Easiest and Hardest Civs to play on Earth, 18 Civs?

[TheMeInTeam]

Japan + GLH = LOL!

[Tortfeasor]

As much water as there is on Earth18 and as practical as it is to spam coastal cities GLH is just about a 'win' button on this map. But with England and Japan where you're encouraged to undertake some overseas expansion it just gets near ridiculous.

[Graffito]

I really enjoy china great wall then mids ... just in time to invade Japan for the great light house... not classy but so much fun

[pole475]

Spain are easy to have if you go culturally, but really hard since you can only found 1 city on the Iberian peninsula (if you use the starting place) and really you cant expand until you have galleys. By that times, the romans are everywhere.

[Ataxerxes]

Originally Posted by pole475

Spain are easy to have if you go culturally, but really hard since you can only found 1 city on the Iberian peninsula (if you use the starting place) and really you cant expand until you have galleys. By that times, the romans are everywhere.

Spain is pretty good but, as you say, using the starting place is poor. I move 1 to the east and put a second city in Iberia in Portugal. But Spain is like the other European Civs - you want to rush so you're everywhere instead of Rome. France usually isn't that tough and I don't find Germany that bad to attack.

[Pengu]

All the civs are easy except Inca who is a pain. Then America is a challenge starting alone with crazy Monty. Oh yeah, Mansa is also actually quite hard.

[TheMeInTeam]

Inca is a pain, but not really hard because monty won't declare on you due to a bug with that peak. Mali are by far the hardest on this map since their capitol and surrounding land are utter trash.

[kensington888]

i like using england.you can settler 3-4 cities while most european civs have 1.on noble i was able to get oracle,pyramids,great lighthouse.then inavaded france with chariots and swordsmen while my home cities were producing more army.i then went for spain.if you keep the whip going you will have a big enough army to attack rome.

[pole475]

Originally Posted by Ataxerxes

Spain is pretty good but, as you say, using the starting place is poor. I move 1 to the east and put a second city in Iberia in Portugal. But Spain is like the other European Civs - you want to rush so you're everywhere instead of Rome. France usually isn't that tough and I don't find Germany that bad to attack.

The problem with rushing is that the Pyrenees Mts block Spain from expanding into france

[Abegweit]

Roads are your friend

[ajsciri4]

Germany is the easiest to me by far... getting bronze in your capital's BFC (iirc Rome, England, France, and Spain all have to wait for IW, but Germany only has to wait to BW, which they can research right away) and there are a lot of forests for Germany to chop for production.

Inca is the hardest because of all the jungle they need to clear out, which puts them even farther behind than they should be for being pretty much isolated. Well, besides Monty who is a psychopath, and America who usually gets crushed. On top of that, they get swarmed by barbs early. On top of that, unless you use world builder, you need to sail out of your starting place to found cities on the other side of the peaks (I think those are the Andes, right?) which is swarmed in jungle like I stated earlier.

Then there's religion. You can either found your own, but if you miss it then you'll lose a lot of early time researching worker techs you would normally already have; or rely on Monty to found one and spread it to you. You can be without religion for a long, long time as Inca.

[Ataxerxes]

Originally Posted by pole475

The problem with rushing is that the Pyrenees Mts block Spain from expanding into france

Has the map changed? When I do Earth18 there are a couple of routes through the Pyrenees into France.

[elmurcis]

Originally Posted by ajsciri4

Germany is the easiest to me by far... getting bronze in your capital's BFC (iirc Rome, England, France, and Spain all have to wait for IW, but Germany only has to wait to BW, which they can research right away) and there are a lot of forests for Germany to chop for production.

Inca is the hardest because of all the jungle they need to clear out, which puts them even farther behind than they should be for being pretty much isolated. Well, besides Monty who is a psychopath, and America who usually gets crushed. On top of that, they get swarmed by barbs early. On top of that, unless you use world builder, you need to sail out of your starting place to found cities on the other side of the peaks (I think those are the Andes, right?) which is swarmed in jungle like I stated earlier.

Then there's religion. You can either found your own, but if you miss it then you'll lose a lot of early time researching worker techs you would normally already have; or rely on Monty to found one and spread it to you. You can be without religion for a long, long time as Inca.

Inca isn't so hard actually Just build TGWall and target for Judaism.. and build 2nd city in real life Buenosaires - that city will do the Rexing job after that nice empire without worry about barbarians on that continent..

[reddishrecue]

The easiest civ to play in earth 18 civs to me is Rome.
Hardest civ to play is inca.

[bitplayer]

Sitting bull isn't in earth18?

[TheMeInTeam]

Originally Posted by reddishrecue

The easiest civ to play in earth 18 civs to me is Rome.
Hardest civ to play is inca.

Inca under default BTS rules and default earth 18 can't even POSSIBLY be the hardest. You are literally immune to war (peak blocking same continent glitch) until AIs get astronomy and while the land is difficult to clear, you get more of it unopposed than any other civ on the map. Using a single galley to ferry troops around the mountains is not that hard...and the Incan capitol actually starts with resources.

The Malinese starting location does not have any resources at all, and if you SIP you get at pop 2; there is literally no slower start on the map and such a slow start is impossible in a standard game. Mali has to move very far into Egypt's area or where Carthage would be just to get a still below-average capitol late. Even the somewhat pitiful desert-ridden Arabia has it easier than the jungle + no food hell of Mali.

It's not even open for debate. Mali is much harder to start with than a civ that's immune to war for half the game and gets well over 10% land unopposed easily.

Although not often mentioned, Aztecs actually get one of the easier starts to play too due to incompetent AI Inca never sailing around the mountains and the powder puff roosevelt as a neighbor.

[reddishrecue]

Originally Posted by TheMeInTeam

Inca under default BTS rules and default earth 18 can't even POSSIBLY be the hardest. You are literally immune to war (peak blocking same continent glitch) until AIs get astronomy and while the land is difficult to clear, you get more of it unopposed than any other civ on the map. Using a single galley to ferry troops around the mountains is not that hard...and the Incan capitol actually starts with resources.

The Malinese starting location does not have any resources at all, and if you SIP you get at pop 2; there is literally no slower start on the map and such a slow start is impossible in a standard game. Mali has to move very far into Egypt's area or where Carthage would be just to get a still below-average capitol late. Even the somewhat pitiful desert-ridden Arabia has it easier than the jungle + no food hell of Mali.

It's not even open for debate. Mali is much harder to start with than a civ that's immune to war for half the game and gets well over 10% land unopposed easily.

Although not often mentioned, Aztecs actually get one of the easier starts to play too due to incompetent AI Inca never sailing around the mountains and the powder puff roosevelt as a neighbor.

I was thinking mali also has bad start. Aztecs also have good start like Romans. They look similar in earth too kind of.

[Kid R]

Originally Posted by elmurcis

Inca isn't so hard actually Just build TGWall and target for Judaism.. and build 2nd city in real life Buenosaires - that city will do the Rexing job after that nice empire without worry about barbarians on that continent..

Barb defence isn't exactly hard when virtually every tile is jungle and surrounded by rivers the barbs have to attack over - plus it's a good opportunity to get some nicely promoted units for later on. (Assuming you're not just planning to turn the continent into the huge spaceship launch pad it was clearly intended to be )

I always found the Colossus very synergistic with Inca. Industrious, copper, and quite a few financial coastal cities. GLH is also good too with some islands available. No argument with Judaism - and OR is really powerful when you're safe from war for so long.

Basically Inca really has loads and loads of ways to approach it. It's only "hard" in the sense of requiring some conscientious clicking to colonize all that land (which of course is utterly superb and completely uncontested).

[strijder20]

Inca under default BTS rules and default earth 18 can't even POSSIBLY be the hardest. You are literally immune to war (peak blocking same continent glitch) until AIs get astronomy and while the land is difficult to clear, you get more of it unopposed than any other civ on the map. Using a single galley to ferry troops around the mountains is not that hard...and the Incan capitol actually starts with resources.

Got to agree with that, I played them recently on Emperor and got to 15% land without conquering anyone. SP watermilled Amazon is also pretty amazing.

[lindsay40k]

I tried three builder games as Egypt that got steamrollered every time by preposterous stacks from China or Mongolia. When I tried an Immortal rush, I took out like six Civs without any trouble. The only hard part was getting a Missionary to the Incas so's I could get a Space Pope win. Won't be returning to it though, familiar maps tire me.