Best civ for aggressiveness

[Arcoolka]

Hey CFC, I was wondering - what civ is the best for being aggressive and militaristic in CiV?

I'm thinking Aztecs because of the culture bonus each kill - with full Honor, it can give you a nice bonus every kill. But, my friend told me that Japan is good for doing full damage at low health.

What say you, CFC?

 

[adampjr]

I like the Germans with the barbarian bonus for early game aggression.

 

[Slvynn]

Huns and Japan, obviously

 

[Gehennas]

Huns are the best for early wars.

Japan, China and Mongols are the best warmongering civs in all eras.

 

[ShadowoftheDark]

Huns are so broke in this game its a joke. Just steamrolled through Diety just by playing Huns and beelining to Catapults and UU.

 

[S.K. Ren]

Japan- Kamikaze is the name of the game. Just build build build and kill kill kill.
Germany- You pay 25% less unit maintenance, that means you can field an army 33% larger per maintenance value than anyone else.
Attila- Rams and Horse Archers, next.
Suleiman- Germany on a boat, but better since every ship is a Privateer.
Persia- Turtle with Immortals on 1-2 cities until first GA and steam roll.
Boudicca- Picktish Warriors i.e Foreign Legion lite. Super easy early conquests, even more so when upgraded to pikemen. Free pillaging doesn't hurt either.
Iroquois- Wuzzat, resource free Swordsmen? Spam spam spam!
China/Mongol- Honor GG and steamroll.

Honorable Mentions
Aztec- While Jaguars are nice, they work better as harassers, pillaging lands and killing armies. Taking cities they are no better than the average warrior.
America- +1 Vision is nice but not exactly early aggression unless you go all in for catapults.
Rome- Legion and Ballista are strong but not game changers. Tactics can still overwhelm them easily.
Mayans- REXing can lead to a Machinery Slingshot with the right pantheon + Pyramids. Comes too late to be considered early though.
Askia- triple Barb and City Pillaging loot is nice but requires a bit more effort before you see a payoff. Just extra cash.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Boudicca- Picktish Warriors i.e Foreign Legion lite. Super easy early conquests, even more so when upgraded to pikemen. Free pillaging doesn't hurt either.

Don't forget the benefits of a Religion focus and spamming Holy Warriors.

Aztec- While Jaguars are nice, they work better as harassers, pillaging lands and killing armies. Taking cities they are no better than the average warrior.

Wait until you upgrade them.

 

[smallfish]

Arabia, Mongolia and the Huns

Actually I would say all the civs are the best for aggressiveness - even India.

 

[Arcoolka]

Japan- Kamikaze is the name of the game. Just build build build and kill kill kill.
Germany- You pay 25% less unit maintenance, that means you can field an army 33% larger per maintenance value than anyone else.
Attila- Rams and Horse Archers, next.
Suleiman- Germany on a boat, but better since every ship is a Privateer.
Persia- Turtle with Immortals on 1-2 cities until first GA and steam roll.
Boudicca- Picktish Warriors i.e Foreign Legion lite. Super easy early conquests, even more so when upgraded to pikemen. Free pillaging doesn't hurt either.
Iroquois- Wuzzat, resource free Swordsmen? Spam spam spam!
China/Mongol- Honor GG and steamroll.

Honorable Mentions
Aztec- While Jaguars are nice, they work better as harassers, pillaging lands and killing armies. Taking cities they are no better than the average warrior.
America- +1 Vision is nice but not exactly early aggression unless you go all in for catapults.
Rome- Legion and Ballista are strong but not game changers. Tactics can still overwhelm them easily.
Mayans- REXing can lead to a Machinery Slingshot with the right pantheon + Pyramids. Comes too late to be considered early though.
Askia- triple Barb and City Pillaging loot is nice but requires a bit more effort before you see a payoff. Just extra cash.

Germany - is that factoring in any bonuses from Social Policies? I'm wondering how little maintenance you could pay with full Honor + Autocracy.

Also, I don't have Gods n' Kings... yet.

 

[Vordeo]

Attila. Rams are awesome, and Horse Archers are pretty good too.

Of course you kind of lose momentum pretty early, but properly played you should have more than enough living space by that point.

 

[Jaaboo]

I still have a soft spot for England, given the increased strengths of cities. Longbows early on can do wonders softening up cities before your melee units and catapults get in range. They keep the extra range when they upgrade to gatling guns, yes?

Ships of the Line are pretty boss too, the only problem is that they're on the other side of the tree and are pretty late to show.

 

[Grendeldef]

Since no one has mentioned the Inca I have to. Not an obvious choice but given a suitable map they have a serious punch and among few others early warmongering is nicely financially supported by their UA.

G

 

[Major_Heartfire]

As someone else said, lots of civs can be good at warmongering in their own way.

Personally, since you said you don't have G&K, I would go with #1 Japan (Their ability applies to every single unit they will ever make for the entire duration of the game), #2 Germany (Discounts every unit you will ever make), #3 England (Great coastal bombardment capabilities [Ships of the Line], combined with fantastic longbowmen who keep their upgrades).

Everyone has their own personal opinion, but if I am going into a game getting ready to warmonger, these are my choices.

 

[Alatar1313]

Arabia, Mongolia and the Huns.

^ That. Mounted archery is pretty amazingly overpowered.

Add Egypt for also having chariot archers that do not require horses and thus are spammable units with nearly the ranged attack strength of composite bows...but for cheaper, with up to 5 movement sometimes, and at Wheel instead of Construction.

Also +2 happiness temple is sort of awesome, especially when combined with the +2 happiness per temple follower bonus if you can pick it up. Great way to control your puppet unhappiness from the 2 deity civs (i.e., 2-5 cities each) that you roll over with your chariot archers before they have the tech to stop you.

Additionally, the UA is nice for NC/IW.

 

[Colonel Travis]

The best part of G&K warmongering is the revamped GG citadel. You get China and plop those things out and sometimes you hardly have to fight. The enemy just melts around them, plus you get territory.

 

[Bl00dmage96]

Japan- Kamikaze is the name of the game. Just build build build and kill kill kill.
Germany- You pay 25% less unit maintenance, that means you can field an army 33% larger per maintenance value than anyone else.
Attila- Rams and Horse Archers, next.
Suleiman- Germany on a boat, but better since every ship is a Privateer.
Persia- Turtle with Immortals on 1-2 cities until first GA and steam roll.
Boudicca- Picktish Warriors i.e Foreign Legion lite. Super easy early conquests, even more so when upgraded to pikemen. Free pillaging doesn't hurt either.
Iroquois- Wuzzat, resource free Swordsmen? Spam spam spam!
China/Mongol- Honor GG and steamroll.

Honorable Mentions
Aztec- While Jaguars are nice, they work better as harassers, pillaging lands and killing armies. Taking cities they are no better than the average warrior.
America- +1 Vision is nice but not exactly early aggression unless you go all in for catapults.
Rome- Legion and Ballista are strong but not game changers. Tactics can still overwhelm them easily.
Mayans- REXing can lead to a Machinery Slingshot with the right pantheon + Pyramids. Comes too late to be considered early though.
Askia- triple Barb and City Pillaging loot is nice but requires a bit more effort before you see a payoff. Just extra cash.

Do you have G&K though?

Suleiman without G&K is weaker that with. prize ships means that you can turn one ship into 10 by capturing enemy ships

Persia is not that good militarily. should go in honourable mentions.

Resource free units are amazing, especially early game where the only melee units are warriors and swordsman

Attila's horse archers arent that good, but simply through the battering ram they should be easy early warmongers. If their your neighbours, watch out. Attila sounds so angry as well...

 

[Grendeldef]

Attila's horse archers arent that good, but simply through the battering ram they should be easy early warmongers. If their your neighbours, watch out. Attila sounds so angry as well...

I have to slightly disagree with this as I see HAs more useful than rams. Rams have very short period to make the difference while HAs are useful for 100+ turns. The key with HAs is to get at least one with logistics and everything changes. Weak point of HAs is more terrain than AI units. Endless jungles/forests can make a bunch of HAs practically worthless.

G

 

[duxup]

Everyone covered a lot of them.

I like Japan a lot. I find their ability to hit with full force despite damage allows me to plow through many situations quite quickly where I might otherwise need to withdraw and heal units rather than risk loosing them. This makes wars fast and efficient. Samurai also are good

 

[Bl00dmage96]

Ah logistics, its always about logistics...
but somehow my horse archers never seem to survive long enough to get logistics having said that i have only played as them twice, and both times i took a capital with 1 battering ram 1 warrior and 1 archer, which was fun

 

[Grendeldef]

Ah logistics, its always about logistics...
but somehow my horse archers never seem to survive long enough to get logistics having said that i have only played as them twice, and both times i took a capital with 1 battering ram 1 warrior and 1 archer, which was fun

I have found it to be highly useful to build barracks before spamming HAs - it slows down the initial start a bit but in the long run it's much better. Logistics is everything and on nice maps HAs can be used until artillery. Surely they're slow killing a city with def 50+ but they can shoot twice on every turn for ~150 turns which generates nice bunch of GGs, too.

Meatshields are expendable - HAs should be protected by sacrificing something/anything else. Also it doesn't make much sense to upgrade logistics promoted HAs to knights - better wait until cavalry.

G