Nerfed, buffed, and meh (civilizations)

[Montezumas Hat]

Been playing some more, I think I can safely make some more assumptions.

-Iroquois. Granted, their UA technically changed, but it's one line, and the rest of it improved too. Caravans move through forest/jungle like road, which makes their trade routes much longer from the get go.

-Inca, seriously. Cheap as free roads for city connections AND longer trade routes? They're just nuts.

-The Celts. The move of Piety to ancient is enough to get a non religious civ to a pantheon first, so in combination with Pictish warriors and their UA, The Celts in reasonable hands should be first to their religion almost every time. Add in their UB with its new great music slot, and you've got a much improved civ.

-India is so much better. Internal routes make their UA worthwhile, building tall is much more encouraged, and of course Mughal Forts changed.

-Byzantium obviously has the boost from earlier piety and reformation being their seventh belief, but they also have Dromon, which makes early sea exploration better and, more importantly, makes early sea routes more defendable.

-Despite the hate, I'd be willing to say America got a slight buff. The extra sight, besides being great for seeking out more trade partners, is also great for keeping those trades monitored and safe.

Admittedly, this is all early game stuff. Haven't made it far enough to see late game bonuses, cause I always play Marathon.

 

[Maktaka]

Songhai - I never thought I would see it this way, but the Gold from River Warlord is actually very good now. Improved religion also helps the UB.

In addition to that, with standalone (i.e. non-Great-Work) culture harder to come by their +2 culture and zero maintenance Mud Pyramid Mosque is much more useful.

 

[seasnake]

Everyone seems to forget that the Dutch still have their UU. The Sea Beggar absolutely dominates the seven seas if used correctly. I took out several coastal cities without even using frigates (logistics ftw, double attack and then get the hell out)

Nerfed does not mean the Civ as a whole is bad. The UA was never the best thing about the Dutch, but it is certain that it took a blow.

 

[ahawk]

Aztecs are amazing.

1) Jaguars help find you early CSes and civs for once your trade-routes come online.

2) Floating Gardens can now be combined with food-moving trade-routes to make uber cities of any city on a river or lake.

3) Aztec UA is even more powerful than before, as culture, especially early on, is now not as easy to get since cultural buildings now produce little culture until filled with a relatively large number of great works.

 

[CleverFool]

It's true that Zulu win out over Germany on the maintenance and Impi/promotions. But it seems like the ability to take over barbarian units is way more useful with the expansion. Barb camps are definitely spawning more often, and more importantly, they are spawning units whose tech scales with civs in the game, plus those that require strategic resources (swordsmen, horsemen, etc). I think this will make Furor Teutonicus way more useful over the course of the game if you can keep snagging good units, more often, from camps.

The other thing folks should remember is that the Zulu maintenance discount applies only to melee units, whereas Germany's applies to all land units, not just melee troops.

I can confirm this. In a Germany game I'm playing I think I've gotten 2 sword and 3 Horseman units (not to mention the usual brutes), without being particularly lucky. There's definitely a lot more camps in general; I actually use barb hunting as a "training" ground for my new units, before sending them off to the front lines.

Combined with the Honour Tree, I'm getting + Culture, + XP, and + Gold for each barbarian killed, plus the chance of getting another pretty good unit. I've had to produce surprisingly few units overall.

Overall I think that Germany may have actually gotten a buff. I'm not sure if they can compare to the Zulu, having not tried them yet, but I think they are better than people give them credit for.