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Count me in as one of those ardent Machs, although I didn't realize it until the last month when I got around to reading "The Prince". My favorite civ (to be revealed below) betrays my Mach tendencies.
Strengths
Machs want strengths that make their economies more powerful, not necessarily their nation-states. Strengths that fade over time are less preferable, as are strengths that make you do "real work". Thus, militaristic and expansionist are the least desirable strengths, while commercial is hands down the best and industrious not far behind. Based on strength preferences the first and second tier Mach civs are:
Best: France!?!
Commercial and Industrious
(Everybody's patsy, but a most excellent Mach. My absolute first choice.)
India
Commercial and Religious
(Another common punching bag, but has great Mach tendencies when played well.)
[Anybody?]
Commercial and Scientific
(I can't find this combination in vanilla Civ3, but perhaps PTW has one?)
Egypt
Industrious and Religious
(Tends to be more of a warmonger, but can be played as an overbearing Mach.)
Persians
Industrious and Scientific
(The Immortals almost preclude Mach play, but possible to do discretely with a bit more bloodshed.)
Worst: Zululand
Expansionist and Militaristic
(Keep out of their way and point them to a chosen enemy; a Mach's leashed pit bull.)
Why I Love To Mach and Roll With Joan
Because of her zealotry, nobody suspects Joan of having graduated from the Nicolo School of Influence. The poor child is just trying to save her country, all in the name of the Dauphin? Au contraire, mon ami, Joan can be a most conniving Princess.
If REXed and Ralphed early to take full advantage of Commercial, she tends to have an amemic military and draws the attention of the more agressive civs. Joan lays a Mach trap by garrisoning her better troops (created by ralphed cities with barracks) on the borders with would-be marauders, and let them dash their lives on her fortifications. REXing and Ralphing also puts her behind in tech and sets her up for continuous extortions. Let those bully civs have their way, as payback will be a b**** later on!
Joan starts catching up in the early Renaissance. Her economy will catch up with a vengence as the population on all those major cities increase, and her Industrious civs will be mining and irrigating like crazy. Buildings will be popping up as soon as available on the tech tree, using barracks to pre-build the commercial, scientific, and religious buildings. Pyramid and Colossus are probably the better Ancient wonders to try for. Even the Great Lighthouse smacks too much of effort.
And here is the part I absolutely love, the poor despised musketeer. Nobody attacks with these puffed up arquebussers, right? Wrong! With the excellent road network Joan's been building and with a good complement of catapults, these boys can be the scourge of the Renaissance until Riflemen arrive. The trick is just not to use them as the main assault, but to use attack combinations of catapult+knight for softening, musketeer for mop up, and then more musketeers for fortification. The catapults used for attack will also fire in defense when the musketeer fortified stack is counterattacked. But in true Mach fashion, when Joan fully deploys her Musketeers, their attack strength will add considerably to her military strength thus making Machy negotiations sooooo much easier. And let's not forget a win with her UU pops the Golden Age at an optimal time.
When Joans cities start hitting pop 7, both the extra shields from Industrious and extra coin from Commercial start rolling in. Joan should stick to the tech tree that gives buildings and wonders, and only create more units when a city is maxed out on structures and for whatever reason shouldn't prebuild. Naturally when extra units do start accumulating, she'll want to prosecute a small war to bleed off the excess and bring her budget back into balance. The extra cities and coin from commercial, along with all those improved terrain squares, will help her keep up in tech with the scientific civs and gain a tech lead some time in the middle-later Renaissance.
Without Militaristic, she is more inclined to let other civs fight her wars, and without Expansionist she won't neglect her building projects. If she can survive the early bullying years she can grow to be a force to be reckoned with! When railroads become available her worker population will knock out rails in a jiffy.
In sum, Joan can play the weakling early on and appease, appease, appease, while gathering up real estate. In the middle game she can build like crazy, attack a little for the GA and to bleed off excess units. In the end game she can be based on a very solid empire and have her way with the other civs.
Joan, you're my Saint for a reason!!!!
Scott
Strengths
Machs want strengths that make their economies more powerful, not necessarily their nation-states. Strengths that fade over time are less preferable, as are strengths that make you do "real work". Thus, militaristic and expansionist are the least desirable strengths, while commercial is hands down the best and industrious not far behind. Based on strength preferences the first and second tier Mach civs are:
Best: France!?!
Commercial and Industrious
(Everybody's patsy, but a most excellent Mach. My absolute first choice.)
India
Commercial and Religious
(Another common punching bag, but has great Mach tendencies when played well.)
[Anybody?]
Commercial and Scientific
(I can't find this combination in vanilla Civ3, but perhaps PTW has one?)
Egypt
Industrious and Religious
(Tends to be more of a warmonger, but can be played as an overbearing Mach.)
Persians
Industrious and Scientific
(The Immortals almost preclude Mach play, but possible to do discretely with a bit more bloodshed.)
Worst: Zululand
Expansionist and Militaristic
(Keep out of their way and point them to a chosen enemy; a Mach's leashed pit bull.)
Why I Love To Mach and Roll With Joan
Because of her zealotry, nobody suspects Joan of having graduated from the Nicolo School of Influence. The poor child is just trying to save her country, all in the name of the Dauphin? Au contraire, mon ami, Joan can be a most conniving Princess.
If REXed and Ralphed early to take full advantage of Commercial, she tends to have an amemic military and draws the attention of the more agressive civs. Joan lays a Mach trap by garrisoning her better troops (created by ralphed cities with barracks) on the borders with would-be marauders, and let them dash their lives on her fortifications. REXing and Ralphing also puts her behind in tech and sets her up for continuous extortions. Let those bully civs have their way, as payback will be a b**** later on!
Joan starts catching up in the early Renaissance. Her economy will catch up with a vengence as the population on all those major cities increase, and her Industrious civs will be mining and irrigating like crazy. Buildings will be popping up as soon as available on the tech tree, using barracks to pre-build the commercial, scientific, and religious buildings. Pyramid and Colossus are probably the better Ancient wonders to try for. Even the Great Lighthouse smacks too much of effort.
And here is the part I absolutely love, the poor despised musketeer. Nobody attacks with these puffed up arquebussers, right? Wrong! With the excellent road network Joan's been building and with a good complement of catapults, these boys can be the scourge of the Renaissance until Riflemen arrive. The trick is just not to use them as the main assault, but to use attack combinations of catapult+knight for softening, musketeer for mop up, and then more musketeers for fortification. The catapults used for attack will also fire in defense when the musketeer fortified stack is counterattacked. But in true Mach fashion, when Joan fully deploys her Musketeers, their attack strength will add considerably to her military strength thus making Machy negotiations sooooo much easier. And let's not forget a win with her UU pops the Golden Age at an optimal time.
When Joans cities start hitting pop 7, both the extra shields from Industrious and extra coin from Commercial start rolling in. Joan should stick to the tech tree that gives buildings and wonders, and only create more units when a city is maxed out on structures and for whatever reason shouldn't prebuild. Naturally when extra units do start accumulating, she'll want to prosecute a small war to bleed off the excess and bring her budget back into balance. The extra cities and coin from commercial, along with all those improved terrain squares, will help her keep up in tech with the scientific civs and gain a tech lead some time in the middle-later Renaissance.
Without Militaristic, she is more inclined to let other civs fight her wars, and without Expansionist she won't neglect her building projects. If she can survive the early bullying years she can grow to be a force to be reckoned with! When railroads become available her worker population will knock out rails in a jiffy.
In sum, Joan can play the weakling early on and appease, appease, appease, while gathering up real estate. In the middle game she can build like crazy, attack a little for the GA and to bleed off excess units. In the end game she can be based on a very solid empire and have her way with the other civs.
Joan, you're my Saint for a reason!!!!
Scott
I've always liked France too, though I hadn't ever quantified them as a machiavellian civ. BTW, scientific/commercial civs are Greece from vanilla civ and Korea from PTW.
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