[vanilla] Civilization Guide: America (vanilla)

[Bobby Digital]

I really liked this guide. I am pretty terrible with America and have always attempted to play them as a coastal civ (building many cities on the periphery). I've failed as a result, and your emphasis on warmongering makes a lot of sense.

sup terrible american buddy

 

[ArchyDarky]

sup terrible american buddy

Nm, playing a mp game with another civ that I'm not too strong with; The Lion of the North, Sweden. My mp teammate is loving the gp bonus though .

 

[ahawk]

G&K makes the B-17 even better, because now I can build Great War Bombers that can gain experience earlier, then get upgraded into B-17s down the line. B-17s appear maybe a little late for some, but are arguably one of the best UU's in the game when it comes to attacking cities (the nearest competition comes from the Battering Ram on the opposite side of the tech tree).

 

[ArchyDarky]

G&K makes the B-17 even better, because now I can build Great War Bombers that can gain experience earlier, then get upgraded into B-17s down the line. B-17s appear maybe a little late for some, but are arguably one of the best UU's in the game when it comes to attacking cities (the nearest competition comes from the Battering Ram on the opposite side of the tech tree).

True, I never thought about that. Good observation.

 

[Mesix]

One thing not mentioned in the article is how powerful the Minutemen are as they upgrade in later eras. It mentions B-17s upgrading to Stealth Bombers, but not Minutemen -> Riflemen -> Infantry -> Mechanized Infantry. To me, you get a lot more mileage out of the Minutemen as they upgrade. Having highly promoted Mechanized Infantry with +1 sight which ignore terrain movement penalties is simply tremendous!

This is made even stronger in G&K since all the early era units can be upgraded to Minutemen, get the "scouting" promotion, and then continue to upgrade through later eras.

 

[Bobby Digital]

G&K makes the B-17 even better, because now I can build Great War Bombers that can gain experience earlier, then get upgraded into B-17s down the line. B-17s appear maybe a little late for some, but are arguably one of the best UU's in the game when it comes to attacking cities (the nearest competition comes from the Battering Ram on the opposite side of the tech tree).

if you manage to get statue of Zeus early in the game, it synergizes very well with this.

 

[Bobby Digital]

can anyone post some trip reports as to how religion and espionage play out for America? I tried to beeline for the goddess of protection, but I'm not sure how to build my religion further.

I would hate to be the only person posting in this thread.

 

[Terakahn]

They do eventually plan to update it. When I played as America I ignored religion entirely. So I can't really recommend anything. And I just used espionage to try to keep up in tech.

 

[Matsaucem]

Question about minutemen, they start with drill I, so if you had alhambra would it stack to drill II or have no effect? The same with upgrading a longsword that has drill I, would it stack to drill II? Would be interesting to be able to train fresh minutemen with with march off the start.

 

[Monthar]

No, you won't end up with drill II for free with Alahambra and any UU that starts with Drill I. Alahambra is still worth building for the +20% culture bonus and for all your other land melee units. In fact if you have Alahambra built before Minutemen are unlocked you can build Longswords with the free drill I, so when they upgrade to Minutemen you're not wasting a promotion.

 

[Silverfuturist]

Poster said this:
"Liberty might sound like a tempting policy tree, but you need to be thinking long-term"

If you guys want to get better at the game, read the "game of the month" posts, find out the people who constantly do the best, and read their posts.

 

[Bandobras Took]

Poster said this:
"Liberty might sound like a tempting policy tree, but you need to be thinking long-term"

If you guys want to get better at the game, read the "game of the month" posts, find out the people who constantly do the best, and read their posts.

Er . . . yes. Keeping up on the game does allow you to improve your strategy.

For example, a year and half ago, the top players of Civ 4 would have told you that Engineering sucks. A couple of months ago you can find out that Engineering bulbs are sexy. If you'd like to contribute to the thread or the article, feel free to actually explain something instead of obliquely vaunting your superior capacities (which I in no way doubt).

 

[MetaSkipper]

No, you won't end up with drill II for free with Alahambra and any UU that starts with Drill I. Alahambra is still worth building for the +20% culture bonus and for all your other land melee units. In fact if you have Alahambra built before Minutemen are unlocked you can build Longswords with the free drill I, so when they upgrade to Minutemen you're not wasting a promotion.

So the minutemen doesn't get drill I, it gets drill ii if it upgrades from a unit with drill I.

 

[Silverfuturist]

Er . . . yes. Keeping up on the game does allow you to improve your strategy.

For example, a year and half ago, the top players of Civ 4 would have told you that Engineering sucks. A couple of months ago you can find out that Engineering bulbs are sexy. If you'd like to contribute to the thread or the article, feel free to actually explain something instead of obliquely vaunting your superior capacities (which I in no way doubt).

Ok this is what I am saying - liberty is very powerful, and long term powerful. The poster said liberty is not thinking long term... there might be other ways to play the policies, but saying liberty is not thinking long term diff from saying there are other way to play things.

 

[Monthar]

So the minutemen doesn't get drill I, it gets drill ii if it upgrades from a unit with drill I.

Yes, Minutemen get Drill I for free. No, they won't get Drill II for free if you build/buy them in the city that has Alahambra.

In G&K if you upgrade from a longsword that got Drill I by using a promotion instead of also receiving it free from having Alahambra, you've effectively wasted that promotion. Especially if you built/bought that longsword in a city with a barracks, but without Alahambra, on the turn before unlocking minutemen, don't have promotion saving enabled and gave it Drill I with the 15 exp gained from the barracks, because not for Drill II you'll need an additional 15 exp or 30 total. However, with Alahambra that longsword would have started with Drill I for free so the first 15 exp could have been used for Drill II.

City with Barracks & Armory
Longsword - Drill I & Drill II
Minuteman - Drill I (always free), Drill II & Drill III

City with Alahambra, Barracks & Armory
Longsword - Drill I (free from Alahambra), Drill II & Drill III
Minuteman - Drill I (always free), Drill II & Drill III

 

[MetaSkipper]

Thanks, your wording was confusing originally.

 

[Bandobras Took]

Ok this is what I am saying - liberty is very powerful, and long term powerful. The poster said liberty is not thinking long term... there might be other ways to play the policies, but saying liberty is not thinking long term diff from saying there are other way to play things.

Would you rate Liberty as better for pure Warmongering than Honor? Why?

 

[Terakahn]

Faster expansion, more production earlier, bigger army faster.
Though I never war in the early early ages, so I usually just 4 city tradition and start conquering once I'm stable.

 

[Lordleoz]

Ok this is what I am saying - liberty is very powerful, and long term powerful. The poster said liberty is not thinking long term... there might be other ways to play the policies, but saying liberty is not thinking long term diff from saying there are other way to play things.

IMO honor is better for America. Since you have +1 sight and build lots of scouts and warriors in early game, you always want to pick up some fight with barbarians. Also, like the article said, America is keeping building cities near borders of other civilizations and choking them. This makes AI annoyed so walls and castles are always needed to protect cities. Honor provides +1 and +2 for each of them. On liberty part, it provides certain benefits in early stages but does not give as many long term benefits as Honor does. Overall, America is warmongering so honor will be nice.

By the way, I really like this article and it made me consider some interesting aspects of playing America.

 

[maak]

I've tried the honor route and it didn't seem to work consistantly because of ai scouts clearing the camp,spawn rate to low or the threatened cs clearing it out themselves. I should say that I can't seem to win on level 7 so my input could be rather useless to higher skilled players. I've warred early and cleared a continent but ran into a happiness issue and could never keep up with the ai' s that were on the other side. You did say plant a city needy to the ai to cope them out does that right their boarders to make them attack or close so they you get whatever resource is nearby?