Which five civs do you like most and which 5 would you replace / rework?

[enKage]

My favourite 5:

1-5) Cree
OK, seriously
1) Poundmaker. Everything here works great together. I love every single unique. I am crazy happy the Cree basically turn off some annoying mechanics/distractions (housing limits, farm triangles, midgame exploration, productive cities even on ice). I appreciate the fact how flexible Poundmaker is. Why I should play other civs if I can do their job as Cree?
2) Inca
Mainly because recon spam and teleports.
3) Kongo
Huge powerful cities, resuistent UU, apostles fun
4) Alex
Warmonger that allows much more tan others
5) Mali? Mapuche? Spain? Persia I don't know...
India/ Gandhi. Easy ammenities and growth --> hige cities --> many strategies are open. +Varu


The worst:
1) Zulu
The most boring I can ever imagine. If I want a warmnger -> Alex, Ottomans, never Zulu
2) Scotland. 3 uniques of Scotland simply don't exist. Vanilla civ which wants you to limit own expansion
3) Georgia. Disables heroic ages. Offers one playstyle
4) Poland. very chaotic. many small bonuses, none of them very useful
5) France / Kate. I played total twice, once in GS. I don't know a reason to play once again

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

Favorites:
1) Russia. The civ that made me fall in love with Civ 6. They can make tundra work, get huge cities, the lavra is an absolute Beast at religious and cultural victories, and Cossacks are a load of fun whether you need them for defense or a pillage-happy domination run. An incredibly versatile civ that's not too complex to learn but you can use all sorts of strategies with.
2) Indonesia. Kampungs are far and away my favorite improvement in the game. You can settle almost anywhere, even small islands, and get a high pop/production city out of it. I like how they go all in with a coastal strategy (every bonus revolves around water).
3) Eleanor. I don't care if it's gimmicky, or my two slowest cultural victories in my hall of fame, peaceful city-flipping is the most satisfying and fun mechanic in this game. Sure she's a meme, but what's wrong with memes?
4) Khmer. They're tricky to pull it off, but once you do, you're unstoppable. It's addicting collecting all the relics and watching your faith and tourism snowball. Wonderful synergy between vying for religious and cultural victory at the same time.
5) Maori. Turn One ocean crossing is probably the best ability in the game. It gives you so much freedom to play how you want. Forget ever having to reroll the perfect start... Just go find your perfect capital location.

Needs Work:
1) Scotland. Fantastic civ ability, with a useless UU, a leader ability that I've never even got to use in my games with them (so it's essentially not having a leader ability at all), and weak improvement which can only be built in one city.
2) Zulu. Domination civs are already boring, but this just goes all in with combat bonuses. At least other civs like Macedon give you a cool mechanic to generate science when conquering, these are just narrowly designed.
3) Korea. Just overall boring. Spam seowons. Win. Nothing wrong with Korea being an OP science civ, it's just how it's implemented.
4) Georgia. Really convoluted and wonky design. Relying on chaining golden ages and other civs attacking your city states. Encourages you to spread your religion to city states even though in RV it's best to ignore them.
5) Any leader Ability that is "If X is declared, then Y for 10 turns" should just be redone. It's a temporary bonus, some of them are hard to activate (Robert, Tamar), it feels gamey, or it can be easily exploited (Cyrus). I'm also not a fan of tourism-only bonuses (French civ ability, Film Studio, etc) since its only Literally good for one type of victory condition. All other abilities can be used for other victory types.

 

[Deadly Dog]

Top 5 for me is hard, and I have to say there are many civs I haven't played through a whole game with , and few I haven't tried at all. But here goes:

1. Cree. I love all the bonuses, find they are rarely OP, and have played this civ to every victory condition, and to date is still my only win on deity. I hate crowding cities which hurts my game with most civs but not this one
2. Rome. Played this civ once way back in vanilla, and I put it here because I think it is the perfect starter civ. Roads and border expansion taken care of for you so you can figure out the game. My son loves Rome and constantly warns me when I face Trajan as an AI that once he gets legionnaires I'm toast.
3. Ottomans. Fun games where you actually beg the AI to forward settle you.
4. Russia. Because I like making a faith economy and I also like not having to buy tiles. And spreading out cities like the Cree.
5. Phonecia. Still haven't won a game with Dido, and the moving of the capital seems like a tricky thing to work into my game strategy, but just love getting the fast settlers from a Cothon.

Honorable mentions: England(Victoria), Indonesia, Mali, Greece (Gorgo) and Moari for some very fun games.

Worst:
1. Canada. Always been my home, always hated hockey. RCMP is not an organization I would brag about. And most Canadians have never set foot on tundra, let alone farmed it (you can't). Should not be a civ in the first place. Thanks for making a joke of my country, Firaxis.
2. Scotland. Don't like that I never get to use one of the features. Trying to level up scouts into something useful is a trap to be avoided. Don't like golf.
3. Georgia. Haven't tried them, can't imagine buidling 3 levels of walls to check out their UI.
4. America. I've tried them enough to appreciate the tactical bonuses, but a late UI and UU makes this civ feel very bland in my hands.
5. Kongo. Love the idea of building some seriously tall cities, but hate waiting around for the AI to convert my cities so I can try to get an apostle....and do what, exactly?

 

[acluewithout]

I really think most of the Civs / Leaders are in a really great place. My favourites in terms of design are currently Hungary, India and Spain. Although, really, I rarely play anyone other than England.

Mapuche need a rethink. They’re a mess. I think I’d rather see their bonuses moved to Pantheons / Dark Age Cards, because the whole Bonus v Golden Age can make the AI really challenging in the right circumstances.

Canada need a massive rethink. They are totally fine in terms of power level, but are just too meme, particularly the Tundra Farms (I mean, Shut the Front Door, those are just a terrible idea) and the Mountie (Mountie was always going to be a UU, but the implementation is horrible and Canada should have got a second UU to make the whole situation less silly).

I think Khmer are pretty good, but @sukritact has a great Mod that shows you just how much better they could be. See here. Loving @Deliverator Indonesia Alt Leader too, but that’s another story.

I think Victoria (England) Pax B is still a bit off. I think they could just drop the free melee unit and free ships, and just have a +% production for ships and melee on foreign continents. But it’s fine as it is, and the free units are quite useful. (RNDs can be crazy cheap - half price, free ship (which is basically a further discount to their price), and now there’s a production card for building them.)

Netherlands leader ability is also a bit rubbish. Willy should at least give an extra trade route or something.

Kongo, Georgia, Scotland are awesome, and I don’t get why people have problems with them. China, Korea, America are great but yes bit boring sometimes - nothing an Alt Leader couldn’t fix.

Ottomans UU unit needs a small rethink, because it’s just ok easy to avoid the -1 population limit.

And for the love of God, could someone give the Cree a free starting recon. That would be a unique bonus, totally fit with their design, and would perfectly balance out the extra cost of their unique recon unit. Seriously. How is this not a thing.

 

[Arithmion]

Just going to chime in here and say that even if the Cree were a horrible Civ to play as, I would love them solely because I love that Poundmaker has been treated with the respect and dignity that he deserves. More native tribes from anywhere in the world please!

As for a civ that needs re-working, I would have to say Canada, only because right now it's just a meme. The surprise war thing is kind of fun, and actually does help with preventing early game surprise wars, but otherwise their civ is just so underpowered. Although that does get me thinking, maybe it's not that Canada needs a rework. Maybe if the Diplomatic victory were reworked, Canada would be better suited for it. (Maybe make a diplomatic victory possible only if one had never gone past 100-150 grievances with any one opponent?)

There are some Civs that are just very forgettable "nothingburgers." Off the top of my head, I'm not even sure what Phillip's abilities even are, and the Conquistador feels excessively situational. I want to love the Turks, but I've never loved micromanaging governors, and I never end up using their governor for anything but loyalty (or throwing him in an enemy capital and forgetting about him. Again, I think there are just some little things that can be done to make some civs more unique. Everybody's favorite civs are the ones that stand out: Mapuche, Cree, Kongo.

 

[_hero_]

Canada need a massive rethink. They are totally fine in terms of power level, but are just too meme, particularly the Tundra Farms (I mean, Shut the Front Door, those are just a terrible idea) and the Mountie (Mountie was always going to be a UU, but the implementation is horrible and Canada should have got a second UU to make the whole situation less silly).

Unless that second UU was a non-military unit, please no. Making a civ with a major trait that actively discourages warmongering and then giving them an extra UU that they'll probably never get a chance to use because of it would just feel awful.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I'm not sure about best, but there are 3 civs that I basically never play... Ottomen, Zulu, and Mongols. This is because their bonuses are about 95% about warmongering and fighting, which I don't want to do. So I'd rework those to have a bit more diverse effects. Perhaps the mongols can get culture/faith/etc from horses, the ottomen can have more significant mercantile boosts than the small ones their UB gives the, and the Zulu... idk!

 

[martyb36]

Like:

1. Egypt
Feel like I can go any direction with Egypt, early war with UU, culture with late game sphinxes and wonders throughout game. Get a little extra money and district discount which can help any win condition.
Also since they get flood plain start bias you are one of the least likely Civs to get tundra (Only helpful if you don’t re-roll starts I guess).

2. China
Just great fun building lots of wonders and trying to get a mega Great Wall.

3. Macedon
If you’re going to go domination why not make it eternal war.

4. Indonesia
Flexible civ that seems good at everything, most reliable coastal civ.

5. Maori
Gives a very different way to start the game

Dislike:

1. Georgia
Just boring.

2. Khmer
I’m not far off liking these if they maybe made aqueducts half price or did something with dams. But as it stands they are a 1 trick pony.

3. Korea
Too easy, only really one direction to go, science win or out tech then war.

4. Greece
Seriously?! Especially under Pericles this Civ is way OP. Yeah their unique unit is dreadful but all their other bonus’ are so powerful it’s insane.

5. Kongo
I don’t always go for a religion but I don’t like not having the option at all.

 

[Leucarum]

Favourite Designs

Macedon - They are a really creative twist on warmongering strategy and all-round a lot of fun to play.

Rome - If there's a civ to benchmark others against I'd say its rome. They are solid and versatile without being supremely OP.

Cree - They were my go-to before GS. There's nothing outstanding in the design but all the elements fit together nicely.

Norway - It took firaxis a lot of iterations and trial/error but they got Norway to a point where they are interesting, unique and balanced

Both Categories

Canada - One of my favourite civ designs, and one that also needs more work. I like having more control over when you will and won't get declared on. The kinds of push your luck, high risk openings which streamers only post when they work are Canada's bread & butter. But they need some way to compensate for tundra being crap without spending builder charges before they could be a good civ.

Would like to see rework

Mapuche - The loyalty hitting was a great design concept which they got right with Eleanor and botched with Mapuche. I love the golden age bonus and chemamull but the civ feels disjointed as it stands.

Egypt - Egypt's abilities all feel kind of generic to me. Wonder building boost is like a worse version of Qin, there's plenty of sphinx-like tile improvements, the chariot archer is different-ish but not enough to make them stand out for me...

Khmer - They are arguably the best at quite a niche strategy... And not very good at much else. Pass.

Mali - The production malus is a massive whallop. I thought they would be my favourite GS civ, but I struggle to enjoy playing as them.