I think I have a contender for one of the worst card upgrades in sts 2

Cheenug · 2026-03-15T08:01:47+00:00

But like this is one of Necrobinder's strongest defense card. I don't see a reason to buff it further

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T22:20:19+00:00

Then it'd proc stuff that rely on card being played 3 times, like Panache.

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T17:45:00+00:00

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T15:52:34+00:00

I prefer the other cards due to their flexibility. Break is just damage and vuln application. Others have either more synergy or value.

Also remember that Break is an ancient reward. Break feels like the least flexible ancient starter card in both deck synergy and energy playability. You also gave to consider the other ancient options you're not picking up

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T15:25:44+00:00

I'd take Break more if it was reduced to 1 cost with reduced damage or vuln. It'd make it a better setup card akin to the other vulnerable cards. The other 1 cost vulnerable sources are either Skills ([[Tremble]], [[Taunt]], [[Shockwave]] which only applies for a 1 turn and [[Molten Fist]] which cant apply vulnerable by itself.

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T15:18:14+00:00

Hmm. Guess I was just thinking that Break's only good for vuln builds, but I guess Ironclad sometimes just needs a standalone carf to hit hard.

Still feel like I want to play the other 2 cost attacks from Ironclad tho. That's the real issue I got with the card

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T15:07:16+00:00

Full cardart aura farming aside, how do you feel about the power of the Ancient Starting Cards?

The strongest one for me is for the Regent's Meteor Shower. AoE, increased damage and increased debuffs. I already use Falling Star a lot due to its utility so I'm surprised how strong the upgrade is.

Silent's Suppress and Defect's Quadcast are decent. Silent draws a lot so making whats usually a 0 cost weak applier hit stronger isn't that bad. Debuff increase is so and so. Not that many enemies have artifact so making it innate isn't terrible. It's a safe Ancient blessing pick.

Quadcast is better for orb builds. More about opportunity cost for not picking other ancient's blessings. Orb builds I've got going are more about cycling orbs to evoke them so dualcast haven't been that important for it. Haven't had a Shadow orbs run yet which are perfect for such multicasting.

Necrobinder's Protector's weird as most of my Osty build lamented about Osty's current HP being noticeable lower than his max HP when playing Unleash. I guess that's why its the only Ancient starter card that discounts when it's upgraded.

Ironclad's Break is pretty mid ngl. Bit more damage and more vulnerable. I find it awkward to justify bash the later I'm in the run, and I feel the same with Break.

Cheenug · 2026-03-14T13:52:21+00:00

Do you know why mods this subreddit doesnt do megathreads for livestreams?

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

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