The Americans

"One of the more subtle tricks is to get a large score early and the other civs will tend to leave you alone if you build a few military units. I can't stress the advantage of getting an extra city/higher score early gives."

kb2tvl,

Well said and accurate. Once the AIs avoid wars with you, - your flexibility increases significantly.

Ision

 

my question is,
why is there an American civ in the first place? and i need a historical explication, please.
do 200 years of history really desirve to be set in the game in spite of other civs like Spain? as far as i know, the Spanish Empire discovered America and once ruled half of the world.
cheers!

 

America deserves a civ because americans will be more inclined to buy this game.

 

So who has the biggest economy or effectivly rules the world now? If that doesn't qualify I don't know what does. Germany is younger than America and they're in the game. I

Its a game. Its so biased. Wheres New Zealand as a Civ. I can see it now. Seafaring and Agricutural with either a 8/10 Anzac Infantry UU or a Maori War Canoe UU.

All bow down to NZ

 

Great review. Yes, the Americans have the best "complement" of traits. Another thing is that the early game is critical. If you can get a good food square in your capital, then you've got a worker/settler factory. Then use your scout to lock up luxuries. Then you're set.

 

So who would be the leader for New Zealand; Peter Jackson wearing his polo shirt and shorts? UU Hobbits?

 

kbtvl is right. Without americans, there'd be no civ3!

 

Why not.

 

Well done Ision, this was a very good review and you definatley hit the nail on the head about the Americans. Though after the toning down of industrious and the addition of agricultural, America is no longer the mass expander it used to be. I think that has been passed down to the Mayans.

 

CIVPhilzilla,

I agree the Mayans may be the new kings of 'rapid expansion' - interestingly their early game play is very similar (not identical) to the Americans.

Ision

 

Ision. I'm considering using the Americans when I move up to Demi God/Deity. Do the higher difficulty levels punish the expansionistic trait? Also wouldn't it be harder to trigger a american GA if you have to wait for F15s and fail to build the right wonders? Rocketry is a long way off. I usually use my GA to catch up to the AI.

 

The Higher levels reward this trait. Pottery=instant access to granary. Scouts=at least a couple of techs and maybe a lucky settler. The higher the level the more important rapid expansion is. The more important rapid expansion is , the greater the value of the EXP trait. Remember, the stupid AI NEVER builds any scouts - it only plays with the free initial scout it gets - so even at Deity, only the HUMAN will be able to properly exploit the 'scout' advantage of multiple scouts.

It will be harder to trigger your GA. Target a late ancient age Industrious wonder (you will NOT get the pyramids at diety, without tremendous luck). Then plan very carefully for Copernicus or Magellans.

As the Americans at Diety I often targeted Hanging Gardens (AI does not prefer the bottom tech row) and Copernicus - I tended to beeline to Monarchy, followed by a beeline to Military Tradition -VERY heavy Middle age warmongering - real heavy,

followed by a peaceful tech leap in Industrial Age with ToE and then a Space Race Victory attempt OR a beeline to Tanks - followed by a final push to a conquest or dom victory. One or the other - you can NOT do BOTH the ToE AND the Tanks gambit at Deity - you will lose if attempted. This is not Regent/Monarch!

Hope this helps.

 

a few more tips:

If you do not pull your GA in the first 2 ages - do not despair - the game can still be won (albeit - harder), when this happened to me I would initiate an F-15 GA in the middle of a Space Race attempt - it's better than nothing.

A CIVer can play up to Monarch without ever really having to learn how to play Commie or Fascism. At Deity, I STRONGLY reccomend that you be prepared to to use these Governments - read a few strats on them in the forums. Of the 2, Fascism would be my choice.

IMHO, at the higher levels Religous and Scientific begin to lose their value, while the other traits gain. The higher the level, the greater the need to war, the greater the need to war, the less value 'builder' traits have. At deity I tend to favor the 'alternating wars' strat, a series of short wars against each Civ, the idea being to eliminate the possibility of any close neighbors becoming too strong - later in the game the same strat with allies, can begin to weaken the more powerful civs one by one -bear in mind, that this strat will not endear you to the other AIs! -lol- so beware a late age AI alliance against YOU!

Ision

 

And I really wanted to play Babylon Let me guess. The primary purpose of war in the higher difficulty levels would be to control the AI and to expand in the early ages? On emperor it was annoying to have a AI on a different continent being scientific and being a democracy.

I think I have become addicted to a middle age GA though. So many great wonders and Universities, Cathedrals, and Banks.

I sent you a PM.

 

If your still guessing at the reasons for this - then I reccomend that you remain at the same skill level and play a few more games with DIFFERENT strats/CIVs/and traits

Ision

 

Ision , your reviews are awesome! keep going!

 

My first demigod game was played as the Americans! I won by domination and triggered my GA with a F15. I have never, never tried for the Hanging Gardens in any of my games? I always try, for the Great Library or if this fails, I go military. I got the ToE in that game and killed basically everybody using tanks? OK, this was not Deity, but it still worked quite well.

As far as the American Traits. I think they are awesome and you can see the developers are probably American...

Early map knowledge is key in winning at higher levels. Securing that second or ever third luxury source is key for trading techs with the AI. More often than not, the AI will form a military alliance with me for a luxury and then there is also the GPT right through the game.

Secondly, I will never play a game with a non-industrious civ. I don't have the patience. Early roads and mine/irregation is key for quick expansion and later shield production is really great.

(Personally I still prefer the French, though I would have loved a scout. I now have to great early warrior to scout and it is so slow...)

The F15 is a awesome unit! It doesn't have the French units laugh, but is the best unit for air superiority. (Stealth unit doesn't have this) (I got my GA by killing a unit I already blew to pieces with my artillery)

Ok, enough said. America rule if you play the higher level against the AI.

 

I just recently tried playing the Americans again on my first attempt at Monarch difficulty after playing as only the Babylonians for ummm.... pretty much ever since Civ3 came out.

I have to say I really enjoyed this game. I used to think that I couldnt play any non-religious civ, but its not really all that bad. I usually dont change govts all that often anyways, so the anarchy isnt a game-killing event or anything, altho it does suck when they destroy some really expensive improvement.

The Exp. trait really seemed to help me in this game. (Monarch diff. normal map, 6 other civs, continents) I started off on a decent sized continent with the Byzantines, and was able to expand quickly to take up around 2/3 of the continent to the Byzantine's 1/3. I am peaceful by nature however, so I didnt take over the Byzantines until I had modern armor.

Its been a fun game so far, and I think I am getting close to a space race victory. I have learned to really like the Americans again. I'll probably play as them from now on. Exp + Ind rocks.

 

For civ3/ptw, Americans were the first civ that made me think that I could go without a GA and just depend completely on the traits and skills.

 

I agree that 200 years is a short time period to include a tribe. However, in those 200 years, America has risen to become the most powerful empire humanity has ever known. In my mind, that qualifies. Leaving America out would be a gross omission.