[NFP] What are you doing with early governor promotions?

[acluewithout]

It’s a lot of power early. It completely undercuts early decisions about which Civic path to take, because you now really don’t need to get to State Workforce or Early Empire or build your Plaza to get those early Governor Titles. I really really don’t like these early titles. It makes the early game boring and the rest of the game too fast.

Anyway. Getting Magnus to so early can mean a lot of chops, although getting the techs that let you chop Jungle and Stone can slow things down. I’m not sure Magnus’ second promotion for Settler Pop is the best use of a title, because you just don’t need the pop right at the start. Likewise, Pingala and Liang are tricky, because you don’t always have the Pop or production to leverage them fully so early. Amani works better out the gate, because you can potentially force Classical Golden Age via Suzerain and Visibility.

So far, I’ve generally gone Magnus 1 or 2, one Secret Society level (eg for Economy Card) into Amani or (not withstanding what I said above) Liang.

But, yeah, all extra Governor titles are really silly, and makes the game mode just much less interesting overall.

 

[monikernemo]

So one thing to note about SS is that you need extra governor promotions to promote your SS governor in the future eras. So the extra titles actually go towards unlocking them in the future stages. But of course if you intend to win the game before say the industrial era, there is no need to conserve titles and effectively you gain 2 additional titles.

That being said, usually Armani first to secure golden age, or if I am playing Matthias to leverage the army and gain more envoys. Early connoisseur grants Pingala is too good to pass to snag hypatia.

 

[Pietato]

Anami doing the city-state tour is great for getting a golden age. Seems too easy now.

 

[UWHabs]

Anami doing the city-state tour is great for getting a golden age. Seems too easy now.

You still need the right setup. My last game started on an island with only 2 CS, so makes for a short tour.

 

[walkerjks]

I play culture games. It's what I do. Once in a while I play a civ for domination just to pick up another achievement and to remind myself how to fight wars.

Within the confines of winning cultural victories, my early governors will always go into some combination of Pingala + culture and/or science improvements and void singers. Before secret societies, I did Pingala science promotion as often as Pingala culture, but now I'm leaning into culture first almost every time.

Early (as soon as it is available) void singers or not is almost entirely dependent on whether or not I think I need the religious settlements pantheon. If I feel I really need it, then that governor goes to Void Singers and I immediately start building the obelisk. Some starts are less dependent on the early free settler (and there's the faith game where you would prefer faith bonuses to a free settler). THen you can skip joining a secret society immediately.

I know some people prefer Magnus first. And doing a diplomat tour early to get (temporary) suzerainty of city states can lock up a classical golden age. But I almost always go Pingala and (now with secret societies) culture promotion first. Even if I miss out on some inspirations due to fast culture gain, more culture early is almost always good. Fast political philosophy is almost always good.

I aim for Magnus + provision as soon as the first post-PP settler is popped (built or bought via monumentality). That typically means get to PP as quickly as possible (so I can build ancestral hall - though the ancestral hall isn't really needed before the city is settled) and then start producing settlers. If I can get PP by turn 45 or so (easier with secret societies) and the ancestral hall built by turn 55 or so, things are good. This typically means there's plenty of time for Pingala + 2 promotions + joining void singers before I even have to think of Magnus + provision.

It's a bit more complicated if I don't get 3 secret society governors by this time. But typically by PP, you now get 5 governor slots (the 2 through the civics tree + 3 or 4 secret society governors). That let's you use the government district governor slot and ancestral hall governor slot for Magnus + provision.

 

[agonistes]

I don’t use SS, after testing them, so its Pingala then Victor, then I sit on them.

If I used SS, it would depend on game speed. At slow speeds, Pingala is a real monster. He can shave 200 turns off an early tech.

With SS’s, on standard, vampires are absurd. The bonuses from castles are crazy. The unit strength is okay, but comboing a castle with wonder buffed/disaster fed terrain is obscene. +80 production/food? Even gold! I didn’t test it with science or culture, but if those are buffed too, Teddy + wonder + say, Granada + vampires? Good lord. Even Teddy + lumber mills + vampires is great.

 

[Codeblue009]

I agree, unless I'm extremely growth starved, 3x Pingala and perhaps Amani to send off seems like the hands-down best start. That early culture just gets you so much faster to the tier 1 governments that it's probably fair to call Pingala imbalanced (in 95 % of my games, my first governor promotion will be the +1 culture from each citizen, because early culture is very scarce). The science from population is powerful but normally less game-deciding, because early science is much easier to come by. But the 100 % great person promotion is also one of the most powerful promotions - on any governor - imo., so basically that leaves Pingala with two of the best promotions and a very powerful third one right from the bat.

The only strong competitor for opener is Magnus x2 to get the chop boost and the settler promotion, but it seems to me that in most game, the settler promotion is not as valuable as it might appear in the early game. Unless you find yourself in circumstances where you can pump out settlers extremely fast very early (like classical monumentality coupled with extremely high faith income), my cities normally regain that population within a handful of turns, again unless I'm extremely growth starved. There are exceptions - for instance Maya and Russia definitely are likely candidates for an earlier-than-normal Magnus - but in general, I find it's a much better strategy to push back Magnus and start with Pingala.

On a sidenote, I find it quite disappointing that the governors are so poorly balanced. It may be subjective, but I end up using the same governors in roughly the same order in the vast majority of my games.

I completely agree with you Kasper. I like to open now with Pingala. The extra culture is what the doctor ordered for me.

Cheers.

 

[AriochIV]

Either Liang for better Builders and disaster resistance, or Magnus for pop-free Settlers.

 

[japanesesamurai]

Either Liang for better Builders and disaster resistance, or Magnus for pop-free Settlers.

Does she also prevent tiles with districts from disappearing because of sea level rise?

“Reinforced Materials is a Level 2 title for Liang, a Governor in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. It requires Zoning Commissioner.

Effects
This city's improvements, buildings and s cannot be damaged by Environmental Effects.”

 

[cain3456]

My latest game, I rushed Moksha to Divine Architect. It was awesome to be able to plunk down 3600 faith later for an instant spaceport.