Civ Unique Ability Elimination Thread

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Australia - Land Down Under: 14
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 17 + 1 = 18 (A free Wildcard slot helps with every victory condition on every map and against every opponent. It's kind of boring, but it's also really strong.)
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 17
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Mongolia - Örtöö: 8
Russia - Mother Russia : 15
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 9 - 3 = 6 (I still don't know why this ability goes with Scotland. Anyway, I think it's the weakest of the remaining choices because maintaining ecstatic cities isn't trivial until late in the game unless you really concentrate on it, and then you're giving up other good stuff.)
 
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Australia - Land Down Under: 14
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 19
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 18 (17+1) --- Lots of 3 or more adjacencies that come into play later in the game when you need to kick in the retro rockets. Many options...Science/Industry, or Culture, or even religion.
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Mongolia - Örtöö: 6 (9-3) --- The problem here is I don't need it. If you go all out, early conquest is a given vs. AI. Furthermore, who wants to mid/late game war anymore post cav nerf and a nice adjacency ability or science/culture buff is better.
Russia - Mother Russia : 12
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 6

I have corrected the totals to adjust for simultaneous voting.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 14
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 20 = 19 + 1 Some argue that a wonder can replace this ability with any civ, but its not a replacement, its an extra wildcard slot which can be used no matter your playstyle.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 18
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Mongolia - Örtöö: 3 = 6 - 3 enough reasons have already been given for downvoting this by other people here.
Russia - Mother Russia : 12
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 6
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 14
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 20 (19+1=20) This is incredibly flexible for any victory type, and allows early strategies that are impossible for other Civs. I'm not sure why people are calling it boring when you do literally anything with it. Also, it comes early enough to start helping in the Ancient Era.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 18
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Mongolia - Örtöö: eliminated (3-3=0) I'm not sure why this is still in the running. What happened to Hellenistic Fusion? That's the premier DV bonus of this list. I guess this crowd doesn't like to war-monger.
Russia - Mother Russia : 12
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 6
 
Scotland was incorrectly scored and should be at 9 now

EDIt: actually no, its 6 (my bad)
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 14+1=15 - Pack of three decent bonuses wins over one Greek bonus achievable by anyone to me. A, culture bombs are fun for me, and Australia has a plenty of them. B, I still can't forget that ancient +8 Campus I got. C, Much more decent living space.
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 21-3=18 - Flexible? Yes, I don't deny. Good? Can be. But no, I wouldn't take it over anything left, maybe save for Scotland, but Scottish fate is sealed, so I'm not going to waste my downvote there. Maybe I'm too ignorant or too lazy to actively micromanage policies each turn I unlock a new civic to actually realise their great power and influence, but the remaining fact is that I haven't felt like these being a giant improvement to my games or big fun to play.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 18
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Russia - Mother Russia : 12
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 6
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 18
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 15 (18-3) Takes time to be effective and not that strong if compared to the other abilities in this list.
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Russia - Mother Russia : 13 (12+1) An ability that not only enables you to grab land (in all cases, not tundra only) but also makes Tundra viable isnt something to scoff at. People dont realise that settling massively on tundra means that your cities are not juicy preys for someone else conquer them (lower prod/no farms). Not only that, you re taking land no one else really wants, thus avoiding unnecessary conflicts. As Russia, this ability gives the civ the safety/turtling it needs to ease the religious/cultural victory it's so good at.
As for those that believe that Tundra cities lack food. Fisheries/water resources can easily feed a big city.

Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 6
 
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Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 18
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 15
Kongo - Nkisi: 13 (16-3) Requires too much hunting to really bring it up online. Sculptures not relics m are guaranteed, and artifacts come very late.
Maori - Mana: 21
Russia - Mother Russia : 13
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 7 (6+1) Those who say this isn’t thematic haven’t done their homework. James Watt, James Clerk Maxwell, David Hume, Adam Smith, etc all were Scottish. From about 1700-1850, it seemed like the Industrial Age was being driven out of Glasgow and Edinburgh. This bonus is fun to play and really feels like your great people are helping you lead the forefront in science and industry.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 19 = 18 + 1 If you're not managing your policy cards, are you even playing the game?
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 15
Kongo - Nkisi: 16
Maori - Mana: 21
Russia - Mother Russia: 10 = 13 - 3 Trading bad tundra tiles (which are unsustainable at 1 food) for bad coast tiles doesn't make this a better ability.
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 7

Macedon went out because it is not the end-all DV ability. Macedon's units are. Even Macedon's Leader Ability is better for DV than its Civ Ability. Mongolia, for example, having consistent combat bonuses over its opponents does more for DV than random eurekas and inspirations.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 18
Greece - Plato's Republic: 19
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 15
Kongo - Nkisi: 13
Maori - Mana: 18 (21-3) As great as this ability is, I can't understand why it's been leading in score the whole game. I just don't see it as the #1 civ ability. Early wayfaring from the beginning is the coolest of these sub-abilities in that it makes the Maori so unique to play. +1 production from unimproved woods and +1 food from fishing boats is a nice little bonus, but nothing amazing. But this ability comes with two maluses! No great writers or chopping resources can really hamper you. Also I'm not really a fan of how this "ability" is like a half-dozen mini-bonuses. It's not really elegant design. Contrast with the Aztecs and Greece(both of whom should end up ranking higher than the Maori) who have remarkably simple yet powerful bonuses.
Russia - Mother Russia : 11 (10+1) When you play Russia for a while then switch to another civ, it just feels "wrong" that you're not getting those extra tiles. You take advantage of this ability from turn 1 until the last turn off the game. It's not an ability that takes a while to kick in, or can only be used a few times. Settle far and wide, and definitely make sure you forward settle your neighbors. It can be hilarious how if you settle right up close, your extra tiles will sometimes wrap around your neighbor's city. This ability also gives so much faith. Perfectly synergizes with Dance of the Aurora or Earth Goddess. Of course, like I've said earlier, also possibly first pick of Pantheon. The blizzard stuff is purely for flavor though, I don't think it's ever been relevant for me.

Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 7
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15 (18 - 3) This is a great ability, but so is everything else at this point. I downvote this because, in the early game, districts don't take that long to build anyway, and 5 builder charges is a significant price. I also thing the late game usefulness of this ability has faded a bit, as there are now two governors who can buy districts outright, in a single turn.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 19
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 15
Kongo - Nkisi: 17 (16 + 1) What can I say, I'm a builder, and I love yields. Sure, unless you get lucky with relics it doesn't bloom until the Renaissance Era, but Kongo has both the incentives and means to rush for those Archeological Museums.
Maori - Mana: 18
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 7
 
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Australia - Land Down Under: 15
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 20 (19+1) Having played all of the remaining civs I believe this 'simple' ability is just incredibly strong. In all phases of the game this helps in the exact way that is at that time the most useful.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 12 (15-3) It's a great ability, it's just that the other remaining ones are amazing and/or super fun to play.
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 18
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 7
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 16 (15+1) I never re-roll my maps. It's not *that* difficult to get breathtaking tiles. Got a coastal tile with a river and 2 woods next to it? That's breathtaking. Build a Holy Site (which would even get an extra +1 from the woods!) or Theater Square there and now the tile across the river from it is also probably breathtaking. Any large patches of forest or mountains gives you plenty of chances at breathtaking appeal, especially since you're already likely to be on or near the coast. Find a peninsula (not unlikely in my experience), there's even more breathtaking appeal. Rivers and lakes? Even more chances. Plan your districts well enough and you can use the appeal some of them (HS, TS, and EC) give to play as a mini-Japan, boosting your adjacencies to breathtaking with your own districts. Sure, you might have bad luck with the map generator, but I like my chances. And then, on top of all of that, you get a big boost to housing and a decent culture bomb as well.
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 20
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 12
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 18
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 4 (7-3) I like this one too but I think it's about time for it to fall off.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 16
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 20
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 12
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 19 (18+1) Maybe not the strongest, and sort of a hodgepodge, but definitely the most unique UA in 6 (maybe the whole series, tho Venice was pretty unique)
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: 1 (4-3) it's fun and I like the encouragement for high amenities but the most meh of the remaining abilities imho
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 16
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 21 (20+1). Useful from the beginning and with no effort. Basically a free Forbidden City, which can be doubled with the actual wonder. Makes getting a religion a lot easier too.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 12
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
Scotland - Scottish Enlightenment: ELIMINATED (1-3). A nice ability, but harder to keep ecstatic bonuses as your population gets larger, and even then they're still quite small.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 16
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 22 = 21+1 - I also don't really get why are people calling boring. Because it's just a short sentence? Because you don't need to do anything specific (like placing a district in this highlighted +6 tile)? The non-boring part is all the things you can do with an extra wildcard. You have the choice to slot in whatever you want, making your game less boring than, for example, getting random tiles around your city.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 12
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 8 = 11-3 - If we talk about boring abilities, then this should be one. As soon as you settle a city, you have all the benefit of this ability, without having to do a single thing. And what you can do with it is clearly less diverse than with an extra wildcard slot.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 17 (16 + 1) Firstly, Breathtaking isn't that uncommon. Woods, Coast, Mountain, River, Lake, it's fairy abundant. +3 bonus yield from a Breathtaking which straight away exceeds Japan at its best, without building anything else. People might complain things like Mines and IZ reduce Appeal. So, you might have to replace IZ and Mines away from your Appeal hotspots. Only build Mines and Quarries if they contain valuable resources underneath. Once you build Eiffel Tower, and can plant woods, you will have extra Appeal available to offset any penalties. Your Production might suffer a bit, but then you're going to be getting +100% liberation Production anyway. And if you don't have enough Appeal spots for all your Seaside Resorts and National Parks, rethink whether or not you should be going for a Culture victory as Australia.
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 22
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 9 (12 - 3) Australia gets +3 bonus yield from placing their districts straight into Breathtaking tiles. Meanwhile, to do that with Japan, you will need to build a minimum of 7 districts, giving only the centre one a bonus of 3, same as Australia, but much slower and ineffective. Essentially, this is Australia without 2 of its abilities, and a weakened third.
Kongo - Nkisi: 17
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 8
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 17
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 22
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 10 (9+1) It's so flexibel and working for every victory type on every map.
Kongo - Nkisi: 14 (17-3) I like Kongo and it's ability but this is a one trick pony and you really have to put efford into this before you get a good reward.
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 8
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 17
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 22-3=19 Plain overrated. Also boring.
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 10
Kongo - Nkisi: 14
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 8+1=9 Gives russia both generalist (production) and specialist edge (faith) from tundra. Also immune to blizzards.
 
Australia - Land Down Under: 17
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 15
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16(19-3.

  • Strength: Poland has rank 23. The biggest difference between the two abilities is that you get an additional military policy card. The policy card slot I want the least. If I want an early religion I could just as well go Poland. Early game the bonus +5 strenght against barbarian is nice. But the additional military slot greece has over Poland does not justify the rank difference. Late game its almost always the minus 2 gold in there. 40 Gold more per turn when I make arround 800 Gpt is nothing to scoff at. I just dont think it deserves to be ranked so much over poland.
  • Boring: Russia opens the map up by giving you additional land to settle which you would never consider setteling. Kongo changes up your faith game. Japan your district placement. Greece doesn't change your playstyle. it enhances whatever you do. The remaining abilities change how you play the map. Change how you evaluate resources, districts, artifacts, great Persons. Greece is just eh here have a flat bonus.
  • TLDR: Greece = Worse Poland + worse Germany leader ability!

Japan - Meiji Restoration: 10
Kongo - Nkisi: 14
Maori - Mana: 19
Russia - Mother Russia: 10(9+1 I dont like russia that much but would always pick it over greece.)
 
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