Azzaman333 reviews all 31 Civs: Rome

[azzaman333]

ROME
Leader: Caesar
Aggression Level: 4
Favorite Government: Republic
Shunned Government: Communism
Culture Group: Mediterranean
​

Trait Combo: Militaristic & Commercial; 16/28
Militaristic is on of the weaker traits, since the bonuses given are relatively weak. Cheap barracks and easier promotions are useful, but could be a lot better. However, with the Commercial trait's lowered corruption, that warmongering you're bound to do is a lot less costly, and the towns you take will be beneficial almost right away.

Unique Unit: Legionary; 16/31
The Legionary is a 3.3.1 swordsman replacement. Legionary's have 1 extra defense than a normal swordsman. This is a very useful bonus, leaving Legionaries as capable on defense as they are on offense. But this bonus is less useful for a human player than an AI, since a human waging war will try to go through the enemy as quick as possible without spending much time defending. AIs on the other hand, will use this unit to its full potential, due to their wars being more take a couple of cities and hold them until peace.

AI Game Play: 6/10
Normally one of the middle of the road civs. The success of Rome (other than good start location) involves a good early war. If they do have an early war and take a reasonable amount of land, they will be a strong late game civ, but if they dont have a successful war, they wont have a strong game overall. Doesnt expand very fast, and has trouble when in catch up mode.

UU & TC Blend: 1/1
The Legionary suits the Mil Comm traits perfectly, since without the Legion, the civ would be much weaker 6 times out of 10.

Total Score: 39/70 Rank: 3/7

Comments and discussion welcomed.

 

[Makonnen5]

pretty good review, very easy to follow.

 

[Empiremaker]

In some ways, the AI game play should be flipped, since if you're playing that civ, then you won't play against that civ. I notice this for the Iroquois, a civ that the AI plays very well.

Otherwise good.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Cody's 2 cents:

I'm surprised that they only received a 39. Rome is the favorite civ of a lot of players.

I think Legionary deserves a bit higher than a 16.

When the AI plays as Rome, I've noticed they usually suck.

I agree with the trait combo though. Militaristic isn't that great, but Commercial rocks.

 

[Abegweit]

Azzaman is right. The Legionary is vastly overrated and the traits are mediocre. Comm is good. Mil is not.

It's interesting that, in his review, Ision says that the Legionary is awesome and then spends the entire thread explaining why it is not!

 

[azzaman333]

I probably should clarify that each UU gets a score of 31-1, depending on how it rates vs the other UU's. Same with trait combo (except 28-1).

 

[AutomatedTeller]

for me, it's a sentimental favorite, since it's the first one I played.

I'm just not sure if there is a victory condition that I would say "Rome is a really good for this!" The UU doesn't lend itself to early conquest or domination, it doesn't REX as well as the agri civs, and scientific is pretty much the way to go for fast research games.

That said, legionaries are very good, and are useful for two full eras, first as assault units, later as cheap defenders. Id' certainly rather spend 30 shields for a legionary than whatever it takes for a musket.

 

[Abegweit]

That said, legionaries are very good, and are useful for two full eras, first as assault units, later as cheap defenders. Id' certainly rather spend 30 shields for a legionary than whatever it takes for a musket.

Legionaries replace pikes, not muskets. And I'd rather not build any of these things.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Well, actually, legionarries don't replace either - they replace swords. But I'd still rather have a 30 shield legionary than a 50 or 60 shields musket - neither can really stand up to cavalary, but the legionary is cheaper and can fight back.

 

[Abegweit]

Why do you keep comparing legionaries to muskets? On defence they replace pikes. They cost the same and have the same stats. On offence, they replace swordmen. They cost the same and have the same stats.

Obviously there is some value in having a pike and a sword in the same unit, for price of either one. But not much, because the pike is useless.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Legionary is 3/3/1, Pikeman is 1/3/1, Swordman is 3/2/1, Musketman is 2/4/1, in case you were wondering.

 

[Abegweit]

Right. A legionary is a swordman plus a (useless) pike. A musket is a different animal entirely but it is useless too.

 

[adog]

What happened to the reviews of the other 30 civs?

edit- whoops, I see some of the other ones, just need to open my eyes

 

[Desertsnow]

The Romans in the AI's hands don't build enough culture at midlle levels. I find myself flipping their cities left, right and center if I have them as a neighbor, and especially when I am playing a religious civ at Regent-Monarch.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

In the middle ages, you can use legionnaries in the same role as you would use musketmen or pikes, and they are cheaper than muskets. No, they don't defend quite as well, but so what?

 

[Mirc]

Edit: I think I understood the points given by azzaman exactly in the opposite way...

Spoiler who wants to see the post I made before editing, be careful I understood wrong what azzaman said :

39/70? 1/3???

They are my clear favorite of all civs. Only Maya, or China could compare with them IMO.

I would give the Legionary something like a 27/31. And I would give their traits something like 26/28. They are really bad when the AI plays them, but honestly I don't understand why would this affect our impression (we = humans) about them. What if the AI doesn't play them good??? 6/10 is maybe a little too much for this, but I really, really don't care about this (edit: I think 6/10 is ok given the fact that I understood the points wrong. Edit 2: OR NOT? I am totaly confused). So I would give them about 60/70.

 

[Mirc]

I simply don't get it. Is the AI gameplay something good or bad???

 

[azzaman333]

The more points they score, the better. so the higher the AI gameplay prt, the better (imo) the ai is when using the civ.