I'd have said Sweden and Aztec were worse than Germany. Especially Sweden who are just brain achingly schizophrenic in strategy, especially with the damn twitchy AI loyalty of some of the AI players.
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Civilization
- Thread starter RODAN
- Start date
Sweden I could see, but Aztecs seem alright, especially in Brave New World when cultural victories become aggressive.
edit: total theoryciv here as I haven't played either of those civs and I only have Gods and Kings, but still
In BNW there are 2 types of Culture: "Culture" which acts as defence for Cultural Victory as well as for exploring Policy tracks, and "Tourism" which is offence for a Cultural Victory. Montezuma only gets the former from his Sacrificial Captives bonus.
The thing with Germany is that despite flaws in their unique units (Landsknecht being kind of bad, unless Ramkhamhaeng is around, and Panzer coming extremely late in the game) Furor Teutonicus is still really good.
Civ 5 isn't worth the retail price lol. But if you made the mistake of buying it like I did, I'd say either of the expansions is a significant improvement.
Civ 4 is the game you really want. One of my all-time favourites.
and idk about now, but I'm fairly sure that germans were considered ok in civ5 last time I checked, because the landsknechts are/were so hilariously cheap that you could just flood your opponent with them.
Best civ to play in civ 4 is india by a substantial margin. Fast workers are too good.
Civ 4 combat is a god awful strategy free clusterfuck.
If you've ever played against other people, you'll know that civ4 combat is perfectly strategic enough. The AI is terrible at it, which takes the strategy out somewhat, but at least it's not like civ 5 where it's almost impossible to lose. In vanilla civ 5 you would rarely lose a unit to the AI even at the hardest difficulties. It's perfectly possible in civ 4 just to turn the animations off, and simply ignore the strategy of combat, moving around stacks of units grouped together.
The civ 5 combat system causes numerous problems, particularly that all the units get in each other's way even when you're at peace. You can't group them so they take forever to move around. And the way the game tries to prevent large armies to avoid this just creates even further problems. It might be sort of fun early in the game when you have only a few units, but quickly becomes intolerable. I've started dozens of games of civ5, but completed only 3 of them, to give you an idea.
The civ 5 combat system causes numerous problems, particularly that all the units get in each other's way even when you're at peace. You can't group them so they take forever to move around. And the way the game tries to prevent large armies to avoid this just creates even further problems. It might be sort of fun early in the game when you have only a few units, but quickly becomes intolerable. I've started dozens of games of civ5, but completed only 3 of them, to give you an idea.
That's like setting the AI to permanent Gandhi mode.
Early civ games certainly had strategy. They just had little to no tactics. Units in Civ 5 get in the way, sure, but being able to field a large army is part of war. It also keeps space from being unutilized. Weak AI is the only thing that keeps Civ 5 from being completely better than 4, but it's never been that bad to me, and if it is to you than why aren't you playing multiplayer?
Yeah when I said strategic there I meant tactical. Civ 4 combat is quite tactical in multiplayer, and would be in single player if the AI could do it. The AI couldn't, and still can't, but now the consequences for it are a lot worse.
Honestly, though, I actually can't think of a single thing about civ 5 that I prefer, except maybe the hexagonal tile arrangement. The multiplayer barely even worked for most of civ 5, which I hope helps expain why I don't play multiplayer lol.
Honestly, though, I actually can't think of a single thing about civ 5 that I prefer, except maybe the hexagonal tile arrangement. The multiplayer barely even worked for most of civ 5, which I hope helps expain why I don't play multiplayer lol.
Do you remember when Civ 4 came out and people said Civ 3 was better? Or when Civ 3 came out and they said Civ 2 was better? Cause I do. I've always been saying that this series only gets better the more they make. Other than the amazingly better combat system, yeah hexes are great, but each civ also feels much more unique. Social policies add a great deal of customization, as does religion in G&K (religion was annoying in 4 with its missionaries). Things like happiness and gold matter more than ever, Civ is no longer a game about acquiring more and more, you need to really plan your cities and even taking an opponent's city is a mixed blessing. City states seem like they always should have existed, I tend to play massive games and adding more "players" is great. The only downsides to Civ 5 was lack of Nimoy and some weaker AI interaction (but at least the AI is much less fickle). You'd really have to give me some shining examples of how pre-Civ 5 could be tactical though, I've been playing the games since Civ 2 and that was always my complaint.
I made a database of civs in V at the behest of @Rodan
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0huRuG8jN9Gxv3ro1jFyz97h5MkGKzrr0356CriPbs/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0huRuG8jN9Gxv3ro1jFyz97h5MkGKzrr0356CriPbs/edit
Sorry to bump but I really like this game and I just noticed the thread...
I've only really played Civ 5 and Brave New World, but they are really good games. I would have to say my favorite civilization on Civ 5 vanilla is Japan because the sheer staying power it provides is extremely helpful. If you are trying to capture a city or something you can just keep plugging away without losing any power over time (also they get a culture boost in Brave New World but whatever). My favorite civilization in Brave New World is probably the Shoshone because I like to expand rapidly, so the extra territory it provides can be really useful for gathering resources and "taking up space". Also, they get a nifty boost within their own territory.
I've only really played Civ 5 and Brave New World, but they are really good games. I would have to say my favorite civilization on Civ 5 vanilla is Japan because the sheer staying power it provides is extremely helpful. If you are trying to capture a city or something you can just keep plugging away without losing any power over time (also they get a culture boost in Brave New World but whatever). My favorite civilization in Brave New World is probably the Shoshone because I like to expand rapidly, so the extra territory it provides can be really useful for gathering resources and "taking up space". Also, they get a nifty boost within their own territory.
Wayan Vistar
formerly Flyhn
My dad got Civ V with Brave New World for the price of Civ 5 without BNW (gotta love the steam summer sale), and I've been playing it every spare chance I can get. It's just so fun. BTW I don't have a favourite civ yet, I usually choose random.
Acklow
I am always tired. Don't bother me.
I downloaded the Spice and Wolf mod for this and I must say I enjoyed playing as Holo. The additional gold from trade routes as well as bonuses for wheat fields and what not make for a solid early game city expansion and a good lategame gold advantage.
Playing against AI though, I feel like getting that cultural victory is way too easy. I'd imagine that against friends there'd be more friendly animosity you'd have to deal with and what not.
Playing against AI though, I feel like getting that cultural victory is way too easy. I'd imagine that against friends there'd be more friendly animosity you'd have to deal with and what not.
hey guys, sorry to bump this, but did you ever get a smogon game working? if not we should totally attempt it
as for me, i find it really hard to pick a favourite civ. in single player it's definetly spain, as im a cheating (BAN ME PLEASE) and send my settler/warrior in opposite directions until i find a good natural wonder. if ive not found one in ten turns (i play on epic so wasted turns at the start mean less) i restart.
as for other ones id say my other two strongest are babylon and poland. babylon can just shut itself off inside their walls and go nuts with science, while poland literally has almost multiple abilities due to having practically a whole free social policy tree by the end of the game, giving them massive flexibility beyond winged hussars.
arabia also has a special place in my heart for the death machines that are camel archers. i prefer them to mongolia due to the backup victory routes given by their amazing economy and religion. zulus are also super cool, as ikanda also works with landsknechte :D
least favourite are probably assyria and the huns, ive developed a hatred for them by facing them, and while assyria actually can compete lategame if you just beeline military techs (and get others off other civs) the huns place too much emphasis on the early game imo, which i find off putting if you're not playing on a smallish pangaea
never bothered with (what appear to me as just weak civs) the celts, brazil and maya.
ones i still have to try and get an opinion on are byzantium, polynesia, carthage, ethiopia, india, morocco, netherlands, portugal and siam
as for me, i find it really hard to pick a favourite civ. in single player it's definetly spain, as im a cheating (BAN ME PLEASE) and send my settler/warrior in opposite directions until i find a good natural wonder. if ive not found one in ten turns (i play on epic so wasted turns at the start mean less) i restart.
as for other ones id say my other two strongest are babylon and poland. babylon can just shut itself off inside their walls and go nuts with science, while poland literally has almost multiple abilities due to having practically a whole free social policy tree by the end of the game, giving them massive flexibility beyond winged hussars.
arabia also has a special place in my heart for the death machines that are camel archers. i prefer them to mongolia due to the backup victory routes given by their amazing economy and religion. zulus are also super cool, as ikanda also works with landsknechte :D
least favourite are probably assyria and the huns, ive developed a hatred for them by facing them, and while assyria actually can compete lategame if you just beeline military techs (and get others off other civs) the huns place too much emphasis on the early game imo, which i find off putting if you're not playing on a smallish pangaea
never bothered with (what appear to me as just weak civs) the celts, brazil and maya.
ones i still have to try and get an opinion on are byzantium, polynesia, carthage, ethiopia, india, morocco, netherlands, portugal and siam
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if you think the mayans are weak you need to start building the pyramid sooner; they're basically a more flexible babylon with their unique ability too
the huns are actually more flexible than people give them credit for; free animal husbandry means a good bit of extra potential early production from horses and pastures and also frees them up to research other things in the early game, giving them a nice head start in far more than just military, which means a lot in a game like civ where early advantages easily snowball into monstrous leads
the celts are actually pretty decent; they're one of the few civs that are effectively guaranteed an early religion, and that means a tailor-made set of bonuses that can be incredibly strong depending on your surroundings and what victory you go for; the ceilidh hall is also a pretty good building, more happiness is always a good thing
brazil is possibly the best civ for cultural victory, the tourism bonus from carnival is just that huge. the jungle bias means they'll be suffering a bit early on from lack of production pretty often but it also makes them very hard to invade, so they have a sort of passive defensive bonus too; brazilwood camps are also really good
as for the other civs you were wondering about:
byzantium: potentially very strong if you can get an early religion, but they're the only religion-based civ that doesn't have any faith bonuses, so this is far from guaranteed; as for their units, the cataphract is pretty boring, but the dromon is quite good, it makes byzantium the only civ with ranged naval units before medieval
polynesia: very, very situational, the oceangoing ability is very map-dependent for how useful it'll be, but it does usually mean you'll establish the world congress first; the moai are nice, but having them means having tiles that aren't farms or mines, which in the long run will usually hurt you. maori warrior is ok
carthage: the ability to go over mountains is fairly weak; it does give you the ability to build roads over mountains, and gives you some tactical options no one else has, but ultimately doesn't come into play often enough to be very relevant; the free harbors are nice, but also aren't a very strong ability on their own; the main utility for them is the synergy with the Exploration policy tree and the Liberty tree, which makes founding new coastal cities cost no happiness penalties
ethiopia: stele is a strong candidate for best unique building in the game, guarantees you'll get the first or second religion 99% of the time; their other bonuses are nice but are nowhere near as impactful
india: not much to say here, not a very exciting civ; interesting thing to note is that the unique ability makes each city give less unhappiness than usual once it has 6 population or more, which counterintuitively makes india one of the best city spamming civs
morocco: this is a nice civ if you like gold; the bonus it gives means other civs will be more inclined to trade with you, which means they're less likely to attack you since you're giving them gold so it also doubles as a sort-of defensive bonus; the kasbah is useless on flat desert tiles though
netherlands: polders are really good, but really situational; the luxury ability gives you a lot of extra trading power; sea beggars are an improvement on an already decent unit
portugal: probably the best civ as far as gold income goes after venice, the feitoria is nice too if not particularly exciting; naus aren't anything special but more gold is more gold
siam: the bonuses from city-states is a lot stronger than you might think, and they actually make siam one of the strongest civs because they get so much more early food/culture/faith than other civs if they maintain relations with city-states, which you really should be trying to do anyway
holy shit i think this is the biggest post i have ever made
the huns are actually more flexible than people give them credit for; free animal husbandry means a good bit of extra potential early production from horses and pastures and also frees them up to research other things in the early game, giving them a nice head start in far more than just military, which means a lot in a game like civ where early advantages easily snowball into monstrous leads
the celts are actually pretty decent; they're one of the few civs that are effectively guaranteed an early religion, and that means a tailor-made set of bonuses that can be incredibly strong depending on your surroundings and what victory you go for; the ceilidh hall is also a pretty good building, more happiness is always a good thing
brazil is possibly the best civ for cultural victory, the tourism bonus from carnival is just that huge. the jungle bias means they'll be suffering a bit early on from lack of production pretty often but it also makes them very hard to invade, so they have a sort of passive defensive bonus too; brazilwood camps are also really good
as for the other civs you were wondering about:
byzantium: potentially very strong if you can get an early religion, but they're the only religion-based civ that doesn't have any faith bonuses, so this is far from guaranteed; as for their units, the cataphract is pretty boring, but the dromon is quite good, it makes byzantium the only civ with ranged naval units before medieval
polynesia: very, very situational, the oceangoing ability is very map-dependent for how useful it'll be, but it does usually mean you'll establish the world congress first; the moai are nice, but having them means having tiles that aren't farms or mines, which in the long run will usually hurt you. maori warrior is ok
carthage: the ability to go over mountains is fairly weak; it does give you the ability to build roads over mountains, and gives you some tactical options no one else has, but ultimately doesn't come into play often enough to be very relevant; the free harbors are nice, but also aren't a very strong ability on their own; the main utility for them is the synergy with the Exploration policy tree and the Liberty tree, which makes founding new coastal cities cost no happiness penalties
ethiopia: stele is a strong candidate for best unique building in the game, guarantees you'll get the first or second religion 99% of the time; their other bonuses are nice but are nowhere near as impactful
india: not much to say here, not a very exciting civ; interesting thing to note is that the unique ability makes each city give less unhappiness than usual once it has 6 population or more, which counterintuitively makes india one of the best city spamming civs
morocco: this is a nice civ if you like gold; the bonus it gives means other civs will be more inclined to trade with you, which means they're less likely to attack you since you're giving them gold so it also doubles as a sort-of defensive bonus; the kasbah is useless on flat desert tiles though
netherlands: polders are really good, but really situational; the luxury ability gives you a lot of extra trading power; sea beggars are an improvement on an already decent unit
portugal: probably the best civ as far as gold income goes after venice, the feitoria is nice too if not particularly exciting; naus aren't anything special but more gold is more gold
siam: the bonuses from city-states is a lot stronger than you might think, and they actually make siam one of the strongest civs because they get so much more early food/culture/faith than other civs if they maintain relations with city-states, which you really should be trying to do anyway
holy shit i think this is the biggest post i have ever made
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also we DID try to get a civ multiplayer game going once but it just did not work out; this isn't a game that multiplayer works for easily
Mostly we're just lazy and it's a long ass game
Once one person starts taking forever or drops out and tells no one, well, fuck.
Once one person starts taking forever or drops out and tells no one, well, fuck.
Asek
Banned deucer.
In terms or good civs the Faith and Science based civs are as a rule of thumb the best in the game. Civs that can get up an early religon (ethipoa, celt) can tailor a religion to a win condition based on their spawn, making them quite suited to every area, while Science based civs can get an early tech lead and then have the lions share of wonders, steamroll with a more advanced military or just go for a straight science victory. Both these types of civs aren't dependant on certain spawns either, making them excellent to all situations. Militaristic civlizations range from very good to very bad (many are spawn dependant), and economic based civs are usually middle of the road. Special shoutout to Denmark for having a uu that has a bonus on a territory nobody cares about. Best civ in the game is widely considered Poland, but I think on a land based map China is the best civ (crazy warmongering).
Personal favorite civs are the Aztec, Egypt and Arabia, but if I'm looking for free wins I'll default back to Babylon or Korea. Really liked the Aztecs even when I only had vanilla, the culture gain from kills can keep you from major unhappiness in the era of idealogies when theres some loser shoving his culture down your throat and trying to force you into unrest. The floating gardens also help keep your cities with a high pop, and subsequently working harder. Egypt can get that early game wonder you want even on Deity, which goes a long way towards a victory condition. Arabia just makes rediculous amounts of money with the amount of luxuries and oil you can trade off, and if you manage to grab a religon you can quickly suppress surrounding civs by forcing them to adopt your religon with your crazy pressure
Also if your looking for a really fun mod download the real world mod in which every civ spawns where they would be located in real life. Forgot what the name of it is now on steam but heres a link of someone playing it as japan, lots of fun to be had in replicating stuff like the mongolian horde.
Also guys dont buy that new space civ its hella bad and i blew $80 on a reskinned civ v
Personal favorite civs are the Aztec, Egypt and Arabia, but if I'm looking for free wins I'll default back to Babylon or Korea. Really liked the Aztecs even when I only had vanilla, the culture gain from kills can keep you from major unhappiness in the era of idealogies when theres some loser shoving his culture down your throat and trying to force you into unrest. The floating gardens also help keep your cities with a high pop, and subsequently working harder. Egypt can get that early game wonder you want even on Deity, which goes a long way towards a victory condition. Arabia just makes rediculous amounts of money with the amount of luxuries and oil you can trade off, and if you manage to grab a religon you can quickly suppress surrounding civs by forcing them to adopt your religon with your crazy pressure
Also if your looking for a really fun mod download the real world mod in which every civ spawns where they would be located in real life. Forgot what the name of it is now on steam but heres a link of someone playing it as japan, lots of fun to be had in replicating stuff like the mongolian horde.
Also guys dont buy that new space civ its hella bad and i blew $80 on a reskinned civ v
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