So, what Civ Traits are you guys fond of?

[Legal_My_Deagle]

Post any comments you have on civ traits you have tried out so far! I will go first.

I have only played one game so far, but I played as Peter, for the Russians.

I was Philosophical and Expansive.

Expansive was somewhat helpful. Or at least, maybe it was really helpful but my lack of understanding of the game mechanics thus far makes me blind to its benifitis.

It gives you +2 health in all your towns. From what I can tell, health doesnt necessarily make your towns bigger, but it definetly LETS them GROW bigger.

Something I am still unsure about though, is there any strong advantage to having a large population in Civ4? Because unlike Civ4, it doesnt seem that building Workers or Settlers costs you population.

However I also did start off with a scout, though I am unsure if every Civ gets one regardless or not.

Philisophical was GREAT, I must say. Having twice as many great people as normal is a HUGE advantage, and you can more directly use them as tools than you can, say, something like Expansive. You get great artists, and drop culture bombs on your border cities. Get great scientists, and build acadamies in your cities. Great engineers can help you hurry WONDERS? Wow. And even if none of the above should for some reason be helpful at the moment, you can always get a free tech, and that is hard to argue with. WAY BETTER than the Scientific trait from Civ3.

So what do you guys have to say about Traits that you have experimented with?

 

[Sailsa]

I have tried almost all of the traits and every time I think I have a favorite, I try another one and change my mind. Thus, to me at least, the traits seem very balanced and you should pick them depending on what your plan is, or just go random and then adopt a strategy to match your traits. Here are my thoughts so far:

Spiritual - Being able to switch civics and state religions is nice but not a huge bonus. However, almost all spiritual civs start with mysticism so you can found a religion early which will reap benefits down the road especially once you can access the religious civic options. However, you can always found a later religion so you don't need to be spiritual. Also, the half price temples are great for cheaply creating culture.

Aggressive - This can be awesome. Every melee unit gets Combat 1 for free so basically all your units are 10% better immediately. Then you have to take advantage of the half price barracks. Combine the barracks with the Vassalage and/or Theocracy civics and every units you make will have enough experience for 2 immediate upgrades. Win a combat or two and you have a third upgrade. Basically you will have an army of elite units which you can tailor to fit your needs. Of course, this is all pointless if you don't play aggressively.

Philosophical - The only thing better than great people are twice as many of them. These people give all sorts of wonderful benefits and producing more of then is a very nice bonus. Get the Caste System civic and put some specialists in each city and watch the great people pop out all over providing culture bombs, 1 turn wonders, and full game bonuses.

Expansive - You don't realize how nice the extra health is until you play without it. Having a city stay healthy until size 8 or 9 instead of 6 or 7 is a huge bonus. Bigger cities are the key in CivIV. They allow more specialists and faster production to creat more great people and wonders while keeping your costs down (fewer total cities).

Industrious - If you like wonders then this is wonderful. The extra 50% bonus definitely allowed me to get a few wonders I otherwise would have been beaten too. And if you get the right resources then no one can beat you to the wonder. Last night I found my second city next to a supply of marble and suddenly I could build some wonders with +150% (double from marble, +50 from ind). It turned 6 shields into 24 and then you can get the great people early as well. Also, the cheap forges are great ways to ramp up your production of everything.

Organized - If you like the expensive civic options and building large empires then this one is key. In my current game, I am slowly spreading my empire across the map using some high upkeep civics to support it. Being organized allows me to keep the civic options I want, and build courthouses quickly in newly conquered cities thus keeping my overall costs down and my research at 90%.

Financial - Ideal example - Starting city on the coast and next to flood plains. Suddenly those water squares produce 3 gold and once I build the cottages on the flood plains, they upgrade and produce a ton as well. This trait is nice because the extra money can go where you need it - Maintainence, research, or culture. As for myself, I made this city a research hub, pumping out tons of science every turn.

I haven't tried creative enough yet to give a full opinion on it but all the other traits seem very balanced. I guess I would suggest everyone just try all the different options and see which ones fit your play style the best.

Edit: Updated with more trait descriptions.

 

[vmxa]

Philo and Spirit looked good so far, got to love Arabia.

 

[blindside]

It seems like financial is the weakest trait again (commercial in Civ3). I don't know much about creative.

Aggresive (militaristic) is nice as ever. I think Spiritual (religious) is even better now that you are revolting 4 times as much (with all those civics). Pilosophical looks like the best tho with the greater leader bonus. I think thats huge. I haven't had much use with expansive but seems pretty strong.

Industrious gives faster worker production (just like Civ3). You miss it when you don't have it but it is not essential. Organized seems to cut back on matainence costs. So far I really don't know how much I'm paying for these costs so hard to say what the benefit is.

 

[suspendinlight]

I've only been India so...
Spiritual -- Nice if you are a newbie. I got to change Civics pretty much whenever I wanted without penalty. At more advanced levels when you know exactly which civics you want to switch to, this might not be as useful.

Industrious -- I thought this was great, especially at the beginning. I was pumping out wonders like there was no tomorrow. Seems very good if youa re interested in wonders. Also got those forges fired up right away. I was able to have a very tiny standing army and suddenly produce 10 cavalry to overrun my enemies.

 

[Dagoth Ur]

Spanish are the best. +2 health, and 1/2 temples = happy peoples. And the no anarchy helps too.

 

[Smirk]

Too early to really tell personally, but they have been fairly transparent to other game pressures, like land resources and religion. Although Spiritual gets a nice head start to start the early religions, but in Noble I can still get Meditation first. We shall see how that continues up the difficulty ladder.

 

[mdm]

I just caused some major damage with Victorian England, so Expansive and Financial officially rock

 

[Eliezar]

I'm a big fan of spiritual and _______

I haven't tried Spain out yet, but I am definitely fond of India.

So far I have just played one full game on Noble and it was too easy to win. I don't even know the fastest production path on your first city yet. 8)

 

[AdonisFigure]

Yep, my first game is with the Arabs on Prince Difficulty. Somewhat easy, although with so many new things, I'm probably overthinking and experimenting. Spiritual helped me found the early religion, and then Philosophical is like manna from heaven, and a lot of it.

Mecca is a freakin' city of god. As the Classical era dawns (great choir music by the way), It has produced 4 great people: Two Great Prophets and Two Great Scientists. Thought about doing other things, but basically I just added them all to Mecca: One Hindu Shrine, One Academy, and two resident specialists. Net result, after building Great Library and also allocating two population as scientists? An absurd 76 beakers. My other three cities (yes, just three), have like 28 Combined, including two with Libraries.

Specialization is the word of the day.

 

[jar2574]

I think the traits are very well balanced.

I just played a game with China, for instance, and found Financial to be a great trait. If you found your city along a river, and build hamlets, those squares instantly generate 3 coins instead of 2. That's a ton of money each turn.

I also love Expansive. I like to build really big cities. The extra two helps.

But my favorite is Industrius. With 50% off of Wonders, if you find stone or marble, you're set. Then it's domination...

 

[Uty]

My favorites are industrous and philisophical. It's really too bad none of the leaders have both qualities. Spiritual is also highly advantageous if you want to change your civics while building a Wonder.

 

[CitizenCain]

I've taken a liking to FDR, myself... Industrious and organized... it just seems to be the way to go for anyone who just can't build enough stuff.

 

[Kazak]

My favorites are industrous and philisophical. It's really too bad none of the leaders have both qualities. Spiritual is also highly advantageous if you want to change your civics while building a Wonder.

20 posts = 20 opinions = a VERY balanced game

I am glad to see that there is no one kind to rule them all. That's what Civ should be about.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

I'll defend financial a bit:

I had a game as Elizabeth (fin & phi), with a start that had a lot of floodplain. I planted cottages on most of those floodplains, and once they grew into villages, I was pulling in 5 commerce & 3 food per turn from each. Thats some serious income pretty early in the game.

 

[madcat_lives]

I play for cult and 50% less cost. Only civ is Roman for this. I can run 90% sci and 10% cult. India is always on top when I play 8FFa or team. When I didn't run 50% less cost I was only like 60% sci running.

 

[phungus420]

Sounds like philisophical is overpowered.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I've only been India so...
Spiritual -- Nice if you are a newbie. I got to change Civics pretty much whenever I wanted without penalty. At more advanced levels when you know exactly which civics you want to switch to, this might not be as useful.

While that is true, it can also be argued that no anarchy is a good thing to have regardless.

Since I bought the game, I've been playing as Spain (I got a thing for Isabella). And so far, for me, the biggest advantage of Spirituality is starting out with Mystisism. Given I settle my founding city in the first turn, I'm almost guaranteed to discover an early religion. This allows me to establish a state religion early on, and I think that has a huge effect on the overall happiness of the civilization.

 

[the finn]

Because unlike Civ4, it doesnt seem that building Workers or Settlers costs you population.

i dont have the game ...yet (due today), but I did read that unlike previous Civ's, settlers and workers dont cost population points, BUT while building them city growth is halted

 

[Xeos]

I like exp/agg. I haven't found spi to be too useful overall... I have seen a maximum 1 turn of anarchy for any civic changes, unless I change all 5. Probably due to the games I run (4 player, duel, pangea, modified quick, lucky to have 3 good cities) Ind seems like it would be nice too.