Favorite Civ?

[Remorseless]

One of the things I really like about Civ2 as compared to 3 is the greater number of civilizations available to the player.
It got me to thinking -- do people have favorites they like to play? Personally, I'm trying to work my way through all of them, but I seem to enjoy playing the Mongols and the Romans the best -- although my top three scores have been as the Greeks.
So, anybody got any thoughts? And if you like making up your own, do you base them on historical civs (Byzantium seems to be a fav) or your own twisted reality?

 

[gr8ful wes]

I like ones that are easily visible on the world map with colors like white or orange. Not too fond of the Blue or Green ones. I find myself playing as the Brits, Celts and Russians a lot.

Is there a benefit to playing as a different nation. Are some stronger while others trade better? I know there are these types of benefits on Colonization.

 

[Archer 007]

To answer gr8ful wes's question, no there are not advantages. I personally like to play as the Carthageians or Russians.

 

[funxus]

I try to pick one I haven't played in a long time, but there are some I don't pick very often, english, german, spanish, indians.

 

[Titi]

There are no advantages, but I think the leader's behavior depends on the civ he leads. When I play against India, I don't usually have many diplomatic problems... whereas when I meet the Romans, it doesn't take long before they attack !

It's only near the end, when my SS is launched and the AI's are still under construction that all remaining civs sign treaties between each other and start a nuclear war.

 

[Old n Slow]

There are some subtle differences.

1) There seems to be differences in odds of getting starting techs -- the later the civ (purple) the greater the chance of starting techs. On average, white may have about one tech at start where light blue would get almost two and purple close to two and half to three. On the other hand,

2) Starting position -- the earlier the civ color (white) the greater the chance of a reasonable starting position (I tried the purple once on a small map -- was at the south pole with no land bridge to any grassland -- yucho!). The civs are placed in order of move, so purple is placed last -- if no good place remains, no purple civ in the game.

3) If one does get starting techs, the civ makes a difference -- Egypt will tend to get Masonry more so than any other civ; other civs have better odds of their"starting" techs being Alphabet (Americans & like minded sorts) or Warrior Code (Mongols & like minded sorts).

4) At the high levels in MPG, all the civs tend to the diplomatic lowest common denominator. With classic, there seems to be some minor tendencies regarding aggresive vs rational behavior -- ie be nice to the Babylonians, be four times their size, don't step all over them & you'll have a friend until the space race.


Given a free choice, I tend to play the Americans the most -- for some reason, when I don't play as them & they're in the game with a good start, they give me the most technical competition & Wonder building pressure.

 

[ElephantU]

It helps to be able to spell and pronounce their city names, too.

There is no difference to how the other AI civs act toward you as the human player related to the color you choose. There is a difference in your starting setup (good summary OldNSlow!), and there is a difference in how each AI civ will act. Check RULES.TXT to see how each civ is rated - Aggressive/Rational, Expansionist/Perfectionist, Militaristic/Civilized. The major difference seems to be in what techs they research, but there may be diplomatic and production differences as well. Just from experience, the Mongols are the most bloodthirsty and the Babylonians are the most peaceful, and that follows their ratings in RULES.TXT.

You may want to pick Purple so that you are your own KeyCiv when you get to Supreme, too.

 

[AnarchyBoy]

I play as Romans, but I've changed Rules.txt so my civilization is actually called the Bohemians. I find the white gives a good starting position, and the odds of getting free techs at the beginning are about 2 in 3.

 

[Marlos]

Originally posted by Old n Slow
...the later the civ (purple) the greater the chance of starting techs.

...the civs are placed in order of move, so purple is placed last...

Old n Slow, do you know what is the exact turn order?

ElephantU, I enjoyed your comment about the pronouncability of the cities of certain civs. Especially the Aztecs!

BTW, to answer the original question, I avoid the dark blue civs (French, Germans, Vikings) because you cannot see the cities on the global map. I rotate between the others fairly regularly.

 

[funxus]

I believe it's the same order as the one when you choose your tribe when starting a new game:
White
Green
Dark Blue
Yellow
Light Blue
Orange
Purple

I'm not sure where to place thebarbarians, though, probably in the beginning or at the end.

 

[ElephantU]

I think the Barbs are considered "civ0". The turn order is crucial, as that is also the order of KeyCivs for tech gifting.

 

[Enforcer Talen]

I play the romans

 

[Dark Ascendant]

I'm not seeing a difference. Except for eliminating the danger of rulers like Gengis Khan

 

[Dynamic Cow]

vikings, sioux and japanese, dont know why.

 

[Martacus]

Since I like to play the large world map that comes with the game, I usually play as either the Babylonians, French, or Indians; they all have good starting positions. I never start with american civs.

 

[mgeary]

I play as the Germans, Romans,Russians or Vikings. I guess they are my favorites.

 

[ElephantU]

As a geography and history exercise my daughter and I started a game as the Americans, building or taking over and renaming cities according to current political map. Lots of fun. She likes random maps better, though. I think she favors the Egyptians; I like the Americans on large real world map. Or the Incans. I tried the Zulus once long ago: decent starting position, but tongue-twister city names. And forget the Aztecs...

 

[Legions4Ever]

there is no question about it, you have to be the americans if your from america

 

[johnnymiller]

I've had a recent bout of playing French. Don't really know why I do this as I'm English.
I do know that I prefer playing AGAINST the Indians. No offence to any Indian guys who play but the Indians are a walkover in Civ. Anyone who's THAT peace loving is gonna get whooped every time!!

 

[Legions4Ever]

what about babylonians, they are easy to kill but so are alot of other civs....INDIANS, FRENCH, GERMANS, and every other one for that matter when you are