The USA thread

[manio curio]

Hi all,

I just finished my game with the USA, I played with the lowest difficulty and normal speed. Pics and save attached. Here's my feedback:

UHV 1: a little bit on the fence since this was the first time I played with the USA, thus poor planning may explain why I barely made it. I was bailed by Korea wanting to be my vassal and got some extra mines to get the required quotas. Why poor planning? I could have settled closer to the Canadian border thus including a few more resources. Also the invasion of Mexico proved to be essential to get a few extra improvements.

UHV 2: The timeline was tight, I used 3 great engineers and it seems like 3 are the bare minimum to get by, otherwise the time it takes to get to the techs and complete the wonders may exceed the available time.

UHV 3: This one was the most entertaining, I had to do a slow, methodical grind in the Pacific to boot out Dutch and Portuguese, while not fully historical it defintively made me think about those Pacific war documentaries I watched in the past, it was awesome! Not to mention the invasion of Germany from France and ending the game at the outskirts of Brandeburg (Berlin). That said a lot of vassals are required as well as defensive alliances to complete this goal and it is not too clear too me why sometimes civs that I was besieging the capital of wouldn't capitulate and a 'you have grown too powerful for us' message would appear instead, to justify the non capitulation. If possible please anyone that can walk me through it. An example is available in the save, Germany is basically defeated, I took Koln and Hamburg and I am about to take Brandeburg but, again, you have grown too powerful message appears. In general this goal seems to require a little bit of luck, in the sense it doesn't appear to be fully within the power of the player, but cards got to fall in a certain way. How do the other players feel about this UHV?

UP: Very well designed, cities grow very quickly and I had plenty of very productive cities to crank out wonders and units.

UU1 pioneer: very historically fit and very useful to speed up the civ development.
UU2 flying fortress: very useful to complete UHV3, especially the longer range compared to the bomber, I deployed them successfully to defend my allies and bury my enemies under bombs. It takes fully advantage of the possibility of rebasing air units anywhere in the map
UU3 supercarrier: completely useless, it is possible to rebase air units anywhere in the map even tens of tiles away even in foreign cities since only right of passage is required, therefore I would use my allies as springboards to load my fortresses and bomb my enemies. I would replace it with something else, either bring back the navy seals or introduce a unique new unit, some suggestions could be the green berets or doughboys to replace infantry units.

All in all it was a great experience, thanks @Leoreth again for this jewel of a game.

 

[AOS9001]

UP: Very well designed, cities grow very quickly and I had plenty of very productive cities to crank out wonders and units.

You should try this UHV on the standard difficulty, you'll find unhappiness and starvation from overpopulation to be more of a problem. I think America's UP is actually punishing you for developing your land, all you get for it is some pop that generates anger and then your cities starve back down to their former size. I liked the 1.17 UP more, there's now no incentive not to use more hard power civics over boring ones like constitution.

UU3 supercarrier: completely useless, it is possible to rebase air units anywhere in the map even tens of tiles away even in foreign cities since only right of passage is required, therefore I would use my allies as springboards to load my fortresses and bomb my enemies. I would replace it with something else, either bring back the navy seals or introduce a unique new unit, some suggestions could be the green berets or doughboys to replace infantry units.

I've found it useful in cases where you need to attack across an ocean and have no allies on that side of the world. For instance, Japan declares war on me and I have to go invade Guam, the Philippines, Okinawa, and then the home islands and neither China, Korea, or Russia like me. Maybe civs are more inclined to dislike you on standard difficulty?

Another problem I have with America: you spawn after monasteries go obsolete, so you have no way to spread any religions for happiness.

 

[Leoreth]

You should try this UHV on the standard difficulty, you'll find unhappiness and starvation from overpopulation to be more of a problem.

Have you tried it since the recent updates? Temporary happiness has become stackable so that this effect should be less punishing.

 

[manio curio]

Another problem I have with America: you spawn after monasteries go obsolete, so you have no way to spread any religions for happiness.

@AOS9001 I had secularism the whole game and universities and observatories compensated for the lack of temples. I was able to spread protestantism though.

 

[AOS9001]

Have you tried it since the recent updates? Temporary happiness has become stackable so that this effect should be less punishing.

I haven't actually, been a while since I played the USA. I'll give it a shot today, I've got nothing else going on and I'm a bit Portugal'd out.

@AOS9001 I had secularism the whole game and universities and observatories compensated for the lack of temples. I was able to spread protestantism though.

Well, like Leoreth said I'm a bit behind on the times. Let's load up a game on Regent/normal and see how it goes.

 

[borhap88]

After I read this report, I tried US on the new map for the first time. It was a great game (Monarch/Marathon 1700 start). I attacked New Orleans, then I hunted Spanish all along the border with Mexico straight to the West Coast in order to seal my southern front before Mexican birth. I had to prioritize military output in my first turns, so I was able to grant an easy naval access to the Pacific Ocean by conquering Cuba and creating Nicaragua Channel. In the meantime, I push my pioneers outside my core to seal future Canadian border, so I founded many famous cities, such as Chicago or St. Louis only after 1850s. I never declared war to any civ than Spain during the 19th century; later, It became my first vassal. After Nationalism I exploited already-in-capital discount to improve my previously military-oriented cities. I Always kept starting civics, I totally neglected religions. Boston was my cultural hub, Washington my most productive city (Ironworks ASAP) and NY my overextended Big sci&financial Apple. I strongly prioritized engineers from the beginning, so I had plenty of them when I've had to rush great wonders (outside the UHV2 ones, I was only able to build Hollywood).

I focused very much on my navy. For UHV1 I managed just by filling up my core and historical tiles, including Philippines, Hawaii, Liberia and a little and unnecessary Alaska settlement.
I signed a long term Defensive Pact with England and its vassals since 1830s. I didn't expect to achieve UHV3 in 1939, without Flight and with just Pentagon left for UHV2, so I didn't use flying fortress and supercarrier. My only two big wars were against Hitler and their allies (Portugal, Argentine, Japan). He collapsed Dutch (I have to say thanks, because Amsterdam always tried to beat me over Brooklyn and Golden Gate Bridge), occupied Rome, Milan, Lyon and Paris, so I helped France, occupied by Third Reich, to regain its land, then De Gaulle wanted to become my second lovely vassal. My peaceful attitude towards the rest of the world and I think the size of my army assured me many other defensive pacts (China, Japan, Brazil). After the direct conquest of Berlin during my WWII, game became calm. Germany and Portugal, defeated, became my last two vassals, I was elected UN General Secretary. Russia and its Austrian vassal, even if they were doing well (I feared their advanced aero-technologies, they streched from Venice to Vladivostok and got some strategical allies like Mexico and Colombia), never faced me. While I was liberating some Indies in Africa to my allies and planning a vaste campaign in Middle East, the good comrade Stalin offered a Defensive Pact, so I quickly reached my 75% and starting a Golden Age.

Conclusion
A satisfying experience. UP and immigration system worked fine. Tech pace was pretty realistic, with France, then England and, at last, Germany being tech leaders (I ended 2-3 techs behind). I have to say that I was surprised by how well balanced was this 1700 start. Of course, I wished my UHV3 could be reached later, maybe I had some luck, maybe it was a good performance (Marathon helps). The only big absent was Italy maybe it deserves a bigger chance to resurrect.