Germany needs a buff: my ideas

[lordsurya08]

I always thought that Germany is a very underpowered civ (along with many others). Here are my ideas for Germany; what do you think?

Germany:

Scientific Nation Produces Great Scientists at a 40% faster rate. (Germany has produced many of the world's greatest physicists.)

Unique Unit: Landsknecht Moves: 2 Combat Strength: 15. Has a higher combat strength than the pikeman, which it replaces. (same number of hammers though)

Unique Unit: Sturmtruppen Moves: 3 Combat Strength: 36. When attacked, it has -20% combat strength penalty unlike the infantry, which it replaces, but has 3 moves, +1 sight, and ignores terrain cost. In addition, if it attacks an enemy which it can see but which can not see it (due to +1 sight), it receives a +33% attack bonus (due to the element of surprise)

 

[Save_Ferris]

The UA should have a 50% chance of taking a unit garrisoned in the city upon taking the city.

 

[Canabrava]

all land units with 2 attacks per turn.

 

[lordsurya08]

all land units with 2 attacks per turn.

waayyyy too OP

 

[duhu]

Germany is only somewhat underpowered, although they are definitely on the weaker end of all the Civs available, I'll give you that. They aren't as underwhelming as a couple others, such as the Ottomans (since their ability is even more useless). Anyway-

Overpowered. 4 free policies gives too much of an advantage at the start of the game for Germany. Too much of a military advantage (being that the tree suggested is a military one) at the start of the game, and it gives them a good head-start on the cultural victory should they pursue one.

And I would be disappointed if the Panzer tank was removed from Germany's arsenal. The Panzers that Germany had during the 30s/40s were the best tanks in the world during that time period, and it was the reason to Germany's early successes in the largest war in world history. I think their units (Landsknecht and Panzer) are fine as is.

That said, I too am not a big fan of their ability. It basically just a coin flip for a few extra, weak Warriors + some chump change. Useless in any game that lasts longer than 1000AD. Not sure on what would work best for them though since Germany is one of those few excellently versatile empires. Maybe free Rifling or Replaceable Part tech after another certain tech has been researched?

 

[duhu]

all land units with 2 attacks per turn.

Free logistics for all land units? That is also OP.

 

[Buccaneer]

I'm sure there is a mod for this already, knowing modders love to buff things up a lot.

I agree with duhu, Germany is only slightly underpowered; therefore, only a slight adjustment could be made, if it is not map or situation dependent.

 

[Canabrava]

hum... is too OP, i agree.

Maybe 2 atacks only for meele and mounted units, or just meele.

 

[Smote]

Upping Furor to 100% or replacing the Panzer with something useful would do it.

 

[HarryLime]

What if their military upkeep costs were reduced by 50%. It seems like a major problem with Germany is their UA and UU give you the possibility for a large army, but it runs your economy into the ground.

 

[OrsonM]

Furor could work better if the barbarians had a slight bonus per era (10% combat bonus per era?). That might do it.

 

[NicTeos]

the german bonus for being barbarian may could be true for the ancient germanic tribes. But with Bismarck as leader and modern city names it should represent modern germany. And a modern germany could represent the military-prussian style or the industrial-scientific power.

So I would suggest, that Germany should have 25% production bonus for all scientific, production and land military buildings. So a production bonus like rome, but for these 3 building types and without been building before in the capital and would call their ability : Ruhr-Boom ( industrial boom in germany in the 19th century).

To the UU :
the "Deutscher Panzer" ( German Tank) can stand, especially because they are known, even when the soviets tank were more robust than the "Schönwetterwaffen" ( fair weather weapons).

But the landsknecht represents more the Holy roman empire than modern germany. Better would fit the "Frederick sche Infantrie" ( simplified : prussian soldier ), an riflemen with more strength to represent the prussian-military tradition.

Also modern germany could missdirect to the ancient german tribes, cause of the geography and definition by Julius Ceasar ( celts,germans, scythes- the barbarians groups defined by rome/greece ), but in the german language it's "Deutschland" and are speaking "deutsch", while in netherlands there are living dutch people. Also many other nations have a germanic background.

However when given bismarck and modern city names than it should represent modern Germany or give them arminius as leader and old german city names.

--

And to OE. Their ability of piracy would better fit to a berber empire and the ottomans should be the master of gunpowder and siege. Their UU's are fine and their special ability should be a bonus when attacking cities ( all units by 30%) and siege units should always start with +1 range or indirect fire.

 

[aatami]

I thought there where several very high level players here who played as Germany and thought it was one of the better civs.

 

[Babri]

The UA should have a 50% chance of taking a unit garrisoned in the city upon taking the city.

Thats sounds quite weak. I would want a UA that boosts German's production capability.

 

[Amylion]

In my Petroleum mod German Panzers are using coal (synthetic fuel) instead of oil.
Other civs have to research Coal Liquefaction to be able to transform 4 coal into 3 oil.

 

[Art Grin]

I thinks it's kind of nice that civ5 tries to represent the whole of Germany and not only the Prussian/WW2 aspect. But their UA is really not so good and should be changed. As things stand Germany is a purely militaristic civ and I think it would be better if they got some sort of scientific, cultural or industrial UA. Another interesting aspect would be fact that most royal families of Europe were German and Germany could get a diplomacy bonus.

Maybe something like that:

UA:
Economic Wonder:
+ 1 from every strategic resource and 25% towards any production buildings.

Hanseatic League:
+1 from harbours and lighthouses, city state bonuses are doubled.

Royal Ties:
Civilizations with the Tradition social policy are more friendly towards you and influence on city states is doubled.

 

[Diamondeye]

I agree that Germany's UA is quite weak (in my opinion, weaker than the Ottomans'!). It should be changed to something else, but something... elegant. I think your ideas are nice, Art Grin, but a bit anvilicious, and hard to balance (the first one steamrolls Russia's UA, the two second one is a powerhouse and the third one is dependant on SP mostly).

Perhaps...

Industrial something
+5% building/training speed of buildings/units for each copy already owned.

or

Industrial something else
All buildings/units that require tactical resources cost X% hammers less for each surplus of the relevant resources (multiple different resources would accumulate to greater effect; X should probably be around 5, perhaps a bit lower).

or

Industrial something third
Each friendly City State provides +1 production in the capital. Each ally provides an additional +1 production in all cities (inc. capital).

 

[Pac-Dragon]

I've found the German UA to be quite excellent when doing single capital + puppets domination games. Raze any city that doesn't have a resource and leave as much land unsettled as possible. The honor opening will let you know when barbarian huts pop up, which should happen over the course of the entire game (usually in predictable locations). Use horse units to recruit barbs, bring them to a nearby city for upgrades (cheaper with the Professional Army SP), and then ship them off to the front lines. You can also pick up a little extra XP by sending those fresh units on side missions to raze any new cities your opponents tried to lay down in the middle of your barbarian farms. You can get a huge army this way, while only building a handful of units in your capital.

 

[Jim Bro]

4 free social policies would be way too much

 

[Stefanskantine]

Germany can be quite powerful. Massive army of brutes + slingshot to CS for cheap pikemen. Big early army with very little actual hammer investment.