Best Unique Abilities POLL

[hawdskinna]

Fishing for information on what people think about certain aspects of this game. I will be doing a few polls over the next few weeks and collaborating my retrieved data.

This one, people's opinion on which UA has the most influence on a players victory. (I left out a couple, due to space issues)

 

[thadian]

I chose the celts because the first pantheon can be like a free national wonder depending on what you get - for example, starting in a desert along a river with a couple flood plains and choosing desert pantheon is pretty nice, especially if you have petra near you.

This UA can either give you an advantage, fufil a deficit or turn a bad start into a good one.

Edit - I also think that the korea one is great - turtle ship is good now and their UA is very friendly to tall empires but does not restrict its go wide ability.

I also feel that while Austria now has to pay for marriage of city states - that is, it no longer has the SAME policy costs for building ONE CITY as it does for building ONE CITY and buying 10 city states but this UA is still very powerful.

My only vote was for celts because first pantheon can mean a LOT, especially if an AI has a similar start to yours, wants the same pantheon but can't get it now.

 

[Alrin Kharr]

I'm going with Spain, simply because if you are the first to discover any Natural Wonder, it's very difficult to lose from that point on; the double tile yield is just gravy. Being able to use that 500 gold to immediately pump out a "free" Settler and start expanding is huge; there are few UAs that can have a more powerful overall impact on your game.

 

[Elt]

England, definitely England. The extra naval movement is a huge advantage on the large islands maps I generally favor. And as limited as spies are, having an extra one is pretty useful. But mainly it's the naval movement. If I can get the Great Lighthouse as well, I achieve Total Oceanic Domination.

 

[Uncle Reeno]

England, definitely England. The extra naval movement is a huge advantage on the large islands maps I generally favor. And as limited as spies are, having an extra one is pretty useful. But mainly it's the naval movement. If I can get the Great Lighthouse as well, I achieve Total Oceanic Domination.

This guy...

 

[bokaj]

Maya with Theology rush and perfectly timed GPs are awesome! First get the Great Engineer, then use it to pump out the Hagia Sophia to get the Great Prophet and found/enhance the religion.

 

[GenjiKhan]

Where is the Nobel Prize?

 

[Cel.erity]

Austria by far has the most gamebreaking UA. However, it is not on the list? Seems like kind of a strange one to exclude.

 

[mposyncckh]

I voted siberian riches. I think it is really good because you can have the most recoursces so in many situations have the best military units. If diplomatic marriage was on the poll I would have voted for it.

 

[Polycrates]

I have to give my love to Great Andean Road.
Awesome ability, so much better than it sounds.

Huge amounts of extra gold right throughout the game, plus one of the most powerful military abilities (for defence or offence) on top of that. And that's not even counting the terrace farms.

 

[eisforeccentric]

I voted for Siberian Riches as well. I love how I can field massive armies early on as Russia, and later in the game I can get a decent nuclear arsenal too.

 

[Vordeo]

Not sure about which is the best, as really, how good each one is depends largely on your strategy. Bushido makes every unit beastly, but if you're running a peaceful game it loses a lot of effectiveness, for instance. Then a lot of other ones depend on terrain and such (Hiawatha without too many forests, Suleiman on Pangaea, etc.).

The most versatile are probably the City State centric ones. Most strategies will involve you getting CS allies (especially in G&K), so the Siamese and Greek UAs are always good. The Austrian one is as well: it's just a tier below IMO.

But the most fun UA is easily the Aztec one. If only for the mental image of Monty trying to rip out a GDR's heart.

 

[hawdskinna]

Seems like most people prefer the science bonus UA's

 

[Hambil]

I chose Babylon but it was a toss up between that and Korea. However, to be fair, I'm not sure those abilities are as powerful in G&K as they were in vanilla due to G&K's altered tech tree and bulb mechanics. Still, I'd bet on them for anything other than an early rush.

I almost picked the Dutch, as William is my current favorite and very flexible for starting on almost any map, but I didn't because of the 'wins games' criteria. I can't really say being able to sell your last copy of a lux and retain %50 of the happiness is a game winner. It is, however, perhaps more useful than many realize.

 

[Xile]

Not sure about which is the best, as really, how good each one is depends largely on your strategy. Bushido makes every unit beastly, but if you're running a peaceful game it loses a lot of effectiveness, for instance. Then a lot of other ones depend on terrain and such (Hiawatha without too many forests, Suleiman on Pangaea, etc.).

The most versatile are probably the City State centric ones. Most strategies will involve you getting CS allies (especially in G&K), so the Siamese and Greek UAs are always good. The Austrian one is as well: it's just a tier below IMO.

But the most fun UA is easily the Aztec one. If only for the mental image of Monty trying to rip out a GDR's heart.

Science is a lot more important than city state bonuses or anything else regardless of VC.

Austrian UA is so broken it's not even funny. Hurr durr I did a quest and killed a barb near a city state. Now for a price of a settler I'll get a city with buildings and a unique luxury, 2 if it's mercantile. Yep, seems pretty reasonable to me.

Since Diplomatic Marriage isn't here, Korea it is.

 

[alpaca]

If we're just talking about the ability rather than the whole civ my favourites are Korea, Austria, the Maya and Babylon. Of these four, Babylon is probably the weakest. Can't really decide about the other three. If we're talking overall package I'd choose Maya. As it is, I chose Korea.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Science is a lot more important than city state bonuses or anything else regardless of VC.

Austrian UA is so broken it's not even funny. Hurr durr I did a quest and killed a barb near a city state. Now for a price of a settler I'll get a city with buildings and a unique luxury, 2 if it's mercantile. Yep, seems pretty reasonable to me.

Since Diplomatic Marriage isn't here, Korea it is.

How can science by far ore importent then all the other things?

Austria needs to pay to use its UA which also need you to get alliance's with CS while many other civs get their UA for free. Other civs can still capture CS with millitray which is not as good as getting a whole city plus units but you do not have to pay gold or get alliances plus you get a damaged city.

 

[Xile]

How can science by far ore importent then all the other things?

Austria needs to pay to use its UA which also need you to get alliance's with CS while many other civs get their UA for free. Other civs can still capture CS with millitray which is not as good as getting a whole city plus units but you do not have to pay gold or get alliances plus you get a damaged city.

Are you suggesting that taking out a CS, thus getting a -resting point with all other CSs and a diplo hit with pretty much every AI is even comparable to doing a quest and spending 500g, seriously?

Science is the most important thing, because you need to get techs for your army/culture buildings, the faster you get there the faster the conquering/acquisition of policies goes. Also, getting to tech x for wonder y before anyone else does increases the likelihood of you getting wonder y.

 

[Esperr]

How can science by far ore importent then all the other things?

Austria needs to pay to use its UA which also need you to get alliance's with CS while many other civs get their UA for free. Other civs can still capture CS with millitray which is not as good as getting a whole city plus units but you do not have to pay gold or get alliances plus you get a damaged city.

What? No its waaayyy OP. late game you just bomb the map with ten more production cities, its completely rediculous.

 

[Hambil]

I think it's fairly well agreed that Austria's UA is OP and will almost certainly get nerfed, thus not sure it should be in this poll or not. But it's not my poll, and it's not included.