[GS] Best Gathering Storm Civ

[WDVINCO]

Just got Gathering Storm and wondering who's the best to play as.

My money's on Dido, but I'm not entirely sure.

Which civ do you think is the best to play as?

 

[Disgustipated]

I voted Incas, but it's really hard to say which civ I enjoyed playing the most. This is a good thing. I still have yet to play Canada or either Eleanor. I didn't enjoy Mali and Maori as much as I thought I would, but they were still quite fun. It's just too soon for me to say who is the best.

 

[WDVINCO]

I voted Incas, but it's really hard to say which civ I enjoyed playing the most. This is a good thing. I still have yet to play Canada or either Eleanor. I didn't enjoy Mali and Maori as much as I thought I would, but they were still quite fun. It's just too soon for me to say who is the best.

Thank you, haven't play as the Incas yet. I've just played as Eleanor, Dido, and Musa and all were good.

 

[Disgustipated]

Incas are just a fantastic builder civ. I love large cities. Though sometimes mountains can get in the way of building neighborhoods and useful districts.

I find Hungary underrated. They are excellent in the cavalry class, and you can levy if you need other units. Both them and Ottomans are great domination civs, hard to take one over the other. I would prefer Hungary in a hybrid conquer/build style, however.

 

[liv]

I have not played that much yet. Played mostly Canada. They are not going to be "best" for obvious reasons but I can get into the struggle and come from behind story line. I enjoy boating civs so the Maori for me was great fun.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Inca isn't just a fantastic builder civ. They're a fantastic war civ, too.

 

[Sostratus]

The Incans are straight up fun. I like them the most.

However, the best civs in terms of "OPness" is either:
-The Maori with their absurd combo of the Marae, which gives 2 culture and 2 faith and eventually 2 tourism to EVERY passable feature even if its improved (includes floodplains) + Toa, the best unit in the game.

-Hungary for their stupidly strong CS levy rush. Yes, you can get a non ideal start, like any civ, but virtually no one has any way to defend against an early rush by 3 swordsmen and 2 archers with +5 str and +2 move to the second you unlock ironworking. (the AI city states usually have 3 warriors.) If you're good you can combo this with oligarchy for even more cheese. At tier 2 government you can pick up the gov't plaza building to push levied units to +9 strength, which should seal the deal if getting a free neighbor empire wasn't enough.

 

[Ondolindë]

I am happy to see people are going Inca here and in other threads. I chose them to be my first GS civ. They are truly fantastic and I love that they are surprising people because many didn't pay much attention to them at the beginning.

 

[MarigoldRan]

The Incans are straight up fun. I like them the most.

However, the best civs in terms of "OPness" is either:
-The Maori with their absurd combo of the Marae, which gives 2 culture and 2 faith and eventually 2 tourism to EVERY passable feature even if its improved (includes floodplains) + Toa, the best unit in the game.

-Hungary for their stupidly strong CS levy rush. Yes, you can get a non ideal start, like any civ, but virtually no one has any way to defend against an early rush by 3 swordsmen and 2 archers with +5 str and +2 move to the second you unlock ironworking. (the AI city states usually have 3 warriors.) If you're good you can combo this with oligarchy for even more cheese. At tier 2 government you can pick up the gov't plaza building to push levied units to +9 strength, which should seal the deal if getting a free neighbor empire wasn't enough.

Nope. The best unit in the game is the Incan Waka Raka (or whatever it's called).

 

[AmazonQueen]

I think I like Mali the best. Slow start but once they get going and use faith and gold to buy almost everything they are very powerful.
Inca are a very good civ if you like building. Their UU is very powerful but requires 3-4 promotions to really shine.
Maori are pretty good at everything except science. Early game naval mobility and their UU (which is resourceless and doesn't cost maintenance unlike the swordsman it replaces) make them virtually unbeatable if they attack someone early on.
Sweden is good at culture, diplomacy and science and gets a powerful defensive UU.
Hungary is very dangerous so long as it finds and keeps control of CS. Nice cavalry UU too. Its cheap districts for cities on rivers make it quite versitile too.
Ottomans are a warmonger, pure and simple.
Eleanor and Dido are the hardest to use effectively for me anyway.
Canada are just meh.

 

[Sostratus]

The best unit in the game is the Incan Waka Raka

I concede that Ambush promoted Warak'aqs are in relative terms, the best unit in the game. I'm a huge fan.
But, you can build a toa for less than a warak thanks to the card, and boost it with oligarchy so it can take on knights favorably. Whereas waraks without ambush really struggle against a smart opponent who has coursers/knights. You need to screen them with melee units, but they only have 1 range so you leave yourself open to a near 1 shot from a fresh knight once you do attack.
Toas are just stupid squared because that aura stacks with itself. 1 Oligarchy Toa is +1 vs knights. If there's another toa standing around it's now +6. It even affects xbows in cities so you can hardly shoot back at them. You can embark toas with your navy to reduce the power of enemy ships for goodness' sake!

Now, this says nothing about how good waraks are defending your realm. You can just build encampments and cities next to mountains and the warak garrisons can teleport through the Qhapacs to harass anyone who comes near. Toa on Pa don't come close.

 

[Phoenix1595]

I love them all. The Inca come into this with their Civ5 powerhouse credentials and don’t disappoint. Even with his production debuff, I had no problem playing as Mansa Musa. Dido and Kupe offer fun naval play. Hungary is a monster, and I love replicating the sheer largesse of the Ottomans. Canada and Sweden masterfully play the non-marital game with strong twists to a traditional culture game.

Whereas R&F had some stragglers, I can’t say the same for GS.

 

[MarigoldRan]

I concede that Ambush promoted Warak'aqs are in relative terms, the best unit in the game. I'm a huge fan.
But, you can build a toa for less than a warak thanks to the card, and boost it with oligarchy so it can take on knights favorably. Whereas waraks without ambush really struggle against a smart opponent who has coursers/knights. You need to screen them with melee units, but they only have 1 range so you leave yourself open to a near 1 shot from a fresh knight once you do attack.
Toas are just stupid squared because that aura stacks with itself. 1 Oligarchy Toa is +1 vs knights. If there's another toa standing around it's now +6. It even affects xbows in cities so you can hardly shoot back at them. You can embark toas with your navy to reduce the power of enemy ships for goodness' sake!

Now, this says nothing about how good waraks are defending your realm. You can just build encampments and cities next to mountains and the warak garrisons can teleport through the Qhapacs to harass anyone who comes near. Toa on Pa don't come close.

Well, yeah, if you're playing multiplayer Toas are better than Waka Rakas. But on single player, Waka Rakas are twice as good than Toa because they're 3x faster than Toas on forest or hills and they can move, attack, and retreat on the same turn with only a level 2 promotion. They also promote 4x faster than Toas, they take down cities faster than Toas, and they're useful all the way to the Industrial era. Unlike Toas, Waka Rakas have no trouble taking down garrisoned city defenses as they take no retaliation damage.

Waka Raka swarms DESTROY everything in its path, including city defenses and walls in a single turn or two without taking any damage.