Just a collection of observations. Sorry if these points have already been brought up elsewhere. This is from playing a number of games on King or Emperor and with Secret Societies mode enabled.
First I'll say that although SS mode does have the problems I'll list below, I do think the mode adds some interesting things to do in the game, through multiple playthroughs, unlike Apocalypse mode which most people probably played once and then never played again.
First, does any else notice that Great Generals seem to be harder to come by since the July patch? This may not have anything to do with SS, but normally since I do quite a lot of fighting, I'm used to earning a lot of Great Generals, but since the patch, I haven't seen very many. In my most recent game (Victoria, King, Hermetic Order, Large map (I think)) though I was fighting quite a bit and had plenty of Encampments, I got plenty of Great Admirals but exactly zero Great Generals before there were no more by the Atomic Era. Maybe all the Sanguine Pact AI players in the game gobbled them all up.
Second, and I've mentioned this in another thread, it's really annoying that AI Vampires can't be killed until you eliminate the civilization from the game. Even when reduced to zero health, Vampires still hit like a freight train, and this makes it them incredibly annoying to fight, as they just keep coming. I don't know if this is intended, or whether it's a bug, but it certainly doesn't behave as described in the Civilopedia. Get used to seeing this a lot:
Third, the AI Voidsingers produce a lot of Cultists -- and I mean a LOT of them -- but they don't seem to know how to use them. They roll across the map like a tide, but I've not yet seen one use its ability. But since they're support units and not religious units, they block movement of normal units. It's similar to the way religious units used to clog up the map in Civ V, but perhaps even worse... it can get bad enough to be almost game-breaking. In this shot from my most recent game, I'm allied with Mongolia and together we're taking out Japan, but the tidal wave of Cultists is making it nearly impossible to advance my units. And I can't just declare war on my ally or on the third party, as he's also allied with the Mongols. It's pretty nuts. They're just standing there, doing nothing, turn after turn.
First I'll say that although SS mode does have the problems I'll list below, I do think the mode adds some interesting things to do in the game, through multiple playthroughs, unlike Apocalypse mode which most people probably played once and then never played again.
First, does any else notice that Great Generals seem to be harder to come by since the July patch? This may not have anything to do with SS, but normally since I do quite a lot of fighting, I'm used to earning a lot of Great Generals, but since the patch, I haven't seen very many. In my most recent game (Victoria, King, Hermetic Order, Large map (I think)) though I was fighting quite a bit and had plenty of Encampments, I got plenty of Great Admirals but exactly zero Great Generals before there were no more by the Atomic Era. Maybe all the Sanguine Pact AI players in the game gobbled them all up.
Second, and I've mentioned this in another thread, it's really annoying that AI Vampires can't be killed until you eliminate the civilization from the game. Even when reduced to zero health, Vampires still hit like a freight train, and this makes it them incredibly annoying to fight, as they just keep coming. I don't know if this is intended, or whether it's a bug, but it certainly doesn't behave as described in the Civilopedia. Get used to seeing this a lot:
Third, the AI Voidsingers produce a lot of Cultists -- and I mean a LOT of them -- but they don't seem to know how to use them. They roll across the map like a tide, but I've not yet seen one use its ability. But since they're support units and not religious units, they block movement of normal units. It's similar to the way religious units used to clog up the map in Civ V, but perhaps even worse... it can get bad enough to be almost game-breaking. In this shot from my most recent game, I'm allied with Mongolia and together we're taking out Japan, but the tidal wave of Cultists is making it nearly impossible to advance my units. And I can't just declare war on my ally or on the third party, as he's also allied with the Mongols. It's pretty nuts. They're just standing there, doing nothing, turn after turn.
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