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[member66170]

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[FeiLing]

well in a puppet empire it's pretty quick an extra +20gpt, that's more than or equal to most social policies can give you goldwise. But yeah, it feels puny. Anyway - the real unique ability of arabia comes inside their unique building - double quantity of resources from a bazaar. If you can't drain every AI on the planet to zero coins as arabia, you're doing something wrong. They basically don't need any trade route gold anyway
(don't forget the're awesome unique unit: camel archers (which are a bit stronger but less mobile keshiks)

 

[gozpel]

Even with this, Arabia is still one of my fav civs to play. They never go broke and have the unit that FeiLing mentioned.

A pretty solid civ in my book.

Only thing that annoys me, Harun almost always start in senseless deserts so growth becomes a pain.

 

[bhavv]

In terms of raw GPT saved, they dont match Inca, China, Egypt or Songhai, but they do get extra luxuries from the bazaar to sell, and those make a lot of gold.

IMO the larger the map and the more opponents, the stronger Arabia becomes. Prioritize settling every city near luxuries, and research to currency for the UB, and the amount of gold that Inca save on their cheap roads is easily beaten by a single luxury trade to the AI.

I remember thinking, and people suggesting to buff their UA to +2 gold per trade route, but that would overpower them giving them the same amount of raw gold bonuses / savings as other civs on top of the extra luxuries. You also get double oil which is very useful, if you dont need it, again you can sell it!

Overall while the +1 gold per route doesnt seem too good at first glance, thats because you overlook how much money trading makes.

 

[bhavv]

Its not technically that bad, its just half of what Egypt / China / Songhai gain per city, plus they have to build their UB before the savings work while Arabia just has to connect with roads.

I think that in the expansion, Arabia might be getting a faith update to their UA. I'm not sure how faith will work yet but im guessing that either additional faith, or faster spread via trade routes could make a decent addition.

 

[Drawmeus]

I entirely agree that the Bazaar is incredibly good, and possibly the best UB out there, but the UA is completely pants.

Everything combined Arabia is still pretty good, just odd how is has a terrible UA, an ok UU but an incredibly good UB.

You get a weak UA when you also have an incredibly good UB. They're not trying to balance UUs, UAs and UBs against each other, they're balancing civs. Arabia is pretty well balanced, imo.

 

[Brichals]

For some reason that +1 gold feels much more than that, and if you go Machu Pichu you are stupidly rich, and with Bazaars you can trade so much away for more money.

 

[Gucumatz]

I still prefer Inca + Machu Pichu.

Had 9 cities in a tiny multiplayer game (3 puppets) and only had a 3 gp cost for roads for all my empire. Arabia's UA needs to be improved as new civs like the Dutch outplace their abilities and buildings.

 

[vixafox]

Only thing that annoys me, Harun almost always start in senseless deserts so growth becomes a pain.

You could always turn off the start bias in the Advanced Start Menu. Then you might not start in the desert.