Civ Unique Ability Elimination Thread

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Australia was eliminated while I was typing my long rationale for why it's great (and my vote wouldn't have saved it anyways)... I'm still gonna share it lol. I don't think it's situational at all because I find it hard to believe you'd get a map start with no woods, no lakes, no rivers, no mountains, and no coast (as Australia!). Possible, I guess, but unlikely. The appeal mini-game is not well understood? How? It's one of the few things in the game that is explicitly spelled out in the civpedia and works exactly as advertised. How much extra science did you get from that +3 campus you had for 100 turns before you could finally build your +4 campuses in every other game, especially at a time where those science points are at a premium? Plus the Dead Sea by itself isn't going to give you breathtaking appeal anyways, it would take something else to bump up the adjacency. It couldn't have been rainforest, because you wouldn't have gotten any appeal bonus then. It couldn't have been mountains, because any campus that starts between the Dead Sea and those mountains is going to be at least +5. A campus sandwiched between the Dead Sea and a geothermal fissure get you to +3, but you wouldn't have breathtaking appeal so that could still be raised with a little work. The most likely situation would be a campus between the Dead Sea and two forest tiles, but just because you can get a +3 bonus doesn't mean that it's the long term best spot to build it. A holy site placed in that same spot would've got you at least +6. If it was a river giving you the added appeal, a commercial hub built in that spot would've been +5 at the least. Even a theater square would've been a better fit since it my experience that's the one that is the hardest to get adjacency bonuses to. So it sounds like you put the district least fit to go there in that spot, but even then +3 is nothing to scoff at. This is way more powerful than I think some of you realize... if someone held a gun up to my head and said I had to win a game on deity to save my life, I'd probably take Australia. Sorry to see it go. No hard feelings or anything, though.

Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 5 (8-3) Using your own districts to boost your adjacencies is a great ability. I'd much rather do it as Australia (through appeal boosts) where I get a bunch of other bonuses as well.
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 15 (14+1) The best? Probably not. Fun? Oh yes. And it's still really good.
Russia - Mother Russia: 10
 
This is a great top 6. All of these deserve to be here in some sort of order.

Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 5
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 12 (15-3) Early wayfaring is amazing but it comes at the cost of great writers and harvesting, two things I like to have in my game.
Russia - Mother Russia: 11 (10+1) Russia could literally be just a civ with this Ability and the Lavras, with no UU or leader ability and still be one of the better civs in this game. Really go wide and forward settle to truly appreciate this ability.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 2 (5-3) The premier adjacency bonus apparently but time to go.
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 13 (12 +1) I'll give another vote for this one based on it's funness. Interesting to note, with AUS gone, it's now the only remaining non-Vanilla UA.
Russia - Mother Russia: 11
 
Unfortunately I think Rusia has been downvoted 10->7 in the meantime so shpuld be 8 now, also Maori, Greece were upvoted
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 15 (14+1) So much versatility and power this offers from turn - whatever turn you finish your first civic. :)
Japan - Meiji Restoration: 0 (2-3) Eliminated. A very good ability. Just not better than what is left.

Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 14
Russia - Mother Russia: 8

I think this is right? Several votes were missed.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16 (15+1)
Simple, elegant, conceptual (an ideal society would include more boni so to speak). Never boring.
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 14
Russia - Mother Russia: 8-3=5 I suspect Aztec ability is worse but this one just doesnt do it for me. If it wasnt for the tundra, I would love it.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 7
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 15=14+1 There is just so much going on with this ability. The early seafaring bonuses make the Maori hands down one of the best at scouting. I can't tell you how many times I snowballed an early game because I was first to meet 3-5 city states.
Russia - Mother Russia: 2=5-3 All remaining here are great civs, but I have to say that the early tundra bias really reduces the effectiveness of those free tiles.
 
I've gone over every post from the last two pages. One Māori upvote was missed earlier, which I've corrected here (prior to adding my vote). Otherwise, we should be good to go now.

Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 4 (7-3). Downvoting a good ability here, since we have so few left. It does becomes less useful after Eagle Warriors can no longer get you workers, which makes you either constantly warmonger with an obsolete unit (and hope it doesn't get killed itself) or use up production for workers to speed up production for districts. And now there's a governor who can just buy them.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 17 (16+1). Powerful bonuses, and the maluses (no harvesting or GWs) weren't as difficult an obstacle as I thought they'd be: rainforests and woods provide not only additional production overall but can also help with some district adjacencies in case a resource blocks its placement elsewhere; plus great works of writing can still be either traded or demanded. Coupled with the other bonuses (and in concert with Kupe's leader bonus), it makes for the kind of unique civ play that I really like (Venice was my favourite civ in Civ 5 for the same reason).
Russia - Mother Russia: 2
 
Better late than never! It does make it hard to vote with all of them being the best ones though!

Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 4
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16
Kongo - Nkisi: 11 (10 + 1) This ability turns Kongo into a cultural powerhouse and the extra food, production, and gold certainly doesn't hurt either!
Maori - Mana: 17
Russia - Mother Russia: Eliminated (2 - 3) A fantastic ability but out of the remaining choices its less of a game changer than the others.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 4
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16
Kongo - Nkisi: 8 = 11-3 Although certainly good, especially the great people points, i would say that this has the downside of 1) coming a bit later than other abilities and 2) requiring you to actually do things for this to start working out (in this case either building theater square, ch, finding a relic, etc.). At this point, all little details count so this is why i downvote it now as other abilities here are starting almost at turn 1. Still strong (especially the great merchant points) and fun though.
Maori - Mana: 18 = 17+1 I'm torn between this and Greece, and although i think Greece's bonus is more versatile, less map dependent and eventually stronger, i will give this one my vote this time. It is great for early exploration (which is super fun), and if done well guarantees an amazing early game.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 1 (4 - 3) Weakest left. Eagle Warriors will expire before you need their builders to rush Spaceports.
Greece - Plato's Republic: 16
Kongo - Nkisi: 8
Maori - Mana: 19 (18 + 1) RIP Australia. I guess this would be my second best favorite then. Makes your Woods really Productive with Lumbermills. Early exploration. means free Tribal Huts and meeting CS's before anyone else. Free techs are always useful. Fishing Boats are mainly just for flavour, but the Culture bomb is also good. Overall, best ability left
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 1
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13 (16-3) Overrated.
Kongo - Nkisi: 9 (8+1) +50% GWAM (and Merchant Points) + productive relics, sculptures and artifacts are very good. Better than an extra Wildcard slot regarding culture.
Maori - Mana: 19
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 1
Greece - Plato's Republic: 10(13-3 not that different from a flat gpt bonus. Overrated)
Kongo - Nkisi: 9
Maori - Mana: 20( 19+1 fitting hystorically, cool narrative.)


Edit:
please remember to not only vote on strength.You can vote based on value, strength, uniqueness, fun, etc.
 
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Also posting better late than never - desperate bid to prolong Plato's republic!

Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 1
Greece - Plato's Republic: 11 (10+1) This can be whatever you want it to be, at the right time you need it. Much more than just gpt imho
Kongo - Nkisi: 9
Maori - Mana: 17 (20-3) While this is the most unique and narratively good, ability left to vote for I don't think it deserves to be a runaway leader - the lack of chopping can be a hindrance.
 
Aztec - Legend of the Five Suns: 0 (1-3) ELIMINATED - All 4 of these are great abilities, so I'm gonna go by what I enjoy the most. This can shake up how you play the game quite heavily, but less so now that Reyna and Moksha give you alternate ways to rush districts out. So, sorry Monty
Greece - Plato's Republic: 11
Kongo - Nkisi: 10 (9+1) Kongo is my favourite vanilla civ by far thanks to this ability. I just plain enjoy how they play. I don't think they should win but I enjoy them anyway.
Maori - Mana: 17

As an aside, I quite like that our top 6 were so geographically spread out over the continents. Quite an achievement given the volume of european civs...
 
Greece - Plato's Republic: 12 (11 + 1) - Simple, powerful, and flexible the entire game.
Kongo - Nkisi: 10
Maori - Mana: 14 (17 - 3) Interesting design does not mean best civ.
 
Greece - Plato's Republic: 12 + 1 = 13 (Still the most flexible ability in the game.)
Kongo - Nkisi: 10 - 3 = 7 (The weakest of the remaining abilities. This one comes online mostly later in the game unless you get really lucky with relics.)
Maori - Mana: 14

I really do like Mana, too, since it's so thematic and game changing. But, it really is map dependent and often doesn't work out so well.
 
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Kongo - Nkisi: 4 (7-3) My least favorite of the remaining three. Great, but neither Mana not Plato's Republic.
Maori - Mana: 15 (14+1) I think this is a fun cocktail of bonuses, so I will give it one of my last (probably the last) upvotes. With the weaknesses I cannot say for sure it's the strongest, but you certainly don't feel weaker when playing with them. Mostly you just have fun. (Also, I always feel uncomfortable harvesting anyhow- like chopping more than a couple tiles, using coal plants, conquering city states, or using nukes. I feel guilty when I do any of them).
 
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Kongo - Nkisi: 1 (4-3) Should have been eliminated a week ago. The GPP bonuses are not enough to counter the slowness of this Civ's expansion capability. Many other Civs will still leave Kongo in the dust in regards to GPP production because they can actually expand and build 3 to 4 times as many cities,
Maori - Mana: 16 (15+1) Shipbuilding, to start, culture bombs from fishing boats (Elvis still needs boats btw) are just frosting on the cupcake of bonus production from forest tiles. Find a good spot to settle early and that scout is built that much faster to go grab those goody huts and free envoys. My only reservation is if this ability is so great and has the best unit along with having a monstrous output from it's theater square building then why doesn't this Civ perform better than it does.
 
Greece - Plato's Republic: 13
Kongo - Nkisi: Eliminated (1-3) I didn’t even notice the bonus when playing as Kongo
Maori - Mana: 17 (16+1) It’s a blast to play, you have great flexibility in opening the game, and will likely get easy early golden ages and suzerain of CSs thanks to being first to meet them. I cannot speak highly enough of this ability.
 
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