Getting the DLC civs, needs strategies

Haig

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All right, been excited about Civ 5 again and I'm getting the "DLC civs", meaning Spain, Incas, Babylonia and Polynesia this week.

Without playing them or against them I've been thinking about their strategies and preferred social policies, and I'm asking about your experiences..

I'm looking forward to Spanish especially, I'm planning about beelining to their UUs while keeping people happy with circuses, colisseums etc. and then with conquistadors creating colonies to remote places with sweet luxury resources.
 
The inca flat out rock. Focus on heavily hilled areas with mountains. You can get great production and food.
 
All right, been excited about Civ 5 again and I'm getting the "DLC civs", meaning Spain, Incas, Babylonia and Polynesia this week.

Without playing them or against them I've been thinking about their strategies and preferred social policies, and I'm asking about your experiences..

I'm looking forward to Spanish especially, I'm planning about beelining to their UUs while keeping people happy with circuses, colisseums etc. and then with conquistadors creating colonies to remote places with sweet luxury resources.

I also like Incas best. 2 hammers that feed themselves can be got in large amounts and the additional scientist slots caused by more observatories are a bounus in themselves.

Babylon was a great civ since CivIII and still is.

The Spanish leader trait seems completely luck dependent and I also don't find real use for their UUs. But probably someone here can point out how they are optimally played.

Polynesia I'll yet have to buy.
 
Treso, just as I opened Civ V it informed that Polynesia is available for downloading!

So when I wrote my original post it wasn't out yet, but now it is.
 
Hehe, nice.

I'm kind of puzzled for Polynesias strenghts, Maoris replace warriors probably.
I guess it's a Civ for a sort of peaceful rapid expansion.
 
Hehe, nice.

I'm kind of puzzled for Polynesias strenghts, Maoris replace warriors probably.
I guess it's a Civ for a sort of peaceful rapid expansion.

Peaceful my *. Maori warriors' promotion reduces enemy :c5strength: by 10%. If that's not a call to arms I don't know what is :)
 
Babylonians are fantastic if you're going for a scientific victory. Rush writing of course, a National College strategy works amazingly. Pretty much build all science buildings and any wonders that give GS points. Great Scientists should be used to research techs, right now I am halfway through the modern era in the year 1660 using this strategy, although I do have an amazing spot with tons of nearby people to sign RAs with and lots of money.

As a side note, the Walls of Babylon are a great building for reducing the number of soldiers you need to build and maintain to withstand invasion. With the walls up your city bombard and an up to date ranged unit can repel 5 or 6 contemporary units, with the stupid AI taken into consideration.

I like Babylon :)
 
Polynesia is unfairly good at Terra and any Small Islands maps. Moais are situational, but fun, as well.
 
Peaceful my *. Maori warriors' promotion reduces enemy :c5strength: by 10%. If that's not a call to arms I don't know what is :)

Warriors obselete at metal casting so you have a very limited number of them. Send them out and they die from ranged. Their moai statues also give a strength bonus for units within 2 tiles but, again, you need to stay in your own lands.

More interestingly, I am still figuring out how to use the moai statues. Right now I am just placing them between cities and tile-share so I don't need monuments. Their coastal requirement renders their adjustent bonus useless for cultural victories.

Besides, who designed the ability anyway? How is a set of dance rituals supposed to scare off a group of swordsmen?
 
The statues have a 2 tile radius for the combat bonus. This can be sexy with a few warriors upgraded to rifles
 
Spain is really kind of boom-or-bust. Basically, as Spain, you need to explore as much as possible as soon as possible. If you're fortunate enough to be first to discover a natural wonder, you get a huge pile of money. If you're not first, you get a slightly smaller but still substantial amount of money. You'll also want to aggressively acquire natural wonders, as you get double yields from them. This makes uninspiring stuff like the Grand Mesa and Old Faithful pretty powerful. If you find, say...Cerro de Petosi or Fountain of Youth, you've pretty much won the game. Of course, if you don't have any luck there, you're stuck falling back on the UUs, which are uninspiring, to say the least. I guess Conquistadors make pretty great explorers, but, well...you generally want your knight UU to have more than just a better sight range. And the Tercio suffers from being a musket UU that requires more hammers than normal to build. I mean, at least Musketeers are the same hammer cost and really strong in their brief window and Janissaries have some pretty nice perks, also at the same hammer cost so you can feasibly build a few of them before upgrading them to riflemen. All the Tercio gets is +2 strength and a bonus against mounted for taking longer to build.

The Inca and Polynesians are my favorites though, because they play so differently.
 
I play at prince/king, so this may not apply to everyone. I have been in a number of situations where I have only 2 iron and want to conquer someone. If I push to gunpowder (which is not always feasible) I can use tercios instead of Longswords (same strength) and use my iron for trebuchets. I did this with great effect in one game. It helped me deal with a bad start. I could have just used muskets instead of longswords, but the Tercios are better. Also, the good thing about conquistadors is that they do not have a penalty attacking cities, so they are stronger on offense then knights. They could also be used instead of longswords and actually be better all around. Obviously the late medieval early rennaissance is the time to be Spanish.

This being said, it sucks that no units upgrade to muskets, making the UU much worse than otherwise.
 
You can make very powerful cities as Babylon while you're going for that peaceful science victory:
1. Build walls
2. Select Oligarchy
3. Garrison a siege unit

Walls improve city attack as does the garrisoned unit w/ogiarchy. The siege unit won't cost a dime in maintenance, and it can be upgraded as time goes by to improve city defense. Post patch, Babylon can build powerful cities. The key thing is to ensure that your unit is garrisoned before the city attacks and then activate it to attack. That will provide the maximum effect.

Also, with Babylon, focus on wonders, buildings, and policies that increase GP generation. You can generate a lot of GSs in your GP and or science city.
 
Polynesia is broken when it comes to culture. Maois get more culture (up to 6, I belive) if you build them next to each other. What's so broken about it? The stack applies to every. single. maoi. in. the. chain. If you use Wayfinder in a map to acess a large, unpopulated area (the New World in Terra comes to mind, though most maps won't have areas that big), you'll be producing so much culture, the AI can never catch up.
 
Polynesia is broken when it comes to culture. Maois get more culture (up to 6, I belive) if you build them next to each other. What's so broken about it? The stack applies to every. single. maoi. in. the. chain. If you use Wayfinder in a map to acess a large, unpopulated area (the New World in Terra comes to mind, though most maps won't have areas that big), you'll be producing so much culture, the AI can never catch up.

Its not as ridiculous as that sounds. For every Moai built, that means there is one less Farm, Mine, etc.
 
Its not as ridiculous as that sounds. For every Moai built, that means there is one less Farm, Mine, etc.

If you're smart where you build, you could have interior (read: anywhere not bordering a coast) places to build farms and such. After, Moais can only be built on coasts. Also, if your game reaches by flight (In which I say you're doing it wrong), you'll be making a crapload of money with the tourism.
 
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