Best Civ in game?

Thatcherism said:

The Maya are criminally underrated and very competitive with Poland for the top spot. They have the malleability of Poland, a UB which depends less on random resource generation, and their UU is an excellent sidegrade to both scouts and archers. They are very good even on Immortal/Deity.

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I would say even better on Immortal and Deity for the reasons you just mentioned.
No matter the map, the AI opponents of your stratergy, you will be able to max out their bonusses.

Same for Babylon, Poland and Ehtiopia.
I alos love Shoshone, but they are a bit too much dependable of the number of ruins you will discover.

Civs like Babylon and Korea are best when one is aiming for Science Victory and Brazil is good for Cultural Victory and Venice is best for diplomatic victory. But, I believe Poland is the best civ because its UA lets you choose any victory condition based on game conditions.

Venice doesn't have the fastest diplo no.

TheD3rp said:

I find your lack of Venice disturbing...

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Venice is probably the best civ for Diplomatic victories, even going as far as having a UU to eliminate the competition (Literally just steal city states that don't like you)

However Poland and Babylon, who are often considered the top tier civs, are suited ,WELL might I add, to any victory type and have unique units and buildings that shine against all others.

Asking what the best civ infact is almost invalid, because even though Mongolia might be great at domination victory, better than even poland, Poland does well towards any victory type, and is therefore considered 'The Best'

Similarly, Ethiopia or Shoshone might be better for a Culture victory than Babylon would be.

What I'm trying to say is that there is no best civ, yada yada yada, and to each their own. Sounds like alot of hoopla, right? Whatever. Just my input.

Acken said:

Venice doesn't have the fastest diplo no.

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True. For fast diplo, reaching information era early to trigger world leader vote becomes priority and therefore science is crucial. Venice is not great with science compared to other civs, but Venice makes diplo easier with loads of gold from trade routes and UU.

Persia! I might be a bit biased (first Civ I played) but I really find it very versatile. Golden Ages are good in general and extending it only makes it better. Extra production is always good whatever victory route you choose, gold can be stockpiled for alliances and the excess culture defends against foreign tourism. The additional combat and movement boost also means you can use the GA for war. If you managed to build/capture Chichen Itza and took Universal Suffrage, oh....

The UB is a maintenance-free happiness building. Since the prerequisite building is also maintenance free, you really don't spend much to keep them running. With puppets preferring money buildings, they are sure to build this. Just make sure to build plenty of trading posts on them. IMHO the UB works best if you took Capitalism, basically negates the city unhappiness.

I would like to see a final four match up, and see where all of the less popular votes would place their allegiance...

Its kind of difficult to decide what civ is the best civ. Do you mean best civ that gets you more points in the highest difficulty possible? I don't understand the question.

I always thought that Gold-heavy Civs (like Venice or Portugal) were good to pursue any victory type. They can pretty much buy a lot of what they need (army, navy or buildings), while freeing hammers for other stuff, like Wonders. And there's usually still gold left to bribe whoever needs to be bribed.

Where's the Zulu? I kid you not, I've never lost with them. They aren't popular because there's only one vc you can persue, but there just isn't a better warmonger imho.

Primacide said:

Where's the Zulu? I kid you not, I've never lost with them. They aren't popular because there's only one cv you can persue, but there just isn't a better warmonger imho.

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their issue is that they benefit from "melee" units, whereas most fighting is done with ranged units. Longbow therefor is 100xs better than Impis as far as natural value goes. Also, they don't have any happiness help, such as Arabia or Persia.

How dare you impinge the mighty Zerg!!!

You have maybe never been bum rushed after this guy beat you to civil service by 15 turns.

Seriously though, I have found that the exp bonus (25% less to promote) plus the exp boost from honor (+50% exp from combat) is just ridiculous for ranged units as well as melee. After your first war, all or nearly all your ranged fellas are logistics and +1 range.

Again, I understand that there are other civs that give you a swift science victory, but I find that when I want to be positive I will win, I pick the Zulu.

Hail Shaka.

Keshiks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Impis.


That is all.

There are so many good civilizations though... it's hard to tell which one is the best from all of them

Babylon, Korea, and Venice are all great, but they're soooo boring... 5> cities, tall tradition, hunker down build the science up or get those trade routes up and going, build a few ships to protect them, buy all your buildings, wonder spam, bribe every city-state blah blah they're soooo good but soooo boring.

Poland is obviously great because of the 7 free SP's, as long as you don't get steamrolled by an early AI. They're versatile, they can go for any victory type. The Ducal Stable is a nice UB that will net you a few extra GPT. And Winged Hussars are a nice UU that buffs the Lancer and make them less useless (does that even makes sense?). They're nice once you can finally get them to Helicopter Gunships.

Arabia are great too, especially on Pangaea. Their UA is better since Caravans will likely be the better form of trading, so you'll have a leg-up there. You can also spam Camel Archers and go on a murder spree, and the Bazaar will keep your economy upright and happiness in check as long as you can keep the AI's friendly enough to trade with you for reasonable prices.

Maya and Siam are pretty good as well, they benefit from great UA's. When I play Siam, I love going left side of Liberty + Tradition, researching Education, and getting 2-3 free Universities with a passive culture boost too.

Shoshone and Persia are probably the best pure Liberty civs in the game, Shoshone get additional land that can work optimal tiles immediately without having to wait or spend gold. The superscouts are nice, can get city growth, culture, and techs from ruins without having to go through anything else. You can eventually upgrade your superscouts and get archers that ignore terrain cost. Comanche Riders are nice rush units that you can pump out pretty quick. Plus you get a bonus across all units when it comes to defending your lands.

Persia is nice too, Liberty will give you more luxuries and more happiness buildings to try and trigger golden ages quicker while your cities are small, plus you will get a free golden age from getting the policy in Liberty, and could also potentially get one with the finisher although a GE or GS will likely be more useful. Immortals are nice, double healing is a pretty effective promotion that will carry over for later units if you aren't using them too much. Satrap's Court is nice for the extra happiness when your cities start to grow, and will grant you more money, the happiness will help you trigger more extra length Golden Ages. Chichen Itza stacks nice with their UA.

All those civs are pretty effective and versatile if played correctly. In my opinion.

It's Babylon... Not sure why Poland has so many votes. Don't get me wrong, Poland is an excellent civ but definitely not the best civ in the game. Poland has no good special unit and is easy to attack. They get no science bonus until rationalism is getting filled out faster than anyone else.

Early game they get 1 or 2 policies while babylon has double their science and impenetrable walls. Other civs like Attila, England, China, Egypt, Mongolia and Arabia can walk right over them with their special units.

Poland's UA takes a long time go get rolling and they are an easy target for attack with no defenses and no science bonuses. In a simcity game sure, they are absolutely amazing but in a real game where people have to defend, I'm not seeing them as #1. However they are clearly OP. Just no top dog IMO.

CraigMak said:

It's Babylon... Not sure why Poland has so many votes. Don't get me wrong, Poland is an excellent civ but definitely not the best civ in the game. Poland has no good special unit and is easy to attack. They get no science bonus until rationalism is getting filled out faster than anyone else.

Early game they get 1 or 2 policies while babylon has double their science and impenetrable walls. Other civs like Attila, England, China, Egypt, Mongolia and Arabia can walk right over them with their special units.

Poland's UA takes a long time go get rolling and they are an easy target for attack with no defenses and no science bonuses. In a simcity game sure, they are absolutely amazing but in a real game where people have to defend, I'm not seeing them as #1. However they are clearly OP. Just no top dog IMO.

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It's because of how easy it is to defend early game aggression. Good terrain and city placement + archers/comp. bows will shred the AI carpets. Yeah you could theoretically get completely ran over by a rabid Shakka or Alex, but more often than not a single scouting unit will warn you and you can just buy them off to attack another civ.

Once you get to Education you start pulling ahead really fast. You finish out Tradition much sooner, thus it's faster aqueducts (and landed elite/monarchy). You can start on Patronage/Piety/Aesthetics whenver you feel like. You immediately unlock Rationalism come Renessaunce era. These things pile up.

When the ideologies come up you're even more ahead. I've won a completely peaceful cultural victory on Deity as Poland, which would have been an even faster spaceship victory, and not a bad Domination either since I had so many battleships (continents map).

Myth and Legend said:

It's because of how easy it is to defend early game aggression. Good terrain and city placement + archers/comp. bows will shred the AI carpets. Yeah you could theoretically get completely ran over by a rabid Shakka or Alex, but more often than not a single scouting unit will warn you and you can just buy them off to attack another civ.

Once you get to Education you start pulling ahead really fast. You finish out Tradition much sooner, thus it's faster aqueducts (and landed elite/monarchy). You can start on Patronage/Piety/Aesthetics whenver you feel like. You immediately unlock Rationalism come Renessaunce era. These things pile up.

When the ideologies come up you're even more ahead. I've won a completely peaceful cultural victory on Deity as Poland, which would have been an even faster spaceship victory, and not a bad Domination either since I had so many battleships (continents map).

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I don't believe it. Did you use tradition? If you did.. good job.

Myth and Legend said:

It's because of how easy it is to defend early game aggression. Good terrain and city placement + archers/comp. bows will shred the AI carpets. Yeah you could theoretically get completely ran over by a rabid Shakka or Alex, but more often than not a single scouting unit will warn you and you can just buy them off to attack another civ.

Once you get to Education you start pulling ahead really fast. You finish out Tradition much sooner, thus it's faster aqueducts (and landed elite/monarchy). You can start on Patronage/Piety/Aesthetics whenver you feel like. You immediately unlock Rationalism come Renessaunce era. These things pile up.

When the ideologies come up you're even more ahead. I've won a completely peaceful cultural victory on Deity as Poland, which would have been an even faster spaceship victory, and not a bad Domination either since I had so many battleships (continents map).

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If you ever play MP the civs that are most often banned due to being severely OP are Spain, Babylon, Attila & Inca.

Other commonly banned civs are Mongolia, Arabia, China, England

Almost never is Poland banned due to being too OP because they take forever to get OP.

As I said, in a real situation where you have to defend yourself against real thinking players not AI's, Poland is not the best. They are extremely strong in the mid/late game if they can make it there but not #1.

CraigMak said:

If you ever play MP the civs that are most often banned due to being severely OP are Spain, Babylon, Attila & Inca.

Other commonly banned civs are Mongolia, Arabia, China, England

Almost never is Poland banned due to being too OP because they take forever to get OP.

As I said, in a real situation where you have to defend yourself against real thinking players not AI's, Poland is not the best. They are extremely strong in the mid/late game if they can make it there but not #1.

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Theres also many players that dont have the required dlcs to play. Multiplayers often are missing polynesia or korea even.