New First Look: Introducing Edward Teach (Tides of Power)

[Patine]

Him and Chola are going to be besties.

Until the latter's trade routes start looking tasty.

One of my siblings has already called him for our MP sessions and hoo boy will that be a crazy game

Gee, I've never had shared computer game tastes with any of my three siblings.

Black Beard as a playable leader. a no go to me.
But Age of Sail pirates is a kind of pop culture tropes.

Well decisions to make him someone like Leiji Matsumoto's 'Captain Harlock', a heroic idealist pirate 'who fights for something he believes in'.

And those guys with the straw hats.

The agenda should be reworded to, "is indifferent to those who don't build naval units."

 

[uppi]

I don't really use boats in antiquity, so my problem with him is that I won't really get any use from his abilities until exploration. But he'd be absolute murder there on some maps. Could be worth an Aksum/Archipelago game to just let Dhows run wild.

I sometimes use boats in Antiquity, but even then naval combat is something to be avoided at all costs. You cannot really stack naval combat bonuses in Antiquity and tactical maneuvers are very limited as you tend to fight on one-tile coastal strips or navigable rivers. So on Deity, enemy ships will just murder you if you engage them. In war, you need to bring some land units to support the ships, but this won't work with the Pirate ability. So the amount of naval battles you want to fight is very small and the ones you will win even smaller. I am calling it right now: weakest leader in Antiquity and I doubt exploration will make up for that.

The only civ that has decent ships, which can make use of the ability is Carthage (As it stands now, maybe Tonga will get good ships as well). But even they need the right map for this to work. And the AI actually building ships you can fight.

 

[Lord Lakely]

I think the agenda is gnarly and should probably be reversed :3

The ability doesn't speak to me personally, but I do like it mechanically - asymetrical designs are always fun and inspiring, even if they don't fit my normal playstyle. The game is becoming stale for me - so maybe playing a leader that I normally wouldn't gravitate towards can shake it up for me.

 

[Siptah]

I assume this video already shows the Pirate Republic music and uniques. I can't identify the boat nor whether it's the unique unit, but the fortified harbor with the cannons is probably the unique district/improvement?

 

[tman2000]

Cool. Starting to get in the right direction.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I assume this video already shows the Pirate Republic music and uniques. I can't identify the boat nor whether it's the unique unit, but the fortified harbor with the cannons is probably the unique district/improvement?

We datamined a possible Fighting Pit UI for the Pirates. And the leak said the UU might be called the Buccaneer. The fortified harbor thoughout the video seems to be the new Harbor building, but the one at the end is apparently the Havana Harbor wonder, according to Ursa Ryan in this video:

 

[Jkchart]

Until the latter's trade routes start looking tasty.

Gee, I've never had shared computer game tastes with any of my three siblings.

And those guys with the straw hats.

The agenda should be reworded to, "is indifferent to those who don't build naval units."

We all grew up with Civ and the younger ones watching the older; we have different games we like but enough similar MP games with Civ being the usual

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

We datamined a possible Fighting Pit UI for the Pirates.

Someone also mentioned the Fighting Pit being for Iceland, and to me that might make more sense.
I'd envision them getting a Pirate Haven district with a tavern building etc.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Someone also mentioned the Fighting Pit being for Iceland, and to me that might make more sense.
I'd envision them getting a Pirate Haven district with a tavern building etc.

The Holmgang isn't a pit, even euphemistically, it's the name of the trial by combat itself and it is fought on flat ground.

 

[Nikolai II]

The Holmgang isn't a pit, even euphemistically, it's the name of the trial by combat itself and it is fought on flat ground.

Holmgang is not a pit no, but it is done on a holme, IIRC. And islet. Thus the name.

 

[A_Most_Foolish_Fool]

I sometimes use boats in Antiquity, but even then naval combat is something to be avoided at all costs. You cannot really stack naval combat bonuses in Antiquity and tactical maneuvers are very limited as you tend to fight on one-tile coastal strips or navigable rivers. So on Deity, enemy ships will just murder you if you engage them. In war, you need to bring some land units to support the ships, but this won't work with the Pirate ability. So the amount of naval battles you want to fight is very small and the ones you will win even smaller. I am calling it right now: weakest leader in Antiquity and I doubt exploration will make up for that.

The only civ that has decent ships, which can make use of the ability is Carthage (As it stands now, maybe Tonga will get good ships as well). But even they need the right map for this to work. And the AI actually building ships you can fight.

Aksum has the Dhow, which is pretty solid with +4 combat strength in most situations. That said, Carthage is the Antiquity civ I am most immediately excited to use with them for all of the obvious reasons. If Tonga gets a unique naval commander, that could be a game changer here since you would easily be able to get the +5 combat strength bonus alongside other very useful combat bonuses. Even if Tonga is not ideal, I am not that worried for Edward Teach on deity in antiquity since the AI is still not that great and you can absolutely overcome their navies with a few units that you rotate in and out. Defeating even one will get you another that you can use alongside some gold and presumably you should be able to get to a point where you farm naval units and gold. Do raids from coastal independent powers create naval units? That could be fairly interesting to experiment with if so?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

If Tonga gets a unique naval commander, that could be a game changer here since you would easily be able to get the +5 combat strength bonus alongside other very useful combat bonuses.

There are no Antiquity Naval Commanders, so it would potentially be dramatically imbalancing, both in Antiquity itself and rolling into Exploration with a pre-leveled naval commander.

I'm hoping that Tonga gets a version of the American Prospector/Nepalese Sherpa that can pick up marine tiles with resources up to 5 tiles away.

 

[rocksinmypath]

Am I crazy or does the video not mention the bit about being able to plunder trade routes without going to war? Without that ability, Ed will honestly be a disappointing leader since his abilities are almost irrelevant in Antiquity. If it were included, would it be limited to sea trade routes?

 

[Evolena]

"ignore War Status when attacking other Naval units"? I presume that includes plunder trade routes.

 

[rocksinmypath]

"ignore War Status when attacking other Naval units"? I presume that includes plunder trade routes.

If that’s true, I guess he’ll basically have no ability until Exploration.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

If that’s true, I guess he’ll basically have no ability until Exploration.

The OP says Teach's naval units can plunder trade routes without a declaration of war also.

But I mostly agree, his ability is not especially strong in Antiquity unless you choose an Archipelago map. The ability to cap a few traders working the coast and the handful of boats that the AI make in Antiquity is pretty mild by comparison to other leaders. I assume you can attack City-State naval units too since it doesn't explicitly omit them.

 

[moondog385]

That ability sounds like tons of fun. Looking forward to trying him out as someone who has always been a big naval player.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The OP says Teach's naval units can plunder trade routes without a declaration of war also.

But I mostly agree, his ability is not especially strong in Antiquity unless you choose an Archipelago map. The ability to cap a few traders working the coast and the handful of boats that the AI make in Antiquity is pretty mild by comparison to other leaders. I assume you can attack City-State naval units too since it doesn't explicitly omit them.

I wonder if there will end up being something around nabbing an early settler. But yeah seems pretty situational

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

Teach obviously is speaking English, but with a West Country accent, with as accurate pirate slang as we could get without being ahistorical or over the top. Heave to, me hearties!

 

[ehecatzin]

I'm sure the Pirate republic will be all about plunder. But, Teach's abilities really lend themselves for any kind of naval supremacy game, I'm sure something like Carthage-Spain-Britain would be awesome to throw around your navy and bully everyone at sea.