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Taking over the tech tree, one building at a time
BtS buildable additions Pros: Interesting new Wonders do not overload the tech tree because of tech tree changes. Coastal cities, while more threatened militarily, are more profitable economically.
BtS buildable additions Cons: Respondent unavailable, call back later.
BtS buildable additions Tips: Reconsider your attitude towards some previously weak Wonders, they have been improved. Don't invade the holder of the Statue of Zeus unless you have to. Cristo Redentor is sweet.
It would be unfair to wrap my review up without mentioning some of the new buildings and Wonders introduced in BtS, as well as a few other minor additions.
The early game now has even more Wonders, with the addition of Shwedagon Paya, Moai Statues, Statue of Zeus and Mausoleum of Maussollos. To avoid the “Wonder at every tech” syndrome, the Aesthetics technology has been added (requires Writing, required for Literature and Drama). The technology is required for The Statue of Zeus, The Parthenon and Shwedagon Paya.
Shwedagon Paya (additionally requiring Meditation) allows you to use any Religion civic. The possibilities are fairly exciting. In a few situations, early Free Religion might be beneficial, but boosting early GP output through Pacifism is also attractive. Shwedagon Paya also allows you to get the earliest possible boost to XP, as you can run Theocracy without Theology and before Feudalism grants Vassalage.
The Statue of Zeus doubles war weariness of civs fighting you. It is a good deterrent and a Wonder that can be good to build just for denial purposes – it is really, really annoying when the civ you want to invade builds the statue. Unngh!
The Mausoleum increases duration of Golden Ages by 50%. Doesn’t sound too good until you consider that BtS also tweaked Golden Ages. In what is one of the game’s best small changes, the first Golden Age now only requires one GP, in addition, Golden Ages boost GP rate by 100% and you can switch civics without anarchy during them. With these boosts to Golden Ages (you might actually want to start some early in the game now), the Mausoleum is also a Wonder worth having.
It’s also worth noting that some Wonders widely considered to be among the weakest previously have been changed. The Sistine Chapel has been moved to Music and provides an additional 5 culture for every state religion building. Notre Dame has been moved to Engineering and now gives +2 happiness as opposed to +1 before.The Hagia Sophia, which previously usually came too late to be useful, now comes at Theology, increasing the likelihood of its bonus being useful.
Moai Statues is an early National Wonder that is just one of the reasons why coastal cities are better in BtS. Moai Statues add 1 hammer in every water tile for that city. Therefore, a good coastal city with Moai Statues can be not only fast-growing and producing good amounts of commerce, but also productive. Moai Statues won’t make an otherwise low-production city into your main industrial city, but they do alleviate the problem of having a high-commerce coastal city that takes forever to build anything.
Also boosting effectiveness of coastal cities is the fact that intercontinental trade routes now provide double trade income. Moving forward in time, there are now Custom Houses (available with Economics and requiring a Harbour) that further boost profits from intercontinental trade routes. Finally, Steam Power allows you to build Levees, which grant 1 hammer in every river tile, and that is truly powerful. Rivers are often some of the best sites for city founding anyway, and with Levees, they’re better than ever.
Health is now less abundant in the late game. Factories will give negative health for Coal and Oil, and so will Industrial Parks (a new building providing a free Engineer). To counteract that, you have Public Transportation, adding 1 health and another 1 from Oil, and 2 more if running Environmentalism. Overall, there is somewhat less health in the late game now, making Hospitals more important.
Radio brings my favorite BtS Wonder, the Cristo Redentor. It allows you to switch civics and religions without anarchy, as well as eliminating the waiting period between switches. Less useful for Spiritual leaders, it can be built at double speed by them. Nothing else in the game provides flexibility on the level that Cristo Redentor does. You can switch to Nationhood, draft some troops, and immediately switch back to Free Speech, right on the same turn. You can switch to Universal Suffrage to buy some stuff and go back to Police State immediately. While available late, Cristo Redentor is still very much worth having.
In the meanwhile, hippies should also be happy, because there’s a new terrain improvement, the Forest Preserve. They can be built in Forests after Scientific Method, and give them a higher chance to spread, as well as increasing happiness in nearby cities. Preserves also give +1 commerce to river tiles. Environmentalism has been simultaneously boosted, as under it Forest Preserves provide +2 commerce, and so do Windmills. Moreover, Biology gives the National Park national wonder, which gives a free specialist for each Forest Preserve in the city’s range, along with eliminating city’s access to coal and unhealthiness from population.
Most of you probably already know what's new in Warlords at a glance. Other than six new scenarios, the expansion pack offers six new civs and a total of ten new leaders. These would be the Ottomans (led by Mehmed II), the Koreans (Wang Kon), the Celts (Brennus), the Vikings (Ragnar), the Carthaginians (Hannibal) and the Zulus (Shaka). Additionally, some of the old civs received new leaders – Ramesses II, Stalin, Winston Churchill and Augustus Caesar.