Leader Discussion - Augustus

[disjointaccount]

After the Ashoka double bill, we now move onto Augustus.
His leader ability is Imperium Maius, which is a three-parter:

• +2 Production in the Capital for every Town
• Can purchase Culture Buildings in Towns
• +50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns

His attributes are Cultural and Expansionist, giving him access to the Cultural Exchange and Farmers Market endeavors, along with events for attribute points upon unlocking Chiefdom and Authority (per this post).
He has no starting bias.
Playing as Augustus unlocks Bulgaria (otherwise unlocked by having three Temples), Spain (otherwise unlocked by recapturing a lost settlement), and Abbasid (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Camels) in the Exploration Age, and France (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Wine) and Prussia (otherwise unlocked by having 3 Army Commanders) in the Modern Age .
As an AI leader, his agenda is Restitutor Orbis - Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for each City (excluding the Capital) in other players' empires, and decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount for each Town.

So what are everyone's thoughts? Likes/dislikes? Strengths and weaknesses? Fun strategies? Good civs to pair him with?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Augustus can purchase monuments in towns without specialization, which is a huge source of influence which you could keep through all the ages as influence scales.

The most obvious pairing, is of course, Carthage.

 

[Leucarum]

He doesn't really speak to me as a leader. Asides from the obvious synergy with Carthage, any go-wide civs are a good call. The new town specializations might have knocked him down a notch too as now other leaders have ways to build libraries and monuments in towns...

 

[Navelgazer]

Not a lot for me to say here - Augustus is strong, and supports having a specific town-heavy playstyle while keeping culture afloat. As such, he works well with Carthage (hilariously), Rome (appropriately) and Khmer. The cultural endeavor is arguably the best one, and the expansionist one less so. He's not bland as a Leader - Augustus games are fun! - but the strategy with him is very clear-cut.

 

[disjointaccount]

Whoops, I've been busy and forgot to respond to my own thread. I like Augustus; I don't love him. The production is nice but doesn't work as well as I'd like for snowballing and doesn't really scale to a super notable degree (compared to someone like Patchacuti or even Ashoka WR's capacity to generate production). Culture buildings in towns is nice but got a lot less exciting as of Monday. Tier 2 culture buildings is still nice, but honestly I think the monuments were the better get for towns anyway. I guess you'd have to pair him with someone who gets a unique culture building to really get the most out of him. The extra ageless culture is nice for snowballing at the start of new ages.

The part of his kit I really like is cheaper purchasing in towns. Just feels good to get your towns online quicker. And I guess means he still has value in a post urban centre world, since he can get the libraries for cheaper. That alone isn't enough to make me love him though. It makes him a solid generalist pick. He synergises well Carthage, as others have mentioned, along with Rome and Egypt for their unique culture buildings (plus many more in subsequent ages for the same reason). But ultimately, every civ likes buying buildings faster.

Rome in Civ 6 was definitely intended as a kind of straightforward, generalist, "beginner"-y civ. I think Augustus and Rome in Civ 7 are largely the same. Which isn't a bad thing, but for me personally it means I prefer them less compared to leaders and civs with more distinct identities.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Tried him with Egypt and I snowballed into massive culture gains.

Even when you're not playing many cities, having a Mastaba in every town is a huge boon when you start exploration.

He actually does this again if you pick Spain next, which also has a Culture UB. I instead went Abbasids and entered a state of exodia before the end of Exploration, but that's just what the Abbassids under a Cultural leader.

I'm not sure where exactly I'd put him on my list, but I do have a high opinion on Augustus. Somewhere near the top. The new Urban Centres mechanic must also be a hugh buff for him, right?

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

Have you tried Rome - Norman - Prussia with him?

 

[Lord Lakely]

Have you tried Rome - Norman - Prussia with him?

I have not. Is Prussia even good with him? I'd recon France much better.

 

[MutilationWave]

I have not. Is Prussia even good with him? I'd recon France much better.

Prussia is good with anybody in my opinion.

 

[MutilationWave]

The new Urban Centres mechanic must also be a hugh buff for him, right?

I mean the discount has to be awesome, but urban centers also allow other leaders to do what only he could do before.

 

[Sostratus]

At launch, I really thought that antiquity age Augustus would be about boosting Rome with that +2 . But when you play him, that’s almost irrelevant and the culture buildings in towns +purchase bonus is the real deal.

I like him. If I was given the design pen, though, I would probably shift his power back to the production; something like specialized towns also contribute 25% of their production to the capital. (In addition to the food.)

For one, I think towns and cities will continue to evolve and as we’ve seen with the latest patch, pure restrictions like what buildings a town can build will probably keep changing in ways that make Augustus’ value volatile.

Second, ultimately I think that a single town should support a single city; as in the player selects a city in range to support. Simple to understand, makes it very extensible to play around with what towns can do and allow players to better control things.

It’s weird to me that Augustus in practice is the rural development chief, under the auspices of furthering the glory of Rome.

 

[MutilationWave]

At launch, I really thought that antiquity age Augustus would be about boosting Rome with that +2 . But when you play him, that’s almost irrelevant and the culture buildings in towns +purchase bonus is the real deal.

I like him. If I was given the design pen, though, I would probably shift his power back to the production; something like specialized towns also contribute 25% of their production to the capital. (In addition to the food.)

For one, I think towns and cities will continue to evolve and as we’ve seen with the latest patch, pure restrictions like what buildings a town can build will probably keep changing in ways that make Augustus’ value volatile.

Second, ultimately I think that a single town should support a single city; as in the player selects a city in range to support. Simple to understand, makes it very extensible to play around with what towns can do and allow players to better control things.

It’s weird to me that Augustus in practice is the rural development chief, under the auspices of furthering the glory of Rome.

Rather than just one city, why not allow them to supply any amount of connected cities, or not, as you wish? I could even go for letting them supply unequally, but that adds a lot of micro.

 

[Sostratus]

Rather than just one city, why not allow them to supply any amount of connected cities, or not, as you wish? I could even go for letting them supply unequally, but that adds a lot of micro.

Well, the reason I think this is that (in my opinion) it would be a smoother, simpler mechanic (both for the UI and player strategy) to limit it.

And if you tie them 1:1 you can do a lot of interesting things around that interaction more cleanly based on who the sender and receiver are. In the case of my hypothetical Augustus, some extra spice if the destination is the capital. But you could imagine things like religious buildings, or the presence of a wonder, or if the route is done over water, or perhaps in some circumstance you can ship food to a foreign city that converts the surplus food to gold. Or maybe that food is aid and you get influence! But all of that is easier if it’s 1:1. Just imagine the wonder effects you could come up with to play on this…

It’s just one of those things I mentally refer to as “aesthetic” - there are different ways to present the same core mechanic and for whatever reason some ways of doing it just feel intuitively better.