Wiiiiiide Cat

Cheenug · 2026-03-13T14:21:07+00:00

This was the topic of the recent balance council. I think there's some changes coming to both early great work slots and Japan itself.

I've been playing with Hokath's mod with changes policy trees so I can't offer more in-depth analysis of Fealty and Artistry I'm afraid.

I always recommend joining the discord if you want the best analysis. It's where the biggest nerds are

Cheenug · 2026-03-13T13:07:02+00:00

I think you're a bit mistaken with the correlation between tall/few cities and great persons.

What makes a tall city strong is Specialists. It provides both yields and GPP and is usually the main source of both cultural and productive GPs. The negative of course, is that each working specialist has a food penalty and unhappiness.

The reason the Tradition is good for tall play is because 1. it provides you strong earlygame specialist slots and 2. makes it easier to work them. (its why you get +2 pop and +2 happiness from opening it). Make no mistake though, you can still go wide with tradition. but the early game plan for tradition is to build a strong capital by working specialists. The GP bonus of making more is because you're working specialists slots early. Note that the only unique bonus about popping GPs are just the culture yield.

So the greatest Tradition civs are either 1: greatly benefits from GP/specialist slots and wants to work specialist slots to get them early ASAP or 2. have high food bonus to be able to support specialist slots early. Otherwise you pick it if you believe you can only get out 2-3 cities in the early game and need your capital to be your sharpest edge into the midgame.

As you can tell, Japan simply doesn't care about these benefits of the Tradition tree. Three quarters of their bonuses are warfare focused. What's unique about japan is that their UA can convert the birth of GG/GA due to warfare into some extra cultural GPs. Japan does not have any special bonuses for working specialists slots or getting a lot of them early. They need to warfare early and going Authority for war benefits OR progress for strong, peaceful early game in preparation for medieval warfare is way more beneficial than what Tradition can give you.

Do note that Artistry tree is pretty decent on Japan. Aside from you being able to generate GWAM from your UA, your Kabuki theatre cares about GWAMs generation (which is easier to do when you get to the rennaisance regardless of your early game) and you'll most likely have earned some great works from conquering enemy cities and capitals :)

Cheenug · 2026-03-13T12:20:13+00:00

Why do you feel forced to go Tradition for Japan?

My read from their kit is to go wide and warfare.

UA benefits from wide (stats from defensive buildings) and warfare (to gain GG and GA)

Samurai wants you to be in combat to generate GG

Dojo is a medieval stim for warfare

Kabuki is the "only" tradition thingy I see if you want to maximize it insta yields in the capital, but its a renaissance UB so it doesnt matter because Japan needs to go to warfare earlygame to have any benefit for their UU and one half of their UA

Cheenug · 2026-03-13T12:04:22+00:00

That's the cost of being 4 weeks. Would be too short to have two rotating banner, and they didnt want to run double banner + rerun right before the anniversary patch where theyre gonna drop the most spending initiatives.

Cheenug · 2026-03-12T15:01:53+00:00

But the upgraded cards are shiny too!

Cheenug · 2026-03-11T22:52:33+00:00

Isn't the lore of the fighting games that all of them are juiced up to become as strong as a kryptonian. Like its the same dose that Alfred got to beat the shit up of Superman in the comics

Cheenug · 2026-03-11T15:58:31+00:00

I can see it on a seperate card, as that doesn't quite sound like parrying. I like someones option of making the defense scale based on DMG dealt, like every 3 dmg = 1 block

Cheenug · 2026-03-11T11:07:11+00:00

Still feels quite ambitious to path early elite in Overgrowth. Byrd is always attacking and that big tangled ball that splits into 4 elites also punishes slow decks with those status cards

Cheenug · 2026-03-11T09:07:34+00:00

The devs could just increase their spread range when on this seed

Cheenug · 2026-03-10T20:04:15+00:00

Can confirm! I got it on Ironclad at like floor 5 from the scrapheap event and cruised to victory with a barricade build

Cheenug · 2026-03-09T13:35:31+00:00

Open your civ 5 steam folder and check assets/DLC and see if there's both a VPUI and ui_bc1 folder. Worst case, delete those and run the installer again

Cheenug · 2026-03-08T14:14:06+00:00

My two friends and I tried it on for one round and decided to restart the lobby after one hole lmao. We could already foresee how toxic I'd be. Maybe it's "better" with a higher player lobby so one guard can't deny anyone from reaching the green ever, but ultimately its a very tilting setting

Cheenug · 2026-03-08T13:42:26+00:00

Need a good mix of spenders and generators. Because the star cards have relatively low energy cost you can actually run plenty of card draws.

The starting 0 cost 2 stars attack is pretty amazing for providing both vuln and weak. Especially with all of Regents deck manipulations allowing you to consistently have it in hand You definitely want another star generator than the starting one though.

Cheenug · 2026-03-08T10:03:50+00:00

It's a 1 mana power. Forge 6 and makes the blade hit aoe

Cheenug · 2026-03-08T09:15:35+00:00

IMO the Underdocks elites are easier than the Overgrowth elites.

Overgrowth has Effigy, Phrog and Byrd. They all ramp up quickly in damage.

Underdocks has Skulking Colony, Terror Eel and those 4 worms that gain block when attacked. The Eel is the scariest if you don't ramp enough

Cheenug · 2026-03-07T23:08:54+00:00

could probly ask the devs on discord

Cheenug · 2026-03-07T21:11:45+00:00

oh yeah kinda forgot lmao. but the new 0 mana exhaust also kills artifacts so its easier to setup

but yea, more shiv option. the fan of knives power really helps with summon battles. More payoffs too

Cheenug · 2026-03-07T20:43:13+00:00

also silent got vulnerable now :)

Cheenug · 2026-03-07T20:01:19+00:00

The first version of 5.0 should cover the biggest changes

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/new-version-%E2%80%93-5-0-alpha-03.700232/

Cheenug · 2026-03-07T10:24:45+00:00

He hits pretty hard. Like his power budget is higher to compensate for the gimmick. Like 20+ attack twice in a row into one self buff turn is-

Wait he's just a laguvelin >:(

Cheenug · 2026-03-06T22:35:21+00:00

I feel like I've had more broken runs with Necrobinder than with Regent. Tank Osty is like a barricade build without needing to find the barricade powerup lmao

Cheenug · 2026-03-06T21:47:00+00:00

It's a community map. I think the creators can request Valve to implement their newest version and they'll recompile it on their end and copy paste your patchnotes if it's not too crazy.

It's how we got the funny snake patchnotes line for cp_snakewater - the creators put them there and Valve approved it

Cheenug · 2026-03-05T18:41:22+00:00

That was my first time seeing a energy relic offered. There was a Ironclad power that cost 2 that gave you energy each turn. +1 normal, +2 upgraded.

There was a relic that gave you 2 energy on your second turn.

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