Hiawatha: Better than I thought

[fmlizard2]

I had always dismissed Hiawatha as a below average choice. I've seen them sit near the bottom of tier lists and their UA never sounded very good to me - still isn't.

But the Longhouse. Oh, the Longhouse. I just fired up my first Hiawatha game on my usual Emperor and just rolled everyone. Then I bagged my first legit Immortal win without cooking the settings a ton using the Iroquois. I got a win after taking over large parts of 3 different Civs. This win came in about 30 turns faster than my best ever effort with Babylon trying for a win of that type. I was boosted by a pretty jungle-heavy start but the longhouse (and measured conquest from its units) set the tone for a monster empire.

This was the first time I've ever been able to have pretty much any wonder I wanted on Immortal from Medieval on. Easy when whacking one out in Onondaga only takes 10 turns. is king.

 

[chazzycat]

Yep they can be quite powerful if you get enough food/happiness to work significant number of forest tiles. Mohawk rushing is also really fun, you can spam them like no other.

 

[Ermak-]

it is an insult to human intellect to play on anything but diety
Moderator Action: Don't troll your fellow users.

 

[chazzycat]

well, that's not very nice.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I don't enjoy Diety because I do not like being forced into using certain playstyles or taking advantage of various loopholes/exploits. I also don't get any satisfaction from winning only because I copied a strategy off of some Internet guide somewhere.

I do like the Iroquois, though. Fun Civ.

 

[headcase]

I don't enjoy [hardest difficulty] because I do not like being forced into using certain playstyles or taking advantage of various loopholes/exploits. I also don't get any satisfaction from winning only because I copied a strategy off of some Internet guide somewhere.

 

[guenzak]

I don't enjoy Diety because I do not like being forced into using certain playstyles or taking advantage of various loopholes/exploits. I also don't get any satisfaction from winning only because I copied a strategy off of some Internet guide somewhere.

I do like the Iroquois, though. Fun Civ.

 

[fmlizard2]

I don't enjoy Diety because I do not like being forced into using certain playstyles or taking advantage of various loopholes/exploits. I also don't get any satisfaction from winning only because I copied a strategy off of some Internet guide somewhere.

I do like the Iroquois, though. Fun Civ.

Yeah, I prefer to build a nice, well-rounded empire and let the chips fall as they may. I find that Deity level play forces too narrow of a focus for my taste (you better know how you want to win from turn 1)

I didn't think that general empire building and flexible victory pursuit was possible at Immortal until I unleashed the Iroquois. Maybe I will take a spin with them on Deity.

 

[HappyBuilder]

Scored my first Emperor win with them too, although when I'd played with them at lower levels, I had been frustrated with them. If you don't get a forested planet, they're severely handicapped. With the forest, watch out!

HB

 

[MadDjinn]

heh... I just watched AI Hiawatha chew through AI Isabella around turn 80 on Deity.

This was their first war and they weren't slammed up against each other. I think Hiawatha had 1-2 extra cities over Isabella (she had 6-7 cities by then), but she had ~12 horses, so could have easily had 12 conquistadors running around. (no real forest in her territory)

but alas no, the cities started falling to the spam machine one by one until she gave up everything to save her capital.

He's my neighbour and is now trying to add Darius to the collective...

 

[Babri]

I don't enjoy Diety because I do not like being forced into using certain playstyles or taking advantage of various loopholes/exploits. I also don't get any satisfaction from winning only because I copied a strategy off of some Internet guide somewhere.

I do like the Iroquois, though. Fun Civ.

100% agreed. Playing games on highest difficulties all the time is usually not very fun (unless u are very good in ciV).

 

[Irodar]

I enjoy them for the UU swordsman not requiring iron.

 

[SemperFi2382]

I always feel bad for Hiawatha in my games. He is regularly overrun, marginalized and quite often destroyed in every game I have seen him. Albeit, sometimes it was my fault.

I have to admit though, I am really thinking about using him for my next game.

 

[snarzberry]

They were a big winner in the recent changes. Still second tier, surely, but right near the top of it. A great offensive early resource-free unit plus a hammer bonus equals a nice civ.

 

[pspboy7]

I always liked native american civs in civ games. I always thought it was a cool idea. It was fun playing Sitting Bull in previous civs, at least for me. Might play the Iroquois as my next game now.

 

[TommyVern]

Haiawatha is haiawesome

 

[OmegaKabob]

haiawatha is haiawesome

+1
Agreed.

 

[cman2010]

when civ 5 first came out I used him in my 4th game and he is awsome I love that forest act as roads as well.

 

[_hero_]

Their UA is very underrated. If you have a wide empire with proper road/city placement it can save you heaps of GPT on your trade routes. Not to mention the worker turns that are saved from barely having to build any roads, and lets not forget they count as free railroads too.

I've always put the Hiawatha as one of the top tier or 2nd tier leaders and never "below average".

Edit: The down side is that they are quite map dependent, but with a forest heavy location they are nearly unstoppable.

 

[Veshta]

He always seem to do rather well in my games, provided I am not near and thus sacrifice him for dominance.

Best case I have seen him was in the far end of a continent, deep in the forest .. his scouts made contact with everyone but I never actually 'found' him until quite late. Forest empire with the GW and insane sword spam proved impossible to crack so had to limit myself to boxing him in (sniping settlers and what not) for the remainder of the game ..
By the time I had artillery and weapons that could breach his forest fortress his food issues had him lagging so far behind that I decided to leave him to rot while I sent my rocket skywards.