Share your thoughts on each Civ Unique strengths

[R3dKnight]

My favorite is France.

Let's see ...free 2+ culture per city = akin to two monuments at no cost till Steam Power discovery. That's at least 100 turns! Considering a small empire gets 3-4 cities at least, we're looking at free 200 culture give or take! Making that early Social Policy less dependent on City states donation. I personally love the early expansion ones with 50% settler discount. 2 Culture is too good IMO, like a free wonder. I'm tempted to say even if Ramses can grab Wonders, he wouldn't be able to hold on to it as computer. Just like in my game he neglected building up an army to safeguard his Wondertown. 3 Declaration of Wars from me, Rome and Germany later, they ceased to exist.

Unique Units - Musketeer - Gunpowder.
Good stuff. I wasn't disappointed since these guys get much use before Riflemen came out. Then two tiers later comes...

Foreign Legion - Infantry that gets boost in foreign territory.
Wow. It's good. It makes that late game military campaigns more bearable. With that little extra edge to hold the line as your artillery and navy pound the crap of their oncoming army.

I looked at Japan and found it quite amazing. Their range promoted Frigates and future Destroyer Navy doesn't need to stop to repairs with their 100% attack strength. Not to mention having early tech lead will mean it'll always hurt to attack a Japanese unit. Strong contender for unstoppable War Machine civ.

Germany - Nahhhh. People kept raving about Bruticus Army. But it really depended on the map. How many times can you find these barbs. I had a game where there's only 2-3 spawns before all Fog of Wars were uncovered and spare lands are settled, leaving none for barbs. Their UA is disappointingly short in effectiveness, although the Panzer and Landskrecth is decent, I still won't call them top tier. Bismark is too aggressive in my game and often squandered his lead on warmongering. An allied counter-force usually puts him down before Panzers can come into play.

So what's yours?

 

[CYZ]

Playing a King game with Alexander and the citystate slider maxed out. Actually alot of fun because citystates are inbetween all players. Conquered Siam by allying all his CS neighbours. It was easy for me to attack from any side I wanted and he had no chance of counterattack without getting the citystate troops all over him

I've got almost all patronage policies and by the end of the game I expect to be allies with all citystates and then declare war on all remaining ai's at the same time.

 

[swordspider]

Each Civ depends on your opponents. I'd refute your claim that Germany is not that great. They are basically the equivalent of the Zerg Rush if you play them right and have a little luck of the 50% coin flip. If you are playing online vs. human opponents, you can decimate them in no time. After only 100 turns I had 17 units and simply walked through 3 human players while my 2 teammates kept trying to build cities. Subsequently, the game was over and I was the only one who had any fun. Granted that can get annoying/boring, but when played right, the Germans have an insane early game advantage.

Plus, even if you don't want to be the 'conqueror', you can still smash encampments with wounded soldiers and when you do get the coin flip, viola! a free 100% health unit that can continue exploring while your unit that beat the encampment chills out and recovers.

You say the French are good because you get +200 culture? I get that in the beginning of the game through huts while I explode my army. Honestly, I think the Germans can be a little unfair if you hit the coin flip on every hut, but hey, it is like gambling since it is only a 50% chance.

Where the Germans clearly lack though is in late game where other people are getting double oil and extra coin and the like. So if you are going in for the long haul, better plan to make a whole lot of panzers...

 

[stormerne]

I'm a cultural player but France doesn't impress. My fave is Siam.

Siam's unique trait: "Father Governs Children: Food and Culture gifts from friendly City-States are increased by 50%." This, combined with the Patronage and Piety trees, is awesome (even better than Greece). With city states feeding your empire and providing half your culture, you're freed up to concentrate on research, growing cities, smacking those annoying neighbors, or whatever else takes your fancy.

Siam's unique Unit: Naresuan’s Elephant (replaces knight). Well for me this is the only "meh". A nice bit of extra oomph over the knight, true. The highest powered of the Medieval units, true. But their supremacy doesn't last long, and give me mobility any day over brute force.

Siam's unique building: Wat (replaces university). If you ignore the standard universities jungle bonus (they've all gone by then), the +3 culture is a great addition at that stage of the game. It's the biggest extra cultural boost from any medieval non-wonder building. And it's cheaper to maintain!

For finishing the game early (rather than with a high score), a long time before your opponents are a serious threat, you can't beat Siam for a cultural victory.

 

[Ahriman]

I think Greece is way up there. I haven't tried Persia yet, but they seem like they have potential. India is very powerful, as long as you don't think you have to limit yourself to only a few cities (and are willing to do some razing...
Rome is also strong, as is China.

Weakest seem like Arabs, Ottomans, America.

 

[nekom]

I've so far only played 3 games.

Russia - If you like wars and building large empires, and play your social policies right, this may be my favorite to play, though I've not finished the game. I'm seriously considering going for a domination victory.

Aztecs - The early UU may come in handy in some instances, but I thought the culture from battles would make a cultural victory easy. I lost that bet but I screwed up a lot in that game, it might have worked if I executed better.

America - I was fairly unimpressed with the ability to buy tiles cheaper when I realized that there really isn't a compelling reason to buy a whole lot of them. +1 sight is ok, I guess, but far from a gamebreaker. To the American civ I say `meh'

 

[budweiser]

Germany - Nahhhh. People kept raving about Bruticus Army. But it really depended on the map. How many times can you find these barbs. I had a game where there's only 2-3 spawns before all Fog of Wars were uncovered and spare lands are settled, leaving none for barbs. Their UA is disappointingly short in effectiveness, although the Panzer and Landskrecth is decent, I still won't call them top tier. Bismark is too aggressive in my game and often squandered his lead on warmongering. An allied counter-force usually puts him down before Panzers can come into play.

I disagree. By keeping your city count small and eliminating all your closest AI rivals (Puppet just the caps) you can keep open vast stretches of land that will spawn barbs all the way through the game. Its there if you want it.

 

[Duraska]

What do you guys think about the Iroquois? I personally find them kind of weak.

Sure, the movement through forests/jungles as if they were roads in your own territory allows you to quicky defend your borders if need be, but perhaps the bigger benefit is moving workers around your empire. You save a few turns, but maybe it's the Civ4 player in me... I can't seem to keep many forests around, they're usually chopped.

Also the Mohawk (sp?) Warrior unit is just basically a swordsman with the rough terrain promotion (except they don't get the bonus when fighting in hills that the promotion grants you). I think they still require iron, right?

And the longhouse... again, if you have a heavily forested city ...maybe. But even if you have 3-4 forested tiles (that you're WORKING actively??), you're still gaining +3 or +4 production a turn. Chopping those trees would give you 90 - 120 production immediately, it'd take quite a while to break even (and seriously, besides camps and logging camps, why are you working so many forested tiles??).


What are your opinions on the Iroquois?

 

[Eejit]

China UB is too strong, a Library with +4 gold is insane. The gold from that feeding a strong UU army and a crazy UA (GG gives +45% instead of +25% strength and more of them) makes them unstoppable if played decently. Even AI often dominates with them, more than with most other civs from the games I've played.

 

[Ahriman]

The longhouse bonus is very nice. 3-4+ forested tiles (and remember, you can build trading posts on forests!) with +1 hammer are huge. 1/2/2 yield is superior, and yield improvements are hard to come by in this game.
Far better than chopping them.

 

[Alphaetus_Prime]

Babylon seems great. The bonus civ is really the only compelling reason to buy the digital deluxe edition, so it obviously must be great and/or broken. The UB is probably the Babs' weakest point.

 

[Martin Alvito]

A rough hierarchy based on the demo, then full game experiences on Deity:

Alex (Greece) - Dominant early UUs. Excellent civ trait. There is no better early conqueror. The bonus lets you maintain more allies than anyone else, which means a better combination of Food, Hammers and Culture early on. The Hammers then convert into the best Ancient and Classical units.

Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon) - The undisputed master of the degenerate strategy. Gets deeper into the tech tree faster than anyone else, which invariably yields a serious advantage. Bowmen are solid. The UB is not.

Catherine (Russia) - The extra Hammers are excellent early on. The extra resources permit you to siphon off extra Gold from AIs. Cossacks are brutal in the midgame.

Augustus Caesar (Rome) - The UUs and bonus turn out to be a little underwhelming. Retreating after attack is so strong tactically that mounted units are just better than melee and siege until Artillery. The early Roman war machine is potent, but a bit on the slow side. There are several buildings that you will absolutely want everywhere, and a 25% buff is noticeable, but there are stronger traits.

Ramesses (Egypt) - Burial Tombs are the strongest selling point. The Wonder bonus isn't bad, but you're not going to build a lot of Wonders. War Chariots aren't very good. Burial Tombs are strong, enabling you to expand further before you switch over to abusing Happiness.

Darius (Persia) - The problem with a GA bonus right now is that you aren't going to spend a lot of time in them without sacrificing Great People that are better spent on other purposes. Once the game is rebalanced such that selling luxuries to AIs isn't as attractive, and Happiness is not best ignored in the midgame, he will be a strong leader. Immortals are great; the Satrap's Court is not good now, but will be once Happiness is fixed.

I haven't fiddled with other leaders enough to give a comprehensive verdict. China obviously is in the top tier (above Cathy); all of those bonuses are solid. Ditto France. Not yet sure how Japan fits into things; I think a serious adjustment in play is indicated there. The Songhai and Siam both have potential, but Alex seems to outperform both. This may be because he's just plain better, but it also may just be that I'm optimizing for Alex and not leveraging their bonuses properly.

 

[Duraska]

The longhouse bonus is very nice. 3-4+ forested tiles (and remember, you can build trading posts on forests!) with +1 hammer are huge. 1/2/2 yield is superior, and yield improvements are hard to come by in this game.
Far better than chopping them.

I agree, on paper, but this assumes that you have nice forests around you, and that you can still provide the food required to work them.

Overall though, I see the Iroquois as being quite weaker than many of the other Civs. Just my opinion though.

 

[Tyops]

I disagree. By keeping your city count small and eliminating all your closest AI rivals (Puppet just the caps) you can keep open vast stretches of land that will spawn barbs all the way through the game. Its there if you want it.

Agreed, taking bismark means never having to buy/produce a unit for the whole game except for 1-2 warrirors to take your first few camps easily. Just convert camps and upgrade as you go.

 

[CleverFool]

I've played 4 games:

- France: The UA is very helpful initially, but later on it starts to lose its effectiveness. It does make a big difference to get a social policy right away (I chose liberty and started pumping out settlers who proceeded to make more cities which made more culture). The UU's are both reasonably strong, though the musketeer strikes me as just meh. The foreign legion though is strong if you're playing an aggressive game. It effectively cancels out any home region bonuses a civ might have. I was able to defeat a strong Roman Empire with the bad boys pretty easily.

- Egypt: I think this may be one of the best UA's since it lasts the entire game and a lot of wonders provide some great benefits. Combined with that one first tier honor trait I think I made just about every wonder there was. Amazing. The chariot archer is just meh, not near as good as I thought it would be, as you can't retreat once you've fired. I had also planned to team them up with kinghts later on, but they didn't do a lot of damage by then. Producing one or two of these is a way to prevent you from being destroyed earlier on. Their biggest advantage may very well be their UB; the ability to get +2 culture and +2 happiness for free is amazing; the first building I created in every city. Even with my vast empire it created no maintenance, which can be a major problem later on.

- Aztec - Extremely disappointing. I went barbarian hunting and the amount of culture you get per kill is pretty meager, even in the earlier part of the game. And as badass as the Jaguar looks, its not too long before the next line of units appears. Floating gardens was meh as well.

- Ghandi: the UA forces you to play a completely different style of game; it really reduces your flexibility as you almost can't attack anyone else or your happiness will plummet. Having said that I like the ability as it encourages you to build just a few super cities (I have 2 at 21 pop and another at 16). The Elephant Archer is a bit beefier than the chariot archer, and is a good early protector. Combine with city attacks and you have a decent buffer against aggression. The Mughal fort is meh, though it does fit in well with the whole "few really tough to crack cities" idea.

Overall I'd rate them:

Egypt>France=India>>>Aztec

 

[Ahriman]

Cossacks are brutal in the midgame.

Seriously? I think cossacks are the worst UU in the game.
Their extra ability is weak, and they upgrade to nothing, and have no price discount.
I think you dramatically over-rate Russia.
I don't find AIs willing to pay that much for extra resources, often they will pay nothing at all.

but this assumes that you have nice forests around you

Which is hardly rare on almost any map, particularly for Iroquois who get a favored start position in forest.

 

[Jaaboo]

Ghandi: the UA forces you to play a completely different style of game; it really reduces your flexibility as you almost can't attack anyone else or your happiness will plummet.

Sooooooo disagree. It does feel like you're forced to play that way, but Ghandi can settle just as quickly and take over other civs just as well as anyone else. The unhappiness per city penalty is negated by the Forbidden Palace, and is not nearly as severe as the unhappiness per population.

India is the ultimate in flexibility - you can have your city spam and grow them large too.

The UB is meh-ish but despite everything I just said, it does play to India's perfered strategy - turtle up for the Cultural win. +9 defense (and the +5 from the walls) makes for some ridiculously powerful cities. If Delhi is a good wonder pump, consider the Kremlin to make your border cities insanely tough.

The UU is good. I do miss the mobility, but Horsemen serve well for that regard. The UU is one of those solid, not overpowered, but solid, early UUs that form the lynchpin of your defense. Strong, hard to kill Chariot Archers are quite a boon.

 

[Mathemagics]

Of the civs I've tried so far, Babylon and Persia seem really strong.

Babylon- You get a free GS at writing, so even if you dont get the Great Library you can still pull off the Civil Service slingshot. Doubled GS spawning for the rest of the game leads to easy techs or plentiful Golden Ages, whichever is more useful at the time.

Their Bowman is a solid early defender, 8 ranged damage is really strong in the early game and having warrior strength when attacked means theyre just a bit less likely to get ganked.

The Walls of Babylon...yeah those are pretty meh, but I think they other uniques more than make up for it. And even if unimpressive, they are a straight upgrade at least.


Persia- Given the power of Golden Ages in this game, +50% duration is a huge bonus. Adding in the extra +1 unit move and +10% combat strength just makes it even better. And of course if you manage to build Chichen Itza...

I also found their Immortal to be really good for when you get it. Resourceless, stronger than average unit that heals at double speed. Whats really almost scary is if you get a group of ~3 of these guys promoted to Medic and then cluster them together to heal. I saw them healing 3-5 hp a turn depending on positioning...

Satrap's Court isnt a radical upgrade, but considering youll probably be building all gold boosting buildings in every city anyway, a free +2 is always nice, and makes it a tiny bit easier to get those precious Golden Ages...

 

[Brawndo]

Siam's ability needs to be nerfed. It's not uncommon for their city tiles alone to be producing 10-16 food a turn because of maritime city-states, and they always have enormous cities by the middle ages.

 

[Paeanblack]

- Ghandi: the UA forces you to play a completely different style of game; it really reduces your flexibility as you almost can't attack anyone else or your happiness will plummet. Having said that I like the ability as it encourages you to build just a few super cities (I have 2 at 21 pop and another at 16). The Elephant Archer is a bit beefier than the chariot archer, and is a good early protector. Combine with city attacks and you have a decent buffer against aggression. The Mughal fort is meh, though it does fit in well with the whole "few really tough to crack cities" idea.

India is probably the best civ in the game for managing massive, sprawling empires. The happiness gains from halving the population penalty greatly outweighs the penalty for extra cities.

The break-even point on happiness is at city size 4, which is a really low target, since conquered cities usually get back up to 5 or 6 pretty quickly, assuming you didn't pillage the farms. If you are shying away from rampant conquest or settler expansion when you play India, you aren't taking advantage of one of the best UAs in the game.