Received a quest from a Military City state: take out my neighbour! The victim city state had resources that I presumed were valuable so I went for it. Made a Trieme and sailed it over to their island. Spent 10-20 or so turns bombarding a warrior before I realized that all I was doing was giving him 1/2 dozen promotions! Ok, that's a little strange that his warrior is now uber strong from sitting there getting arrows in the head and then recovering. Oh well, what ever doesn't kill you clearly makes you stronger. Passion -1.
Im not sure why you would continue attacking an enemy which you're clearly not strong enough to take out. If they're in their own borders, they're gonna heal and if you aren't doing enough damage then you're not going to take them out. Of course they'll gain XP, they're engaged in battle. Maybe its a little lame that they're just sitting there, but they still deserve something for surviving battle. Besides, wasn't your Trireme levelling as well?
Finally, took the city state. Received an allied status for Military City state instigator. Started receiving military units. wtf again! He's gifting me units almost as fast as I could produce them if I was on a full war setting with my 4 cities? Kindof scratching my head as to why he needed help in the first place. Seems to be (more than) a little out of balance.
The Militaristic CS asked you for a favor and you did it. That makes them your Ally until it degrades. They will occasionally gift you units, and you can ask them to stop whenever you want. I personally haven't seen the rate so extreme that it would be considered an exploit. The production rate is probably on par or slower than what you could produce yourself, but that is entirely circumstantial
Ok, fine. Actually not fine! What the heck, I'm not playing an RPG here - I don't really want to go on quests to find the sacred sword of a Thousand Truths! (Later I would find that the Military City states might be the least of problems). Passion -1 (and -3 when I learned of the degree of this exploit).
I'm not sure what the complaint is here. If you don't want to do a quest, then don't do it? Are you mad that they included extra things to do in the game?
Through my attack on my first city (state) the city bombardment made me realize that a Settler might be my most powerful military unit in the early game. Run into barbarians? No problem, just plop down your settler (location doesn't seem to matter much) and start bombarding. He can't hurt you! Where's the tension of taking a risk of making a settler early run and daring to cross hostile lands to rush to that critical city location! And the Settler is relatively cheap too!
Passion -2 + an angry scowl!
There are trade-offs to settling a new city. Culture costs rise. Happiness decreases. Maintenance costs rise. Sure, city sprawl is a simple, effective and often used tactic, but I wouldn't consider popping cities up everywhere just to fight a unit. The costs and effectiveness of a simple combat unit that can move and fight are a much better tradeoff. Also, there's tension trying to run a settler through hostile lands. If an enemy even touches your settler, they're gone unless you fight back for them.
Built my first building. WTF, am I interpreting this correctly, +1 food. Thanks alot! That took forever to build! What a pitiful rate of return if you can call it that. (Later, I would come to understand that these buildings had expensive maintenance! HA, am I to understand that this is a CIV game that wants you to NOT build?!?) Passion -1 (Upgrade that to Passion -3 when I realized the scope of the problem).
There are no buildings that are +1 food. The granary gives +2 food for -1 gold maintenance. The Lighthouse gives +1 food PER water tile worked. I will admit though, I rarely find the granary worth it and only build lighthouses if I find my coastal cities are stagnating.
Found my first actual Civilization (Persia) strung across 2 smallish, very close islands. How fitting for a Greek conquest! Set up my Trieme between the two islands to cut off naval reinforcements as my major offensive sailed towards Island #1. Finally! A chance to turn that Trieme into a useful military unit after that debacle of ineffectively bombarding and inadvertently promoting my enemies' warrior. Blinked repeatedly in disbelief as I found that I couldn't take out their enbarking canoes sailing right under my nose! Great! I get to bombard them but not engage them! PFFFF! If
you can count rage as passion then +2; but really Passion -2!
You can move onto an embarked unit and instantly destroy it, if it is unable to defend itself (Askia's embarked units can defend), which I guess you could consider like a ramming ability.
Oh well, lets hope the land battle is more decisive. And it should be; I've made my first Chariot Archer with movement of 5! I get giddy as I visualize a series of hit-and-run tactics that wear down my enemies and prepare them for my Greek Horseman charge! Huh? If I shoot (range 2 spaces) then I can't further move...but, but, the standard movement of a melee unit is 2? So if I want to shoot I must end up dead? (Scratch head). Doesn't seem very useful to have all that movement. I guess I could rush very quickly to the front lines in order to fire and then die. Yes, very useful for dying fast - not much else.
I haven't played many previous Civilization titles, so I'm not sure if hit-and-run was ever available. From a RISK and other world-conquering strategy game standpoint, it's pretty common that you can't move after an attack. You're fatigued from battle. It would be cheap to be able to run in, attack someone, then run away repeatedly.
Of course, come to think of it I couldn't even rush to the front lines very quickly because some stupid worker is in my way.
That should not be true. Combat units can stack with non-combat units at any time. 1UPT really means 1 non-combat + 1 combat UPT.
Spent couple hours bombarding their city and following up with my Greek Cavlary and Spearman (whatever they're called). Kinda going through the motions once their field army is taken out. Long, slow motions actually. Use my otherwise useless Chariot archers and Trieme to bombard their city, doing almost no damage each time (Settlers rock the military house!) but some until I'm sure that my shock troops can get off a win. Probably could have taken them earlier with more experience. Hmmm, that was pretty boring. I remember facing off in Civ3/Civ4 where you (pre-Catapult) have to worry alot about having enough troops to take their city. You know that you're going to lose some troops, maybe alot. This was like, I know that my troops are going to take damage but not die. So as long as I hit, then pull back, I'm not going to lose any troops. Really took any of the tension away. Passion -2.
Not sure what to say here really. Early game cities are a little on the weak side, but I've definitely lost quite a few units trying to attack cities. Maybe you're just playing on too low of a difficulty?
But thinking about this further: why did they get rid of cottages? Especially for a game that was supposed to move combat outside of the city. Can you imagine the tension as an equal or greater enemy approaches your fertile commercial land? "HOLD THE LINE!" you scream with the realization that even if they don't take your cities they could chop you off at the knees by pillaging the source of the soldiers paychecks! Visions of Hannibal in Rome! This game, who cares? Just build back those "Trading posts" and you're back in business again. Really missed the mark here. Passion -2.
I don't know anything about cottages, but there are still tile improvements and most military units can pillage an improvement (farm, mine, etc). If a city was already depending on that improvement for gold or food, you've just cost them that income.
Sorry, but overall you sound like you're just nitpicking and wishing this was just another Civ 4 expansion. From what I can tell, its a different game. That doesn't make it boring or bad, for me at least.