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Basics - Persia
By Ryan
Hello, this is a quick video guide of what to expect if you are to pick Persia as your Civilization.
   
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Ryan
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Category: Characters, Classes, Co-op, Gameplay Basics, Multiplayer, Walkthroughs
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
7 May, 2013 @ 8:45am
9 Jul, 2013 @ 2:41pm
5,397 Unique Visitors
23 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Video of how to play the Persians. 
Victory Conditions 
Social Policies 
Factoids 
Other Basic Guides 
Cont. 
Cont. 
Cont. 
Brave New World Basic Guides 
Comments
Video of how to play the Persians.
This will tell you what to expect out of the special units, what to expect out of the playstyle, and what victory conditions to expect to dominate with.

Victory Conditions
Hello, if you really didn't want to watch the video I'll give a quick rundown of what you probably should be thinking if you are randomly paired up with the Persians or are just new to Civilization and think they would be fun to play.


Victory Conditions

  • Cultural
    That prince of Persia just knows how to make things dazzle. Persia is one of the best to win a Cultural victory based upon his personality trait. You'll always want to be building wonders, stay small, and building Satrap's as soon as they are able to built. Essentially, it's all about maintaining happiness in any way possible. If you notice there are a couple of Civilizations above you in tech and they are beating you with wonders quickly do your best by attacking them in a Golden Age to hopefully shave off a couple hairs. Make sure NOT to start taking cities over because it will make the cultural victory much more difficult. Highly recommended.

  • Scientific
    Considering Persia has Satraps you could go into a game striving for a Scientific victory if you play your cards right. Best method is obvious, try to stay small but expand ONLY for luxury resources to keep those Golden Ages rolling - otherwise it's over. It's a little bit of a thin wire to be walking depending on the scenario you'll have. Nonetheless, going a Scientific route is very possible. Recommended.

  • Diplomatic
    Persia may dazzle, but they don't make everyone happy. It's possible to win in a Diplomatic scenario but chances are it will be very difficult. You need to maintain your Golden Ages, not the needs of your neighbors. It's very challenging to attempt to go this route considering the amount of time it would take to achieve this victory. Unfortunately, Persia does not have any City-State boosting traits either. Not recommended.

  • Domination
    Perhaps I should have swapped out Diplomatic with Domination with Persia. I believe they are about on par together though, but I feel as if Domination is the weakest point with Persia. Sure, the Immortals will be very helpful early on and have the ability to wipe out entire Civilizations in a couple fowl swoops. After your little hayday you don't really get too much of a benefit. Sure, your troops do fight better while a Golden Age is in effect, but the more you conquer the less happy the people will be so in turn you are losing Golden Age time by conquest. The only time you should be aggressive is when another Civilization is building "happy" wonders or are smarter than you. Not recommended.
Social Policies
Won't get into as depth as the Victory Conditions only because Social Policies can usually go anyway for any Civ and still win. Will only note those that are very important to each Civ.
  • Tradition
    Tradition is generally a situational Social Policy but with the Persians it's just about a must have. You're going to have a nation with few cities, big population, and happy people. With that said you must keep adding happiness, it's what keeps the Darius train keep on a rollin'. They'll do very well with this Social Policy more so than most other Civilizations and as always you can win without it. Highly recommended though!
The rest are really up to you on how you're playstyle will be for policies, Tradition for hunkering down with few cities - Honor for cutting down enemies early on - Liberty for expanding like a mad-man but again, that goes for any Civ, not just the Persians.
Factoids
  • The Caspian horse, believed to be one of the oldest breeds of domesticated horses in the world, can be traced back to ancient Persia.

  • In 1935, the Persian king Reza Shah Pahlavi changed the sovereignty's name to Iran.

  • In Persian mythology the devil uses Persian food to corrupt the king of the land, “Zahak, The Dragon King”.

  • The Persian language has been in continuous use for over 2500 years.
4 Comments
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Feurisson 10 Oct, 2013 @ 6:22pm 
Interesting, I had no problem winning a diplomatic victory at all, despite this having been my first completed Civilization game. With 8 cities and a lot of trading posts, gold just started pouring in at some point and I could complete most side quests without really doing anything. The constant golden ages probably helped a lot, too. I guess it depends on how you play it. :)
bigperk73 13 May, 2013 @ 6:34pm 
Cultural, I'm not a fan of Cultural at all, when I first saw them I thought of the Immortals, 1 point stronger and Healing at double the rate, cheap to build, I thought they would be great to go to war with especially if you get a bunch of gold since you can upgrade them to pikemen and keep the double healing trait. But what you say makes sense
Ryan  [author] 12 May, 2013 @ 7:49pm 
They are interesting if you enjoy Golden Ages, Cultural Victories, and to a lesser extent a rush of Domination. From the video it just does as all of my other videos do - tell you the basics of the Civilization. Personally, I'm not a fan of Cultural Victories, but there are many who are. Unfortunately, if you do not like Cultural Victories you won't have much of a "bonus" to any other victory outside of a fast rush in the beginning of the game.

I suppose the question I have for you is what makes it seem less engaging to you? I enjoy feedback and perhaps I focused on the negatives more than the positives.
bigperk73 12 May, 2013 @ 7:21pm 
So why would people want to play as Persia? They don't sound very interesting from this video....