Which new Civs have you already played?

[TomKQT]

I find Assyria quite bland. You kill a city or two, and then you are stuck with a warmonger penalty and a few towers that will take forever to take a range promotion when upgraded to trebs.

I also don't find their bonus very good. You need to conquer cities of civs that are technologically ahead of you. I don't mean that it's hard or something, it's just not very common for me
But yea, I got like 2 or 3 techs this way when I was playing them. Definitely not more

 

[Adder]

I started out with Brazil because of the cultural bonus and that being the new mechanic. They where way more powerfull than I expected that UA and UI proved very strong, didnt get to try their UU though.

Next was Venice, who proved to be a economic powerhouse. I had fun but won't play them again, I prefer my CS on the map as allies.

Shoshone where next... and a snooze fest. Their bonusses gave a nice start but nothing spectacular. I like starting with a scout though.

Portugal was a economic wonder and I very much prefer them to Venice when playing financial. I liked their UU and building that UI all over the map was kinda funny.

Indonesia was the last I tried so far... I tried 3 games before I managed to spawn a continents map that contained smaller island for the spices. When those little Islands are present I enjoy them.. when theyre not.. well...

Im thinking to try Poland next.. I love social policies so much I almost always go cultural. More policies should be fun and make Poland seem very allround

Assyria and Zulu don't attract me, I'll play them in due time but heavy warmonger civs ain't my thing.
Morroco finally seems like what Arabia should've been. bit boring and I prefer naval play over desert play.
Deserts seems to desirable in the game's current state anyway, Desert bias almost feels like cheating.

 

[DeutschDachs]

Indonesia

I've played multiple times. I find them fun, but a little too strong in that I don't have much trouble winning with them on Emperor (although I've only just gone back to my pre-BNW difficulty, Immortal, and not with Indonesia).


Morocco

While Morocco looks strong on paper, and my experience in practice is that they're somewhat less so (highly dependent on early placement with multiple accessible trading partners, a desert UI with no desert start bias, and little to no evidence from my experience that AI civs preferentially trade with them with the gold bonus), I do enjoy playing them somewhat. When you get the right start, that early culture can even be meaningful although it invites comparisons with "Old France" and comes up short in that comparison; what it's not going to do is make you a difficult conquest for culture victory. Unfortunately my last - and most advanced - Morocco game suffered an apparently irretrievable crash, with the game crashing at the same point regardless of which saved game I start from (unless I go more than a couple back, but I'm not inclined to replay that much of the same game).

Assyria

I'm not sure if my poor experience with Assyria is a consequence of changes to warmongering rather than the civ, but I've been unsuccessful with them and, moreover, unsuccessful in a way that doesn't lead to an interesting challenge. Few of the changes in G&K and none in BNW strongly favour warmongering, so playing a warmonger feels a lot like playing vanilla - which, compared with the game with both expansions, comes up short.

Venice

I share the OP's experience. I raced ahead so fast in an Emperor game that I just got bored and left it by around 1200 AD, with leads both in score and in most demographics (and rapidly catching up in the remaining demographics).



I'll have to look up that advice. I rushed Currency in my last game (Morocco, Immortal), the first where I'd got a desert start with the civ, deviating only to take Writing, and Petra was completed a tech before I reached Currency, let alone started building it.



I have to say my longest, and most enjoyable, BNW game was with Siam, my pre-BNW favourite.

Morocco does have a desert start bias. You must have just been unlucky. I've played poland, morocco, venice, Brazil, shoshone, assyria. Poland, venice, and morocco were run away wins. Assyria was a win only because it was a duel map and i barely survived my debt and unhappiness. Brazil had a ton of jungle for culture but no production to build necessary wonders, and every time I play the shoshone i set new record lows for ruins somehow. I still do alright with them regardless but I'vequit when iI feel like my uu was wasted. All fun civs, need to retry Brazil and refocus production. Assyria... Maybetthey're best for a science start and late game war... Warmongering is too punishedright now

 

[IkM]

My favourite so far are the Shoshone. The Pathfinder especially can be an extremely useful unit, at least up to Emperor. The Shoshone are great if you want to go up a level (or two).

Pathfinders are really great but can't say the same for Comanche Riders

 

[de_baser]

Venice is just wild. I love how i don't have to micromanage a bunch of cities, something i tend to get a slight bit fed up with when i have a massive empire running a specialist economy. With Venice, you only have to think about making your one good city into a massive monster, building fun trade routes, siphoning food and hammers from your previously-CS puppets.
This really tickles my nerves as a stat-maxing maniac.

And when your happiness can't support more CS's to buy, just pop the merchant regularly, with a completed commerce tree, of course - In the information era, that's 4000 gold + 60 Influence. Sick, ne?

 

[Tyrvos]

I played Morocco and Venice. They both fit my play style, so both were fun for me.

The incoming trade routes for Morocco were insane and when I got attacked, I had Berber cavalry and the opposing force just couldn't push forward. A very fun civ for me.

Venice was also very fun. I enjoy controlling trade and all, so it's just my playstyle. By the Modern Age, I had enough wealth to manipulate World Wars, so I could produce wonders, improvements, and get city-states as the rest were busy fighting. I've only done one game with them, but it was one of my favorite games in Civ 5.

 

[JtW]

If I read correctly, the Zulu and Indonesia are the least popular (least played and highest not fun to fun ration). Why do you think is that?

 

[Firesmacker]

Shoshone, Poland, and currently Morocco. I've had fun with all three so far.

I doubt I will ever play Venice since it doesn't suit my (new) domination play style.

 

[Dtekkar]

Ack, I forgot to vote for France! France are good. The Chateau is awesome.

I was surprised to find that the chateau created depth. I thought it was just gonna be "the better thing to make" and while it is powerful, the settling considerations and city tile sacrifices you have to make to fit chateaus and when to do it were engaging peacetime strategic choices, because you need to find a balance of food, production, and culture with them all at odds with each other and something always get sacrificed. Not an especially complicated mini-game, but it was a nice touch.

 

[ahawk]

For me, all of them are fun (especially Morocco and the Zulu) with the following exceptions:

As my avatar probably shows, France is usually my favorite civ (at least since Civ 3). But to be honest, I liked vanilla France a lot better. Why? Because vanilla France was all about Napoleon and not about Paris and culture: vanilla France simply got a passive culture boost, and let me focus on puppeting and war-mongering by itself. Now, France has a reasonable UI (which, somewhat humorously, can be built on coasts next to naval luxuries if need be), but the UI has odd requirements of being both 1) not adjacent to another of it, and 2) adjacent to a luxury. So, that in itself is a bit more managerial, forcing me to crunch numbers and calculate ideal spots to maximize their effect next to each lux tile. But, moreover, the UA is not very useful unless the best candidate(s) to attack happen to have a lot of Great Works in their cities, so that you can take the Great Works and get the theming bonuses. Even worse, since the UA only applies to your capital, even if you have a lot of Great Works you still need to have built some of the cultural wonders in your capital before anyone else, otherwise you're stuck with just the theming bonus to the measly museum you'll get. So, I find France a lot less fun than before.

My other 'not-fun' is the Shoshone. At first, I was thrilled at the thought of choosing Ruin bonuses and getting extra land. But the same Ruin bonus can't be taken consecutively, which means if you pop 4 ruins, you can only take the same thing twice for any given bonus. And while the extra land is incredibly useful, it's still a very passive boost. In many cases, they are only fun for the first 20 turns or so (on standard-pace... maybe once I try them on epic or marathon it'll be better), then are very boring for a long time because extra land and the defensive bonus in your own territory are both 100% passive bonuses requiring no special strategy. Then, after 175 turns or so, the 2nd UU comes up, which is admittedly fun again for a bit, but it's a UU that isn't part of my usual strategy except to use it to cap cities. So the 2nd UU that replaces cavalry is fun, but something I may only build 4 or 5 of.

 

[an2ki]

I win at Prince with Assyria at 1963ad. I had bigger problem with Barbs then with civilizations. Now I try again same civ in King all other standard and Pangea. Again greater problem with Barbs then with other civs.

 

[an2ki]

I win at Prince with Assyria at 1963ad. I had bigger problem with Barbs then with civilizations. Now I try again same civ in King all other standard and Pangea. Again greater problem with Barbs then with other civs.

Win type is by Conquest.

 

[Martinus]

I played Assyria, France (btw, if France is new, so should be, say, Arabia), Venice, Poland and Portugal and all seemed fun.

 

[black8]

assyria is pretty great i almost won science victory with,only Egypt beat me up on diplomatic victory.Poland is pretty good if you use free social policies well.

 

[Paradigne]

So far Venice and Poland are my favorites.

I just hate the slow start I got with my (3) attempts at Brazil. The jungle start really hurts early game.

 

[Jimdigriz]

The Shoshone seemed a bit overpowered to me but I can see that as the game goes on they have next to no benefit at all. Great for a very good start but the effect dwindles pretty quick. Its nice having 3 Pathfinders upgraded to Compound Bowman early on - that does seem a bit overpowered!

 

[ragepreacher]

Venice / Small / Emperor

WOW! so fun!
Just a capital city to worry about puppets manage themselves.
My turns are still fast even with 20 cities.

 

[seancolorado]

Just played Poland. Currently researching Public Schools (whatever tech that's called)

Oh man, Poland is so fun. Ducal Stables are amazing. UA is amazing.

Shame the Winged Hussars though, didn't get to try them because by the time I reached them Rome and I had both taken over our entire continent. And we were chummy so I didn't want to attack him

They have the least Non-fun votes for a reason and I agree!!

 

[kingofsealand]

Yes poland is incredible. IDK why everyones hating on indonesia they are all kinds of fun on a small continents map.

Also the most fun it think ive had since the expansion was playing morocco in scramble for africa, I only mention it b/c in the scenario morocco is identical to the basic civ but your unique culture policies means you can stack another 50% desert combat bonus on top of your berber calvary and kasbah. Unbeatable combination!

 

[local_hero]

I've played Brazil, Indonesia, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, and the Shoshone. Enjoyed all the games so far except the Morocco game. Tried a few games with them earlier, but quit quite early. Still didn't enjoy the game though, but I can't put my finger on it.

Indonesia is very situational. Played them on large islands and they were really fun. Though a type of map I very rarely play. But in another game where I tried them there were no good island spots. So, sadly, I think they might be extremely situational.

But Brazil, Poland and Portugal are my new favourites. Very fun civs imo. Im now trying to motivate myself to try Assyria, Venice and the Zulus... and new Arabia and France before other civs. Don't know why I feel I "should" do this even though I'd rather test out Greece, Siam, Songhai and Byzantium with the new mechanics!