Weakest civs to play against?

[Tandaw]

I have never played a game with Pedro where he isn’t in dead last or near to. Often he gets destroyed by his neighbors.

I don't know why the AI always does so poorly as Songhai, they can be a pretty great civ but the AI can't even manage them with a fantastic starting location

Korea is pretty bad too. I've had many a game where I never saw a Korean unit. I just find Seoul, take it, and that's the end of Korea.

Strange, Korea always seems to do fairly well whenever I see them. Just a testament to how different each game can make things

I would agree, all the early war mongers usually do fairly poorly. Though I did one time have a game where I played hemispheres. I had three civs on my continent (cannot remember who) and was trying for a diplomatic victory with Portugal. When I got my ships out to explore the rest of the world I found only one other continent, on which sat Shaka with the whole thing to himself. He had conquered all of it and had something like 25 cities. His score was more than double everyone else’s because all his neighbors had been wonder grabbing bastards. All I can say is that it is a good thing that the AI sucks at navel combat or that game could have gotten out of hand...

 

[Resipsa]

Mongolia, they kill a city state and draw the ire of the world. Venice they are too constrained by their UA.

 

[CleverFool]

I'm surprised that no one has said Denmark...

They don't even do anything, just build a few cities and slowly get taken over by another power.

 

[jlim201]

I feel very confused by the ones mentioned.

Korea is often a runaway AI, especially when it only has 1-2 neighbours.

England either gets wiped out or conquers half the world

India does OK, not great but stays around neutral in a corner. I have never seen India use a nuke, i dont understand why India is known for nukes.

Rome likes capturing civs with low military and does ok. i think its the UA. Russia seems to be his common target.

BAD:

Venice- one city+AI= FAIL!

Japan- Seems to fail to conquer someone, then get conquered by someone else.

Songhai- Build 3 cities. Die. (I have never seen the 4th songhai city. Gao, Timbuktu, Jenne)

America- Science is too low for amount of spammed cities.

Russia- Russia vs Rome has been a common trend in my recent games. Guess who wins?

 

[LoneRebel]

India does OK, not great but stays around neutral in a corner. I have never seen India use a nuke, i dont understand why India is known for nukes.

Gandhi's nuke flavor is set to 12 (out of 10 ). However, he is also very peaceful; his warmongering and aggression levels are very low. So even though he will build nukes, he will rarely start wars in order to use them. If he does get into a war though, then all bets are off.

 

[Lanijon]

Spain and Portugal. Kinda surprised nobody's mentioned them yet. Even if they get off to an amazing start they somehow find a way to be completely irrelevant by the industrial era. I actually feel a bit bad for Isabella sometimes. I haven't seen her take over a single city and yet she always ends up hated by the entire world.

 

[Navelgazer]

jlim201: in the original Civ, Gandhi's aggression was set to 0 on a scale of 1-10. The scale was, in fact, something like 0-255 in order to accommodate other factors, but there was also a late-game mechanic that lowered a leader's aggressiveness by 1. This would thus make Gandhi's aggressiveness 255 (on a scale of 1-10) right when Nukes were becoming a thing. Future games have made reference to this tendency.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

From my personal experience:
7. Babylon- I am always forced to kill him for one reason or another and he hardly puts up a fight. Never builds the walls of babylon, never gets ahead in tech, and I just wait until his bowmen become obsolete. His only saving grace is that he does not over extend himself and he generally build up enough of a military to put up token resistance in every city he does have. Times they've been a legitimate endgame power: 3.
6. Spain- I rarely see Isabella completely die but Spain always has the same pattern for me. They hardly expand, puss off all of there neighbors, go on a short but ineffective warmongering spree once they build up some conquistadors, barely hold there land with tercio, and slowly atrophy into a handful of pathetic cities due to lack of trade and use of ability. Never saw a legitimate Spanish threat. Times they've been a legitimate endgame power: 2, though usually some midgame power.
5. Attila- Goes on an early game hissy fit then gets curbstomped the moment anyone gets into the classical era. Fails to advance meaningfully. Times they've been a endgame power: 2.
4. New France- Old France was a threat about half the time. Either they gobbled up land like candy while keeping up in all victory types, becoming a real pain if they weren't your friend, or they'd maintain a smaller empire and slowly fade into obscurity as other powers gained more prestige. New France has no ability to use its ability, barely implements its unique improvement, and generally falls so far behind in tech that the musketeers are of no aid. Times they've been a legitimate endgame threat: 1.
3. Byzantium- read below.
2. Venice- doesn't know how to use its assets. Pretty much falls irrepairably behind when other civs are building there second city, and it only gets worse from there. Times they've been a legitimate late game threat: 0.
1. Aztecs- pisses everyone off and gets curb stomped when people get sick of his nonsense. Times they've been a legitimate endgame threat: 1. That's one time since that fateful christmas day all those years ago.

 

[poekie70]

Atilla, genghis and basically all the other early warmongers

 

[tetley]

I would give Egypt a dishonourable mention, especially if he starts near me. While I'm about to attack him, he's busy building some wonder, which I take. Oh, and thanks for those burial tombs.

 

[Sagax]

Songhai and Byzantium. The former is already mentioned plenty of times, and the latter just can't get religion fast enough, so their religion ends up being just a collection of trashy beliefs.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Songhai and Byzantium. The former is already mentioned plenty of times, and the latter just can't get religion fast enough, so their religion ends up being just a collection of trashy beliefs.

Completeley forgot about Byzantium! I rarely see them found a religion and they usually hobble along crippled until someone comes and puts them out of there misery. Move everyone except Venice and Aztecs up a notch and make Byzantium my dishonorable #3.

 

[eisforeccentric]

For me it's America. When I encounter Washington, he usually can't focus on any particular strategy, spamming cities like crazy and slogging through the game until he's pissed either me or another AI (sometimes both) and gets pounded into oblivion.

I rarely see Byzantium in my games, but Dora doesn't really do much either. I think I've seen her get the second religion once; every other time she's at best the third to get a religion and makes no discernible effort to win.

 

[joanofarc]

For me, France has always crumbled pretty fast. Then again, I have a habit of attacking the French first so that might have something to do with it.

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Iroquois- In my games they don't seem to have any powerful military whatsoever

America- A real joke in my opinion....

Ottomans- Just sitting there, not giving a f**k

 

[MightyMite]

In my games this Civs are really a joke: America,Brazil,Polynesia,Portugal and Spain.

 

[JimBobV]

In my games this Civs are really a joke: America,Brazil,Polynesia,Portugal and Spain.

The AI just doesn't know how to play America. When you're playing America, you're supposed to turtle until you get to B-17s, and then you go on a murder spree.

 

[LoneRebel]

Egypt often does well actually - in comparison to other AIs. They'll have a decently-sized empire with a decent military, good science, and lots of culture, tourism, and wonders. And in my games Egypt, after establishing its core empire, often wages wars against other AI civs and expands even further through conquest. But they don't do well enough that they can fend off a human player when the human decides he wants all those wonders. I've noticed a recurring pattern where Egypt will build a ton of wonders and wipe out one of its neighbors, and then I'll declare war on them, take those wonders, and liberate the civ they conquered.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Egypt often does well actually - in comparison to other AIs. They'll have a decently-sized empire with a decent military, good science, and lots of culture, tourism, and wonders. And in my games Egypt, after establishing its core empire, often wages wars against other AI civs and expands even further through conquest. But they don't do well enough that they can fend off a human player when the human decides he wants all those wonders. I've noticed a recurring pattern where Egypt will build a ton of wonders and wipe out one of its neighbors, and then I'll declare war on them, take those wonders, and liberate the civ they conquered.

I've noticed similar. Egypt usually does very well in my games, usually being a tech leader and a big competitor in my culture games. The biggest problem they have is when they declare war on me. I don't know if it's a hardcoded personality trait or just luck, but EVERY war I fight with them they always field units from two eras ago as there mainline infantry. Reniasance era? I'll see hordes of swordsman. Industrial? Longswords away! Modern? Let's see how your bolt action rifles fair against our mighty MUSKETS! And it's weird since they usually have a lot of tech and feild modern ranged/seige units. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me and my weird games?

 

[Playsoneasy]

Denmark - they usually splutter and fade away by the Renaissance after being very aggressive early on
Polynesia - they settle coastal areas in a haphazard way, and end up being picked off by stronger neighbours
Egypt - seem content to stick at four or five cities and rarely constitute a serious threat late game

The above has consistently been my experience, I can't speak for other players.

For me, France has always crumbled pretty fast. Then again, I have a habit of attacking the French first so that might have something to do with it.

France often does well in my games; very expansionist and they generate a lot of culture. Oh well...