Jaume wrote:

I've been eager to test them since the recent balance changes added a new Legacy Trait, but I noticed a lot of negative opinions on YouTube and Forums, painting them as a weak civilization. Then, in a comment under one of these videos, someone passionately argued for the respect this civilization deserves, prompting me to try them myself.

After experimenting, I believe they are the strongest civilization in the game. Their Legacy Trait is a game-changer, creating an escalating advantage that propels you two eras ahead of your competitors, leaving you just to pop the champagne and toast to your overwhelming victory at the hardest difficulty setting with AI on expert.

Legacy Trait: +20 Food, Industry, Money and Science for each Owned City per Occupied City.

What's the strategy? Aim for at least 3 territories and a population boost of +10 in the Neolithic era, benefiting from the animal +1 strength bonus.

By the Ancient Era, secure 2 cities quickly. Then, upgrade your scouts to warriors and initiate your first conflict.

The transformation occurs when you occupy your first city, effectively doubling your output as if each city had two extra territories, each contributing an additional 10/10 in food and industry. And the icing on the cake? A whopping +40 in science and gold! This is where the Trait truly shines, especially in its contribution to science.

The AI will attempt to establish a second city, which you can then conquer, netting you an additional +80 in science. If you declare another war and manage to occupy a third city, fueled by the surging population and industry (+40 each), you skyrocket to +120 in Science within just 10 turns.

The real kicker is how your fame metrics (Population, Districts, Gold, and Science) surge because you're accumulating these resources at an extraordinary rate in a short span.

You'll soon exhaust the research options in your tech tree, but advancing to a new Era and civilization while maintaining control over enemy cities allows you to blaze through the Classical Era's tech tree, quickly achieving its developmental milestones.

This is not just war gameplay; it's incredibly rewarding. Knowing that before your first occupation, a misstep could leave you stuck in an Era with a civilization that must conquer to thrive, this adds an exhilarating risk, reminiscent of pirate ships needing to plunder to prevent sinking.

Kudos to the Humankind developers and creative team for crafting such a thrilling civilization experience.

I agree that could be a nice culture. I think people include them lower in the "tier" it is because could be a bit more circumstantial/rng, because you need to find quickly an AI or another player to try to get that bonus. While other cultures are more "easy or immediate" to get. Also, in the Ancient Era, things tended to move quickly so having a "solid" base could be more rewarding for future eras (like having a passive for industry or science).

Daarkarrow wrote:

 I agree that could be a nice culture. I think people include them lower in the "tier" it is because could be a bit more circumstantial/rng, because you need to find quickly an AI or another player to try to get that bonus. While other cultures are more "easy or immediate" to get. Also, in the Ancient Era, things tended to move quickly so having a "solid" base could be more rewarding for future eras (like having a passive for industry or science).

I believe it is not circumstantial. In fact, on a map with a logical number of players according to size, you will always encounter 1-2 enemies unless you play one island per player.

Moreover, the concept of the Hittites is not to conquer the enemy; here perhaps comes the confusion for everyone, including maybe yourself. The goal of the Hittites is to farm the enemies, hehe. When stability no longer allows sustaining the war, you ask for money, and in a few turns, you reoccupy their cities :)

Nearby enemies are farms for you to decimate the others.

There is no Legacy Trait that can give +20 to any resource in the short or long term, and the Hittites do it for every resource per owned city. Think about it. With 1 farm of 2 nearby enemy cities and you with 6 cities, you get 240/turn of science and gold just with the Hittites' Legacy Trait, and I'm not even counting that it also gives a permanent +1 to the strength of your ground units.

The problem with the Hittites is that until you try them, one is not aware of how ridiculously good they are.

In my circle of friends, we don't allow picking them in online games because they break the game.

Jaume wrote:
The problem with the Hittites is that until you try them, one is not aware of how ridiculously good they are

Yeah, I can confirm that. If memory serves me, back when we first made this change to their Legacy Trait, we saw a lot of people immediately claiming it was a weak trait. True, it's perhaps a little harder to benefit from in multiplayer because most humans will know how to defend themselves better than the AI, but when you get it rolling, this trait can be very powerful. It's perhaps a bit more of a high-risk high-reward play.