Best Archipelago Civ?

[Save_Ferris]

What do you think? I prefer Polynesia, especially on tiny islands where I can settler spam. But each are good for archipelagos:

England: Offers a small, but nice bonus as a UA. Also the only civ (I think) with a naval UU, which in my opinion is awesome.

Songhai: No need to be careful with embarked units, which is great while island hopping for barb money.

Polynesia: As I said above, great in early game. Plus, good for cultural victories, which always go better on archipelagos as the AI is less likely to invade.

Vikings: Great for speeding up transporting armies across the ocean, which always takes too slow in my opinion. Also, it's always fun to pillage an island and get off fast!

Ottomans: Say what you want about them, but great with raging barbs.

 

[Polycrates]

I'd say probably England as the most-balanced archipelago civ. The +2 movement for embarked units is really massive for the logistics of an empire on multiple landmasses, and the +2 movement for naval units lets your navy concentrate its force everywhere all at once, as well as letting naval engagements be fought on your own terms. The SotL utterly dominates the seas for two eras, and it's also a fantastic artillery piece for swift amphibious assaults and defending fragile beachheads. Longbows are also ideal units for defending isolated outposts.

Polynesia would be a close second, I think. They would certainly take the early lead, and could well leverage that into an unassailable advantage, but post-astronomy they're no better at nautical matters than anyone else (except their triremes I guess).

Denmark seems more suited to coastal raiding on a continents map, though their ability to make lightning strikes from the coast is second-to-none (England are potentially better post-navigation though). They have no naval bonuses though, and so they could well be exquisitely vulnerable to superior navies.

Songhai not really, the defensiveness can't match the extra mobility, and their horses aren't as well-suited to smaller landmasses.

The other civ that might thrive on archipelago is Babylon, with their ability to race to astronomy/navigation via education faster than anyone. And better walls are useful for more isolated cities.

 

[Revoran]

Spain needs a mention here because of the Conquistador's ability to found cities like a Settler on different landmasses/continents than the Capital.

I am hoping for a future Korean civ with a Turtle Ship UU and a Portuguese civ with a Carrack or something as well as extra sight for naval and embarked units UA or something.

 

[BobDole]

England. Their UA lets them really move around and ambush/retreat easily (even scarier if you get Great Lighthouse) and the Ship of the Line can really control the seas for awhile, at which point you can upgrade all your heavily promoted ships to Destroyers. I don't have Denmark yet, so I can't comment on them, but they seem beastly.

 

[Antarion]

ottomans will dominate the early sea by masses of triremes (and no real maintance problem)

england can easier move from one side to the other but the bonus gets relativly weaker in later stages of the game, still their ships are faster in combat.

polynesia can spam cities all over the place but u dont need astronomy on archipelago to move around (it makes ways only shorter)

vikings are bastards in amphibious warfare, they dont rely on normal navies. especially siege units are good damn in their hands (move and shoot if the enter the coast)

songhai have a good economy plus the chance to invade without need of a navy. your enemy needs 3 hits on your landforces to take them down on water tiles.

spain are imho like songhai, good eco and kinda nice invading force but its more specialised in terms of your time window. conquistadores are multi bonus unit and its their most versatile of all 3 boni.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

England is better than advertised with murderbows and a rather impressive mobility advantage at sea that can be abused tactically

 

[TheDice]

Denmark is out of control. Embark a horse unit, end it's turn next to the coast. Disembark next turn, leaving you with minimum 3 movement points remaining. Attack, and then withdrawal back to the sea all in the same turn. It's overpowered. The berserker alone is godly, and when you start setting up and firing siege the same turn you disembark it gets silly. All you need is a naval unit to make sure your embarked units don't get run over by a stray AI ship.

 

[CYZ]

All you need is a naval unit to make sure your embarked units don't get run over by a stray AI ship.

And this is exactly their main weakness. When playing against AI it shouldn't be too hard to gain the naval advantage and really exploit every aspect of their UA.

Without naval superiority however, more likely in multiplayer, their UA is almost useless. You simply won't be able to use it. They also have zero additional bonusses.

So Denmark is potentially very strong but also very easy to counter.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Another good civ I thought of is America, great for island-grabbing.

 

[The A.K.T]

Polynesia and Denmark is nice. Polynesia= Culture and early exploration. Denmark= naval rush and pillaging kicks England on all front proud to be a Dane!

 

[ColinTH]

Domination - England.
Culture - Polynesia.

Archipelago unfortunately can be tedious until optics. Along came Polynesia, they are definately a case of "make hay while the sun shines", great fun to play as.

 

[doctorfork]

Polynesia, hands down. Getting out to explore, establish trade(and get game-breaking RAs with everyone), find ruins, find resources and already have a map of choice overseas real estate gives you a nearly insurmountable lead on arch maps. On top of that, throw in Moais with the combat/culture bonuses...

 

[Lyoncet]

IMO, Denmark is considerably better for archipelago domination than England, mostly because they're considerably better for domination on any map than England (or most other civs, really), and the 2 extra ship movement and SotL just don't compare to Berserker-Ski Infantry and the extra mobility. Even if you don't exploit the disembarkation movement bonus bug, which makes Denmark's units -particularly siege- unbelievably powerful if there's coast nearby.

Haven't played Polynesia yet, but yeah, Moai plus early embarkation seem pretty solid.

 

[GenjiKhan]

When Multiplayer games get improved, I think many people will say that Songhai is the best civ to archipelago domination,just like in pangea and continents. but now,I think the best one is Polynesia.