Civ Discussion - Majapahit

[bengalryan9]

The Majapahit are the next civ up for discussion in our march through the Exploration Age. They are a cultural and economic civ with a starting bias towards spices and coastal terrain. Their associated wonder is Borobudur, which gives a base +3 happiness in addition to +2 food and happiness on all quarters in your empire. They can be unlocked by playing as the Khmer or Maurya, by choosing Himiko, Trung Trac, or Jose Rizal as your leader, or by improving 3 pearls and having 3 naval trade routes. They automatically unlock Meiji Japan.

Their unique ability is Negara, which gives all cities EXCEPT for the capital +1 specialist limit. Note, however, that this goes away at the end of the age.
Their unique military unit is the Cetbang, a cog replacement that gets +5 CS against naval units and that can pillage within 2 tiles for 1 movement point.
Their unique civilian unit is the Pedanda, a missionary replacement that gives +25 culture and gold when converting a settlement for the first time.
Their unique buildings are the Candi Bentar, which gives +5 base culture and bonus culture for every adjacent wonder, navigable river, or coast, and the Meru, which gives +5 base happiness, and extra +2 happiness on natural wonder tiles, and bonus happiness for adjacent wonders and mountains. Together they form the unique Pura quarter, which grants a relic every time it is completed in a settlement as well as +10% gold towards converting a town into a city.

Majapahit civics:
Wayang - unlocks Candi Bentar and the Panji tradition, and at mastery gives +25% production towards overbuilding.
Aliran Kepercayaan - unlocks the Meru and the Negarakertagama tradition, and at mastery gives the Pedanda in additional +25 culture when converting
Nusantara - unlocks the Subak traditions and gives exploration age culture buildings +1 happiness adjacency from coast, and at mastery grants naval units +5 CS against land units
Gamelan - unlocks Borobudur, gives +2 culture to quarters, and +1 settlement limit.

Majapahit traditions:
Panji - +1 culture on specialists outside of your capital
Negarakertagama - +33% food towards maintaining specialists
Subak - +1 culture and +1 production on marine terrain

Thoughts on the Majapahit? Strong, weak, or just right? Do you enjoy them, or do you find them dull to play? Any interesting strategies or approaches you use with them? Which leaders compliment them well, and what antiquity or modern age civs pair well with them?

 

[bengalryan9]

I think they're pretty strong. The star of the show is their unique quarter, which really makes it a lot easier to finish the cultural legacy path without engaging with religion at all if you don't want to mess with that (plus both buildings are really strong!). On the other hand, their bonuses to specialist limit and yields means they are also strongly positioned to complete the science legacy path as well. The name of the game with Majapahit, IMO, is to build to your hearts content, as you'll want to lean in to those specialists as much as possible, increase the number of cities you have to take advantage of their unique quarter , and then complete as many quarters as possible to take advantage of Gamelan and Borubudur (and their bonus to overbuilding helps with this, too). I always have crazy culture production when I choose to play as them. All the parts fit pretty well together here, IMO, and I think they're a well designed civ.

Khmer isn't viewed as the strongest civ but they lead into Majapahit really well. Carthage I think can also make for a good lead in as you can hopefully expand up and down the coast very quickly. In the modern age I'd be looking at Siam if I had a decent amount of navigable rivers, or Qing if I didn't... thought I think Majapahit can set you up well to go down just about any path you want to so any option will work. Good leader pairs would be Catherine, Ada, World Renouncer Ahsoka, either Himiko, or Augustus.

It is kind of odd that they're classified as an economic civ despite not getting a single bonus to gold or trade. I do think losing the extra specialist at the end of the age is a little weird too, but it certainly won't hold you back.

 

[UWHabs]

If you want culture through the roof, they're a great civ. I think one game with them i got up to like 40+ relics. You can also settle those islands, if you have a one tile island with water on 6 sides, that's an 11 culture/6 happiness building. And you also can toss specialists in there too to get even more. They're the civ who you play as and have like 3000 culture per turn when the next highest is like 350.

 

[Civinator]

Only a thought for those, who have not bought Civ 7 yet, but are interested in more information about Civ 7:
It would be nice, if there would be screenshots below the single informations about the civs of Civ 7.

 

[Leucarum]

Even though I think Majapahit are probably slightly more powerful I always find them to be the "We have Hawai'i at home" of exploration. In any situation where I could pick them, I almost always pick Hawai'i instead...

 

[disjointaccount]

Yeah I don't find myself wanting to play Majapahit much, for the same reasons as Hawai'i. And if I did want to play a civ like that, it'd be Hawai'i first. Or Chola, if I fancy a naval game.
The specialist stuff feels really muddled to me as I really only particularly want extra specialist cap in tall games where I'm lookling to pump up my one big city, which is usually my capital. I guess you could change capital to a random smaller city just to make the big one not the capital but that feels kinda silly. I think in that kind of tall, specialist-heavy play, they're outclassed by Abbasid, and now Dai Viet.

I don't hugely care for the Pura quarter bonus. Of all the great works, relics are probably the easiest to amass by various other means. The building yields are nice, but this is one of the weakest UQ bonuses in the game imo.

There are good aspects to their kit - basically everything I haven't complained about here ranges from solid to pretty strong - but I just don't ever really see a case where I'd pick them over someone else, even if I ignore my dislike for coastal/culture civs.

Also, just to mention it, Borobodur is a phenomenal wonder.

 

[Leucarum]

I don't hugely care for the Pura quarter bonus. Of all the great works, relics are probably the easiest to amass by various other means. The building yields are nice, but this is one of the qeakest UQ bonuses in the game imo.

Yeah it feels a little like Majapahit are best at legacy paths which are already easy to do. The +1 production/culture tradition though is excellent.