Three things to know about Warlords

[billones]

I let my parents get me Warlords for Christmas, so I've basically been playing other games since it came out. I'm familiar with the basics of what was changed in the expansion, but reading the rules and playing the game are two different things.

What three things do I *really* need to know before I hit "start new game" under Warlords?

(I tend to win on Prince/Normal and lose on Monarch/normal, if that helps any.)

[DrSpike]

The main difference is watching out for vassalisation when you are crushing someone.

CS sling also got an overnerf.

[Addled Platypus]

AI better use or tiles

[Addled Platypus]

for more info

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4646128#post4646128

[rah]

The cossacks got nerfed.

[mutax2003]

So did the redcoat.

[rah]

I never played the redcoats before, and just started using them playing occ conquest. What did they lose?

[billones]

for more info

Read those patch notes already, thanks.

Re: vassalization. It looks like you get half credit for the rump portion of their empire, but your maintenance costs still go up. In general, is your economy better or worse than if you'd gotten to finish them off and completely take over their cities?

[joncnunn]

Billones, that would mostly depend upon if their rump empire has any wonders or resources your lacking left or not.

Athough in the later case, you can still trade one of the many resources their lacking for one of several you have an extra of to get the use of that resource.

If I recall correctly, every 2 cities of there's left is like an extra city on your side.

Also, you get an extra happy face in all your cities for getting them to submit.

An alternative is raizing them to the ground, but the empty land outside of all cultural borders would just call out for some other AI to found a city in the area.

[ColdPhoenix]

I prefer to capture rather than get a vassal as I get the full land area counted and the production and commerce from the cities. If a civ comes offering vassalship for peace I'll usually refuse that but demand any techs and money. After ten turns I'd finish them off. Usually I only gain a vassal if they have cities on an island and I can't be bothered to invade overseas. Or if I'm playing on a large map and don't want the hassle of managing extra cities.

I'm quite a lazy player.

[couerdelion]

I would say that the major change is in the area of combat/wars. The single biggest change are the new leader traits which all deal with combat.

Secondly, the AI is a little smarter at fighting. And you really notice this with the barbarians. His axemen won’t just attack your archers fortified on hilltops but will bypass them and pillage your copper mine.

The second is probably the introduction of Great Generals which is not actually a big change but makes things a bit more fun

For me vassalisation has only caused problems so I tend to avoid it.

Now the news that they nerfed the redcoats is a bit rich. As a UU it's already pretty rubbish - only slightly better than the Civ III Man O' War. Given than Financial is repeatedly weakened, I might even be led to think that the designers have something against little England.

[popejubal]

#1 - the AI is better at using its resources. The AI opponents in the late game won't feel like quite as much of a punching bag as they did in vanilla Civ (at least not after you download the patch).
#2 - The great wall is really neat. Being able to effectively ignore barbarians is great, as is getting an early Great Engineer. DON'T BUILD THE GREAT WALL JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN. Only build it if it makes sense for that game.
#3 - the AI is smarter and more effective and more agressive. It's still not very good at fighting a war. That means you still have an advantage that you can use. Fight smart and don't forget to use diplomacy to get the other civs to gang up on each other.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by couerdelion
I would say that the major change is in the area of combat/wars. The single biggest change are the new leader traits which all deal with combat.

Secondly, the AI is a little smarter at fighting. And you really notice this with the barbarians. His axemen won’t just attack your archers fortified on hilltops but will bypass them and pillage your copper mine.

The second is probably the introduction of Great Generals which is not actually a big change but makes things a bit more fun

For me vassalisation has only caused problems so I tend to avoid it.

Now the news that they nerfed the redcoats is a bit rich. As a UU it's already pretty rubbish - only slightly better than the Civ III Man O' War. Given than Financial is repeatedly weakened, I might even be led to think that the designers have something against little England.

it seems a bit strange to me that they didn't choose a naval unit to function as the English UU.

was there ever any empire which owed so much of it's power to the dominance of it's navy?

[MikeH]

The current US.

[MikeH]

Naval UUs aren't used because they are unbalanced. Some map types have no water...