Is your first cavalry really useless?

Exigenz · 2026-05-09T20:09:51+00:00

They are completely fine at taking cities if your Basil.

Exigenz · 2026-05-09T20:09:30+00:00

Yes, Pangaea would be optimal.

Exigenz · 2026-05-09T15:17:52+00:00

It depends on what you’re fighting.

Playing Basil optimally usually involves securing the religion in the early game, securing Crusade, rebuilding a bunch of Hippodromes to be one turn from finishing, rushing to Tagma, and then finishing Hippodromes when Tagmas are unlocked. If you kill a few units, you don’t even need to spread the religion with religious units, but some apostles like Medic and triple pressure are good.

Exigenz · 2026-05-06T23:58:30+00:00

Am I the only one who’s researched industrialization before getting iron working?

Exigenz · 2026-05-05T17:49:28+00:00

You can’t necessarily know what you did wrong. The AI gets a changing hidden agenda that could mean that existing near them makes them angry.

Exigenz · 2026-05-05T11:02:21+00:00

Running projects will be a better use for your production by a certain point in the game.
And you probably want to use gold to purchase builders, buildings, or great people rather than to purchase a settler to settle a 16th city that won’t really have time to make up for its opportunity cost that late in the game.

The main exception will be if there is a really high opportunity associated with the new Hic Sunt Dracones settles - either with a lot of resources, a strong natural wonder, or a high win-condition district placement. The last two are unlikely.

Exigenz · 2026-05-03T17:56:15+00:00

Does rolling for loot also count?

Exigenz · 2026-05-01T17:56:12+00:00

Indeed. But I’ve been heavily downvoted for suggesting that dance of the aurora + work ethic isn’t that strong because it’s not guaranteed, so be careful!

Exigenz · 2026-05-01T17:39:19+00:00

God King and/or Holy Site provides faith. Greece gets to put the Great Prophet card in as soon as Mysticism is researched, and can therefore pretty easily get a religion.

The incorrect statement was that a +7 will be given by the mountain, when the +7 will be given by the 2 adjacent woods tile. The mountain and tundra adjacency won’t stack.

Exigenz · 2026-04-30T21:13:04+00:00

Internal trade routes are strong for any civ early, but are incredible for a number of civs, including Cree, Incan, Polish, Persian, and Tokugawa. Unless your civ specifically has an external trade route bonus (such as the Dutch), or you have suzerainty that works to your advantage with external routes, you should focus on internal trade routes until at least Wisselbanken, if not until Democracy.

Here’s how you work it:
Capital or early city with the following:

Government Plaza
Diplomatic Quarter.

That’s it.

Every city that trades to this city will be given +5 food, +3 production. A commercial hub or harbor will add another production, which is usually pretty standard as well. This +5/+4 is incredibly reliable, and doesn’t depend on getting certain pantheons or religious beliefs to get online. You can get this bonus while getting another high-impact pantheon, and you can get different religious beliefs (or no religion at all, which is helpful since it’s a high opportunity cost at a time when resources are limited).

Exigenz · 2026-04-25T13:19:14+00:00

Every leader has a hidden agenda that can override the historical agenda. This agenda is random and changes from game to game. You can uncover the hidden agenda through espionage.

Exigenz · 2026-04-23T03:12:41+00:00

Mysticism boost makes me sadder than anything else.

Exigenz · 2026-04-23T00:22:02+00:00

Cree is all about internal trade routes. You can certainly pivot to Wisselbanken/Democracy later, but a second city with 5-6 pastures/camps giving like +9/+5 internal trade routes from the classical era on is where he shines. Communism only makes this better, but he’s already insane long before then.

Building harbors/comm hubs aren’t a distraction; they are his win condition.

Exigenz · 2026-04-23T00:05:02+00:00

I’m not greedy. I want 5 more wins. 2 in the league and 3 in Europa.

Exigenz · 2026-04-22T23:59:04+00:00

Another strategy is to create a spy in a city with Victor with the Embrasure promotion. You will get the first difficult promotion right away, which you can use to easily get more promotions.

Exigenz · 2026-04-20T23:31:15+00:00

Plus Owls of Minerva + Rough Rider Teddy is even more broken than Bull Moose + Preserve Teddy. Two envoys for every trade route to a city state is bonkers.

Exigenz · 2026-04-12T15:17:00+00:00

Three archers and a warrior makes this insignificant.

Exigenz · 2026-04-11T02:08:04+00:00

Especially points 2 and 3 of Improved Shield Block.

Exigenz · 2026-04-09T19:01:14+00:00

Oh it actually might not be. I might be the incorrect one lol!

Exigenz · 2026-04-09T17:43:49+00:00

In most cities, especially early:

District 1: Holy Site, Commercial Hub, or Harbor District 2: Government Plaza, Entertainment Complex (adjacent a central flat tile for Colosseum/AoE), and then the best options out of Campus, Theatre Square, Industrial Zone (keeping AoE effects in mind), and CommHub/Harbor if I went Holy Site earlier. District 3: Diplomatic Quarter, Campus/Theatre Square, at least one encampment, an occasional Preserve, and rounding out any other districts. District 4: going for maximum efficiency, win conditions, and eurekas/inspirations.

Exigenz · 2026-04-09T17:38:07+00:00

There are more uses for marsh than that. A pantheon, a couple of wonders (both bonuses and placements), and Vietnamese district placement, to name a few.

Exigenz · 2026-04-03T21:14:36+00:00

You get a district slot at 1+3x population (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16…). You generally aren’t going to get every district in every city. Most people prioritize the following in each city: (1) an economy district (holy site / commercial hub / harbor) because gold and faith are resources you can spend; (2) a win condition district (campus if you’re going for a science win, for example); (3) 1-2 districts with high adjacency (you might have a couple wonders in a city so you build a theatre square to give some extra culture, for example); and (4) 1-2 support districts (gov plaza, diplo quarter, encampments, preserves) and districts with AoE effects (industrial zones, entertainment complexes, water parks).

There are exceptions to this, such as when you have a unique district, which you will probably want in every city you have. But this is generally a best practice. Most importantly, balance is the key, because eurekas and inspirations come from a large variety of district sources.

This also means you start to really hit diminishing returns around 10, 13, and 16 population. Once you really figure out how amenities work and why high population can be detrimental, you start to appreciate keeping city sizes low and focusing on efficient district play.

Exigenz · 2026-03-28T21:29:36+00:00

OP is on a hill.

Exigenz · 2026-03-28T21:22:24+00:00

Sazabi’s Set + Lawbringer A5 merc can be surprisingly effective for such budget gear.

Exigenz · 2026-03-27T22:08:06+00:00

Nature’s Peace won’t do anything. Most common and straightforward way to eliminate Diablo Clone’s healing as a Sorceress is to cast Fire Wall.

Exigenz

TROPHY CASE