[NFP] Gran Colombia first look

[bite]

Updated the Features Thread with all the Gran Colombia information

 

[KayAU]

I'm not usually the guy who goes "OMG THAT IS SO OVERPOWERED", but...

OMG, THAT IS SO OVERPOWERED

Seriously, you could take away all the other bonuses, the extra movement for all units alone would make this a very, very strong civ. I have written several posts on the subject of the Pitati Archer, and how the combination of range and mobility makes it fantastic for all kinds of tactical manueuvers. Well, ALL of Gran Colombia's ranged units have this now. As well as all of their siege units. And all their melee units come with the main part of the Commando promotion for free. And all their cavalry, and all their civilian units, and all their ships are faster. FXS basically gave this civ dozens of strong unique units.

But that was not enough. Of course, they also need to get free Great Generals at regular intervals.

Of course, a good Unique Infrastructure is needed to keep this civ from being underpowered, so let's give them their own version of the Outback Station.

Are you sure this is enough, Firaxis? How about they start the game with a couple of builders? And shouldn't those builders be able to spend a charge to construct Natural Wonders? I'm just playing around with some ideas here, since apparently, nothing is too much for Gran Colombia.

 

[tedhebert]

Well, Simon seems to reuse Pedro's idle animations. I'm still fairly confident that these idle animations are just placeholders.

In terms of abilities, I'm somewhat underwhelmed by Gran Colombia. They seem very powerful, but also quite shallow and one-dimensional. As far as I can tell, they're 100% domination with nothing to really set them apart from anyone else. Not only that, but they're unique great people aren't really going to change the way they play all that much either.

Luckily, we have pokiehl's Civilizations Expanded mod to fix any oversights by Firaxis.

Why are so many people talking about placeholders ? this packs ships in TWO DAYS ! These are NOT placeholders... And honestly, I'm fine with it

 

[Socrates-]

He looks like a slick boss: sideburns on point

Really looking forward on outflanking my enemies with an army of both UU's. Love the synergy & the way you gain the commandante general at the start of a new age. Curious if it's abilities are the same for each age.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Am I the only one who kind of wanted the Llaneros to create their own Great Work of Music though?
I wonder if they thought about the additional Great General design with Alexander?

 

[Kibikus]

Haciendas at Mercantilism according to Carl on TGM's stream.

 

[UWHabs]

I would say that the Hacienda and the Ejército Patriota together make this more than just a conquest civ. They've got the potential to have better infrastructure and newer settlements much faster than other civs.

They're still primarily a conquest civ for sure, but +1 movement right from turn 1 will give them a lot of flexibility out of the gate. It's still up in the air when exactly the Hacienda becomes available. All we know is that's it's before diplomatic service/Siege Tactics, but that still leaves a pretty wide range.
*okay, if it's at Mercantilism, that's fairly late, so at least should keep them from being a truly crazy dominant civ out of the gate.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I recognize that this civ will be extremely powerful in a metagame sense, but I'll probably just do what i did with the zulu, mongols, and ottoman empire... do a settler difficulty 1v1 on a duel sized map to get their achievements, and never play them again. Purely domination civs are super boring IMO.

I do love unique tile improvements, so the hacidenca is cool, but not nearly enough to carry the civ to being interesting imo. I notice it does the expanding fence thing like Australia's outback station, so it may be good for screenshots!

 

[AntSou]

Seems unnecessarily OP. All units?

Wouldn't this be sufficient?
Earn a Comandante General when the game enters a new era.
Comandante General provides +2 movement to all land military units in range. Does not stack with Great Generals.
Promoting a unit does not end that unit's turn.

Keep the Comandante's bonuses, Llanero and Hacienda as it is.
---

Also, this settles it in regards to leaders using duplicate abilities. It seems it will be Vanilla only. Perhaps pack #5 will be different.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

So would the commandante general units also have a passive +1 movement? That would be insane.

 

[blackcatatonic]

Why are so many people talking about placeholders ? this packs ships in TWO DAYS ! These are NOT placeholders... And honestly, I'm fine with it

This. There's no way what we're looking at at this stage is not what we are getting on the 21st.

I didn't spot the reusing of Amanitore's model for LSS until it was pointed out, nor would I have got Pedro from this although that may be because I hate the guy and will pretty much reroll on sight if he starts near me...

 

[bbbt]

He might need the +1 movement in the first era just to get out of his jungle start.

Like the idea of the unique Great People.

It does bother me a bit that there's not much distinction overall in Civ between leaders who were conquerors and leaders who were leading rebellions/fights for independence. Granted and one could argue the distinction philosophically. But someone like Bolivar (or any of the many rebellion leaders in Civ) being essentially set up for world domination is a bit off for me.

I guess it's endemic to the game design with symmetric starts. A version of Civ with asymmetric starts - i.e. Gran Columbia starts in the industrial era against already established civs/empires, would play to those sorts of distinctions better.

 

[Sostratus]

Definitely a top tier civ, but also very boring and uninspired. They're going to be the Korea of domination civs.

... a better outback station,

Supposing you had a big swath of these guys planted somewhere, you’d end up with 4 production/2 gold tiles; rising to 7 production/2gold at rapid deployment.
The way the buff plantations like how outbacks boost pastures is really nice too. If you can get some bananas or any plantation resource you can just build a ring of super tiles around it.

It would be fairer if you had to have it next to a plantation. there’s definitely going to be some hacienda yield shots.

 

[tedhebert]

Haciendas at Mercantilism according to Carl on TGM's stream.

Ok... welll that's quite late TBH... good for toning them down a little

 

[DWilson]

I also want to note that, unlike Pedro (and Harald), Simon actually looked like this.

 

[bbbt]

Why are so many people talking about placeholders ? this packs ships in TWO DAYS ! These are NOT placeholders... And honestly, I'm fine with it

It doesn't bother me, but I would note that in previous releases (like R&F) it seemed like the preview videos were made significantly in advance. I.e. the preview could be a month+ old an work has been done since then.

 

[blackcatatonic]

Am I the only one who kind of wanted the Llaneros to create their own Great Work of Music though?
I wonder if they thought about the additional Great General design with Alexander?

I don't know anything about llaneros but when I heard about them having guitars I hoped they'd tie that in somehow. It would have been very cool and super unique. But bonus Great Works on top of everything else this Civ is getting might have been a bit much.

 

[SirMediocrity]

Why are so many people talking about placeholders ? this packs ships in TWO DAYS ! These are NOT placeholders... And honestly, I'm fine with it

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.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

also Commandante Generales do NOT replace Great Generals

Wasn't that kind of a given considering the names and specific abilities?

 

[sonicmyst]

with "+1 movement so powerful" I feel like there will be a meme for this pretty soon.

Also I feel like Firaxis is hitting a power creep with insane abilities like these.

What would Alexander, Chandragupta, Amanitore, Cyrus or Tomyris say to Simon Bolivar?

Power creeeeep!