America

[Owlbebach]

I'm going Progress right now, feels like capital runs out of tiles to buy too early to use the UA for classical+ wonders if I dump everything into early game snowballing. Being able to rush build settlers is huge.

With a gold and production ruin ('murican scouts being able to spot a ruin over a hill when they're 3 forest tiles away is so satisfying) I was able to get -this- at turn 10, settling on forest. Scout+Monument+Shrine+Worker+75%Settler.

I kinda think that it is better to delay Settlers with Progress for a while, and then use gold in secondary cities to catch up with production. Early cities with progress kill your culture. Also you can grow Capital to like 5 citizen to get some science

 

[randomnub]

Depends on situation, definitely not if you risk being boxed in. Also, second city went claim a Kilimanjaro, other cities got furs so in this game the culture debate didn't occur me

 

[lunker]

I'm finding minutemen to be very underwhelming, especially for how late they come into play. Their bonuses over regular musketmen are:

Killed unit gives CS as golden age points.
Ignore terrain movement cost.
+3 cs
+0 rcs
accuracy 1

The golden age points are negligible. My GA cost at that point was around 4000, so getting 15-30 GA per kill is kind of pitiful. Minutemen also don't get higher RCS than regular musketmen, just a small def bonus. Accuracy 1 is ok, but if you already took accuracy when upgrading a unit I think it gets wasted. Terrain movement is ok, but difficult to make use of when you only have 2 movement.

Compare with Janissary:

March
Available earlier
+3cs
+3rcs
Bonus when attacking (25)

I say give them base 3 movement to make use of the terrain perk or triple their GA from victories.

 

[Deadstarre]

ignored terrain is massive for a ranged unit, even with 2 movement points thats a world of difference honestly. I still remember what it was to have scouts upgrading to composite bowmen, they were a joy the whole game through lmao. maybe they need more GA points that could be true, but they definitely dont need more combat capability

 

[CrazyG]

I've always thought minutemen should be cheaper. It plays into the idea that they could prepare quickly as best as civ can

 

[Txurce]

I'm finding minutemen to be very underwhelming, especially for how late they come into play. Their bonuses over regular musketmen are:

Killed unit gives CS as golden age points.
Ignore terrain movement cost.
+3 cs
+0 rcs
accuracy 1

The golden age points are negligible. My GA cost at that point was around 4000, so getting 15-30 GA per kill is kind of pitiful. Minutemen also don't get higher RCS than regular musketmen, just a small def bonus. Accuracy 1 is ok, but if you already took accuracy when upgrading a unit I think it gets wasted. Terrain movement is ok, but difficult to make use of when you only have 2 movement.

Compare with Janissary:

March
Available earlier
+3cs
+3rcs
Bonus when attacking (25)

I say give them base 3 movement to make use of the terrain perk or triple their GA from victories.

Why compare them to janissaries? How does America overall compare to the Ottomans? And both civs to the other 40?

I find America to be consistently powerful in the player's hands, and solid in the AI's.

 

[Gidoza]

Why compare them to janissaries? How does America overall compare to the Ottomans? And both civs to the other 40?

I find America to be consistently powerful in the player's hands, and solid in the AI's.

I tend to agree - I think the issue being raised is that Minutemen are such a drop in the water that it's easy to just tech past them without noticing they were ever a part of your game. I don't find this to be the case with many other Civs. The GA point comment I think is particularly worthy - you need to kill a LOT to make this perk worthwhile.

 

[Txurce]

I tend to agree - I think the issue being raised is that Minutemen are such a drop in the water that it's easy to just tech past them without noticing they were ever a part of your game.

I agree with this... but if you buff the Minuteman, you probably have to nerf Washington's purchasing power. If that were the option, I prefer to leave things as they are. Today America is mostly about that terrific start. This seems much better to me than mediocrity in both UA and UU.

 

[Gidoza]

I agree with this... but if you buff the Minuteman, you probably have to nerf Washington's purchasing power. If that were the option, I prefer to leave things as they are. Today America is mostly about that terrific start. This seems muh better to me than mediocrity in both UA and UU.

That's a fair statement. I feel as though something should change on the Minuteman, I just don't know what or how. :/

 

[Legen]

The GAP on kill from the minutemen made sense before because America's UA gave GAP on tile purchases; having both together would give you frequent Golden Ages (at least in theory). The UA now gives production, so there's a point in changing the GAP on kill to something else.

 

[lunker]

Why compare them to janissaries? How does America overall compare to the Ottomans? And both civs to the other 40?

I find America to be consistently powerful in the player's hands, and solid in the AI's.

Janisarry is the other uniqure musketman. I think America is well balanced right now, but I don't think a minuteman buff would significantly change America's power standing. Civ balance is kind of vague and as long as things aren't unreasonable perfect balance isn't needed.

I'm also cool with the production/gold/faith cost decrease. Is there any unique unit that is cheaper than their base?

 

[lunker]

Just an update: I've been building minutemen after researching military academy. You can get range promo immediately if you build the minuteman. Gatling guns also get to keep the terrain perk and GA on kills, which I thought they would lose. Don't think minutemen are so bad now.

 

[Gidoza]

Just an update: I've been building minutemen after researching military academy. You can get range promo immediately if you build the minuteman. Gatling guns also get to keep the terrain perk and GA on kills, which I thought they would lose. Don't think minutemen are so bad now.

Hm - point taken.

 

[pineappledan]

The Smithsonian icon has not been updated yet. It is currently a picture of the Prussian House of Lords in Berlin with 2 American flags (left):


Sukritact has given permission for VP to use the Smithsonian icon he made (right). I think this change would be a big improvement, even though it's just cosmetic. I have attached a zip file with the icon art assets

 

[Gazebo]

The Smithsonian icon has not been updated yet. It is currently a picture of the Prussian House of Lords in Berlin with 2 American flags (left):


Sukritact has given permission for VP to use the Smithsonian icon he made (right). I think this change would be a big improvement, even though it's just cosmetic. I have attached a zip file with the icon art assets

I'll fix this in the next version. I was hoping no one would ever notice that I just pasted two american flags over the german ones.

G

 

[Noob Fanboy]

I'm thinking about doing a photojournal with America, with Authority Fealty Imperialism (aka. Roleplaying as the real one)

But i'm never able to use that unique ability, do you think is a good idea to only use the UA in key wonders?

 

[CrazyG]

I'm thinking about doing a photojournal with America, with Authority Fealty Imperialism (aka. Roleplaying as the real one)

But i'm never able to use that unique ability, do you think is a good idea to only use the UA in key wonders?

You probably want to buy a few tiles early game to get things like monuments built faster (or just buy them when you want a tile)

 

[Owlbebach]

I'm thinking about doing a photojournal with America, with Authority Fealty Imperialism (aka. Roleplaying as the real one)

But i'm never able to use that unique ability, do you think is a good idea to only use the UA in key wonders?

You probably want to buy a few tiles early game to get things like monuments built faster (or just buy them when you want a tile)

Right now i'm in a process of doing some pictures of America Tourism play. Not sure if it will work out cause Deity is damn hard right now, but on paper America seems to be one of the strongest Tourism civs in the game (maybe not as strong as Arabia, but still). Tourism is the main bonus of Smithsonian annd America's UA sort of helps to fix Tradition early-game weakness

 

[tu_79]

I'm thinking about doing a photojournal with America, with Authority Fealty Imperialism (aka. Roleplaying as the real one)

But i'm never able to use that unique ability, do you think is a good idea to only use the UA in key wonders?

Could be. I use it for boosting up new cities in the first settling wave and capturing a few resource tiles from neighbours later. Some other people use it for rushing settlers so capital grows faster. I don't think it's going to make such a difference for wonders, but you could try and tell us.

 

[Moi Magnus]

But i'm never able to use that unique ability, do you think is a good idea to only use the UA in key wonders?

Usefull for:
+ Settlers
+ New cities
+ Building ancient era wonders

That's not useless for latter wonders, but usually less efficient than buffing secondary cities.