[NFP] Gran Colombia first look

[Equilin]

I know they're making the new civs compatible with the other versions of the game, but is anyone really playing older versions of Civ VI?

There definitely are, mostly due to economic reasons which means not being able to buy DLCs even with big discounts.
Not sure why such players would be incentivized to buy the new pack/civs tho.

 

[steveg700]

I think this is just one of the sad realities of adopting this DLC model. Even if only 5% of the player-base is playing without the two expansions, they are reducing how interesting the new Civs can be for everyone, in terms of what mechanics they can interact with that is.

This is one of the reason's i thought a third expansion was more likely.

I wonder how they are going to handle long term monetization with Civ VII? Are they just going to do away with expansions entirely and add new mechanics to the game for free over time while pumping out Civ packs? It would avoid this situation of the new civs being handicapped in this way

I'm also concerned that we won't see balance passes for DLC civ's (q.v. Khmer).

 

[Haig]

Maya and GC show me that they can design cool civs with Vanilla civ mechanics.

I like that GC's some abilities are there from the start, and some appear mdigame.

I like Maya more though.

 

[CivLifeRyoutube]

Welcome to My Gran Columbia review everyone! Let me know what you think about how strong or weak you believe Gran Columbia to be! Gran Columbia looks to be a dominant domination civ, but how strong are they compared to the civs already in the game?

Leader Ability: Campana Admirable; earn a Comandante General every time the game enters a new era.

This ability is extremely strong as it gives you a unique great general every era. Along with the passive bonuses these great generals also give you unique retire bonuses. Looking at the video some of these bonuses appear to be: extra combat strength for units, a unit upgrade, along with other undisclosed abilities. A unique general in classical era warfare is extremely helpful and a MASSIVE boost so going to war in the classical era is a great option, however there is another thing you can save these generals for as I will reveal later...... Overall 8/10, great generals are important, great generals with impressive bonuses and every era could be game changing, especially classical era.



Civ Ability: Ejercito Patriota; +1 movement speed to ALL units. Promoting a unit does not end its turn.

Another great ability. Horsemen early game have 5 movement speed, they also ignore zone of control, so with a great general, they can cause extreme havoc during the classical era. You can theoretically pillage, move, pillage, promote all in the same turn with a horseman! Not only that, but it seems that naval and civilian units also get this ability which allows you to explore, settle, and build faster than usual which is a helpful bonus. Overall 8/10; movement speed is key early game and moving after promoting can allow you to turn a losing fight into a decisive win even more than a promotion usually would.



Unique Unit: Llanero: Cavalry replacement, when Comandante general is expended restore to full health. +4 combat strength for every adjacent Llanero.

Wow..... Not only does this unit benefit from increased movement speed and movement after promoting, it also gets 4 combat strength for every adjacent Llanero unit. You can easily achieve 8 combat strength in almost any situation, and the synergy with the unique general is incredible. You can heal from a promotion, move, attack, and heal from the Comandante general again. With this blazing movement speed you can blaze through enemy cities taking them so fast that even the mongols will tell you to slow down. Now here is what I think the optimal strategy for Gran Columbia can be: save all your generals until you beeline the Llanero unique unit. Then upgrade from horsemen to the Llanero (your unique improvement will help with that). Then with about 5-6 Llanero and maybe 2 generals per army, send one army to each civilization. Time this right and you can win a domination victory within one wave of wars. You will be an era ahead because of beelining, the UU gets bonus combat strength when adjacent to each other. And promotions and generals help keep your army fresh and healthy. Overall: 10/10 the synergies just work perfectly with everything else Gran Columbia has. This unit puts them over the top making an already strong cavalry unit, even stronger.

:

Unique Improvement: Hacienda

This UI works really well towards what Simon wants to do. Gold and production help with producing and maintaining units across all eras. According to the civ release video it can be spam built on plain and grasslands, along with hill tiles without forests. This is great, chop down forests and plant these bois up. They also give some food when adjacent to plantations and 1 housing per improvement. Allowing you to grow and support a higher population for more production and gold! The one thing this UI is "missing" from helping out with a domination victory is Science! Aside from that everything else is there. Overall: 6/10. It is a good supporting UI but it isn't going to carry a game all by itself, it synergies well with a domination play style so it is definitely one of the better UI's around.



Overall Simon Bolivar deserves a 8.5/10. Obviously we can't know for sure what tier he belongs to until we play him ourselves, but Simon seems strong in domination victories, and Hacienda can lend itself to science victories (more production and housing). I predict he will be high A/S tier. He has the potential to be really good, especially with a few simple strategies, he can win you a domination victory extremely easily.



For a more in depth review, check out the video I just posted on Gran Columbia:

 

[Thenewwwguy]

Im not sure I quite agree with this because while the design is quite linear, it’s not because it doesn’t interact with newer mechanics in the expansions

Kupe is often cited as one of the most originally designed Civ, and his most audacious bonus isn’t tied to a single system save for settling.

You don’t need to be tied to the expansions to be a dynamic Civ, even Lady Six Sky changes it up some

Kupe also is one of the worst renditions of his civ in the game, given the maori weren’t exactly seafaring people.

 

[Veras]

Someone on the comment session of the video on Youtube said something that I agree: "Basically in the game he passed from a liberator to an oppressor"

I felt that his military bonus should at least be tied to a defensive or reactive stance, but I guess that would overlap too much with Australia

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Kupe also is one of the worst renditions of his civ in the game, given the maori weren’t exactly seafaring people.

Technically, he wasn't Maori. He was a Polynesian from somewhere else that discovered New Zealand, and settled there, founding the Maori. Also, technically, he is probably mythical.

 

[Leucarum]

It would be interesting to see a poll on first impressions

Certainly seems like there's a lot less enthusiasm for Gran Colombia than Maya but that could easily be a vocal minority.

The +1 universal movement is a very interesting ability with a lot of ramifications, not just for millitary applications, but the rest of the civ holds limited appeal for me.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

It does seem to herald a little bit of a shift in design. I remember watching the Phoenician livestream and they specifically said initially the loyalty bonus would count everywhere but it was too strong, so it was tapered back to original continent.

Whereas I would argue that a blanket +1 movement to ALL units is *significantly* stronger than colonial loyalty.

I do like the overall design however! Though I disagree that I find him particularly compelling for any victory outside of domination. Hacienda comes late and only affects city infrastructure, and the movement bonus will be a boon but possibly not enough to pursue Science, Culture or Religion (for me) (I mean... the extra movement for religious units will be great but movement on those units isn’t terribly hard to get if you want it).

One of the top Domination Civs for sure, and since Domination is the strongest victory, one of the strongest Civs possibly

With this movement bonus, they seem strong in religious victory too.

 

[AriochIV]

Comparing Gran Colombia with Brazil is the reason why I prefer my favorite civs being released in later expansions or DLCs...

Heh, yeah... bit of power creep.

 

[Xandinho]

Certainly seems like there's a lot less enthusiasm for Gran Colombia than Maya but that could easily be a vocal minority.

I think it's because most people don't like to play domination (which is a point that I understand, I rarely play domination), but for those who do, Gran Colombia will be a perfect civ.

 

[Naktis]

Well nothing unexpected here , we all knew that Bolivar will be leader. Looks a bit OP S-tier maybe, could be strongest civ from all new Frontier ones.

 

[AntSou]

Someone on the comment session of the video on Youtube said something that I agree: "Basically in the game he passed from a liberator to an oppressor"

I felt that his military bonus should at least be tied to a defensive or reactive stance, but I guess that would overlap too much with Australia

Tying the bonus to the Capital's continent should be enough. Similar to America, though the bonus is movement rather than extra strength.

Unpopular opinion, but that sounds as a very boring civ to play. I'm biased that I don't play Domination games or like war in Civ (its tedious and not very interesting), but this is a 'worse" version of the ottomans: crank out units, smash them against your opponents with your OP bonusses of better generals and increased movement. No much finesse in it

I'll just play tall with Lady Six Skys

What's up with people tying unpopular opinion to the beginning of every sentence? Especially since that same opinion has been expressed a dozen times before already in the same thread...

 

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

You do realize that these first look videos weren't just made yesterday, right?

You are correct that it may seem more unlikely by the encroaching release period, but I fundamentally disagree that they couldn't have made these videos long ago enough for them to have time to create new animations.

You do realize that they spent almost the entire year working on this and they decided to go with those animations right? If they spent the majority of their time with those animations, how "long ago" did you think they made this video that gave them enough time to redo them? Slow down and think about that for a bit.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

Tying the bonus to the Capital's continent should be enough. Similar to America, though the bonus is movement rather than extra strength.



What's up with people tying unpopular opinion to the beginning of every sentence? Especially since that same opinion has been expressed a dozen times before already in the same thread...

yeah if that happened it would be more ‘Bolivar’

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Cool. I like the idea of a unique great general a lot, that's nice, but I feel they are the opposite of the Mayans: strong but not especially interesting.

 

[Larsen]

First impression: it's a candidate for best civ in the game. Those are all amazing bonuses. The UU looks very strong. The +1 movement and ability to promote and attack on the same turn, the unique building, and the special generals... it looks like an absolute powerhouse. And I don't say that out of recency bias, I think the Mayans look like a trash tier civ. I was worried that the Colombians would also be some weird experimental thing, but they seem insanely good. Just the +1 movement itself is fantastic, and the ability to make good use of awful flatland starts is so valuable.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

You do realize that they spent almost the entire year working on this and they decided to go with those animations right? If they spent the majority of their time with those animations, how "long ago" did you think they made this video that gave them enough time to redo them? Slow down and think about that for a bit.

seeing as the idle animations are the only ones which are reskinned, i’m pretty sure that they just got worked on last and then got hit with corona so they had to reskin them. I’m with Mediocrity on this one

Technically, he wasn't Maori. He was a Polynesian from somewhere else that discovered New Zealand, and settled there, founding the Maori. Also, technically, he is probably mythical.

that only makes it worse

 

[AriochIV]

Cool. I like the idea of a unique great general a lot, that's nice, but I feel they are the opposite of the Mayans: strong but not especially interesting.

Modern and especially colonial civilizations always suck in terms of interest. But Colombia is certainly powerful.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

I only hope they will nerf this +1 movement for all somehow. This is the biggest issue here. You cannot get a free bonus other Civs must work on. This is a textbook example of power creep as Arioch said.