I have mixed feelings about England.
I thought it was interesting in the last livestream that they described England as being reworked to be a flagship for the industrial era mechanics. See, that’s the Problem. England’s UA now plugs into various mechanics that ... well, aren’t that impactful. ME just aren’t that useful. And power doesn’t matter if you’re playing fast. And settling on other continents just ain’t worth the effort.
At the same time, and particularly given FXS’s first GS live-streams featured England, I think FXS did make a serious attempt to revamp England.
It’ll be interesting to see where things end up after a few patches. If the game ever slows down, or power, infrastructure and hammers get more important, England will get better. And, dear me, if the RND movement bug ever gets fixed ... that really would be something.
I was also thinking about how much of England’s “shtick” has been recycled for other Civs. Zulu got Pax B. Sweden got British Museum. Netherlands and Indonesia basically got England’s Civ V Ship of the Line. England now isn’t even the only Civ with a Unique Harbour. Thing is, all those Civs actually do England’s ability better (by that I mean, they use the ability in a more interesting way).
I hated RnF England. Just hated it. England are weaker in GS than RnF, and are sort of more vanilla or plain or ... prosaic ... but are also more playable. They’re sort of a blank Civ with a few roleplaying bonuses... and I’m sort of okay with that. I like playing with the core mechanics, so Civs that don’t modify those much are my favourites. They’re now basically a Civ with a half price district and one or two free trade routes. Yeah, I can work with that.
I’d like England to have a touch more spice. I think the RND in particular could use a buff. Poor Eleanor of England. Kind of amazing WotW doesn’t buff factories ... although, I guess that’s what the power buff does. Anyways. Whatever. Thing is, I also feel like it was very nice of FXS to rework them already, and they did do a pretty okay job all in all, so I should probably pull my head in. Or just mod what I want.
...and I should probably leave this topic alone. I’m clearly a tragic. Looking forward to playing some Ottomans. And seeing if Rome have been nerfed enough to be fun playing.
