After much thinking about it...best Civ in the game: British!

[ChrTh]

Why, you ask?

Well, first off, I almost always go for the Space Ship victory, so when I'm looking for the "best" Civ, I'm looking for the one that'll get me to the spaceship first. So if you're big into military victories, well, then the Brits might not be for you.

Now, after playing Civ II recently, I've discovered that the Great Library is amazing. I know, I know: a little broken. Well, they fixed it for Civ III, and now you need to know the civilizations to gain the advances. Well, let me tell you: the Great Library can still be phenomenal...if you play the British.

Why? Two reasons:

1) Start off with Alphabet (Commercial), so they're only two techs away from being able to build it.

2) They come with a Scout. Send that scout out; forget about finding cool places to build new cities; instead, meet people! The more Civs you meet, the more Techs you can gain via the Library!

All advantageous is the Man O War. Since it doesn't show up for awhile, military (or at least Naval) dominance for Britain can be assured at one of the most conflict-heavy times. Throw in the Golden Age at the point (if you haven't already gotten it), and the Brits are nigh-unstoppable.


of course, all this changes after people start playing the game and finding new fun stuff to do...

 

[Fayadi]

Imaginative huh??If it was attacked by Military civ how?Worse still China which has the best military in middle age!Even u had finished the wonder for sure that city will be the primary target for all civilisations to be captured!!

 

[CurtSibling]

Originally posted by Fayadi
Imaginative huh??If it was attacked by Military civ how?Worse still China which has the best military in middle age!Even u had finished the wonder for sure that city will be the primary target for all civilisations to be captured!!

Your chinese riders may very well end up with british pikemen's poles stuck in thier horses!!!!

Rider also will be pulverised by cannons!!!

 

[Malys Faisent]

I am really leery about expansionist civs, on one hand you can get into contact with other civs early, on the other hand, it doesn't actually do much for you until you get some roads between you...especially if you are going for that peaceful/trade strategy. The Great Library isn't nearly as impressive as it used to be, depending on the map...since you only get tech from people you have met...expansionist is the same way, if the map is islands expansionist is a waste, or if there are alot of other expansionists then you won't get as many goody huts even being on one large landmass.

Industrious rocks though...workers being able to maximize your city's production quickly is a HUGE benefit, though one that is not so impressive in the later stages of the game, but it leads to a quicker start than expansionist, in my opinion...your cities grow faster and produce better, you can get roads where they need to be faster...I think Industrious can be more expansionist than Expansionist if played correctly.

Military is nice, but not that awesome...if you lag in tech military only delays the inevitable...its hard enough fighting wars before the development of decent defensive units anyway...it can be done but it cuts into your early expansion and race to the industrial age something fierce...though a military power with good technology is going to be scary. There are quite a few more penalties in conquering another city...resistors, lack of culture, ect...a military victory is not going to be nearly as easy in Civ III.

 

[The_Clash]

You guys got it all wrong, the Americans will kick China's and Britians butt. (don't get me wrong the Brits are my second favorite) The American's come in with their F-15 and everyone has to go running. :soldier:

 

[ChrTh]

Originally posted by The_Clash
You guys got it all wrong, the Americans will kick China's and Britians butt. (don't get me wrong the Brits are my second favorite) The American's come in with their F-15 and everyone has to go running. :soldier:

The issue is, can the Americans get to the F-15? If you're playing a different Civ, your goal is basically to win before the Americans get the F-15 (or the Germans get the Panzer), unless you got 'em on your side.

 

[DonJoel]

All advantageous is the Man O War. Since it doesn't show up for awhile, military (or at least Naval) dominance for Britain can be assured at one of the most conflict-heavy times. Throw in the Golden Age at the point (if you haven't already gotten it), and the Brits are nigh-unstoppable

Really, the brits in my experience is the worst civ in the game, atleast their special unit.

The manowar is uselles. Right after you have built your first you discover the ironclad which makes it useless. It can only be partially usefull if you dont have any coal to power your ironclads (but that is not very likely)but naval units is not nearly as useful as land units. And if you dont got coal you can be assured that your competitors have it and then its ironclad vs manowar wich means manowar loose big time.
And it only get +1 attack and som better bombardement anyway so it gets my award for worst csu.

And that time of the game seems to be a calm time in my experience. There is alot of war in the beggining and in the end, but in the middle ages everybody is just consolidating their ground and is building city improvements.

It is to bad the manowar is so useless since it perhaps is the coolest csu.

 

[Fayadi]

"You guys got it all wrong, the Americans will kick China's and Britians butt. (don't get me wrong the Brits are my second favorite) The American's come in with their F-15 and everyone has to go running. "The Clash



American kick China and Britain's butt yes u can kick Britain but not China!Air force in Civ3 seems to be useless !Not powerful enough ,Expansionist seems useless!Whats the purpose of early scouting?To meet people earlier huh?Military and Industrious will server u well throughout the game.Having special unit in Air seems unlucky!

 

[Malys Faisent]

Industrious / Commercial

Hmmm that would be the French.

CSU that is worth something in the Middle Ages, a defender that has a reasonable change to attack as well. Plus you end up with an incredible infrastructure, better commerce and less corruption (though not THAT much less)

Fayadi, I think Commercial > Military...win the tech race and it doesn't matter if you've got elite riflemen in every city when you are getting pounded by tanks or worse...China's rider is really nice though, I'll give you that, perhaps one of the best units in its timeframe (though War Elephants are really close as well...no resources needed to the Rider's horse and iron)

Other than that it seems we both agree on Industrious.

 

[he510541]

Sorry to but in here, but I, personally don't think any Civ in the game is the "Best". All I want to point out is that the playing styles are the prime determiner of the Civ for any one individual.

But I am really pissed. Greeks are the only Scientific/Economic Civ in the Game and their special unit sucks! @@(%$$!&^$%~~!!!!!! I really want a Scientific/Economic Civ that has a special unit that actually appears at an important time.

And no, I can't make my own, My family only got one game and it is my brother's. HE doesn't want to change it for five years.

 

[zardoz]

[plasma] In response...

"The issue is, can the Americans get to the F-15? If you're playing a different Civ, your goal is basically to win before the Americans get the F-15 (or the Germans get the Panzer), unless you got 'em on your side." posted by ChrTh

My first finished game ....took til 2004 ...but the American kicked ass.... squeezed out the Aztecs with culture and got healthy lead there by dominating approximately 2/5 the map...the Persians were the first to get my boot (by the way, the Persians immortals aren't immortal...hear that? Hussein and bin Laden?) ..they wer however pretty tough....but I had a slight culture advantage I use as as well as a Zulu ally.... then it was time to decide who to decimate next after a break to advance my science and culture. Kicked Zulu's ass with moderate difficulty because we were landlinked.....The Iroquois proved somewhere between Persian and Zulu, however that might have been due to their part of the continent being the furthest away from my primary cultural/military base. Americans do rock! Make no mistake!!! and I never had to fly and F-15 to do it even......

 

[Baleog]

Which civ is the best does depend on your playing style. After well over a year of civ2 I have settled on the militiristic expansionist approach as the most fun you can have playing the game. It was also the most strategic way to play what essentially is a strategy, though with the new resource system that could change.

Speaking as your average ignorant fool who still hasn't got the game my personal choice would be industrious and expansionist. Expanding cities quickly plus building roads fast should establish an early large civ with proper infrastructure thus setting you up for the rest of the game no matter what style of play you like ... maybe?

By the way Zardoz what fo the Persians have to do with the modern world. They have long since left this plane. (not being picky and akward I swear just trying to be accurate).

 

[tank]

Germany has the best civilization because of the panzer tank. Ground untis are so much more useful then air and naval. as long as you have a transport to move them around you in good shape. air units can be useful for bombarding but thats about it.

 

[jhigham]

Originally posted by he510541
But I am really pissed. Greeks are the only Scientific/Economic Civ in the Game and their special unit sucks!

Man, I don't know what you are talking about. 1/3 defender available to build from the start? That defensive unit is good up until musketman!

With the Hoplite you don't have to waste shields and/or gold building warriors, then spearmen, then pikemen, then muskets, instead every unit that you build is good up into the middle ages.

 

[Malys Faisent]

The only bad thing about Hoplites is that you lose the ability to make them once you get pikemen. I don't know that pikemen get the X2 defense against mounted troops, but if they don't you end up paying 50% more in shields for a unit of troops that runs the risk of sucking up your iron resource.

Hoplites are one of, if not the best, CSU of the ancient era.

Edit > To Tank

Panzers are nice, but you get them fairly late in the game. If you aren't doing that well when you get them they aren't going to help much, and if you are doing well when you get them you probably don't need them to keep your civ going. The German AIs in my games never even had the chance to make them because they either didn't have oil or I took it away. Earlier CSU, especially those in the Middle Ages, can really bring a civilization to real power (<shudder> Indians and War Elephants!)

 

[Inquisition]

Originally posted by Malys Faisent
The only bad thing about Hoplites is that you lose the ability to make them once you get pikemen. I don't know that pikemen get the X2 defense against mounted troops, but if they don't you end up paying 50% more in shields for a unit of troops that runs the risk of sucking up your iron resource.

I'm fairly sure the pikemen get the bonus... but honestly you don't really need the improvement to pikemen... the Hoplites are good enough... at least that's what I've encountered. The Greeks are probably the toughest civ to erase early on... I had to wait a long time, playing the squeeze-by-culture game, then finally storm them with Cossacks I had built up just for them. I was already building infantry by the time I was able to make them go away... probably the toughest opponent I fought.

 

[ChrTh]

Originally posted by zardoz
the Persians were the first to get my boot (by the way, the Persians immortals aren't immortal...hear that? Hussein and bin Laden?)

Ummm...I need to be a nitpicker here.

Persians are ethnically diverse from Arabs (and Turks). Granted, most are Muslim; but at the same time, their lack of shared ethnicity is part of the problem in the middle-east.

 

[Blackdragon]

the problem is that the game was made by americans and if u look at tecnical data u ll discover that the british vessel and the german tank were mush more powerful in reality (the british Man-o-war is called by scientists: Line-ship; and the german panzer: PZIII and Tiger and Leopard I (the leopard I was the platform for the modern armor tanks like M1A1 Abrams or Challenger II ) ) a iron-plates line-ship (Man-O-War) could sunk a ironclad and a attacking Leopard I could destroy a M1A1 Abrams in real-life otherwise the F15 has realistic atributes agains a ordinary jet-fighter

the problem is that the game was designed by americans who are as patriotic as germans in WWII

dont u think?

 

[dozenlong]

I think you have a mistake in your assessment of the M1A1 or more modern M1A2--in both of their respective times there was not a tank in the world that came close to matching its capabilities tank for tank, and it has been battle proven.

I agree that the Manowar should have been more powerful--the Panzer unit probably shouldnt represent the Panzer tanks, which lost much of their advantage later in the war as other countries caught up, but their method of utilizing the tanks, infantry, and blitzkreig tactics. The tanks themselves weren't that superior--the tactics utilizing the strengths of the tanks were what made them killers.

 

[Blackdragon]

indeed ur very right, but....

the lates nazi tank generation known as Tiger and Leopard I were much more powerful as any allied tank in aspects of armor, fire rate, speed ect. so there is a need to meke the german "panzer" tank much stronger so that a elite Panzer could destroy a ordinary Modern "reactive" armor tank,

but all in all ur right indeed