Civilization 6 Tier List 1.0

[Lyoncet]

I did my first game as Arabia on Emperor, just messing around getting a feel for mechanics. I'll need to do another game to verify, but even on Emperor, I found the prophets were gobbled up very quickly. On higher difficulties, I imagine Arabia's "The Last Prophet" ability will be a huge swing. True, it sucks that you get last dibs on beliefs. But that one game I played indicates you can get your religion earlier than you'd be able to otherwise (because of huge AI bonuses and their tendency to rush religion), and more importantly, without making any investment in faith. No rushing Stonehenge or scrambling for shrines. Just focus on defense, expansion, and technology, and still get your religion earlier than you'd ever dream of otherwise with zero investment.

I don't know how Arabia stacks up on the whole, but that ability is very likely a 10/10 on high difficulty settings.

 

[Kwami]

I did my first game as Arabia on Emperor, just messing around getting a feel for mechanics. I'll need to do another game to verify, but even on Emperor, I found the prophets were gobbled up very quickly. On higher difficulties, I imagine Arabia's "The Last Prophet" ability will be a huge swing. True, it sucks that you get last dibs on beliefs. But that one game I played indicates you can get your religion earlier than you'd be able to otherwise (because of huge AI bonuses and their tendency to rush religion), and more importantly, without making any investment in faith. No rushing Stonehenge or scrambling for shrines. Just focus on defense, expansion, and technology, and still get your religion earlier than you'd ever dream of otherwise with zero investment.

I don't know how Arabia stacks up on the whole, but that ability is very likely a 10/10 on high difficulty settings.

On the other hand, if you do store up Faith (not Great Prophet Points!), then you'll be able to rush two extra beliefs right after founding your religion. So, you might get last pick in one category of beliefs, but first or second in the others.

 

[captainpandabear]

I'd move the Roman Legion to 10/10, and Rome to the top tier because of them.

With the right pantheon and civic choice, you can have +75% production for your Legion. No resource requirement, and each one gets a single build use. That can be used to chop, remember. Take three or four Legions, find a huge forest, and chop them down to instantly pop out three or four more. Find more forests, repeat. Then, when you have an army that is straining your budget, go kill the nearest civs. Just be sure to continue to build Legion, chop all of their forests and marshes, and continue the process. That will instantly grow your cities and give a huge early production boom.
But wait, you say that will get expensive and leave you with no lumber mills? Well.. yeah, you're right on the second part. But the cost is actually what makes the Legion even more broken than they sound already. With a large empire and the 25% military production pantheon and 50% civic, you can churn out a Legion in 2-4 turns in a lot of cities. Don't want them? That's okay, delete them! 200~ gold each for deleting them.

 

[LoneDragon]

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.

Silver and Gypsum also spawn on tundra.
I was surprised that Gold isn't a luxury in the game.

 

[Galbias]

Didn’t played England yet, but British Museum looks to be nice for a cultural victory since thematic bonuses for archaeological museum are easy to get, which is even better if the said museum as its capacity doubled.

Right now the game difficulty on Emperor+ is very front-loaded, so early bonuses or ones that are consistent throughout the game are better than the ones that give you a late game cultural victory boost like England or America's. Hopefully the situation will improve, but early advantages generally have an edge on later advantages because they're what determine the rest of the game.

I would rate Rome much higher:

1. All Roads lead to Rome : I'd rate it 10/10 This is an instant free road from the capital to both cities you found (within trade range of Rome) and ones you conquer (one of Ed Beach's videos; the one with him playing Rome) This gives a massive mobility edge throughout the core portion of your empire instantly when everyone else has to build a trade unit to even start the process.

2. Legion: 6 is very low considering that it (like all other Unique units) does not require Iron. Anyone else if they want quick Swords has to pray there is Iron near them. I'd rate it 8/10.

Roads kind of suck in this game compared to Civ 5 and it's often best to use your trade routes to build them internally anyways. Not that it isn't a useful ability (I'm not quite sure how the trading post portion of it works) but I'd probably put it lower for sure. Agreed on Legions though.

 

[leonvr]

Arabia is brilliant with its faith and science bonuses. Easy win on deity with Saladin

 

[Brianstorm]

How is the Film Studio rated so low? 100 percent Tourism is YUGE!

 

[JohnGault]

Based on this logic...I would say that Japan is a very strong competitor...district adjacency bonuses rock, factory pumps out production, and half the cost on 3 districts. That's a sweet compromise. Include the increased CS for the entire game around the coast. Japan is my number one.

 

[Galbias]

How is the Film Studio rated so low? 100 percent Tourism is YUGE!

I just made a post saying why

Though I think America could go up a bit, mainly because the combat bonus on your own continent is pretty great. I'd say bottom tier should be some combination of France, England, Spain, India, and Norway, assuming we're playing on Pangea.

 

[nitedemon]

Would definitely rate scythia higher, from a competitive strategy. I've been attacked by 2 very close neighbours on deity, including barbarians and was able to fend them all off, recuperate for a bit then mass an army and wipe off one of them pretty fast. I am not sure if germany can live through such an assault without the military output of scythia. Later on, vampiric units are just as insane as early, and double output for cavalry/helicopters is just as good.

They said russia's alt leader will focus on domination, and I can't wait since quite frankly anything will beat Peter's "bonus".

Forget about Peter, Russia'a Lavra is super OP, it's available early and you can build it in every single cities and it give great people points. King difficulty I have a diarrhea of great writer, artist and musician. Don't even have room for half of all the possible great works .

 

[Timally]

Forget about Peter, Russia'a Lavra is super OP, it's available early and you can build it in every single cities and it give great people points. King difficulty I have a diarrhea of great writer, artist and musician. Don't even have room for half of all the possible great works .

Yeah, I think Russia should be higher. I think the start bias puts a lot of people off. But in practice I've found it sets you at the edge of the tundra..not deep in it. From there you can usually place the Lavra to give at least 5 adjacency bonuses. You can also try get as many other districts nearby in the Tundra, which can also help with spy catching. Also the extra tiles to start with really help get the city up and going without spending cash, which can then be use to rush buildings and units

 

[captainpandabear]

Update: Rome, in the current state of the game, is simply broken. Holding off on gunpowder and utilizing the Legion well into the mid game is simply amazing. You can pop them out in 1-3 turns with most cities, not just production focused ones. Once you can turn them into corps, they sell for nearly 1000 gold when you delete them. They need to seriously curb how much gold you can get selling units.

 

[ExemplarVoss]

Forget about Peter, Russia'a Lavra is super OP, it's available early and you can build it in every single cities and it give great people points. King difficulty I have a diarrhea of great writer, artist and musician. Don't even have room for half of all the possible great works .

Delete them. You get around 1000 gold each. Had a Kongo game when I had a dozen or so kicking around and nothing to put works in. In my next game, I got exasperated and trashed my spares, and was astonished at the pile of gold I got.

 

[Calouste]

Kongo's Nkisi is far better than 5/10. Granted the bonus to Relics etc isn't that great unless you get a Relic from a goody hut, because Statues come pretty late. But you get double Great WAM points, so you'll have them coming out of the wazoo, specially Writers. And you get double Great Merchant points, and they are a lot more useful than in Civ5. Plenty of trade routes and Envoys. And the doubling works with the Great Person policies as well, and the one for Great Merchants becomes available at Guilds, same civic as the Mbanza. Verrrryyy convenient.

 

[redwings1340]

On the other hand, if you do store up Faith (not Great Prophet Points!), then you'll be able to rush two extra beliefs right after founding your religion. So, you might get last pick in one category of beliefs, but first or second in the others.

Thats a good point, you can try to play the religious game normally, just never getting the +2 great prophet point card, and using a different one instead. That's not a minor bonus, because an additional early wildcard slot is pretty powerful.

 

[Mrdarklight]

I don't get it... I don't have the Aztecs in my civ list.

ETA: Ah, wait, I see. It's a pre-order bonus.

 

[LoneDragon]

I don't get it... I don't have the Aztecs in my civ list.

Did you preorder? If not, they unlock in 90 days (after release).

 

[elitetroops]

Delete them. You get around 1000 gold each. Had a Kongo game when I had a dozen or so kicking around and nothing to put works in. In my next game, I got exasperated and trashed my spares, and was astonished at the pile of gold I got.

Better to sell works to the AI to free up slots and create new ones. The AI seems to value great works at 1000 gold each, so you get 2000 gold for a great writer. Unfortunately the AI doesn't seem to be willing to buy more than one great work/game. I guess they stuff it in their capital and never move it, because for any further attempts to sell (or give) them great works they firmly state they would never agree to such a deal.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

Can we talk about how ridiculous Egypt's Maryuanu Chariot Archer is? 33 (!) ranged attack. +8 strength compared to Archers. Way faster. Unlocks at Wheel. That's pretty crazy. With its 2 range it definitely outshines the Scythian Horse Archer, though it doesn't benefit from all of Scythia's other military bonuses.

Egypt's riverside wonder/district bonus is also above average as Civ UAs go, I think. Unfortunately the trade route LUA and the Sphinx are both quite unimpressive.

I'm noticing that almost all unique improvements are rather unimpressive (except maybe the Stepwell, not sure about that one), and all unique districts are awesome? Anyone agree?

 

[Ornen]

A couple things we might be underrating here:

US, especially the film studio. 2x tourism late game is awesome, especially since culture victory looks to be easier/faster to pull off than science victory. The continent helps expand or defend against early pressure, the film studio will speed you along to finish a CV. I don't know how you can possibly rank the film studio, which doubles tourism, below the electronics factory, which gives you a much less exciting +4 culture in the lategame. The comparison between the US and Japan is especially silly – why is Roosevelt Corollary a 3/10 and Divine Wind, a very similar bonus, a 6/10? I agree that some of US's bonuses are underwhelming, but studio is huge and the continent boost seems significant.

Aztec is all-around excellence. The lux bonus and eagle warrior are both huge – it's surprisingly easy to bang up the AI while developing your cities as the Aztecs, which is especially good because early conquering is viable (and maybe the best strategy) even if you're not Aztecs. Amenity boost is great to help your sprawling empire, especially because amenities are such a limiting factor for midgame growth. District bonus would be mediocre on its own, but its easy to rack up excess workers as Aztec which you can then use to develop your cities.

Other than that, it's a solid first impressions list. I do think that some civs like Greece and Germany seem notably overpowered compared to others.