pre-release info New First Look: Catherine the Great

pre-release info
If they make Prussia cultural and France militaristic in VII, I will throw my computer off my roof.
I am only going off the fact that one of Frederick’s persona might be cultural, scientific, or both. I am leaning towards a scientific persona considering she is more culture based.
 
I am only going off the fact that one of Frederick’s persona might be cultural, scientific, or both. I am leaning towards a scientific persona considering she is more culture based.
He's too Franchophille. except that Prussia under his leadership went war against France.
His palace is named Sansoucci. perfectly being a carbon copy of Versailles.
His elite guard cavalry (which also a Cadet unit) is Garde du Corps.
 
Ok we have known 22 leader choices out of 26. Only 1 of these 22 we know nothing about, Himiko. 3 leaders have been revealed to have 2 personas, out of 5 leaders with 2 personas in total. That means 2 out of 3 leaders, Himiko, Fred (extremely likely at this point), and the last remaining mystery, will have 2 personas. And since Himiko is extremely unlikely to have 2 personas, Fred is pretty much guaranteed to have 2, together with our last leader who is yet to be revealed.
 
Ok we have known 22 leader choices out of 26. Only 1 of these 22 we know nothing about, Himiko. 3 leaders have been revealed to have 2 personas, out of 5 leaders with 2 personas in total. That means 2 out of 3 leaders, Himiko, Fred (extremely likely at this point), and the last remaining mystery, will have 2 personas. And since Himiko is extremely unlikely to have 2 personas, Fred is pretty much guaranteed to have 2, together with our last leader who is yet to be revealed.
In theory it's possible to reveal some personas for already revealed leaders, but I found it quite unlikely.
 
Catherine has a tundra starting bias. Thus, selecting her will provide a safe setup for Russia, I presume.
Other leaders might struggle or need to rely on finding and expanding into tundra.
Given that there should always be tundra near the poles—north or south—it does not seem too difficult to establish an antiquity or exploration path for it.

Tundra settling should be easier than in the previous itérations of CIV. Two reason for that:
- Tundra used to have meager yield in CIV 6, half that of plains/grass. You needed a lot of bonus ressources to have something at least decent, or civ bonus such as Canada.
In Civ 7, all tiles will have the same kind of yield, be it in tempered climat or extreme ones. Tundra will therefore have similar yield to other starts (see Land Terrain Guide).
- The city/town mechanisms will allow you to feed you cities with a few town specialized in food production. So you won't have to sacrifice your trade route to have that tundra spot grow (and later not starve...).

As for desert settling, it will still be rather chalenging, since none of the desert tiles configurations produce food, except for oasis (and I don't know how frequent theose will be...)...
 
His palace is named Sansoucci. perfectly being a carbon copy of Versailles.
It really isn't. It's called Prussian Versailles, but not because of the architectural similarities. Sanssouci is built in Rococo style, while Versailles is the baroque palace. Both styles stand for a different lifestyle, philosophy, and architecture (inside and outside). It would actually have been nice to get Versailles, Sanssouci, and the Hermitage as wonders to have a baroque, a rococo, and a classicist palace in the game.

That said, sure, Old Fritz was a Francophile. But judging from Catherine, he will speak modern High German (although old Berlin dialect would be easy to do - just as Russian with German accent seems very easy). I doubt that he would be the first leader introduced to have his own unique unit - how would that work anyway? A leader that gets a unique unit in each age or only in the last one? The first seems impossible, the latter underwhelming.
 
It really isn't. It's called Prussian Versailles, but not because of the architectural similarities. Sanssouci is built in Rococo style, while Versailles is the baroque palace. Both styles stand for a different lifestyle, philosophy, and architecture (inside and outside). It would actually have been nice to get Versailles, Sanssouci, and the Hermitage as wonders to have a baroque, a rococo, and a classicist palace in the game.

That said, sure, Old Fritz was a Francophile. But judging from Catherine, he will speak modern High German (although old Berlin dialect would be easy to do - just as Russian with German accent seems very easy). I doubt that he would be the first leader introduced to have his own unique unit - how would that work anyway? A leader that gets a unique unit in each age or only in the last one? The first seems impossible, the latter underwhelming.
Gardes du Corps? Mounted UU exists from the beginning to end. Can't really imagine Gardes du Corps riding chariots. or being cataphracts :P before eventually became cuirassiers (which this unit begins) and evolved into AFVs. (Prussian Gardes du Corps lost their distinct 'White with red trim' uniforms in the last years of WW1, became no different to anybody else in Imperial German Army).
If they ride tanks, they should ride Tiger at the final evolutions stage.
And itself doubles as Field Commander, limited counts (only one can be trained at a time)
 
That said, sure, Old Fritz was a Francophile. But judging from Catherine, he will speak modern High German (although old Berlin dialect would be easy to do - just as Russian with German accent seems very easy). I doubt that he would be the first leader introduced to have his own unique unit - how would that work anyway? A leader that gets a unique unit in each age or only in the last one? The first seems impossible, the latter underwhelming.

If we look at Charlemagne, it would be more likely a trigger that spawn a type of unit instead of unique units. At most it could be a special type of Great Person, but military unit it would be too difficult to deal with...
 

Introducing Catherine the Great!​


Born a German princess, Catherine the Great overthrew her husband in 1762 to become Empress of Russia. Guided by a vision of modernization, she established new models of law and governance, and oversaw an era of rapid expansion through war and diplomacy. Motivated by intellectual curiosity and love of the arts, Catherine also sponsored creatives, scholars, and scientists, fostering the Russian Enlightenment and its environment of innovation.

Agenda:
Dusha: Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount with player who has the most Great Works. Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount with the player with the least. Catherine the Great must have a Great Work for this to take effect.

Starting Biases:
Tundra

Attributes:
Cultural
Scientific

Unique Ability:
Star of the North: Increased Culture per Age on displayed Great Works. Buildings with Great Work slots gain an additional slot. Cities settled in Tundra gain Science equal to a percentage of their Culture per turn.

Game Guide here: https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-guide/leaders/catherine-the-great/

I really don't like her agenda.

Russian attitude has generally been the opposite. Affection for the more culture-oriented "others" like France, Italy. Animosity towards the more work-oriented, like Germany, Britain.
 
I really don't like her agenda.

Russian attitude has generally been the opposite. Affection for the more culture-oriented "others" like France, Italy. Animosity towards the more work-oriented, like Germany, Britain.
I don't think that's the case. Europe during this period was a mess of weird alliances. For example, in 1812 Russia fought together with Prussia and Britain against France. Culture had nothing to do there.

So, if we put aside what agendas themselves aren't that great mechanics, this one looks ok.
 
It really isn't. It's called Prussian Versailles, but not because of the architectural similarities. Sanssouci is built in Rococo style, while Versailles is the baroque palace. Both styles stand for a different lifestyle, philosophy, and architecture (inside and outside). It would actually have been nice to get Versailles, Sanssouci, and the Hermitage as wonders to have a baroque, a rococo, and a classicist palace in the game.

That said, sure, Old Fritz was a Francophile. But judging from Catherine, he will speak modern High German (although old Berlin dialect would be easy to do - just as Russian with German accent seems very easy). I doubt that he would be the first leader introduced to have his own unique unit - how would that work anyway? A leader that gets a unique unit in each age or only in the last one? The first seems impossible, the latter underwhelming.
Versailles spawned copies all over Europe: every minor princeling with delusions of grandeur (and that was pretty much all of them) had to have his own version. As an example, the Biebrich Palace in Wiesbaden, built in 1702, is a baroque residence (Schloss) for the duke of Nassau until a more modern palace was built in the mid-19th century. At first glance, this pile of stone looks like far too much palace for what was, after all, only one of 17 different states and statelets of 'Nassau' in Germany at the time, which makes it all too typical of the Versailles copies all over Europe.

And a special unit for a Prussian Leader makes no sense on several levels. First, the problem of keeping/making any unit relevent for the entire game - that takes Civ VII right back to the problems with Uniques of previous games. Second, the historical problem that the Prussian Army didn't go in much for special units. The Foot Guards were simply the 9th Regiment of Infantry, for example. The Garde du Corps simply a copy of the senior French Guards cavalry unit. What was special about Prussian military units was that all of them were trained to the same high level: ALL of the Prussian cavalry could charge a kilometer or more in solid formation and end it with an all-out shock attack, swords in hand - and that included even their light cavalry Hussars, that nobody else thought had any business being on a battlefield at all!

A better representation of Prussian 'specialness' in Frederick might be to model his own famous comment: "The Prussian Army always attacks." - a comment that could be applied to any state that Fred is the Leader of. Under him, possibly, all Army Commanders provide an extra bonus to any melee attack made by any unit under him. Whether that unit is armed with clubs or PzKpfw IVs, it would be equally valuable - or suicidal, as it was on more than one occasion.
 
I don't think that's the case. Europe during this period was a mess of weird alliances. For example, in 1812 Russia fought together with Prussia and Britain against France. Culture had nothing to do there.

So, if we put aside what agendas themselves aren't that great mechanics, this one looks ok.
Not totally wrong, but the agenda itself is specifically about culture.

Now I understand the aim of agendas is to motivate NPC civs to wage war against their competition, but it's going to feel really awkward to receive Russian complaints about excessive culture when playing as France.
 
It is very interesting that Russia and Russian leader both have the exact same abilities. I took a look at the Civ 7 attributes here https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civilization-vii-attributes-overview.693175/
Wow, scientific and cultural abilities are so stacked!
In the scientific tree you get +1 science per specialist, or +2 if you have 3 cities or less. In the cultural tree you get +1 culture per specialist, or +2 if you have 3 cities or less. Similarly, you get both +10% towards culture and science per each alliance, +1 culture and science for every resource and bonus culture and science for every town. So both abilities pushes you towards 3 cities many towns tall play and as many alliances as you can get. Seems extremely synergistic, although not very flexible.
 
I really don't like her agenda.

Russian attitude has generally been the opposite. Affection for the more culture-oriented "others" like France, Italy. Animosity towards the more work-oriented, like Germany, Britain.
Agreed. During her life time, Catherine corresponded with fellow "enlightened" people and liked their company. This agenda should work in the reverse so Catherine likes civs that are more culture-oriented. (There was a similarly weird agenda for Pedro II in Civilization VI.)
 
Moreover, the number of players polyglot enough to appreciate "ah, that's Russian, but spoken by someone whose native language was German" is probably not--well, probably not very poly.
Emmm... Not just Anglophones play Civilization games . In fact Russian is the seventh language be the number of native speakers and many more know it as a second language.
 
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