Darius I - Achaemenid Legacy
Golden Ages last 50% longer, and 10% of your Gold income (after expenses) is converted into Golden Age Points every turn. During a Golden Age, your Units receive +1 Movement and a +15% Combat Strength bonus.
Immortal, replaces the Spearman.
Special traits: Has more Combat Strength (13 vs. 11). Obsoletes with Gunpowder rather than Steel.
Unique abilities: Starts with the Faster Healing (allows this Unit to heal an additional +10 HP per turn) promotion. Starts with the Armour Plating I (receives a +25% Combat boost when defending) promotion.
Satrap's Court, replaces the Courthouse.
Special traits: Provides 1 Gold and 1 Happiness. Has no Maintenance cost. +1 Gold and +1 Golden Age Points for every 5 Citizens in this City. +1 Gold for each Scientist, Engineer, and Merchant Specialist in this City. Has 1 Merchant Specialist slot. Can be built in any City, including non-Occupied ones.
Common traits: Eliminates extra Unhappiness from an Occupied City (if this City is Occupied).
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General Thoughts:
It has taken me a few games as Persia to really decide how I think they should be played.
First, the UU is fantastic for an Authority start. You can go Mining->Bronze Working immediately and start pumping out Immortals and very easily tribute any nearby CSs as well as solo barbarian camps and recover HP very quickly afterwards. There aren't a ton of civs with super early melee UUs so those that do have them really should go Authority IMO. Depending on the CSs nearby you can get off to a really strong start with just a modest investment into Immortals and heavy tribute demands.
Also, Immortals are extra fun if you can get to March and back them up with Medic II ranged units behind them. That's +20 bonus HP every turn, so minimum +25HP even in enemy territory. It takes some time to get those promotion combinations together, though. Other promotions that might deserve more focus when playing Persia are Blitz/Logistics. The +1 movement during golden ages UA means that you would be more likely to have the movement points for double attacks with melee mounted or ranged units.
Other than the UU, Persia doesn't have a ton going for it to aid in actual warfare against other civs in the early game. The UA giving +1 movement and +15% combat strength during golden ages is quite a strong military buff but the problem is that golden ages are few and far between in the early game. Also, Immortals are strong units but they don't really shine in conquest- in fact, if they go head to head against other early game UUs they tend to lose out unless you spend a lot of turns fortified and healing. This means your combat using Immortals is somewhat slow as they excel as meatshields but are fairly weak at killing. All of this is to say that it's not necessarily very easy to conquer early game with Persia. Certainly if a neighbor is a weaker early-game civ and is asking to be a victim it can work just fine but I wouldn't expect to have an easy time with more traditionally strong early game civs on the back of just the UU. It might be prudent to wait until your golden ages are rolling in more frequently and you have near constant uptime on your awesome UA before focusing on conquering.
Long-term, I think the victory condition is flexible other than likely being aided by domination/conquering. I typically plan well in advance what victory condition to pursue but with Persia my only plan is to conquer my continent if possible and then pivot to whatever victory condition seems most expedient at that point.
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Policies:
It should be pretty obvious by now that I am in favor of an Authority start as Persia- again, the early game melee UU just begs to be used for tributing. However, you could just as easily go Tradition or Progress and still tribute to supplement those trees as well, especially in a situation where you are fairly certain you will not be trying to conquer right off the bat. Which is best probably depends on your neighbors, proximity to CSs, and how much room you have for settling cities.
In the Renaissance I think that Artistry is just the obvious choice. You really need as much up-time on your UA as you can get and Artistry will make that happen sooner. Perhaps in the late game the golden age points provided by Artistry will begin to go to waste if you could achieve 100% golden age status without it but the benefits of hitting that constant up-time sooner is worth it I believe.
For both the Industrial Age trees and Ideology the choice will simply depend on the state of the game at that point. If you have further conquering to do or want to capitalize on your successful conquering up to that point then Imperialism/Autocracy could make a lot of sense but I could certainly see the case for other trees/ideologies depending on the situation.
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Religion:
As is often the case with Authority, it might make more sense to conquer a religion rather than attempt to found one yourself. I find that I have precious few hammers to spare in the early game with Authority and being able to de-prioritize shrines means I am getting settlers or Immortals out faster. I especially like to go monument first in my capital as the sooner I open Authority the sooner my warriors/Immortals start getting their bonuses against barbarians and tributing.
However, given the situation I think it could make plenty of sense to found with Persia. If there is a religious CS nearby that you will be bullying then the extra faith you get could make founding much more viable. If your starting lux has faith bonuses or your starting terrain has a faith strong pantheon associated with it then I would probably attempt to found myself even if it means a slightly less explosive Authority start.
If founding myself, Divine Inheritance as the founder belief would probably be my default go to (Holy City produces +20% of its yields during a Golden Age). Mosques would be a great Follower belief to grab (+20% Culture in the City during Golden Age).
Golden Ages last 50% longer, and 10% of your Gold income (after expenses) is converted into Golden Age Points every turn. During a Golden Age, your Units receive +1 Movement and a +15% Combat Strength bonus.
Immortal, replaces the Spearman.
Special traits: Has more Combat Strength (13 vs. 11). Obsoletes with Gunpowder rather than Steel.
Unique abilities: Starts with the Faster Healing (allows this Unit to heal an additional +10 HP per turn) promotion. Starts with the Armour Plating I (receives a +25% Combat boost when defending) promotion.
Satrap's Court, replaces the Courthouse.
Special traits: Provides 1 Gold and 1 Happiness. Has no Maintenance cost. +1 Gold and +1 Golden Age Points for every 5 Citizens in this City. +1 Gold for each Scientist, Engineer, and Merchant Specialist in this City. Has 1 Merchant Specialist slot. Can be built in any City, including non-Occupied ones.
Common traits: Eliminates extra Unhappiness from an Occupied City (if this City is Occupied).
----------------------------------------------------------
General Thoughts:
It has taken me a few games as Persia to really decide how I think they should be played.
First, the UU is fantastic for an Authority start. You can go Mining->Bronze Working immediately and start pumping out Immortals and very easily tribute any nearby CSs as well as solo barbarian camps and recover HP very quickly afterwards. There aren't a ton of civs with super early melee UUs so those that do have them really should go Authority IMO. Depending on the CSs nearby you can get off to a really strong start with just a modest investment into Immortals and heavy tribute demands.
Also, Immortals are extra fun if you can get to March and back them up with Medic II ranged units behind them. That's +20 bonus HP every turn, so minimum +25HP even in enemy territory. It takes some time to get those promotion combinations together, though. Other promotions that might deserve more focus when playing Persia are Blitz/Logistics. The +1 movement during golden ages UA means that you would be more likely to have the movement points for double attacks with melee mounted or ranged units.
Other than the UU, Persia doesn't have a ton going for it to aid in actual warfare against other civs in the early game. The UA giving +1 movement and +15% combat strength during golden ages is quite a strong military buff but the problem is that golden ages are few and far between in the early game. Also, Immortals are strong units but they don't really shine in conquest- in fact, if they go head to head against other early game UUs they tend to lose out unless you spend a lot of turns fortified and healing. This means your combat using Immortals is somewhat slow as they excel as meatshields but are fairly weak at killing. All of this is to say that it's not necessarily very easy to conquer early game with Persia. Certainly if a neighbor is a weaker early-game civ and is asking to be a victim it can work just fine but I wouldn't expect to have an easy time with more traditionally strong early game civs on the back of just the UU. It might be prudent to wait until your golden ages are rolling in more frequently and you have near constant uptime on your awesome UA before focusing on conquering.
Long-term, I think the victory condition is flexible other than likely being aided by domination/conquering. I typically plan well in advance what victory condition to pursue but with Persia my only plan is to conquer my continent if possible and then pivot to whatever victory condition seems most expedient at that point.
----------------------------------------------------------
Policies:
It should be pretty obvious by now that I am in favor of an Authority start as Persia- again, the early game melee UU just begs to be used for tributing. However, you could just as easily go Tradition or Progress and still tribute to supplement those trees as well, especially in a situation where you are fairly certain you will not be trying to conquer right off the bat. Which is best probably depends on your neighbors, proximity to CSs, and how much room you have for settling cities.
In the Renaissance I think that Artistry is just the obvious choice. You really need as much up-time on your UA as you can get and Artistry will make that happen sooner. Perhaps in the late game the golden age points provided by Artistry will begin to go to waste if you could achieve 100% golden age status without it but the benefits of hitting that constant up-time sooner is worth it I believe.
For both the Industrial Age trees and Ideology the choice will simply depend on the state of the game at that point. If you have further conquering to do or want to capitalize on your successful conquering up to that point then Imperialism/Autocracy could make a lot of sense but I could certainly see the case for other trees/ideologies depending on the situation.
----------------------------------------------------------
Religion:
As is often the case with Authority, it might make more sense to conquer a religion rather than attempt to found one yourself. I find that I have precious few hammers to spare in the early game with Authority and being able to de-prioritize shrines means I am getting settlers or Immortals out faster. I especially like to go monument first in my capital as the sooner I open Authority the sooner my warriors/Immortals start getting their bonuses against barbarians and tributing.
However, given the situation I think it could make plenty of sense to found with Persia. If there is a religious CS nearby that you will be bullying then the extra faith you get could make founding much more viable. If your starting lux has faith bonuses or your starting terrain has a faith strong pantheon associated with it then I would probably attempt to found myself even if it means a slightly less explosive Authority start.
If founding myself, Divine Inheritance as the founder belief would probably be my default go to (Holy City produces +20% of its yields during a Golden Age). Mosques would be a great Follower belief to grab (+20% Culture in the City during Golden Age).
GAP on conquest is well-suited to Persia's playstyle; I would consider it one of the better pickups for a warmonger dependent on golden ages.
move hammers, but I don't rely on my immortal ==>Pikeman ==> Tercio line being highly mobile.
