Why would ANYONE play Suleiman?

[Maniacal]

Because you still want to play as the Ottos but don't mind not using the UA?

 

[BuckeyesNYC]

His UA is actually pretty good if you know how to use it well. It's GREAT for diety maps, and continent/archipelego maps.

Now I think it's worded poorly, you don't have to attack/sink the ship to get the chance to convert it.

You just need to move next to the unit you want to try to convert.

Wait till that AI on diety starts bringing destroyers/battleships/carriers.

And you're converting them with triremes and caravels!

The barbarians can get that technologically advanced in this game?

 

[Thormodr]

There are a number of reasons.

I like challenges so trying to make the UA work appeals to me. The Ottomans would be fun on an archipelago map. Terrorizing the other Civs with your huge navy.

Secondly, the UA may not be awesome but the Ottoman UUs are. You'll be a potent force in the middle ages of the game.

Finally, I like the look and color scheme of the Ottomans. Perhaps that isn't important at all but I like ascetics.

 

[dorn]

The french musket UU has strength 20.

Which makes it only a slightly stronger cheaper longswordsman that you can't upgrade anything to.

You can't upgrade anything to the Janissary as well of course. But those bonuses pass on when it upgrades to rifleman I assume.

 

[Scaramanga]

Because he's the Sultan of Swing.

 

[Tamed]

Also to the people defending playing him on an archipelago map.. uh, Elizabeth?

 

[Thormodr]

Also to the people defending playing him on an archipelago map.. uh, Elizabeth?

Just because another Civ is well suited to an archipelago map doesn't make the suggestion invalid.

The Ottomans will definitely be fun on such a map and would make for an enjoyable game playing experience.

 

[Tamed]

I dunno, I just don't see why anyone would play him when there's blatantly better civilizations. I think they need to add to his passive ability: and +25% production speed on something. A building, boats, anything.

 

[Ahriman]

His passive is absolute garbage! Atleast Bismarcks is somewhat feasible. Nothing Suleiman gets makes up for how awful that is, either.

Janissiary is fantastic.

The french musket UU has strength 20.

Musketeer upgraded to rifleman is the same as a regular musketeer.
IIRC, Janissiary upgraded to rifleman keeps its ability.

 

[The Leviathan]

It's still better than US unique ability.

No way


Also people will play as Suleiman because they like the Ottoman Empire, think he is a boss, or want to destroy the world with his two amazing unique units.

 

[The Leviathan]

I think it would make more sense (from a roleplay/realism point of view) for Manifest Destiny to involve something more along the lines of a happiness boost/unhappiness unboost for taking over land controlled by an opponent. After all, the central idea of Manifest Destiny was a huge propaganda movement to keep the population of USA from raising moral quandaries about displacing the Native Americans and other colonies.

It makes perfect sense as the ability is now

The sight boost is supposed to represent the American expeditions and explorers mapping out the west and paving the way for westward expansion. While the bonus to purchase of land is supposed to represent the fact that the majority of land the US gained throughout it's history was purchased from other countries such as France and Spain. America would not have expanded so freely in the West had those purchases not been made.

Yes America killed and tricked the Natives in the lands they claimed to be theirs, but they didn't topple any governments or capture any cities. They just massacred and displaced tribes. I don't see why they should get a bonus to capturing cities, when the majority of land they got was purchased (either fairly from Europeans or unfairly from natives)

 

[andrewlt]

His passive is absolute garbage! Atleast Bismarcks is somewhat feasible. Nothing Suleiman gets makes up for how awful that is, either.

Bismarck makes up for it with UU, though. With how awful production is in Civ 5, the AI Bismarck in my game rolled his continent with Landsknecht spam.

 

[Murky]

The unique abilities are not well-balanced and are poorly designed. I prefer the leader traits in IV.

 

[Dai]

I tried him out precisely because his ability seemed so narrow, on a Continents map. I was fortunate enough to get four galleys fairly early. The thing was, there wasn't really anything to do with them. I already by definition had some triremes, which are superior anyway - they're faster and stronger - so they were mostly costing me maintenance, since I didn't have a pressing need for a huge navy. (My map had the property that there was no shallow-water passage between the continents.) Given the massive gap between triremes and caravels, time-wise, it didn't seem economical to actually keep the galleys around in hopes of upgrading them. It was fun and funny to have a pirate navy for a while, but without anything obvious to use them for, the primary benefit of the ability was the money earned when converting them, a quantity dwarfed by that generated by other civ's abilities. The "neat" factor of the ability doesn't change that it's not good for a whole lot, at least on a continents map.

 

[Exterminas]

Archipelago. Not everyone plays pangea with barbs turned off, even if it is a popular setting.

 

[Qpla]

The unique abilities are not well-balanced and are poorly designed. I prefer the leader traits in IV.

Really? I thought this was one of the better features in Civ 5. Now civs actually differ from each other...

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

He doesn't need barbarian galleys when his Janissary's are enslaving your defeated units and his Sipahis are trouncing your infantry.

 

[Brawndo]

I've played both Suleiman and Elizabeth just for their Unique Units. Both have mostly useless UAs (even Elizabeth, it's more for exploration because the AI cannot really handle naval combat), but they have BEASTLY UUs. Janissaries and Longbowmen can win you the game alone, and Siphais are pretty useful too

 

[Scaramanga]

The unique abilities are not well-balanced and are poorly designed. I prefer the leader traits in IV.

Balance is overrated. If multiplayers want a totally even playing-field it seems to me they should just turn barbarians and city states off and play as the same civ, or maybe 2 or 3 in the same "balance tier". I imagine it would be hard to balance three races in Starcraft and doing so with 18+ different civs would be near impossible.

 

[Horizons]

The point of such a stunning piece of headgear isn't to see it, but rather to have it seen. And to keep sand out of your hair when you start in a desert.