Fixing the Cree

[bbbt]

Perhaps my mistake was in assuming they're oriented for the early game. I'll grant the UI is stronger when you have more tiles worked, and the UA is stronger when there are more cities with pastures and camps. Just because these become available early doesn't mean you have to focus on them early. So, help me out, what's a typical build order for a successful game with the Cree? Are you punting archers and monuments to get their UI and UU up, or just use the UI later when you have people to work it?

The free tiles still seem overrated. How often do trade routes go over the exact tile you need to hook up? As for stealing enemy city tiles, again, you're almost always invading a city that close anyway, and soon.

Yeah, when I played them I didn't actually built their UI much in the very early game (and probably built maybe 2 of their UU total). I certainly grabbed pottery earlier than I usually do for the trader.

For ancient era, I'd just make sure to build at least one UU and place one UI as that'll basically get you a classical golden age. Otherwise I wouldn't prioritize the UI above luxes/pastures etc. at the start (unless you have a city without fresh water - use it to pump the housing up quickly). It would be the next round.

When expanding, see if you can place an early city spot with good number of pasture/camps, and get those up, as a prime trade route spot.

The extra trade route tiles are definitely more a 'bonus' than a specific strategy. It's like faster expansion more than a guarantee you'd be able to grab something.

 

[Portinou]

Regarding the land grabbing, unless you place a crappy city, you will grab either resources or tiles next to resources... which are nice for your UI. I build a lot of these, getting a 3f 2p 1g or 2f 3p 1g tile is not unusual at all.

 

[Gyromancer]

Also, the trade route doesn't need to go to the city. You can send a trade route to a CS or rival and memorize the route it is taking, then plop your first settler someplace nearby. Settle 2-3 squares away and you will grab all of the squares the trader walks through (on the way there or the way back.) In my last game I had an awesome route that headed east and took a curve to the south to my neighbor Brazil. Was able to settle a river situated city that grabbed an extra 7 tier 3 tiles at the start from that one route, right on the border with Brazil. There was a lot of jungle there, but I wasn't complaining.

So, with that first trader, take a look at the options for the route, and pick the spot for your first city carefully.

I think the Cree have, by far, the best culture bomb ability, even if it won't grab claimed territory.

 

[chazzycat]

+1 vote for the Cree don't need fixing. You don't even need to circumnavigate the globe! Just make a couple alliances and the AI does it for you

No but seriously they are a good civ.

 

[Question]

I tried them out, I tried to make full use of the unique scout early on, but I ran into two problems :

-Their first combat promotion is at level 4, and keeping them alive to get that much XP requires farming dumb AI by getting them to charge your fortified scouts for a -very- long time.

-The slow healing times make it even harder to make full use of the scouts as a singel battle leaves them wounded and out of action for a few turns to heal up. This is a flaw with the game in general though.

-America decided to rush me and I couldnt scout to get scouting xp because I was too busy fighting off their OP units. 20 strength scouts vs 20 strength archers due to the America +5 strength bonus is not a good matchup.

In general i think you have way too short a window of opportunity to use their unique unit, and even if you do farm xp to get them to level 4, they dont get any ugrades till Rifling.

Their trade bonus though is absolutely amazing, but its a bit weird. Camps are mostly located in tundra, which are bad spots for settlers. The city that gets the food/gold bonus is the one sending the trader...would be better the other way round i think. That way you can send traders FROM the tundra city to get more food/gold in addition to the regular domestic route bonuses to help get the city up and running.

Also the unique improvement is insanely good. Being able to get production bonuses that scale with tech, in addition to food/gold bonuses based on placement is amazing. In the renaissance era they give 2 production...they make farms pretty much unnecessary and make grass/plains so much more productive. They are like uber mines that you can build on grass/plains.