Arab's Piety and Caravans

[Zenstrive]

I love playing as Arab, you can go so many ways and change your winning condition target on a whim because of its money and potential of having religious domination.

Now with BnW, the UA is changed to:

Arabia has 50% longer Caravan routes, and have stronger religious pressure along trade routes

with changes in piety:

- Unlocks in the Ancient Era

that means you can get it right away
- Opener; Build Shrines and Temples twice as fast: more faiths, faster,
unlocks building the Great Mosque of Djenne: isn't that a mosque for free and more able missionaries?

-Theocracy; Temples increase a city's Gold output by 10%. Holy Sites provide +3 Gold: add that with faster shrines and temples and Tithe belief and you buff Arab's money easy.

-Mandate of Heaven; 20% discount on all purchases of religious units and buildings with Faith. (again, more faiths, more missionaries, more source for the tithe, more money)

-Religious Tolerance; Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion: You will build roads for the caravans, and you will have other religions in your cities)
- Finisher; causes a Great Prophet to appear and Holy Sites provide +3 Culture: Free prophet, free holy site, and another holy sites now +3 money +3 culture!

I usually start with Tradition opener on my playthrough (usually with bonus from ruins) , finishing liberty, and then return to Tradition to get free culture buildings, happiness, and food buff in capital.

The downside of relying on Piety: I will be missing free workers and free settlers from liberty, but can purchase them with money generating from Tithe, shrines, temples, and holy sites.

Or I can open Tradition, Open Piety up to Theocracy, go to Liberty to get Settler, (by this time the AI will have 3 or 4 cities easy and I will get my religion set up fully), while along the way train/purchase worker or steal it from city state

I will have animal husbandry by this point and can set up my caravan to go to my second city or nearest other capital, which means more money from caravan and good chance for some money from Tithe.

Or so I Imagine.

Thoughts, critics, comments?

 

[Ryoga]

Arab has definitely become a very interesting civ to play. It doesn't have an inherent faith gain but it has become pretty strong at spreading its own religion.

You definitely want to have friends as the Arabs especially considering you can sell all those luxuries.

Also don't forget that Arabs have a desert bias, so they have an advantage in building Petra, which gives even more trade route perks.

 

[Zenstrive]

Oh yes, I forgot about Petra.
More strength to trade routes, more money

 

[IkM]

I like to play as Arabia. Their new UA is better than older one. also Camel Archer one of the best UU, IMO.

 

[Zenstrive]

I like to play as Arabia. Their new UA is better than older one. also Camel Archer one of the best UU, IMO.

Camel Archer IS the best UU that's still useful in the age of Artillery. Especially if you have units that have 3 hex field of view.

 

[IkM]

Camel Archer IS the best UU that's still useful in the age of Artillery. Especially if you have units that have 3 hex field of view.

No, they're not the best UU. Keshiks are far better than them. with Khans they are unstoppable.

 

[Ogrelord]

Thoughts, critics, comments?

CS are closer to you than the other A.I. Capitals. Even if you can reach the other Capitals, you will have to defend your routes from barbarians. So your first destination might be a CS, even though you'll get less gold.
Definitely construct a caravansary and market asap. Great Mosque of Djenne gives you a free mosque faith building and some other bonus. I would focus on trade and faith tech to unlock the respective Wonders and buildings that help in those aspects.

IMHO, Arabia and Morocco are like the land version of Venice.
We need a Caravan Camel smilie

 

[ImperialChaos]

TBH I'm kinda pissed they left Germany and America alone but buffed the already stellar Arabia. I mean a trade upgrade was expected but did they really need to add the religious pressure on trade routes? Plus double oil is still there.

Anyway, Arabia will be awesome to play. Can't wait.

 

[ehecatzin]

Arabia got really interesting to play, dont forget that piety will make it easier to get the Grand Temple built, Arabia's religous pressure will be massive.

 

[RealHuhn]

Bazaar got indirectly nerfed due to friendship requirement though.

And does anybody know if archer type units are still as OP as in G+K, especially against cities? I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see a nerf to ranged units against cities. Overall, that would balance Arabia quite nicely.

 

[Loucypher]

Arabia's desert start also means there's room for folklore...yeah, the Arabs are looking powerful. They'll be among the first few non-BNW civs I'll play as.

 

[HemlockMartinis]

TBH I'm kinda pissed they left Germany and America alone but buffed the already stellar Arabia. I mean a trade upgrade was expected but did they really need to add the religious pressure on trade routes? Plus double oil is still there.

Anyway, Arabia will be awesome to play. Can't wait.

Germany's always been kind of "meh", but America's been completely surpassed by the Shoshone in almost every way. America needs either a complete UA revamp (maybe something using the new Ideology system?) or at least a new UU/UB (how about a Great Writer replacement called a "Founding Father"?).

I'm also surprised they didn't upgrade Netherlands alongside Arabia. Their UA's namesake can now be built by every other civilization, after all. A Happiness boost for each trade route would've made the most sense and wouldn't even have drastically altered the Netherlands' playstyle as much as Arabia's new UA will.

 

[HemlockMartinis]

As for Arabia, I think I'm almost more excited for their new UA than I am for some of the brand-new civs.

Arabia's UA + World Church + Unity of the Prophets = using trade routes to target foreign high-population cities with religious pressure that 1) yields tons of Culture, 2) doesn't incur diplomatic penalties, and 3) can't be easily removed.

(You can swap out World Church for Tithe if Gold's your thing instead, too.)

 

[Petiscator]

As for Arabia, I think I'm almost more excited for their new UA than I am for some of the brand-new civs.

Arabia's UA + World Church + Unity of the Prophets = using trade routes to target foreign high-population cities with religious pressure that 1) yields tons of Culture, 2) doesn't incur diplomatic penalties, and 3) can't be easily removed.

(You can swap out World Church for Tithe if Gold's your thing instead, too.)

Or the other belief that gives happiness per 4 followers, which I forgot the name. Add the Grand Temple to that and you've got an amazing civ for per follower beliefs! Very good. I'm also quite excited about Arabia's new UA. Desert starting bias, longer trade routes, powerful religious spreader, double oil late in the game, awesome Camel Archer for their keshik-like bonuses and the outstanding bazaar. What's not to love?

 

[chazzycat]

I'm also surprised they didn't upgrade Netherlands alongside Arabia. Their UA's namesake can now be built by every other civilization, after all. A Happiness boost for each trade route would've made the most sense and wouldn't even have drastically altered the Netherlands' playstyle as much as Arabia's new UA will.

I think trade routes will indirectly help the Dutch a lot. They have a very strong mid-game navy, which will really help securing the most lucrative trade routes.

 

[BluegrassGeek]

TBH I'm kinda pissed they left Germany and America alone but buffed the already stellar Arabia. I mean a trade upgrade was expected but did they really need to add the religious pressure on trade routes? Plus double oil is still there.

Anyway, Arabia will be awesome to play. Can't wait.

They had to change Arabia's UA, or else trade routes would have given them a flat bonus to gold.

 

[BluegrassGeek]

Germany's always been kind of "meh", but America's been completely surpassed by the Shoshone in almost every way. America needs either a complete UA revamp (maybe something using the new Ideology system?) or at least a new UU/UB (how about a Great Writer replacement called a "Founding Father"?).

Not really. The Shoshone get that bonus set of tiles, but then that's it. The USA can keep buying cheap tiles right up into the end-game.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I believe Madjinn said that the Shoshone's ability actually provides an additional set of free tiles, meaning that it does not increase the cost of tiles in general (meaning that they expand super-fast). So in a way, it kinda does outpower America.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I believe Madjinn said that the Shoshone's ability actually provides an additional set of free tiles, meaning that it does not increase the cost of tiles in general (meaning that they expand super-fast). So in a way, it kinda does outpower America.

America's best power is +1 sight, which is especially useful with artillery. In BNW this could be also quite useful for patrolling trade routes.

While I don't think America is as powerful as DLC/Expansion civs, this feature shouldn't be ignored.

 

[ImperialChaos]

America's best power is +1 sight, which is especially useful with artillery. In BNW this could be also quite useful for patrolling trade routes.

While I don't think America is as powerful as DLC/Expansion civs, this feature shouldn't be ignored.

I agree. The sight is useful but the tile bonus should have been replaced with a cultural/tourism or ideological buff instead of remaining the same in light of the Shoshone.