Your favorite civ for Archipelago?

[TheBlindLeader]

Hi,

I am going for an archipelago game this evening (its 8 pm in germany^^) for the first time with CiV, but I am wondering what civ you would recommend me for that. I play on Prince, huge map and marathon. Any thoughts on that?

TBL

 

[delra]

Songhai I think is the best. You can cross to small islands with your units without escort cause they can defend themselves while embarked. There will be plenty of huts and villages AI doesn't get to on empty island - and your bonus gold from them will boost your economy quite a lot. Finally, Mandekalus being able to storm cities on their own with no artillery help (only with the help of your fleet) allow you to go on a real viking spree to enemy lands to plunder him and when he gathers together some defence - simply get the hell out of there to the sea. Normally such an operation would be an escorting nightmare requiring plenty of ships, here your cavalry can just cross the sea unattended - or with small escort.

Other good candidate outside of typical strong civ pool (China, Greece...) would be Arabia. Ai won't have a lot of different resources with their expansion seriously slowed down by the map, having extra stuff to sell will net you millions. Makes them natural colonizers able to grab all resources and multiply them for sales.

Ottomans with their gold from pirate galleys and excellent Sipahis wouldn't be bad either - but for sure not as easy as the above. They would require you early to settle between barb camps - and not conquer either of them encouraging barb spawns, especially ships.

 

[Giant Dwarf]

I like England. Add in the commerce branch (the left side is the best for archipelago). PlusTheir frigates are strong and fast, and their longbows don't need resources.

 

[Ahriman]

England for faster embarked units is great, Ottomans aren't bad either; you can farm barbarian encampment triremes for a large fleet.

 

[stormerne]

Although I go along with the previous posters' choices, you might also want to consider Arabia. If you have a long game (and it sounds like you will!) you could get addicted to all the extra gold ("Trade Caravan: +2 Gold from each Trade Route").

 

[Mango Elephant]

Ottomans and England, of course. I think with the GL, England would dominate warfare.

 

[stormerne]

Again, if you're going to play a long game and you're militarily rather than commercially inclined, I think England will beat Otterman and Songhai easily (whose strengths are probably more early on). The English UU - Ship of the Line - is an awesome Renaissance Era unit, having a better ranged attack and further visibility than a Frigate - yet it's cheaper to build. And if promoted it will still hold its own against a destroyer if you ever fall behind in technology.

 

[Conspirator]

Is it worth playing an Archipelago game because so far in my games the AI doesn't really make much use of the sea or unsettled islands? (Terra maps)

 

[aimlessgun]

Is it worth playing an Archipelago game because so far in my games the AI doesn't really make much use of the sea or unsettled islands? (Terra maps)

The AI expands. But yeah the island you need astronomy to reach, even once the AI can get to them, will be left empty for a while.

AI is very hit or miss. I've seen very effective cross-island invasions. I've also seen wars last hundreds of years to no effect.

In general yes the AI tends to undervalue ships. Which is quite unfortunate.

 

[fr3nchy117]

I like England. Realize that for embarked movement, that +2 doubles embarked movement, and even once you've gotten the tech buffs to your embarked movement, your troops are still 50% faster.

I've said this before and I'll say it again lol... England allows for quick expansion, oceanwise, and is easier to maintain a large empire of you're attacked, since reinforcements are faster. Great lighthouse, I like my trireme that can outrun destroyers.
Or heck, submarines that can outrun destroyers, the only fast unit that can see them.

I can see this being more prominent in a MP game though.

 

[Lyoncet]

Hmm, didn't know that the +2 movement applied to embarked units too. I assumed it didn't since things like the Commerce branch and GLH don't boost embark speed. That actually makes a huge difference in the logistics of transcontinental warfare.

 

[delra]

With Great Lighthouse and that Commerce policy you will have Galleys which move 9 tiles a turn.

 

[TheBlindLeader]

Ok, I took the first recs and started with England. I must say that I dominate the sea and that there is no civ that would stand a chance if I decided to attack it. But sadly I am massively disappointed in the AI. On landmass maps it holds itself but on archipelago it sucks

I will play more tommorow and if there is no competition I will start another game with a higher difficulty and maybe try out Arabia.

Thanks for all your recs!

TBL

 

[delra]

You could go Small Continents or Archipelago with Low Water and Large Map - everyone should get his own island there, bigger or smaller - and you could be a proper England there. Over time AIs spread to other islands as long as they run out of space on their own so it could be actual struggle between colonial empires.

Siam in my game was kind of fun, I had cavalry army, he had Elephants, I had crapload of Caravels, he had handful of Frigates. We were wrestling for quite a while. Another good archipelago enemy is Rome, they build a lot of siege equipment and triremes every game I get them. Ottomans also seem to not let down and always have some ships around. If you pick "naval" nations as enemies you might have more fun than with typical Gandhi who never wets his flip-flops.

Either way, conserve Iron for Frigates. Nothing like good old-style shore bombardment of enemy army.