Best unique ability?

[Optimizer]

Here is a poll for the best unique abilities.

 

[Celevin]

Judging JUST by the unique ability, and not the unique units/buildings? France by a mile. If I want to win, I play them just for that and hardly even care about their units. This is followed very very closely by Babylon.

 

[Punchline]

It seems a little silly to consider only the unique abilities of each civ, as distinct from the UUs and UBs, since that separation doesn't really exist in-game - but if I had to pick, I'd say Babylon.

-P

 

[syllogism]

What's exactly so good about France's ability? Unlocking honor early and rushing? It's pretty underwhelming honestly.

 

[Zhahz]

Some people are really fixated on France.

I can't decide yet since I haven't tried ever civ yet. I'm playing a different civ every game so I'm getting there.

IMO there are a lot of factors beyond just a raw look at the abilities. Map type, map size, game difficulty, number of civs, etc are all factors. What works amazingly well on smallish maps with easy settings might not have the same impact on another map type, larger map, higher diff.

 

[Celevin]

Have more than 10-15 cities as France, then see what their UA does.

Considering a lot of the policies are stronger than UA's, it's amazing.

 

[syllogism]

That's still not a lot of culture except very early on and having 10-15 cities early doesn't seem viable. One city state can provide 12-20 a turn depending on the era and of course later on it's quite possible for a single city to produce 120 or even 200+

 

[Ahriman]

France, Babylon, India, Persia are my picks for best UA.

 

[Celevin]

It's a tonne of culture.

There are 2 things stopping you from making an empire the size of the world: Culture, and happiness. France negates one of those, and gives you the policies to gain bonus happiness early, like the Liberty and Piety trees.

 

[syllogism]

India's ability is far better for expansion and frankly just buying a city state or two appears to be more effective than the measly 2 culture per city per turn. Not that it's bad or anything, just not top tier.

 

[delra]

Almost all are powerful as long as you play to capitalize on them...

 

[SomethingWitty]

I used to think France. But then I discovered Songhai.

They've got a very powerful UA, and their UB basically gives them France's UA.

 

[tibbles]

I've gotten attached to River Warlord recently. Maybe not top tier, but I'd say I get an extra 200g from barbs for an early boost and an extra 200 per city captured. The UB is nice too, but I guess we aren't counting those.

 

[rune42]

How did Arabia's +1 gold per city from trade get 2 votes. I know some people can be extremely bias, but...

I had a toss up between Greece, Siam, France, and Persia, so I just randomly picked one. Each one of them makes an overpowered mechanic even more overpowered.

Greece and Siam makes maritime city states better.
France makes puppet cities better.
Persia makes the Citchen Itza + Taj Mahal combination better.

I'd probably add Babylon in there if I had access to them.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

Every UA has functions that are better or worse at varying points in the game.

Montezuma's is easily my favorite early game UA, especially when coupled with his super-early UU. +2 culture per kill adds up when you're only getting 1-2 culture a turn and it takes 50 culture to unlock your next policy (hint: Honor isn't the best for him).

Ghandi's is my favorite though. It has both early and late game impacts and, although subtle, are still very strong.

 

[King Jason]

I used to think France. But then I discovered Songhai.

They've got a very powerful UA, and their UB basically gives them France's UA.

The mosque is nice but I think France is better due to opportunity costs and the fact that at the start of the game you can expand without your policy costs taking a hit in terms of turns per cost.

In fact, it's something like the 4th or 5th city where france begins to see the effects of increased policy costs. If you're building monuments as if your a regular civ, your policy costs essentially remain unaffected by expanding.

Songhai may be better for overall cultural gains, but it requires investment. France is about opportunity cost. It's simply a pleasure to watch your turn count toward your next policy go down upon placing a new city. Or at the very least, stay the same.

Having said all that, I can't decide between india, france, or babylon. Persia, Greece, Siam, and China are all great too. In fact those 7 civs are probably the top tier in my book. Close runner up being Rome since there are so many universal buildings in civ5... everyone benefits from culture, everyone benefits from happiness, everyone could use a science or wealth building or two, etc. It's like having a workshop from the start of your games.

In fact the only bad UA's in my book are ottoman's and America... I don't think the "whole package" deal explains away Ottomans... look at China: all three of their Unique bonuses are fantastic. As is the case with Greece.

 

[tibbles]

The only reason I wouldn't pick Greece is it's UA is coverable simply by gifting more gold to city states while the gold itself is more versatile. Including UUs on the other hand, definitely bumps it up to one of the best.

 

[Chong Warrior]

Try Persia coupled with Chicken Itza, Social Policy for GA's and then build the Taj Mahal. Awesome!

Why isn't Darius of Persia in the poll?

 

[syllogism]

Siam's ability is very nice but it's not actually +50% food as, presumably due to rounding, it increases capital food gifts from 5 to 7 and every other city from 3 to 4. I suppose it's possible they are actually 7.5 and 4.5 and just aren't shown right, but that's not very likely. You do get the full +50% from culture states though.

 

[Celevin]

Every UA has functions that are better or worse at varying points in the game.

Montezuma's is easily my favorite early game UA, especially when coupled with his super-early UU. +2 culture per kill adds up when you're only getting 1-2 culture a turn and it takes 50 culture to unlock your next policy (hint: Honor isn't the best for him).

Ghandi's is my favorite though. It has both early and late game impacts and, although subtle, are still very strong.

The Aztec UA usually ends up only being worse than a single monument, sadly. I love it too but it's just weak.

Their real UA is the Jaguar, which I now think is the best unique unit. Get -50% upgrade costs, and never build anything but them. Longswordsmen with +50% jungle and healing after each win is just scary.