^ That's a lot of static defense for cities that are hard to take already.... A city with 3 defense districts (city, encampment, harbor) would be a huge pain in the ass to take unless you were a tech level above. Maybe if harbors could only attack on water – and encampments could only attack on land? That would make sense to me, but I'm still not sure the harbor needs defenses. If you want those, you can always build an encampment on the water, or just build ships.
As for Norway, they're better, but this is still a lackluster boost for them. It relies on a t2 building on a district that's of limited use on Deity unless you're playing a civ that can consistently land a religion. Norway can't. I wish the devs would just give them the a water production boost straight up instead of tying it to the stave church, a UB that doesn't make a lot of sense at higher difficulties.
I'm interested to see what others' experiences with Egypt are. I'm glad the chariot archer got a boost, even though their other abilities still feel underwhelming to me.
I think Kongo might fall to C tier with this patch. Their GP ability before was OP, now it feels balanced. But they're still forced into a lot of jungle starts, and their other bonuses don't quite make up for it.
Greece might hold up at B for now. I've been on the fence between B/C for a while, but they got a nice little boost this patch. Not sure why they're buffing Greece when there are much worse civs out there, but I don't make the rules. Missed your Aztec/Arab thoughts a couple months ago
@ShinigamiKenji, but I tend to agree with you on Aztec and have made the case for them repeatedly. But it's a case people tend to disagree with me on, and I do find their early game to be trickier than many of the other civs that get early boosts. The case for Arabia is that they have some of the best bonuses to science and religion alongside one of the best UUs in the game. Their early game isn't up to the A tier civ's bonuses, but they have a very flexible set of bonuses that makes them very, very good at multiple playstyles in the midgame.
What are everyone's thoughts on Ethiopia? They feel like a very solid B to start with, but I could be convinced of an A (seems like many of the new civs lean strong). The archer & district production bonus results in a very smooth early game –– you get the best archer rush out of anyone while saving on loads of production. Not to mention the prod/gold bonus on mine resources. The UI is very situational, but they feel surprisingly strong overall.
Planning an update to the list soon. Here's the changes I'm considering:
Add Persia at A
Add Macedon at A
Add Ethiopia at B
Add Australia at C
England up from C to B
Poland down from B to C
Kongo down from B to C
Germany down from B to C