Time to revise our strategies, now with v152!

[BriantheBold]

I'm glad the new patch made Praetorians cost five more hammers (from 40 to 45) because they seemed to be too dominant of a unit. Replacing a Swordsman who is 6 str and +10% city attack with a Praetorian who is 8 strength (but with no city attack advantage) is almost cheap. Maceman are usually the first units one gets with 8 str (sometimes a civ gets war elephants first), costed (with version 1.09) thirty more hammers than Praetorians and are the upgrade of the unit the Praetorian replaced (Swordsman).
Macemens' advantages come in the form of +50% vs. melee units and were slightly more available by requiring either copper OR iron while Praetorians require only Iron.
To me the advantages and basis for making the Praetorian cost more hammers is justified for the facts listed above.

 

[DementedAvenger]

I don't see much difference. 0.4 vs 0.5 health isn't enough of a change to matter.

This is a huge change. It changes the health cut-offs from 3, 5, and 8 forests to 2, 4, and 6 forests. Being able to chop 2 more forests and still maintain +3 health is a lot of extra hammers.

 

[Cort Haus]

I'm not sure whether the changes in forest health mean more or less chopping. There's more health to be got from forests, so they are more valuable to keep for health - but you also need less of them to get health, so can afford to chop more down.

I don't see why this should be getting people chopping more wonders & libs, rather than settlers though - as I think someone suggested.

 

[DaviddesJ]

I don't see why this should be getting people chopping more wonders & libs, rather than settlers though - as I think someone suggested.

I believe the notion was that early chopping of settlers is less valuable because the higher civic costs in 1.52 make building lots of early cities less desirable.

 

[Oggums]

Right, now you need libraries sooner, for example, so that you can continue your research at a reasonable pace while you're dropping the research slider down in order to afford another city.

 

[jkp1187]

What exactly is "firepower" as compared to actual "strength?"

Yes, someone please answer this.

 

[brucemo]

I believe that how it used to work, if you had a 28-strength tank that had been knocked down to 2 strength, it would attack with the power of a warrior.

Now it attacks with the power of a tank, albeit a severely wounded one.

It's no longer quite so insane to attack a primitive unit with a weakened advanced unit.

bruce

 

[DaveMcW]

Firepower is only half of combat, so that wounded tank has an effective 15 strength for damage purposes. (2 strength + 28 firepower) / 2
But with only 7% of its hitpoints, it won't take many hits to finish it off.

At least that's how I understand it, I haven't done any real tests...

 

[EdwardTking]

I believe that how it used to work, if you had a 28-strength tank that had been knocked down to 2 strength, it would attack with the power of a warrior.

Now it attacks with the power of a tank, albeit a severely wounded one.

It's no longer quite so insane to attack a primitive unit with a weakened advanced unit.

bruce

Yeah, this makes it harder for the spearmen.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Yeah, this makes it harder for the spearmen.

But will it be enough?