Aurelesk
King
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2017
- Messages
- 623
I didn’t expect too much from the update, and I am surprisingly content from it. It is way bigger than I expect, and Firaxis even dares to add a brand new effect to Tourism. There are so many things I want to try out. Bravo! Except they didn’t make drastic changes to [insert your country’s civilization] by making it extremely powerful and extremely fun to play. Consequently, this update is obviously a total failure with no chance of any redemption!
Joke aside, I might have hoped the team would rethink more civilizations, like many other players here. France was my top contender. They did make the Garde Impériale better (70 Combat Strength!) and the Château is more flexible (same requirement as a Mekewap but not as powerful), but… I want MORE! No! This is not a child whim! I am a grow-up now!
I feel awkwardly ungrateful to say this, but they are a lot of Culture + Gold tile improvements like the Great Wall, the Pairidaeza and maybe the Golf Course to some extent. The Château was the least impressive of the bunch, so more prone to face drastic change. Basically, I imagined something like that:
I don't know what to think about the free Builders ability from Spain and Maya: it is quite powerful, maybe too much? Currently, the Ancestral Hall is depicted already as the best Government Plaza's building, but that does mean that Spain and the Maya could build the Warlord's Throne instead.
Is Gilgamesh new Combat Strength bonus cumulative? If I have 5 Alliances and manage to bring all my Allies against a common foe, does that mean I now enjoy +25 Combat Strength?!
Joke aside, I might have hoped the team would rethink more civilizations, like many other players here. France was my top contender. They did make the Garde Impériale better (70 Combat Strength!) and the Château is more flexible (same requirement as a Mekewap but not as powerful), but… I want MORE! No! This is not a child whim! I am a grow-up now!
I feel awkwardly ungrateful to say this, but they are a lot of Culture + Gold tile improvements like the Great Wall, the Pairidaeza and maybe the Golf Course to some extent. The Château was the least impressive of the bunch, so more prone to face drastic change. Basically, I imagined something like that:
GRAND TOUR
Cities gain +5% Culture, +5% Food, +10% Production towards Wonders and +10% Tourism for each Wonders they have. Already built Wonders that are owned by France can be rebuilt to another city.
GARDE IMPÉRIALE
French unique Industrial era melee unit that replaces the Infantry Line. Stronger by 3 Combat Strength, it also gains +10 Combat Strength when fighting on your capital’s continent. Combat victories provide Great General points equal to 25% of the base Combat Strength of the defeated unit (on Standard Speed).
CHÂTEAU
Once the Feudalism civic is discovered, unlocks the Builder ability to construct a Château.
+1 Culture, +0.5 Housing and +1 Appeal.
+1 Culture if next to a River.
+1 Food if adjacent to a Luxury resource.
+1 additional Food at Sanitation technology.
+1 additional Culture at Cultural Heritage civic.
Provides Tourism after researching Flight. Cannot be adjacent to another Château.
CATHERINE'S FLYING SQUADRON (unchanged)
Gain 1 extra level of Diplomatic Visibility with every civilization. Receives a free Spy with the Castles technology. All Spies start as Agents with a free Promotion.
CATHERINE'S MAGNIFICENCES
Improved Luxury resources receive +1 Culture, up to +2 if adjacent to Theatre Square districts. May initiate the Court Festival project in any city with a Theater Square district, yielding 10% of the Production cost as Culture and Tourism for each Luxury.
COURT OF LOVE
All Great Works yield +1 Loyalty to cities holding them, and cause -1 Loyalty in foreign cities within 10 tiles. Each city skips the Free City step and joins Eleanor’s civilization if it rebels from Loyalty pressure but has received most of Loyalty pressure from her.
EXPLANATION
Grand tour: Rebuilt wonders erase the original. Bonuses triggering at completion, like the units from Statue of Zeus, do not work again. It is rather gimmicky, but it gives personnality and it is an echo to the Liberty Statue: built in France, and assembled in USA. You could say that that new ability will probably lead to a one powerful cultural and populous city, further cemented by the ability to relocate Wonders to that city. But that's France and Paris in a nutshell.
Garde Impériale : It is 68 CS here because I didn't thought they are going to give 70 in the game! The scaling of the Great General point allows to prevent to use Barbarians as Great General point generator (one Scout? 10 points!), but it is overall stronger since it is better against 40+ Combat Strength units.
Château: Rivers were too valuable, I changed it for a more common restriction: not adjacent to another Château. The game did also recognise this, and traded them for the Mekewap restrictions. I traded the Gold for Food / Housing. I wanted to give the Château more personality by differenciate it from the Great Wall and the Pairidaeza that also give Culture and Gold. More flexible, you will still rather want to use them for National Parks (but City Park is better) or on a river as usual (for good Culture), but it would be less powerful as Culture generator overall.
Catherine Flying's Squadron: Except the wording, the ability is the same.
Catherine's Magnificence: The project takes all luxury now, and not only the duplicates, which will make it less frustrating but stronger. The power of the project is toned down: instead of giving 50 Culture/Tourism per luxury, it gives 10% of the Production cost. At 0% tech, it is a sad 6.5 Culture/Tourism per luxury, and reverts back to 50 Culture/Tourism at 50% tech or civic completed. It also means it gives 97.5 Culture/Tourism per luxury once all tech/civic are discovered! It will make early victory harder, and late victory earlier. The Culture from luxury is made available earlier. You can now enjoy it from the start at +1 Culture (like Gaul's Mines), and get back to +2 with Theatre Square. Since the Château is more flexible, I removed it from the ability. Also, if a Leader Switcheroo game mode is showing up, then it will work better!
Court of Love: I just added +1 Loyalty to Great Work. Sometime, you couldn't keep the city that flipped to you. It would be a better ability tfor England: it could manage Loyalty issue with Great Work more easily.
I don't know what to think about the free Builders ability from Spain and Maya: it is quite powerful, maybe too much? Currently, the Ancestral Hall is depicted already as the best Government Plaza's building, but that does mean that Spain and the Maya could build the Warlord's Throne instead.
Is Gilgamesh new Combat Strength bonus cumulative? If I have 5 Alliances and manage to bring all my Allies against a common foe, does that mean I now enjoy +25 Combat Strength?!
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