Expansionist ability is pretty bad

[The Void Boy]

It seems that most of the abilities in this game are pretty good. Though the one I’ve found to be almost useless is the expansionist’s ability. The ability to just add a city to your empire sounds really powerful, but it’s easy to interrupt and the city cap is so low for most of the game that adding cities brings more problems than benefits.

[jonnin]

once you add it, you can burn it and make it an outpost. It damages the enemy, and without war.

[The Former]

Originally posted by The Void Boy:

It seems that most of the abilities in this game are pretty good. Though the one I’ve found to be almost useless is the expansionist’s ability. The ability to just add a city to your empire sounds really powerful, but it’s easy to interrupt and the city cap is so low for most of the game that adding cities brings more problems than benefits.

You don't add a city, you add an outpost. Why is this useful? Let me tell you the tale of a hotly contested region with bronze, marble, and FOUR DIFFERENT undiscovered strategics smack in the middle of a continent. After some 30 turns of contest, one of my rivals finally came out on top.

Then I took it with the Expansionist ability.

With a snap of the fingers, I came into possession of this territory and dropped down a Dunnu to defend it. Over the rest of the game, I profited substantially from the trade that came through here, the strategics it was rich with, and the terrain buffer it provided, all because I got it early when I didn't have the Influence to claim it for myself.

[Matthew]

I wish the cooldown on it was shorter. It takes 6 turns to do, so you'll typically only get 1 use out of it before the next era.

Anyway, against the AI at least, the best part about expansionist is you can move your army into their borders. They are stupid and will attack you, so you can just keep killing off their military for fame.

[Dorok]

How not get interrupted? I quoted nothing, And interruption breaks it.

For exploit ability to ignore frontiers that's another mechanic.

[AmesNFire]

Originally posted by Matthew:

I wish the cooldown on it was shorter. It takes 6 turns to do, so you'll typically only get 1 use out of it before the next era.

Unless you're on one of the faster speeds, you probably shouldn't be jumping every 6 turns from Era to Era. That's a lot of missed stars.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by AmesNFire:

Originally posted by Matthew:

I wish the cooldown on it was shorter. It takes 6 turns to do, so you'll typically only get 1 use out of it before the next era.

Unless you're on one of the faster speeds, you probably shouldn't be jumping every 6 turns from Era to Era. That's a lot of missed stars.

Mmm so it's delay the most than possible the switch to next era? I wonder, you miss many stars in an era, get them in next they give more fame, so not sure it's really the point.

Eventually it's more to get more specialized stars before to switch to another culture with different specialization star. But perhaps I didn't quote some math justifying stay longer in an era to get more stars in that era.

[AmesNFire]

Originally posted by Dorok:

Originally posted by AmesNFire:

Unless you're on one of the faster speeds, you probably shouldn't be jumping every 6 turns from Era to Era. That's a lot of missed stars.

Mmm so it's delay the most than possible the switch to next era? I wonder, you miss many stars in an era, get them in next they give more fame, so not sure it's really the point.

Eventually it's more to get more specialized stars before to switch to another culture with different specialization star. But perhaps I didn't quote some math justifying stay longer in an era to get more stars in that era.

The stars you get in one Era will help you get the same star in the next.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by AmesNFire:

Originally posted by Dorok:

Mmm so it's delay the most than possible the switch to next era? I wonder, you miss many stars in an era, get them in next they give more fame, so not sure it's really the point.

Eventually it's more to get more specialized stars before to switch to another culture with different specialization star. But perhaps I didn't quote some math justifying stay longer in an era to get more stars in that era.

The stars you get in one Era will help you get the same star in the next.

As you can get them in next era, I don't see how it explains stay in an era for getting more stars. You need be more explicit.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by AmesNFire:

Originally posted by Matthew:

I wish the cooldown on it was shorter. It takes 6 turns to do, so you'll typically only get 1 use out of it before the next era.

Unless you're on one of the faster speeds, you probably shouldn't be jumping every 6 turns from Era to Era. That's a lot of missed stars.

The cooldown is like 10 turns, so 16 total. Plus any movement or battles to the next target.
You can maybe get in a 2nd one on standard speed, but it is rare to stick in an era for over 40 turns.

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by Matthew:

I wish the cooldown on it was shorter. It takes 6 turns to do, so you'll typically only get 1 use out of it before the next era.

Anyway, against the AI at least, the best part about Expansionist is you can move your army into their borders. They are stupid and will attack you, so you can just keep killing off their military for fame.

On longer game speeds, the cooldown is longer, but I feel you also get more tries. I got three territories on Marathon.

What you say about the AI is super-true. Part of being Expansionist is the Under One Banner trick, but the other part is Tresspass, being able to ignore borders, which is huge. The AI is helpless against this.

You don't need to go to war, but you can farm plenty of military stars through skirmishes.