Best house families for Hatti? And best for the capital/starting city?

[tiamats4esgares]

I usually start with Landowners (Nenassan) because of the extra population to start with, and they make settlers faster, and get gold from farms. All seems nice in the early game.

But the Traders (Hattusan) seem to make you start off with a lot more gold per turn because of the Fair. What I don't like about Traders is there's already so many decisions to make about what to build, and they add more fuel to the fire with the option of an Elder Shopkeeper and Caravans. Building them later does't seem to give as much gold as when it's the capital. And the ability to make multiple roads per turn isn't super useful early game, as well as extra culture from bullion isn't good unless you have the right resources (and still not as good early).

I like the Riders (Kussaran) for later, for the mounted unit production, but the extra scout would be useful on turn 1.

I sometimes pick Patrons (Zalpuwan) over Traders but just not sure which is better between the two.

[mk11]

It depends on your map and settings.

I usually play with Strong or Raging barbarians so find Traders disappointing (Caravans get attacked, and I get a lot of culture from Epics).

Early game I don't have enough orders to effectively use two scouts.

So my choice (unless the map leads otherways) would by Landowners, Patrons and Riders with Landowners for starter.

[Twelvefield]

I've become endeared to Caravans. Maybe in the early game they are too fragile. Once the map is "civilized", though, Caravans give you a great boost of opinion improvement from your target. Sending multiple Caravans sends a positive feedback wave of great diplomacy that the AI cannot easily counter. Plus, you get some stuff, but at that point you really are buying an ally.

[r47926]

I ususally skip the rider or military families because I've never planned on too much war and I feel like you can get good units in other ways too. Also the all cities connected bonus doesn't feel that great to me either. I'm usually trying to connect cities early and roads are needed for unit movement anyway.

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

I've become endeared to Caravans. Maybe in the early game they are too fragile. Once the map is "civilized", though, Caravans give you a great boost of opinion improvement from your target. Sending multiple Caravans sends a positive feedback wave of great diplomacy that the AI cannot easily counter. Plus, you get some stuff, but at that point you really are buying an ally.

I usually have more money than I can use, so it's good the caravan also improves the foreign countries opinion. Still, I think caravans would be more interesting for me if there was some other bonus, like when you get offered a trade and can exchange science or civics for money.
I haven't really figured out those trade agreements yet though, so I guess I should do that first before complaining.

[tiamats4esgares]

I tried out a game making Caravans my capital and 2nd city landowner. This gave me more gold early so I could influence my wife turn 2(!), I only had to sell 3 trees, and could tutor Mursili turn 5 without needing to sell anything, or even gold events, and plus I had a guaranteed tutor already!

Also, I made a Warrior second in my capital, as I like to usually do, and my 2nd city, the Ladowner seat, made a Settler, which it's pretty decent at doing. All in all this strategy seems to be working better for me so far.

[tiamats4esgares]

Well, with the recent patch, Traders are better if you don't have bouillon, making them a good start even if I don't have it. Landowners were also nerfed...citizens give more negative family opinion.

[r47926]

Traders now get 2 culture per Specialist instead of per bullion Resource
Patrons now get 4 culture per Bullion Resource instead of per specialist
https://mohawkgames.com/2023/03/08/old-world-update-106/

Yeah, not great for continuing saved games where you placed those families exactly opposite of where you would place them now...