Didn't see one of these yet. So far I think this expansion is fantastic. Started a large map with 12 civs and having an interesting contest with Ethiopia over religion. He beat me founding one by a turn and has a slight edge getting it spread. I'm the Celts.
First Impressions
- Thread starter rastak
- Start date
AI aggression was up bigtime - I was playing Pacal, had a nice starting city surrounded by 3 wines and expansion with wine as well. I picked the pantheon with bonus faith from wine, and stuck to my main early game strategy of going for a Theology beeline. I grabbed the Great Library to pop Poetry and hard tech'd Theology by 1375 (or as we called it, 75 years after the birth of Alcholism). In the general vicinity of my civ was France, Songhai, Siam & Egypt. France, Egypt & Songhai all declared war on me - I was able to beat back France and Egypt but the Songhai were too much, bringing spearmen and a Great General, my army of 4 UU archers and 1 Warrior were not enough, and they rolled my second city. 
This was on King, and in Vanilla I typically annihilate Emperor games with no prob. Back to the drawing board.
Bonus note: when you pop Theology, something really cool and unexpected happened!!!
This was on King, and in Vanilla I typically annihilate Emperor games with no prob. Back to the drawing board.
Bonus note: when you pop Theology, something really cool and unexpected happened!!!
The_Tyrant
Values Guardian
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2010
- Messages
- 619
Happiness is too easy to come by, gold is more difficult to acquire.
TravisATWA
Chieftain
Well when it came time for me to pick a policy i said "well better read these since they're all different" then i realized they've hardly changed at all. Lib is still the way to go as far as im concerned big time. The only thing they did to it was swap the free settler with the hammer bonus.
Started a game on King.
Biggest change I noticed was how I could actually spam cities now. Religion helped out a lot in this respect. Played the Celts and founded a religion early on. Took ability to build pagodas (gives each city +2 happiness and some faith and some culture) as my founder belief and was able to build them in all of my cities (~7) before the Renaissance. Still had 17 happiness to spare even as all my cities were growing at max speed. Furthermore, more resources means more happiness.
This is a very important change that's probably going to affect a lot of peoples' playstyles.
Peacetime is a lot more interesting now.
Biggest change I noticed was how I could actually spam cities now. Religion helped out a lot in this respect. Played the Celts and founded a religion early on. Took ability to build pagodas (gives each city +2 happiness and some faith and some culture) as my founder belief and was able to build them in all of my cities (~7) before the Renaissance. Still had 17 happiness to spare even as all my cities were growing at max speed. Furthermore, more resources means more happiness.
This is a very important change that's probably going to affect a lot of peoples' playstyles.
Peacetime is a lot more interesting now.
thadian
Kami of Awakened Dreamers
I will need Palace Additions and Government Buildings + a few others to be re-done, i actually have the mods from old modbuddy but they don't work for G+K... not sure why.
Tried a game as Austria and had my first crash but i bet it was trying those 2 mods - Theres a lot more building maintenance than before but religions go a very long way - I like that Citidals culture bomb and i like that religions let you flavor your empire - it seems like some resources are a little ignored though.
Lastly, i faced Carthage as a neighbor and Dido was pretty brutal and kept getting into wars with Spain and Polynesia. Nobody was able to advance in them as far as i could tell and Stonehenge is important - moreso than before because you CAN NOT ignore religion.
Tried a game as Austria and had my first crash but i bet it was trying those 2 mods - Theres a lot more building maintenance than before but religions go a very long way - I like that Citidals culture bomb and i like that religions let you flavor your empire - it seems like some resources are a little ignored though.
Lastly, i faced Carthage as a neighbor and Dido was pretty brutal and kept getting into wars with Spain and Polynesia. Nobody was able to advance in them as far as i could tell and Stonehenge is important - moreso than before because you CAN NOT ignore religion.
Aussie_Lurker
Deity
Won't be surprised if both of these are dealt with in a patch-they should start by turning copper from a luxury to a bonus/strategic resource!
Aussie.
bonafide11
Worker
Two hours in, I have to say I've found it better than expected! Some of the mediocre reviews had me concerned so I didn't have my hopes as high as I did a couple months ago. But in my first game (with Byzantine), I found religion to be an extremely fun feature that adds a ton of customization and replayability to the game. Obviously I'm not far enough in yet to have gotten to espionage, but the new city-states and the improved quests are fun too.
People who questioned the strength of Byzantine's UA were wrong too. They get to activate their extra belief when they get their first great prophet and found their religion, and the amount of options they get to choose from is very large. Religion in their hands is essentially more powerful than in anyone else's since they have more options of what they can do with it. Their UUs seem pretty good too, but I'll know more about that later as I'm just building up a force to begin my Holy War.
After reading some other comments, I wanted to add some more info: also having money problems, but that will likely be dealt with soon as my religion spreads and I get some markets up. Happiness has not been a problem yet either, but will likely become one as I begin conquering. So I think those things will even out eventually. I have an absurd amount of salt, but only Austria will buy it from me.
I'm playing on King, btw. Score-wise I'm winning out of the 4 civs on my continent, but there are another 4 that I have not met yet as well. There were three civs who founded pantheons before me, but I discovered the first religion, thanks to befriending the Vatican City and building Stonehenge.
People who questioned the strength of Byzantine's UA were wrong too. They get to activate their extra belief when they get their first great prophet and found their religion, and the amount of options they get to choose from is very large. Religion in their hands is essentially more powerful than in anyone else's since they have more options of what they can do with it. Their UUs seem pretty good too, but I'll know more about that later as I'm just building up a force to begin my Holy War.
After reading some other comments, I wanted to add some more info: also having money problems, but that will likely be dealt with soon as my religion spreads and I get some markets up. Happiness has not been a problem yet either, but will likely become one as I begin conquering. So I think those things will even out eventually. I have an absurd amount of salt, but only Austria will buy it from me.
I'm playing on King, btw. Score-wise I'm winning out of the 4 civs on my continent, but there are another 4 that I have not met yet as well. There were three civs who founded pantheons before me, but I discovered the first religion, thanks to befriending the Vatican City and building Stonehenge.
crawf0rd
The One and Only
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
- Messages
- 483
It seems much easier to be friends now. I was Sweden, and had tight relationships with both Ethiopia and the Maya, even though they were the two most powerful and I was the weakest, as well as the fact that I was right next to them. Such a nice change. Of course, I denounced that damned Haile for religion bombing my capital with his great prophet. Fun ensued.
Not too far into my game, but plenty of fun so far. Playing as the Celts, got into a massive war with Attila (my neighbor) who unsurprisingly declared war on me early. He actually was smart and sent a lot of units, but I managed to stem the tide, force a big peace deal out of him, and then kill him. Liking the changes made to combat: catapults are now great vs. cities but won't be annihilating units like they used to, and it was easier to pull units back to heal (although that made Attila's Horse Archers hard to kill). Haven't done much with religion (just founded one) but it seems like it'll be decent. Can't spread it too much because I'm on a continent by myself now, with some City States.
Nice to see some minor changes to social policies as well. That, plus great people being toned down (I haven't used a great scientist myself, but apparently they don't flat-out give you a free tech anymore, which is huge) there's actually a little more of a choice between Liberty, Honor, and Tradition. Still a few policies that are head-scratchers in my opinion (like Free Speech in Freedom or United Front in Order) but oh well.
Nice to see some minor changes to social policies as well. That, plus great people being toned down (I haven't used a great scientist myself, but apparently they don't flat-out give you a free tech anymore, which is huge) there's actually a little more of a choice between Liberty, Honor, and Tradition. Still a few policies that are head-scratchers in my opinion (like Free Speech in Freedom or United Front in Order) but oh well.
ifinnem
Keep it interesting
Could be a once of on this map but luxuries (both quantity and variety) seem very abundant
I'm in a love triangle with Austria and Byzantium. Easy to be friends. However, Ethiopia is getting more PO'd by the minute. My enhancer pick is pressuring his buddies to join my religion. Plus, he's hemmed in by me........I think he's gonna be my first military target...plus, he has wonders!
theguy8882
Warlord
- Joined
- May 20, 2012
- Messages
- 201
Well I started as pacal In a nice area with ivory and marble and I had the Huns to my east. I Beelined for Stonehenge and I built a pyramid in my capitol and Tikal later on. I was a little too hellbent on religion that I didn't make any units but two atlatlists (which I like a lot) so the Huns declared war on me and took my capital in two turns with their battering rams. So now I'm doing another game and I made sure to make a decent military. And I also now think atilla is the new alex. In fact he may be even worse
Bandersnatching
Warlord
- Joined
- May 14, 2012
- Messages
- 248
Ahh, this expansion is more fun than I thought it would be!
I've played for about 3 hours as the Celts, standard pangaea on king, against all new civs but the Dutch. Celts mostly because I liked the UU and UA, and wanted to try religions. Sure enough, I was the first to a pantheon, and thus far nobody else has founded a religion. I really like the variability in religions - I don't see them being irrelevant in any game, and the fact that they have an actual impact on the game (diplomatic, CS, as well as straight bonuses) are all very good things.
Peacetime is more interesting, what with the massive amount of CS quests. The extra quests, in particular, is incredibly refreshing; now trying to ally with City-States is actually fun, and they only ask you to bully other CS's sometimes, not take them out.
I was amazed by the amount of luxuries and other resources on the map. I can't even see iron yet, and the map seems filled! There will certainly be no problems with expansion later on in the game.
At first I thought I'd be spear-rushing Austria, but the game was just too fun to devote all of my effort towards killing a civ early. Then Attila declared on me (which actually was surprising, because Carthage was closer to him) and got all of his rams destroyed by me super-spearmen; I moved up with 6 pictish warriors, but taking his cities is much harder that I thought it'd be.
Yeah, so anyway, I haven't explored every option, or even most options, that were included in the expansion; but it is already shaping up to be a great improvement to the game. Very glad I bought it.
Does anybody else like the mainscreen music for the expansion better than the original theme?
I've played for about 3 hours as the Celts, standard pangaea on king, against all new civs but the Dutch. Celts mostly because I liked the UU and UA, and wanted to try religions. Sure enough, I was the first to a pantheon, and thus far nobody else has founded a religion. I really like the variability in religions - I don't see them being irrelevant in any game, and the fact that they have an actual impact on the game (diplomatic, CS, as well as straight bonuses) are all very good things.
Peacetime is more interesting, what with the massive amount of CS quests. The extra quests, in particular, is incredibly refreshing; now trying to ally with City-States is actually fun, and they only ask you to bully other CS's sometimes, not take them out.
I was amazed by the amount of luxuries and other resources on the map. I can't even see iron yet, and the map seems filled! There will certainly be no problems with expansion later on in the game.
At first I thought I'd be spear-rushing Austria, but the game was just too fun to devote all of my effort towards killing a civ early. Then Attila declared on me (which actually was surprising, because Carthage was closer to him) and got all of his rams destroyed by me super-spearmen; I moved up with 6 pictish warriors, but taking his cities is much harder that I thought it'd be.
Yeah, so anyway, I haven't explored every option, or even most options, that were included in the expansion; but it is already shaping up to be a great improvement to the game. Very glad I bought it.
Does anybody else like the mainscreen music for the expansion better than the original theme?
PANU
Chieftain
Love the crabs as a resource, but I'm also having money problems.
Also, Nappy just offered to buy horses from me. I thought it was fantastic. I always wished they would make trade offers.
Also, Nappy just offered to buy horses from me. I thought it was fantastic. I always wished they would make trade offers.
Well, so far I think the expansion is outstanding. Religion was lots of fun to start, game is playing out quite well for me as far as pacing. I'm playing epic which I normally don't do but it's pretty cool so far. Been up for like 22 hours so gotta crash soon.
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