Anansi and Kimiko OP?

[Gronmor]

Hello there! So I was playing around with the extra modes for a bit, for the first time to be honest and, for the heroes... Well, like the title says, aren't Anansi and Kimiko freaking OP? Kimiko just gives you, like, 8 Envoys for free, not to mention a Faith boost to re-buy Heroes or Great People if you play your cards well! Meanwhile, Anansi just gives you a bunch of free Research and Culture, boosting both significantly! It's basically 3 or 4 free Techs and Civics just by recruiting him! Not only that, you don't need to use his ability on your own resources: You can just send him to your neighbors and destroy THEIR resources, and the funniest part is, they don't seem react negatively to that at all, so it doesn't even affect diplomacy! :p But it does make them weaker!

Are there any other heroes like that? I checked the abilities of all the other ones I got so far and they all seem military-based. Only those 2 seems very effective at boosting your own civilization! Anything else I should know about? :)

[Sstavix]

Maui has the ability to plop down resources in spaces, as long as it isn't within a civilization's territory. So now I am wondering about a Maui-Anansi combo, with Maui generating resource tiles and Anaheim cleaning them up for free science and culture.

[megansweden]

Hercules will insta-build 3 districts each time you reincarnate him. Gets more valuable in terms of time saved and making new cities productive the later you get into the game as districts get progressively more expensive to build.

And if you have ocean access and barbs with boats, Sinbad will get you a TON of money.

[Gronmor]

Originally posted by Sstavix:

Maui has the ability to plop down resources in spaces, as long as it isn't within a civilization's territory. So now I am wondering about a Maui-Anansi combo, with Maui generating resource tiles and Anaheim cleaning them up for free science and culture.

Oh, yeah, I just checked Maui! Would make a great Hero to get pretty early on! Plop a bunch of resources in a circle and get a city right in the middle afterward! :) I'll try to get him if I get to unlock him (still haven't in this my game yet)

Hercules sounds nice as well, thanks megansweden! Unfortunately another civ got him, I think. But I'll keep him in mind for future playthroughts! :)

Finally, I did noticed Sinbad's money-making scheme, but unfortunately his thing seems a bit situational. With Himiko, Anansi, Maui and Hercules, I think I have enough heroes to deal with stuff anyway! :p Let's make him my 5th option if nothing else works!

[colostmy4]

Since most of my games I don't go for domination victory, I like taking Anansi up to resources near or next other civilization's borders and devour them up for the science and culture, that way they don't get the benefit when the tile comes within their borders. I even like pairing Anansi with Maui, so if I do conquer that city, I can refill with Maui the resources in the area that are lacking in the area because I had devoured them with Anansi.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by Gronmor:

Originally posted by Sstavix:

Maui has the ability to plop down resources in spaces, as long as it isn't within a civilization's territory. So now I am wondering about a Maui-Anansi combo, with Maui generating resource tiles and Anaheim cleaning them up for free science and culture.

Oh, yeah, I just checked Maui! Would make a great Hero to get pretty early on! Plop a bunch of resources in a circle and get a city right in the middle afterward! :) I'll try to get him if I get to unlock him (still haven't in this my game yet)

Hercules sounds nice as well, thanks megansweden! Unfortunately another civ got him, I think. But I'll keep him in mind for future playthroughts! :)

Finally, I did noticed Sinbad's money-making scheme, but unfortunately his thing seems a bit situational. With Himiko, Anansi, Maui and Hercules, I think I have enough heroes to deal with stuff anyway! :p Let's make him my 5th option if nothing else works!

Just don't forget there are a few districts that need to be placed next to city center and some resource are better of adjacent to a commercial district and other nexr to an industrial district.

[Maya-Neko]

Anansi - Pretty much just broken, it's just ridiculous how you can sabotage others, however it can obviously backfire, if you finally conquer that area^^

Arthur - One of the strongest rush heroes, since you can produce cheap units and then overrun someone else pretty much instantly. If that fails, then you're at a big disadvantage though and he definitely gets worse over time.

Beowulf - Quite strong when it comes to attacking fortified positions, since you can just kill any enemy without the need to deal with terrain. Not that strong if you don't wage war obviously

Hercules - Getting him early can definitely speed up your empire by allowing you to build districts instantly, while building something else like an army. Since he can use up his charges quite quickly, he makes for a great additional force in an early attack. And even later on you can use him to get a city running that might be at a disadvantage due to its location.

Himiko - Definitely the universally strongest, since city states are just too important to ignore. She also makes for a great scout after using her charges, as well as a general like support for attacking, so she can be used in many areas and don't just waits for her lifespan ending.

Hippolyta - Rather a niche hero, but the ability to restore any units ability to move or attack definitely allows for some nasty attacks, especially regarding siege units or if you need to get rid of fortified positions

Hunahpu & Xbalanque - I would say it's one, if not the strongest offensive hero if you can utilize their abilities. The ability to not just kill enemies, but to also turn them into yours can create a big army in no time without you needing to waste any ressources on it. Though depending on the terrain or especially against human players their effectivity definitely suffers.

Maui - To fully utilize him, you definitely need to know, which terrain can spawn which bonus or luxury ressources. He can easily allow you to get more of those than you would otherwise be able to by normal colonization, like amenities will definitely not be a problem for you, if you find some nice ressources. And if you're lucky, you might even find some spots, where Maui refuses to add a ressource, so you can utilize that by building districts early there, if you feel like a strategic ressource on that spot would ruin your city layout.

Mulan - Great for defense and after surviving for a few rounds also super strong in attack, especially due to being ranged cavalry. Nothing what i would try to go for if other options are available, but better than nothing^^

Oya - Extremely strong in fights, where your movement is limited and where you might not be able to rotate units properly to prevent loses.

Sinbad - If you can get him early, then the gold boost can definitely make a change early on, like a whole army within a few turns or several settlers isn't really a problem with this one. The only problem is, that you might need to gamble a littlebit, if you're adjacent to a big ocean and not just to a big lake.

Sun Wukong - It's not that special. The high life span and being invisible makes for a great scout and on attacks being good to attack from behind, but unless you're playing against humans, rather attacking from the front with Mulan or Beowulf is usually similarly effective.

Though all in all, depending on your playstyle or your choosen path you might simply not be able to fully utilizie some of their abilities to its full extend, so it's not that uncommon to have some heroes you're more often getting pulled towards. Also the AI can usually be outsmarted even without using heroes, so that usually also lowers their appeal a bit, especially when you're a more peaceful player to begin with.

[jmerry82]

Adding on to the bit about Maui, note that normal map generation assigns four luxuries to each continent and won't place any others. Maui ignores this, and can place luxuries that don't "belong" on that part of the map.

On heroes in general, note that lifespans scale slower than game speed does. Lifespans, by game speed:
Online (1/2): 9 QK, 24 std, 32 Himiko, 40 SW
Quick (2/3): 10 QK, 27 std, 36 Himiko, 45 SW
Standard (1/1): 12 QK, 30 std. 40 Himiko. 50 SW
Epic (3/2): 13 QK, 33 std, 44 Himiko, 55 SW
Marathon (3/1): 14 QK, 36 std. 48 Himiko. 60 SW
(Questing Knight, standard hero, Himiko, Sun Wukong. These are base numbers, before anything like a shrine or Gilgamesh's ability.)

Slower games speeds devalue the heroes who are more focused on personal combat; they just won't be around as often. With the exception of Mulan, who gets extremely powerful toward the end of her lifespan.