LS Civ Set 1: Haida (V2)

Joining the official civs, a number of mod civs have been created. This set of civs all come as one mod set, and they all have unique abilities that play unlike any of the pre-existing civs. Today, the Haida, first of the first set, will be covered.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the guide! This guide, along with a few others should the attention be positive enough, shall attempt to take a look into the Teddyk civ sets, identifying strategies, advantages, and disadvantages of each civilization. This guide will deal with the Haida, the first of the first set.

Dropbox Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2extxscqq4lcfhn/LS%20Civilization%20Sets%2027%2009%202014.7z?dl=0
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=181458959

Haidan History

The Haida have existed in the stretch of coast along British Columbia to Alaska for the past 17,000 years, existing as a powerful war like tribe. They established highly structred socities and are credited with the invention of totem poles, a traditional part of the Pacific Northwest heritage. Additionally, they also created the notion of wealth, which served them well as trading partners to a number of foreign powers. The Haida also practiced slavery, particularly against other tribes.

The Haida were particularly famous for their red-cedar canoes, which could hold up to 60 men and were used for coastal raids. Despite practicing slavery, the Haida did acknowledge the rules of engagement, allowing them to mingle with the European and American powers more readily than some tribes. Still, missionaries saw their totem poles as graven images, burning them down and destroying much of their culture while many Haida people died to smallpox.

The main way in which Haida waged war was in their red-cedar canoes. If faced with enemy boats, a series of heavy weights were thrown, which broke the enemies boat and could be retrieved with string. As they fought and captured trading vessels, they added swivel mounted guns to their boats. When on the defense, they used fortifications, trap-doors, and various other advanced defenses to protect themselves.

First Impressions

First Glance

When I first looked at the selection that the Haida had available, I recognized the fact that this was a civilization geared towards war. Their ability allows their boats to be useful in a few more situations, as well as gives them bursts of culture, particularly if they take out high culture targets, while buffing their own cities. Additionally, they get more culture if they generate Great Generals and Admirals, which increases their infrastructure and military. Finally, they get a UU that allows them a small amount of early game water control and that upgrades well.

UA: Eagle and Raven

UA: Eagle and Raven

As a brief note, I'd like to point out that the Steam Download page has the ability mis-represented. As of right now, the ability has two parts:

• Conquering a city deports one citizen to the capital.
• Conquering a city gives +10 culture per every 1 culture generated by the captured city

The first half gives a mid to late game source of population when the average liberty or honor player runs out of food bonuses. Using this, one can force your population to expand. This makes it valuable to target every city, since every single one is a point of population.

The second half of the ability gives a bit more enticement to take on high culture targets, as well as gives an early game incentive to conquer neighbors. The 10x return on culture gained from taking cities only gets better as time goes on, with the bonus escalating to immense amounts in the presence of high culture rollers. If an early city with say +4 culture per turn (this, of course, is a really early figure, namely a monument+liberty first city before turn 60ish capture) is captured, then it yields 40 culture in the turn it is captured. This stacks nicely for several captures, or the traditional diety strategy of capturing, giving up, and recapturing a city, which not only exhausts your enemies units, but gets you the bonus again. Unlike Assyria's ability, this ability applies all the times a city is captured.

As the game progresses and culture increases, even other warmongers give a potential incentive to conquer all cities. If each city is only producing 20ish culture, but there are 7 of them, that's still 1400 culture overall. Civs that are traditionally high in culture (Polynesia, Siam) will make juicy targets.

UU: War Canoe & UB: Totem Pole

UU: War Canoe

Unlike most early naval units, the War Canoe fills a decent niche. Like Triremes, it can be used to explore, but it gains more sustainability in the form of its special ability. A War Canoe will heal 10hp if it ends its turn next to a forest. This is regardless of whatever action was taken previously; so long as it ends next to the forest, it heals. This combines well with the second ability it has: it may retreat after attacking. Like the knight, this ability allows the War Canoe to stage hit and run attacks on the enemy coast line. If a unit is unguarded near the border, then they are open to attack. Unfortunately, the base speed makes them unsuited to taking on ranged units, which can either hit them in opening, or in exiting. Paired with the Great Lighthouse, however, they can make a deadly force. The ability to heal, and the ability to move after attacking are both promotions, which may or may not keep on upgrade. The War Canoe itself upgrades to a Privateer, skipping the Caravel. This means you might have to keep a few around if you want the abilities. Additionally, it also has the promotion to attack units on land, something that was priorly given to all Haidan units, but is now restricted to the War Canoe.

The main use for War Canoes early on is that they can explore and heal without having to return home. Simply park up next to a forest and heal for a while. Additionally, if the enemy you're attacking is near or next to a forest, it makes repeated attacks easier, since the War Canoe can heal itself. Attacking enemy cities near forests is easier, as the War Canoe can provide support from the coast, retreating to heal and come back only a few turns later. Additionally, once it gets the Coastal Raider promotion, the War Canoe becomes a revenue sucking machine, capable of sneaking in shots every turn to siphon off money for further attacks.

UB: Totem Pole

Most monument replacements tend to be fairly powerful, as shown by the Ethiopian Stele. This particular replacement has the same base yield as the average monument, but it gets better. Every time a Great General OR Great Admiral is born, the yield of all Totem Poles in existance is increased by one. Early on, that means a normally +4 city becomes +5, but it gets really ubsurd when late game comes and every Haida city in existance has one. Having several core cities with +4, and other with +3 or +2 adds up, further enhancing the cultural power of the Haida. And since your naval forces will be more predominate than most peoples', you'll have a secondary benefit from the Great Admirals you generate. Getting the respective earning policies in Honor and Exploration only make it easier to ride the culture train on the wheels of war. Additionally, cutting down forests, a popular strategy on higher difficulties, is more viable, since the Totem Pole also gives bonuses to that in the form of culture.

Strategy: Conquer By Canoe

Strategy

Early game the Haida will have an explorative bonus in the form of the ability to roam farther on the waves than most would dare for fear of losing a boat. Locating your future enemies is important, and the Haida can plan future assaults this way. Waging an early war against an enemy or city state can be a good way to earn a Great General, helping fund your policies further. Capturing cities early on can help in terms of culture boosts, but the lack of early happiness means you should probably raze them. Besides, if they rebuild, you can reconquer.

Mid-game more unit types come into play. Picking up Notre Dame for happiness is never a bad idea for warmongers, but since you'll be capturing a lot of cities, you'll want the happiness even if it's just to tide you over while you're razing the new captures. As you unlock the ability to cross oceans, you can launch powerful and unexpected attacks. By clearing the site with melee naval units, the stacked embarked units can then disembark into safe territory. This also prevents the embarked units from being attacked prematurely by other boats or by ranged units. The higher strength of the caravel to the galleas also improves the defense, though at the cost of taking return damage when attacking, as it is still a melee unit. Once a foothold has been gained, the naval units can patrol to elimate enemy naval units, and keep the coasts clear for more landings. Pursuing Exploration isn't a bad idea, as it will allow your mid-game reign of terror to be faster (increased coastal production) and stronger (better Admirals).

Late game ironclads and destroyers can keep the coasts clear, with the ironclad moving ludicrously fast along the coast, hunting down any fleeing enemies, whereas the Destroyer has Interception capability and Submarine targetting. Unfortunately, the Destroyer is the end of the line, and it begins to lose the ability to hold its own against anything stronger than a Great War Infantry (Destroyer is strength 55 and GWI is strength 50. Infantry are 70). By this point, however, footholds should be established on various continents, so normal land assaults are still a potential. Your Destroyers will still have the melee capability, and keep their anti-aircraft power, making them the bane of the seas, able to resist anything in their path. Capturing cities at this point will fuel an Ideology (likely Autocracy) to help you keep ahead of cultural civs as well as keep the strength going. It could even grab you Clausewitz's Legacy at just the right time to finish the world off.

Thanks!

I'd like to give a shout-out to:

• Teddyk, also known as Last Sword, the creator of the mods
  
• Zigzagzigal, who inspired me to do guides
  
• The Kart, for providing amusing insight while I worked

And of course, you for reading this guide!

Other Guides By Me

Colonialist Legacies

• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=377660317
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=335364423
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=332524113
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398451043

LS Civs

• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289136932
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=296805897
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=302024057
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=307905270
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=314981064
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=319605764
  
• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=352829397

Additional Civs

• http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=366420729

[para]

@wesleys then you sure as hell are not in the right guide.

[Lord_Weasel]

I don't use non-canon civs