Nuclear Kid reviews all 18 civs

[Nuka-sama]

I got this Idea from azaman333.

My grading scale goes like this: A, B, C, D, F, and i also have +'s and -'s,
please comment review, whatever u wanna call it.


Things that will be graded:Uniuqe Unit, Traits, AI gameplay, and World map location.

Civs reviwed:
#1 Russia (only Cathy )
#2 India
#3 Rome
#4 Arabia

Next to be reviewed:
Persia


Civs to be reviewed:
America
England
Spain
China
Japan
France
Aztecs
Mongols
Egypt
Mali
Germany
Greece


Important Notice!! These aren't the final rankings, the order I review them is done by request now. the rank is out of the civs i've reviewed example: Rome is third of the reviews i'e done so far.

 

[Nuka-sama]

#3 Rome, led by Julius Ceaser,
Starting Techs: Fishing, Mining
UU: Praetorian
Favorite Gov: Repenentation
Organised, Expansive
Aggressive level:3 (moderate)

Traits: Jc 's trait's are pretty good for empire building. His Expansive(+3 health) trait lets you have larger cities that keep production high. Then you not only can pump out massive armies, but also gain many wonders (mid-game) by Organised (1/2 civic upkeep costs) is also a great trait for Rome because costs are able to be kept down. Combine this with State Property (No cost from distance from palace) and cheap courthouses will put even more money in your tresuary, and give you the ability to have a vast empire with colonies.
I like the way these traits work together for the usual conquest/domination strategy of Rome.
Grade B-

Uniuqe Unit: Praetorian HOly $hit these guys are good! If your playing as Rome, and you don't have Iron your game will be made harder than what it could be. You can use your Praetorians to defeat just about any unit before the rennisance, and youll be able to capture cities with these guys and Catapults up to Late Middle ages. Before the Middle ages all you need to take cities are these guys. They are the key unit in Roman war (before MA's) Im not kidding! Am I over exaggerating? I dont know, ive never played a game with Rome without them.
Grade:A+

AI Gameplay:Not exactly the best, but Rome is a pretty good Victory contender even with the AI. In the early game he is aggressive with his Praet's, but he is not one to fear. By the time you reach the Industrial age (if he's still around) or sooner, hell be no threat, for he'll be 3 or 4 techs behind you or who evers the tech leader.
Grade:B

World Map Location: Awesome (in Italy), Probably in the top 5, but not the top.
Europe is yours for the taking, for you're the only one with a UU before the middle ages and you have Iron. My suggestion is to take people out in this order: France, Spain, Greece, westren paret of persia, Arabia, rest of Persia (capturing Persopilos will be a little harder than any battle you've had in that game probably), Germany or england can be attacked while fighting them, and after Arabia and persia, Egypt. This is all very possible before MA's if you try to focus on Barracks and Praets and axes.
Grade:A

Suggested Civics:
Government:Representation
Legal:Vassalage
Labor:Slavery
Economy:State Property
Religion: I always go with free religion 75% of the time
Final grade:B

 

[Nuka-sama]

#2 India
Prefered Leader: Gandhi
Favorite Civic:Universal Sufferage
Agg lvl:1 (very low)
Traits:Spiritual, Industrious
Starting techs:Mysticism, Mining
UU:Fast Worker
Other leader:Asoka
Favorite Civic:Universal Sufferage
Agg lvl:2 (low)
Traits:Spiritual, Organised

Traits-
Gandhi:Great traits, Gandhi can be set up for an easy cultural victory,
His Spirtual trait not only gives mysticism so he can grab some early religions, but since he'll have no anarchy he can change his civics at any time, maxamizing the benifits, for example when he's building a wonder, he can have the civic Bueracrcy (presuming your building it in his capital) and after that he can swich to free speech to get the extra cultural bonus. His Industrious trait will also add on to production sonot only do you get some early religions, but you can snag the early wonders.
Grade:A

Asoka:Spiritual and Organised just don't work together to well. Asoka is a good leader on Arpalago maps (Organised) and but orthan that, I dont see why to many people pick Asoka over Gandhi. (Please Corect if Im wrong
Grade:B-

UU:Fast workers pros and cons
Pros: 1.Avaliable all the time 2.Serfdom not needed 3.Your empire will be well developed, and resource powerful early in the game.

Cons: 1. In the long run, Most of the time you (and myself nearly all the time)
have a weaker military. 2. After Uranium deposits are hooked up, they arent needed too much.
Grade:B+

AI-
Gandhi:Man, this guys tough to beat! he's probably One of your biggest rivals in your games with his large tech leads, mass teritory, pleasant relationships with most, and a good sized army (mostly defensive)
Grade:A+

Asoka:Not as hard as Gandhi, but he'll mess up many a player, espically a new one, with his tech lead, back stabing, larger territory than Gandhi probably, and a nice sized army.
Grade:B+

World Map location:Large, but not as large as America, Lots of Resources, but not as much as China, but its still pretty good exept for the power hungry empires to the west (probably Persia) Or the Mongols and Japs. they wont be as bad for there is many mountains, but are they protecing you, or holding you back?
Grade:B

Gandhi Final grade:A

Asoka Final grade: B

 

[Nuka-sama]

Is anyone reading this???????

 

[jayseedubya]

I just checked in. First of all, in patch 1.61, Expansive is +3 health, and I would mention that cheap courthouses are a HUGE benefit of organized, making it one of my more favored traits, personally. Good idea, but the spelling mistakes are a bit extreme (forgive me if English isn't your first language, otherwise...) Case in point: Arpalago...you mean archipelago. You can argue that I still got your point, so other than that, good job, even if I don't agree with your order
-jcw

 

[s.c.dude]

yup i am and if you want to see how many people have been reading this look at the far rightwhen your about to select this article

 

[Nuka-sama]

I just checked in. First of all, in patch 1.61, Expansive is +3 health, and I would mention that cheap courthouses are a HUGE benefit of organized, making it one of my more favored traits, personally. Good idea, but the spelling mistakes are a bit extreme (forgive me if English isn't your first language, otherwise...) Case in point: Arpalago...you mean archipelago. You can argue that I still got your point, so other than that, good job, even if I don't agree with your order
-jcw

All right, Ill be sure to edit that about the expansive and organised.

If you dont like my order, make a suggestion, and if i agree with you I might change the order around

 

[entrada_sinful]

I do believe Ghandi deserves the A you give him but add a +. Julius Ceaser can't touch Ghandi in culture. The fast worker is a unit almost more valuable than that of militaristic form, such as the Roman Praetorian, where you get ahead with improvements in your territory makes up for the lack of actual military support. But don't let the enemy capture any of your fast workers, it can turn around and be quite the B word!
And not having revolts whenever you have a change in goverment allows you to get ahead in the technology, plus, another pro towards culture. Its quite relieving to know that you won't have to wait another 7 turns before you can kick in that Police State that will remove most of your war weariness problems.

Ghandi = A++
Asoka = B+
Julius = A+

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

When I read "His Spirtual trait not only gives mysticism" I begin to wonder if the author really knows what he is talking about (Spiritual and Mysticism are often paired together, and they have strong synergy, but Mysticism is not part of the Spiritual Trait in any way).

Also: "Serfdom not needed" as part of the description of the Fast Worker is wrong (the improvement rate is the same as other workers - only the movement points differ).

 

[ese-aSH]

@nuclear : you should describe carefully each character traits in your first post, and then in a second time only talk about synergies for each leader. We all know here that expansive means +3health (--> bigger cities), the point is to know how to optimize expansive + organized (when talking about JC) [imho it allows an early big empire with quite big cities, and a good use of slavery (no food malus) ; that early big empire is a perfect point to be able to produce your praetorians (whip them !). the mid-end game will be harder, but still organized is a good trait]

 

[Nuka-sama]

Alright, thanx for the feedback, another review is coming shortly

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Is anyone reading this???????

I stopped after you said to start over if you got no iron as Rome.

 

[acidsatyr]

BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Holly $h1t these reviews are hilarious, kleep em coming nuclear.. lol 5 stars

 

[Nuka-sama]

#4 Arabia, led by Saladin
Starting Techs:Mysticism, The Wheel
UU:Camel Archer
Spiritual, Philosiphical
Aggressive lvl:3 (moderate)

Traits:These are great for Cultural Victories! Spiritual (No Anarchy) ios helpful because you can bring out Important civics (Bueracrcy, Police State ect.) without inturupting discovering an Important Technology, and Wonder Building. Philosaphical (100% Great Person Birth Rate) Is wheen you bring out the mopst in wonders, Specialists, and City Improvements, and Great People are very Important for Cultural Victorys with Their special buildings, techs, ect.
Grade:B

UU:The Camel Archer (Str.10, move.2) is no different to the knight except for the Camel Archer doesn't require horses which is huge when playing as Arabia on the world map (ill explain in a second)
Grade:B

AI Gameplay: Only decent here. The only big thing they usually get is an early religion, no tech lead no huger army, nothing.
Grade:C+

World Map Location:At first I thought this was A+ territory, but I ran a Quick, Modern era start and I found Head Serf was right (see post below) I started in Arabia, and after 15 turns I had another settler. I had him headed to Modern day Isreal, and I ran into egypt and Greece. Without having acsess to Turkey and Palestines decent land, my cities were quite smaller than my other Beta games. So now I realised that unless you expand like crazy im the early game, you are stuck with crappy desert and a plain or two, that is useless untill Combustion.
Grade:C-

Final Grade:C+

 

[Head Serf]

Have you ever played as Arabia on the world map? Most other countries get access to oil and Arabia gets very little land to expand into, along with the huge lack of grasslands to help the desert surrounded cities grow!

 

[MrCynical]

I think you might want to rethink your grading system, since you seem to be being over generous. For example, for traits you haven't given any of the above lower than a B, and you've given two leaders A+, despite the fact none of them have the Financial trait. If you rank very mediocre combos like expansive, organised as A+, you're not going to have any grades left for the better ones. Sure, organised is a decent trait, especially for early expansion, but there are better traits, and also traits it works better in combination with. Expansive is a strong candidate for worst trait. +3 health simply doesn't translate into larger cities in practice, since you almost invariably hit the happiness cap before you hit the health cap (and hitting the health cap is far less important anyway).

 

[TrailblazingScot]

A+++ for Incans

 

[JoeHollywood]

arabia...A+ on the world map...chuckle...I was giving this link a chance till I heard that one...

 

[acidsatyr]

I think you might want to rethink your grading system, since you seem to be being over generous. For example, for traits you haven't given any of the above lower than a B, and you've given two leaders A+, despite the fact none of them have the Financial trait. If you rank very mediocre combos like expansive, organised as A+, you're not going to have any grades left for the better ones. Sure, organised is a decent trait, especially for early expansion, but there are better traits, and also traits it works better in combination with. Expansive is a strong candidate for worst trait. +3 health simply doesn't translate into larger cities in practice, since you almost invariably hit the happiness cap before you hit the health cap (and hitting the health cap is far less important anyway).

what financial has to do with A+?

 

[MrCynical]

what financial has to do with A+?

Financial is widely regarded, with very good reason, as the strongest trait. Raw commerce is raw power, and frankly it is a league ahead of all the other traits.