Unpopular Opinion Thread

[elohssa]

I don't do 2 mounted SoD's. It's always siege and infantry, for me. (Does this come from playing slower game speeds, or am I missing something important?)

No, I play immortal/diety + normal speed and it's pretty much the same. Early game HA/WC/Immortals are nice, but beyond that I prefer either elepult (classical era) or cannons + anything else.

 

[bhavv]

100% agree with this. This is why the (insert misspelled name of Holy Roman UU) is met with ambivalent feelings. There is nothing wrong with the upgrade- it is in fact an extremely useful grade the +100% against melee, but pikemen are such crappy units- they come at an awkward place in the tech tree and they don't make good city takers that the +100% bonus is largely wasted on them.

Pikemen are stack defenders. Landsnechkts are even better stack defenders.

My current unpopular opinion is that Charlies is a great leader / Civ, just with horrible starting techs:

- Can engi bulb.
- Imp can get your cities out faster, and GGs to attach to Pro Xbows
- GG powered pro Xbows, Trebs and Landsnechktes are a powerful army
- Rathouse is pure amazing and can help pay for your conquered cities.

 

[jackelgull]

I suppose this comes from playing noble, but I have never been put on the defensive by the AI, or required stack defenders. The time spent getting to pikes IMO could be put to better use getting to cavalry and curb stomping them with a full 2 move army.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Only once have I been invaded by sea. It was RevDCM and I had no defending navy. One turn I was at war. The next they took my capital and another coastal city I ragequit that game after like, 10 attempts to defend myself and failing each time

 

[GHalfrunt]

Pikemen are stack defenders. Landsnechkts are even better stack defenders.

My current unpopular opinion is that Charlies is a great leader / Civ, just with horrible starting techs:

- Can engi bulb.
- Imp can get your cities out faster, and GGs to attach to Pro Xbows
- GG powered pro Xbows, Trebs and Landsnechktes are a powerful army
- Rathouse is pure amazing and can help pay for your conquered cities.

I'm intrigued. I rarely play as the HRE, but I think I need to try this now.

 

[bhavv]

I suppose this comes from playing noble, but I have never been put on the defensive by the AI, or required stack defenders. The time spent getting to pikes IMO could be put to better use getting to cavalry and curb stomping them with a full 2 move army.

Erm no. You don't 'spend time getting to pikes', you spend 2 bulbs to get Xbows and Trebs. They need a few pikes to defend them against mounted units, and you get pikes / landsnechkts with trebs. Added bonuses for Pro leaders are 2 free promos on your Xbows and half cost castles.

Trebs are much better at taking cities than 2 move mounted units.

 

[jackelgull]

A) I ignore protective leaders like the plague
B) Engineering requires a Great Engineer bulb. Great engineer specialist points are hard to come by (Unless I'm mistaken, I'm no master of the engineering bulb)
C) Castles suck hard. Unless you're Spain. Their trade route bonus is obsoleted by economics (weird choice I never understood, why not gunpowder or rifling) which isn't really an easy tech to skip and is really close on the tech tree. Of course I suppose that doesn't really matter as you are as I understand speaking of a really focused beeline, then why even bring castles up? Why waste time with those buildings, when instead you should be whipping out your Xbows and trebs? By the time they come up, why do you even need the defense?
D) Cavalry are not bad at city taking, they're actually really good. First of all, they often start with two promos thanks to barracks plus stable, they can start of with 3 if you run both experience civics and settle a GG in the city. So a fifteen strength unit with combat 2 = 18 strength, good odds on most medieval defenders. And effectual enough that it isn't too expensive to bring a bunch of them instead of siege. When they win they also gain lots of experience, so eventually you'll get a bunch of toughened veterans. And lots of great generals. Settle some, turn others into great medics and super strength city crackers, whatever you'd like. Trebuchets are good, but they lower exp gain, which is only necessary when you use units not strong enough to crack cities by themselves.

 

[cseanny]

For really BIG maps I think HRE is a beast due to his UB and his UU can certainly help you get big fast. However, whenever possible I will always prefer a CUIR war because imo 2 movement wars are w/out question, better.

 

[bhavv]

Engineering bulb is done with 2 great scientists and skipping fishing. As you say you don't know much about it.

With Pro and Imp, You'll be stomping around with Drill IV and Guerrila III near invincible Xbows and have an easy win.

 

[jackelgull]

Okay, that makes it more viable. For some reason I thought it required an engineer bulb.

 

[Lennier]

Engineers can bulb Engineering as well and you don't have to skip fishing to get them to bulb it. But, as you say, GE points are hard to come by. And when I get an early one (either through kids or running one engineer with a forge) I'm usually tempted to bulb a wonder anyways.

 

[cseanny]

- That you need a lot of cities or some form of a REX to win
- That you don't ever need more than a size 8 Capital and 4 other cities at size 6 to completely destroy all Immoral and below games (and in many many cases be very competitive on Deity).

 

[ringwraith18]

Has anyone ever been conquered across an ocean by an AI? Ever?

I have. If I don't build a navy then come mid-late game I'm pretty confident the AI will invade across the ocean, especially if they've run out of enemies at home.

 

[Zacar]

If you neglect your army in an isolated start/isolated after rush for too long, you have realistic chances of getting attacked across an ocean by an AI, yes. Especially Portugal.

 

[drewisfat]

Army/navy strength has nothing to do with it. Neither of you read my question, or you replaced the word "Conquered" with 'dowed".
The AI is simply horrible at overseas invasions. Even if you are completely unprepared, have no navy, and are behind the AI and he lands 20 units in one of your cities, it's not a real threat. It's simply too hard to reinforce in a timely manner.

 

[traius]

Army/navy strength has nothing to do with it. Neither of you read my question, or you replaced the word "Conquered" with 'dowed".
The AI is simply horrible at overseas invasions. Even if you are completely unprepared, have no navy, and are behind the AI and he lands 20 units in one of your cities, it's not a real threat. It's simply too hard to reinforce in a timely manner.

Not sure if kmod affects this, but the AI also simply fills their ships with too many Siege units. I once got a landing of 6 Galleons and they were all trebs and cats. I saw the ladning one turn early, and had cuirs already from conquering my island, and I literally crushed them one turn after DoW. They never landed again, and eventually gave me gold for peace.

 

[civbone]

Army/navy strength has nothing to do with it. Neither of you read my question, or you replaced the word "Conquered" with 'dowed".
The AI is simply horrible at overseas invasions. Even if you are completely unprepared, have no navy, and are behind the AI and he lands 20 units in one of your cities, it's not a real threat. It's simply too hard to reinforce in a timely manner.

It depends though, if you are busy waging war on another front, then can be a real hassle.

 

[ringwraith18]

Army/navy strength has nothing to do with it. Neither of you read my question, or you replaced the word "Conquered" with 'dowed".
The AI is simply horrible at overseas invasions. Even if you are completely unprepared, have no navy, and are behind the AI and he lands 20 units in one of your cities, it's not a real threat. It's simply too hard to reinforce in a timely manner.

Well the human player will quit before he's conquered so that's a pretty high threshold for AI success.

I've certainly abandoned games because of AI naval invasions, is that good enough for you?

It depends though, if you are busy waging war on another front, then can be a real hassle.

This. Even if I have a decent military, unless it happens to be stationed at the exact place that the AI attacks I'll be in real trouble. If it's 20+ hexes away then I'm boned, especially if I'm already in a war. Imo it is far too easy for a player - either human or AI - to cripple another player in this way. It's too easy to simply camp a load of transports just outside of the visible hexes, then land 20 or 40 units in one fell swoop. Sure it might not actually conquer you in a single turn, but if they conquer or raze say 3 or 4 of your key cities, it can seem pointless to continue playing.

 

[drewisfat]

Dows very rarely come out of the blue. If someone has a fist and dislikes you, you probably shouldn't get engaged in your own big war. AI doesn't raze cities, so him taking a couple cities while you get some troops into a position shouldn't be a big deal or a game ender. KMOD is better at naval invasions, mostly because they will raise cities. But as even traius puts out, dropping off unguarded siege somewhere is a big issue.

 

[reddishrecue]

I think the AI likes to get other AI against you when you know how to conquer cities. When the world finds out that you conquer cities of another civilization, the rest of the world will begin to try to attack you to stop you from conquering more and more cities.