Suggestion: Add Boers

[Jkchart]

in 100% of my tests I always see AIs colonising Americas. Are you sure you aren't, as human player, crippling European civs and causing them to slow down their world exploration?

I played England, this past experience is V97, so I really didn’t do too much on the continent except grab Brest when it went independent after Germany, Netherlands, and Spain split France.

Netherlands didn’t do too much except get conquered and liberated a few times. Portugal got razed quickly by Spain which also lost a coastal city or two that got razed and just sent out one settler in the mid-1800s to North America only to get it killed by Tortuga.

France did respawn and head that way as well about the same time as Spain, but their settler encountered Hiawatha and immediately died.

The only other European that made it successfully was a single German city in South America near Potosi. Argentina spawned and flipped one of my cities so they had two as a minor civ, Aztecs got razed by Hiawatha. Inca did survive and expand into Central America actually so they did decently. America exists but built two cities and did nothing else - not sure if that’s just because Settlers are so expensive or what the issue was. Other than that I had two in Canada, conquered Chichen Itza, and also had Georgetown in Guyana. Tlaxcala and Tortuga are also both alive still in that save, which I ended because it got to the point where tech costs were too great and trying to get past 720 points became a huge slog due to plague (and I downloaded v99 which then changed my game because i didn’t wait to finish this one and led to some bugs with puppet build queues so I’ve moved to an AH game in v99, and it also killed my score somehow losing 100 points so again another reason I just called it).

The last time I played a colonial game was France many versions ago and there weren’t too many AI settlements that I recall but that was also maybe a version in the v80s. I would have loved to provide Portuguese colonial feedback but I kept finding myself in an unwinnable situation with a strong Spain with nothing to do but slap me with their full army so I gave up out of frustration and haven’t tried Portugal since.

I will say, maybe there can be a few “regional” RP goals that can provide a wider way to get points and move towards victory to prevent any situations where there’s a slow slog to get to 1,000. Like Western Europeans can all get points for any colonial city in addition to their RP goals.

EDIT: back to your original question for me:

I did notice the Sub-Saharan Africa. cities this time that I loaded up the England game and saw Djenne, Quelimane, Benin, Mbanza Kongo, and Mombassa were all spawned for African cities (I conquered Quelimane, Benin, Mombassa). Then there was also that Pirate city in Madagascar (I killed it) and the Ethiopian city. So Africa is actually more fleshed out than I remembered. I think Ngazargamu on Lake Chad would be a fine addition though, especially since it’s in a usually empty area. I think Typically North Africa is populated but if Morocco isn’t a minor civ you could spawn a city there if no one settles it before a certain date.

Americas if there’s no Brazil player a Brazil minor civ could spawn with like three cities on the coast if there isn’t one already. You could also add a Bear Flag Republic in California for fun since usually I think it ends up empty

 

[Jkchart]

Very good idea!
Native Americans should still be allowed to win, but it could render more realistic the SA/Africa/Oceania zones.


I think Spain has no competition to hold its core territory (France starts later and more north), whether France and Germany often get eaten by neighbor.
That's a very unrealistic aspect of Civ V: from a city you just buy a tile and it forever belongs to your nation, as long as you hold that city. Europe was not like that at all! Or even Ukraine today.

I believe Rhye that he sees colonizers in his games, maybe he plays on a higher difficulty than I do, and also he’s of course run more games therefore has more samples. That could explain my case. I’m not super aggressive and don’t go out of the way to kill civs or hamper their expansion especially because of the brutal tech cost penalty for more cities being 150% higher than the base game penalty. I really am not sure how to create realistic empires such as the Spanish and British empires that rely on those RP victories being so wide without lagging so far behind in tech with civs that have only 4 cities.

Yeah Spain has no real competition. They can easily crush Portugal and then the Pyrenees act as a pretty fabulous wall. I have noticed that a strong Arabia can wreak havoc on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline and snag/raze cities there though. I think maybe some more starting buildings or defensive units for the later civs in their cities might help them, especially walls.

 

[Skojardu]

I believe Rhye that he sees colonizers in his games, maybe he plays on a higher difficulty than I do, and also he’s of course run more games therefore has more samples. That could explain my case. I’m not super aggressive and don’t go out of the way to kill civs or hamper their expansion especially because of the brutal tech cost penalty for more cities being 150% higher than the base game penalty. I really am not sure how to create realistic empires such as the Spanish and British empires that rely on those RP victories being so wide without lagging so far behind in tech with civs that have only 4 cities.

Yeah Spain has no real competition. They can easily crush Portugal and then the Pyrenees act as a pretty fabulous wall. I have noticed that a strong Arabia can wreak havoc on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline and snag/raze cities there though. I think maybe some more starting buildings or defensive units for the later civs in their cities might help them, especially walls.

In real life, is Portugal only a thing thanks to English support? It's puzzling that Spain stopped with the Gallegos and didn't keep going west. Should England be hard-coded to be allied with Portugal once spawned?

 

[Jkchart]

In real life, is Portugal only a thing thanks to English support? It's puzzling that Spain stopped with the Gallegos and didn't keep going west. Should England be hard-coded to be allied with Portugal once spawned?

No it shouldn’t be, and it’s far more complex than English support being key to Portugal’s existence. It is not for a lack of Spanish trying that Portugal remained independent though

 

[PiR]

In real life, is Portugal only a thing thanks to English support? It's puzzling that Spain stopped with the Gallegos and didn't keep going west. Should England be hard-coded to be allied with Portugal once spawned?

Not sure AI England would do much though? Or do you count on that alliance to dissuade Spain from declaring war? (the NATO strategy)

 

[Jkchart]

Not sure AI England would do much though? Or do you count on that alliance to dissuade Spain from declaring war? (the NATO strategy)

I say give Lisbon Walls and a Castle when settled. Or walls and maybe a couple more strong units. The AI likes to max its units so a fully built Spain against a newly established Portugal feels one-sided

EDIT: Amsterdam could probably use the same treatment...I haven't been brave enough to try the Dutch yet

 

[Rhye]

good suggestion.
I recall that in Civ3 Rhye's of Civ, I added the "Palace Guards", a defensive unit with movement 0, to discourage early rush.
City walls could be granted to all European civs indeed.

 

[Jkchart]

good suggestion.
I recall that in Civ3 Rhye's of Civ, I added the "Palace Guards", a defensive unit with movement 0, to discourage early rush.
City walls could be granted to all European civs indeed.

I remember that unit. Yeah for Europe in particular this is a big issue, so it would be nice to have something more that would ward off the AI/help a smaller civ survive