making the case for RA/GS being way OP

[chazzycat]

so maybe there is already a consensus on this subject, but I had to share my recent experience:

Recently I finished playing the game I discussed in this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=448502

It was one of the most challenging and fun games I've ever played. Then in my next game, I hit random civ, random map type, and got Korea on an archipelago. Was alone on a very small island, decent start for Korea but not amazing by any stretch. Same difficulty as the Inca game - immortal.

I decided to go OCC just because I was Korea and had marble. The game was way too friggin easy...it was barely even fun. Using RAs, it was no problem at all to stay comfortably ahead of all the other civs in science, with just ONE city. As opposed to my Inca game with 9 cities, where I struggled HARD just to barely keep pace.

The AI did get more powerful later in the industrial era, but who cares? I had 6 scientists by that time from my one city. No one ever came close to touching me or preventing my victory.

I ended up finishing the game about 60 turns earlier than my Inca game. I had one city, and my demographics were dead last in every single category but science. All I did was sign RAs and work my university.

RAs and GS are overpowered.

 

[Optional]

Yes, you're not the first to notice. For reference, this thread called "RA's; the biggest bug never fixed!" is too good not to give a link to as well: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=435585.
It has a decent discussion about possible fixes as well.

 

[avdale]

A strat to show off the power of GS+RA spam is Snarzberry's Stealth Bomber strat where you can hit stealth at turn 180. The two mechanics allow you to manipulate the game in such silly ways and pull of strats which would otherwise be impossible.

 

[Tabarnak]

A strat to show off the power of GS+RA spam is Snarzberry's Stealth Bomber strat where you can hit stealth at turn 180. The two mechanics allow you to manipulate the game in such silly ways and pull of strats which would otherwise be impossible.

Not only stealth bombers, everything that come from modern techs. You can even throw a spaceship before turn 200 if you are a bit lucky.

The VEM mod addresses this problem fairly well.

 

[Gamewizard]

The VEM mod addresses this problem fairly well.

Agreed, that is one of my favorite fixes with that mod.

 

[Becephalus]

You need to make a case for this? It is transparently obvious.

GS and RA are completely broken, period. That is all the more that needs to be said about it. I tend to play hotseat with A LOT of house rules, one of which is that you must settle all GP and another is which there are no RA. Neither mechanic makes a lick of sense in the context of the rest of the games rules. If this was some silly facebook game sure, but it is not.

Tech trading is pretty much horrible in every game it has ever been included in. Diffusion would be fine, but trading is just so so so easy to exploit.