My main point is they're one of the few civs that can still do an Oligarchic "swordsmen" rush where you mass a dozen of them and go.
Like you can spam out 50 of these units, pay no upkeep, no problem. No resource issue. Each one is str 39 with Oligarchy. +10 vs melee once they get the promotion. It's not like anyone can mass swords to counter them, and the AI is too dumb to mass archers.
With the nerf to city defense strength, they massacre everything in a tide of hoplites.
Alright Marigold, I just finished about 67 turns on an Emperor game on Quick Speed. I swallowed the Inca my nearest neighbor, but that fight was tougher than I expected it to be.
My observations:
1) Promoted Hoplites while nice are still slower than a 2 promotion swordsman that can move 3 tiles.
2) The Inca had a horseman in their capital and had 40 something combat strength against a hoplite attack! Eventually he moved it out and I took it easily.
3) Now that the war is over, I have a very very large army (a slow one) but large. I had not built a single campus but I am 2 turns away from Pikeman technology. The synergy of all those kills gave me mercenaries a while back.
4) I was not able to test /w God of The Forge because the !@#$#@ Inca stole it before I could. Another reason why that fight was harder than necessary. I still had 3-4 turn Hoplites which is still good enough.
Verdict: While Gorgo is indeed very strong, I don't think she is S Tier strong. She is no Sumeria with warcarts, she is no Nubia with that nasty archer, etc. etc. Definitely A Tier though, so if I had to revise my Tier list from before GS, I would easily put her in the A Tier. Gorgo is a bit of a tweener because she kind of straddles the fence between A and S, but most S Tier civs have almost no counters and even in multiplayer requires flawless play and no mistakes to defend against a Sumeria neighbor sending a pain train of warcarts. Australia is arguably the worst S Tier civ. Is Gorgo stronger than Australia? Hard to say for sure in my opinion, but I would guess that most players on this forum would say no. Their 100% production bonus if DOW'd makes them tough to pin down, even with warcarts. Most Tier A Civs can straddle the fence of being S Tier if they have the right situation and map roll in their favor. I feel like Inca is better than Korea in some ways because if they get surrounded by mountains from enemies and get enough +3 to +5 campuses, they are faster to a science victory. Inca are a bit controversial it seems anyway. I've seen plenty saying they are S and some saying A on this forum and other places. Me personally I rate them A, because if they do not have enough mountains they are not consistently strong enough. Korea is the same pretty much no matter how the map rolls.
I'll give you this, Gorgo is stronger than Overrated As Hell Kupe. Too many people here pump him up as super strong or even broken pre last patch. I just don't see it.
