How to play Persia?

[Freelollerskate]

Hello Friends,

I've been considering taking Persia out for a spin and specifically taking a domination oriented path.

Are there any guides around? I've won a couple of cultural victories at immortal but suck at domination. So I was planning on doing a late game war with artillery but I'm not sure if I should pick policies like GA in liberty or aesthetics. Even with their unique building I fear that they'll run out off happiness if I don't go commerce.

 

[sam44hill]

I'm not sure a free GA is necessary, I think the increased happiness from commerce will out weigh one Golden Age. I would focus my warring around wonders. Chichen Itza is an absolute Must. I'd nab the Taj Mahal for a free Golden Age, it comes in closer to the era you're looking to fight in any way.

 

[anthropophage]

Use liberty, tech bronze working and mathematics, build a bunch of immortals and catapults, take the SP representation, go kill a neighbour or two (hopefully someone with the Chichen Itza wonder). Upgrade your troops in time for the next golden age, go conquer someone else. Build Satraps Court to help with happiness from all the expanding. Get the Taj Mahal, go conquer. Hit another golden age, go conquer. Pop an artist, go conquer.

Persia are pretty fun domination civ.

 

[BlackWizard]

You wont run out of happiness easily because Banks(Satrap courts) are not so easily destroyed when you capture cities.

 

[4N4C0ND4]

Even at immortal, good luck getting the chitzen itza, the most AI beelined wonder ever.

It's a safe bet I think to forget about that and conquer that civ instead.

 

[Freelollerskate]

Ok so I loaded up a map with Persia and had a go at it.

Pangea, normal size, normal speed, immortal difficulty.

I did a very standard tradition opener into 3 city's, figured I'd roll into domination the familiar way. What made it interesting was that Rome started spamming city's left and right. I was his only neighbour with 4 cs and a ton of jungle blocking the way to the next civ.

Teched up to philosophy and got my NC up. Around that time Rome had 6 (!) city's against my 3...He then started dancing spearman and archers in front of my borders so I started to build up composites like mad. He continue'd doing that for atleast 15 turns and then went 'suprise backstab !!!'. Yeah. Ran in, lots of his units died. Nothing much happened. Figured might as well take the offered invitation. Teched up to machination, incidentally got a golden age as I took his first two city's with composites. Took 3 more city's with my crossbows. Somehow during all that he got to gunpowder (I saw one musketman that promptly died) and the tech lead (???) for a bit and planted another crappy city somewhere. Made peace as I had 9 unhappiness. Got that fixed now by allying a mercantile, I'm 5th in tech and just got my universities up as I ended the war. Supprisingly I still have 2 very good friends and everybody else seems to not mind that I just took out Rome. I guess leaving him 2 city's helps...

Now I have a rather interesting dilemma. The next nearest civ is atleast 20 tiles away with nothing but jungle and cs between us. Tempted to just reload and try on another map cause I really have no idea how to tackle this domination wise. I guess I'll have to wait on artillery and build a massive road. My economy is good so I can probably sustain it. The other option is a sea battle against England. The downside is that by the time I'm ready for that she'll have ship of the line and I only have one mediocre coastal city to produce from. If anybody has any tips/tricks/idea's how to tacke this I'm all ears.

It was a very interesting start with Rome going spam crazy and the golden age battling was insanely fun. Nothing better then catapults that move in, set up and fire in one turn.

Edit: Chichen Itza was impossible this game. England stole it before I even got Civil Service. I did get oracle though.

 

[tetley]

Chichen Itza is one of the more useful wonders if you conquer it rather than build it.

 

[comatosedragon]

You may also want to check out GOTM 86 (I think it was 86) which features Persia and domination victory. The threads there are really good for learning specific parts of the game, in this case, Persia. There are tons of people there who can help you out, and by playing the same map as others, you will have a chance to see how you stack up against them, and where you have room for improvement. I find the GOTM threads to be very helpful, even if I don't personally play all (or in fact most) of them.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=526023

 

[Myth and Legend]

Even at immortal, good luck getting the chitzen itza, the most AI beelined wonder ever.

Notre Dame has that honour IMO.

 

[joncnunn]

A free UA not needed to win as Persia.

And in fact if you haven't gotten your achievement yet, free ones don't count nor do GA induced one; (you have to get 5 happiness induced golden ages for that; things that extend Golden Ages would actually make this task harder)

Persia for the most part is generic civ + extra local happiness starting in mid game. (You can play them with your favorite tactic exactly like every other civ and just notice your citizens are happier and that you have more GAs than normal if you like)
The specific bonus to them is increased mobility during a GA, so if possible you want your war mongling to be during one.

 

[Strategist83]

I would say jon's advice is good but I'd weigh the war benefits a bit higher than he does. The thing is, against the AI you can probably win wars while losing very few units regardless of any combat bonus. Against a competent opponent, however, everything about warfare changes: You require many more units to attack successfully, will lose many units, policies from the Honor and Autocracy trees become much more powerful and relevant. Persia's +1 movement and +1 strength is a rather significant bonus - especially the movement. I'd say that while yes, Persia can be played as a generic civ (which might be good if you're neighbouring somebody like Genghis or Attila whom it might not be smart to attack), to fully leverage the civ's abilities you should in most situations consider playing Persia as the GA-warmonger and indeed plan ahead, build up forces and attack during the GA. It won't be disastrous not to fight wars as Persia the way it would if you were playing one of the true warmongers but you won't be playing Persia to the fullest then, either: Play by ear, but definitely plan for conquests.

 

[tetley]

My experience with Persia was, normally as anybody else I need a GA to build gold to upgrade my units. And then towards the end of GA go to war. With Persia it's the opposite: upgrade units first without a GA, then start GA and go to war. That extra gold and hammers from GA didn't quite time right. Best consolation was the longer GA in hopes you can do both.

 

[beetle]

The other option is a sea battle against England. The downside is that by the time I'm ready for that she'll have ship of the line and I only have one mediocre coastal city to produce from.

Can you get ironworks in that city? Might even be worth a GE.

Chichen Itza was impossible this game. England stole it before I even got Civil Service.

Really sounds like England should be #2 on your hit parade. Good luck!

 

[Walter E Kurtz]

The next nearest civ is atleast 20 tiles away with nothing but jungle and cs between us. Tempted to just reload and try on another map cause I really have no idea how to tackle this domination wise.

20 tiles is not that much, unless you screw up and need reinforcements. Be sure to build a road anyway though.

 

[Aibeit]

A couple of quick notes on domination games as Persia:
- If you're going for early wars Liberty can often be better than Tradition, because it allows you to get your Cities up quicker. If there are a lot of long roads to build to get through rough terrain, building the Pyramids can help you do that and you can usually get them even on Deity. On Standard speed, you can also use the Pillage-Repair Trick with the Pyramids if you don't consider that to be cheating
- If you can find a militaristic city state specialised in Pracinha or Minutemen (which give you points towards golden ages for each kill) I'd make getting allied with those a priority in the appropriate ages.
- Find out who built the Golden Age Wonders (Taj Mahal, Chichen Itza etc.) and make them a Priority.
- Timing your attacks with your Golden Ages definitely helps (sell or buy luxuries to adjust your happiness and get the GAs earlier or later depending on when you need them).

As for attacking England by sea, I'd just wait for Submarines, those make Ships of the Line pretty useless and that's easier than trying to fight them with Frigates. The other option is a few Privateers backed up by Frigates. Bomb a Ship of the Line into the red, then kill it with the Privateer to try and get the maximum amount of captures and turn England's unique unit against them

Taking all of an enemy's cities is usually not the best idea, I usually raze cities I take unless they're a capital (duh!) or have a Wonder or something else that I really want. That way you end up with less happiness problems down the road.

If you're having trouble getting to an enemy, wait for Paratroopers, Planes and Airports, those make your army a lot more mobile, and then go for the tech, diplo and tourism leaders to make sure you can still win before any AI gets a Victory.

 

[teqofc]

I can't remember the thread but if you search the HoF you'll see a diety persia domination with Cromagnus , Moriarte and a few others going melee + catapult/treb and timing the first assault with the golden age. It sounded like a ton of fun but I haven't tried it.