[NFP] Breathtakingly appealing - New Bull Teddy brings a new playstyle

[ATEX]

The new take on Teddy brings a totally new way of playing into the game. Having appeal as the driving force for your empire is a massive change in playstyle compared to all other leaders. Combine it with earth godess, Liangs city parks, and strategic placement of wonders and districts, you can have a powerhouse.
As appeal is something you can activly affect, it is a lot of fun to try to rig it for the best output.


Benefits:

• It disconnects your culture, faith and to some degree science from your districts and city states.
• It gives you a reason to grow cities as much as possible. Every pop now actually benefits you.
• Culture is no longer the bottleneck mid/late game.
• Eiffel tower becomes a superwonder
• Early culture output is amazing and speeds up everything. Turn 1-30 is unrivaled by any civ. Just an example image here with settling on a breathtaking tile and working one tile gives you 5,5 culture from turn 1!

Drawbacks:

• Every tile needs to be planned if you are to make the best of it. This is a lot harder than you would think!
• Where to place wonders, and districts, where to place city parks, where to fit in farms and mines to keep the appeal.
• You cant just chop all forests in sight
• Mines and production in general becomes somewhat of a problem

If you happen to have Granada or some natural wonders in your game, everything just becomes breathtakingly appealing. =)

 

[monikernemo]

Alcazars dont boost appeal do they? Teddy has a good early game, and I would think that his abilities might be less useful towards mid - late game.

 

[xaiviax]

Cyrus might have something to say about this.

 

[Myomoto]

Agreed. Playing my first Bull Moose game was extremely enjoyable, and I wish appeal was a more used mechanic (if neighborhoods were actually worth building that, that could be one aspect..).

 

[ATEX]

Alcazars dont boost appeal do they? Teddy has a good early game, and I would think that his abilities might be less useful towards mid - late game.

No they do not, but they fit extremly well in with this strat. After I build Eiffel tower and some city parks, every tile adjacent to a mountain would net me 2 science from teddy +2 faith from pantheon + 2 culture and + 50% of appeal (2-6 science) from Alcazar and another 2 culture if adjacent to a wonder or woods. I think this will be usefull mid and late game also, although I did not get there yet.

 

[Tech Osen]

Teddy has a good early game, and I would think that his abilities might be less useful towards mid - late game.

Actually it really starts rolling once you can plant trees and make national parks. National parks increase appeal for all tiles in the city for Teddy.

 

[monikernemo]

Actually it really starts rolling once you can plant trees and make national parks. National parks increase appeal for all tiles in the city for Teddy.

My point is that a campus adjacent to mountains can give you much more science than his ability and once you factor in natural philosophy and rationalism, in fact you get much more science than preserving these high appeal spots beyond a certain point.

 

[ATEX]

My point is that a campus adjacent to mountains can give you much more science than his ability and once you factor in natural philosophy and rationalism, in fact you get much more science than preserving these high appeal spots beyond a certain point.

Thats a valid point. You need your high yield campus, but that's only 15-20 tiles. The added value of the other breathtaking tiles should be substantial. I got a game up to turn 80 now, and to me it looks promising at least. But too early to tell how good it is.

 

[comatosedragon]

I have never been able to get Earth Goddess for myself yet; but you are right. The new way of playing (thanks to Teddy) really almost seems like a different game. I find myself doing things I wouldn't in "normal" games, and very often forgo districts to keep the appeal game going.

So much fun. My favorite part of NFP that has been released so far. Still waiting for those new map scripts....

 

[Deadly Dog]

I kind of feel like the playstyle I'm using with Kupe - getting secondary (Culture/Faith/Science) yields from features rather than buildings, combined with Earth Goddess - and can't wait to try it. I may even challenge myself to a no-Campus SV, though I see a lot of problems with that.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Playing a game as Teddy without building campuses and without improving any tiles except for city parks (for maximum national park placement), really interesting puzzle, very enjoyable.

 

[Tech Osen]

My point is that a campus adjacent to mountains can give you much more science than his ability and once you factor in natural philosophy and rationalism, in fact you get much more science than preserving these high appeal spots beyond a certain point.

While true I think with this Teddy more of a culture game than a science game. Science yields are just the icing on the cake. I'm also one of those weirdos that really like planning national parks.

Then again the one game I won with him so far was a diplomatic win.

 

[Futumch]

I messed around with Bull Ted, and I have to agree that his Culture output was brilliant especially in cities with proximity to mountains.
I thought Australia might come close with their coast bonus, so I'd give that a try. I selected "Splintered Fractal" map type - supposedly long spindly islands which would have given me tons of coast to exploit. Of course the map generator spazzed out and stuck me on flat land in the middle of a global continent.
After a re-roll I've nearly won as Australia, and while I think Mr Curtin will give Bull Ted a run for his money, it's very much dependent on the map.

 

[WillowBrook]

I may even challenge myself to a no-Campus SV, though I see a lot of problems with that.

Working on one right now. Emperor is proving a challenge - currently about to enter the Renaissance, Kupe and Poundmaker are running away with science. My start area is mountainous but with lower food, so my population isn't growing quickly so I don't get to take advantage of all the crazy yeilds available.

Did get earth goddess, and Fez is in the game, but two other civs have taken a special interest in it, so haven't been able to take advantage of its Suz bonus yet.

Leveled up Liang to city parks quickly with the extra SS governor tiles, have built more city parks so far this game than in all previous games combined. Much more governor management, as I'm also moving Magnus around a lot to minimize population loss from settler production.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Working on one right now. Emperor is proving a challenge - currently about to enter the Renaissance, Kupe and Poundmaker are running away with science. My start area is mountainous but with lower food, so my population isn't growing quickly so I don't get to take advantage of all the crazy yeilds available.

Did get earth goddess, and Fez is in the game, but two other civs have taken a special interest in it, so haven't been able to take advantage of its Suz bonus yet.

Leveled up Liang to city parks quickly with the extra SS governor tiles, have built more city parks so far this game than in all previous games combined. Much more governor management, as I'm also moving Magnus around a lot to minimize population loss from settler production.

The name of the game is Reyna's Forestry Management.

 

[Kwami]

There are already other leaders that focus on appeal, though. Canada optimizes appeal to maximize national park spam. Egypt, Persia, and others have unique improvements that add appeal for national parks and seaside resorts. Australia optimizes appeal for higher district yields. Etc.

Teddy gets culture and science from appeal, sure, but he's not by far the first leader to focus on appeal.

 

[tedhebert]

The name of the game is Reyna's Forestry Management.

Was about to post this ;-) I haven't played him yet, but it seems to me that this Reyna ability would be very strong also. unfortunately limited to only one city though

 

[kryat]

He worked extremely well in my Pacific Northwest map. (Insert shameless plug). I won, but I really struggled with the puzzle of what tiles to kill and what to keep. I wanted everything to be left as rugged land, but then my cities didn't grow!

 

[bengalryan9]

I think he might be my favorite leader in the game right now. It's really satisfying to just watch his culture game snowball out of control once you get to flight and conservation, and I really enjoy the amount of city planning that you need to do. I love how attractive his territory looks by the end of the game with all those national parks and woods.

The one thing I need to do a better job of next time I play as him is set up a stronger faith economy. I found that I was constantly waiting a few turns in order to buy my next naturalist (they get expensive!) and rock bands were pretty much a non factor in my final tourism push (which is fine, because I hate them, but they would've sped things up).

I haven't played Magnificent Catherine yet but they look interesting, and I really enjoyed my game is Ethiopia. Firaxis really did a great job with the leaders this time around.

 

[ATEX]

There are already other leaders that focus on appeal, though. Canada optimizes appeal to maximize national park spam. Egypt, Persia, and others have unique improvements that add appeal for national parks and seaside resorts. Australia optimizes appeal for higher district yields. Etc.

Teddy gets culture and science from appeal, sure, but he's not by far the first leader to focus on appeal.

You are ofc right in that other civs also focuses on appeal. If you read my russian guide for fast SV, it also does that for earth godess and neigbourhood gold, but Teddy is different because it makes more or less all tiles in your empire interesting to plan with regards to appeal. And everything you do from the very early game should be planned with regards to appeal no matter what victory type you are aiming for. That I would say is different than the other civs, although Australia has somewhat of the same elements in the gameplay, but to a lesser degree.