Leaders: Part 2

[Alteris]

Just a few humble thoughts of mine. I discovered this mod not long ago and have loved playing it. I really like some of the flavors civs are given encouraging quite different styles of gameplay. Many of the vanilla civs I would not touch - they had unique styles but the push was far too weak to focus my gameplay around it. It's great to see civs that didn't really draw me before like Rome and Japan get spiced up according to their historical traits.

My favorite civ in Civ 5 has been Persia, but in this mod I'm left wondering why it seems to be taking Persia back away from a very unique gameplay style (one that was fun if probably a bit imbalanced) to one that seems more like many of the vanilla civs - rather bland.

Persia without golden age combat or movement bonuses or more frequent golden ages makes it into a France with immortals instead of musketeers. Which I think messes with their unique playstyle and is contrary to their history. Persia historically has had plenty of cultural output but I think the consistency rather than the dominance of Persian culture is what stands out. Persia always seems to resurrect itself after seemingly fatal collapses time and again. And unlike other civs like China who have a similar behavior with their dynasties, they historically did a lot of external conquering with their resurgences.

In my opinion the Persians are better suited to more frequent golden ages and golden ages that bolster warmaking capabilities than by golden ages with cities that turn into culture factories. My mind is to leave the movement bonus on (without this bonus Persia loses a big part of its distinct playstyle), and take the extra culture booster off and turn it into something that generates golden age points creatively. So Persia would favor a military strategy of bursts of rapid conquest followed by incentives to hold back and build up the next golden age (the stabilization/decline side of the golden age). This to me would do more to foster a unique play style and be more historically appropriate than the current proposal.

Possibilities:
-Combat victories in your own territory (perhaps within two tiles of a nonoccupied city or something of the sort) give big golden age points. Persia only kicked itself back into gear historically after it felt the sting of foreign conquest and had to fight to get that golden age back - that dynamic manifested itself with the Greeks, Arabs, and Mongols.
-Culture or religion in some way adds to the golden age counter (put golden age points on cultural/religious buildings)

Unfortunately I'm not hardly creative with ideas. But I do think Persia plays funner with a military-oriented golden age dynamic.

Another option I see is extra movement point in golden age + less unhappiness and more culture from puppeted cities (this was historically very much a Persian trait). This means you can play culturally as Persia and it may be in your interest to muscle around a bit more than you would otherwise. Which would also be interesting.

Either of the two routes (start-and-stop conquering based on golden ages or a more aggressive culture-oriented player) seems better than the current bland one.

 

[Eiger2112]

Netherlands: I’m moving to the Netherlands this summer, so this was the first G&K civ I played. I liked both the Polder and the Sea Beggar, but the UA is a bit lame. And what I know about Polder’s supports the marsh/floodplains location of these resources rather than making them coastal. But I understand that gameplay wise, that makes the benefit to William very map dependent - maybe extend polders to tiles with both River and Coast access to simulate "river deltas"? But if you beef up his UA, then a situational-but-strong unique improvement is fine.

How to beef up his UA? I don't have any real good ideas. When I think Netherlands/Dutch, both a trade bonus like vanilla or a cultural bonus would fit. They were a colonial power in the Caribbean and SE Asia, along with Spain, England and France. Also, society in the Netherlands was/is a very tolerant society. It was religiously tolerant earlier than most of the rest of Western Europe, and is currently tolerant of alternative lifestyles (gay/lesbian), prostitutes are legal (though pimps are not), pot is legal in licensed shops. They try to get rid of the criminal element of these activities without condemning the activities themselves.

But how to translate any of this into an interesting game play advantage escapes me. Maybe some advantage in cities with multiple religions? Maybe they get the advantages of of ALL religions in their cities, not just the dominant one, or just certain beliefs for secondary religions? Maybe buff the trade aspect, allowing them to keep the full 4 happiness from a luxury, even if it's traded away? Or give them a stronger benefit from Open Borders? Maybe some kind of colony bonus, like the free harbor/lighthouse of Phoenicia, if that UA is being changed?

Phoenicia:My idea for a unique settler was JUST because the stated UA was for CIVILIAN units to have an early Embark ability. I’d be very hesitant to send a settler off alone into the darkness unprotected to make a nice snack for a barb warrior. If it had scout-quality combat (but would cost gold/productivity like a settler) and normal sight it would be usable. Or if just scouts were also given the early embark, then they could go along as pseudo protection.

Alright, I'm all idea-ed out.

Cheers, Eiger

 

[Tomice]

As Austrian, I could agree to Gebirgsjäger as UU. It's more/less the only part of our military that can be taken seriously nowadays.

Not sure if changing Coffee House to a Publishing House makes sense. Never heard Austria was famous for that... The "Kaffeehauskultur" is living reality, however.

Sadly, I have no idea right now what else would be typical in terms of UB's and UU's. Austria sucked militarily throughout most of it's history to be honest And the "Vielvölkerstaat", the fact that old Austria consisted of many ethnic groups who lived together in relative harmony, is already represented through the UA.

Maybe we could create a custom improvement? Austria is dominated by the Alps nowadays, and agricultural use of rough Alpine territory is very typical for us. Or what about a building that gives (food) yield on mountain tiles?

 

[mitsho]

I could see more flat science from the Gymnasium, but that might overlap too much with China. Happiness from the odeon is possible, and would help with the Wide/expansive playstyle supported by the culture UA.
I agree 3 move hoplites are weird.

Happiness again makes them overlap with America and Rome, wide players with happiness bonuses. Something related to trade might be fine. More Gold is always fun and sea trade fits with the Greeks (even if not today...).

I'd disagree with this. A missionary boost would be very weak, while

I think the Celts giving early religion is good, I don't think they need more religious things in the midgame. And early game I find I almost only ever need 1-2 missionaries. The Ceilidh hall isn't amazing, but more happiness is always useful.

Maybe add fast missionaries to the UA then as it loses its strength quite early on. We already have2-4 early pantheon civs (Celts, India, Maya, Ethiopia) and one early Religion (Byzantine). So I'd like some variation In any case, the Hiberno-Scottish Mission is more prominent than the Ceilidh Hall which seem to be some local dance evenings started last century? Maybe an Abbey as a temple replacement giving one more spread/movement point to missionaries and the more passive happiness/culture?

I think we can be narrower than this. I don't think they should have super-good naval units; I think England should have them beat there. I think we want them to be sea-raiders, more than anything else we want them to be about using embarked land units.

Agree, how? Do you like the idea of a berserker-huscarl combo? Making it Swordsman-Longswordman puts them too early and close to other civs, making it Longswordman-Musket is very strange. Maybe have one of the UU's be a vanguard/pike replacement and make it cheap so that you can get enough berserkers (and have money for trebuchets)? Maybe a vanguard with no attack penalty?

I think it would be useful, and I think the extra quantity of strategics has been boosted as we have made resources more rare.

The two-tile range kinda makes the Kreml obsolete for them, but it is Russias only wonder, it should have a worth for them. Maybe we can change it?

Really? I always thought it looked weak and hit-or-miss. But the Spanish abilities never really appealed to me, so I've literally never played them.

I'm talking of the double yields on NW, having superpowered cities is fun. Combine that with the fact that these are found all over the map with CS and you got a unique playstyle of conquering cities all over the world for high yields and culture/science victory or as starting points for conquest With bonuses against City States of course

Wouldn't this make more sense as a religious pantheon? Or as a world wonder (if a "can only be built if a natural wonder is in city range" condition is possible/programmable)?

It already is a Pantheon somewhat, but I'd be fine with it as a wonder effect.

Now a question for you more experienced GEMers: How is the Worker AI? Can I safely automate them? I haven't trusted that feature since it was introduced when... Civ 2?

I wouldn't. But haven't tested it myself either I still feel the Iroquois are fine as they are and your proposal would be too strong and too complex. Maybe a farm that doesn't clear out forests could be interesting, but I'm not convinced of the rest.

My favorite civ in Civ 5 has been Persia, but in this mod I'm left wondering why it seems to be taking Persia back away from a very unique gameplay style (one that was fun if probably a bit imbalanced) to one that seems more like many of the vanilla civs - rather bland.

Persia has been changed quite a lot in VEM/GEM, so I'm not sure what the reasoning for the removal for the GA-bonus actually was. You can go try to find the threads in this forum, they are still here If I remember correctly, it was seen as too strong and not adept for the AI? Or was it that GA mainly boost peaceful times and Persia had a military bonus? In any case, I like the instant GA-points, but am okay with your points in general

Netherlands:

But how to translate any of this into an interesting game play advantage escapes me. Maybe some advantage in cities with multiple religions? Maybe they get the advantages of of ALL religions in their cities, not just the dominant one, or just certain beliefs for secondary religions? Maybe buff the trade aspect, allowing them to keep the full 4 happiness from a luxury, even if it's traded away? Or give them a stronger benefit from Open Borders? Maybe some kind of colony bonus, like the free harbor/lighthouse of Phoenicia, if that UA is being changed?

I feel the Dutch are fine. Keeping 100% happiness of luxuries traded away is very strong. It gives you free gold early on and allows fast build up of infrastructure (in single player of course). It's a bit close to the Arab Unique Building, but distinct enough to the Arab civ as a whole, so it's okay. The Polder improving coasts instead of Floodplains just seems more realistic since Floodplains are normally in desert in this game...

Phoenicia:My idea for a unique settler was JUST because the stated UA was for CIVILIAN units to have an early Embark ability. I’d be very hesitant to send a settler off alone into the darkness unprotected to make a nice snack for a barb warrior. If it had scout-quality combat (but would cost gold/productivity like a settler) and normal sight it would be usable. Or if just scouts were also given the early embark, then they could go along as pseudo protection.

The idea is that you protect the civilians with Ships!

As Austrian, I could agree to Gebirgsjäger as UU. It's more/less the only part of our military that can be taken seriously nowadays.

Not sure if changing Coffee House to a Publishing House makes sense. Never heard Austria was famous for that... The "Kaffeehauskultur" is living reality, however.

Sadly, I have no idea right now what else would be typical in terms of UB's and UU's. Austria sucked militarily throughout most of it's history to be honest And the "Vielvölkerstaat", the fact that old Austria consisted of many ethnic groups who lived together in relative harmony, is already represented through the UA.

Maybe we could create a custom improvement? Austria is dominated by the Alps nowadays, and agricultural use of rough Alpine territory is very typical for us. Or what about a building that gives (food) yield on mountain tiles?

Coffee House as a Workshop replacement makes more sense than as a Publishing house? After all you read (and discuss) printed stuff in Coffee Shops The important thing is that it goes well together with the other Uniques to support buying up City States all over the globe (in game)

 

[Ahriman]

So I'd like some variation In any case, the Hiberno-Scottish Mission

My problem with this from a historic perspective is that the Celtic civ is more the Gaels and Picts and such being converted away from the druidic and other traditional religions (represented by the UA), rather than the other way around.
I don't have strong objections, but it doesn't sound all that fun, but maybe that's because I don't use missionaries much, and given that they already have 4 moves, extra movement doesn't seem very important..
Highlander as a longsword UU that doesn't require steel and maybe gets a hill bonus might be interesting.

The two-tile range kinda makes the Kreml obsolete for them, but it is Russias only wonder, it should have a worth for them

I really don't think this is an important goal.
Though thinking about Russia: how is the extra strategic resources from Krepost supposed to work, can a building give extra strategics for nearby strategics? I wouldn't have thought that would be possible in code.
If all it gives is +production on strategics, then I agree we have an underpowered civ.

I still feel the Iroquois are fine as they are

Agreed.

I think there may be some confusion over the coffee house proposal: I think Tomice may have thought we were going to give Austria a unique building called "Publishing House" for Austria. Whereas I think the actual proposal is to change the Coffee House from being a UB that replaces the workshop to a UB that replaces the Theater (the building at printing press that gives happiness) - and we have already renamed the Theater to Publishing House for all civs.

 

[mitsho]

Oh, that may very well be, I'm not familiar enough with the new names myself as well...

Regarding the Celts, I believe that ship has sailed long ago with the Celtic City List... I never liked their setup very much myself, but it is what it is And it's the only mid-to-late-game speciality I can think of for them (and I personally feel the early game is stuffed enough already).

Not sure if the extra strategics are possible on a building as well. And don't get me wrong, I'd first change the Kremlin than the Russians And I guarantee you that there will be some roleplaying geek complaining about the lacking synergy of the two . What about this for Russia:

UA: Siberian Riches: double quantity of strategic ressources, faster movement near rivers in peacetime (Siberian River Routes)
UB: Krepost: Barracks with on strategics and 5 free tiles*
UU: Cossack stays the same.

*This way it does help even after the Kremlin

 

[Eiger2112]

I feel the Dutch are fine. Keeping 100% happiness of luxuries traded away is very strong. It gives you free gold early on and allows fast build up of infrastructure (in single player of course).

Hi Mitsho,

When I played them, I didn't meet many other civs early (only one other on my little continent), and when I did they didn't want to give me gold for my luxuries, surplus or not. I was peaceful and friendly with most, but when I asked for anything besides another luxury, they wouldn't go for it.

Maybe this is because of the unnaturally high happiness that the AIs maintain, as discussed in another thread? Maybe they just don't feel the need to spend gold (or plain don't have it to spend) on luxuries. How much do you usually get for your Luxuries?

But I originally liked the UA for this potential extra happiness rather than the gold - I thought it would allow faster expansion. Trade Gems for Silver, and you get the 4 from Silver (that you wouldn't otherwise have) and keep 2 from the Gems = +2 Happy. But whenever I could, I used a luxury I had a surplus of... for +4 Happy. You know how it is: when you have ivory, you have IVORY x4 or x5 and can trade it to everybody. There were just a few deals that required this UA.

It sounded good in theory, but was weak in practice.

The idea is that you protect the civilians with Ships!

Maybe we're thinking different types of maps? I'm envisioning my settler going across some water to a biggish type island or even "the new world" and wanting to look around a bit to find the best city site. If it's small enough that a ship can circle it and see everything (or enough), and bombard any barbs near your potential city site, then I'd rather settle on a lesser quality site on the mainland until later in the game. The tech to make a mostly-water city valuable doesn't come until later, and they're too hard to defend early on (especially pre-embark early!) so I don't usually go out of my way to settle little islands until after Navigation and beyond anyway.

Maybe if I was squeezed on a small island, or squeezed out by neighbors, or playing archipelago... and the perfect sized island was just off the coast with a new luxury...

But maybe I'd choose Archipelago JUST to use this ability to advantage and play a little differently. And I suppose you could settle on the coast of a bigger island, and then buy/build military units to explore and protect. It would give you a foothold. But you wouldn't have a trade route for an era or two... But it might be an interesting game, even with a helpless Settler.

Cheers, Eiger

 

[mystikx21]

Embarking across oceans isn't available until later on, so settling that far away may not be an option (this is the Polynesian advantage of being able to cross oceans sooner, which is different than being able to embark sooner).

Carthage will get free lighthouses so they will have trade routes also, as long as you stick to the coast.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I know this isn't constructive, but I'd like to say that the "Prussian Values" ability is painfully boring.

 

[mitsho]

The main bonus for Carthage are supposed to be the free Light Houses anyways.

The Dutch ability still works when you have 4-5 ivories. As long as there are 4-5 people to sell it to. Afterwards it's just too bad luck (which is why I'm advocating being able to gift ressources to City States). But those are situations which don't occur often. Think of the other way around, you can find single spots of luxuries (f.e. in a CS) and then sell them and keep the happiness. It's free gold. And it really is the gold that's the main benefit, not the happiness (since you only get more when you trade 1-1 for a luxury you don't have yet), so the Dutch don't have more happiness available than other civs, it's still dependent on the amount available on the map

@AlpsStranger Why do you think it's boring? We've struggled with creating good specialist UA's first by granting additional yields across the board, increasing the GP Rate. They all end up either too strong or too boring. With the Scientists = Engineers, the idea was to offer flexibilty between war and peace, but still adding a power punch. I agree that free prototypes could be fun, but I'd need to see the whole proposal first )

No opinions on Ottomans as City State Killers?

 

[Ahriman]

The Dutch ability still works when you have 4-5 ivories. As long as there are 4-5 people to sell it to. Afterwards it's just too bad luck

This is part of my problem; being able to trade the last one away in some sense *discourages* you from searching out more luxuries, whereas I thought the flavor goal was designed to try to encourage that. If I only have 3 trade partners, now I only want to bother getting 3 copies of a luxury, not 4. And it also has poor synergy the the Commerce finisher, whereas presumably we want to encourage the Dutch to be useing Commerce.

But I can certainly live with it, and I'm eager to try out the new Polder.

No opinions on Ottomans as City State Killers?

It doesn't seem that flavorful to me. The Ottomans built a mighty empire by eating a dying empire, and then proceeded to fight the other major powers of the region. They don't really strike me as being particularly anti-city state oriented, and we already have a bit of that on the mongols.

I guess my problem with the Ottomans is that it's hard to get themes that translate into gameplay well. I'll see if I can come up with some themes that might work.

 

[agc28]

@agc28, Well, to be honest, I haven't played with the Maya for a while, but if Theology now isn't the best tech to trigger the UA, we can always move it to another tech. After all, the idea is that the UA is balanced enough that you can beeline for it and profit more.

I just played with Maya in my last game. The UB definitely is buffed, but with currency introduced as a prerequisite for theology, the GEM Mayans will produce 3-4 fewer great person than the original game.

 

[mitsho]

What tech would you suggest as trigger for the Maya ability then? I've always assumed that they tested it at first without a condition but a Free Great Prophet proved too strong as early... Currency? Philosophy? you need to propose something

Agreed that as long as we don't find a better idea for the Dutch, the UA is okay. It's certainly strong enough, even if it doesn't satisfy our other conditions. And I totally overlooked the "can bully CS to surrender" on the Mongols. Okay, so we don't need that effect anymore. The Ottomans are tough in any case, I'd really like them to have something connected with Courthouses, but it's hard to find a good effect on a building that may or may not be used ever (but then we have the same problem with many of the "on city conquest" bonuses, so it might be okay again).

 

[Tomice]

Coffee House as a Workshop replacement makes more sense than as a Publishing house? After all you read (and discuss) printed stuff in Coffee Shops The important thing is that it goes well together with the other Uniques to support buying up City States all over the globe (in game)

Sure it doesn't make sense as workshop replacement, but it is an existing part of our culture. A publishing house is nothing with a typical Austrian flavour. And the coffee house culture is about the "Kaffeehaus" as meeting point of creatives, artists, journalists but also managers, politicians and nobility.

It is not about reading something there. It is about the fact that many Austrians tend to spend a lot of time in their favourite coffee house, so many famous people would meet each other there. Not only by purpose, but often just by chance due to the sheer time spent there. It's very much like the Roman Thermae (baths), which were important meeting points.

 

[mitsho]

You misunderstood me. As Ahriman pointed out above, the buildings have been renamed in GEM 1.13.1. I want to keep the name Coffee House. It's fitting and it's flavourful. I was proposing to rebalance the Coffee House so that it fits better with the rest of the civ. More Great Persons don't seem particulaly synergistic from a gameplay point of view for the Austrian "Pick-CS-up" playstyle. I proposed the Coffee House to replace the Publishing House and not the Workshop and that it should have a different effect than raising the Great People Rate

 

[AnthonyG]

Looking good for the most part, can't wait.

The only civ I really don't like is Austria - I don't find at all useful/great the annexing CS thing.

 

[Tomice]

You misunderstood me.

Oh yes I did Also haven't seen what Ahriman wrote Sorry for that!

I'll think about a possible effect under these circumstances. But something like 1 per CS ally would be a nice and unique building effect. Is it possible?

EDIT:
@AnthonyG: The Austrian UA was considered overpowered in it's original form, so we can definitively make it useful. It's also pretty unique and even historically true. Could you specify why you don't like it?

 

[Thalassicus]

I updated the table in post #1 based on feedback.

One really interesting unused effect for improvements is bonus yield adjacent to cities. What about a unique village that gets a bonus near cities, encouraging a different development style? What leader would this fit?

The Prototypes ability makes the 1st unit of each line start with powerful unique bonuses. If we build 5 archers, one of those is superpowered. It's the inverse of a unique unit. Instead of 1 elite unit line, every line has 1 elite. We could change the name to something like "officer" or "hero," anything to show that unit is better than most. I'm willing to move this effect to a different leader if we can think of a civ where it would make more sense. I'm set on having it somewhere.

I would like to find a home for the "better natural wonder yields" unique ability. I agree it would make sense on a leader focused on citystates.

Here are rare promotion effects we could add to some UUs or UAs:

• AlwaysHostile & HiddenNationality (Civ 4 style pirates)
• RangedSupportFire (ranged unit fires back when friends attacked)
• RivalTerritory (can enter territory without open borders)
• EnemyRoute (can use enemy roads)
• EnemyHealChange (heals in hostile terrain)
• HealOnPillage (better pillage healing)
• Invisible (spy type unit)
• NoCapture (civilians)

@Anvari
I agree Bismark was not a particularly warlike leader, one reason I'm exploring ideas for a UB.

@Alteris
Welcome to the community!

I'd be okay with adding some bonuses back to Persia. The original concept with them was to make golden ages better in every way. That got sort of disrupted when G&K made GA's better anyway. The more frequent golden age part of Persia was moved onto the unique building, which gives instant progress towards a golden age. I believe this is more exciting than a passive increase in golden age duration.

@Brannock
It's possible to add as many uniques as we want, but I want to keep it focused on 3 per leader, to avoid diluting the uniqueness of the existing stuff. I also agree a unique Pioneer settler for America sounds exciting, but it's a rather controversial topic, so I want to focus on the things with broad consensus in the community.

@Ahriman
Legion cover bonus works against all ranged damage. I believe it also gives legions early access to Blitz, since Cover leads to Blitz.

@pthmix
I intend to have just 2-3 civs with double UBs, and the same amount of double UUs. Any more than that makes doubled bonuses less unique.

@agc28
I have not played the unmodded game in a long time, so I was unaware it was so easy to beeline Theology in G&K. I believe it was harder in vanilla, which is what the mod's based on. I played the Mayans several times and feel they are a very powerful civ. I'm okay with removing the Currency-Theology link, however, and did so for Gem 1.13.5.

@Babri
I added the hoplite movement bonus to let them keep up with companion cavalry, but it seems we're removing the cavalry, so the speed bonus is no longer necessary.

@Eiger2112
I like your idea of a Barbary Port coming from a Market, though perhaps a Harbor would fit better. Ethiopia is the tall-empire civ. Gandhi has a war focus in the base game, and a peace focus in the mod. He's never been a tall empire civ; a Steam achievement caused that myth.

@mitsho
Here you go: mediafire.com/?eeqnd93n1s4s9

@sukritact
The Vedic Altar allows India to found one of the very first pantheons, representing the incredibly ancient and long-lasting Vedic belief predating Hinduism. Some of its religious texts are the oldest known examples of the Indo-European language family.

The French siege unit represents how Napoleonic artillery was effective against infantry. If we change one of the units, I'd rather keep the French gun and replace the Korean Hwach'a with their original Turtle Ship, since ships are better now.

@Ahriman
I would be okay with Hoplites getting an open terrain bonus, though I think Horse Archers and Samurai have that. I think the anti-strategic-unit bonus is somewhat more unique.

@mitsho
Something to recognize with free border expansion is it does not increase the cost of future expansions, so it allows civs to rapidly reach outer rings.

@Brannock
The only start biases we can do are rivers, coast, or terrain. The start location system is very limited. I've been wanting to improve that for years, but just never had enough time.

@Eiger2112
I liked the worker AI in Civ 4 where we could tell it to improve just a specific city. I also liked the "automate routes" worker AI which told it to simply build roads and railroads everywhere. I stopped doing that because roads in Civ 5 get horribly ugly if you connect them up certain ways. I'm a perfectionist and always try to get my roads to look nice.

@Eiger2112
I think a new Mutual Open Borders benefit sounds interesting for the Netherlands.

@mitsho
If we do the Russian bonus as 2-tile starting borders, I plan to change the effect of the Kremlin. The UA effect might turn out to not be very powerful, but I think it's interesting and different, and might change the way we play. I want to try it out.

@Tomice
I like the Coffee House as a Workshop replacement because it's not something we'd normally build in all cities. Publishing House is something everyone gets everywhere.

 

[Ahriman]

But something like 1 per CS ally would be a nice and unique building effect.

Wouldn't this have poor synergy with the annexation power? If you annex them you lose the bonus.

I changed the Ottomans back after realizing a Barbary warehouse just makes them the Dutch, both getting ship capture around the same time. I want at least one leader to have the early piracy capability, because it's very fun!

Sounds good.

What about a leader with a unique village that gets a bonus near cities, encouraging a totally different development style?

This sounds interesting, it would be interesting to have *one* civ that might make a go of ICS. Who would it fit for though, thematically?

Legion cover bonus works against all ranged damage. I

Thanks, legion is probably fine then.

Gandhi has a war focus in the base game, and a peace focus in the mod. He's never been a tall empire civ

? Gandhi had a defensive/Tall focus in the base game. Double unhappiness per city pushed India to play Tall.
I'm playing Gandhi at the moment, and I can definitely say he works very well for Tall because of the river food bonus. I don't see anything that is particularly peace-oriented.

I think the anti-strategic-unit bonus is somewhat more unique.

I think it's pretty boring and not very useful. I agree that open terrain bonus overlaps too much with samurai, so I'd prefer to see them get the defense bonus.

 

[mitsho]

I agree that Gandhi isn't necessarily peaceful, but then our human mind will make us use every bonus for war.... So it's not by design

I assume the "5 tiles for free" effect is not possible, but the 2-tile-border ring is? Because the first would work for the Russian Krepost as well and keep the Kreml useful for them.

No comment on the Gebirgsjäger or the question on how the Jelling Stones are different from the Roman UA?

The village UI-near cities might work for the Ottomans as their centralized organisation of the empire laid quite a big focus on these provinical capitals: From Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo to many more. And after all, it's the one civ where we have a big gap at the moment
Or the Celtic Dun, where newer research hints that they weren't really "hillforts" as they are known. Not sure why they would be better near cities though...

A candidate for the NW-effect could be the Austrians, since they will target CS to buy anyways already? I just can't think of a "historic" explanation

Do you know what those promotions do? For example I assume No Capture kills the unit instead, which isn't that useful... Or how RangedSupportFire works. That sounds strong (but I assume it only works when there's a movement point left which means it's useless again since if the unit is in range, you would have wanted to attack during the turn...)