Civilization 6 Tier List 1.0

[x2Madda]

I doubt Germany is the best civ, it don't look impressive. Yes it get Hansa but whatever then aztec can rush all districts at a cost of a single worker. Germany basically get no unique unit, rather average early game and probably rather average the whole game along.

Not great at culture
Not great at religion
Not great at military
Not best at science

No way it is the best civ.

You are so wrong I genuinely do not know if your post is satire or not. Could you clarify?

 

[Siptah]

I want to add something in favor of Egypt: as it seems 'Iteru' not only gives a bonus to building wonders and districts near rivers, but also to putting buildings in those districts. This wasn't clear from the description and announcements. Makes the bonus clearly better than I thought. I'm not sure if this enough to up Cleo to good tier.

 

[ComradeKroo]

I doubt Germany is the best civ, it don't look impressive. Yes it get Hansa but whatever then aztec can rush all districts at a cost of a single worker. Germany basically get no unique unit, rather average early game and probably rather average the whole game along.

Not great at culture
Not great at religion
Not great at military
Not best at science

No way it is the best civ.

Germany is strong because its production powerhouse from mid game. Production in Civ6 is the most important factor. Cities with 5-10 pop with mines to have high production for district building are much stronger than 20 pop cities with rurals farm imporvements. With Districts, you build your citizen, not born them with foods. Production provide units, which later sell them for gold. Production provide projects, which give sicence, gold, culture and GPP. I can say that in Civ 6, production give you almost everythings.

 

[Lukasz81]

There's a lot you're missing out about the Aztecs. "The only thing they get is a random chance for a worker" completely leaves out the 50% extra for all luxuries. Combined with the UB, they have the best amenity bonuses in the game. So far for me, amenities have been the #1 factor limiting growth, and it's especially relevant if you go wide, which seems the way to go in Civ 6.

From there, you're severely underrating their other bonuses. Rushing your neighbor is much more viable early than in Civ 5, and is a great way to nab early territory as any civ. Aztecs get the eagle warrior, which enables them to go after their neighbors faster and harder than nearly any other civ. You get the free worker roughly half the time when you get a kill -- not a bad chance, and it's not really a chance at all when you score 10-20 kills and land 5-10 free workers early on. With Aztecs, you should be taking multiple cities early on, stealing settlers to fill in the gaps, and getting loads of builders to develop your rapidly growing empire. From there, you transition into the midgame and your cities can keep growing because 50% more luxuries.

So yeah, you get a little more than a chance for an extra worker. Aztecs get loads of bonuses, all of which are cohesive and very powerful altogether.

Yes, I understand the amenity bonuses and so on, I just find that all that Montezuma does, Gilgamesh does better. He has much better and faster rush and yes his cities will not grow as big, but you can use 1 worker to build 3 ziggurats, while Aztec can use 2 workers (even assumning they are free) to build a campus - and so the smaller Sumerian city will pump more science then big Aztec one hence Sumeria doesn't as much amenities.

Don't get me wrong Aztec are all good, I just think they are outclassed by some other civs.

Anyway I only played Sumeria and Aztec once so I might be wrong, time will tell.

 

[captainpandabear]

Selling units is probably going to be nerfed in short order. But even without that, the Legion is still severely underrated.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Production in Civ6 is the most important factor.

Don't matter at all if you have killed about half the civs in a game before the industrial district even becomes comes relevant.

 

[Babarigo]

Don't matter at all if you have killed about half the civs in a game before the industrial district even becomes comes relevant.

You obviously have not played Germany. Just play them and you'll see how wrong you are.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

You obviously have not played Germany. Just play them and you'll see how wrong you are.

If you have won by turn 50 everything that comes after do not matter and I doubt most people have been able to take advantage of the industrial district by turn 50.

 

[Babarigo]

If you have won by turn 50 everything that comes after do not matter and I doubt most people have been able to take advantage of the industrial district by turn 50.

Besides maybe using Scythia, I don't think you can win by turn 50 against deity ai or human players. If you can I'm eager to know how it's so easy.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Besides maybe using Scythia, I don't think you can win by turn 50 against deity ai or human players. If you can I'm eager to know how it's so easy.

I did not mean a victory in civilization VI terms but Im so far ahead I can not lose if I play somewhat well and thus the rest of the game don't matter if I don't care about which turn I win (which I don't).

Well lets say I used one of the civs that are considered the worst on the list

 

[Babarigo]

I did not mean a victory in civilization VI terms but Im so far ahead I can not lose if I play somewhat well and thus the rest of the game don't matter if I don't care about which turn I win (which I don't).

Well lets say I used one of the civs that are considered the worst on the list

I didn't mean a victory in civilization VI terms neither. I just want to know your strategy to take a decisive advantage over the other civilizations on a deity game or against human players.

 

[RealHuhn]

England should definitely be higher.

Unique and cheap harbor adjacent to commercial hub means two quick trade routes per coastal city while your inland-cities specialize in production, science and culture. Production in your coastal cities gets boosted by in-land factories and internal trade routes. No need for industrial zone. International trade routes boosted by social policies give you tons of money, science and culture.

Short guide:
Quickly expand in early game, I'd say 6 cities minimum (4 coastal). If you run out of space, consider attacking a neighbour, especially when you have early horses.

After that, rush towards exploration (government with +2 trade routes), explore with two caravels (upgrade two galleys) while going for both unique units (they unlock roughly at the same time). Now, the second expansion wave can start to all the lucrative locations on other islands and continents (use +50% settler card again). You get a free redcoat unit per city and can immediately spam cheap harbors to quick-start those new cities via trade routes.

After this second wave, you should be looking at 10-15 cities with 20+ trade routes and quite a strong military, both naval and land.
Now you have two options. Either go for domination or, even easier, for cultural victory. Each british museum can hold SIX artifacts and you only need one archeologist per museum. With the guaranteed (!!) theming bonus, England gets roughly 55 tourism and 35 culture per museum !! Depending on how well you managed your core cities, you can have four museums up and running rather quickly. If not, just use your 300-400 gold per turn to rush buy them. You can also build the Eiffel Tower and spam seaside resorts in your coastal cities. Also remember that open borders and international trade routes give you +50% (or +40%?) tourism with each civ.

With this strategy, I won culture VC on turn 245 with 1010 tourism per turn. =) Emperor, standard speed + map size. Fractal map. It felt like CIV5 Venice on crack.

Edit: Also, England's music is amazing

Screenshot one turn before victory:

Spoiler :

 

[WackenOpenAir]

besides the comments about scythia being misplaced its also funny that if you total your score numbers you give in the " long version", that doesnt entirely correspond with your tier list.

 

[rpgalon]

So far in my multiplayer games, the one who managed to enter mid game with the most cities won, every single one of the 7 games I played. And it didn't matter if the cities were a little worse.

So my bet for best Civ is for the Civ that can enter mid game with more cities, so first Scythia and Sumeria a close second. Germany may already have lost the game before being able to take advantage of it's bonus.Otherwise, for a no war before X turns I would bet on them.

 

[lamaros]

IThe Hansa adding even more production and building twice as fast as the Industrial Zone? Awesome!

The Mbanza adding food and gold, as well as being available for construction earlier and building twice as fast as the Neighborhood? Awesome!

Replacing my 3-production mine, possibly screwing over my Industrial Zone adjacency bonuses, or 3-food/.5 housing farm with a Chateau for culture/gold? Yeah, not happening.

It's early days yet of course but I figure long-term it's important that the developers take a long, hard look at balancing the unique infrastructure of the various civilizations. Not saying everything has to be equally good, it's not the only bonus the civs get after all, but they should at a bare minimum be desirable and accessible in a relevant time frame.

This is so very very true.

Unique Tile Improvement <<< Unique Tile Improvement That Replaces Default Tile Improvement But Better <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Unique District That Replaces Default District But Better.

 

[lamaros]

England should definitely be higher.

Unique and cheap harbor adjacent to commercial hub means two quick trade routes per coastal city while your inland-cities specialize in production, science and culture. Production in your coastal cities gets boosted by in-land factories and internal trade routes. No need for industrial zone. International trade routes boosted by social policies give you tons of money, science and culture.

Short guide:
Quickly expand in early game, I'd say 6 cities minimum (4 coastal). If you run out of space, consider attacking a neighbour, especially when you have early horses.

After that, rush towards exploration (government with +2 trade routes), explore with two caravels (upgrade two galleys) while going for both unique units (they unlock roughly at the same time). Now, the second expansion wave can start to all the lucrative locations on other islands and continents (use +50% settler card again). You get a free redcoat unit per city and can immediately spam cheap harbors to quick-start those new cities via trade routes.

After this second wave, you should be looking at 10-15 cities with 20+ trade routes and quite a strong military, both naval and land.
Now you have two options. Either go for domination or, even easier, for cultural victory. Each british museum can hold SIX artifacts and you only need one archeologist per museum. With the guaranteed (!!) theming bonus, England gets roughly 55 tourism and 35 culture per museum !! Depending on how well you managed your core cities, you can have four museums up and running rather quickly. If not, just use your 300-400 gold per turn to rush buy them. You can also build the Eiffel Tower and spam seaside resorts in your coastal cities. Also remember that open borders and international trade routes give you +50% (or +40%?) tourism with each civ.

With this strategy, I won culture VC on turn 245 with 1010 tourism per turn. =) Emperor, standard speed + map size. Fractal map. It felt like CIV5 Venice on crack.

Edit: Also, England's music is amazing

Screenshot one turn before victory:

Spoiler :

+75% per trade route (late game). +25% per open borders.

Enlightenment reduces relic tourism by -50%, and different government reduces tourism by -27%.

 

[RealHuhn]

+75% per trade route. +25% per open borders.

Enlightenment reduces relic tourism by -50%, and different government reduces tourism by -27%.

Yeah, I meant without modifiers. Trade route boost comes rather late. Before that, it's +25%, same as open borders. But thanks anyway.

 

[lamaros]

Yeah, I meant without modifiers. Trade route boost comes rather late. Before that, it's +25%, same as open borders. But thanks anyway.

Ah yeah good point. I forget all the various bonsues!

 

[Roxlimn]

I've played one game each as Japan, Germany, and Aztec on Prince (just for building stuff). Fortunately, the Prince AI produces enough units to make Eagle Warriors make sense, so I don't have to up it to Emperor just to make it work properly. It'd probably work a whole lot better if the AI could field more units - which is part of why "increasing the difficulty setting" doesn't always actually make the game harder.

Hansa is overrated on this thread. It is good, but it's not THAT good. In general, you get +2 from Resources, and +2 from the Commercial Hub. That's a +4. The good thing about it is that this is fairly reliable. You could expect to land that combo near anywhere on the map, even on Tundra and Desert. But it's not super amazing. Aztecs get their free Builders from their early war, and they can use them to rush their Districts game-long. You think 8-turn Hansas are cool? 5-turn Any District is cooler, and you can, of course, use the Builders to cut Forest for rushing Wonders, or improving new cities. With Aztecs, a good war steamrolls into an unstoppable early game. It's chancy, but if it works well, you're set for the game. Germans are less explosive, but more reliable.

Which brings us to Japan. Hill and Quarry adjacency bonuses aren't hard to get. For the most part, you can get +2 Mines+Quarries easy, and it's not that unusual to get +3 or +4 straight out. Germany loses the upper limit of this probability, in exchange for reliability. They can build anywhere. Everyone else has to make do. But Japan does it one better. With 2 Hills and a City Center, every Japanese IZ has a base +3 production to start. But if you find a nice spot, you can get +4 to start off, and ramp up to +6 fairly easily. It's harder to do that as Germany. And the starting Hansa isn't all that - it's usually +2 until you get the Commercial Hub up as well, and you don't get bonuses to build that. Japan doesn't get the Industrial Zone for half, but it does get its pick of Holy Site, Theatre District, or Encampment for half - all of them in some cases. So assuming we're building all the stuff, Germany gets a bit of a start, but falls behind. It's equitable if we assume that we DON'T build all the stuff everywhere.

But Japan has another trick - doubled District Adjacency for all districts. This means ALL Districts can be expected to have +2 or +3 adjacency bonuses if all you do is clump them up. So kind of like having the Hansa effect, except your Commercial Hub also gets +2 Gold, and your Holy Site also gets +2 Faith (in addition to other bonuses). Of course, Hojo's preferred style of play is actually Encampment + Holy Site + Theatre District. Encampments secure your borders for cheap (cheaper and tougher than a unit), and provide nearby adjacency bonus. Any site you want to put your Campus or Holy site on, you can pile on an Encampment for +1.

So how this plays is like this: Let's say you have a likely site for a Campus - several, Very nice sites. If you're Germany, you'll get to those sites after you've researched Apprenticeship and built the Hansa and a Commercial Hub. If you're Japan, you just build the Campuses, then add +2 Adjacency by attaching a Theatre and Encampment to each Campus, then take Natural Philosophy for +100% Science Adjacency Bonuses. You're up +8 Science and +4 Culture already.

Germany rewards building Production. It can work well. But it's slow to ramp up. Japan says to hell with all that and get to the killing already.

 

[Calouste]

Thing with the Hansa is that you can get it to kickstart production in new cities. It's cheap to build, it gets bonuses from Resources even when they are not improved or even in your territory, and of course if you have enough envoys with Industrial city states, it gets bonuses from those as well.