Why is Civ 5 America terrible?

Bingles

Chieftain
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Jan 7, 2014
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I have yet to play a game of Civ V where America does well. It is formulaic: America builds a bunch of cities then an aggressive neighbor conquers most of them. If America is even still existing at game's end, it is Philadelphia, up in the arctic, population 5.

Why is this? The UA the AI is not programmed to know how to use? A criminally low Growth flavor score of 3 (Same as Russia, who still usually does well)? It seems to me there is not enough actual differences between Civs for this to be a truth. I think I have just never seen them do well, by chance.

Can anyone recollect America not being terrible when played by the AI in one of their games?
 
America needs to survive the early game. It is one of the few civs who get no bonuses in the first three eras, and I do not believe they actually use the tile-purchase ability. (Probably because if the AI was programmed to do so, they'd buy themselves bankrupt) Due to a combination of high expansion but low city growth, they anger enemy civs, and if those civs are strong military wise, it's goodbye Washington.
However, should Washington start among more friendly civs, he might just settle in nicely and grow undisturbed. Once Minutemen arrive, he's usually in safe waters and can content for top spots at that point. This doesn't happen all too often, but I've seen him top of the pile, given those specific circumstances.
 
and I do not believe they actually use the tile-purchase ability.
They do; they just need several hundred gold on hand before they do.
 
Yup, the AI wants to have a gold reserve on hand before cash buying tiles, and it's the same threshold so it would take the AI just as long to start doing so as America (with equal GPT), but after then American AI won't have spent as much so it will return the threshold faster.

Actually in my most recent game, the American civ was the most advanced of the AIs when it ended. It probably helped that America spawned near the Great Barrier Reef and built a city near it.
 
Deep Sea Rift? Is that like the Great Barrier Reef?

Good info. I worry about the civs that seem to be consistently terrible (France, America, Germany, Huns, Sweden, Babylon, etc...) but every one of the aforementioned have at least once become a late game super power. Except America, which I will now accept as simply being a fluke, a long unlucky start zone streak in my games.
 
America does well in most of my games. They hate warmongers but they eat up their neighbors like crazy.
 
America isn't always terrible. I had chosen Russia once and attempted a domination victory but America was also trying to get that domination victory for themselves by taking other civilizations ' capitals... this was one of my Deity Immortal domination fails but it was worth attempting a domination victory in these difficulty levels. I was surprised to have gotten so far especially in a water map.
 
I know this is about AI America, but if you want a really awesome, fun America to play as, JFD's Lincoln mod is one of the most fun civs I've ever played.

UA is merchants build gold buildings automatically in cities and a bonus UA that you get to pick when another civ DOWs you.

UUs are cannon replacement and ironclad replacement.
 
America AI does have a high science flavor and is one of the few civs who like pick rationalism. They have high defensive army and moderate-high offensive army ratings which means they tend not be run over by neighbours. Finally, most high expansion AIs do pretty well on higher levels because of happiness bonus.
 
Odd, I've actually yet to have a game where America didn't do amazingly well. They always end up absorbing at least 2 other civs (usually cultural powerhouses and wonder spammers as luck would have it) before the Modern Era and growing out of control. They're my biggest roadblock to victory every time.
 
So the civ with the strongest military, culture, science, and money to ever exist in history gets access to cheaper tiles and 1 extra sight...
 
So, basically america has map hack, cheapest ties + strongest late game units...

I believe America is one of most used civs in multiplayer.
 
So, basically america has map hack, cheapest ties + strongest late game units...

I believe America is one of most used civs in multiplayer.

really? I honestly never knew multi-player games even lasted till the B17s. But B17s with faith healers is a killer combo if you can keep that pantheon.
 
In my observation, most ranked CIV5 multi games finished in atomic are, with fighters, bombers and bombs. Many do finished early mostly because one run away civ.. but if skill level move event it all come to nukes and air power.
 
Last game that I had George in, he manged to eat up the three other Civs on the continent I spawned on. A couple of successful Classical and Medieval wars that snowballed into a curb stomping when he got his Minutemen.


He'll kick you apart, if you're not careful.
 
So the civ with the strongest military, culture, science, and money to ever exist in history gets access to cheaper tiles and 1 extra sight...

Well, that's only been since about WWII or so. I guess the theory is that almost any of the civilizations included were the best for at least a short time in human history (or had a claim to being significant). Who knows how long our dominance will last? Maybe a feature could have been to be able to buy neighboring tiles from adjacent civilizations (if you would have been able to otherwise). Since they probably had the Louisiana Purchase in mind with the tile thing.

For the record, America always does well in my games. Very dominant, late in the game and thrive on naval maps. Although that may be partially because I protect them a little since I have a soft spot for my homeland. I could see how they could struggle in small land based maps.
 
AI America has very little to back up his aggressive expanding until he gets minutemen. I either see him do well by walking over a local wimp, or end up dead by making the wrong enemies.
 
In my experience, Washington is a backstabber who the rest of the world either ignores or tears to shreds. He has never been anywhere near the top of the heap and has an annoying tendency of placing cities where they don't belong. Like England, America never seems to go anywhere in Civ 5.
 
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