First Look: Sumeria

[Mathias Rex]

My biggest problem with UA (Adventures with Enkidu) is that in CiV V the AI was incompetent in joint wars. I hope this time the AI will be able to really fight together with allies and help them. Maybe it would be good to make possible to coordinate somehow the war in diplomacy, for example mark target city or something like that.

 

[esoba]

What makes you say this out of interest?

On normal map/difficulty there is almost always a war going on somewhere, if you manage your allies well as Sumeria you should be able to have the shared loot/xp going on quite a lot, especially in the early game when there are less penalties.

Frankly I quite like the idea of joining with my allies to get free unit XP and loot just for turning up

Exactly. If your allies are in a war you can have some forces just tailing along. Then if it is advantageous you can declare war - warmonger free - and go rolling in with your main force. I think it will come into play much more than people think.

 

[Siptah]

I like this civ. I was so pumped for new civs when we started to get the more unique ones (Spain, Kongo, India) and every civ seemed to be very special. Rome and Greece were a letdown in that regard, and I'm very happy Sumeria offers a much more different gameplay again.

The UU and the UA work together very nice in the beginning. I will probably build a lot of the war carts and chase barbarian camps. This might reduce the need for scouts and help with city states, too.
UI is of course great (despite the look) and I was hoping for some extra science with Sumeria.
I like the 3-part leader ability very much. It requires you to have one or two good friends in every game to be most useful. I might just join them in any war possible, even if I just hope move some units along. I hope it also works with city states, since defending them from other civs might get a lot of xp. It's nice how everything with this civ works for advancement, too. Barbarian goody huts/Ziggurat/shared pillaging all give you a great advantage, and we would probably want the AI to pillage Campus first ;-). I also believe in Firaxis, that they make the AI consider Gilgamesh's ULA both for AI civs and for players and are more likely to join/start wars.

I am a bit prejudiced of course, since I am such a big fan of early history. I can see where they got the bonuses from (and I also think Gilgamesh's fits nicely), but I would have hoped for a housing bonus. Since Kongo seems to be *the* tall civ now, I already got rid of that idea. Would have preferred Sumeria though.

What I don't like is Gilgamesh's look. It scream a whole lot of things before I think of Sumerian. Sumerian art never depicts kings or gods as that physically powerful, they usually look like normal human beings. And the clothing and head gear also seems to be not Sumerian at all. There are not many Sumerian depictions of Gilgamesh (6 that I'm aware of) and none looks remotely like that (also: none is contemporary). Instead, it reminds of Assyrian depictions of Gods, Kings and Heroes. I know we had the accuracy discussion already with every leader. I haven't complained much so far, but this is like having Vercingetorix being the model for Louis XIV.

 

[Stringer1313]

I like this civ. I was so pumped for new civs when we started to get the more unique ones (Spain, Kongo, India) and every civ seemed to be very special. Rome and Greece were a letdown in that regard, and I'm very happy Sumeria offers a much more different gameplay again.

The UU and the UA work together very nice in the beginning. I will probably build a lot of the war carts and chase barbarian camps. This might reduce the need for scouts and help with city states, too.
UI is of course great (despite the look) and I was hoping for some extra science with Sumeria.
I like the 3-part leader ability very much. It requires you to have one or two good friends in every game to be most useful. I might just join them in any war possible, even if I just hope move some units along. I hope it also works with city states, since defending them from other civs might get a lot of xp. It's nice how everything with this civ works for advancement, too. Barbarian goody huts/Ziggurat/shared pillaging all give you a great advantage, and we would probably want the AI to pillage Campus first ;-). I also believe in Firaxis, that they make the AI consider Gilgamesh's ULA both for AI civs and for players and are more likely to join/start wars.

I am a bit prejudiced of course, since I am such a big fan of early history. I can see where they got the bonuses from (and I also think Gilgamesh's fits nicely), but I would have hoped for a housing bonus. Since Kongo seems to be *the* tall civ now, I already got rid of that idea. Would have preferred Sumeria though.

What I don't like is Gilgamesh's look. It scream a whole lot of things before I think of Sumerian. Sumerian art never depicts kings or gods as that physically powerful, they usually look like normal human beings. And the clothing and head gear also seems to be not Sumerian at all. There are not many Sumerian depictions of Gilgamesh (6 that I'm aware of) and none looks remotely like that (also: none is contemporary). Instead, it reminds of Assyrian depictions of Gods, Kings and Heroes. I know we had the accuracy discussion already with every leader. I haven't complained much so far, but this is like having Vercingetorix being the model for Louis XIV.

I certainly cannot argue against the experts on early Sumerian history but even if his look deviates from the way he is depicted in art, I think it makes a lot of sense b/c it emphasizes his mythological side.

 

[Ryuu Falconwing]

Frankly, the shared bonuses seem like a good thing to me. Ally pillages a quarry? You get the science boost as well. Do they still get health from pillaging farms? You get that health to a unit as well. And then your units are getting great experience as well from your allies doing the work. Sure, it works both ways when you do the work yourself, but sometimes you have to give to receive.

I'm surprised the ziggurat is science instead of faith and that it doesn't have an adjacency bonus with holy sites, but oh well.

Frankly, I know the civ is pretty ahistorical, but the Epic of Gilgamesh is a fun read and is definitely better known the historical facts of Sumer. Using the epic as a centerpoint for the civ helps create Gilgamesh's fun leader personality. He reminds me a bit of Genghis from V; a terror to fight but a loyal friend if you can manage it.

Definitely a favorite civ now, especially since Assyria is no longer in the game.

 

[Alextheglorious]

Can you have joint wars with more than one civilization, and how does it affect the bonuses.

Say Sumeria and the Aztecs declare war together, then Egypt decides to join the fun. Does Sumeria get a bonus from both of them? Can Egypt get a bonus from the Aztecs? If Sumeria earns a bonus do both Egypt and Aztec get it, or is it just the closest one?

I wonder if Sumeria will get annoyed at you if you don't come to war with him - either fight with me or risk being my next target. Could be some fun diplomatic decisions to be made!

 

[Inhalaattori]

I do not like the LUA at all. They should have given that CIV UA to Gilgamesh and then give something totally different to Sumeria Civ. Something that would help them throughout the game. Wasnt their design philosophy that Leader UA is connected to leaders time and Civ UA helps the Civ throughout the game? Their UU and UI are OK.

Animated leader is pretty horrible IMO. I just dont like the exaggerated features. I would have liked to see little more realistic looking leaders. But that is just a matter of taste.

All in all I feel that it would have been better idea to just dont have Sumeria as a Civ at all. Babylonia would have been better choice.

 

[esoba]

Frankly, the shared bonuses seem like a good thing to me. Ally pillages a quarry? You get the science boost as well. Do they still get health from pillaging farms? You get that health to a unit as well. And then your units are getting great experience as well from your allies doing the work. Sure, it works both ways when you do the work yourself, but sometimes you have to give to receive.

I'm surprised the ziggurat is science instead of faith and that it doesn't have an adjacency bonus with holy sites, but oh well.

Frankly, I know the civ is pretty ahistorical, but the Epic of Gilgamesh is a fun read and is definitely better known the historical facts of Sumer. Using the epic as a centerpoint for the civ helps create Gilgamesh's fun leader personality. He reminds me a bit of Genghis from V; a terror to fight but a loyal friend if you can manage it.

Definitely a favorite civ now, especially since Assyria is no longer in the game.

All I can say is at least they didn't use the Ancient Alien stuff about Sumer. So, all-in-all I'm pretty happy with the civ.

 

[Siptah]

I certainly cannot argue against the experts on early Sumerian history but even if his look deviates from the way he is depicted in art, I think it makes a lot of sense b/c it emphasizes his mythological side.

Yes, you are of course right there. I guess I would have preferred it, if they focussed less on the mythological part and modeled him after a king that is well known in form of statues, like Gudea. Of course this would also be not completely right, but at least Sumerian.

 

[anandus]

From Pete Murray:
You don't get the Warmonger penalty when you declare war on anyone at war with your allies. [...]

source

That's interesting

 

[Uberfrog]

Oh wow. This is the civ where they really doubled down on the big personalities schtick! It's a bold choice and hopefully one that will translate into some fun times in-game.

It's not going to make the archaeologists or ancient history buffs happy, but if Sumeria is known for pretty much anything, it's doing a lot of stuff first. I think their early conquests with the War Cart, the extra goodies from Barbarian Camps (which will be all to easy to grab with your Carts), and the Ziggurat's Science output will do that right off the bat. I'd say that's a much more appealing civ design than free wheat, especially since in Civ everyone starts with agriculture anyway!

And then there's Gilgamesh himself, who should satisfy those who were unhappy with the relatively scrawny Pericles and Trajan. It's good that someone with such a penchant for early conquest and such a head start in Science is so friendly.

He's a lot of fun on paper and in the video. Let's see if that translates to the game

 

[Uberfrog]

What I don't like is Gilgamesh's look. It scream a whole lot of things before I think of Sumerian. Sumerian art never depicts kings or gods as that physically powerful, they usually look like normal human beings. And the clothing and head gear also seems to be not Sumerian at all. There are not many Sumerian depictions of Gilgamesh (6 that I'm aware of) and none looks remotely like that (also: none is contemporary). Instead, it reminds of Assyrian depictions of Gods, Kings and Heroes. I know we had the accuracy discussion already with every leader. I haven't complained much so far, but this is like having Vercingetorix being the model for Louis XIV.

I think they liked this statue of a hero (possibly Gilgamesh) destroying a lion . I believe it is from the Assyrian King Sargon II's palace, so that corresponds with what you say.

Spoiler :

I think I can forgive them for being spellbound by this guy in a game about personalities.

sorry about the double-post, I thought someone would have posted in between

 

[Ryuu Falconwing]

I think they liked this statue of a hero (possibly Gilgamesh) destroying a lion . I believe it is from the Assyrian King Sargon II's palace, so that corresponds with what you say.

Spoiler :

I think I can forgive them for being spellbound by this guy in a game about personalities.

Isn't that Ashurbanipal?

 

[Ivan Hunger]

The last time we had a leader who may or may not have actually existed and may or may not have been a deity was Kamehameha, and he was also pretty swole.

 

[Uberfrog]

Isn't that Ashurbanipal?

I don't see a mention of him on the Louvre's entry for the piece: http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/hero-overpowering-lion

 

[isau]

I like his big muscular look whether it is "accurate" or not. He really stands out from the other leaders right away. I think they did an excellent job.

Also, with Gilga alongside Hojo and Philip this version of Civilization seems to have really ratcheted the sexy factor up for the male leaders.

 

[Uberfrog]

I have to say I'm disappointed by the lack of beard braiding, though. I thought that was compulsory in Ancient Mesopotamia.

 

[Siptah]

The background doesn't look like the leaked background from a few months ago that we got from a mysterious stranger whose friend's cousin's dad edited the FL videos!

 

[Larsenex]

I gotta say that so far all of the civs revealed seem unique and play on different strengths. I like how they both depend and interlink with each other.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

You know what's awesome about this reveal? It gives me great reason to fire this up:


Link to video.

EDIT--I've never once gotten the Youtube tag to work correctly on here.