Best superpower civs for the late game

[mccp77]

Hi all,

I don't know if anybody else enjoys this type of play, but I really like to stomp around the world in the late game. The best civs for this in my experience are Russia, Britain, and America, but I was wondering if anybody else had discovered any other civs that make for fun late game superpowers?

I tried China and Mexico but couldn't keep up in tech above the lowest difficulty level. I tried playing a peaceful German superpower, and won a science victory over America by one spaceship part, and only ever was able to build two carrier battlegroups before the game ended. My experience with Japan was similar to Germany except that I had to awkwardly hold one city in the middle of China for aluminum, and I only ever got 3 or 4 carrier groups together. My next attempt will be either Turkey or India, but my expectations are low. Are there any suggestions out there?

 

[Hickman888]

I remember I had a good run once playing as China, where I took over all of Korea, Japan and India. China’s cities grow faster, so I tried to make as much use of Despotism, and later on, Nationhood, that I could.

I ran State Party, built Lubyanka and tried to leverage my spies for technologies and gold. I also experimented here with Totalitarianism, but with all the specialists I had, it was hard to justify that over Egalitarianism. I guess I didn’t stomp around the whole world as you said, but a good half of it at least. I eventually won the Space Race with about 6 turns to go.

 

[Derdan]

Korea running Republic, since you get double specialist slots in your capital from your UP. You can build an absurdly huge city.
You can do it as anyone in Europe, especially colonizers with a lot of historical land. Focus on vassalizing Britain and France and settling the American midwest and it's a pretty easy game.

 

[SultanRedSnake]

The Dutch can be maybe 2nd Tier once you get dykes all over. Catch is that you kinda have to keep Republic since Amsterdam is only core city. Make most of TC gold to transition to Industrial Corps. Pop a few Great Statesmen for Admin Centers. Winburg+Iron Works for key Wonders (Bell Rock!) and unit printing.

Portugal is possible sleeper. Not difficult to stay Solid to keep Brazil. UP effectively makes all overseas territory Historical.

 

[Lzz]

I would almost argue that the Dutch can be S-tier. They have some very interesting core-foreign modifiers (I don't know if it's a bug but I was able to control crazy amounts of foreign cities while staying below 75% of core population Amsterdam gives).
One game I was able to be a score leader in the late 1900's without using a single military unit the entire game. Palace of Nations to claim cities and colonizing everything that was still empty was way more powerful than I thought it would be.

Also if you find a way to balance overextension, Prussia is godlike for end-game power. You can start snowballing super fast if you get a good start and after you take out the main European powers nobody can stop you.

 

[SultanRedSnake]

. They have some very interesting core-foreign modifiers (I don't know if it's a bug but I was able to control crazy amounts of foreign cities while staying below 75% of core population Amsterdam gives).

Do you have a save you could share? I’m curious about this phenomenon and would like to investigate. Regards to your label of “foreign”, Is a disambiguation called for? I’m reading it as Foreign (as opposed to Historical, etc) for stability purposes. If you just mean non-Core cities a more rigorous term to use would be Peripheral.

 

[mccp77]

News to report: I just played Turkey and won a time victory. I finished 6th (5th if vassals don't count) in science behind America, England + vassal, Germany, and Japan. By the end I had assembled 8 carrier groups (3 missile cruisers, 2 nuclear submarines, a destroyer, and a carrier w 3 jets each), 2 amphibious groups (same thing except with 2 transports--4 marines + supporting units), built a Suez canal, and vassalized Moors and reconquered Southern Spain for them, guaranteeing 2 ocean access for my navy. I also vassalized Ethiopia, Mali, Persia, Austria, Indonesia, and Mexico (they asked and it gave me a canal). I was no where near finishing the tech tree; however, I'm thinking of trying again at marathon and seeing if I can win a science victory.

My one big struggle was with science which I could not maintain above 70% no matter how hard I tried. (It was stuck at 60% for a short time.) This was at the middle (monarch?) difficult.

Verdict: Overall, Turkey might be the closest thing to a "mini-America" that I've found so far because the production is so good in so many cities. Cairo, Luxor, Baghdad, Mecca, Konya, Istanbul, Athens, Belgrade, Budapest, and Trebzon were all on-par with a lower-/mid-level American city. You'll never be the tech leader though

I think I'm going to try Mughals next then retry China with an espionage focus as Hickman recommended. After that I might try a peaceful game as the Portuguese where I move my capital to Brazil, a Spain game where I move my capital to Mexico (not sure what the effect of moving the capital would be), and a Dutch/Korean game. I also really want to try "Argentina, globo-cop." Very excited!

 

[banzay13]

The Dutch can be maybe 2nd Tier once you get dykes all over. Catch is that you kinda have to keep Republic since Amsterdam is only core city. Make most of TC gold to transition to Industrial Corps. Pop a few Great Statesmen for Admin Centers. Winburg+Iron Works for key Wonders (Bell Rock!) and unit printing.

Portugal is possible sleeper. Not difficult to stay Solid to keep Brazil. UP effectively makes all overseas territory Historical.

Huhe minus - you can be nuked and captured. Remember in vanilla Russia used Tactical nuke - and game over

 

[Lzz]

Do you have a save you could share? I’m curious about this phenomenon and would like to investigate. Regards to your label of “foreign”, Is a disambiguation called for? I’m reading it as Foreign (as opposed to Historical, etc) for stability purposes. If you just mean non-Core cities a more rigorous term to use would be Peripheral.

I don't have a save anymore, no.

As for the foreign I meant cities in 'Foreign Area' as opposed to 'Historical Area'. I settled a bunch of cities in Australia in foreign areas and they raised my periphery score way too little compared to how much I felt they should. Having 5 cities in foreign areas in southern and eastern Australia with a population of about 10 each and a courthouse and jail each only raised my periphery score by about 25 which just didn't seem right. Meanwhile Amsterdam had a core population score of something like 400 at the end of the global era, making overextension almost impossible.

 

[banzay13]

And what about Vikings?

Spoiler Almost all in Core/Historical :

Spoiler And even more :

You have some Historical place in India, Africa, Caribian, and you can found New York also. And found one more Core city

 

[iMuffin]

And what about Vikings?

Spoiler Almost all in Core/Historical :

View attachment 683139

Spoiler And even more :

You have some Historical place in India, Africa, Caribian, and you can found New York also. And found one more Core city

I've had some games as Vikings where I destroyed both England and Russia early in the game. This grants you access to some great cities like Edinburgh, Kiev, and Novgorod in historical area and if you manage expansion right you can keep London and/or Moscow as well. This grand territory propels you to the top of the leaderboard, and with two of the strongest late game civs out of the way, there is really nothing to stop you!

 

[banzay13]

I tried China

Actually China is Super Power. Just realized it recent game. The key is Lioyang (first city as capital) and India (Thai and Korea coz too, left some cites to England for cheap stealing). China will born a lot of statemans and with state party you can control a lot of ground with zero cost. And of coz corporation. To fight with high inflation you need Oil and Luxury corp and you need get it first. Grab more of them in North America or in ME if there no strong opponents. On screenshot i vassalage some small civs, but now i think it's better don't do that (but i still can win domination+space race here).

 

[GoneFishingX]

My spicy take on a late game super power civ is Mongolia. If you focus on just taking northern china so you don't collapse you can get a really good tech game going and easily beat Europe to America. Your core area is limited, but you can get a few really solid cities in there.

 

[Logoncal]

Actually after you kill China, Mongolia's Core is hella solid: Shenyang, Beijing... those cities can grow hard.

 

[banzay13]

My spicy take on a late game super power civ is Mongolia. If you focus on just taking northern china so you don't collapse you can get a really good tech game going and easily beat Europe to America. Your core area is limited, but you can get a few really solid cities in there.

"I will reach the last sea, and then the whole universe will be under my hand."(From the chronicles of Genghis Khan)

Spoiler :

 

[brett0007]

Byzantium is a surprisingly good dark horse, its historical and contested territory covers a lot of good industral and statregic land. once you have weathered the storm. Athens and Constantinope are both respectable population centers that can let you grab key middle eastern oil cities like Baghdad, and the moorish oilfields of Lybia and Algeria are a stones thow away from a pretty solid industrustrial powerhouse that is Cairo. Add to that Singidunum and Iconium both respectable production centers with access to Aluminium and Uranium. By no means the best but not a candidate to just write off. Also the one thing it has over Turkey is if you manage to (re)take Rome you name just straight up changes to "Roman Empire". Eat your heart out Mehmet II

Another possible sleeper imo is Indonesia while it lacks the beefy homeland/contested territory to really be an S or A tier superpower its got first dibs on Australia and everything that entails. Along with solid oil acess.

 

[banzay13]

Byzantium is a surprisingly good dark horse, its historical and contested territory covers a lot of good industral and statregic land. once you have weathered the storm. Athens and Constantinope are both respectable population centers that can let you grab key middle eastern oil cities like Baghdad, and the moorish oilfields of Lybia and Algeria are a stones thow away from a pretty solid industrustrial powerhouse that is Cairo. Add to that Singidunum and Iconium both respectable production centers with access to Aluminium and Uranium. By no means the best but not a candidate to just write off. Also the one thing it has over Turkey is if you manage to (re)take Rome you name just straight up changes to "Roman Empire". Eat your heart out Mehmet II

Another possible sleeper imo is Indonesia while it lacks the beefy homeland/contested territory to really be an S or A tier superpower its got first dibs on Australia and everything that entails. Along with solid oil acess.

Playing Indonesia is hard. Not good modifiers, poor land, start outdate. I have a guide here (in guide section) for Space Race, but it not easy
If you wanna play in Asia - Khmer are good, and Thai can be too, but you need quick expand with started elephants, capture 1-2 China city and Patna coz

 

[Nyayr]

Rome is better than Byzantium if you not collapse, even with their historical area not including North France (they not historical control Paris) and having a few spots in the Canada which make no sense and are like alt history idea of Roman swords found there?

You do got tons of separation CIV war (Arabs, moors, Spain, France and Britain), but now half your army not flips anymore (hated that dynamic), that is easier to handle now. Also, you can be strong enough to much earlier colonize the important spots in the not formed USA, for oil, uranium and whatever.

There is also 1 or 2 spots Canada nor USA cannot claim in the Americas anyone can take, which is right of the small lakes inland.

 

[Logoncal]

Rome is better than Byzantium if you not collapse, even with their historical area not including North France (they not historical control Paris) and having a few spots in the Canada which make no sense and are like alt history idea of Roman swords found there?

You do got tons of separation CIV war (Arabs, moors, Spain, France and Britain), but now half your army not flips anymore (hated that dynamic), that is easier to handle now. Also, you can be strong enough to much earlier colonize the important spots in the not formed USA, for oil, uranium and whatever.

There is also 1 or 2 spots Canada nor USA cannot claim in the Americas anyone can take, which is right of the small lakes inland.

Ah that historical american land in RFC for Rome? Thats old RFC quirk

 

[Lycidas]

Rome is better than Byzantium if you not collapse, even with their historical area not including North France (they not historical control Paris) and having a few spots in the Canada which make no sense and are like alt history idea of Roman swords found there?

You do got tons of separation CIV war (Arabs, moors, Spain, France and Britain), but now half your army not flips anymore (hated that dynamic), that is easier to handle now. Also, you can be strong enough to much earlier colonize the important spots in the not formed USA, for oil, uranium and whatever.

There is also 1 or 2 spots Canada nor USA cannot claim in the Americas anyone can take, which is right of the small lakes inland.

Rome's UP is also strong throughout the game -and if you can stay small and survive the barbs then it's possible to own 2 shrines in Italy and hold Jerusalem for Orthodoxy+Judaism -which with the Dome and North Africa's oil is quite persuasive.