Magnus Provision Nerf

[dingdongding1413]

Probably an unpopular opinion here but it kinda seems like Magnus's ability, Provision, is pretty overpowered. It allows for the main city to be a baby maker in the early game where it's pretty certain to have 15+ cities by turn 100. He overall seems to be the first pick as a governor no matter what the case is.

Should there be a number of charges to the ability or possibly moving it down the list? I'm pretty new to the whole government system still but I would like to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

[Arithmion]

Probably an unpopular opinion here but it kinda seems like Magnus's ability, Provision, is pretty overpowered. It allows for the main city to be a baby maker in the early game where it's pretty certain to have 15+ cities by turn 100. He overall seems to be the first pick as a governor no matter what the case is.

Should there be a number of charges to the ability or possibly moving it down the list? I'm pretty new to the whole government system still but I would like to hear everyone's thoughts.

15 Cities at turn 100? Cool! I'd love to see a step-by-step of how you did that.

 

[Sostratus]

Magnus could be reduced to just his chop ability and he would still be picked all the time. As a governor oriented towards expansion, it's no surprise he is a popular early pick. (I disagree with the existence of such a governor but that is just me.)
The benefit of settlers not using population really depends on how much space you need to settle quickly. On some maps that might only be a few cities. The downside is I am spending a governor title on a promotion to lock in settler production in one city when I can build settlers in many cities if I want, and early on the population loss is quite negligible - a few turns or so. Contrast with, say, getting pingala's science and culture up sooner, it's not such a mindless choice.
It's really good for empires that like an early-mid game rush using a resource intensive unit like swords or knights, because it leads to black marketeer.
In many ways I think Surplus logistics can be better if you are using domestic routes or have a plains capital that could use the extra growth (and you may build settlers somewhere else, eg ancestral hall.)

 

[acluewithout]

I find Magnus' Provision Promotion is only situationally useful.

If my Capital has thumping production, then it can be useful so my Cap can pump out Settlers, keep Pop to work tiles, and so keep growing and pump out Settlers faster and faster. In that situation, Provision is particularly useful if my Cap has thumping production but low food, because then I really don't want to lose population because it's so hard to grow it.

But a lot of the time I really don't need to avoid losing Pop, because my Cap is still very productive bouncing between 2 and 3 Population. And if I have Magnus tied down in a City, I can't move him around chopping in Wonders etc. And of course, the promotion is completely useless if I'm not producing Settlers, e.g. because there's no room to expand, or all the expansion options are awful, or I'm stuck fighting wars.

Instead, I find Provision more useful when I'm settling later in the game, or can buy settlers with Gold or Faith, although settling mid-late game is a sure sign I'm not playing optimally.

Honestly, I think the Governors and Promotions are pretty well balanced. You really have to make tough choices around early promotions given how few governor titles you have, the promotions themselves are actually fairly situational (except maybe Magnus' chop, which is probably always useful, but I'm okay with that), and you often have to make tough choices about keeping a governor in one city or moving them around. Indeed, that's precisely why I very much dislike the free promotions in Secret Societies, because it really throws off that early finely tuned balance with Governors and early Governor titles.