Before I got the game everyone was saying that spanish sucked, but i was sure they didn't. Sure enough once I got the full version and was able to play online it confirmed what I believed, spanish are without a doubt among the best, maybe even number 2 behind france which is just clearly number 1.
The spanish have fast shipments which means once they hit level 10 they can really put down some powerful cards into their deck. (Just play some team games to level them up if you don't want to play 1v1 with the slightly weaker lv 1-9 spanish.)
Once you hit level 10 you get access to cool cards, and if you saved cards, (i save 6 cards when i hit lvl 10) you can get a bunch of nice lvl 10 ones.
My favourites are:
#1 Inquistor - This HUGE boost in line of sight is amazing, add on the church LOS upgrades and you have such a huge sight range you can spot the enemy long before they see you, and use this to your advantage to rush in and destroy cannons if they are exposed, do any devastation you see fit. This is in my opinion the best lvl10 card you can get, then add on to that the LOS upgrade that artillery gets from the arsenal and you literally have cannons that are mobile towers. Almost no chance for you to get suprised by a cav raid, you spot them a mile off.#2 Caballeros - This card increase the multiplier of lancers against infantry from x3 to x4. This means a whopping extra 20 damage for a base lancer. with upgrades it makes it even more damaging. Upgraded lancers force most civs to go dragoons, which are very tame units. They are ONLY good at taking down cav, and nothing else, so your enemies attack force is much tamer. However most people don't realise that these are uber lancers that will pwn even pikemen, and still mass pikemen against them! Even halberdiers can go down if they don't mass enough of them.#3 Archaic Soldier Training - This card is a must because spanish have decent archaic units especially pikemen and crossbow men, and when I use a water boom strategy and my military lags behind, this card can help me field a bigger army much quicker since it reduces the build rate of Xbows by 50% and pikes by 25%.So far I haven't run into any games where i thought, omg spanish suck, I'm now 20-4 but of the 4 games i lost, each one was due to being out played by a better opponent (damn u french) and one where I played against a better spanish player.
I may start to play with all civs eventually but for now i would rate the civs:
1) French
2) Spanish
3) Russia (I haven't played a russian player yet, but i think they are strong)
4) Dutch
5) British
6) Ottomans
7) Germans
8) Portugeuse
What do you think?
[This message has been edited by Ceres629 (edited 11-06-2005 @ 05:46 AM).]