Tips for Isabella

[Ytter]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to play with Isabella, so I want to know if some of you have tips for me.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

I'm planning to play with Isabella, so I want to know if some of you have tips for me.

Read Cuban Isolationists

 

[Cam_H]

Please find extracts from other threads - Warlords expansion is assumed;

Spanish Citadel (Castle):

Patched Warlords made Castles more useful by giving them +1 trade route and -25% damage from bombardment from non-gunpowder units in addition to the +50% vs. non-gunpowder units and +1 culture. Cumulative with the prerequisite Walls, that means +100 defence from non-GP units and -50% from non-GP bombardment.

The Citadel gives an additional 25% bombardment protection for a total of -75% and gives 5XP to seige units produced in the city. From the +3XP barracks and the Citadel that is 8XP already, but Thoecracy and Vassalge give 12XP from the start enough for 3 promotions. The bonus is applied to Trebuchets, Catapults and if you can avoid the obsoleting tech, Economics (which restores the lost trade route, 1st to discover gets a GM) you can have Cannons, Artillery and even machine guns with this bonus as well.

Possible Synergies:

The strength of the UB lies in how one promotes their seige weapons most effectively. A warmonger or early-war-to-to-claim-land strategy uses it to it's full advantage, but just protecting your cities becomes much easier now too. Let's take a look at the Seige Units and remember they cannot receive defensive bonuses:

[U]Unit         Cost  Strength  Movement                 Bonuses                 [/U]
                                                                                                                                
Catapult      40      5         1     25% Withdrawal, Causes Collateral Damage
                                       Bombard City Defences (-15%/turn)     
Trebuchet     60      4         1     25% Withdrawal, Causes Collateral Damage                    
                               +100% vs. City, Bombard City Defences (-25%/turn)           
Cannon       100     12         1     25% Withdrawal, Causes Collateral Damage
                                       Bombard City Defences (-20%/turn) 
Machine Gun  120     18         1  1st Strike, Only Defends, +50% vs. GP Units
Artillery    100     18         1    25% Withdrawal, Causes Collateral Damage                    
                               +50% vs. Seige, Bombard City Defences (-25%/turn)

All these units receive Barrage, Drill, Shock, Ambush, and City Raider (except Machine Gun who only defends) as well as the Combat and Medic promotions. Any Grenadiers promoted to Machine Gun will not gain any XPs if ungraded in a Citadel, but any you build there will. None of these units can receive City Garrison, Cover, Pinch, Formation, Charge or (Guerilla or Woodsman), but it is possible to have your Grenadier or Melee Units promoted into Grenadiers and give them any of those promotions and then upgrade them into Machine Gunners. You could for example create G2 or G3 Machine Gunners with Ambush and CG promotions to defend a Hill city from Tanks or you could have Woodsman Machine Gunners with Pinch and Medic/Charge defending your SoD on route through a forest to attack an enemy city.

Options for your other seige units are even more numerours. Except for the Machine Gun, all the seige units have a 25% withdrawal chance, if you add a GG to it, you can it 55% as well as making it a nice Seige Weapon from other promotions. Remember that upgrades are free when attached to a Warlord, so you could have some expert Machine Gun defenders or great Cannons/Artillery once the competition gets a little tougher and the AI has more advanced units. One other thing that really stood out to me in trying the UB out, was that Seige Units are immune to collateral damage, so having plenty of them in your stack means you will have some to attack with while other units might need to heal. You can give them medic promotions too remember.

As for synergy with the Conquistador, it is a knight with +50% vs. melee units. Many different civs have melee units for their UU, which comes in handy. With a few correctly promoted Conquistadors and Seige weapons the two should complement each other nicely. Don't forget to balance out your forces, using more than just these two.

Possible Drawbacks?

This UB doesn't really do anything for the Expansive trait or the Spanish starting tech of fishing and mysticism, however being religious does offer advantages to being able to switch to new civics immediately and not waiting until others are discovered. A switch to Theocracy before you wait to get Vassalage could mean the difference between producing units with an extra +2 XPs and for the Seige units with the Citadel, that is enough to put them over the top for a third promotion.

Summary:

If you want to avoid Economics, the obsoletion tech, you only really miss out on a Great Merchant. You could conceivably hold out for some super artillery and machine gunners if you wanted. This UB allows for some intersting warface capabilities. Although it doesn't immediately lend it self to anything other than conquest/domination, the extra territory and cities gained or even the ability to better protect one's own cities and territory is nothing to take lightly.

Spain: Conquistador (Knight)

With this UU, the road to El Dorado can be wide and clear. It has the potential to be exploited in a game-breaking way. The reason is this: Conquistadors get 50% bonus vs. melee, which gives it an advantage against the most common counter to knights - pikemen. They also get defensive bonuses, which means they can exploit the terrain to make counterattack difficult. To top all of this off, Conquistadors benefit from 2 first strikes (which normal knights don't get), making them even harder to defeat.

You need horse and iron to produce this UU. Playing as Spain, I'd make sure I get those by the time Conquistadors can be built. The Spanish player would also do well to research Guilds early, extending the life and usefulness of the UU. Conquistadors can fill the role of your main city attackers, following your siege weapons to capture city after city. They don't get CR upgrades, but they can perform decently against city defenders even when they haven't accumulated promotions. Their first strikes and immunity to first strikes certainly help, especially against longbows. And, thanks to their bonus against melee, defending pikes don't scare them that much. With defensive bonuses to help, they can also act as stack-protectors during your campaigns. Furthermore, since they have 2 moves, they can attack enemy units and come back to the stack in the same turn. If you're playing on Warlords, they make the perfect companions to Citadel-improved siege weapons. Woe to the enemy cities!

Once those shiny cities have been taken, Conquistadors can help defend them until you get suitable defenders (such as longbowmen) there. This works especially well if a city is on a hill. As you can see, the versatility of the Conquistador almost matches that of the Musketeer.

However, here are a few words of caution. Siege weapons are not to be excluded from your Conquistador campaigns. Unless your target is still fielding archers, bringing siege units for bombardment and some collateral damage should still be part and parcel of your plans. Conquistadors are strong but not invincible. Without the proper support, they would still die to entrenched units, especially pikes and longbows. The other thing is, beware of elephants! These are the ultimate counter to Conquistadors. Under normal circumstances, there is no way a Conquistador can beat an elephant, and the latter is much cheaper to train. Just make sure you target opponents who have no ivory and you should have great time conquering with this UU.

EXPANSIVE: +3 health per city. Double speed production of Granary and Harbor.

I'm not going to lie to you. I think this trait is on the weak side. However, you CANNOT discount this trait's cheaper buildings. The cheap buildings may be the best part. This trait WILL let you get a huge population, and quickly.

What does a huge population help you with? Well, besides everything, a huge population is great for running a specialist-heavy economy. See Philosophical for more details.

Much of the debate for this trait revolves around whether health or happiness are the biggest barriers to growth. Well, even if you assume that expansive will give you more health than you know what to do with, there are a few strategies below to get the extra happiness you need. At high difficulties, this can have huge payoffs.

• Synergy:
  
  Take advantage of that fast Granary. You can't do this if you don't get to Pottery early on.
  
  Some players may find that happiness tends to inhibit their city growth more than health. However, the Hereditary Rule civic is an easy target with big payoffs. This civic generates happiness for every military unit you have, with no upper limit. If you can discovery Monarchy early, or build the Pyramids, you can tap this civic and EASILY support 3 more population than the average Civ.
  
  Slavery can be a huge advantage of these additional people. With Bronzeworking, you can access the slavery civic and turn those population points into production. Excess happiness can keep the remaining citizens content. Slavery can be extremely potent.
  
  Or you can let those people live. Combine this with some of the Specialist-heavy strategies recommended under the Philosophical trait... even if you're not Philosophical. Where you have lots of population and food, you have can have specialists and great people.

SPIRITUAL: No anarchy, double produciton speed of temples.

The lack of anarchy can save you a vital turn of production. I'll confess I think this trait is also a little weak, but there is a group of hardcore players who strongly disagree.

These hardcore players tout the advantages of micromanaging their civics, swapping between theocracy/organized religion or vassalage/bureaucracy as their cities shift focus from units to buildings. One later game favorite is swapping between Nationalism and Free Speech, drafting units but gaining other benefits in the downtime.

You can also swap religions easily, to further your diplomatic interests, or to take advantage of "religious sight" -- that the founder of a religion can see into cities of that religion around the world. These tricks are hard to master, but can make Spiritual a quite formidable trait.

• Synergy:
  
  In the long run, yes, you will want to discover those key civic technologies. Civil Service and Theology will be key technologies as they allow you to grab Bureaucracy and Theocracy (respectively). This will let you start to take advantage of swapping.
  
  But in the short run, a Spiritual Civilization generally (but not always) has instant access to Mysticism. That means they have the BEST chance of founding a religion, and a decent chance of keeping multiple religions out of the hands of other players. GET THOSE RELIGIONS. Polytheism, Meditation, and Monotheism are key. Having Mysticism also gives you quick access to Stonehenge, which generates a valuable Great Prophet, which can help you to found the next religion before your opponent.
  
  While on the religious path, you may find yourself discovering Priesthood. This gives you the earliest and easiest access to Temples, which let you run Priest specialists. Most Spiritual civilizations have early enough access to Priests that they can generate Great Prophets, if they so choose. An early Great Prophet can help you access Theology, Divine Right, or Civil Service. See this article for how you might be able to leverage this to your advantage.
  
  Early access to Priesthood also unlocks the Oracle. The obvious benefit of this is that it lets you discover a free technology like Metal Casting or Construction, and also generates a Great Prophet. However, if you plan accordingly, you can use this slingshot to discover Feudalism (through Monarchy), or Civil Service (through Code of Laws). You haven't seen anything until you've seen Longbows or Bureaucracy by 1000 BC!
  
  Another key is that the path to Judaism and Christianity flows right through Masonry. That gives you a perfect opportunity to grab the Pyramids, giving you a slew of Civics to swap between.
  
  And an addition from VoiceOfUnreason, it's important to note that many big civics come with religions. Philosophy offers both Pacifism and Taoism. Theology offers both Theocracy and Christianity. Monotheism offers both Organized Religion and Judaism. Code of Laws offers both Caste System and Confucianism. You'll want to prioritize at least a few of these, if not all of them.