Are there any reliable guides/advices on the different civs for each era somewhere?

[kaspergm]

Either on this forum or elsewhere?

I find various tier lists on some gaming sites, and they seem very ... random ... when one compares one list to another.

In my current game, I'm going into Renais... I mean Early Modern (yuck!), and I could use some more gold, so I'm considering picking the Dutch (because I've only met one other civ who I'm constantly warring, so I reckon Venice is not a good option), but then I look on various lists, and I see Dutch rated very poorly. Why? I mean 1 gold per pop seems pretty solid, and the special district seems like it could offer me some good gold, although maybe it's hard to use the harbor adjacency restriction?

 

[Siptah]

With 60 cultures, I think a lot of the fun comes from trying them out in different situations and combination. So I would just recommend trying the Dutch and see how they feel. But that‘s just me.

The big drawback is indeed the VOC placement. If you‘ve been any of the unique harbor cultures before, there is ab big chance to get some +40-60 districts. If you haven‘t build many harbors nor are able to build close to them, the VOC is rather useless. The Dutch are, like the Siamese, restricted in this way, ranging from quite good to very poor depending on your current map/placement and it helps if you were a „sea“ culture at any time before. The LT is always nice, but I feel I often get more gold out of the Venetians.

Generating money is in general a bit slow until you invest in it, since the market quarter itself isn‘t that good. Trade and adjacency can skyrocket your income quite quickly though once you get it really started (which means building the infrastructure for trade).

 

[fortydayweekend]

I like the Dutch.. You need to build a money economy at some point, and if you do it with triangles of market quarters that can be very slow to get off the ground (luxury adjancies help).

If you have good harbor spots with 3+ land tiles adjacent and the ability to build MQs next to them, then the Dutch come at the perfect time in the game to ramp up money production and let you focus on other things in the last 2 eras

 

[kaspergm]

With 60 cultures, I think a lot of the fun comes from trying them out in different situations and combination. So I would just recommend trying the Dutch and see how they feel. But that‘s just me.

The big drawback is indeed the VOC placement. If you‘ve been any of the unique harbor cultures before, there is ab big chance to get some +40-60 districts.

Hadn't really done a lot of work on harbors before, but I was on a fairly long-and-slim continent, so I tried them out, and I managed to get a fair share of +36 districts, which seemed pretty ok. My gold income went from +a couple of hundreds at the start of the era to just below +8000 per turn at the end of the era, so I did manage to solve my gold shortage pretty effectively. Overall I was pleased, I'm not sure I understand exactly how the unique naval ... trait? ... for this civilization works, because it's not actually a unit afaics, but it did seem to give my embarked units something like 10 movement, which was nice.

Now I need to decide what to do for Industrial. I haven't played research civ yet in this game, so France looks tempting, but I've tried them before. Austria-Hungary could also been an option, people seem to rave about them? I'm not exactly pressed on influence, but I guess you can never really have too much.

 

[fortydayweekend]

France is good to set you up for a tech win, followed by Turkey or Sweden

I haven't tried A/H - maybe good if you want to do a lot of merging megacities and need more influence?

 

[Buktu]

If you haven‘t build many harbors nor are able to build close to them, the VOC is rather useless. The Dutch are, like the Siamese, restricted in this way, ranging from quite good to very poor depending on your current map/placement and it helps if you were a „sea“ culture at any time before.

If I go for cultures like the Dutch or Siamese hamlets are a high priority. You can just place down one near the coast to get these districts rolling. Ofc there are often better positions for the hamlets but I'd rather give up some food or production than those juicy EDs.

 

[Taefin]

It might just be against the spirit of the game to have a tier list, and the benefits are sufficiently transparent to assess based on your current situation. Sounds like you looked at Dutch and said, obviously I can turn that into some gold, and you very much did, so I’d trust your judgement going forward.

I think, if anything, that faith-based cultures might be the most situational. Currently only the lowest tier religious benefits seem to be any good (though I’m guessing this will change quickly enough) and so the main reason to get more faith seems to be for the grievances and then if you can get culture abilities, EQ or wonders that capitalize on faith/followers. An early faith rush could get you some good tenets though (is that why Celts are popular?). But an EQ like Aksumites that’s gold per region following religion sets you up to fight over faith later on (does joining the dominant religion work for this too?).

 

[Victoria]

if you have only met a faction you are warring with then you ain’t trading amd probably have few harbours or you would have explored (I always do, intelligence is key) so no, do not go Dutch in my opinion unless you can seriously ramp up your international trading fast. Just because a civ has money attached to its definition, does not mean you are going to be rolling in it. Personally I would get a market quarter triangle or square going somewhere and a harbour and find some civs. Should have been tried earlier, it seems more important in this game and finding an unsettled continent just rocks because laters new cities are very productive. Meeting new civs means they will buy your resources which is free gold and better relations, especially when you can get more copper and horses and bump up your infrastructure with these also.
Try a game as the Phoenicians some time, that bireme lasts a few turns in deep water amd a new continent is a gold mine.

Currently only the lowest tier religious benefits seem to be any good

? I even as non military play I quite like the tenets for war support and while +1 strength may not seem like a lot, adding it to the +2 civic and others can really make some gains.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

The later ones have some good benefits, that scale well for later. Reduced civic costs, faster/stronger units/better war support, etc.

 

[Setis]

Overall I was pleased, I'm not sure I understand exactly how the unique naval ... trait? ... for this civilization works, because it's not actually a unit afaics, but it did seem to give my embarked units something like 10 movement, which was nice.

Basically the Fluyt is a transport ship upgrade, what your non-naval units turn into when they embark.

 

[Taefin]

The later ones have some good benefits, that scale well for later. Reduced civic costs, faster/stronger units/better war support, etc.

Wait, aren’t they all negligible flat bonuses, +50 science per wonder, +20 gold per alliance. The only ones that seem especially powerful for economy are +2 for trees and +5 for quarters which are very meaningful when you get them. That’s why I usually take the militaristic ones later (and the AI usually leaves the civic one for me) but it seems to help with what the player currently needs the least help against the AI with: mid-late game warfare. I might be a little too indifferent to late civics as well, but once I get my culture affinities where I want them i find I’m only taking civics to find something to do with influence. I find merging cities more rewarding.

 

[8housesofelixir]

I'd say the real charm of Dutch is not the Harbor adjacency of VOC anymore. Even with the maximum setup of Phoenicians-Carthaginians-Norsemen - which is heavily railroaded, not to say requires a lot of investment and map generation RNG - you will only get 20×4=80 Money per VOC. What does 80 M per turn mean in Early Modern? Cannot even afford the upkeep of a small Army of 4 Arquebusiers (35×4=140). Unless every single piece of your Territory has at least 2 Harbors, the VOC adjacency won't yield you much; the flat yield is okay, but with the scaling Money cost in the late game, it is much less profitable.

In the current version, Dutch mostly shines in VOC's "+2 Money per Trader" ability, which is something stackable. Pick any Agrarian or Norsemen beforehand, you will have a bunch of Traders when EM arrives. With Trading Family Infrastructures, every Trader shall generate +10 M; with stacking VOCs every Trader can reach +16 or even +20 M if you have a big city, and you are able to fill the Trader Slots many more times than find a spot with good Harbor adjacency; the later is only icing on the cake.

Dutch LT - +1 M per Population - is implying such a playstyle as well: More Population, more Money; and they benefit more from high population instead of Harbors. The same can be said for Siamese, which has a stacking M per Population bonus on their EQ.

TLDR: Dutch-Siamese is the setup for a population-based Money play (or Phonicians-Celts-Norse-Dutch, for stacking more Trader value and Population), instead of a trading-based Money play (in which you would better pick Ghanaians-Venetians-Persians; and Venetians EQ would skyrocketing your Money income once you researched Internet Technology at the very end).