Best Civ in game?

What's your guys opinion of the best civ in in civ 5?

The Celts, they're one of the most adaptable civs available and are highly effective all the way up to deity. I frequently see people saying they're bad, sometimes even the worst, typically I don't think these people really give them a chance to really understand their benefit.

Their unique ability and unique unit are designed to give you Faith for roughly as long as it takes to get a religion. A lot of people think this means you should focus on faith and religion, quite the opposite. What makes the Celts great isn't faith generation, it's being able to completely ignore faith and piety, and still be guaranteed a religion. Further, being able to structure your religion without any +faith pantheons or follower beliefs and still have first pick over them. Without needing the piety social policy track, early shrine, or wasting your pantheon belief on a piety generator, you're free to open however you'd like, and structure your bonuses however you'd like based on your starting position.

The significance of getting the first religion even on deity with 14 other civs can hardly be over-stated. Effectively, It turns The Celts' unique ability into a grab bag of UAs allowing you to pick and choose whichever will best fit your situation after you've explored your starting area and identified what your strategy will be based on your starting position.

As for the "but their bonus is unreliable" argument.
Starting next to a forest should be guaranteed unless you've really messed up the settings some way or another. Whether it's 1 or 3 isn't a big deal. A lot of people even prefer only having the +1 piety as it gives you more time to scout, so as to be more informed when picking your pantheon belief.

The Shoshone also have potential for being phenomenal, better than anyone. They can easily explode into a massive easy to defend early super power which will snowball all game. It is a bit risky and heavily contingent on mapsize:numberofcivs though, so I prefer the Celts.

The answer is clearly Poland with Shoshone a close second.

The Aztecs are by far the best civ.
All their uniquenesses are available at the start or early in the game.
- UA : killing units give culture, raging barbs + Honor opener nothing gives more culture early in the game.
- UU : Jaguar has the ignore terrain promotion, heals itself when killing a unit and is available at the start.
- UB : floating gardens cost only 1 gold in upkeep (watermill costs 2 gold), the only building that provides +2 food to a lake and 15% growth in the city.

England will always be my favorite out of the ones here, especially as a continents player with large oceans. They lose a lot on Pangaea. Shoshone liberty builds are absolutely incredible, the negate the risks of Liberty to a large extent and their super scout can contribute to defense quite well. I think Shoshone is the best liberty civ. But If I have to pick that civ that is good on all maps and difficulties, I think it has to be Poland.

Abraxis said:

The Celts, they're one of the most adaptable civs available and are highly effective all the way up to deity. I frequently see people saying they're bad, sometimes even the worst, typically I don't think these people really give them a chance to really understand their benefit.

Their unique ability and unique unit are designed to give you Faith for roughly as long as it takes to get a religion. A lot of people think this means you should focus on faith and religion, quite the opposite. What makes the Celts great isn't faith generation, it's being able to completely ignore faith and piety, and still be guaranteed a religion. Further, being able to structure your religion without any +faith pantheons or follower beliefs and still have first pick over them. Without needing the piety social policy track, early shrine, or wasting your pantheon belief on a piety generator, you're free to open however you'd like, and structure your bonuses however you'd like based on your starting position.

The significance of getting the first religion even on deity with 14 other civs can hardly be over-stated. Effectively, It turns The Celts' unique ability into a grab bag of UAs allowing you to pick and choose whichever will best fit your situation after you've explored your starting area and identified what your strategy will be based on your starting position.

As for the "but their bonus is unreliable" argument.
Starting next to a forest should be guaranteed unless you've really messed up the settings some way or another. Whether it's 1 or 3 isn't a big deal. A lot of people even prefer only having the +1 piety as it gives you more time to scout, so as to be more informed when picking your pantheon belief.

The Shoshone also have potential for being phenomenal, better than anyone. They can easily explode into a massive easy to defend early super power which will snowball all game. It is a bit risky and heavily contingent on mapsize:numberofcivs though, so I prefer the Celts.

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The problem with the Celts is once you hit the higher levels religion becomes that much harder to spread across with world with the ridiculous number of missionary/prophet spam the AI can produce. Now would you really rather have an ability to generate more faith than other Civs can even though the AI will always destory you in faith production. Or would you rather have a guaranteed free social policy per era, guaranteed 3 tile cities and choosing what you get from a ruin, or as Tatran posted, tons of early culture, awesome lake tiles, and growth throughout the game. Add ToA, Swords into Plowshares, and Landed Elite and look at that growth potential....

Inca are something special....
early scince being a problem, they can eaisily get 10 to up to 20 more science point than most civs...
Plus they can build Archers without discovering Archery WITH A DISCOUT
talk about a fast track opening!

Pollad is a power house on any map, any level agaist any opponents... they can actualy handle Liberty AND Tradition in the same game! at the end of the gae you will fill 1 full tech tree more than any other civs!

I love Shoshone... I dont know if they are top tier, but I feel they are! If you find 6 ruins, wich is not unlikely, you will get 2 city groth, 2 X 20 culture and 2 free techs! Kickstarter you are saying!?!?

Babylon is... Babylon... archer almost being Comp Bowman and Academy easily turn 50 and in fact turn 20 if you wish... hellooooo!

I dont like to play Korea, but hey... lets admit it...

I would guess best civ is among those 5...

Zulu

Our Impi hordes shall raze the countryside and topple empires

Tatran said:

The Aztecs are by far the best civ.
All their uniquenesses are available at the start or early in the game.
- UA : killing units give culture, raging barbs + Honor opener nothing gives more culture early in the game.
- UU : Jaguar has the ignore terrain promotion, heals itself when killing a unit and is available at the start.
- UB : floating gardens cost only 1 gold in upkeep (watermill costs 2 gold), the only building that provides +2 food to a lake and 15% growth in the city.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it does not give growth %. It does give +15% FOOD growth. THAT is what makes the unique building even better. It is the ONLY building that gives +food% apart from ToA.

Abraxis said:

The Celts, they're one of the most adaptable civs available and are highly effective all the way up to deity. I frequently see people saying they're bad, sometimes even the worst, typically I don't think these people really give them a chance to really understand their benefit.

Their unique ability and unique unit are designed to give you Faith for roughly as long as it takes to get a religion. A lot of people think this means you should focus on faith and religion, quite the opposite. What makes the Celts great isn't faith generation, it's being able to completely ignore faith and piety, and still be guaranteed a religion. Further, being able to structure your religion without any +faith pantheons or follower beliefs and still have first pick over them. Without needing the piety social policy track, early shrine, or wasting your pantheon belief on a piety generator, you're free to open however you'd like, and structure your bonuses however you'd like based on your starting position.

The significance of getting the first religion even on deity with 14 other civs can hardly be over-stated. Effectively, It turns The Celts' unique ability into a grab bag of UAs allowing you to pick and choose whichever will best fit your situation after you've explored your starting area and identified what your strategy will be based on your starting position.

As for the "but their bonus is unreliable" argument.
Starting next to a forest should be guaranteed unless you've really messed up the settings some way or another. Whether it's 1 or 3 isn't a big deal. A lot of people even prefer only having the +1 piety as it gives you more time to scout, so as to be more informed when picking your pantheon belief.

The Shoshone also have potential for being phenomenal, better than anyone. They can easily explode into a massive easy to defend early super power which will snowball all game. It is a bit risky and heavily contingent on mapsize:numberofcivs though, so I prefer the Celts.

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indeed it makes sens...
maybe I put to much enphasis on religion when I play those religious civs, when indeed the upside of that is you can actualy let your hability take care of that while you are taking care of other buisiness....

good point!

Poland is the most consistently overpowered. Shoshone are a close second, then Korea which does have an ambiguous UU (not that the Turtle Ship is bad per se, but it does mean that Korea is awful at exploration).

Mongolia by far. None have chance against you. Keshik Power!

Btw, Ottomans are not in the list.

I have gotten some really easy Deity wins with Babylon, Mayans and Poland, I haven't played Korea in a long while, and I haven't played Shoshone nor Mongolia at all, so no knowledge there. I'd have to say Poland definitely edges everyone in terms of versatility, they can take any type of victory without much trouble

Kheshig said:

Mongolia by far. None have chance against you. Keshik Power!

Btw, Ottomans are not in the list.

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Just make sure to keep a few Horseman around to capture cities and these guys are ridiculous for domination. A swarm of these with logistics range and march are unstoppable..

I find your lack of Venice disturbing...

Persia, because of its overall consistency. It is now overlooked thanks to Korea, Maya, and Poland which all have immediate bonuses (with Maya Pyramid and Korean UA first and foremost), but Persia is, to me, something more than a sum of its parts.

It has a great UA that both encourages and rewards being expansive (grabbing as many Luxuries as possible by rapid settling and faster conquest). Works great with Liberty, with its Worker speed, Settler speed, and the free Golden Age. Bonus movement for military units is fantastic (moving archers on hills and firing or moving siege engines, setting up and firing in the same turn), and it really helps with Workers too, making Persia great at creating infrastructure. However, going tall and getting resources from trade is also viable - and proves that Persia's UA is versatile.

The UU speaks for itself - stronger, and heals at double rate. The Immortals are even better when upgraded to pikes, and coupled with the Faith Healers pantheon belief. You can have a rapidly-replenishing army that can dominate late classical and medieval warfare, just until it obsoletes and no more conquests are necessary.

In Renaissance era, after all those city captures, the UB comes to play. Satrap's Court, with its bonus happiness will help mitigate the effects of going wide and conquering. Being a Bank, it will also be built in puppeted cities, meaning that the entire empire will contribute towards Golden Ages. More longer Golden Ages means more production (wonders), and more Social Policies - bonus culture will greatly diminish the extra cost of policies that is caused by settling many cities. But in turn, more cities equals more monuments and culture buildings, and with bonus production from GA's (and all the cities), Persia has a greater chance at winning the World's Fair and getting even more culture and a free SP.

Overall, it's one of my favourite, and one of the strongest to this day, vanilla civs. It favours a hybrid approach, being capable both at war and building up cities and infrastructure, and its bonuses are always useful, whether you're wide or tall.

Babylon gets my vote. It seems that science-turtle is the most reliable, albeit boring, way to win and they are built for that like no one else. The UA will have you cruising through the tech tree in no time and you have super walls and archers to defend your lands.

Poland is probably the best, the Maya are right there, Korea gave me my only Deity win, and the Shoshone are my favorite (aka most fun) "OP" civ... but if you put the proverbial gun to my head and said I had to win a game of Civ V, I'd be picking Babylon.

This is a tough one, but every time I play as Babylon I feel like I'm playing two or three difficulty levels below what I actually am. That early academy is just amazing, especially in deity when you are usually falling behind significantly in the early game.

Abraxis said:

The Celts

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I appreciated your interesting and unusual opinion but I just don't see how an early and free religion makes a significant difference.

My vote would be Austria but I didn't find them on the list. Buying an entire city and several units for 1500 gold (or doing a quest and a mere 500 gold!) is very very strong.

elder abuser said:

I appreciated your interesting and unusual opinion but I just don't see how an early and free religion makes a significant difference.

My vote would be Austria but I didn't find them on the list. Buying an entire city and several units for 1500 gold (or doing a quest and a mere 500 gold!) is very very strong.

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What about the happiness though. That can be a huge hit on happiness pre ideology. Plus you have to hope the city location is good. I would much rather bribe them and keep the ally and whatever they provide instead of buy them.