- Joined
- Aug 3, 2020
- Messages
- 672
I like the Dramatic Ages so far, but I really dislike that they moved the bonuses to wild card slots, here's why:
I wasn't aware of the moving of bonuses to wild card slots (should have checked the patch notes I guess), so I ran a standard religious opener (Basil II, securing a religion off of 2 cities).
Since I didn't focus on getting early culture, the Golden Age (which I intended to use for Monumentality) didn't line up at all with Political Philosophy, so I was stuck with effectively no bonus for my first golden age.
It feels like Dramatic Ages "forces" me into getting Political Philosophy as early as possible, either through unlocking most/all of the eurekas and/or getting high amounts of early culture.
And if anything, placing an even higher focus on early culture (to reach Political Philosophy) seems to actually narrow the scope of viable openers now.
I generally don't mind if it only changes up the meta (like giving an incentive for that early monument), but not to the extent that it "forces" a response to the culture situation.
I also think Dramatic Ages looks like it's a pretty significant buff to certain civs (Greece under Gorgo in particular).
Not only does Gorgo receive easy early culture, but once reaching Political Philosophy she will have two wildcard slots to choose from.
Granted, I have no clue on whether one can slot multiple GA policy cards (or even multiple Dark Age cards), but if you can, Gorgo just got a significant buff to her early game (which is already very strong).
What looks even more problematic is a Classical Dark Age with not enough culture to reach Political Philosophy in time.
Not only does a Dark Age suck a** this early, but the upsides of a DA is nullified if you can't slot the DA policy cards to get the needed leg up.
I wasn't aware of the moving of bonuses to wild card slots (should have checked the patch notes I guess), so I ran a standard religious opener (Basil II, securing a religion off of 2 cities).
Since I didn't focus on getting early culture, the Golden Age (which I intended to use for Monumentality) didn't line up at all with Political Philosophy, so I was stuck with effectively no bonus for my first golden age.
It feels like Dramatic Ages "forces" me into getting Political Philosophy as early as possible, either through unlocking most/all of the eurekas and/or getting high amounts of early culture.
And if anything, placing an even higher focus on early culture (to reach Political Philosophy) seems to actually narrow the scope of viable openers now.
I generally don't mind if it only changes up the meta (like giving an incentive for that early monument), but not to the extent that it "forces" a response to the culture situation.
I also think Dramatic Ages looks like it's a pretty significant buff to certain civs (Greece under Gorgo in particular).
Not only does Gorgo receive easy early culture, but once reaching Political Philosophy she will have two wildcard slots to choose from.
Granted, I have no clue on whether one can slot multiple GA policy cards (or even multiple Dark Age cards), but if you can, Gorgo just got a significant buff to her early game (which is already very strong).
What looks even more problematic is a Classical Dark Age with not enough culture to reach Political Philosophy in time.
Not only does a Dark Age suck a** this early, but the upsides of a DA is nullified if you can't slot the DA policy cards to get the needed leg up.