First Look: Sumeria

Or, what was all too common, the victorious troops running amuck and stealing or burning down anything they found until their officers could get them back under control.

Throughout history, 'pillaging' was rarely a controlled activity - from 4000 BCE to 2003 CE in Iraq you could never be sure what would be left after your 'Famous Victory' ...
Well, it was an entitlement of the "professional" soldier. If was a bonus check for the rank-and-file, and skimming was how your CO's become wealthy men. Rome's generals became some of the wealthiest citizens, although they often didn't want to come home.

Good point. I hope civ6 has this and what we saw in the video is this new mechanic at play. It would make sense from a gameplay perspective as well. Players could not just take good cities and instantly get all the yields for themselves. It would help stem the runaway civ.

Well, yes, that's it exactly. Just as in previous civ games, some buildings would be destroyed and population lost, here you have to fix some tiles, and probably lose buildings as well. Totally necessary.

Mildly surprised that reduced destruction was never incorporated into a UA. In Civ VI, it could even be a GG benefit (Saladin!).
 
Good point. I hope civ6 has this and what we saw in the video is this new mechanic at play. It would make sense from a gameplay perspective as well. Players could not just take good cities and instantly get all the yields for themselves. It would help stem the runaway civ.

In the Rome livestream, the following happens when Knossos is captured:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_F7_td7M5s&t=39m11s

  • Unit occupying city is killed and legion does a barrel roll to the NE.
  • City center buildings reappear with black smoking buildings around edges.
  • Stray legion people return to city center.
  • Bright flash in city center with "-7 Health" with the number red (presumed to be for the Legion).
  • The bright flash color also appeared in the Holy District (1 tile NW) and the wine plantation (1 tile SW) and tea plantation (2 tiles SE).
  • City population dropped from 6 to 4.
  • Smoke appeared over the Holy District and the two plantations.
  • A "-10" in red appears above the wine plantation (where the Legion had come from).
  • Smoke clears a little and a "-100 Health" with the number in red appears over the city center.
  • The district being built 1 tile N of city disappears.

It feels like the flash and smoke is helping transition the switch of the building styles to match the new civ. The plantations don't appear to be pillaged.

It may be that improvements get treated like buildings now that the city is spread over many tiles--there is a chance they get destroyed when a city is captured.

In the FL (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff0gQJRy1Jw&t=1m24s), there were 5 farms and a pasture. The districts have a library, university and shrine. After the flash and smoke has cleared, there are 3 farms with the new style. 2 farms and 1 pasture have been destroyed. The farm in the center seems like it may be pillaged as it is brown instead of green. The districts seem to have kept their buildings. City population went from 6 to 4.
 
Well we already knew there was a battlefield mechanic, right, where combat damages the underlying terrain? In the First Look video, the farm that looks pillaged is the hex the War Cart was attacking from.
 
Man, Gilga has ruined so many of my Civ4 games. I don't know if I dare to buy another game which he is in, I don't trust him at all.
 
Are you aware that Gilgamesh's complete LUA has 3 parts?
1) He can declare war on anyone at war with one of his allies without any warmonger penalties.
2) When at war with a common foe, Sumeria and shares pillage rewards and combat xp gains with the closest allied unit within 5 tiles.
3) Gilgamesh can levy City-State military forces at 50% of cost.

What part do you think is missing? That seems like a pretty full LUA to me.

https://twitter.com/FXSPeteMurray/status/780425605108101120

https://twitter.com/FXSPeteMurray/status/780425662804979712

https://twitter.com/FXSPeteMurray/status/780425772456632320

https://twitter.com/FXSPeteMurray/status/780425837791342592
 
The ziggurat presents an interesting dilemma to me. The idea of working science and culture from a tile instead of extra food or production is interesting, and I wonder how that will turn out. I can see a lot of citizen micromanagement switching between yields as the game progresses.

It reminds me of Polynesia a bit.
 
So good it's confusing.
 
So what.

Can you as Gilgamesh send one unit to a joint war and park it the back just to get XP.

If true, paying off AIs to fight just got interesting.
 
I love that people complained that generals and politicians like Trajan and Pericles look too scrawny but now complain a mythical demigod superhero looks too buff. :D
 
I love that people complained that generals and politicians like Trajan and Pericles look too scrawny but now complain a mythical demigod superhero looks too buff. :D

To be fair Gilgamesh was almost certainly an actual person.... but its like the only good record we had of Abraham Lincoln was the Vampire Hunter movie... some stuff made up, but he was almost certainly an actual person who was important.
 
Don't know if it's been mentioned, but the shared experience could be quite powerful depending upon how it works. Let's say your friend takes out an enemy... do each of your units within range get the same exp as your friend? If he gets 4 xp, do each of yours get 4 xp as well? If so, and I play Gilgamesh, my buddy is going to have quite the enterage!
 
Don't know if it's been mentioned, but the shared experience could be quite powerful depending upon how it works. Let's say your friend takes out an enemy... do each of your units within range get the same exp as your friend? If he gets 4 xp, do each of yours get 4 xp as well? If so, and I play Gilgamesh, my buddy is going to have quite the enterage!

Its just the closest one (within 5 range)... guessing ties are broken randomly...or with some obscure math that is effectively random.
 
Wow, NOTHING about Sumeria's agricultural prowess in there.

The civ design is strange to say the least, and it seems like it would be difficult to form a strategy around. I guess we will have to see how high their science bonus is.

I don't mind the Gilgamesh leader, which is well animated, but yes, it is inaccurate in its clothing (though to be fair, the accurate clothing would more closely resemble an ancient woman's tunic, imo). Of the inaccurate leaders I mind this one least, since at least there's *some* facial resemblance.

The leader background though--so lacking in detail it looks like an eight year old's painting....
 
Love Sumeria! <3
they combine the fun feeling of exploring and barb hunting of Songhai and Shoshone with a interesting ally ability! And some early science & culture with a sprinkle of donkey power!

Actually helping an ally in a war is not a bad thing you can degat a strong enemy together with a weak ally that you build up with your joint wars. And that you can trade with and later have research agreements with. I hope that the AI will value friendships with Sumeria higher than with other civs.

The barb boost will help you early then you clear all the camps with your war donkey. They will help befreiend CS that you later can levy army's from cheaper. And strong allies will help you late game.

I think they will be my first play, fitting since they are the first civ.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 
To be fair Gilgamesh was almost certainly an actual person.... but its like the only good record we had of Abraham Lincoln was the Vampire Hunter movie... some stuff made up, but he was almost certainly an actual person who was important.

I want to live in the universe in which that was the only record we had of Lincoln. Its an awesome universe.
 
Top Bottom