Leader Discussion - Edward Teach First Impressions

[disjointaccount]

Breaking up the Xerxes threads, we have the newest addition to the game, Edward Teach.
His leader ability is Blackbeard, which is a three-parter:

• All Naval Units gain the Pirate ability, allowing them to cross borders of other civilizations, Plunder Trade Route from non-allied civilizations, and attack Naval Units of non-allied civilizations without declaring War
• Defeating any Naval Units with your own Naval Units provides Gold equal to a set percentage of its Combat Strength and captures that Unit
• Increased Gold maintenance costs for all Naval Units

His attributes are Economic and Militaristic, giving him access to the Open Markets and Military Aid endeavors.
He has a starting bias for coastal terrain.
Playing as Edward Teach unlocks the Republic of Pirates (otherwise unlocked by plundering 2 trade routes) in the Exploration Age, and France (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Wine) and Great Britain (otherwise unlocked by having 2 Fleet Commanders) in the Modern Age.
As an AI leader, his agenda is Queen Anne's Revenge - Increase relationship by a small amount with leaders that build Naval Units. Decrease relationship with leaders that do not build Naval Units.

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

 

[disjointaccount]

Here are his mementos. Nothing too amazing imo.

 

[Lord Lakely]

This leader's pretty great. The ability to print naval units is pretty strong with Tonga:

I hard-built exactly ONE kalia, captured the other ships from a hostile city state to the north.

Just be careful to not bankrupt yourself.

 

[MutilationWave]

Does anyone know if fleet commanders will be able to enter other civ territory?

 

[Lord Lakely]

i'll test that and get back at you (I'm most likely going Chola in Exploration)

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

Let me know if someone completes the Gallery

 

[disjointaccount]

Let me know if someone completes the Gallery

What's the Gallery?

 

[uppi]

This leader's pretty great. The ability to print naval units is pretty strong with Tonga:

View attachment 746795

I hard-built exactly ONE kalia, captured the other ships from a hostile city state to the north.

Just be careful to not bankrupt yourself.

Did all those ships accomplish anything useful? In my experience, more than three ships on a coastline just get in the way of each other in Antiquity.

 

[tedhebert]

Did all those ships accomplish anything useful? In my experience, more than three ships on a coastline just get in the way of each other in Antiquity.

thing is you have to find spots where you’ll be able to have 2 side by side attacking one enemy, or have them one behind the other and swap them mid fight, otherwise you won’t win your fights… At immortal you’re starting at -5CS until you get that tonga civic that give you +3 so … and then when you do win you wind up with three damaged ships, so they become free food if you do meet other ship or even if some slingers/archers are by the coast

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Did all those ships accomplish anything usefu

In my game I had ships sail up a navigable river to help take Egypt's capital while 4 of them took out one of their city states.

Movement is a challenge but you lose so many (as everyone is hostile to them) a constant supply of replacements is welcome.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Did all those ships accomplish anything useful? In my experience, more than three ships on a coastline just get in the way of each other in Antiquity.

well, not yet lol. (also i have around 10 of them). The coast is full of choke points. Once I get to exploration I'll be able to use them offensively. Right now, the only thing they can do is defend against indeps and errant ships from Napoleon and Charlemagne.

 

[Leucarum]

Not really got any urge to play Teach... Very much not my playstyle. Glad to see he's going down well though. Leader model looks great.

 

[disjointaccount]

Had a few games with him now and he's fantastic. Print boats with all your bonuses and then capture even more. The sheer number of units he can accrue enables a very aggressive, reckless style of combat that's a ton of fun.
Great leader (fantastic model and VA too) with a kit that's both fun to play and thematically very fitting.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I managed to get a galley around to the other side of my landmass in Antiquity and found an island between Frederick and Bolivar where I could snag their traders, but their land units couldn't hit me. I managed to steal several more ships from them and was a thorn in their side until the end of the age. However, at the beginning of Exploration, Bolivar had accumulated his own large fleet and because they were heavy naval and ranged, I couldn't keep my ships there anymore. I booked it across the deep water to the Northeast and fled back to my territory and used the ships to explore until I got Buccaneers.

Spoiler :

 

[phoenixician]

What's the Gallery?

It is a secret quest chain specific to Edward...

Spoiler :

... that starts in Antiquity where you have to kill a dhow, cetbang, and mikasa. It's a little tough to complete due to random spawning and AI's willingness to commit to naval.

 

[disjointaccount]

It is a secret quest chain specific to Edward...

Spoiler :

... that starts in Antiquity where you have to kill a dhow, cetbang, and mikasa. It's a little tough to complete due to random spawning and AI's willingness to commit to naval.

That sounds cool. Don't think I got it in any of my games but now I want to try going for it (or at least, if I did I just clicked through it - I'm very guilty of not reading the events at times). I imagine the rewards are good?

 

[phoenixician]

That sounds cool. Don't think I got it in any of my games but now I want to try going for it (or at least, if I did I just clicked through it - I'm very guilty of not reading the events at times). I imagine the rewards are good?

1 of each Expansion + Econ + Militaristic - Quite decent if you haven't gotten any.

 

[pjotroos]

I just got past my first exploration age with Blackbeard, and pairing him up with the pirate republic felt genuinely ridiculous. I produced four admirals early, bought a fifth a little later, and that felt like plenty. And then, once the crisis started, I got a little pop-up saying I have too many ships, and if I don't get more admirals, I will lose 32 of them upon age transition. Now, if my math is correct, counting all the ones you carry through by default, and 4 extra per admiral, that adds up to a lot of ships. I produced four in total, the rest was nicked off AI.

The game felt very different, too. I started on a smaller continent with two other players, and we were never friends. In exploration, I found a bunch of islands surrounding our landmass, and a good number of coastal cities on the other continent. I've only managed to ally one distant lands player, so the other 6 - as well as all the city-states - were constantly in my face. And, honestly, if they weren't attacking me, I was going for them if I saw a lone ship, a settler, or a treasure convoy. And they were keen to sanction me, too, once the ship-nicking started, so I had a good reason to go to war.

I played the whole game with deliberate focus on military and economy. I got 1 point in antiquity science (along with the usual 3 in exploration), and only 1 culture point total across the two ages, but I have gotten full economic and military legacy in both ages quite comfortably. I was forced to start a religion when I conquered a city with a temple, but I refused to interact with it. Pirates run no churches.

His narrative events are fun, too. I've completed none of the main quests (needed for legacy levels), but there was still plenty to interact with.

The one downside is that the game felt insanely micro-heavy. You can't press auto-explore on anything, unless you want to explore your ship into an early grave. Most of your ships will be low health all the time, and you'll have so many you'll be rotating them in and out of admirals regardless. You will be fired at on sight by anyone you meet. The average turn, when at war, was basically twice the usual length. Can't see myself going back too often for that reason, but he is a lot of fun, and honestly, it felt good sending ships into the grinder and replenishing from the enemy ranks. I'm definitely curious how he'll feel without the pirates (and vice-versa, how they'll feel with a different leader).

Still not convinced Pirate Republic deserved the civilizaton slot over so many actual civs still missing, but Blackbeard himself is a slam dunk.

 

[uppi]

I played my first game with him, using Carthage - Chola - Britain on an Archipelago map. As suspected, his Antiquity age feels quite lackluster. Yes, you get a lot of ships, but ships are not very useful in the Antiquity age. On Deity, you will fight at quite a disadvantage and there is not too much you can do to buff ships. And archers and ballistas on the shore are extremely dangerous. The result is that the ships spend most of the time trying to heal. The Carthage ship range upgrade was a lifesaver and after also researching Quadriremes , I was able to make some progress and even capture cities. But I got nowhere near the end of the tech or civic tree, and did not get many Science or Culture legacy points. But that may also be, because Carthage is not very strong in the current balance as they have to buy a lot and everything is so expensive. Maybe I will try Aksum or Tonga with him to see whether that feels better.

But he makes up for that by having a really powerful Exploration age. Naval units are much more useful in that age, and fleet commanders make all the difference. Add in Chola UUs and you get an unstoppable fleet which grows with each victory. You don't even take that much damage, since the initial salvo will usually capture a ship, which then serves as cannon fodder for the counterattack. Which means that you lose quite a few of the captured ships, but will still walk away from a naval battle with extra ships. On Archipelago map, the fleet can be easily converted into a large empire and I brought 110 points worth of treasure resources back home and I think I don't even captured anyone else's treasure convoys.

Modern was then just a mop-up. Starting with 5 fleet commanders (many of those highly leveled) full of ships meant that the AI did not stand a chance. After declaring war on turn 12, I conquered 10 settlements and eliminated 3 AIs in 9 turns (and could even have done it a few turns faster, had I remembered to bring a land unit with me). This resulted in a turn 31 military victory, which is tied with my fastest Modern age victory ever (and the other one was before 1.2.5).