The Light Phase Favorite Civ Poll!

[Chandrasekhar]

Now that this phase is winding down, I thought it might be a good idea to hold another poll on everyone's favorite Civs. I'm fully aware that there's already another poll out there, but considering all the changes that have happened since it started, I'm sure that many of us want to change our choices. Be sure to say why you chose the Civ you did, and especially mark out the changes to the mod that made you change/keep your favorite Civ from the earlier poll.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

I'll start by saying that I still choose the Malakim. It was a very close decision for me. Flauros' change from Expansive to Financial made him much, much more attractive as a leader. Also, the Organized that he went along with it made a rush for the Order that much more effective, as it allowed quick courthouses (I love these), and cheapened the Religious Discipline and God King civics, which I favor. Oh yeah, and vampires. They'd coincide very nicely with when I start my wars of conquest.

However, I think Varn Gosam still beats him out. On one hand, his traits are better, in my opinion. Creative is nice all the time, especially for an early city rush. Adaptive can be used to imitate Financial or Organized or anything else, by definition the most versatile trait. The nomad promotion is also very handy, especially when playing the Malakim on an FfH_Fractal map. The diplomatic bonuses of being Good (compared to being Evil at least), and the fact that he matches up with my favored religious alignment mean that I find his alignment most useful. Tack on the fact that you can get easy Sentry I priests with Lightbringers and I'm sold.

 

[MrUnderhill]

Doviello. The weapon upgrade system makes their melee units unstoppable.
There's nothing like building the Mines of Gal-Dur and sweeping across another civ with a 4 Beastman swarm.

Keep your Adepts and Axeman, my tier one units will take you on any day.
Just keep that Archery tech away from me; Javelin Throwers aren't as much fun as Beastmen and Beastmen won't obsolete if you can't build JT's.

 

[DieselBiscuit]

The fact that I'm torn between no less than 4 civs (Khazad, Bannor, Doviello and Amurites) with quite different playstyles is a testament to how differentiation really enrichens the game, imho.

I have to land on the Amurites, though. The possibility of building adepts that upgrades instantly to level 5 wizards (hot, hot spellstaff action!) should be enough to deter anyone from entering your lands. Add this to the possibility of getting my favourite trait, Organized, in combination with Arcane, a trait that really gives your tier 4 spellcasters an edge, and I'm sold. Having the single coolest looking unit EVER doesn't hurt either. Chanters, my heart belongs to you

Also: Govannon. Govannon + Leaves Priest or Veil Priest == rock on!

Doviello deserves special mention, though. Attacking my neighbour with a huge Doviello army while playing Led Zeppelins 'Immigrant Song' at max volume and singing along makes me feel pretty damn good! Especially when I'm attacking with mutated, iron weaponry-armed Stygian Squ... er Guards, with Cannibalize. If this exploit is wrong, I don't want to be right.

 

[Mesix]

For me the Grigori are unmatched. The adventurers are very powerful for an early game "tank" rush. It gives me a lot of breathing room for the midgame. Once the high level adventurers upgrade to tier 4 units...watch out!

 

[Grakl]

Doviello. The weapon upgrade system makes their melee units unstoppable.
There's nothing like building the Mines of Gal-Dur and sweeping across another civ with a 4 Beastman swarm.

Yes please?

I prefer the pure war oriented civs for maximum strategic play. Doviello beats them all hands down I think.

 

[Keldan]

I didn't vote, because I think chosing the civilisation I prefer is impossible, I prefer several civilisations (Luchuirps, Lanuns, Balseraphs, Clan of Embers).
And because this is a complex question, it needs an itemized answer.


The Bannors are funny to play fanaticism, spreading their religion (Order, Veil and Overlords are the best with Bannor) with diplomacy or with weapons. And the crusade is useful to declare holy war to these unfaithful sons of demon... or to resist them invading our holy land of the True Religion, and Gard promotion is original.

The Malakims have a good flavour : people of desert, son of the dunes, warriors of the sun, some kind of Fremen, etc. But they miss one big important thing to be something else than a good idea : ability to really exploit deserts.

The Eholims are nice. Nothing wonderful, but they are the best civilization for the first FfH game : defender trait for kingdom defense, spiritual trait for religion. And if your neighbor are Infernal, or Veil adepts, they become powerful (especially with the Order).

The Luchuirps... haaa the Luchuirps ! I love them Their golem army is unique, there are so many units unaivable, so there is not any civilisations like this, so particular, so unique, so... well so good. And they are dwarf, so one more exotic touch.

The Kuriotates are wondeful too. Personnaly, I don't like them, but not for the flavour or any objective reasons. I don't like them because I like to have a great number of cities. But on a small map, I love to play with this civ and its incredible cities.

The Ljosalfars... well, I won't be objective once more. They are elves, so I give a point for exotism. They can build in forest, this is terrible. No siege weapon, a lot of custom units, again one good thing.
But these guys are the only civ who can use Ancient Forest !!! This is favouritism ! It's make me so disapointed that I never use the Fellowship when I play with them, I prefer OO or Runes.
And they are the only civ which can exploit original tiles (I mean tile you can't exploit in vanilla Civ or in a different way) !! Favouritism again !!
While they will be so close of FoL religion and be the only one to create special improvement, I will hate them. Without these two bad points, I'd love them

The Khazads have the same problem, but in a lesser proportion. 90% of people convert to Runes when playing this civ... Very sad situation, they are cool with others religions too.
But the vault strategy is different and very fun to play, their siege weapons amazing, their earth druid are really fun (I dream of druids for each magic sphere) and their unaivable unit give them a good flavor. Maybe just missing more hill and peak exploitation (like hill farm, peak mine or better workshop).

The Lanuns is one of my favourite civs. Sea civilisation, the only civ who can have a good town on a 1x1 tile island, roaming accross the sea, being the terror of the oceans, the king of sea raid, of just a peaceful civilisation of fisher. And the new ships, and navy options, are a very good thing for them. Maybe missing more sea resources, and a little more exploitation of the sea (special tile, sea improvement, etc.).

The Grigoris are cool. Not for adventurers power, because I don't like a civ for power. I like Grigori for the concepts : no gods and heros you can custom.

The Hippus are fun are very flavor too. Horse exploration, horse war, horse colonization, the civilisation of speed, the kings of razzia, the guys who visit all the pangea continent in less than 20 turns

The Amurites is not a favourite civs of mine, but I have to say they are really the civilisation of magery. Your adepts can become mages 1 turn after their production, these guys live for and by the mana.

The Doviellos are nice to play barbarian, but, like the other weather specific civs, they're missing the capacity to exploit tundra and snow tile :/

The Balseraphs... my true love I love pacific domination, so I love culture war, so I love them Even if I don't like the insane trait (don't like chance in game), I think it's a good idea.

The Clan of Embers is my favourite bellicose civilisation. The best way to raze cities, burning land, destroying civilisation, being the real reincarnation of Attila And all their special units (special by stats and graphics) are a very good thing.

The Calabims have a very nice flavor, nice unit and a strategy based on highly populated towns, but I think the festen ability is too powerful : it's really easy to give 600 XP and all promotions to Losha and great vampires.

The Sheaims... well... I consider them like an unplayable civilisation... I like the spirit of this civ, but there is nothing in it, less than Infernal, so...
Just an idea about this civ : why not making them being the jungle civilization, exploiting jungles like elves exploit forest ?

 

[Endovior]

...

I think you're missing the point. Khazad go for Runes because they are the ONLY civ that can build Dwarven Mines (barring unlikely events), and thus, they get the potent synergy it provides. Ljosalfar go for FoL for the same reason. Unique advantages are meant to be exploited. They're the only ones who can get such power, so use it!

That being said, the Doviello are perfectly fine as is... and judging by your previous comments, if they had the capability to exploit tundra and ice, you'd be all "This is favouritism!!! It's make me so disapointed!!!!!1111". Also, Sheaim are the people of the Apocalypse, not Jungles. They're really not finished yet... their unique powers are slotted for Fire. Wait until then.

I personally like the Balseraphs... especially when playing Terra. All the civs are right there, setting up new cities, and Loki is waiting...

 

[Lord Vermillion]

Doviello. The weapon upgrade system makes their melee units unstoppable.
There's nothing like building the Mines of Gal-Dur and sweeping across another civ with a 4 Beastman swarm.

Keep your Adepts and Axeman, my tier one units will take you on any day.
Just keep that Archery tech away from me; Javelin Throwers aren't as much fun as Beastmen and Beastmen won't obsolete if you can't build JT's.

This post pretty much sums up my vote as well.

 

[Sureshot]

might be fun to try doviello the drama route, and try to culturally convert acherons city so you get early mithril for an even better beastman rush

 

[Civkid1991]

I love and can't stop laying the new Lunan. the graphics and the new ships defiantly changed my mind in this version.

 

[Sureshot]

La-nun.. sea people, not moon people, those are sea-ships not space-ships O_o

 

[Civkid1991]

La-nun.. sea people, not moon people, those are sea-ships not space-ships O_o

Woops... didn't realize i spelled that wrong

 

[Unser Giftzwerg]

I'm sticking with the Elohim, though I really shouldn't even vote. I've yet to even play five of the Civs, I've played only half-games with another three, and Ljo/Khazad/Lanun haven't been played since completion of that study which was so warmly reviewed. So my vote should be considered, at best, a work in progress.

That claimer being dised, I'll add that I like the Elohim because they are a solid Civ, but their strengths are more fundemental and distributed. They do not rely upon one huge power for their strength. (e.g Vampires, Golums, 3-turn summons.) Instead they synergize well with any religion, the monk unit pops out of the oven with movement 3, which rocks, their hero is one of the best in the game, and they are poised to grab a rapid start. In fact, you can point to really nice advantages for the Elohim in all phases of the game.

In the opening game, the Defender trait puts the smackdown on barbarians. They start with Chants. Cottages can be learned early, and Defender warriors mean Cottages can be protected early.

In the midgame the Spiritual trait comes into play for easy civics changes on the fly, plus rapid temple construction. With so many Temple-type buildings in FfH, Spiritual can save a lot of hammers. Plus in the midgame Monks come into play. No resources, no special buildings, fast on the march and strong for the era.

In the end-game they get a powerful caster Hero, essentialy a 4th Archmage pre-loaded with three nice magic spheres. There's nothing quite like the ability to pluck an enemy unit out of his OOB and add it to your own. And if you are really, really in trouble this hero has one of the unique functions in the game. Sacrifice him and no matter what, your enemies have to agree to a cease-fire. The Elohim are tough to dislodge as-is, so this ability will probably go unused. But it's a heck of a Get Out Of Jail Free card to have in reserve.

With the Elohim you can thrive in pretty much any condition and playing any style. Nothing flashy, solid fundemantals.

 

[Lord Vermillion]

I'm sticking with the Elohim, though I really shouldn't even vote. I've yet to even play five of the Civs, I've played only half-games with another three, and Ljo/Khazad/Lanun haven't been played since completion of that study which was so warmly reviewed. So my vote should be considered, at best, a work in progress.

That claimer being dised, I'll add that I like the Elohim because they are a solid Civ, but their strengths are more fundemental and distributed. They do not rely upon one huge power for their strength. (e.g Vampires, Golums, 3-turn summons.) Instead they synergize well with any religion, the monk unit pops out of the oven with movement 3, which rocks, their hero is one of the best in the game, and they are poised to grab a rapid start. In fact, you can point to really nice advantages for the Elohim in all phases of the game.

In the opening game, the Defender trait puts the smackdown on barbarians. They start with Chants. Cottages can be learned early, and Defender warriors mean Cottages can be protected early.

In the midgame the Spiritual trait comes into play for easy civics changes on the fly, plus rapid temple construction. With so many Temple-type buildings in FfH, Spiritual can save a lot of hammers. Plus in the midgame Monks come into play. No resources, no special buildings, fast on the march and strong for the era.

In the end-game they get a powerful caster Hero, essentialy a 4th Archmage pre-loaded with three nice magic spheres. There's nothing quite like the ability to pluck an enemy unit out of his OOB and add it to your own. And if you are really, really in trouble this hero has one of the unique functions in the game. Sacrifice him and no matter what, your enemies have to agree to a cease-fire. The Elohim are tough to dislodge as-is, so this ability will probably go unused. But it's a heck of a Get Out Of Jail Free card to have in reserve.

With the Elohim you can thrive in pretty much any condition and playing any style. Nothing flashy, solid fundemantals.

Although I voted for the Doviello, I must agree with this. The Elohim were my first "Favorite Civ". They are extremely versitile IMO, and have excellent non-resource dependent units. With the Philo trait, you can pop the necessary techs for monks with GP quite quickly. In fact, in MP it almost always catches people off guard. Personally I always liked to combine the Elohim with Runes for Bambur (who can also be popped quickly with GP) and the cash bonus it entails. The only downfall, and I guess this lies more on the Philo trait itself, is that the GP point production slows, thus slowing down the ability to slingshot ahead technologically. Now if the Elohim were Fin/Phi.... WOW look out, they would slingshot ahead and once ed. was secured, noone could catch up.

Sry for the long post, just had to comment on an old favorite

 

[Master_Hugian]

might be fun to try doviello the drama route, and try to culturally convert acherons city so you get early mithril for an even better beastman rush.

I have tried this once, only problem is the fact you still need weaponsmith to give them the weapons and so your would have to walk down that path anyway.

Edit- oh, I voted for Doviello of course

 

[Quetz]

Amurites 4 life

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Wow, the Amurites are winning. I'm surprised. I'd rank them pretty low for my personal play style, but I guess they do have their usefulness.

 

[Sureshot]

theres 3 civs with no votes, but id rank all three of them pretty high, just not my first choice (hippus, clan, khazad)

 

[onedreamer]

I really can't vote. I like each and single Civ I played, which means all. Maybe the Sheaim are the only ones in need of some love. I also love Svartalfar (which I play modified as Aggressive and Arcane), and I long for more graphics for them. So far what they have is awesome.