So I have put in 6ish hours the last couple of days playing Indonesia on Prince. First, I like the game, and more interested in playing it than I was ever playing Civ 5 and more interested than I have been in playing Civ 4 in some time. I am eager to get back once the family gets to sleep.
One of the first things I noticed is that Barbarians don't seem to wander around and do nothing. Each Barbarian group seems to have a purpose where they will scout and pull back and move forward with multiple troops. This makes them more dangerous than they would be otherwise, you want at least 3 troops in general because if you use the strategy of just one troop which makes smart attacks you will end up overwhelmed. At some point cities can shoot, maybe when you get ancient walls? But I am not certain about when this occurs (it might also occur at a size).
One of the things I am most excited about this new Civ is in past Civs if you built up early you would be in a good place in the middle/late game. This time it seems that you have to be really doing the right things to keep the techs coming and even planning your cities right (which are tile improvements) so that you can get useful actions later in the game. It is a big difference placing a Holy Site somewhere where there is a +3 or a +1 faith bonus and your Ancient (Classical?) Scientist gives you science = faith. If you put in the effort to attract that Great Person then don't you want a +3 science rather than a +1 science? If you end up setting things up poorly you will struggle in the Mid/Late game (it seems) even if you are strong in the Early game.
This is great.
Probably it is still true that if you are militarily dominant enough among the nations (not just Barbarians) that that carries forward irregardless. But that is OK.
The fact that tech gets faster depending on what you do means that you need to hit certain key paths forward or you will struggle. You need to have mining and farming and fishing, this means you need to plan out your cities for more than just "what is a good city". You also need to fight a bit, although this can mostly be done against Barbarians in the early game. Finally, you need to construct certain buildings, which means diversification there also.
Interesting bits about Indonesia are that they have a very nice upgrade that can be made in any ocean square. This means that you like ocean beyond just the fish and the spot for the Harbor and possibly a World Wonder. I haven't fully exploited this yet. They also get Faith from ocean squares boarding their Holy Site.
I haven't seen how great a Religion is, I have only played two games really into Classical. It seems likely that nations play differently enough that it is worth picking. I didn't do that so much in past Civilizations although the differences have been important since Civ3.
JM
One of the first things I noticed is that Barbarians don't seem to wander around and do nothing. Each Barbarian group seems to have a purpose where they will scout and pull back and move forward with multiple troops. This makes them more dangerous than they would be otherwise, you want at least 3 troops in general because if you use the strategy of just one troop which makes smart attacks you will end up overwhelmed. At some point cities can shoot, maybe when you get ancient walls? But I am not certain about when this occurs (it might also occur at a size).
One of the things I am most excited about this new Civ is in past Civs if you built up early you would be in a good place in the middle/late game. This time it seems that you have to be really doing the right things to keep the techs coming and even planning your cities right (which are tile improvements) so that you can get useful actions later in the game. It is a big difference placing a Holy Site somewhere where there is a +3 or a +1 faith bonus and your Ancient (Classical?) Scientist gives you science = faith. If you put in the effort to attract that Great Person then don't you want a +3 science rather than a +1 science? If you end up setting things up poorly you will struggle in the Mid/Late game (it seems) even if you are strong in the Early game.
This is great.
Probably it is still true that if you are militarily dominant enough among the nations (not just Barbarians) that that carries forward irregardless. But that is OK.
The fact that tech gets faster depending on what you do means that you need to hit certain key paths forward or you will struggle. You need to have mining and farming and fishing, this means you need to plan out your cities for more than just "what is a good city". You also need to fight a bit, although this can mostly be done against Barbarians in the early game. Finally, you need to construct certain buildings, which means diversification there also.
Interesting bits about Indonesia are that they have a very nice upgrade that can be made in any ocean square. This means that you like ocean beyond just the fish and the spot for the Harbor and possibly a World Wonder. I haven't fully exploited this yet. They also get Faith from ocean squares boarding their Holy Site.
I haven't seen how great a Religion is, I have only played two games really into Classical. It seems likely that nations play differently enough that it is worth picking. I didn't do that so much in past Civilizations although the differences have been important since Civ3.
JM
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