How does one use Imperialistic trait effectively?

[salty mud]

I find this, along with Protective, one of the weaker traits in the game. It's cool to get quicker great generals (I wish they could start Golden Ages but you can't have everything I suppose) but I'm a bit stumped at the quicker settler production. All it seems to do is goad you into thinking you can get settlers out quicker than anyone else and place more cities. This just leads to early bankruptcy though if not very carefully managed. At least protective is always useful if you find yourself on the receiving end of Aztec/Zulu aggression!

What's the secret to effective usage of Imperialistic?

 

[Gumbolt]

I would say have a plan. Grow your initial city to size 3 and 4 and use hammer tiles to bump up production. 10-15HPT can soon give you a 5-6T settler.

Managing your economy is another matter. Getting key techs like pottery, writing would be crucial. Libraries are great for research. Also coastal tiles ofer great commerce when your economy has tanked. Fail gold can also help.

So a rex to 6-7 cities is not always a bad thing as long as you have a plan to recover your research.

 

[elitetroops]

IMP is quite weak, but it has it's uses. The bonus on settler production only boosts hammers used for production, not food, so it is most effective when used with whips or chops. IMP leaders can 2 pop settlers with only 10 hammers invested, which can be useful to grab some key spots faster.

Also, remember that settlers can be very useful for other things than expansion. Gifting cities is one of the most powerful diplomatic moves in the game, as it gives you an instant +4 boost. This will bring almost any leader to pleased, which significantly reduces the chance they attack you. An AI will always accept any city anywhere in the world if they have 3 or less cities. If they have 4 or more, they will accept the gift as long as it is within 9 tiles of any other city they own (diagonals count as 1.5 tiles). If the city is closer to their capital than to any other capital in the world, you will get an additional diplo bonus for liberating a city. Being at pleased also allows you to beg for gold for peace treaties, if it looks like they would attack you. If you also share religion, you can get to friendly to completely eliminate the risk that those crazy warmongers attack you.

If you gift cities, settle the worst spot you can find. Something with only desert/peaks/snow and no resources is ideal. This will also slow down their research. And if you gift a city further away, they will often send an army of workers roading to that city, which you can then steal out in the open, or just use the road they built to move your army across the map faster.

 

[Lexicus]

Fast settlers are the main use. The faster Great Generals don't impact the game *that* much, though playing Cyrus and getting units with 5 promotions out of the gate is quite fun.

 

[DrCron]

If you gift cities, settle the worst spot you can find. Something with only desert/peaks/snow and no resources is ideal. This will also slow down their research. And if you gift a city further away, they will often send an army of workers roading to that city, which you can then steal out in the open, or just use the road they built to move your army across the map faster.

I have never used this strategy, but now I can't wait to try it out. It sounds so evil

 

[lymond]

Yeah, like Protective, IMP is a trait that seems much more valuable for the AIs. Many of the IMP leaders are the best AI leaders in the game.

It's certainly not completely useless. You can get out settlers at a snap (or whip) when needed. As Lex mentioned, faster GGs are not overall that impactful, but if you do fight a lot they are nice to have. Having more than one super medic can be nice if fighting multiple fronts, and my next favorite use is healing units in the field as needed.

 

[rah]

Combine it with GW and always war. I had a stack of like 17 GG units. They were nearly invincible. I think I only lost 3 of them during the game.

 

[gaash2]

Yeah, like Protective, IMP is a trait that seems much more valuable for the AIs. Many of the IMP leaders are the best AI leaders in the game.

It's certainly not completely useless. You can get out settlers at a snap (or whip) when needed. As Lex mentioned, faster GGs are not overall that impactful, but if you do fight a lot they are nice to have. Having more than one super medic can be nice if fighting multiple fronts, and my next favorite use is healing units in the field as needed.

Definitely seems to help the AI more than humans given how they love to settle cities everywhere. Justinian is near the top at least 3x what he should be in my games if all the AI leaders were created equal.

 

[lymond]

Justy is the best AI in the game

 

[salty mud]

That's a funny way of spelling Mansa Musa!

 

[lymond]

That's a funny way of spelling Mansa Musa!

what? are you referring to my Justy comment?

Mansa is the best AI for the human player....not in a vacuum. He's otherwise a pushover who likely will peace vassal to the likes of ..say..Justy. He's also generally a very slow expander. Granted, it's not completely out of the question for him to win the game as a vassal, but improbable.

 

[salty mud]

I guess I'm just unlucky. Most games I play Mansa gains an unassailable lead and wins any war easily with his superior technology and troops.

 

[Izuul]

I've seen Mansa do really well in AI vs AI competitions. I think the problem with Mansa is that it's extremely easy for human players to exploit him.

 

[futurehermit]

Creative leaders (Zara, Willem, Cathy) also do quite well in the hands of the AI. Zara in particular always a threat.

Like the others have mentioned, I see imperialistic as more of a REXing trait, best paired with an economic trait. I don't really enjoy the Romans, but JC is a strong leader and Victoria is quite often overlooked, but a strong leader in her own right.

If the economic part of the game wasn't so much more challenging than the militaristic part of the game (single player), then the imp + other war trait combos would be so much better. I want to really like Genghis more, for example

 

[Seraiel]

Creative leaders (Zara, Willem, Cathy) also do quite well in the hands of the AI. Zara in particular always a threat.

Like the others have mentioned, I see imperialistic as more of a REXing trait, best paired with an economic trait. I don't really enjoy the Romans, but JC is a strong leader and Victoria is quite often overlooked, but a strong leader in her own right.

If the economic part of the game wasn't so much more challenging than the militaristic part of the game (single player), then the imp + other war trait combos would be so much better. I want to really like Genghis more, for example

As you mentioned already, Zara is better than Justi. I can imagine Justi to be the #2 though. IMP-AIs don't necessarily build more Settlers. Justi expands very well, yes, but Zara has the advantage of CRE and he imo. also techs better. What definitely makes them strong is that they have Theocracy as a favourite civic, small differences like that can make an AI win a war. In war Justinian has a slight advantage in waras he builds more units, but again, Zara is more dangerous because he can plot at pleased.

I like the IMP-trait btw. , it's not really strong but playing a peaceful REX game makes fun once in a while imo.

 

[Lexicus]

Mansa is always a threat to win space in my games unless I start near enough to cripple him before he can run away in techs. He's definitely in my experience the AI who most consistently presents a danger of winning the game.

Other AIs are frequently more military dangerous to me but they rarely actually go for a victory condition, they just invade me with a big stack and I fight a cool war against them before winning the game.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Justy is the best AI in the game

I find this a tough sell over Zara, Sury, Catherine, Gilgamesh, Joao. If Justinian has any advantage over them as AI it's marginal at best.

 

[gaash2]

I find this a tough sell over Zara, Sury, Catherine, Gilgamesh, Joao. If Justinian has any advantage over them as AI it's marginal at best.

maybe our sample size is just too small... I notice a clear advantage for Justinian at least on my typical settings (Huge Map, Epic Speed, Continents, Prince->Emperor difficulty)