which secret society fits Byzantium and Gaul (2024)

now that both Gaul and Byzantium's first look is out which secret society best fits them?
I think for Byzantium- voidsinger are best because religion is VERY important weather you go for domination or religious victory... plus Old God Obelisk gives you extra faith if you find yourself lacking in faith.

For Gaul... I'll say maybe Hermetic order? Because Gaul is all about production and production so I think it benefits from alchemical society. Plus they are encouraged to spread their specialility districts so they wouldn't have problems with Lay lines taking up a space.

Yeah, Lay Lines might work well for Gaul as they would likely be a little more flexible in district placement as others, but they're still fairly weak overall. They could work for Owl of Minerva as those policy slots might help them use more double-adjacency cards, and obviously they have some military to them, so they could also certainly be well placed for an early Vampire/warrior/slinger rush, especially since they just need units around to get larger bonuses.

Byzantium yeah I think would 100% be voidsingers, since you have to think they're going to run a heavy faith game. Although given they'll be spending heavily on military, vampires also certainly could work for them too.

Voidsingers are pretty much my default for any civ that has any hope of generating a decent amount of faith. I think they are the best secret society by a good distance. Earth Goddess + Voidsingers is a lot of culture, gold and science, and you can pretty effectively use monumentality just with their Obelisk. It's a no brainer for Byzantium I think.

Gaul might not fit voidsingers that well. They are one of the few civs who probably should go industrial zone early, so their district slots are pretty packed. I think Owls of Minerva have decent potential for them, you'll be unlocking policy slots faster than most civs with their enormous culture boons so the extra economic slot should very handy. Vampires can work ok with them as well, since you can build a castle surrounded by mines for a lot of production and culture. And assuming the vampire gets the combat bonus, it should be very easy to take a neighbor out with a vampire supported by swords/archers.

Agree that voids and Byz will seem very natural and potent.

Disagree about Gaul and Hermetic, because... well... Hermetic just sucks big time ;-) I see Owls working well with gaul, and if planning to go aggro, well then Sanguine too

tedhebert said:

Agree that voids and Byz will seem very natural and potent.

Disagree about Gaul and Hermetic, because... well... Hermetic just sucks big time ;-) I see Owls working well with gaul, and if planning to go aggro, well then Sanguine too

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But Gauls have no advantage with trade or spy. Hermetic is decent with production heavy civs.

Kupe Navigator said:

But Gauls have no advantage with trade or spy. Hermetic is decent with production heavy civs.

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IMHO Hermetic is only decent with Great Person grabbers. Gauls can only be like, grab one or two more Great Engineers because of the earlier IZ.

Owls is more like the Jake-of-all-trades Secret Society.

Kupe Navigator said:

But Gauls have no advantage with trade or spy. Hermetic is decent with production heavy civs.

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yes I know... but my experience with ley lines is borderline horrendous.... I dunno, maybe I should try it out more often, but so far they always appear in tundra, ice, desert tiles etc... where I just DON't want to build cities... so basically they've become a no-no for me

Revanchist said:

Sanguine is definitely the best combo. Castles next to culture mines and vampires getting the early gaesatae bonus + another unit to add to the formation. It only gets better as the ages progress

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Agree, but... it you're really planning on a non-aggressive game past classical, then that's a little wasted

tedhebert said:

yes I know... but my experience with ley lines is borderline horrendous.... I dunno, maybe I should try it out more often, but so far they always appear in tundra, ice, desert tiles etc... where I just DON't want to build cities... so basically they've become a no-no for me

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Ley Lines are considered as a "resource" in the game, the same as luxuries, strategics, etc.

Therefore, in the map generation process, ley lines will be generated at places where they cannot conflict with the generation of other resources - which means they will be generated in places with very few resources already - which means tundra, snow, and desert.

As a result Russia will love the Hermetics.

8housesofelixir said:

Ley Lines are considered as a "resource" in the game, the same as luxuries, strategics, etc.

Therefore, in the map generation process, ley lines will be generated at places where they cannot conflict with the generation of other resources - which means they will be generated in places with very few resources already - which means tundra, snow, and desert.

As a result Russia will love the Hermetics.

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but not Gaul ;-)

tedhebert said:

but not Gaul ;-)

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Yeah, for Gaul, a Ley Line is barely better than a mine, and they're not really going to get more great people than other civs, so the later bonuses won't matter as much. Overall given their bonuses, Gaul's are probably relatively neutral to any society, so it's more just the question whether extra policy slots are worth more than the faith/cultists or vampires for which society fits them best.

Hermetic Order is probably the weakest SS in general buuut it should at least have some synergies with Gaul so maybe it's worth it. Voidsingers seems pretty obvious for Byzantium though

I mean yeah of course you can always just go vampires with either two but that's a bit less fun I think

Onii-chan said:

Hermetic Order is probably the weakest SS in general buuut it should at least have some synergies with Gaul so maybe it's worth it.

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Ley Lines adjacency bonus is considered as HO's strongest benefit, but I checked the civilopedia - the Oppidum gets it at least (contrary to Koreas Seowon).

Pfeffersack said:

Ley Lines adjacency bonus is considered as HO's strongest benefit, but I checked the civilopedia - the Oppidum gets it at least (contrary to Koreas Seowon).

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However ley lines are less likely to spawn near a cluster of other resources, and Gauls have a starting bias tied to minable resources.