Among my favourites for sure, but do not forget Vietnams unwritten weakness.
I played the East Asia map, starting on Ha Long Bay, evident lead. A series of Wars declared by Khmer, resulting in many heroic skirmishes repelled through the thick complex of forests.
Then, about 200 turns in, the Forest Fires began. Starting up in numerous locations over time and sweeping over almost every tile like the tides, crossing rivers, and reigniting repeatedly.. Continuously.. for 77 turns (so far)! They’ve taken the Capital – and largest city in the game – from 25 Pop to 4, including growth in between. My second city fell from 18 pop to 1, and entered an infinite loyalty loss loop to small neighbouring cities. At least 40 turns were spent repairing districts & buildings in both Cities, yet there isn’t time to repair them all before the next blaze. The humble Builder was the only hope in this fight, so the entire budget was devoted to hiring them, each and every one only to be sacrificed to the flame before they could touch the bark.
You cannot Harvest burnt Woods until regrowth, nor those treeline trails leading out of your territory. Of course, Forest Fires don’t qualify for international emergencies, so while nearby factions were expecting Gold for losing a couple of Farms to a Volcano, I was instead attacked again, as a now all too easy target, narrowing the movement of builders and units between sword and flame. And despite the excellent Drive Out The Aggressors ability and invincible Voi Chien, my veteran army has no defence against sudden spontaneous combustion on their tile.
I admit, I've never seen anything like it in any previous game. It would have been safer to drop a nuke around my Capital to obliterate the forests; it couldn’t hope to match the sheer empire crumbling capability of a pristine patch of peaceful woodland. Barbarians? Vesuvius? Try living near trees..
My advice: Chop as many Woods when playing Vietnam as you would any other Civ. Lowering the risk and range of Forest Fires is another vital consideration in Vietnams City planning puzzle.
Sure, OK, we know Vietnam can only build districts on mostly combustible terrain, but as the game goes on, even chopping strategic separations between patches of Woods and Rainforest only limits the inevitable problem. It seems as other AI empires cut down all of their Woods & Rainforests for improvements, they are rewarded for this environmental destruction by refocusing every potential Fire into Vietnams borders, because that is where almost every remaining forest feature is now concentrated. So, Vietnam requires far more forests than any other Civ, yet despite all of their abilities and districts relying on them, it is at by far the most risk of fires, and greater spread and loss from fires. Thus, the tranquil Woods, and the ability to plant them early, create more risk to Population, military & civilian units, and, unlike any other Civ, districts and buildings too.
Vietnam probably doesn't need to be amended with an ability that prevents damage from Forest Fires. But it does raise an issue regarding Civs with bonuses on these Features (Maori, Brazil, etc.), because Woods are far more widespread on the map than other features with the potential to cause Disasters, and can eventually be planted in any Civs territory too. Other disaster-causing tiles can be avoided easily, based on a choice of where to settle, and grant no unique bonuses to any Civ, such as Volcanoes and Coastal Lowlands. Others, like Hurricanes and Blizzards, are based on underlying terrain and most move to another location after 1 turn. Dust Storms last for a finite number of turns. Floods and Droughts too, which can be easily stopped by Buildings. The Forest Fire, however, is limited only by the shape & scale of forest Features, and the regions where they remain, can reignite on returning to recent regrowth, and cause population loss every turn.
Perhaps there's use for a new Building (like a Flood Barrier), or even an addition to the Preserve, that protects nearby Rainforest & Woods from Fires, or prevents loss of population or property.
Oh well. I am a wonder wh... (I'm not sure if I can use that word here). It's probably not worth trying in the higher difficulty levels like the above game, it's too hard to get the wonder building great engineers (though amazingly I think I got 3 out of the 4 of them in the above game), and this game I also missed out on Mausoleum. I just didn't have enough charges since Estadio wonder was more important to solve my massive amenity issue from having 25 cities (Egypt also had 25 so I wanted to be competitive with them, though they still edged me out in score).
