[Poll] Best Civilisation Concept

Here’s my feedback on the civs I did vote for.

@SirWiedreich Tarascans/Purépecha: This was my favourite civ in the poll. I like the idea of a civ with Eagles and cavalry, and the fact that there’s a sensible historical justification for it. I also like the idea of an American civ with a strong late game (unlike the existing ones) – I assume that’s the intention of Castilian Pact. Finally, I think this is a civ I would really enjoy playing as, being a defensive ranged unit civilisation (my favourite civ is Koreans).

I’m a bit unsure about a couple of things, though. I’m not sure how larger defensive buildings would be a bonus: I assume this means 2-by-2 towers, which would be easier to surround with units and therefore to destroy. Also, I wonder whether Castilian Pact would be too little too late given that it mostly unlocks units that a lot of other civs can get normally. In particular, you wouldn’t be able to train Xolotl Warriors until quite late in the game.

@Szaladon Mississippians: I voted for this mostly for the bonus 30% of the stone cost of castles and towers is converted to wood, which is something I’ve wanted to see a civ with for a while now. I don’t suppose it will ever actually happen now that Detinets exists. I like the combination of that bonus with the smaller farms, which should make for an easily defendable food economy. However, it looks like the civ drops off in the late game, so you would still want to play proactively and not just boom away to post-Imperial Age.

I’m not convinced about the team bonus Eagle Warrior line has +2 range of sight, since most allies won’t get any benefit from it (although I know a few other team bonuses aren’t always useable). I wonder whether the Mongols’ team bonus should do this anyway (I don’t think it does currently).

@SHABOOM8608 Tai: I was actually in two minds about whether to vote for this one. I think the bonuses are pretty bold without being gimmicky, and I particularly like the idea of a team bonus that improves unique units, since I think unique units almost universally don’t see enough use.

However, I also think this one might be a balance nightmare. I’m not convinced that the conversion requirement would really help much, and the Monk hit point bonus is like a version of the Aztec bonus that you really have to work hard for. On the other hand, the unique unit bonus is probably too strong when allied with, say, Mongols, Spanish or Koreans. As for the Imperial Battle Elephant, Battle Elephants are already strong in the very late game, so this would probably be overpowered in niche closed map team game situations while being unused most of the time.

Also, some feedback on the current leader, @Seicing Sogdians. I actually almost voted for this, but the main reason I didn’t is the Sogdian Merchant. The mechanic just seems too convoluted to me – I think it would be extremely difficult to use in a beneficial way, and could work against you in some situations. I also don’t like the free Sogdian Merchants on aging up, since (if I understand the unit correctly) they’re useless in most 1v1s, but since some 1v1 games have trade you couldn’t limit this bonus to team games only. The result is that in most 1v1s you’d end up having to delete them every time you age up, which I think would be really annoying.

I might write some feedback on the others I didn’t vote for later. But generally I think the reason that most voters aren’t giving feedback is that it’s time-consuming! Even reading all the civ designs and voting took me a while, and once I’d voted I didn’t really have the time to devote to writing feedback on top of that.

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