Best Civ?

[Zardnaar]

Using following criteria?

Starting world is random, no restarts. Crap start you play regardless.

I'm thinking perhaps Dutch.

 

[Theov]

Iroquois. (Agr and Com, UU can trigger a GA right on time)
Dutch. (Agr and Sea, UU is ok but good timing for a GA).

For the rest it is an answer of "it depends..."

 

[jarred!]

Maya, Iroquois, Sumerians, or Dutch are my faves due to the Ag trait. I think commercial and industrious traits would be more-generally useful on a random map.

 

[justanick]

Maya are best for jungle.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Iroquois. (Agr and Com, UU can trigger a GA right on time)
Dutch. (Agr and Sea, UU is ok but good timing for a GA).

For the rest it is an answer of "it depends..."

"Right on time" meaning, after you have changed governments to Republic? A Golden Age (GA) while still in Despotism isn't optimal.
I'm afraid that I would trigger my GA too early.

Or do you mean "right on time" for an aggressive military expansion, taking a lot of good land, and setting up for a Domination victory?

 

[Spoonwood]

Victory condition?

Seafaring might be a better trait for 20k over agricultural. Scientific also.

 

[Theov]

"Right on time" meaning, after you have changed governments to Republic? A Golden Age (GA) while still in Despotism isn't optimal.
I'm afraid that I would trigger my GA too early.

Or do you mean "right on time" for an aggressive military expansion, taking a lot of good land, and setting up for a Domination victory?

A GA is best after the settling stage and your cities have grown a bit and you have dropped Despotism.
This is for me often roughly at the end of the AA or at the start of the Middle Ages.

 

[Zardnaar]

A GA is best after the settling stage and your cities have grown a bit and you have dropped Despotism.
This is for me often roughly at the end of the AA or at the start of the Middle Ages.

I like triggering mine around banks and university time.

Or if you're blocked in and have OP UU.

 

[Puppeteer]

Agricultural and Industrious I can imagine being a benefit in any game, even and especially the early game, so Maya from that point of view. I'm not at all fond of their UU, though.

Commercial is also a favorite trait of mine, but if you end up with a small home land mass (archipelago or surrounded by jungle & marsh) it can take a long time for the commercial trait to really start benefiting you.

I often go for militaristic, but again if you're alone on an island it's kind of a wasted trait for a significant part of the game.

The other traits are largely situational to me. Except maybe scientific, but since I've leveled up my tech-broker game I just don't find that much utility to being scientific and don't intentionally reach for it. I love having scientific AI opponents, though, as I can often leverage their bonus techs at new ages.

Speaking of the Mayan UU issue, @SuedecivIII showed in a video how to mod the Javelin Thrower into a more viable unit a week ago.

 

[jarred!]

You get half-priced libraries, universities and research labs as scientific. Then your libs are cheaper than temples.

 

[Puppeteer]

You get half-priced libraries, universities and research labs as scientific. Then your libs are cheaper than temples.

Sure, and I used to love it for that. But you only ever need one of each science building per core city at most And I'm also less reliant on culture buildings than I used to be, especially early game.

I used to play on Emperor regularly (mostly Monarch these days for less tryhard-ness), and I was almost always half an age to an age behind until the middle of the middle ages when I finally started catching up and keeping up.

But with strategic tech trading (brokering) I can now keep up with the AI in tech in the early game and keep tons more money. It's a pretty powerful strategy and really reduces the benefit of the scientific trait, especially if I'm not relying on early culture in more than a couple of cities. If I find the war academy article on it, I'll edit the link back in here.

Actually I have a recent YouTube video on a tech trading example, and I'm kind of figuring on eventually making a more thorough how-to for tech strategies.

I found the War Academy which unfortunately is typically outranked by the forum as is the other great curated Civ3 info here, but I didn't really find a definitive tech broker guide. But every article with "tech" or "research" in it is of some use:

Zero Percent Research
Trading Tips for Beginners
Struggling Research Tactics

 

[CKS]

Other real benefits to being scientific are the increased probability of SGLs, which really matters for 20k games, and the chance to get a second-tier tech for free at the age change for fast science games.

 

[Zardnaar]

Seafarings a lot better on a pangea than expansionism on an island.

So agricultural is always good, think we all know it's good.

Industrial always god on this scenario at least it's never bad. Commercial is usually always good so is science.

Militaristic, expansionism a bit to situational.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I always enjoy Russia, maybe I am doing it wrong.

 

[Theov]

I always enjoy Russia, maybe I am doing it wrong.

If you dont harm others, joy is never wrong.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

For me I turtle and be diplomatic until cossacks, get armies up and running, Golden Age and dominate from there, usually bribing everyone to fight each other and waste their units. Either to an easy space race, or actually finish the job and eliminate everyone.

 

[jguy100]

@Aiken_Drumn if you like Cossacks, try the Iroquois! The Mounted Riders provide a similar level of devastation, but come much earlier in the game.