Civ Unique Ability Elimination Thread

[Troy Bruckner]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 26
Brazil - Amazon: 14
Egypt - Iteru: 10
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 6
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Inca - Mit'a: 3
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 24
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 10 (9 +1) I am not enamored with this Civ, but getting units out fast is much better than hoping you find Kandy early in the game.
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Poland - Golden Liberty: 2
Rome - All Roads Lead To Rome: 2 -3 ELIMINATED second worst one left with Kongo being the worst so I am getting rid of it.
Russia - Mother Russia : 26
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 20
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[Kwami]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 26
Brazil - Amazon: 14
Egypt - Iteru: 10
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 6 - 3 = 3 (This one is sometimes great, but often not needed. It's also kind of boring.)
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Inca - Mit'a: 3
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 24
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 10 + 1 = 11 (Ranged units are among the best. The bonus production and gold is also pretty great.)
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Poland - Golden Liberty: 2
Russia - Mother Russia : 26
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 20
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[BenitoChavez]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 26
Brazil - Amazon: 14
Egypt - Iteru: 10
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 3
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Inca - Mit'a: 3
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25 = 24 + 1. Lots of fun stacking all your districts together. Build districts from multiple cities together and create a megalopolis! Japan can get some crazy Industrial zone adjacencies with the changes in the last patch.
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Poland - Golden Liberty: ELIMINATED = 2 - 3. Culture bombs are of limited use. The wildcard policy slot is nice but comes at the expense of a military policy slot.
Russia - Mother Russia : 26
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 20
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[NullNullError]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 26
Brazil - Amazon: 14
Egypt - Iteru: 10
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 3
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Inca - Mit'a: 3 - 3 = 0 Eliminated Working mountains is almost never the correct choice.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 26 + 1 = 27 One of the best abilities in the game. The added production, the free pantheon, the tiles you get more. Also historically fitting.
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 20
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[DWilson]

@NullNullError will need a different downvote, as another user eliminated Poland before him. Also, they'll need to adjust for the Japan upvote.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 26
Brazil - Amazon: 15 (14+1) --- I'm surprised Brazil is not higher. It finished a respectable 19 of 34 last time around before the release of Gathering Storm. 3 things have happened since then:
1) Chopping rainforest will exacerbate you global warming problems down the line.
2) You can now build lumber mills on rainforests and the river adjacency bonus has been removed.
3) Offensive warmongering is more challenging and you might just be best off turtling up in a maze of 2-move/ZOC and building your +6 campi. If you miss the cav/ram ground blitz, you could even take to the seas as a surrogate & use your +6 campi to get the Minas Gereas early.
Egypt - Iteru: 10
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 3
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17 (20-3) --- Simply overrated.
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[DWilson]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 27 (26+1) This is simply an incredibly potent ability, that allows you an infrastructure approach that other civs' simply can't attempt.
Brazil - Amazon: 15
Egypt - Iteru: 7 (10-3) I think this is solid, but most of the bonuses left are more than solid.
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 3
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[Kimiimaro]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 27
Brazil - Amazon: 15+1=16 - Districts with giant yields propelling you to any victory you want to pursue are almost guaranteed thanks to this.
Egypt - Iteru: 7
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Free Imperial Cities: 3-3=0 (ELIMINATED) - A good and flexible one, but, as I said, I don't find myself in low population problems very often.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[lotrmith]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24 = 27 - 3 I personally don't enjoy micromanaging builders, or districts. I've slowly weened myself off of the OCD of playing optimally, but it still bugs me. I don't like micro'ing builders, or governors, etc. This ability is strong, surely, but it's not one that I like.
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 8 = 7 + 1 Passive flood resistance is a boon.
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Germany - Shame, this is so strong it's not even funny. Probably the strongest one of all, even if it's boring and most players don't notice and thus can't quantify it.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 11
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[_Calyx]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 8
England - Workshop of the World: 17 (16+1) I love having high production, and this has a bunch of small bonuses that are actually quite potent (though they do kick in late).
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8 (11-3) This ability has a pretty big downside, probably the worst of those left. I really do not enjoy having low production.
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 12
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

I think what I've learned from this thread is that I really need to try out Brazil.

 

[Disgustipated]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 8
England - Workshop of the World: 18 = 17 + 1 I'll give this one one upvote. Recently played Victoria, and she turned out quite strong. My only minor complaint is the ability is all over the place in the description, and it's hard to really see how much benefit you are getting from this. So you may miss it.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 27
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 9 = 12 - 3. A little risky on higher difficulty levels, you may not be able to win these. This makes it so it's nice to have Sweden in the game, but not necessarily play Sweden.
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[Goodenuf]

Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru:
Australia - Land Down Under: 23
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5 (8-3) If you play lots of river maps, then this is OK. There's lots of non-river territory out there where this ability is useless.
England - Workshop of the World: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28 (27+1) Occasionally I love to play a religious game and this civ does it so freaking well. Plus no one except Canada gets in the way of your expansion plans into the tundra.
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 9
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[bengalryan9]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24 (23+1) Easy adjacency boosts to the districts you're going to want to build, and unlike a lot of other abilities on the list can be taken advantage of with little to no micromanaging.
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 23
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 6 (9-3) Yeah, I think as the game stands now this is rather weak. Winning the extra competitions isn't a guarantee at higher levels. The extra diplomatic favor would be nice but I always seem to be swimming in it anyways, especially now that using all of your favor to grant yourself 2 diplomatic victory points is almost impossible.
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[KayAU]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 24 (23 + 1) This is the one I actually wanted to upvote yesterday. The river adjacency bonus is the best part of this, and as it stacks with whatever adjacencies you get from what's on the other side of the river, you can get some pretty impressive districts as the Netherlands. The increased production for Dams is also nice.
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 3 (6 - 3) I like the Nobel Prize, but it doesn't benefit Sweden more than anyone else in the game. The extra GPP is not that significant, and comes late. The extra favor is good, but not that strong compared to what's left here.

A small note with regards to the Inca: I don't agree that you shouldn't consider Terrace Farms, especially since they are explicitly mentioned in the ability description. A typical Incan mountain will yield between 1 and 3 food in addition to the 2 production. Mountains also have high appeal, so if you manage to get Earth Mother, you can add 2 faith to that. Not bad for an unimproved tile. I would also take into consideration that the Inca can get very high populations, which allows them to work more tiles than most civs.

 

[Krajzen]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 18-3=15 it got better with buffs but doesn't deserved to live this long. Six separate bonuses inside its UA and only two (power yields and industrial buildings) really matter and economically it imo loses with...
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 10+1=11 requires a bit of planning but 2x faster 1-2 district (and its buildings) per river city makes a difference
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 8
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 24
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 3

 

[Canterbury]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 11
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 25
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 5 (8-3). A good ability in the long run, but the reduced production in the early game is downright annoying.
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 25 (24+1). The adjacency bonus being dependent on rivers means it won't apply to all cities, but nevertheless it's still a really good adjacency bonus. I tend to put my cities near rivers most of the time anyways, or else near the coast. Plus having cheaper flood barriers is always nice.
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: 3

 

[Caprikel]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 11
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 26 (25+1) Adjacency bonuses for all districts is really nice, and the new Industrial zone adjacencies that encourage putting your IZ's next to green districts synergizes so well with this ability.
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 5
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 25
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 24
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Sweden - Nobel Prize: Eliminated (3-3) Diplomatic favor just not useful enough to warrant this being a top 20 ability. Diplomatic resolutions just aren't strong enough, and can't be controlled, which makes their main use not substantial. DF is really only useful for trading for lots of gold (Which feels like an exploit, and as such isn't fun), or for winning a Diplomatic victory (Which is basically always slower than a culture victory). The Nobel prize competitions are also an ability that can help your enemies, which makes it pretty unreliable.

 

[enKage]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5
England - Workshop of the World: 16 (15+1) It is not only incresed yields from late buildings and faster IZ. What is really rarely mentioned - building military engineering twice as fast and they even have 2 more charges! And it means your dams, aqueducts are constructed literally 2-3 turns. And flood barriers too. While I usually dont notice increeased yields, blitzbuilding dams for huge adjecency of IZ is great
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 11
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 26
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 5
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 25
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 21 (24-3) Looks better on paper than in practice. First of all, it works only while esctatic/happy, so limited time. Science/production boost is small and you can get more with adjecency bonuses instead or just from 50%boost to luxuries while playing Aztecs. All civs get better yields while happy / ecstatic and scottish ability doeasn't increase this so much as some people think - just do some math on your cities. What it does instead is forcing you to take care of ammenities, limiting growth, building ammenity wonders, instead of doing what you should do instead - expanding and gaining yields from expansion. In vanilla game it still works on diety, but with mods hardly increasing AI's yields this ability is a trap. I can live with this ability if I have fe. muscat and Cahokia nearby, but how often it happens? More great people points is more usefull, but it is not better than generating them earlier, what you usually do with Hungarian ability for example. And GP generation is dependent on happiness. Again.
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

EDIT
added Zulu, as tey have tendency to hide

 

[bbbt]

Australia - Land Down Under: 24
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 24 + 1 = 25 Not the undeniable s tier it once was with all the other additional ways of districting - Magnus chopping, governor purchasing, etc. But still extremely strong especially early game where you can basically buy a district for the price of a builder
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 5 - 3 = 2 Definitely improved and a lot more 'atmospheric' with the flood immunity, but still not amazing.
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 11
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 26
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 5
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 25
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 21
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Zulu - Isibongo: 19

 

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

Australia - Land Down Under: 25=24+1, I once had a campus surrounded by 5 mountains, resulting in a +8 adjacency bonus straight out of ancient era. the game just ended there.
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 25
Brazil - Amazon: 16
Egypt - Iteru: 2
England - Workshop of the World: 16
Greece - Plato's Republic: 24
Hungary - Pearl of the Danube: 11
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 26
Kongo - Nkisi: 22
Mali - Songs of the Jeli: 2=5-3 Maybe when you establish a strong economy, a reduction in production doesn't hurt much, but gosh, in the early game, it is so painful having to build stuffs in 20+ turns
Maori - Mana: 30
Mongolia - Ortoo: 22
Netherlands - Grote Riveren: 25
Nubia - Ta-Seti: 11
Ottomans - Great Turkish Bombard: 22
Russia - Mother Russia : 28
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 21
Scythia - People of the Steppe: 17
Zulu - Isibongo: 19