Hello. After a two weeks of playtime here are my current ratings of all the civilizations in CiV. The idea is to rate how powerful I think the civs are in single player with normal game speed / normal settings. I'm currently playing immortal difficulty so I tried to rate them on how good I think they are there. I have not played each civ in that difficulty so this is partly just theoretical. Civs are grouped in tiers but otherwise are in no particular order.
Tier 0: God tier. The best civ goes here.
Alexander - Just awesome. Hoplite would be good on its own but because Companion cavalry is borderline broken and comes in same time period its usefulness is a bit diminished. Also city states are awesome and Alex can pretty much keep alliance with all of them.
Tier 1: Really good civs go here.
Darius- With golden ages being quite powerful in CiV Persia’s UA is really nice. Also immortals are solid early game units and satrap’s court is a building you want to build everywhere in late game if you have spare hammers.
Ramkhamhaeng - Another abuser of city states with powerful UA. I already like knights and Naresuan’s elephants increased strength makes them unstoppable force in medieval ages. Wat is a nice improvement to already useful university with bonus culture and lower maintenance.
Wu Zetian - A strong UA that basically gives your fighting force 20 % strength boost (generals giving 45 % bonus instead of 25 %) with more great generals to start golden ages with. Cho-ko-nu is a great replacement of crossbowman and paper maker might be the best building in the game.
Nebuchadnezzar II - Stupidly powerful UA can net you ridiculous slingshots. Bowman is also a great unit but Walls of Babylon just sucks. Also not available for poor peasants who bought just the normal game
Tier 2: Average civs go here.
Askia - UA is solid but not that great unless you can somehow abuse it. Mandekalu Cavalry gets bonus against cities and is again solid unit but not all-around great. Mud pyramid mosque is great culture boosting building (and free maintenance to boot) but not a high priority to me.
Elizabeth - Has sea dominance but that is kind of situational ability when AI doesn’t really threaten you there anyway. Only reason England is not in the bottom bracket is the longbowman. With range 3 you can outshoot cities in medieval era and just conquer them without fear of losing units.
Gandhi - Has probably the most powerful UA in the late game. War elephant seems really nice but I haven’t tested it properly. Unique building on the other hand is just garbage and keeps India from upper bracket.
Augustus - Rome has some nice unique units but they are kind of slow and don’t come to play as soon as I liked. Also if you lack iron you are screwed. UA is nice but not great. Rome is solid civ but nothing more imo.
Napoleon - I really like land grapping ability of France’s UA. Unfortunately its UU’s are not that great. Foreign legion comes too late to matter and Musketeer can become obsolete before you even manage to build any.
Oda Nobunaga - UA is obviously powerful and Samurais are nice but Zeroes are come too late and their bonus is too minuscule.
Ramesses - UA is nice but on higher difficulty levels is still not enough to get early wonders. Burial tombs are super-nice but War chariots are a bit meh.
Harun al-Rashid - UA is just crappy. A few extra gold per turn will not matter much and oil comes too late. Camel Archer looks solid and bazaar nets you bonus happiness for a building you were going to build anyway.
Tier 3: Below average civs go here.
Bismarck - UA is a gimmick that can be really powerful but more likely gets you very little especially in higher difficulties where AIs settle so fast that new encampments are rare. Landsknecht is cheap but I’d rather have a small elite army than large normal army and panzer once again comes too late to matter.
Catherine - UA is frankly not that great. Small production boost here and there + extra resources are usually wasted as it is better not to maintain too big army anyway. Cossack can be good if you go that route but krepost is too bland as I never build barracks anyway and the bonus is too small to start doing so with Russia either.
Hiawatha - All uniques require forests which you might not have and are not that great either. Bah.
Montezuma - Floating gardens might be nice later in the game but I feel that Jaguars and sacrificial captives’ bonuses are too small to really matter.
Suleiman - A undeniably weak UA combined with quickly obsolete Janissary and I never use Lancers/ Sipahis either.
Washington - UA is not that great and UU’s are quite weak. B17 comes too late and minuteman replaces again quickly obsolete musketman.
Okay. So obviously a lot of people are going to disagree with my list (and rightly so). So please tell me in what way have I wronged you favourite civilization.
Tier 0: God tier. The best civ goes here.
Alexander - Just awesome. Hoplite would be good on its own but because Companion cavalry is borderline broken and comes in same time period its usefulness is a bit diminished. Also city states are awesome and Alex can pretty much keep alliance with all of them.
Tier 1: Really good civs go here.
Darius- With golden ages being quite powerful in CiV Persia’s UA is really nice. Also immortals are solid early game units and satrap’s court is a building you want to build everywhere in late game if you have spare hammers.
Ramkhamhaeng - Another abuser of city states with powerful UA. I already like knights and Naresuan’s elephants increased strength makes them unstoppable force in medieval ages. Wat is a nice improvement to already useful university with bonus culture and lower maintenance.
Wu Zetian - A strong UA that basically gives your fighting force 20 % strength boost (generals giving 45 % bonus instead of 25 %) with more great generals to start golden ages with. Cho-ko-nu is a great replacement of crossbowman and paper maker might be the best building in the game.
Nebuchadnezzar II - Stupidly powerful UA can net you ridiculous slingshots. Bowman is also a great unit but Walls of Babylon just sucks. Also not available for poor peasants who bought just the normal game
Tier 2: Average civs go here.
Askia - UA is solid but not that great unless you can somehow abuse it. Mandekalu Cavalry gets bonus against cities and is again solid unit but not all-around great. Mud pyramid mosque is great culture boosting building (and free maintenance to boot) but not a high priority to me.
Elizabeth - Has sea dominance but that is kind of situational ability when AI doesn’t really threaten you there anyway. Only reason England is not in the bottom bracket is the longbowman. With range 3 you can outshoot cities in medieval era and just conquer them without fear of losing units.
Gandhi - Has probably the most powerful UA in the late game. War elephant seems really nice but I haven’t tested it properly. Unique building on the other hand is just garbage and keeps India from upper bracket.
Augustus - Rome has some nice unique units but they are kind of slow and don’t come to play as soon as I liked. Also if you lack iron you are screwed. UA is nice but not great. Rome is solid civ but nothing more imo.
Napoleon - I really like land grapping ability of France’s UA. Unfortunately its UU’s are not that great. Foreign legion comes too late to matter and Musketeer can become obsolete before you even manage to build any.
Oda Nobunaga - UA is obviously powerful and Samurais are nice but Zeroes are come too late and their bonus is too minuscule.
Ramesses - UA is nice but on higher difficulty levels is still not enough to get early wonders. Burial tombs are super-nice but War chariots are a bit meh.
Harun al-Rashid - UA is just crappy. A few extra gold per turn will not matter much and oil comes too late. Camel Archer looks solid and bazaar nets you bonus happiness for a building you were going to build anyway.
Tier 3: Below average civs go here.
Bismarck - UA is a gimmick that can be really powerful but more likely gets you very little especially in higher difficulties where AIs settle so fast that new encampments are rare. Landsknecht is cheap but I’d rather have a small elite army than large normal army and panzer once again comes too late to matter.
Catherine - UA is frankly not that great. Small production boost here and there + extra resources are usually wasted as it is better not to maintain too big army anyway. Cossack can be good if you go that route but krepost is too bland as I never build barracks anyway and the bonus is too small to start doing so with Russia either.
Hiawatha - All uniques require forests which you might not have and are not that great either. Bah.
Montezuma - Floating gardens might be nice later in the game but I feel that Jaguars and sacrificial captives’ bonuses are too small to really matter.
Suleiman - A undeniably weak UA combined with quickly obsolete Janissary and I never use Lancers/ Sipahis either.
Washington - UA is not that great and UU’s are quite weak. B17 comes too late and minuteman replaces again quickly obsolete musketman.
Okay. So obviously a lot of people are going to disagree with my list (and rightly so). So please tell me in what way have I wronged you favourite civilization.
Kinda feels like the 'steal a worker from a citystate' early-game tactics.
. Forests save up tremenodus amounts of gold (more than paper maker bonus provides) before railroads and properly handled Mohawk warriors can stand their ground against longswordsmen and muskets (and are one of the best city attackers as long as the city has an adjacent forest.
