Doktor Vic Tim
King
I like a lot of the GnK civs. I'll be adding in some quirky nicknames for fun.
7 Austria (Maria the Hungry Theresa):
UA took a hit with World Congress, so you need to be selective what CS's you want to eat into your empire and fatten your amount of cities. Then you wash it down with some Coffee Houses which allow your cities to be built on hills and still get that extra Engineer Specialist slot on top of extra GP generation. Hussars are still good and good late game scouts thanks to extra vision and movement.
7 Byzantium (Theo the Logy Dora):
Early Piety helps them out with getting faster shrines, but everyone wants those awesome reformation beliefs, so she still faces eventual competition in the religious department. Dromon is fun to use, but you give up the ability to sneak steal a coastal city early game. But on the other hand you can provide some ranged sea attacks instead while stealing the city with a Cataphract. Extra belief allows the possibility of getting a lot of religious buildings, which can add up to tourism when spammed en masse with the right reformation.
8 Carthage (Dido the Dodo):
Free Harbours = Free money and with Meritocracy easier expansion. Harbours are available in MEdieval era so Carthage has the upper hand in sea trade route distance. And they also don't have to worry about the 3 gpt maintenance either. Crossing mountains might not seem much, but there are times where that important tactical draw can matter a lot. Quinquereme works better than it looks on paper, making early sea harrassment easier. The African Forest Elephants leaves to be desired, though. Faster generals is a plus, and scary elephant can sometimes help.
7 Ethiopia (Holy Haile Selassie):
The bonus damage is almost obsoleted by the jerk Shoshone, but Ethiopia can still form a tight and tall empire to make as much use of the UA. The Stele is awesome. IT's a building you always build, and that extra 2 faith really speeds up the religion and pantheon in order to pick the better beliefs first. MEhal Sefari is really good and the ability+Defender of Faith makes your units around the capital quite hard to take.
8 Sweden (Gustav II Adolf the Goof):
I'm probably going to be biased towards my own country, but they can be fun to play. Fire up an early fun war to spawn a great general or maybe even two, secure an early CS (90 influence is quite a lot early game, mid and late not too much). He must pick friends wisely without angering other civs, and with the Tundra bias (because tundra is SO COMMON in Sweden....) allows for Dance of the Aurora, but can also ultimately mess you up. Having two UU makes Sweden a bit of an Oxymoron Civ, but the Carolean is fun to use. Kinda wished for a light battle cannon siege unit....
6 The Celts (Boudicca McWitcha):
The UA kind of works at times, but you will have to improve the forests anyway, so you're mostly using it for the fast pantheon and religion, then it's done. An ICS game with them can potentionally work well if planned carefulyl enough, since their UB gives a good amount of happiness. Pictish Warrior is a fun unit, and turning it into a Lancer is not that bad of an idea, since you'll have a fast unit that cost no movememnt to pillage, giving you a Sipahi 0.9.
5 The Huns (Attila Datilla):
It's what many percieve a Barbarian Civ. They have a killer early game.... and that's it. THey may take down a civ or two with those crazy battering rams, but after that the Zulus and Assyrians will eat them faster than Maria Theresa eats city states. Extra production from pastures can be useful, but it's situational.
7 The Mayans (Pacal the Awesome Hat Man):
Long count is still the long count, meaning some free great persons. You'll be rushing Theology anyway, and the Pyramids and a few cities will help quite nicely to that. The science penalty affects them less thanks to the Pyramids, and the Atlatists are only there for saving you the trouble of researching Archery in order to have ranged defence.
8 The Netherlands (William with the Orange Tights):
The UA got a nerf, because it was intended for the early 240 gold trade. Polders can be really good, but they can have the downside of making your lands look VERY attractive and covetable by other people. Who doesn't want that nice city with 7 polders? Sea Beggar is a beast still, and it can really bring in some extra cash attacking cities with that Logistics upgrade.
7 Austria (Maria the Hungry Theresa):
UA took a hit with World Congress, so you need to be selective what CS's you want to eat into your empire and fatten your amount of cities. Then you wash it down with some Coffee Houses which allow your cities to be built on hills and still get that extra Engineer Specialist slot on top of extra GP generation. Hussars are still good and good late game scouts thanks to extra vision and movement.
7 Byzantium (Theo the Logy Dora):
Early Piety helps them out with getting faster shrines, but everyone wants those awesome reformation beliefs, so she still faces eventual competition in the religious department. Dromon is fun to use, but you give up the ability to sneak steal a coastal city early game. But on the other hand you can provide some ranged sea attacks instead while stealing the city with a Cataphract. Extra belief allows the possibility of getting a lot of religious buildings, which can add up to tourism when spammed en masse with the right reformation.
8 Carthage (Dido the Dodo):
Free Harbours = Free money and with Meritocracy easier expansion. Harbours are available in MEdieval era so Carthage has the upper hand in sea trade route distance. And they also don't have to worry about the 3 gpt maintenance either. Crossing mountains might not seem much, but there are times where that important tactical draw can matter a lot. Quinquereme works better than it looks on paper, making early sea harrassment easier. The African Forest Elephants leaves to be desired, though. Faster generals is a plus, and scary elephant can sometimes help.
7 Ethiopia (Holy Haile Selassie):
The bonus damage is almost obsoleted by the jerk Shoshone, but Ethiopia can still form a tight and tall empire to make as much use of the UA. The Stele is awesome. IT's a building you always build, and that extra 2 faith really speeds up the religion and pantheon in order to pick the better beliefs first. MEhal Sefari is really good and the ability+Defender of Faith makes your units around the capital quite hard to take.
8 Sweden (Gustav II Adolf the Goof):
I'm probably going to be biased towards my own country, but they can be fun to play. Fire up an early fun war to spawn a great general or maybe even two, secure an early CS (90 influence is quite a lot early game, mid and late not too much). He must pick friends wisely without angering other civs, and with the Tundra bias (because tundra is SO COMMON in Sweden....) allows for Dance of the Aurora, but can also ultimately mess you up. Having two UU makes Sweden a bit of an Oxymoron Civ, but the Carolean is fun to use. Kinda wished for a light battle cannon siege unit....
6 The Celts (Boudicca McWitcha):
The UA kind of works at times, but you will have to improve the forests anyway, so you're mostly using it for the fast pantheon and religion, then it's done. An ICS game with them can potentionally work well if planned carefulyl enough, since their UB gives a good amount of happiness. Pictish Warrior is a fun unit, and turning it into a Lancer is not that bad of an idea, since you'll have a fast unit that cost no movememnt to pillage, giving you a Sipahi 0.9.
5 The Huns (Attila Datilla):
It's what many percieve a Barbarian Civ. They have a killer early game.... and that's it. THey may take down a civ or two with those crazy battering rams, but after that the Zulus and Assyrians will eat them faster than Maria Theresa eats city states. Extra production from pastures can be useful, but it's situational.
7 The Mayans (Pacal the Awesome Hat Man):
Long count is still the long count, meaning some free great persons. You'll be rushing Theology anyway, and the Pyramids and a few cities will help quite nicely to that. The science penalty affects them less thanks to the Pyramids, and the Atlatists are only there for saving you the trouble of researching Archery in order to have ranged defence.
8 The Netherlands (William with the Orange Tights):
The UA got a nerf, because it was intended for the early 240 gold trade. Polders can be really good, but they can have the downside of making your lands look VERY attractive and covetable by other people. Who doesn't want that nice city with 7 polders? Sea Beggar is a beast still, and it can really bring in some extra cash attacking cities with that Logistics upgrade.