I've been trying England out lately, and I've come to the conclusion that England's abilities are too spread out across science, culture, and military for England to ever be a strong civ.
For example, England gets a free melee unit for each city founded on a new continent. A melee unit takes maybe 3-8 (approx., but obviously this can vary wildly) turns on standard speed depending on production and on how old the unit type you're getting is (e.g. warriors take fewer turns when you don't have iron and are far enough along to be close to getting musketmen). So you gain a small benefit in that you don't have to spend production to make the unit, ok.
The problem is, it isn't easy to settle on a new continent. If you're playing on an island map, which seems suited to England, you will likely have to get to cartography by the time you can even find another continent to settle on. (I'm not exaggerating. I just tried this many times on an island map with low sea level and either that map script is broken, or cartography is just meant to be always really important).
So you need science to blast up the naval techs fast. Ok, this is doable. But it doesn't fit with England's other abilities at all.
Going science for naval techs? England's unique boat is unlocked with a culture tech. And on top of that, England has a boost to tourism upon culture-researching natural history, so it seems like you also want to invest in culture.
Then there's England's unique district, which helps with neither science nor culture, but embarking from that tile. Even if we assume this is just preparation for the great naval warfare patch that will come eventually, is embarking from a harbor tile ever going to make much of a difference? In the last couple of games I played, I embarked from my coastal city centers in what seemed to be the same way, so I really didn't understand the benefit of this district at all.
As far as the redcoat, it gives a bonus for fighting on other continents. If you wait to found cities until after you research military science, you can get a free redcoat for each city you found on a new continent, assuming there's any space left to found a new city by the time you get there.
Suggestions: Either give England an early game boost (e.g. Gorgo's kill barbs-get culture ability), or change some of England's abilities to be consistent with each other.
If England's thing is all about new continents, make it easier for England to find and get to new continents. Norway's ability that grants oceanfaring to units after researching shipbuilding actually sounds like it would suit England better.
If England is meant to be a naval warmonger, give her a naval unit that is unlocked via the techs she already has to go to in order to get settlers to new continents quickly.
Or alternatively, leave the sea dog as is but make its ability to capture enemy ships useful by making the AI build and upgrade ships.
Or give England a better district.
If England is meant to have an alternative path to victory via a culture victory prompted by artifacts, then her last ability isn't bad, but it just seems terribly incohesive with her other abilities.
Alternatively, make the island map better or add an archipelago map with lots of shallow water tiles so England can be all over the place early enough to found cities on other continents. The island map as it currently stands, even with low sea level, just sucks. You can easily start on a one- or two-city max island and have no other islands accessible before cartography. (Maybe low sea level isn't working right, though. I've also tried continents with high sea level which seems just like regular continents. I wanted it to have landmasses with more lakes and thin channels separating each one but this did not happen.)
Thoughts? I'm not an expert player, by any means, but I was just terribly disappointed at how hard it felt like it was to take advantage of England's bonuses. Any info that I'm missing or not doing right would be greatly appreciated!
For example, England gets a free melee unit for each city founded on a new continent. A melee unit takes maybe 3-8 (approx., but obviously this can vary wildly) turns on standard speed depending on production and on how old the unit type you're getting is (e.g. warriors take fewer turns when you don't have iron and are far enough along to be close to getting musketmen). So you gain a small benefit in that you don't have to spend production to make the unit, ok.
The problem is, it isn't easy to settle on a new continent. If you're playing on an island map, which seems suited to England, you will likely have to get to cartography by the time you can even find another continent to settle on. (I'm not exaggerating. I just tried this many times on an island map with low sea level and either that map script is broken, or cartography is just meant to be always really important).
So you need science to blast up the naval techs fast. Ok, this is doable. But it doesn't fit with England's other abilities at all.
Going science for naval techs? England's unique boat is unlocked with a culture tech. And on top of that, England has a boost to tourism upon culture-researching natural history, so it seems like you also want to invest in culture.
Then there's England's unique district, which helps with neither science nor culture, but embarking from that tile. Even if we assume this is just preparation for the great naval warfare patch that will come eventually, is embarking from a harbor tile ever going to make much of a difference? In the last couple of games I played, I embarked from my coastal city centers in what seemed to be the same way, so I really didn't understand the benefit of this district at all.
As far as the redcoat, it gives a bonus for fighting on other continents. If you wait to found cities until after you research military science, you can get a free redcoat for each city you found on a new continent, assuming there's any space left to found a new city by the time you get there.
Suggestions: Either give England an early game boost (e.g. Gorgo's kill barbs-get culture ability), or change some of England's abilities to be consistent with each other.
If England's thing is all about new continents, make it easier for England to find and get to new continents. Norway's ability that grants oceanfaring to units after researching shipbuilding actually sounds like it would suit England better.
If England is meant to be a naval warmonger, give her a naval unit that is unlocked via the techs she already has to go to in order to get settlers to new continents quickly.
Or alternatively, leave the sea dog as is but make its ability to capture enemy ships useful by making the AI build and upgrade ships.
Or give England a better district.
If England is meant to have an alternative path to victory via a culture victory prompted by artifacts, then her last ability isn't bad, but it just seems terribly incohesive with her other abilities.
Alternatively, make the island map better or add an archipelago map with lots of shallow water tiles so England can be all over the place early enough to found cities on other continents. The island map as it currently stands, even with low sea level, just sucks. You can easily start on a one- or two-city max island and have no other islands accessible before cartography. (Maybe low sea level isn't working right, though. I've also tried continents with high sea level which seems just like regular continents. I wanted it to have landmasses with more lakes and thin channels separating each one but this did not happen.)
Thoughts? I'm not an expert player, by any means, but I was just terribly disappointed at how hard it felt like it was to take advantage of England's bonuses. Any info that I'm missing or not doing right would be greatly appreciated!
