACK, strangely enough).