GAMEPLAY
Golden Ages now provide +20% production per city rather than +1 hammer per tile
I wonder if this works out to a net gain or loss in production late game with all the building modifiers factored in.
BALANCE CHANGES
Game Rules
Cities must now have three or more tiles in between them (1 more tile than before), unless separated by a sea/coast tile.
I like this. Now you actually have to make decisions about city placement instead of just cramming it in and ignoring terrain. This actually hurts the AI more than ICS humans IMO.
Cities now only get 1 free production and 0 free gold (1 less in both cases)
Dislike.
Balance pass on production and maintenance costs throughout the game.
Specifics? What the heck does this really mean?
Buildings
Aqueduct added (entirely new building). 40% of Food is carried over after a new Citizen is born.
Palace boosted to 3 gold and 3 production
Granary gives bonus 1 food for Wheat/Banana Deer; cost reduced
Market and Bazaar provide 2 gold (as well as +25%)
Workshop provides 2 production (bonus reduced to +15% but affects ALL production); cost increased
Like all.
Stable gives bonus 1 production for Sheep/Cattle/Horse and can be built with Sheep or Cattle; cost reduced
Cathrine's plains horses will now be borderline IMBA.
Forge adds +1 production to each source of Iron
In addition to or in place of current benefit?
Reduced Colosseum happiness to 3, and reduced maintenance to 2 gold
Reduced Theatre happiness to 4
If they want to improve big cities, why are they nerfing happiness more?
Academy increased to 6 Science.
Landmark increased to 6 Culture.
Manufactory increased to 4 Production.
These help a little, but with your first scientist still coming so late, I still don't see myself building an academy except with Babylon. Even with all the possible modifiers, that's only 24 beakers a turn? Hardly noticed late game.
Policies
Tradition: Culture border expansion discount in cities placed on Tradition branch opener. Discount increases over the course of the game. Also grants +3 Culture in the capital.
France OCC culture victory anyone?
Legalism: Provides a free Culture building in your first 4 cities.
Like this but what is the building? How much culture does it give?
Oligarchy: Garrisoned units cost no maintenance, and cities with a garrison gain +100% ranged combat strength.
This is actually really nice. Combine it with military caste and suddenly you've got a new way to ICS?
(Don't tell Firaxis or they will nerf it
).
Landed Elite: +15% Growth, and +2 Food per city.
Good for both ICS and small empires. Hey now you can set your cities on production focus and they'll still grow at least once.
Monarchy: +1 Gold and -1 Unhappiness for every 2 Citizens in your capital.
This is much better. Instead of 33% less unhappiness we get 50% less (except for India) and we retain the +1 gold. combined 2 poor bonuses into one solid one is always nice.
Liberty: +1 culture per turn in every city.
Moving this to liberty and bumping the settler down makes things interesting.
Collective Rule: Settler production increased by 50%, and a free Settler appears near the capital.
And getting a free settler on top of just the production bonus makes up for it!
Citizenship: Worker construction rate increased by 25%, and a free Worker appears near the capital.
Free worker. Hmm, which policy path to take. All the choices are good now. Nice patching Firaxis.
Representation: Each city you found will increase the cost of your next Policy by 33% less. Also starts a Golden Age.
This is terrific. Now you can ICS and still might get a few policies after all. I wonder how many turns the golden age is.
Order: Reduce Order production bonus to 15%.
Meh. The +5 from communism was the more significant boost anyways.
Meritocracy: +0.5 Happiness for each city connected to the capital, and a free Great Person of your choice appears near the capital.
The free great person is nice. Lots of ways to go with that. Head straight for this and get an academy, rush a tech, rush a wonder, do a trade mission get a free ally and 500 gold?
Wonders
Colossus no longer goes obsolete
Finally. Still don't know if I'll ever build it though.
Civ Unique Bonuses
Doubled culture from kills for Aztecs
About time. We'll see if it's enough.
Overall a really nice patch. They didn't nerf ICS, but instead made it more gradual and natural. Now you can still ICS, but you might put it off until later. The first 3 policy branches provide all that is needed. If you manage to get to Planned economy, you will get getting +0.5 net happiness per city without Forbidden Palace and have a massive, gold free defensive army waiting on standby and buffing your cities quite substantially. If you can pull off Stonehenge and Oracle it will be real easy to do.
