Humankind: Together We Rule Expansion Pack Review (Wobbertson)
Another wait for sale DLC.
The new features are good, with some caveats. The diplomacy overhaul is really good, the new interactions with major and minor nations were much needed. The world congress is maybe the best version of the feature in any game. Rather than being gated off for 30 turns, its something worth checking in on constantly, pushing on the cultural development of the players.
However the leverage system is a bit off. All the new cultures need it to get their specific era stars, however it comes up so few and far between you are less than guaranteed to even find any. Since it relies entirely on the actions of other nations, being even slightly isolated as a diplomatic culture locks you out of the best way of gaining score. And the amounts needed for the 2nd and 3rd stars are simply ridiculous, and past the first age are practically impossible. Their abilities and districts are decent, but often don't synergise with the diplomatic angle. It would have been better to rework a few base game cultures to the new play style, while introducing some of the new cultures with different affinities. For example:
1. Sumerians - Keep the same
2. Han - Keep the same
3. Bulgarians - Militarist or Expansionist, their unit and district play into this way more.
4. Swiss - Merchant, its the Swiss, they're famous for their banks over everything else. Swap them to Industrial.
5. Scots - Scientist, the Scots made some mad technology contributions. Swap them to Early Modern, since that's when they were last independent. Having them share the Industrial with the British makes no sense, it'd be like having Texans in the Contemporary.
6. Singaporean - Merchant or Aesthete, its Singapore they're knowing for an insanely well planned out economy and designing city of the future.
And then rework these to be diplomatic:
3 - The Aztecs. Yes you heard me. These mfers ran a quasi confederation/triple alliance/protection racket. Being Diplomatic doesn't mean shying away from violence.
4 - The Haudenosaunee. They brought together a large native confederation which managed to form relations with a number of the European colonising nations.
5 - The Italians. This one was hard as none of the current cultures fit the core idea of what Amplitude seem to be going for. But Italy spent its time from unification to WW1 going between various alliances and getting into disagreements with other powers.
6 - The Americans. America as diplomatic?? WAHHHHHH? Yeah you heard me. Being expansionist in the end game when most of the world will be occupied is a bit silly. Meanwhile America hosts the United Nations and loves getting embroiled in the rest of the world's business. Argue about it as much as you want, but yeah the US loves getting involved in diplomacy more than any other country.
I don't know why this review turned into a pitch for a culture rework, but oh well. Get it on sale, the new features are good, the new wonders are again good, and the cultures are okay if lacking in the sense department.