Best civ for science

[AW Arcaeca]

I ask because I tend to fall behind on science so need to know what civilizations will give me the best output. So I've included what seem to me as the top 3 civs for science victory.

 

[Unresolved]

I voted Babylon, but Korea is extremely close in my opinion. Maya are also a superb choice. Can't really go wrong with any of them .

 

[Catan_Settler]

All of the above, but they're different. I voted Maya because I prefer playing wide, which they excel at. But basically Babylon is the best science early & mid game, Korea is the best science late game and Maya is.. kind of an anomaly they are strong early and throughout the game, but probably won't touch either of the other two for sheer science output. What they do give you, is incredible flexibility to adapt and tweak your strategy to changing circumstances throughout the game with their religious bias and free great people. So in terms of sheer science I'd say Maya is the worst, but they are IMO the strongest in terms of beating the game and having fun doing it.

 

[I_qua_I]

It's very map dependent and you have to get pretty lucky but Carthage can be a science beast early in the game with their free harbors and that +2 science per city connection. It's probably been toned down since BNW but still very useful.

Also, it may be a bug, but Siam can now get both a wat and a university with the reformation belief that allows you to build science buildings with faith.

 

[NotSure]

It's Korea. Focus on growth, take rationalism, run specialists, plant academies until Scientific Theory, win easily.

 

[tomtom5858]

In terms of output? Korea, for sure. Their ability applies to all specialists (though I would like to know if it applies to writers and musicians, since Statue of Liberty doesn't give them production), so you don't even have to focus on scientists to get their bonus. In terms of fastest SV, though, I'd say that Korea and Babylon are tied, since the additional 2-3 GSes means that you have an excellent bulbing endgame. The GS at Writing is awesome, too, letting you blow through early techs like no tomorrow.

 

[DrDoomsday112]

In my response ive found that india can be very good for a science victory too cuz they can get alot of pop easily without getting too much unhappiness and generally more pop matters more if you can stack that with some good improvements and great scientist workshops. Babylon also is good for that too.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I think the new version shifted the game in favor of Korea. Specialist economy feels much more powerful during the later stage to me and internal trade routes allow to employ more of these guys in all your cities. Babylon is still better early game, though.

 

[Chronicle]

Korea if playing tall. The early tech boost from making science buildings in the capital combined with the late game boost for +2 science on every specialist and tile improvement. You can easily rush certain wonders with ease due to the instant science boost building a library in the capital provides and you can generally snowball from there.

 

[joncnunn]

At Immortal+ level played by the human: Babylon. At these levels, you can't reliably build either the Great Library or the other early world wonder that would give Korea an extra boost.

King & below: Korea.

Also, under control of the AI: Korea wins hands down; it has a high science flavor unlike the Babylon AI.

Maya actually has a minor disadvantage going for science; those free great people are increasing the cost of the next natural great scientist. It's small, but the lower rate of academy construction is noticeable.