Spain is awesome

[MrWhereItsAt]

Couldn't find a particular thread in my brief search discussing the Spanish civ, so thought I'd start one.

As my first Warlords game I'm trying to stick it out until the end with, I got these guys on random (low difficulty level). These guys kick ass! The Conquistador is a great unit with the +50% vs Melee units, especially since my first kill was Rome when they were teeming with otherwise invincible Praetorians.

Oh, and the Spanish Citadel, with the +5 XP to siege units...that's just HUGE! I didn't lose ANY units in my second war against Rome. I switched to Vassalage + Theocracy (using the 0-turn change of the Spanish Spiritual trait) when I was ready to focus on units, and my cities with Citadels and Barracks were giving out Trebuchets with an instant XP of 12 - Trebuchets with City Raider III just killed everything. I barely got any experience for my Macemen during the assault!

And you have GOT to love the attack animation of the Conquistador; the deadly backhand!

[Smellycowsquid]

There is only a few problems with Citadel, it is obsoleted to quick. I should get Civ back out and try though.

[frenzyfol]

Does the +5 XP get obsoleted??
Don't Citadels (castles) give +1 trade?
Does that +1 trade get obsoleted?

May not be such a bad build depending on the above questions.

[Jaybe]

The +1 trade route of a castle is obsolete when you can switch to Free Market. I suppose it's the same with a citadel. I usually build a castle in each of my coastal cities.

[MrWhereItsAt]

If you prioritise Engineering then you can get those 12XP Trebs early enough for them to last for ages. My science is rocking along, I'm not at Econ yet, and the Trebs have been the key to not losing any units in two wars over 1000 years apart in this Epic game.

Originally posted by frenzyfol
Does the +5 XP get obsoleted??
Don't Citadels (castles) give +1 trade?
Does that +1 trade get obsoleted?

May not be such a bad build depending on the above questions.

I haven't got to that stage of the game yet, but the in-game note says that all bar the defensive bonus gets obsoleted at Economics. I am pretty confident that means the trade route goes (makes sense, with Economics), and although I will be unhappy about it, I'm pretty sure the +5XP goes then too.

I didn't realise generic Castles in Warlords gave you a Trade Route as well...

[Kuciwalker]

The +5 XP and the trade bonus both go away.

[dregor]

I've always maintained that castles should come earlier. You can sneeze and they're gone unless you beeline for it, which I don't feel is very wise.

[Pinchak]

Spain is a very good civ IMO.

No one mentioned that starting with myst you have a shot at early religion.

I fully agree with castles comming too late in the game to be worth it.

[Jaybe]

Castles last a decent amount of time ... if you're playing speed is marathon.

[Dis]

don't think I ever built a castle. why?

religious/spiritual has it's advantages. I hate anarchy. I would love to do this when I'm attacked and quickly spread into war mode. But most of my wars I fight in non optimum govs since I rarely play spiritual civs.

[zeace]

I don't usually build walls, never mind castles.

But it can be fun to play as the Spanish and bee-line to citadels quickly. Castles aren't worth bee-lining for, and so they come very late. Citadels are very worth it. Trebuchets are the most over-powering unit in the game (short of modern era) and getting bonuses on them is amazing. CR3 trebs coming from every city in your empire means you can take over your whole landmass with a dozen macemen as your regular army. When an opponents SOD finds you, abandon a city and wait on a forested hill outside. Then next turn retake the city, eliminating the entire SOD in one turn...

I like playing spain because of this new strategy. What other leaders have UU/UBs that encourage you to make different research paths and play so differently?

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by Pinchak
Spain is a very good civ IMO.

No one mentioned that starting with myst you have a shot at early religion.

I fully agree with castles comming too late in the game to be worth it.

That's true - in the game I am talking about I also managed both Hinduism and Buddhism. In fact, in part thanks to a personal best 4 popped techs, I got all the religions bar Taoism, because I always delay getting Philosophy.