Civilization 6 Tier List 1.0

[CultureManiac]

Disagree with Sumeria on the lowest tier. Forget scouts.War carts have the same 3 movement as well as the highest melee strength in the opening. Start by building several of these and go capture some capitals before your neighbors have had their morning coffee.

 

[Keaton_AU]

It is very hard to rate Scythia at the moment. With the exploit in play, it makes it very difficult to know when an opponent is playing genuinely without it or is using it. Obviously everyone states they aren't using it, but.. until it is fixed, it remains difficult for me to consider them higher.

Russia remain low currently, what prevents Russia from being a powerhouse is their bias. Often, due to their spawn location toward the edge of the map, it means their expansions are significantly restricted, sure, there is lots of tundra and heaps of faith!!11! - but it remains useless when no luxuries spawn in tundra except furs and the rivers are more limited then central map.

Sumeria I agree could be higher, I will update the list soon, but having played around with war carts alone, they definitely deserve to be higher.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Russia remain low currently, what prevents Russia from being a powerhouse is their bias. Often, due to their spawn location toward the edge of the map, it means their expansions are significantly restricted, sure, there is lots of tundra and heaps of faith!!11! - but it remains useless when no luxuries spawn in tundra except furs and the rivers are more limited then central map.

That is incorrect, spices spawn on them as well and they can be amazing tiles. See Marbozir's Deity game as Russia he uploaded recently.

 

[Keaton_AU]

I don't mean that literally. I mean the number of luxuries that spawn in tundra is limited compared to grassland / plains. Further, the spawn rate of resources in Tundra appears to be significant lower than grassland and plains.

 

[Frank327]

The strength of Russia doesn't really come from tundra tiles (your cities should be at the edge of tundra, not in the middle) but from all the great person points you get from cheap lavras. As long as you find the slots for great works, you're in a great position to get a cultural victory.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Yes, grassland is the cornucopia of good tiles. It's the same in HOMM3 where the grassland races would get so much more loot compared to the others. The problem is that wtih any Civ you can end up on any terrain. You can get a jungle start with Arabia or a desert craphole island with Japan, or the "bland plains of mediocrity" with any civ. It's random really.

 

[Chysp]

I think England is a lot stronger than this list suggests because of just how broken Redcoats + Pax Brittanica is. In my last game, I settled one city on an overseas continent and got a free Redcoat. That alone was enough to take Rio, and for doing so, I got a second Redcoat. Within 40 turns I had taken every city on the other continent and had amassed an army of 13 Redcoats, without ever having to build a single one.

I decided to pursue domination after this, but my early game alliances with those on my own continent and focus on culture meant that I could have easily taken that route with the remaining civs.

Tldr, Redcoats + Pax Brittanica make England an absolute beast at continental domination.

 

[Myth and Legend]

I think England is a lot stronger than this list suggests because of just how broken Redcoats + Pax Brittanica is. In my last game, I settled one city on an overseas continent and got a free Redcoat. That alone was enough to take Rio, and for doing so, I got a second Redcoat. Within 40 turns I had taken every city on the other continent and had amassed an army of 13 Redcoats, without ever having to build a single one.

I decided to pursue domination after this, but my early game alliances with those on my own continent and focus on culture meant that I could have easily taken that route with the remaining civs.

Tldr, Redcoats + Pax Brittanica make England an absolute beast at continental domination.

I imagine you get a red coat if you're at the appropraite tech level? Thus on Deity you'd be hard pressed to take anything with just a single unit of them by the time you reach the other continent. It is a nice boon if you've already launched a full scale invasion, battleships and field cannons and all that.

 

[esoba]

My major disagreement is the Aztecs are incredibly powerful and their benefits synergize amazingly well. Played 2 games as them and I always have an army of builders early and can rush districts like mad. Then my civ takes off and when EW are no longer viable I'm already a powerhouse. Definitely think this is a top tier civ.

 

[gberetfr]

I like those kind of discussions just a few hours/days after release where nobody could possibly have had the time to test all civs, combinations, game mechanics,...

Someone makes a classification based on what he tested/understood/...

And after that some other replies, yes but this civ using this strategy is also powerfull (which for sure is !).

And at the end if we look at all the propositions almost all the civs can end up in tier 1 )

 

[UWHabs]

From what I'm reading, sounds like just about everyone has some strategies which can synergize well if played to their max.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

It is very hard to rate Scythia at the moment. With the exploit in play, it makes it very difficult to know when an opponent is playing genuinely without it or is using it. Obviously everyone states they aren't using it, but.. until it is fixed, it remains difficult for me to consider them higher.

Russia remain low currently, what prevents Russia from being a powerhouse is their bias. Often, due to their spawn location toward the edge of the map, it means their expansions are significantly restricted, sure, there is lots of tundra and heaps of faith!!11! - but it remains useless when no luxuries spawn in tundra except furs and the rivers are more limited then central map.

Sumeria I agree could be higher, I will update the list soon, but having played around with war carts alone, they definitely deserve to be higher.

I for one use it all the time if I play them! I love it and it won't be around much longer so I am going to milk it for every piece of gold it is worth !!

 

[Iberian]

Every Civ seems powerful if you are playing below your skill level. That's why we had the Deity Tier list for Civ 5. In Civ5 some civs actually required the Diety level AI to be good.

 

[rkade8583]

Sumeria needs to be higher up. I've annihilated multiple civs early-game with war carts and kept the tundra/ice clear for barb-farming (and why bother using it for cities anyway.) Unfortunately, the AI isn't smart enough for the diplomacy parts of their civ.

As for Teddy, while I almost hero-worship the man, the toys they gave him to play with are just awful... and that makes me sad.

 

[Japper007]

Why the hate on Sumeria?

The war carts are my favourite UU in the game right now. They have great combat strenght, lots of movement and they look awesome to boot.

Just kick out three as your first builds, then level them up against the barbs, add some archers, and you'll have a force that can conquer, or at least wreak havoc on, your home continent.

Then after you have become the first continental power in the game (unless you just won Domination if it's a Pangea!) just spam Ziggurats everywere you have flat lands and tech and culture your way into a win.

You need to put more effort into them then the obviously OP civs like Germany, but they certainly ain't bottom tier.

 

[Abraxis]

I would definitely be moving Japan down and Scythia up.

 

[Acrtic]

Scythia deserves God Tier all be herself

I think Germany though is definitely #2 and would sit atop the next tier.

Also agree with many posters that Sumeria is actually pretty strong, and that Tier 4 is too low for the Aztecs.

Not only do their warriros convert builders which everybody knows about, but they get a 40% increase in their warrior strength (20+8) so thats pretty dominant.

 

[Babarigo]

What is pretty clear is how strong the unique districts are. They are already worth it just by not counting towards the district limit and the halved cost. On the other side unique improvements are quite weak. Their yields are either week or hard to obtain. I really hope that Firaxis is going to try to balance them.

 

[Kwami]

Yes, grassland is the cornucopia of good tiles. It's the same in HOMM3 where the grassland races would get so much more loot compared to the others. The problem is that wtih any Civ you can end up on any terrain. You can get a jungle start with Arabia or a desert craphole island with Japan, or the "bland plains of mediocrity" with any civ. It's random really.

It's not entirely random, though. Russia has a start bias for tundra. They're much more likely to start in tundra than anywhere else. Other civilizations also have biases, though some are missing. For example, Arabia doesn't have a desert bias.

 

[ComradeKroo]

I played 3 deity games, here are my top 3 for conquest victory.

Top 1 is Scythia.
-Nomadic ancient rush with mounted archers is my favourite gameplay style. Scythia is new version of Huns or Mongols, thats why i try them first.
-Their Horse Archer is the strongest early unit to beat AI. Hit and run until your enemy down. You heal when kill enemies, another thing make your horde unstopable.
-Sell your Horsemen for gold, double production with policies and sell them for gold, then use gold to buy everything (except some district, but who care about high end districts while you will beat all AI before industrial era?). This ability is OP, break economic balance, must be nerfed or something.
-Kurgan help you have an early religion, earn some military believes, then conquer everything.

Top 2 is Aztec.
-Like other players predict about Aztec in Beta, they are another top civ for early rush.
-Deity AI have plenty of units for Jaguar to kill, then build up an army of builders, that can rush district (only can be built, cant rush by gold). Many unsused builders left? Sell them for big gold, like Scythians, and another eco break ability.
-Again, we have faith building advantage for military believes, rush now, think later!
-Leader bonus make your empire never sink unto lack of amenities, everything be more possitive, more stable for new conquered lands. This aspect help Aztec keep 1 or 2 cities other than capitals each civs they conquered, compare with Scythia, they eat Civs slower, but can keep more benefits.

Top 3 is my most interesting Civ, the Russia. The Russian truly makes me suprise.
-Mother Russia is not strong like it look. Only tundra tiles you can work are hill, forrested and have bonus ones. The reason while Tundra is almost dead lands are we cant build farms or any improvements on tundra, even they have fresh water or river! This is unbelieveable and be a bad Dev decision compare to Civ 5. So, what Mother Russia gives you? few production (precious production, but still few), some other less precious faiths, in conclusion, its about 1-5 faith + production per city that settle near or on tundra lands. Remember, while you settle near tundra, you expect a low pop growthrate that will delay your developments significantly.
-Lavra is not ugly like it look, instead, its pretty strong. Its cost is halved, double faith produce (+2 instead of +1), with Mother Russia, most of the time you will be the first to get pantheon. Lavra +2 GPP, so likely you will be the first to have GPP and pick some strongest believes like Feed the World, that help your tundra city growth fast. Another + 1 WAM is suprisely strong, most of early WAM will be yours, even later on when you spam Lavra everywhere and with ICS strategy Russia follow.
-With your abundant Faith sources, your cities are almost double the faith income compare with other Civs. You can buy more faith things, and later medieval you can rush buy units with Theocracy.
-Late Medieval conquest is very interesting. Cossack is another suprise, they are stronger than they look like, this UU has strongest bonus Promotion, so you can steam roll enemies without loses.