[NFP] Ethiopia First Look

[Naktis]

Okay civ I guess, not a faith fan here Well atleast not another warmonger

 

[DJ_Tanner]

Menelik put in place advisors to help him rule his empire. They were so respected, many of them stayed in place through his two successors' reigns.

*sigh*

If only others could learn from this...

 

[Jewman]

I've seen a couple comments that the civ's ability is a bit bland because it won't affect the way they play, but do you guys not harvest resources? I end up harvesting almost all the resources eventually (at first for yields, later for districts). This civ rewards you for not doing that.

Also, while building scout first is still probably the best move, you might want to think about getting a worker online because it only gives faith from *improved* resources so if you actually want to take advantage of an early pantheon you need to work for it a bit. After getting your early pantheon is when the faith benefits start to snowball. Depending on when the rock hewn church comes online (it sounds like it may be available right away) you might want to place and work one early on (if only for pantheon).

Further, despite hills already being a good settle, you will probably notice that oftentimes the ideal settle is actually a flat tile on a river next to two good hills which you will now not settle non-optimally, that will definitely affect the way you play. Some of your early cities may just be faith generators until you can get your housing up with aqueducts and policy cards later.

 

[CivLuvah]

You'd be taken more seriously if you weren't constantly complaining for the sake of it. Seriously, are you even trying?

It's a good thing I wasn't in the forums here throughout most of the duration of Civ5's cycle. If I were I would have had the same kind of attitude as they do but with Civ5. Just saying.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

I've seen a couple comments that the civ's ability is a bit bland because it won't affect the way they play.

And of course, we all now that metagame prioritizes building Holy Districts

 

[Leucarum]

I feel like Ethiopia will be a good candidate for Work Ethic given that they want to put churches on the best production tiles...

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I've seen a couple comments that the civ's ability is a bit bland because it won't affect the way they play, but do you guys not harvest resources? I end up harvesting almost all the resources eventually (at first for yields, later for districts). This civ rewards you for not doing that.

Usually no, unless there is a really good adjacency bonus, I don't ever harvest. I've been known to chop woods, or rainforest, and put that production toward the wonder I'm going to build on that tile though.

 

[riddleofsteel]

I like this design. What stands out for me the most is civic card usage. It'll help avoid the difficult decisions on card choices, as I feel you'll be able to go all the way with the faith bonus cards and still get the science and culture bonus ( or at least portions of it). voidsigners+churchs+faith card+monumentality will be totally awesome. Imagine if the RNG lets you have Lahore or Valetta ?

grand master chapel is a must with them.

Finallly, a little underwhelmed with Oromo... only +2 attack strength ? better line of sight ? meh... better movement on hills is ok... anyways

Overall I think this will be fun to play as a Faith Economy game. probably just ok as a RV candidate though.

Yeah. Too much 'meh' unique cavalry in the game now.

 

[The Civs 6]

Out of curiosity, what civs do you consider to have good design?

I made a post in another thread of all the Civs that are just boring, so I'd say any of the ones I didn't list are candidates here. Beyond the obvious Maori/Mali, which are both brilliantly designed, I think the Cree, Vikings, English (Victoria, not Eleanor) and Romans are among those that have excellent designs.

There are also plenty with pretty good designs, thinking Inca, America and Khmer here.

You'd be taken more seriously if you weren't constantly complaining for the sake of it. Seriously, are you even trying?

Compared to what? Have you ever played a 4x game?




Great logic. "This part of the game isn't very good, so we should ignore it even further."


It looks awesome and does exactly what it is supposed to.

I've played Civ for 20 years and I don't think the game is in good shape relative to the past. If you had talked to me in the Civ 4 era or Civ 5 after it was finished (in the sense of having great expansions), I would be singing a different tune.

What....

So +% yields are no good, bonuses based on resources are no good, bonus resources in general are no good, archaeology is no good, faith in general also no good. Dislike the faith leading to science and culture due to the historical context of the items, but also hills for matching the historical context and not the gameplay. There seems to be very little gameplay that you would have accepted.

Well yeah when a "meh"chanic (lol) just makes a spreadsheet change to an already boring part of the game yeah that's an issue. Compare that to starting you in the middle of the Ocean. Radically changing a part of the game that is still interesting.

And are you really going to defend archaeology? Is that a hill you are prepared to die on here?

 

[Bug Repellent]

No question an S tier civ: Earth Goddess, Reliquaries, +1 appeal faith generating UI, Eiffel, voidsingers, two relics per city (old monument and temple) = Culture victory before turn 200 on deity.

 

[PhilBowles]

It's a good thing I wasn't in the forums here throughout most of the duration of Civ5's cycle. If I were I would have had the same kind of attitude as they do but with Civ5. Just saying.

That pretty much was the attitude of most of the posters on the Civ V forums at the time. It was a haven for Civ IV fans dissatisfied with the game's direction pretty much until Brave New World.

And of course, we all now that metagame prioritizes building Holy Districts

I see Ethiopia's abilities as a substitute for Holy Sites rather than a reason to go for them. Usually civs aiming for culture victory eventually need some. Ethiopia will no doubt be very good as a religious civ, but I think its true strength is that it can gain the advantages of a religious civ for pursuing a culture victory (or just randomly gathering Great People for any other victory type) without having to invest in Holy Sites or religious units.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

I made a post in another thread of all the Civs that are just boring, so I'd say any of the ones I didn't list are candidates here. Beyond the obvious Maori/Mali, which are both bri8lliantly designed, I think the Cree, Vikings, English (Victoria, not Eleanor) and Romans are among those that have excellent designs.

There are also plenty with pretty good designs, thinking Inca, America and Khmer here.

You know, you may probably like some civs more or less but naming Ehiopia bad design closes any discussion here.

 

[The Civs 6]

You know, you may probably like some civs more or less but naming Ehiopia bad design closes any discussion here.

Okay, you can feel that way, but surely you don't think the faction design is so interesting or good as to make disagreement between rational minds impossible? Because I think that would be a pretty indefensible position. They certainly aren't Mali/Maori level design.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

That pretty much was the attitude of most of the posters on the Civ V forums at the time. It was a haven for Civ IV fans dissatisfied with the game's direction pretty much until Brave New World.



I see Ethiopia's abilities as a substitute for Holy Sites rather than a reason to go for them. Usually civs aiming for culture victory eventually need some. Ethiopia will no doubt be very good as a religious civ, but I think its true strength is that it can gain the advantages of a religious civ for pursuing a culture victory (or just randomly gathering Great People for any other victory type) without having to invest in Holy Sites or religious units.

Well, strenght of Etiopia comes from faith generation that gives you culture and possibility to catch up with science so skiping holy sites would be a little counterproductive don't you think?

 

[tedhebert]

I've seen a couple of people say this, but I don't know. While you've got plenty to help your faith income, you're already going to be buying archaeological museums, archaeologists, missionaries and apostles, since their rock-hewn churches give appeal maybe more naturalists than usual, rock bands if you're going for cultural victory, maybe even districts if you decide to promote Moksha... there's only so much to go around, and I'm not sure I'd want to spend faith on units, too. I'll probably build the Intelligence Agency to help keep up in science and maybe swipe a few great works (assuming Firaxis finally patches this).

You're assuming a RV aim... I'm not...

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

Okay, you can feel that way, but surely you don't think the faction design is so interesting or good as to make disagreement between rational minds impossible? Because I think that would be a pretty indefensible position. They certainly aren't Mali/Maori level design.

No they aren't. But this doesn't make their design bad. It's pretty elegant, seem balanced, gives opportunity to play a little different way and is kinda flexible. I would say it's good. Without fireworks but good. That is why I don't unterstand such categorical opinion. This design do not deserve it.

 

[_hero_]

Okay, you can feel that way, but surely you don't think the faction design is so interesting or good as to make disagreement between rational minds impossible? Because I think that would be a pretty indefensible position. They certainly aren't Mali/Maori level design.

Not every civ needs a highly unique design. In fact, with this number of civs that's virtually impossible. Also, their design is actually quite similar to Mali, only replacing gold with faith. With Mali, the design is that gold snowballs into everything else, making your economy strong only once your gold output reaches critical mass. With Ethiopia, faith snowballs into everything else either directly or indirectly. If your faith output is high enough, your science and culture output is going to be quite high as well.

 

[PhoenicianGold]

Not every civ needs a highly unique design. In fact, with this number of civs that's virtually impossible. Also, their design is actually quite similar to Mali, only replacing gold with faith. With Mali, the design is that gold snowballs into everything else, making your economy strong only once your gold output reaches critical mass. With Ethiopia, faith snowballs into everything else either directly or indirectly. If your faith output is high enough, your science and culture output is going to be quite high as well.

Now I want to see the inverse of this inverse. I want a civ that is encouraged to buy its way to a religious victory with gold.

 

[The Civs 6]

Not every civ needs a highly unique design. In fact, with this number of civs, that's virtually impossible. Also, their design is actually quite similar to Mali, only replacing gold with faith. With Mali, the design is that gold snowballs into everything else, making your economy strong only once your gold output reaches critical mass. With Ethiopia, faith snowballs into everything else either directly or indirectly. If your faith output is high enough, your science and culture output is going to be quite high as well.

Why not?

 

[lotrmith]

Why not?

Because there's not enough unique things to do. Most Civs, in fact, are going to have to conform to some sort of gameplay resembling the basic game design.