[R&F] Civ of the Week: Cree

[acluewithout]

• Leader: Poundmaker.
  
  
• Leader Ability: Favourable Terms. All Alliance types provided Shared Visibility. Trade Routes grant +1 Food in the sending city and +1 Gold in the receiving City per Camp or Pasture in the receiving city.
  
  
• Civ Ability: Nihithaw. Gain +1 Trade Route, and a free Trader (usually worth 40 Production), after researching Pottery. Your Trader will claim any unclaimed tiles they move through (max three tiles from your City Centre).
  
  
• Unique Unit: Okihtcitaw. Recon unit that replaces the Scout (upgrades to Ranger). Melee Strength 20 (vs 10), move 3. Production Cost 40 (vs 30), Maintenance 0. Starts with one free Promotion.
  
  
• Unique Infrastructure: Makewap. Unique Improvement (requires one Builder Charge). Unlocks at Pottery. +1 Production, +1 Housing, +1 Gold for every adjacent Luxury Resource, and +1 Food for every two adjacent Bonus Resource (or additional +1 Food for each adjacent Bonus Resource after you unlock Conservatism). Gain an additional +1 Gold for every adjacent Luxury Resource after you research Cartography, and +1 Production and +1 Housing after you research Civil Service.
  
  
• Leader Agenda: Iron Confederacy. Tries to establish Alliances and favours Civs that do the same; disfavours Civs that don't form alliances.

• Interesting links: Civ VI Wiki, Scoring Civilizations, Cree UU Okihtcitaw - Any use for it?, Cree's UU very underwhelming? , and like a million-gazillion threads about whether you should start with a Builder or a Scout, like this one, this one , this one, and of course this one (LMK if there are any other great posts or threads you think I should add.)

Notes:

• I believe that if your Trader travels through multiple Cree cities, then they will claim unclaimed tiles within three tiles of all of the cities they pass through, not just their origin or destination city (perhaps someone can confirm).

 

[Archon_Wing]

I believe that if your Trader travels through multiple Cree cities, then they will claim unclaimed tiles within three tiles of all of the cities they pass through, not just their origin or destination city (perhaps someone can confirm).

That is correct.

The Cree are pretty good. The economic boost at pottery is solid because commercial hubs are hard to build early on and often not a good idea anyways since there's more important districts (namely Campuses, or Holy Sites if you're into that) early. The main thing is you don't have to build the first trader and can use it to boost either your production or gold which makes it better for poor starts. So that makes them all all rouner civ.

The Okihtcitaw is a bit weak as it is too expensive for what it does though the extra promotion can be used to aggressively steal builders especially on higher strategies but this is something that isn't always reliable and also pales in comparison to many other early UUs.

The Mekewap is good and encourages you to keep resources instead of gathering them, but I think with the dominance of Magnus, this tends to be overlooked as it is rare that any long term benefit things matter if you're going for speed. But it sure helps with bad spots.

The alliance thing is ironically useful for Exploration due to the shared vision and you can even see their spies for some reason. I don't really see it as that useful but it is nice to have. Maybe in a world where the AI becomes threatening enough so it's important to know what they're doing, this will become stronger but it's sorta meh.

Receiving 1 gold per camp and pasture in the destination is pretty interesting too. It seems like Great Zimbabwe could be useful for the Cree, even if it happens to work in reverse.

Overall, they're probably above average in most cases, but being consistent is its own virtue. While they may not be the choice you picked to get the fastest win on cooked maps because they don't possess anything particularly overbearing, they are a great choice for unknown cases.

 

[UWHabs]

Mekewaps are a solid UI, giving +2 production and +2 housing at civil service, plus potentially some gold or food if you pack them properly around resources. With them, you essentially will never have housing issues, and the production is as good as a quarry and almost as good as a mine, and can be placed on flat terrain too.

The extra trade route has another advantage in that it makes it ever so slightly faster to get to 4 routes for that inspiration, and having an early trade route from turn 10-20 in the game is basically a free 3 gold as long as you have a city-state nearby and don't have the route killed by barbs. It can also be valuable if the city-state nearby gives you a quest to send a trade route - then you get a free envoy from there too. Not to mention stealing at least a couple free tiles.

Scout replacement is nice that it won't die. Also having both an early UU and UI means that they can actually push for an early golden age. Although on the downside, it means you're not getting a classical dark age to springboard to heroic.

 

[Disgustipated]

My big thing with the Makewaps is they sometimes get in the way of farming triangles or setting up mines for an industrial zone. Because I find them to be just as good as mines, so it's sometimes a choice when to go mine or Makewap. Ideal placement is a little too micromanagement heavy for my tastes, but nevertheless they are a pretty awesome UI.

So far in my Cree games I haven't had issues with that first trade route being plundered. *knocks on wood it won't happen this game*. It does come pretty early.

The scout UU kind of sucks frankly. But the free promotion is nice, unfortunately it delays exploration a turn to take the promotion. I know people talked before the expansion came out of getting the combat bonus, but honestly I have trouble getting scouts over 2 promotions. And with the era score as is you are better off scouting than fighting with that scout. But sometimes you have to out of necessity.

The claiming of tiles is pretty good, though hard to control at times. In a way, this is essentially free money that you don't have to purchase tiles.

My King level start of the Cree. I always choose the first one that comes up by the way. King difficulty, epic speed, continents, standard size and everything else. 1 less city state than default and 2 more civilizations than default.

Here's the starting position and save if anyone wants to play this game

 

[BarbarianHunter]

I find I enjoy these Civ of the Week threads. I've created a game to my own tastes (at least for today).

Difficulty: Immortal
Speed: Online
Map size: Small
Pangea
All else: Standard

I decided to follow the previous poster's credo of playing the 1st map that came along, expecting something challenging. Then the computer generated this!

I've tried the Cree twice before with less than stellar results. Hopefully this time will be different.

Spoiler :

 

[Forster]

What is online speed?

 

[BarbarianHunter]

What is online speed?

Most everything happens at double speed. You grow and produce @ 100% what you would on standard speed. The only thing that doesn't double is unit movement, which is effectively halved relative to the passage of time in a standard speed game. Best to build out close and fast IMO, and leave the warring for mid/late game. As it can take your units the better part of an era to reach their intended target. And often, by the time they get there, they will be obsolete. But this thread is about the Cree, not online speed, so I won't go on.

Spoiler :

 

[Archon_Wing]

Well, played a game yesterday in advance and I never made the turn 1 save nor can I recreate it with seeds either for whatever reason. It's probably because one of the civs apparently died before I saved. This lack of a turn 1 autosave is pretty annoying. Anyhow....

Emperor/Shuffle/Normal


Not too good with all that desert. But we do have 2 horses! Incidentally I never made any.

Popped another scout from a hut; abused the mobility to steal a builder. I also have nowhere to really expand so I settle next to the Natural Wonder for a quick pantheon. Managed to get Goddess.

Spoiler :

Korea's gone and Magnus time

Spoiler :

Built around for a bit, formed alliances and then England came on the continent.... Maybe I shouldn't have done Ancestral Hall. It took too long

That's starting to look scary... Took too long though and ends up doing very little

Spoiler :

Ah, go away.
.....

 

[KayAU]

I really like the Cree, they are one of my favorite civs, with great flavor. I also consider them to be very potent.

Leader Ability - Favourable Terms: A good ability. Shared Visibility is sort of nice. The improved trade routes are very interesting, and potentially very good if you have a city with a good number of pastures and camps, and focus on building that one up.
Civ Ability - Nihithaw: An excellent ability. The free trader and trade route is roughly the equivalent of a free Colossus wonder at Pottery, and sets your economy up to a strong start. The land grab ability is awesome, both because of how many tiles it can grab by just touching your cities, but because of the fact that it follows traders. This means it will help seal off your territory and connect your cities, and it means you will be getting more visibility around where your trade routes go.
Unique Unit - Okihtcitaw: This is probably the weakest part of the lineup of Cree abilities, but I don't consider it to be bad. This scout is quite versatile. The free promotion means it will have better mobility from the start, and the extra strength means it will have far higher survivability. It is certainly excellent for scouting and maybe good for stealing Workers or Settlers. It is also a decent mobile defender and a somewhat weak barbarian camp buster. As a front line fighter, it takes some work to make it viable, and the path to that is probably going to involve the Terracotta Army wonder. It is certainly an interesting unit.
Unique Infrastructure - Makewap: A very good tile improvement, with solid starting yields, and even better yields later on. I find this one fun to place.

Overall, the Cree are pretty darn great, and fun to play. I like how early their abilities come into play, and how their Leader Ability and Unique Infrastructure encourage you to think differently about bonus resources.

 

[Morningcalm]

Don't alliances already give shared visibility? Or is that just with the Cree?

 

[Archon_Wing]

Level 2 or better. Cree doesn't require that.

 

[Morningcalm]

Pah, Level 2 isn't ha hard to reach all. I wish the Cree alliance bonus was buffed a bit. To me their design screams extra resources with few active or interesting abilities, even if their abilities are still arguably potent enough (given how production-intensive things are in Civ VI, with some districts costing more than wonders).

 

[acluewithout]

I havent played the Cree, so my comments may be off the mark.

I think the increased production cost of the Cree is a real problem. There’s a question whether or not should you start with a scout (pros being eurekas, goody huts, stealing builders etc., and a scout increases your military score which reduces the chance of dows, cons being squashy and maybe builder is a better option). But leaving that aside, early scouts are fun, and can be very useful given their fast movement and ZOC.

But the Cree get priced out of all this because their scout costs extra hammers.

I’ve suggested it before - and this is the last time I will, honestly - but I think the scout should contimue to be more expensive, but that Cree should start with a Warrior and a Scout. This would smooth out the cost of the Scout over the longer term, and actually make the Cree better at exploring (because starting scout).

I think this would also make the Cree unique. It might need some balancing though - maybe the Cree get a %discount to building Traders rather than an actual free Trader at Pottery.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Pah, Level 2 isn't ha hard to reach all. I wish the Cree alliance bonus was buffed a bit. To me their design screams extra resources with few active or interesting abilities, even if their abilities are still arguably potent enough (given how production-intensive things are in Civ VI, with some districts costing more than wonders).

It is not that good of a bonus but it does have some utility in that forming a alliance can help you with the map, meet cs's sooner, etc.

 

[Disgustipated]

My Cree game isn't going quite as well as past games. I tried foolishly to get a religion seeing only 2 religions had gone. I chose the golden age bonus for +4 great prophet points. I ended up failing to get a religion. I wasted a golden age dedication there.

And I had trouble liberating the city-state of Zanzibar. The Pitati archers were too much even for my crossbowmen. Damn Nubia is so strong early game. I still could have got them if they didn't have a jungle advantage (Zanzibar was on a hill and they could shoot me but I couldn't shoot them). Liberated Auckland twice second time was a city-state emergency. And liberated the Egyptian capital from America. No cities taken in war or from loyalty flips.

It looks like I'll have to re liberate Aukland yet again. What the hell is wrong with Nubia. Leave those city-states alone.

Not my best Cree game, but the mountains make it bearable. And a couple early theater squares put me in good position for cultural victory. I ignore early wonders like usual, though I did snag Pyramids this game. I'm getting nearly every single mid game wonder. I'm not making as much money as I have in past Cree games. I think I was doing better in my Egypt game actually, though I may have had more cities there.

The substandard UU is the only reason I can't give them an A grade. They certainly can't tangle with civs such as Nubia. I'll give them a B+ score/grade. And I still have issues with the UI getting in the way of farming triangles and setting up mining adjacency for industrial zones. But I was able to place quite a few of them.

And France takes advantage of our cultural alliance to plot a city right down in my territory. I'm quite miffed at them. France is pretty dominant this game and I'll have to keep an eye on them so they don't get a victory.

Oh and my city names are names so because I can't stand Cree city names. They get confusing and I can't tell one city from the next. Though in hindsight my city naming system is no less confusing. Thrasher is the name of my Steam profile btw.

 

[Morningcalm]

It is not that good of a bonus but it does have some utility in that forming a alliance can help you with the map, meet cs's sooner, etc.

Seems rather weak. Meeting CSes sooner is nice but it seems easier just to have open borders and send scouting units. :|

 

[liv]

Playing some Cree. The first thing that strikes me is that compared to Egypt from last week Cree certainly gets very good starting positions. My Cree capitals are very productive and fast!! Combining the warlord throne with the fast ability to churn out chariots (and upgrading them to knights having just one iron) worked great.

While their scout is a negative I like their ability to move because I can use it to snap up city states the AI is trying to take. In my current game I had two Cree scouts (found one) and yes I got city states using them aggressively so it paid off

The ability to get to classical golden age can be helpful in forward settling on neighbors without losing the cities to loyalty early.

I like the early trade route even though it sometimes require two military to protect. I swear the game purposely places all barbarian camps close to that first trade route. LOL

I find it easier to make gold with Cree than with Egypt. Little special buildings required and I could continue to build military.

Getting more visibility is a weaker ability but it can be helpful with the city states in spotting camps and discovering for era points. I use Armani to get early allies often.

And yes I built Artemis because of the camps close.

Overall I like to play the Cree.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Receiving 1 gold per camp and pasture in the destination is pretty interesting too.

Trade Routes grant +1 Food in the sending city and +1 Gold in the receiving city per Camp or Pasture in the receiving city.

Beyond interesting, in my experience this is what makes them go. Get as many available TRs as you can. Send all your routes internally to the city with the most camp/pastures (hopefully the cap). Prioritize surplus logistics with Magnus. Chop still more CHs/Harbors in your new cities with the builders you got from Ancestral Hall.

Probably my favorite civ.

 

[RealHuhn]

I actually really like the unique scout. A little slower to produce but the free promotion makes it a lot faster than regular scouts and they are a lot better for early defense against barbs and AI warrior rushes.

Few tips about The Cree:
1. Try and settle a city near a bunch of pastures and camps and build the government plaza in that city. Your internal trade routes to that city will be absurd, something like 9 food/3 production in early game.
2. One of the few civs that can get the classical golden age without too much luck. Definitely start with two scouts to get as much era score as possible! There are two possible strategies to benefit from this:
A) Go for a religion with a strong faith pantheon and use the faith to kickstart your expansion with Monumentality. Use Ancestral Hall to boost expansion even further. Good on maps with a lot of room to expand!
B) Build two campuses, rush to Currency and get Free Inquiry for the science per commercial hub. Build the Oracle around turn 60 to get most of the early Great Merchants and maybe even scientists. Most likely, you are going more tall than wide and make use of those high food trade routes. Audience chamber is a great boost for this because even the housing from Mekewaps will be too slow. Cities grow too fast.
3. Cartography and Civil Service should be research priorities because Mekewaps get boosted quite a lot by those techs/civics.

Three screenshots from my current game to show these strengths. On this map I went for option A (Religion + Monumentality + Ancestral Hall) because I made contact with two religious city states and got the +faith per adjacent rain forest pantheon.

1. This is what two early Cree scouts and the free trader can do! 8 envoys on turn 37, standard speed. Those militaristic city states add +4 production for building settlers and builders in my capital! A massive buff and I could quickly expand to 3 cities and build a holy site near rain forest in each of them. For faster culture progression I also bought a monument in the 2nd city! Very important to get Amani (for era score from being first suzerain) or Magnus earlier.

Spoiler :

2. Empire on turn 88. With all the faith I bought like 6-8 builders (in Liang city) in addition to all the free builders from Ancestral Hall. I produced the settlers because of the +100% production boost from Ancestral Hall and the +50% card. Also I used the religion (+culture from shrines/temples) to rush to Feudalism to get a couple of +5 builders. So now I have 8 cities with very developed land and a bunch of districts already. Nubia captured Valleta, so I quickly settled a city near iron and captured it. It was a militaristic CS but I felt like keeping the city was better than liberation.

Spoiler :

3. Empire on turn 163 to show the power of Mekewaps. 500 gold per turn (with Reform the Coinage golden age). Not as high as in my Egypt game but still very very good. All cities are settled peacefully. Unfortunately I had trouble to get more than one alliance. Probably because of constant holy wars against Nubia . Made heavy use of the reduced warmonger penalty from razing cities in a holy war (it's the same -50% penalty as capturing!!). Currently Reyna is hopping from city to city and is rushbuying campuses for roughly 1200 gold each . No culture CS and no science CS on this map though. Very unfortunate. I also built the Venetian Arsenal just for some navy fun later in case a potential runaway needs a few coastal cities razed or captured

Spoiler :

Also two screenshots about the district discount mechanism which can be used heavily with this strategy! With 3 holy sites, the first 2 campuses and commercial hubs were discounted (-50% production cost). After that the first 2 theatres/camps etc as well.
On turn 47, the discounted campus only costs 55 hammers! That's not even possible when you rush to Writing and build it asap.

Spoiler :

Same with the commercial hubs. On turn 78 it's still almost as cheap as a monument. The power of the discount mechanism

Spoiler :

 

[Disgustipated]

My Cree game turned out to be pretty good. Despite my earlier mistake at the start choosing a golden age dedication for the +4 great prophet points and then failing to get a religion. This may be one of my earliest cultural victories that I can remember at least. I'm tempted to raise my score of them to A-. I don't know how much was the map (those mountains gave me a couple good campus sites) or how much was the Civ. I also made the mistake of forgetting about Renya's Curator promotion and not getting that much sooner. And the turn after I got it, Reyna was neutralized.

I actually had the AI steal a Great Work Art from me this game, but it was too late for them at this point. But I won't forget Fair Goldilocks stolen from me.

As for the overall strat for these guys. I prefer peaceful games. I did not take a single city through warfare. Near the end I got one flip from the French who thought they could take advantage of Cultural Alliance (I switched it to Religious). Cultural is probably the preferred method of victory but I could have easily went Science. I went with a lot of neighborhoods primarily for the tourism with shopping malls. I really didn't need that much housing with the UI of the Cree. I built my cities big, but that's my personal preference. Certainly not needed.

And here's an example of how the allied visibility comes in handy. Spies are going after my capital like flies on ....

Spoiler :

And a lot of people may not realize how useful tundra and snow cities can be. The AI sure doesn't utilize them to the full potential. That's Amundsen-Scott Research Station I'm building 3 turns to go in that snow city in the far West. I also built Taj Mahal out there. And I built 3 National Parks in these Tundra/Snow cities. Not bad.
Oh and Take a look at this massive Golden Age Era Score overkill. I'm not sure how much of that is the Cree and how much is the map. I've never had this much era score overkill in peace time.

Spoiler :

The AI doesn't put much stock in these small islands, but they are great for seaside resorts. My Cree people have gone into creating beautiful island paradise resorts.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

I'll include my final save if anyone is interested. My initial save is on post # 4. The unimproved forest on the far right was for a potential new National Park, but it wasn't needed and I didn't have the faith for a 4th one.