Greece a top tier civ? I think not

[Poomermon]

First I want to say I'm by no means an elite player. I've been playing Greece from day 1 and came back after a long break to test the new patch. I'm still able to beat Deity consistently using the same core strat I used before. I understand that the setting matters a lot, mostly I play conquest on crowded maps (large continents with 19 AI/28 CS), standard speed with default settings.

If there is one thing Greece can do better than any other civ is farm xp from CS (Mongols being the second best). By exploiting the UA, Greece can get elite units faster than anyone. My whole strat resolves around getting my units to level 5 as fast as possible. Without going into much details, basically, by exploting the Greece UA I usually have 2 swordsmen lvl 5 (march), 2 lvl 3 (medics) and 2 lvl 5 archers by turn 60 and 2 or 3 lvl 5 cats before turn 100. Ranged units with logistics/range and indirect fire, even archers, will give you complete control over the battlefield for a long time.

Maybe it's my playstyle, but as fas as conquest goes, I feel that a well balanced elite army beats mass-pretty much anything (specially fresh, not promoted units). While mass keshiks or whatever will give you a big advatage and allow you to go on a conquest spree, eventually unhappiness will become a issue and force your army to a halt. I would rather have an army composed of fully upgraded infantary/tanks/artillery when industrial age hits instead of a lot of fully upgraded tanks and a bunch of low level inf/art. When using other civs and focusing on science I'm able to get artillery faster than with Greece, but with Greece I'm able to get a fully promoted artillery (upgraded cannon) way faster.

I tried hardcore xp farming with other civs, and while it's quite doable, it just takes more effort/turns/units. No one can do it as fast and effectively as Greece.

Call me stupid but I don't understand how Greeces UA helps with xp farming. Could you elaborate a little?

 

[ShahJahanII]

Call me stupid but I don't understand how Greeces UA helps with xp farming. Could you elaborate a little?

Because of the AI's plain stupidity, all you have to do is position yourself in front of a ranged unit that fires 1 damage per turn, and have your unit heal 1 damage per turn and you gain XP every time you are hit with no consequence.
Although I don't see how this relates to the Greek UA.

 

[pspboy7]

This is a loaded question hehe.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Describe to me the likelihood of a situation where a player would buy strategics from an AI? I think I have done it once in dozens of games.

Yet I see players do it to the AI constantly.

If I had a 300-400% boost and could therefore churn out units like a Deity AI, I'd buy strategics from distant AIs. When you account for the effects of a 60% growth boost, half production costs, and instant-speed Workers, the Deity AIs are probably getting four to five times the effective of the human early on.

 

[Optional]

Because of the AI's plain stupidity, all you have to do is position yourself in front of a ranged unit that fires 1 damage per turn, and have your unit heal 1 damage per turn and you gain XP every time you are hit with no consequence.
Although I don't see how this relates to the Greek UA.

He's probably exploiting a bug. All city states' territory is friendly territory for Greece, so healing goes twice as quick. This even works when Greece is at war with a city state, which is the bug.
So he probably goes to war with a city state and positioning units in their territory, just for XP gain.
Even losing a couple of hitpoints per turn is then no problem, as you regain them each turn, and the XP gain goes twice as quick, so yes, it makes a big difference being Greece here.
Let's hope the bug gets fixed, because these kind of tactics are pretty lame.

 

[Roxlimn]

Or you could use a Medic unit. Same diff.

 

[ShahJahanII]

All city states' territory is friendly territory for Greece, so healing goes twice as quick.

I don't think so.

 

[Optional]

I haven't seen it myself, but PawelS posted it in the bug reports: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=433995

 

[ShahJahanII]

I haven't seen it myself, but PawelS posted it in the bug reports: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=433995

My bad, maybe you are right.
Anyhow, it is a good strategy(or rather, a good bug exploit).

 

[peddroelm]

One of the biggest benefits of playing Greece on deity is you won't have Alex as a neighbor.

BWHAHAHAHA!

...
However not having to play against Alex is often a bonus on it's own... He has a ridiculous runaway AI rate.

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