Best Civ that is your favorite?

[ttfno]

What Civ is your favorite? Vote and comment below!

 

[SnipedSoul]

India is the best civ on the tropical maps I play. Nothing cuts down jungle better than fast workers.

 

[Fippy]

I guess you mean personal favorite, not overall strongest

Spain for me, both Spi and Expansive are very fun to play.
Conquistadors are my favorite UU (they make Cuirs interesting again once in a while), Citadels are also special if using siege instead.
Nothing really weak (besides her starting techs), and not overpowered like those silly Qs or War Chariots.
I like that..she has special stuff & is strong, but not cheesy.

 

[ttfno]

India is the best civ on the tropical maps I play. Nothing cuts down jungle better than fast workers.

Nice!
I will add india I guess.

 

[ttfno]

I guess you mean personal favorite, not overall strongest

Spain for me, both Spi and Expansive are very fun to play.
Conquistadors are my favorite UU (they make Cuirs interesting again once in a while), Citadels are also special if using siege instead.
Nothing really weak (besides her starting techs), and not overpowered like those silly Qs or War Chariots.
I like that..she has special stuff & is strong, but not cheesy.

Thats nice. I may try her now.
Well I meant what are the best civs, and out of those which one is your favorite.

 

[civfanchambers]

Qin of China is my favorite. Like Qin's industrious trait for racing against Ai's in building important wonders. Chinese crossbows are my fav unit/uu. Chinese crossbows are under valued imho. Also Qin and the Chinese UB are great for culture victories.

 

[ttfno]

That's nice!

 

[escream]

I might be stretching the question to a poll I was personally hoping for, as I am reading more into the "favorite" part than the "best" part, as best has been debated over and over again. And by "favorite", I'm stretcing that into "most fun".
Personally, I'm making a point for De Gaulle from France. France's UU and UB are not good (well, the musketeer is kind of fun if you get to gunpowder early and the path to rifling is still kind of long...), though the nice starting techs are very relevant, but the real joy here are De Gaulle's traits.
Come on, I know it's not the most powerful combination at all, but Industrious to wonder-whore and Charismatic to play with all those promotions has got to make for the most fun "recreational" Civ experience!
Most of my games are started with random leaders (and most of the time, unrestricted leaders), but from time to time, I start up a De Gaulle game, just because it's so much fun! (and don't get me started on the unrestricted leaders options, with De Gaulle for the fun traits and the civ of your choice for fun UUs and UBs... )

PS: If I need to go back to "best" civ, discounting leader traits, the Incas are a staple of course and pretty obvious, but let's get some love for the Chinese. Starting techs are good (and fun because never frustrating), and the Cho-Ko-Nus are a very interesting UU. They are really powerful, but they need some commitment and some plan to make good use of them. You can't just prey, like with War Chariots, that there'll be some nearby horses and blindly rush into the nearest civ. The Cho-Ko-Nus require some planning and are stil early enough that they can be relevant in any game.
I have to say, any Spiritual civ can be really fun too! It opens so many options, it makes for interesting games and mechanics.

Edit: So much love for De Gaulle, but still messed up my original post by mixing him up with Napoleon... Napoleon is fine but not really fun... Go De Gaulle

 

[Bandobras Took]

The best Civ contenders haven't changed too much over the years. As for my favorite, I go through phases, but I've always had soft spots for Louis and for Charlemagne.

 

[ttfno]

Thats pretty cool. Ive heard good things about de gaulle!

 

[ttfno]

Charly?

 

[escream]

The best Civ contenders haven't changed too much over the years. As for my favorite, I go through phases, but I've always had soft spots for Louis and for Charlemagne.

I have wanted to love Charlemagne, but his traits are neither powerful nor fun for my taste, his starting techs are frustrating sometimes and the UB, while very good, is not something you'll have a lot of fun with.

 

[SnipedSoul]

I have wanted to love Charlemagne, but his traits are neither powerful nor fun for my taste, his starting techs are frustrating sometimes and the UB, while very good, is not something you'll have a lot of fun with.

When I play Charlemagne, I do the following:

Build the great wall, put a city on a hill near Shaka/Monty/Ragnar and declare war. You will get an absurd number of great generals. Having units with 4 or 5 promotions out of the gate is a lot of fun.

 

[Fippy]

Fun with Charly?
Landsknecht rush

 

[escream]

Fun with Charly?
Landsknecht rush

I have to say, I have never experimented much with the Landsknecht! You just gave me a reson to start a new game! ;-)
Concerning declaring war and waiting for them to suicide into my strong defenders, I haven't done that much neither. But I think this is due to me playing only Monarch level (so far). The counter-attack when you declare war is not systematic in my experience. But then again, I don't adapt to the personality of the AI leader nearly enough. This is aggravated by the fact that I play a lot of Unrestricted Leaders games (so many random new fun), then the Civ's behaviors get all messed up in my mind

 

[Windsor]

My vote goes to Byzantine/Justinian.

The spiritual trait is such a game changer and opens up so many interesting strategies not available to the non-spi leaders. In addition the Cataphract makes for even more variety. While usually not a great choice, it boosts the knight enough to make it a decent option.

But overall I don't really have a strong favorite. It's not the uniques that makes Civ4 such a great game, its the core mechanics.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

The Inca Empire is obviously the best. It has the best of everything in the game. Quechua is the best unique unit, because it is the cheapest and best suited unit to kill Achers with, is cheap, and it gets a free Combat I promotion (mini-Aggressive trait)! The Terrace is the best unique building in the game; it's a Granary that provides 2 Culture per turn (almost as good as the Creative trait). Huayna Capac's real traits are Industrious and Financial (best combination ever). Inca starts with Agriculture and Mysticism; Agriculture means no food problems and Mysticism can allow a religion race or early great wonder spam. The Synergy of all these best uniques, best traits (all four of them), and starting technologies means nothing can stop the Inca Empire from winning any Victory Condition at any game speed and difficulty (though Diety is its most fertile hunting grounds).

The non-cheesy choices are:
Egyptian Empire (War Chariot; Obelisk via Stonehenge has uses)
Persian Empire (Immortal - rare fortifying mounted unit; good UB)
Mongolian Empire (Horse Archer based unique unit/Unique stable)
Spanish Empire (Conquistador and Citadel)
Chinese Empire (Cho-Ko-Nus are awesome; Qin Shi Huang OP)
Sumerian Empire (Vulture and Ziggurat, a cheap Courthouse at PH)
Roman Empire (Praetorian - Forum is not really synergistic though)
Viking Empire (Berserker - +1 movement Galleys for water maps)

 

[ttfno]

The Inca Empire is obviously the best. It has the best of everything in the game. Quechua is the best unique unit, because it is the cheapest and best suited unit to kill Achers with, is cheap, and it gets a free Combat I promotion (mini-Aggressive trait)! The Terrace is the best unique building in the game; it's a Granary that provides 2 Culture per turn (almost as good as the Creative trait). Huayna Capac's real traits are Industrious and Financial (best combination ever). Inca starts with Agriculture and Mysticism; Agriculture means no food problems and Mysticism can allow a religion race or early great wonder spam. The Synergy of all these best uniques, best traits (all four of them), and starting technologies means nothing can stop the Inca Empire from winning any Victory Condition at any game speed and difficulty (though Diety is its most fertile hunting grounds).

The non-cheesy choices are:
Egyptian Empire (War Chariot; Obelisk via Stonehenge has uses)
Persian Empire (Immortal - rare fortifying mounted unit; good UB)
Mongolian Empire (Horse Archer based unique unit/Unique stable)
Spanish Empire (Conquistador and Citadel)
Chinese Empire (Cho-Ko-Nus are awesome; Qin Shi Huang OP)
Sumerian Empire (Vulture and Ziggurat, a cheap Courthouse at PH)
Roman Empire (Praetorian - Forum is not really synergistic though)
Viking Empire (Berserker - +1 movement Galleys for water maps)

Yep. I agree. Incas are great though!
Romans are great too! I personally like the ottomans.

 

[unas876]

When I play Charlemagne, I do the following:

Build the great wall, put a city on a hill near Shaka/Monty/Ragnar and declare war. You will get an absurd number of great generals. Having units with 4 or 5 promotions out of the gate is a lot of fun.

I used to do that with Cyrus of Persia. Great Generals and Charismatic as well! You don't get the Archer promotions from Protective, but you don't really need those.

Oh btw: yeah I think until you reach the point where its no longer a challenge for you, noone can deny that Huayna Capac is fun. Everything about him is great.

 

[rah]

I'd prefer if the Incas came with Mining instead of myst.
But it's hard to argue they're not the best.