only civ I think was done badly is the mongols. they should receive a settler for each barb hut rather than a city. because it denies them ever getting use of the bonus resources under the barb tiles.
NaZ
I'm glad this was written. I'm surprised that a discussion on the most difficult civ on higher levels did not turn to the Mongols sooner.
In most games, so much can be done to set things up in the very early part of the game, and it is here that I think the Mongols suffer the most. Gaining cities from barb states has two negatives involved right off - not being able to utilize the tile under the city is huge, but there is also the aspect of NOT getting the cash, spy, tech, or caravan that all of the other civs get as well.
Yes, it means a city that you did not have to pay for with your own settler, but as others have pointed out the city placements are often so horrible that they become almost more of a drag. Even the AI places cities better.
The idea of having these cities become mini-factories for horsemen is interesting, but I have found that all of these cities will leave me much too open for attack - which then allows rivals to get your techs, some money, and land. Just impossible to get enough defense/offense generated to defend them all. Especially true when you capture one near an enemy city that later develops decent culture. Might as well bail on that city.
Later on, the Mongols can be a very nice production civ - though they even miss out on the communism "first to" bonus of cheaper factories by having the tech for free (I think this is true - don't think I've checked it for sure). Still, the increased production from mountains and the earlier chance at the communism government is nice (I think that with the free communism tech you don't have the option to immediately change without anarchy like you would with others too).
I'm playing a Deity game as the Mongols now, and what I ended up doing was leaving the barb cities alone. I build up some forces and had a few settlers ready, and when the AI cleared the barbs that were close to my capital I placed cities down so I could use the tiles. All other settling on my own went to the nearby islands as they had better coastal tiles and tiles under the huts and relics I could use.
With a small core of about 4 cities at home building units and the island cities used for science and gold, I held my own through the difficult early stages and have myself poised to win by domination very soon. It will only get better once I have my production increase - and this was against some difficult civs to play against under these circumstances (India, Japan, England, and the Aztecs).
Yes, you can severely curtail AI expansion by using a great many cities to produce a Mongol Horde (try doing this on the Barb-heavy scenarios), but I felt it left me too exposed in the games where I tried this as the AI's dogpile you at some point and skirmish defense can only last so long. Sucked that I had to let the AI take all the barb cities and the gifts they came with in my current game, but in the long run I found it to be better to take and use the tiles left behind.