New Upgrading Procedures

[BarbarianHunter]

I'm sort of surprised not to see some rants about the increased costs and splitting of Professional Army into 2 cards. I almost always single player and can stick the AI for gold. How are you guys working your way around this? In MP, it's gotta be a major pain.

 

[Tabarnak]

I focus a bit more on early commercial hubs touching the gov plaza and city centers as much as possible.

Fortunately it's a problem for everyone so early and huge rushes are way less common.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

I focus a bit more on early commercial hubs touching the gov plaza and city centers as much as possible.

Fortunately it's a problem for everyone so early and huge rushes are way less common.

I have watched a few MP matches & they strike me as WWI trench warfare to begin with (at least relative to SP). This must make the matches go on even longer?

Can you tell I think this upgrade price increase is poorly thought out?

Edit: Example: This Zulu heavy chariot corps upgrade is a staggering amount of gold, especially for MP. Granted I could have cut the gold required in half. But still, in MP, that's gotta sting!

Spoiler Zulu Chariot Corps :

 

[Tabarnak]

I assume it's at standard speed.

Benchmarks observed so far to have a decent army over time(online speed):

Turn 50: 30-40gpt (when Mercenaries can be hit)
Turn 60: 50-60 gpt
Turn 70: 80-90 gpt
Turn 80: 100+ gpt

 

[BarbarianHunter]

It is standard speed. The 640 would be 320 gold and 20 iron for online with both cards in play. Maybe it’s just going to take me time to acclimate, or maybe it’s just become exponentially harder to get anything done before the other guy (be that AI or human) can react and adjust?

I know this game is irrelevant for MP and it’s Zulu corps (often banned?). I’ll post anyway. Take this game pic (T62 @ online). I need to upgrade 5 horse corps to coursers and 4 heavy chariot corps to knights. That’s a whopping amount of gold even for your expert MP benchmark of 50-60GPT.

Spoiler T62 online (T124 standard) with AI trade bug GPT :

This 2 card professional army and higher upgrade cost is too much. I think my SP games will have a higher frequency of "clickfests" (ie. bashing up against AI's with the steel tech researched). Peacemongers clearly have voted through their agenda @ the Firaxis World Congress .

 

[Tabarnak]

Yeah the new upgrade cost is a direct hit for Shaka. Make sure to pillage for more gold if you can.

Earlier you gonna make gold easier it will be later to upgrade. I remember a game i played yesterday where i had accumulated over 700 gold around the turn 55(no AI stuff). It's always good to build comm. hubs. Make science with them later when you get the medieval golden age dedication.

Also, with 2 cards needed to get maximum potential, it's largely better to accumulate a lot of gold to upgrade all your stuff in the shortest range of turns possible to immediately switch for gold or bonus war cards again.

You don't want to struggle between cards while being busy at war and stuff(mp only) due to timer.

 

[The googles do nothing]

I need to upgrade 5 horse corps to coursers and 4 heavy chariot corps to knights.

Remember in MP it's (mostly) a level playing field for building and upgrading units for you and your opponents and you don't have to overcome any "difficulty" modifier in combat. They would be struggling just a much as your are to raise enough gold to upgrade to pikemen and crossbows to counter your units.

9 corps would clean out Rome nicely. Although a human Rome player might know there game is on the line and chop pike and xbows because they are resourceless.

 

[AsparustheSaiyan]

Remember in MP it's (mostly) a level playing field for building and upgrading units for you and your opponents and you don't have to overcome any "difficulty" modifier in combat. They would be struggling just a much as your are to raise enough gold to upgrade to pikemen and crossbows to counter your units.

9 corps would clean out Rome nicely. Although a human Rome player might know there game is on the line and chop pike and xbows because they are resourceless.

What is Rome like in multiplayer if you don't mind me asking?

 

[The googles do nothing]

What is Rome like in multiplayer if you don't mind me asking?

I've never played them in MP because they are always taken. If all you want to do is build units and war players Rome's the civ for you. Legions requiring iron has made Rome a little more challenging to play. If you don't spend gold on maintenance for Holy Sites or Campus you should have enough to upgrade.