Standard Communitas_79 on Immortal Netherlands (no tech trading, no ruins). DV on Turn 418.
So this was a good game to test out several of the changes. Ultimately I was pretty dominant most of the game. I had constant wars with Inca, but our forest border kept both of us from pushing too hard. I had a quick early war to snag Arabia's overextended city, and later on as both the Inca and England started to build up, Arabia did a volunteer vassal with me.
I knew England was going to be a major threat, both for its upcoming naval power through SOTL, but also its aggressive allying of the southern CS below me. So I went with a very aggressive Sea Beggar strat. I saved all of my gold, did a tech beeline to Beggars, and then blew all of my gold to buy/upgrade my ships into a ready to go fleet.
This proved perfect timing, I was able to get my beggars out against England just as his SOTL were starting to come online. I managed to trap 2 SOTL in the cities, and pounced. England had few ranged units, and some of them were busy fighting Arabia. Without land support, his cities were easy prey...I took his capital without much issue, and vassalized him.
Meanwhile, Persia was becoming the dominant western power. Getting 2 liberation requests for some western CS, I decided to pay him a visit. This turned into a massive late game war, which gave me a chance to really play with some vassal and air war options. Ultimately Persia was no match for my might, and I steadily pushed him back.
All of it came to a head as Hegemony rolled around. While my vassals would not vote for me innately, they could be bribed. I bought all fo the votes from my two vassals, which combined with my own secured the victory.
1)
Critical Note: So with the change your vassals don't vote for you innately. However, there is nothing that stops you from using the innate diplomat to bribe them for hegemony votes. With that in mind, I do not think any adjustment in vote count is needed, my vassals gave me reasonable deals for my good treatment of them. It was expensive, but nothing crazy considering it was giving me the win.
2) I really like the new fighter paradigm. I was using Triplanes and Zeroes for their range when needed, and then brought in bombers for the real pain once I took a city. At no point did I find the new fighter superior to the bomber, but the added range gave me just enough flexibility that I found a niche for both. I like it!
3) I did not find the increased healing speed to be of consequence, it still simply takes too long for a late game city to heal up.
4) I immediately used the back to back UN vote, as it failed the first time, but I was able to vote for it in the next run. I like it!
5) The patch notes for hydro says its +4 now, but its only +3. Hydro is better for islands now, but I did the math on several of my cities
6) Comparing Nuclear to Wind. So in my capital I did the math. A nuclear plant generated an extra 201 production (this is including 5 engineer specialists, and the +2 hammer they receive). My wind plant would generate an extra 106. So the nuclear plant is now clearly the better option for hammers, but the wind plant still generates a good amount of science and gold on top. My first reaction when I saw the nuclear change was I thought it was be way too good at 50%...but honestly on my first pass I think that's not unreasonable for spending a precious uranium. Further, as science has been slowed down, allowing for a speed up in hammers to slightly compensate makes sense.
7) Police Station: So I did a look at my cities in the late game stage. Without exception (and I even had a 30 pop non capital), I had maximum happiness in every city. So the police station literally did nothing for me. It might be better to have it give a -1 to all types of unhappiness or some other change.
8) Solar Plant still shows 15% instead of the 20% that is now expected.
9) I definitely noticed the weaker GS. Generally I start bulbing around Industrial Era for a progress play, I may try a few more academies next time to see if I get a better utilization overall.
10) I did not have a religion all game, and yet dominated this game quite easily. Again, its surprising the benefits of not worrying about shrines early and letting other people just fight over you, acquiring religious buildings and then having a ton of faith late game on GP.
