Civ-by-Civ Strategy Flash Cards

[Navelgazer]

I've been interested for a while now about the idea of creating sort of a table of basic knowledge of strategy for all the different civs, and inspired by the One Sentence thread I'd like to get a consensus on this stuff and put together a document for it.

What I'm looking for is almost like what these civs/leaders would have on the back of their baseball card - the stuff that a new player could consult so that they aren't flying completely blind and so that they can be inspired to try different things. Information like:

Preferred Victory Condition
Preferred Map Type
Preferred Ideology
Strongest Era
Best Social Policies
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets
Other Key Things to Know

Some of these will be obvious, of course, but I'm querying the hive mind here because a lot of it is only really discovered through experience and expertise. For instance, it's pretty obvious that Polynesia is going to do best on an Archipelago Map, or that Zulu is best set up for Domination. Slightly less obvious might be that Messenger of the Gods is of particular use to Carthage, or that India shouldn't necessarily go tall. And then others will be debatable, but the debate will probably be worthwhile in any case (Is Rome better suited for Domination or Science, for instance.)

Of course, if this sort of thing already exists somewhere, bully for that, I suppose.

 

[joncnunn]

In the hands of the AI or the hands of a human?

In hands of the human, tall 4 city Tradition tall with puppet empire attached works extremely well for all civs.

Also, Rationalism is by far the strongest social policy.

The best Pantheons are all local terrain specific and have no bearing on civ.

Best ideology for the human depends upon what your preferred method of victory is along with how many specialists you want to run throughout your empire and not really the civ.

India absolutely needs to start tall. It is very well suited for attaching a puppet empire later; but not for self founding wide.

Science is King.

 

[reddishrecue]

Messenger of gods with Carthage could work out since harbors are free in island maps. As for science, rationalism loses its opener with unhappiness. However, the other social policies in the track could still be useful.

 

[joncnunn]

Messenger of gods with Carthage could work out since harbors are free in island maps. As for science, rationalism loses its opener with unhappiness. However, the other social policies in the track could still be useful.

By the time you can pick Rationalism (rean era) you should no longer be unhappy (other than 1 turn from expired deal when the AI declined to renew on their turn)
And if happiness was a concern and most of your cities are coastal then dipping into top right for Explorers while waiting for Rean era work very well. Having a religion and choosing a happiness belief is easier though. The other early policy choice is that the Consulates policy can be chosen as a filler policy; while it's no longer perma-friends, you can be friends for a very long time from Merchicle city states by periodically doing a quest with it.

 

[reddishrecue]

By the time you can pick Rationalism (rean era) you should no longer be unhappy (other than 1 turn from expired deal when the AI declined to renew on their turn)
And if happiness was a concern and most of your cities are coastal then dipping into top right for Explorers while waiting for Rean era work very well. Having a religion and choosing a happiness belief is easier though. The other early policy choice is that the Consulates policy can be chosen as a filler policy; while it's no longer perma-friends, you can be friends for a very long time from Merchicle city states by periodically doing a quest with it.

Ok then. I see what you're saying. I still have doubt about the espionage though. Rationalism helps give you a technology lead or a higher ranking in technology demographics. However, how do you deal with spies stealing your technologies? Better ranked technology civilizations usually attract spies that want to steal from you.

 

[joncnunn]

Ok then. I see what you're saying. I still have doubt about the espionage though. Rationalism helps give you a technology lead or a higher ranking in technology demographics. However, how do you deal with spies stealing your technologies? Better ranked technology civilizations usually attract spies that want to steal from you.

Dealing with spies:

1. Always have a spy in your capital.

2. Make it a high priority to build a Constable in your capital. (Not neceasirly top priority; there may be even better builds; but don't wait too long. By contrast Constable in other cities is low priority and can be put off for a while)

3. The standard Oxford for early Modern ideology wtithout coal via Radio has the Police Station on its path; so build that in the capital as well.

You can still expect the AI to steal 2 or 3 techs.

 

[Chum]

I care exactly zero about AI's stealing techs. The best way to level up spies is to have them doing counter espionage in your capital, and for that, you need AI spies stealing tech from you. I never tell anyone to stop stealing from me and I never build any of the police station line unless I need an extra spy because things are getting competitive with the CS's.

But the reality is that you want high level spies doing coups most of the time, so why shut down your main source of XP? You certainly aren't going to be stealing techs in the modern era anyway, so ride the wave. I'll take 4 rank 3 spies over no one stealing tech from me. One makes your life much easier, the other is merely some sort of psychological comfort about the word "Steal."

 

[danaphanous]

Messenger of the Gods is extremely good with Carthage. I've used the opener a few times and it always doubles my early science output. On archipelego it puts me an age ahead quickly though the benefit does not last as well with time. Still, the early boost keeps you ahead most of the game.

 

[redwings1340]

I care exactly zero about AI's stealing techs. The best way to level up spies is to have them doing counter espionage in your capital, and for that, you need AI spies stealing tech from you. I never tell anyone to stop stealing from me and I never build any of the police station line unless I need an extra spy because things are getting competitive with the CS's.

But the reality is that you want high level spies doing coups most of the time, so why shut down your main source of XP? You certainly aren't going to be stealing techs in the modern era anyway, so ride the wave. I'll take 4 rank 3 spies over no one stealing tech from me. One makes your life much easier, the other is merely some sort of psychological comfort about the word "Steal."

This is basically my philosophy with tech stealing too. Stealing techs is very useful, but the only time others stealing techs is bad is when it's a close game and an AI could theoretically beat you with a few stolen techs. It's always fun to see "Japan has stolen astronomy" when you're in the industrial era.

 

[Navelgazer]

SO I should then say that, for this project, based on what we're saying, an example might look like this:

CARTHAGE
Preferred Victory Condition: Science
Preferred Map Type: Archipelago, Small Continents.
Preferred Ideology: Order, Freedom
Strongest Era: Ancient
Best Social Policies: Liberty
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets: Messenger of the Gods
Other Key Things to Know: Rapid Early Expansion (REX) on coastal tiles with high production values and/or resources is the key to the early game here.

 

[Calouste]

VENICE:

Preferred Victory Condition - Diplomatic
Preferred Map Type - Archipelago
Preferred Ideology - Freedom
Strongest Era - Medieval/Renaissance
Best Social Policies - Tradition/Patronage
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - Food/growth
Best Wonder - Colossus (and Petra if possible)
Other Key Things to Know:
- Wait with puppeting city states with the Merchant of Venice until they have grown a bit
- Grow Venice as big as possible with internal food trade routes
- Make sure you run all possible trade routes all the time

 

[redwings1340]

Ah, that example makes things much easier to understand what you're getting at.

America
Preferred Victory Condition: Domination
Preferred Map Type - Pangea
Preferred Ideology - Probably order, somewhat annoyingly
Strongest Era - Renaissance/Modern
Best Social Policies - Liberty
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - I'll edit this later
Best Wonder - Military/gold wonders
Other Key Things to Know:
The UA is somewhat useful, use it to your advantage
This civilization is probably outclassed by the Shoshone most of the time.

I gtg, but I'll edit this later. Probably shouldn't have gone America, but I felt like going alphabetical.

 

[vivalamexico]

KOREA
Preferred VC: Science
Preferred Map: Continents? No strong preference
Preferred Idealogy: Freedom
Strongest Era: Renaissance
Best Social Policies: Tradition, Rationalism
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets: Growth
Best Wonders: Statue of Liberty, Porcelain Tower
Other Key Things to Know:
-Grow huge cities and work all those specialist slots
-Combined with Secularism, each specialist produces +4 (on top of regular production for science specialists)

 

[Navelgazer]

AZTECS
Preferred VC: Domination/Culture
Preferred Map: Pangea
Preferred Ideology: Autocracy for Domination / Freedom for Culture
Strongest Era: Ancient
Best Social Policies: Honor, Patronage
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets: Just War
Best Wonders: Statue of Zeus, Terracotta Army, Alhambra
Other Key Things to Know:
-When possible, "farm" barbarians instead of clearing out their camps.
-Use your focus on barb-killing to win over City-States, rounding out the gaps you'll have in other infrastructure, especially in the beginning. Patronage is more helpful to Montezuma than it first appears.
-It is infinitely easier to switch from a domination goal to a cultural one than the other way around, particularly with the Aztecs.

 

[Mr. Grieves]

Byzantium
Preferred VC: Science
Preferred Map: Fractal
Preferred Ideology: Freedom
Strongest Era: Classical
Best Social Policies: Liberty, Rationalism, Commerce
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets: Holy Warriors
Best Wonders: Stonehenge, Hagia Sophia, Notre Dame, Leaning Tower, Big Ben
Other Key Things to Know:
- Unlike the AI, try to like actually found a religion to take optimal advantage of your UA.
- Keep your satellite cities relatively small until Freedom and Fertilizer kick in, then grow as tall as you possibly can.
- Use Holy Warriors if you've got decent output, and you will not have to spend a single hammer on units for a looong time.

 

[Myth and Legend]

England
Preferred VC: Domination, Science
Preferred Map: Anything but Pangea
Preferred Ideology: Autocracy for warmongers or Freedom for spaceship parts
Strongest Era: Medieval/Renaissance
Best Social Policies: Tradition, Exploration and the mandatory Rationalism
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets: Faith generation pantheon belief, World Church (you want to squeeze in Exploration between Trad/Rat), Holy Warriors, Pagodas
Best Wonders: Great Lighthouse, honorable mention to Stonehenge, Oracle, Hanging Gardens, Colossus
Other Key Things to Know:
- Keep a stock of Composite Bowmen (farm Barbarians) to immediately upgrade to Longbows upon hitting their tech. Go to war on the next turn. This takes precedence over building water mills and such.
- Build up a core of Ships of the Line and sail them out in a pack. They are not the Deathstar and will get taken down by a mob of inferior ships (be especially careful with hostile Maritime CS)
- Keep track of your spies' progress and time your research so that you can steal key techs like Chivalry, Education, Gunpowder etc.
- Do not neglect pikemen and other melee. Longbows alone won't win the day versus an AI with an equal military. Be especially careful with knights.
- Plan your terrain bonuses for the huge slugfests near AI capitals, not for the terrain around your lands.

 

[Navelgazer]

I'm curious for the Venice one: who has tried Domination with Venice? I haven't had a chance yet but it seems viable on paper.

 

[Vitruvius]

America
Preferred Victory Condition: Domination
Preferred Map Type: Pangea
Preferred Ideology: Autocracy (for Bomber purchase)
Strongest Era - Ancient (exploration and expansion)/Modern (bombers)
Best Social Policies - Commerce (Use for later bomber purchase)
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - Terrain dependent
Best Wonder - Big Ben (cheap purchase), Brandenburg gate (for level 3 bombers)
Other Key Things to Know: Build at least two scouts. Use tile purchase liberally. Getting to the good tiles early can really help snowball.

Celts:
Preferred Victory Condition: Culture
Preferred Map Type: Doesn't matter.
Preferred Ideology: Freedom
Strongest Era - Classical (when you start your religion)
Best Social Policies - Piety/Aesthetics
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - Terrain dependent (focus on faith)
Best Wonder - Sistine Chapel, any other wonders with great works
Other Key Things to Know: Usually first pick on religion. If high production start, can open Piety and rush reformation. Get sacred sites with two religious buildings. Then spam holy sites for terrain culture.

Morocco:
Preferred Victory Condition: Diplomacy
Preferred Map Type: Pangea
Preferred Ideology: Freedom
Strongest Era - Medieval/Renaissance (Morocco can get a lot of gold through trade routes by medieval era, this is where you aim to own most of the city states on the map)
Best Social Policies - Patronage/Commerce
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - If on desert, desert folklore.
Best Wonder - beeline Petra or Colossus (for more trade routes), then Forbidden Palace
Other Key Things to Know: Stay tall, get caravans as early as possible, get a strong capital with high gold output. Use lump sums of money on city-states. Use Mercantilism for science.

 

[project_ako]

One thing missing from these IMO is a "Worst enemies" or "Watch out for" to point out potential pitfalls of that civ.

Portugal:
Preferred Victory Condition: Domination
Preferred Map Type: Archipelago
Preferred Ideology: Autocracy
Strongest Era - Renaissance
Best Social Policies - Liberty/Commerce
Best Pantheon/Religious Tenets - Happiness boosters / Coastal focused beliefs
Best Wonder - Great lighthouse (easy), Colossus (hard), Big Ben (easy)
Worst enemies: Austria / Anyone who attacks city states
Other Key Things to Know
- Get to Navigation and set up feitorias with every CS.
- Pump out an endless fleet of Naus, surround every CS and milk them for tribute. Feitorias mean they'll still cough up their luxury resources even while mad at you.
- Once you're unbelievably rich from nau cargo and tribute, dominate the game with your gold and nau fleet. Buy up as many frigates as iron will allow and conquer along with the expendable naus, or go into freedom and buy your spaceship parts.

My opinion

 

[Navelgazer]

Good call, project ako!