Favourite / least favourite neighbours

Start of a Civ game, scouting around, who are you pleased to meet, and who makes you say "oh no, not you again"?

For me, favourites:


Zara Yaqob - usually starts Pleased, and will declare war on anyone for a tech or two!


Gandhi - Good trading partner, unlikely to DOW on me, and doesn't mind if I make arrogant demands. Also tends to get picked on by everyone else, which means they're less likely to come after me.

Least favourites:


Gilgamesh - Protective, so hard to attack, and a bit of a warmonger who seems to regularly pwn me with stacks of Vultures. Seems to tech up fairly quickly too (maybe it's those Ziggurats).


Isabella - Either she hates you and will attack, or likes you (you accept her religion) and keeps demanding stuff. A bona fide PITA either way.

Usually like Zara and Gandhi too, and Willem. Gandhi because he's easy to walk over whenever you want, and he tends to found a religion and then spread it around. Maybe you can capture a Shrine later? Zara and Willem are good techers, which is always nice. But the one person I like the most to have on a map, either as neighbour or further out, is Mansa Musa. Trades anything and everything (as long as he isn't building a wonder that the tech enables), and is also easy to bribe into war.

Isabella I don't like. Goes for the Oracle super early, and will hate your guts unless you're in her religion, and late game she has some seriously nasty UUs. Other than that, I don't like being next to the usual war mongers like Monty, Ragnar, Shaka.

Other AIs that are nice to have nearby are the Yankees. All are usually pretty weak and easy to walk over. Pericles can be quite nice too. He techs decently and is willing to share pretty easily.

Guys like de Gaulle ain't bad either. Is often hated by loads of others, and you can use him as a meat shield.

The AIs I absolute loathe to be next door to are all the protective civs. It makes early warfare a lot more tricky, especially if they also have hill cities. Taking down protective hill archers is bad enough, but protective hill longbows? Oooof. That's a nasty affair.

worst:

protective trait guys and romans

best:

someone other than those

Imperialists are annoying. +50% settler production. Spawning all over the shop. Not much else choice than whipping out axes or horse archers.

If they're building settlers instead of troops, all they're doing is building my settlers.
Now if only they would settle them in better locations.

Yeah, Zara is like the nicest leader in the game really, and generally no one hates him either so no probs diplo wise. Gandhi on the other hand is always hated. I usually kill him rather early unless I really need him for techs.

Highest unit prob: Shaka, Nappy, Rags, and Mehmed...all those guys are not good to have next door, with Mehmed being the most reasonable of the bunch.

Izzy sucks for Oracle mainly, but is great for worker stealing...and then killing her for her fat shrine.

Alex and Monty are a problem too

Cathy can be a pain due to her demands, which tends to always be some outrageous tech. She can be a tad dangerous if on her bad side, but is otherwise very easy to get to Friendly. (Note: she is the only leader that can be bribed against you at Friendly)

Joao is a bit of a pain as he expands so fast and is also demanding, but also very easy to get to Pleased if you give in and won't declare at Pleased. You can consider him doing the expanding for you.

Like Zara, Joao and Justy are generally good diplo partners as few hate them even with religion differences. Justy is pretty good neighbor and despite religious flavor, he is not a zealot. You can get him to Pleased even in different religion. He is one of the strongest AIs.

But really, the absolute worst is Toku. He can be a real problem is some games, regardless of any wars. He can block trade routes and even meeting some AI early on some maps and setups. Basically, he can really slow down your game in multiple aspects, especially tech pace. You are often forced to allot hammers to a settler to gift him a city. Oh, and you might gift techs or get bonus from resource trades, but that takes time, and may not work depending on starting malus and possibly neighbor malus. Plus, Toku very often beelines Alpha himself.

Favorite neighbor by far: De Gaulle. He is the perfect worker stealing target. The AI who you care about getting friends with for tech trading usually hate him, so you won't build up negative "you declared war on our friend" diplo for declaring multiple times. De Gaulle is also the easiest AI to take peace with after declaring. If you steal 2 workers the turn you declare (on different tiles), or steal one worker and kill a scout in the wild, he is willing to negotiate the very next turn. He is the only AI who is willing to negotiate that fast.

Mansa as a neighbor is actually quite bad. I like having him in the game, but since I don't want to kill him but keep him alive for trading, it's better if he is a bit further away.

In general, I don't like neighbours, not in my games and not in real life.
Since Pacal is the strongest techer, I prefer him as neighbour, so I have some control over the tech race.
Worst neighbours, creative and leaders who tend to go for a cultural victory.

If Mansa is nearby I love having him around as he can be attacked and crippled if he looks like winning the game. If he's too far away from me he tends to run away with research and is the most common threat to win via space in my games.

Really, I'm not super fussy about my neighbors. I don't like Protective guys but anyone else is fine, I'm usually attacking and conquering my neighbors so whatever they build becomes mine soon enough.

Yep, give me those industrious neighbors that wonder whore and build cheap forges. Or the normal shrine builders.

Favorites: Zara Yakob (generally good neighbor and friendly), Hatshepsut (easy to make friends with; it's almost a shame to wipe her out), Mansa Musa (not particularly aggressive, and a fair tech trader), and Frederick.

Least favorite: Montezuma, Shaka, Ragnar and Catherine, because they're warmongers (Genghis Khan seems to be more reasonable), and Gandhi and Joao, because they're always begging for techs.

Gandhi gives 0 penalty for refusing demands and or requests. In addition you can make demands and he gives a 0 penalty. Gandhi doesn't make units so he's basically a dude who will always trade techs, always open borders, and gives you free land when you attack!

He's a pretty good neighbor ^.

You do get -2 for each time you declare on his friends though, which is probably worse tbh, at least on a map with many AIs. I like him as a neighbour though. So easy to kill, and usually founds a religion, maybe also a shrine. Tends to spam missionaries, which also is great.

Major Tom said:

Imperialists are annoying. +50% settler production. Spawning all over the shop. Not much else choice than whipping out axes or horse archers.

Click to expand...

rah said:

If they're building settlers instead of troops, all they're doing is building my settlers.
Now if only they would settle them in better locations.

Click to expand...

I made tests on that, IMP AIs don't necessarily build more Settlers. An AI that built many settlers and expanded well was Lincoln.

Zara Yaqob imo. is the worst btw. , he can plot at pleased, he techs very well, he can get bribed in almost any situation, he's CRE, he has stronger units because he likes to run Theocracy...

Good neighbours are imo. AIs like Frederick, Lizzy and Hatty. All tech well, are peaceful and they all build only few units. Hatty loves to spread religion, bulbs Theo, Frederick very often builds the Mids... Lizzy has some slight disdavantages, it's not easy to get her to friendly because sharing her favourite civic is difficult and often not viable and she doesn't trade her worldmap even on friendly, but apart from that again, weak, techs well, builds more Cottages, often has a lot of ...

Pangaea said:

You do get -2 for each time you declare on his friends though, which is probably worse tbh, at least on a map with many AIs. I like him as a neighbour though. So easy to kill, and usually founds a religion, maybe also a shrine. Tends to spam missionaries, which also is great.

Click to expand...

It's funny because when I used to try to found my own religion I'd hate the missionary-spamming AIs, but now when I see them I'm like yes, come to my land guys, we'll have a party!

I really hate having Toku as a neighbor. He doesn't do open borders except at pleased, which is hard to achieve with him. He won't tech trade even if other AIs have the tech. And he'll go to war on friendly.

Rodney Nelson said:

I really hate having Toku as a neighbor. ........And he'll go to war on friendly.

Click to expand...

Actually, he won't unless he was already plotting before he reached Friendly status. No AI will plot at Friendly. Cathy is the only leader who can be bribed into war at Friendly.

I certainly agree though that he is a pain as a neighbor. Fastest way to Please with him is gifting him a crap city.

I usually play peacefully, so I prefer neighbors that I can easily subjugate culturally. This means I particularly don't like being next to Zara Yaqob because he has a culture-boosting UB. Warmongering leaders can be a pain, but they're also easy to defeat with culture.

Thanks for the info, lymond. Since Toku did go to war with me on friendly I thought it was one of his quirks.

Rodney Nelson said:

Thanks for the info, lymond. Since Toku did go to war with me on friendly I thought it was one of his quirks.

Click to expand...

No probs. Ofc, I know of a few humans that plot at Friendly, including yours truly