Is Gaul OP?

Nationalism is the enemy of history.

 

I don't know if they started with them, but on my Prince game I noticed AI cities, both city-states and civs, had Walls up much sooner than before.

 

Makes sense.

I am still running games with both new civs, but I found the same issue with the UU. After I had built the 4th one, I realized I should have just archer rushed a neighbor and used heavy chariots or horses instead for blocker units. (I got super unlucky. Nubia and Mongolia are my neighbors and they have horses in range, and I do not have any). I might re-roll that game because I made a bunch of mistakes trying to experiment. I guess I'm rusty from playing too much Bannerlord lately.

Byzantium is definitely OP. Like, ridiculous OP. Feels like Macedon on steroids. I have wiped 3/7 civs out and it is like turn 120. I was not even trying for a high speed victory either. I bet I could have done better faster than that as well.

No doubt after a week or so, someone will find some fast ways to win or worse broken exploits.

 

Yeah, the Gaulish UU really sucks. I just don't build it. It's good for clearing barb camps and... that's about it. Their UU may as well be clumped archers.

 

So...how are your oppidums? Or oppida, I should say. How many of those incredible >+6 can you get in your game? First deity game I got killed by Indonesia and barbs on t35, unlucky circumstances, second game I'm just simcitying in peace, blocked out by geography, but out of 7 cities I can only manage one +4 oppidum due to 2 stone quarries past t100, everywhere else it is just trash 0, 1 or +2 max. Only 1 iron somewhere on the frontier. Niter is on the flat, not clustered. Until oil and uranium later, nothing else, no way to know in advance. No adj from aqueducts nor, I guess, dams. My beloved Harbours are mostly trash, complete garbage. Coast is a no go for the Gauls, apparently, they're hydrophobic. Land grab with mines is nice though.

 

I haven't gotten any +6 oppidae, but I've got some +5s.

 

I got a +7 but was extremely lucky. One quarry and two irons: +4 from the strategic resources, +2 from the quarry, +1 from two adjacent mines. But I didn't believe my eyes seeing it.

 

For some reason I feel like I have seen a lot of posts about playing as Gaul but being killed by a nearby Indonesia in the early game. Strange.

 

I have found that on higher difficulties Byzantium can be stopped by having a science runaway neighbor to make The Tagma blitz ineffective (by getting out renaissance units so soon and making the cities much tougher to take.) Curse you Kristina and your stupid caroleans...
If they are still using medieval units and you march in the Tagmata, it’s over.

Conveniently, there’s no iron cost to upgrade from Tagma to Cuirs, so that saves you a card slot.

That is not to say you cannot use horsemen and go in earlier, Though. Especially if you need to pick off a city state or something. But obviously the timing with the hippodromes is important.

 

Who needs districts next to your city anyway?

Gaul Wonders by Brutus2 posted Sep 25, 2020 at 7:20 PM

 

Funny, my Gaul game has started off by killing Indonesia.

Overall, I think they’re a well designed civ, with unique abilities that make them modestly above average on the whole. My land is such that I can get a +4 oppidum in most cities, though the downside is that I can’t chop stone. Their mines are incredible but their districts are quite bad. Getting culture from units makes for a unique approach to the early game, but my political philosophy timing wasn’t ultimately much faster than an average game.

The unique warriors are only really great for clearing barb camps. Sanguine pact plus archer support is incredible for them though. My vampire is already attacking at 60+ strength in the classical age and basically one-shoting cities.