spanish civilization

[Zafyro]

how can spanish Conquistadores be of any use. I´ve allways read that spanish conquistador can be usefull but only in extreme situations, but until now i´ve been only able to find em useful if in a game you manage to atack a civilization that:
Is still using spearmen as defense.
has not build any roads in his lands.
In any other situation any other unit fits better.

So? anyone plays spanish from time to time? what are the advantages of this civilization. I´d like to give em a try, but thinking in the conquistador unit stops me each time. [religious and seafaring traits are not so great alone]

[Fake Boris]

They make great scouts (put them on top of mountains), they can be used to finish off weakened units and then withdraw out of range of an enemy counterattack.
These benefits of course will be of lesser value against human opponents, because they are much better field generals than AI civs, but there's something else and IMO that makes them shine: they're perfect to slip into enemy territory and pillage their strategic resources tiles to cripple their military production capabilities.

[Fake Boris]

Also something else I can see is creating an Army of conquistadores... ouch. 3 movement points, treat everything as roads, and if I understand correctly double attack when there are 4 units in it?

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
shine: they're perfect to slip into enemy territory and pillage their strategic resources tiles to cripple their military production capabilities.

A 30 shield explorer can do the same thing. Sure you'll lose it next turn but so what? It's just a crappy 30 shield explorer. You'd probably lose that pillaging conquistador too.

[Modo44]

Unless you make an army of them. The AI has problems deciding to attack those. Imagine having 9 moves over every terrain and being able to pillage on 8 of those moves. Sweet.

[Mace]

I find Conquistadors useful for pillage as above; but if you want to use them to take down an enemy civ, that civ must be just spearmen. Think of them as armed scouts UNLESS you find an ancient-era civ, or a civ with no iron...then you can use them to attack. (evil cackle)

That pretty much dovetails with history, as the Spanish conquistadors were able to conquer the Aztec and Inca empires, both of which were using spearmen-equivalents back in the 1520's and 1530's.

[joncnunn]

The Conquistor's main advantage to an explorer if some amount of defense and an extra movement point. This includes all-as-roads, so effectively moves 9 instead of 6.

AI can not handle any stack of units pillaging that's capiable of moving that fast, be the owner human or another AI.

There's enough wonders to trigure a peaceful GA by then, but if you really want to trigure it with your UU as the Spainish, have a Conquister finish off a unit that's been damaged down to 1 HP.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by gunkulator


A 30 shield explorer can do the same thing. Sure you'll lose it next turn but so what? It's just a crappy 30 shield explorer. You'd probably lose that pillaging conquistador too.

I thought that explorers couldn't pillage because of their 0 attack.

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Modo44
Unless you make an army of them. The AI has problems deciding to attack those. Imagine having 9 moves over every terrain and being able to pillage on 8 of those moves. Sweet.

I rarely have so many armies that I want to waste one soley for pillaging duty. Once you've pillaged with them, they can't do much else useful. If you attack they will likely lose enough hps that the AI will go after them.

I'm content to lose a couple explorers when and if I need to pillage.

[Modo44]

With 9 moves inside AI territory you are bound to find some loose Workers to capture (and kill). And you can do enormous damage to their road network. Yes, you'll have problems if you attack, but you don't have to - the units folowing can do that. Definately not a straight forward way, but effective nonetheless.
And it's lots of fun to watch them fields burn.

[Golden Bear]

I've used conquistadors fairly late in the game for first strike against key resources and luxuries. They can hit so deep behind the line. Yes, they are pricey compared to some units but at that stage cost is not as important to me. Obviously mech inf is beyond them, but riflemen are valid targets for a pack of them. Nothing like knocking out unit build ability right off the bat.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by gunkulator
I'm content to lose a couple explorers when and if I need to pillage.

So explorers can pillage, right?

[Swissy]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris


So explorers can pillage, right?

Yes, pillaging is a unit action flag that is turned on for explorers and scouts. Some player modify this by turning it off as the AI does not seen to pillage with a unit that has no combat factors.

[Zafyro]

no one has answered if spanish is a chooseable civ. I´m puting them face to face against all the other civs, don´t really know if there coulb be a worst civ [based in it´s unit americans could be worst].

If you have to face a human player you´ll never be confident in taking resources away with explorers so you´re not being confident in doing so with conquistadores you can try, but most probably, the resource it´s going to be guarded and the conquistador wont last long after the incursión as he will be faced with Knights the least.

I´ve never used one of my armies with conquistadores, that´s true, but, you see, spain is not militaristic and has not lots of armies around, and i choose to stuff my armies with cavalry or knights 100% of the time.

I see conquistador could be a threat if you find someone who doesn´t guard his cities as you can atack 3rd line cities, but a single musketman can deal with a lot of them poor conquistadores.

So, do any of you would choose spain in a multiplayer game?

zafyro

[Drakan]

Zafyro (nice nick btw), the only good Conquistador is a dead Conquistador. The Spanish Civilization is played at it's best in the higher echelon of difficulty because of their unique traits. Their UU, the Conquistador, sucks badly and is one of the worst of C3C. I normally don't choose Spain. Some people (non spaniards) are very fond of them nevertheless. I guess it's a matter of taste.

The Conquistadores are very good at pillaging. They can pillage up to two (or three) tiles without getting penalised in their movements. If you make an army of 4 Conquistadores you will have a pillaging machine of 4 times two able to pillage 8 tiles (plus one) at any given moment. Although an army of 4 cavalry can pillage 12 plus one tile= 13 tiles.

Why don't you visit the Spanish forum; I've never seen you before. Estás invitado a unirte a la peña de Poly, JoaquÃn:

http://apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=160

(PD. C/ Montera; vaya, yo vivÃa en Conde Duque, donde el ex-cuartel hoy reconvertido en sala de exposiciones y biblioteca. Se han solucionado ya los problemas con las pilinguis de Montera ?)