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WOW!
I just got Conquests yesterday. I haven't had time (thanks GF) to play a game past even entirely through the ancient era, but I can still say: WOW!
MAJOR changes are afoot, at least on Monarch level.
I'd like to make a few observations/speculations. I wouldn't say any of this is definitive, just some hunches. We'll only know the strength of each civ and each trait as time goes by and we each have the chance to play the epic game a bit more. Still, here's a few things I noticed that I think indicate that this game is almost Civ4:
Seafaring The seafarers, and to a lesser extent, the expanionists, have a major upper hand in the ancient era, and I do mean major. Sending two or more Curraghs (Carracks? forget the spelling) to scout coastlines will bring you tech upon tech upon tech long before most civs ever meet each other. Playing as the Dutch a bit, I found that of 10 other civs, only the English were on my level - almost. I was consistently 2 techs ahead of most of my neighbors - and this is with a 10% research rate. I had 6 or 7 techs that the French and Germans simply didn't have. Furthermore, I knew where everyone was MUCH more quickly than I would have known by scouting across the land and potentially getting killed by barbarians. Thanks, Atari, for putting no barbarians at sea!
Agriculture For all you REXers out there, this is a major, major benefit. Combined with granaries (and most of the agricultural civs start with Pottery, right? That's how it seemed to me, but I didn't keep notes) you basically have an uber-settler/worker pump homeland, and you have it in no time. I've rarely done as impressive REXing as I did last night playing as the Dutch and Incas.
Tech Freedom at last! 50 turns to save gold, but without the frenetic tech race that vanilla Civ/PTW had - thanks completely to the push-backed communications trading, the fact that AI seafarers don't seem to build carracks (I didn't see any, that's for sure) and the reduced number of expanionists - it's very easy to crank your tech way up and not run a deficit once your core is down. This seems especially potent with agricultural civs and their easy REXing.
This means, in essence, you can both be the tech leader AND prepare for your massive warrior->sword upgrade. In my opinion, you can do both. I haven't tried the upgrade yet, mind you, and I know it's more expensive. But as both the Dutch and the Incas, I had a significant tech lead and more money in the bank than I'm used to having - and I've been using the 40-turn gold saving plan consistently now for at least 3 months.
Alphabet Research this at 50 turns. It's still ludicrously expensive. I don't mind though, as this fits in well with my preferred/accustomed-to strategy.
Philosophy No need on Monarch to crank up the tech rate on Writing to get here - but DO get here. One free tech just from getting philosophy first? If you're seafaring and have the basic techs out of the way, you will become the tech leader. This is golden, golden. The free tech is good for whatever you want - Literature or Map Making would be the most logical choices in my view, but who doesn't want a free tech? And it's easy to get.
The AI It might be easier to get ahead in the ancient era, but the AI seems vastly improved, as well, at least in terms of building priorities. There are a few changes worth noting:
- AI attitude: Almost all the AIs were polite towards me, on Monarch level. A few were cautious; none were ever annoyed. Of course, I didn't do as much building warriors/archers and stealing their workers last night, so maybe that's just coincidence.
- AI build priorities: Whoa! MAJOR changes here, for sure. Solidly REXing last night as the Incas, I saw American cities near my core that I wanted to flip. So, I built 2 or 3 temples near the Americans, thinking that would do the job. Well! I was unpleasantly surprised when a size 4 city of MINE flipped to THEM. And it was near an American city whose culture hadn't expanded! Obviously, the Americans at least now have other priorities other than just blinding sending settlers off into the midst (yes, there was plenty of land still to settle).
Another oddity I observed: the Aztecs, sending workers AHEAD of a settler to PREPARE for a city! Or perhaps, to prepare for an invasion of my core. Either way, I saw Aztec workers building roads where there was no settler! Weird... this bears further investigation. Additionally, when I moved a settler into a blank square to take advantage of those newly built roads, once I built my city, the AI workers MOVED... they didn't idiotically complete the roads they were working on, as they were now in my city radius!
Volcanos These things erupt ALL THE TIME. I will not build a city near them, ever. I don't care about the 3 shields; it's not worth the cost of a whole city. Furthermore, they're all over the place! Seems like more volcanos than there are in the real world.
Tobacco I hope Warpstorm makes this look real pretty, because otherwise, it's almost pointless. OK, I rightfully deserve scorn for that comment; but it could be way more useful, given what tobacco does in RL.
Marsh ARRRGH! I love it, though. No free terrain improvements for building a city here! Has the potential to create great natural barriers...
I AM TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME. And I am going to have to rethink many basic strategies.
(I am going to change the names and city names of some of the civilizations... but not their traits or cultural linking. I know this is totally unimportant)
I have a feeling that a patch will be coming soon that seriously tones down seafaring, agricultural, and volcanos. That's just a hunch. If the seafarers started with a free Curragh, they would kick serious behind. I know it's expensive but I feel it could be made even more expensive.
In brief, the ancient age now seems as much about Culture and trading as it does about preparing for war. There's no mad "race to the bottom" in terms of scrambling for tech. The player CAN actually LEAD in tech. How valuable that is or not remains to be seen.
One final note. It seems as though the player is no longer notified when another civ is working on a Wonder. Is this just something in "preferences" I forgot to turn on, or is this a new feature of the game? If so, heh heh heh, cool. Adds a nice element of surprise.
I just got Conquests yesterday. I haven't had time (thanks GF) to play a game past even entirely through the ancient era, but I can still say: WOW!
MAJOR changes are afoot, at least on Monarch level.
I'd like to make a few observations/speculations. I wouldn't say any of this is definitive, just some hunches. We'll only know the strength of each civ and each trait as time goes by and we each have the chance to play the epic game a bit more. Still, here's a few things I noticed that I think indicate that this game is almost Civ4:
Seafaring The seafarers, and to a lesser extent, the expanionists, have a major upper hand in the ancient era, and I do mean major. Sending two or more Curraghs (Carracks? forget the spelling) to scout coastlines will bring you tech upon tech upon tech long before most civs ever meet each other. Playing as the Dutch a bit, I found that of 10 other civs, only the English were on my level - almost. I was consistently 2 techs ahead of most of my neighbors - and this is with a 10% research rate. I had 6 or 7 techs that the French and Germans simply didn't have. Furthermore, I knew where everyone was MUCH more quickly than I would have known by scouting across the land and potentially getting killed by barbarians. Thanks, Atari, for putting no barbarians at sea!
Agriculture For all you REXers out there, this is a major, major benefit. Combined with granaries (and most of the agricultural civs start with Pottery, right? That's how it seemed to me, but I didn't keep notes) you basically have an uber-settler/worker pump homeland, and you have it in no time. I've rarely done as impressive REXing as I did last night playing as the Dutch and Incas.
Tech Freedom at last! 50 turns to save gold, but without the frenetic tech race that vanilla Civ/PTW had - thanks completely to the push-backed communications trading, the fact that AI seafarers don't seem to build carracks (I didn't see any, that's for sure) and the reduced number of expanionists - it's very easy to crank your tech way up and not run a deficit once your core is down. This seems especially potent with agricultural civs and their easy REXing.
This means, in essence, you can both be the tech leader AND prepare for your massive warrior->sword upgrade. In my opinion, you can do both. I haven't tried the upgrade yet, mind you, and I know it's more expensive. But as both the Dutch and the Incas, I had a significant tech lead and more money in the bank than I'm used to having - and I've been using the 40-turn gold saving plan consistently now for at least 3 months.
Alphabet Research this at 50 turns. It's still ludicrously expensive. I don't mind though, as this fits in well with my preferred/accustomed-to strategy.
Philosophy No need on Monarch to crank up the tech rate on Writing to get here - but DO get here. One free tech just from getting philosophy first? If you're seafaring and have the basic techs out of the way, you will become the tech leader. This is golden, golden. The free tech is good for whatever you want - Literature or Map Making would be the most logical choices in my view, but who doesn't want a free tech? And it's easy to get.
The AI It might be easier to get ahead in the ancient era, but the AI seems vastly improved, as well, at least in terms of building priorities. There are a few changes worth noting:
- AI attitude: Almost all the AIs were polite towards me, on Monarch level. A few were cautious; none were ever annoyed. Of course, I didn't do as much building warriors/archers and stealing their workers last night, so maybe that's just coincidence.
- AI build priorities: Whoa! MAJOR changes here, for sure. Solidly REXing last night as the Incas, I saw American cities near my core that I wanted to flip. So, I built 2 or 3 temples near the Americans, thinking that would do the job. Well! I was unpleasantly surprised when a size 4 city of MINE flipped to THEM. And it was near an American city whose culture hadn't expanded! Obviously, the Americans at least now have other priorities other than just blinding sending settlers off into the midst (yes, there was plenty of land still to settle).
Another oddity I observed: the Aztecs, sending workers AHEAD of a settler to PREPARE for a city! Or perhaps, to prepare for an invasion of my core. Either way, I saw Aztec workers building roads where there was no settler! Weird... this bears further investigation. Additionally, when I moved a settler into a blank square to take advantage of those newly built roads, once I built my city, the AI workers MOVED... they didn't idiotically complete the roads they were working on, as they were now in my city radius!
Volcanos These things erupt ALL THE TIME. I will not build a city near them, ever. I don't care about the 3 shields; it's not worth the cost of a whole city. Furthermore, they're all over the place! Seems like more volcanos than there are in the real world.
Tobacco I hope Warpstorm makes this look real pretty, because otherwise, it's almost pointless. OK, I rightfully deserve scorn for that comment; but it could be way more useful, given what tobacco does in RL.
Marsh ARRRGH! I love it, though. No free terrain improvements for building a city here! Has the potential to create great natural barriers...
I AM TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME. And I am going to have to rethink many basic strategies.
(I am going to change the names and city names of some of the civilizations... but not their traits or cultural linking. I know this is totally unimportant)
I have a feeling that a patch will be coming soon that seriously tones down seafaring, agricultural, and volcanos. That's just a hunch. If the seafarers started with a free Curragh, they would kick serious behind. I know it's expensive but I feel it could be made even more expensive.
In brief, the ancient age now seems as much about Culture and trading as it does about preparing for war. There's no mad "race to the bottom" in terms of scrambling for tech. The player CAN actually LEAD in tech. How valuable that is or not remains to be seen.
One final note. It seems as though the player is no longer notified when another civ is working on a Wonder. Is this just something in "preferences" I forgot to turn on, or is this a new feature of the game? If so, heh heh heh, cool. Adds a nice element of surprise.
. A couple turns later, I mysteriously win the game by conquest. 
Was it a bug related to my civilization being destroyed by a volcano, or was it some other bug? Eitherway, I got a pretty good score for winning on the fifth turn. 
Sounds like a bug alright.
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